At church this morning, the pastor preached about John 3, the chapter about being "born again." Or, actually, the word translated as "again" in so many English versions, anothen, can mean "again" or "from above." I did a search just now on my BibleWorks, which looked at the Septuagint (including the Deutero-canonical books) and the New Testament. Most of the time, anothen was used to mean "above" or "from above." A few times, however, it meant "again" or "anew."
But the pastor said that Jesus meant "from above," whereas Nicodemus thought that Jesus meant "again." That was why Nicodemus asked if a man had to enter his mother's womb a second time. Bible translators must be in a bind. If they translated Jesus' words as "born from above," Nicodemus' confusion would make no sense. "A person must re-enter his mother's womb a second time? Who is saying that a person must do that, Nicodemus?" And so translators opt for "born again," even if "born from above" makes more sense. And yet, I suppose that "born from above" does entail being "born again," since, if you as a human being have to be born, it would be a second birth. I do think that Nicodemus thought that Jesus was talking about being "born again," for, if he interpreted Jesus to mean "born from above," he would have realized that Jesus was speaking of a spiritual rebirth, not a physical one---and he does seem to think that Jesus is talking about a physical rebirth, for he asks if he must re-enter his mother's womb.
In the Gospel According to Jesus, however, John MacArthur disagrees. He states:
"Nicodemus’s reply has often been misunderstood: 'How can a man be born when he is old? He cannot enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born, can he?' (v. 4). Nicodemus was not speaking in literal terms. We must give him credit for a little common sense. Surely he was not so feebleminded as to think Jesus was really talking about reentering the womb and literally being born again. A teacher himself, Nicodemus understood the rabbinical method of using figurative language to teach spiritual truth, and he was merely picking up Jesus’ symbolism. He was really saying, 'I can’t start all over. It’s too late. I’ve gone too far in my religious system to start over. There’s no hope for me if I must begin from the beginning.'"
MacArthur's words are sobering, for they say that, regardless of how much I may have accomplished in this life, it does not matter to God, for I need a spiritual rebirth. God wants me to start anew, relying, not on my own works and accomplishments, but on his love and grace in Christ. Paul talks about this in Philippians 3:4-11. I find comfort when I remind myself that, regardless of how much or how little I have accomplished, God loves me. I'm probably taking MacArthur's thought in a different direction from whence he intended, but it's refreshing for me to reflect on God's unconditional love, and to focus on that rather than patting myself on the back for my accomplishments, or beating myself up for my lack thereof. Moreover, in my opinion, it's good for me not only to reflect on God's love, but to build my life on that.
But I still think that Nicodemus understood Jesus to be saying in a literal sense that people needed to re-enter their mothers' wombs to be reborn. We see this sort of literalizing misunderstanding elsewhere in the Gospel of John. In John 6, for example, Jewish leaders interpret Jesus to be saying that people must literally eat his flesh, whereas Jesus is speaking more in a spiritual sense: eating his flesh and drinking his blood is believing in him---with a focus on what he accomplished at his death. John 3 has that same focus, for it talks about Jesus being lifted up.