But there is nothing airy, ghostly, immaterial, about this born again man; even though it is said of him, “That which is born of the Spirit is spirit,” he sits in a pew in the church!
If you view this passage through the lens of the believer in an
immortal soul, then you may indeed have difficulty with it, and assume that it refers to departed saints, but.... Some view it as we do. Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown, in their comment on this text, remark:
'“Spirit and spirits are used of a man or men in the body, under the influence of the spirit the opposite of flesh.” (John 3.6)
Adam Clarke, Methodist commentator, remarks on this text:
"The spirits of the just men made perfect, or the righteous perfect, are the full grown Christians; those who are justified by the blood and sanctified by the Spirit of Christ. Being come to such implies the spiritual union which the disciples of Christ have with each other, and which they possess how far so ever separate; for they are all joined in one spirit, Ephesians 2:18; they are in the unity of the spirit, Ephesians 4:3,4."
If you view this passage through the lens of the believer in an
'“Spirit and spirits are used of a man or men in the body, under the influence of the spirit the opposite of flesh.” (John 3.6)
Adam Clarke, Methodist commentator, remarks on this text:
"The spirits of the just men made perfect, or the righteous perfect, are the full grown Christians; those who are justified by the blood and sanctified by the Spirit of Christ. Being come to such implies the spiritual union which the disciples of Christ have with each other, and which they possess how far so ever separate; for they are all joined in one spirit, Ephesians 2:18; they are in the unity of the spirit, Ephesians 4:3,4."
F.D. Nichol
