"water" and new birth

If The Lord would have said water baptism in John 3:5, I would have certainty that that is what He meant. I have in the past thought that He might have meant that, but it would have to be understood that faith in Christ for salvation is reflected in it, and it is through faith one is saved.

Christ used the word "water" by itself, and so we have the various views.

Jesus was speaking to Nicodemus about the need for a new birth from above to see/ enter the kingdom. Jesus says he must be born of water and spirit. He says one must be born of the Spirit. Nic wonders how one can be born twice from ones mothers womb. Jesus is like, what? you are a teacher in Israel and don't know these things. Nic should have known the need for a new birth, not a physical one but from above, by the Holy Spirit. I believe Nic should have understood the language of water and spirit as referring to the work of the Holy Spirit in the new birth, such as from Ezekiel concerning the regathering and restoration of Israel: 36:24: "For I will take you from among the nations, gather you out of all countries, and bring you into your own land. Then I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean; I will cleanse you from all your filthiness and from all your idols. I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you..."

I don't think the sprinkling with water has to refer to water baptism but the cleansing effected By God by the new birth. It appears even the Essenes saw it that way as written in the manual of discipline: "Then, too, God will purge all the acts of man in the crucible of His truth, and refine for Himself all the fabric of man, destroying every spirit of perversity from within his flesh and cleansing him by the holy spirit from all the effects of wickedness. Like waters of purification He will sprinkle upon him the spirit of truth, to cleanse him of all the abominations of falsehood and of all pollution through the spirit of filth.”

I would like to also point out that Jesus spoke of water elsewhere in the Gospel of John for the work of the Holy Spirit.

John 4:13 "Jesus answered and said to her, “ Whoever drinks of this water will thirst again, but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life."

John 7:37: "On the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, “ If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink. He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.” But this He spoke concerning the Spirit, whom those believing in Him would receive; for the Holy Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified."

So these are reasons why I think the water in John 3:5 can refer to the cleansing work of the Holy Spirit in regeneration:  “if anyone [is] in Christ, [he] [is] a new creation;  old   things  have passed away; behold, all  things  have become new.” 2Cor 5:17 (NKJV)