This is the second question put by Nicodemus to our Lord with regard to the truths which Jesus was declaring to him.  The first was, “How can a man be born when he is old?” which was said upon our Lord’s telling him that, “Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.”  Now, it will be observed, that these two questions are treated by our Lord in a different manner:  to the first he, in fact, gives an answer; that is, he removes by his answer that difficulty in Nicodemus’s mind which led to the question; but to the second he gives no answer, and leaves Nicodemus—­and with Nicodemus, us all also—­exactly in the same ignorance as he found him at the beginning.

Now, is there any difference in the nature of these two questions, which led our Lord to treat them so differently?  We might suppose beforehand that there would be; and when we come to examine them, so we shall find it.  The difficulty in the first question rendered true faith impossible, and, therefore, our Lord removed it; the difficulty in the second question did not properly interfere with faith at all, but might, through man’s fault, be a temptation to him to refuse to believe.  And as this, like other temptations, must be overcome by us, and not taken away from our path before we encounter it, so our Lord did not think proper to remove it or to lessen it.

We must now unfold this difference more clearly.  When Christ said, “Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God,” Nicodemus could not possibly believe what our Lord said, because he did not understand his meaning.  He did not know what he meant by “a man’s being born again,” and, therefore, he could not believe, as he did not know what he was to believe.  Words which we do not understand, are like words spoken in an unknown language; we can neither believe them nor disbelieve them, because we do not know what they say.  For instance, I repeat these words, [Greek:  tous pantas haemas phanerothaenai dei emprosaen tou baematos tou Christou.] Now, if I were to ask, Do you believe these words? is it not manifest that all of you who know Greek enough, to understand them may also believe them; but of those who do not know Greek, not a single person can yet believe them?  They are as yet words spoken as to the air.  But when I add, that these words mean, “We must all stand before the judgment-seat of Christ;” now we can all believe them because we can all understand them.

It is, then, perfectly impossible for any man to believe a statement except in proportion as he understands its meaning.  And, therefore, our Lord explained what he meant to Nicodemus, and told him that, by being born again, he did not mean the natural birth of the body; but a birth caused by the Spirit, and therefore itself a birth of a spirit:  for, as that which is born from a body is itself also a body, so that which is born of a spirit is itself also a spirit.  So that Christ’s words now are seen to have