I. By "being born again" is meant exactly the same thing as by "rising again;" or, rather, the same two things are meant by it. In its literal sense it means what is meant by the Resurrection literally; that is, our entrance upon a new state of being, after our present one is over. By being born, we came into this world from a state of nothingness; by being born again, we shall pass into another world from a similar state of nothingness that is, from death. This is being born again literally; and by thus being born again we enter into the kingdom of God. Now, in one sense certainly we are all in His kingdom already. We cannot go anywhere where He is not over all; we see the whole of Nature around us, the very stars of heaven in their courses moving according to His laws. But here there are some things which do not obey Him, but have chosen to themselves another king; and these things are the evil hearts of men. It will then be the kingdom of God truly and perfectly, when there shall be nothing which does not obey Him when not the earth, the moon, and the stars shall move more entirely according to His will than the hearts of all His reasonable creatures.
II. Into this kingdom of God, into this new and Divine life, we can by no natural process be born. That which is born of the Spirit is spirit. By His new creation a new nature is wrought for us, incapable of delay, incapable of sin, and so fit for the eternal society of God. It is still by the Spirit and the water and the blood, all agreeing in one, that we are brought nearer and nearer to the redemption of our body, to the real resurrection, the real birth, into the kingdom of God; not by water only that is by repentance but by water and blood, by our repentance and our grateful faith in God's love through Christ; and not by these only, but by the constant indwelling of the Spirit of Him who raised up Jesus from the dead; that abiding with us, and ripening in us all His blessed fruits of love and peace and joy, He may, when our spirits are fully quickened, quicken also our mortal bodies; that having heard Christ's call from the death of sin, and having arisen to His spiritual life, we may hear it also from the very grave, and come forth and be born again to a life which shall never die.
T. Arnold, Sermons,vol. vi., p. 124.
References: John 3:5; John 3:6. H. W. Beecher, Christian World Pulpit,vol. viii., p. 17 2 John 1:5-8. Homilist,vol. iv., p. 36 1 John 3:5; John 3:16; John 3:17. Clergyman's Magazine,vol. iv., p. 225.John 3:6. Homilist,4th series, vol. 1., p. 40; T. T. Carter, Sermons,p. 15; G. Brooks, Outlines of Sermons,p. 185; H. Scott Holland, Christian World Pulpit,vol. xxvii., p. 1; Homilist,3rd series, vol. i., p. 22 2 John 1:3 :6, John 3:7. Church of England Pulpit,vol. xix., p. 49. John 3:7. G. Brooks, Outlines of Sermons,p. 350; Clergyman's Magazine,vol. i., p. 224; J. Keble, Sermons from Ascensiontide to Trinity,p. 219; Christian World Pulpit,vol. vi., p. 186; Ibid.,vol. viii., p. 204; Spurgeon, Morning by Morning,p. 66; Ibid., Sermons,vol. xxv., No. 1,455.John 3:7; John 3:8. Christian World Pulpit,vol. xxiii., p. 347; J. Caird, Sermons,p. 65; G. Dawson, The Authentic Gospel,p. 58.