Misquote in John 3.

Many things can be learned from John 3. There seems to be a few misconceptions about it as well unfortunately. We shall look at one of these misconceptions.

What did Jesus mean by "water" in his conversation with Nicodemus?

John 3:3-7 (KJV),
3 Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.
4 Nicodemus saith unto him, How can a man be born when he is old? can he enter the second time into his mother's womb, and be born?
5 Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.
6 That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.
7 Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again.

Nicodemus didn't understand what Jesus meant by "born again." So, Jesus explained in verses 5-6. Jesus split his explanation to clarify for Nicodemus. Being born of water is what Nicodemus was thinking. Water refers to the first, physical birth. Jesus explained further that the second birth is that of the Spirit. Jesus had to split the two births to make His idea clear to Nicodemus. It is part of Jesus' explanation, verse 5 in particular, where the misconception comes from.
Jesus said "born of water and of the Spirit." Most of the instances in which I have seen this verse misused is by those who believe that being baptized in water saves someone. By their view, water baptism must be inserted in John 3:5 in order to make their theology work. Why? Later on in this chapter, Jesus told Nicodemus:

John 3:14-18,
14 And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up:
15 That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life.
16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
17 For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.
18 He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.

What Jesus said here did not include water baptism. Belief in the name of only begotten Son of God, according to Jesus, is what saves.

Going back to verse 5, we see by Jesus' later words that "born of water" is not referring to water baptism. What is it then? Born of water is referring to physical birth from one's mother, as stated before. It is verse 6 that completes Jesus' explanation. It is a comparison to what He said in verse 5. Flesh is being compared to water, and of course Spirit is compared with the Spirit. If one reads both verses 5 and 6, one then sees Jesus' whole and complete thought. Taking verse 5 alone, therefore, makes an argument incomplete because it is only half of Jesus' original thought.

Questions? Comments? Feel free to post!