This is the problem with Cessationist theology. It can completely twist and screw up the interpretation of passages. As they go, MacArthur isn't the worst theologian in the world. In some ways he's quite solid. But he is completely missing it in the way he translates this passage for one thing, and it leads to a disaster in the way he interprets it.
The actual passage reads as follows:
1 There was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. 2 This man came to Jesus by night and said to Him, “Rabbi, we know that You are a teacher come from God; for no one can do these signs that You do unless God is with him.” 3 Jesus answered and said to him, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born from above he cannot see the kingdom of God.” 4 Nicodemus said to Him, “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?” 5 Jesus answered, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter 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 Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born from above.’ 8 The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it, but cannot tell where it comes from and where it goes. So is everyone who is born of the Spirit.” (John 3:1-8).
This entire passage is about being born from above when the Holy Spirit descends upon you after water baptism. Jesus was telling Nicodemus that he and the other Pharisees he was sent on behalf of would have to die to their former lives through water baptism and then be baptized in the Holy Spirit or they would not see Heaven. They could not simply go on living their lives as normal now that the era when the Holy Spirit would be poured out upon men had come. What set this entire conversation off was Nicodemus saying, "We know you are a teacher come from God," to which Jesus turned the conversation on its head by telling him that unless they too came from God by being born of the Spirit, they wouldn't enter the kingdom.
So to translate the passage as simply talking about being "born again" is to be completely at a loss for what is actually being talked about. From there, he compounds the error by adding that men have nothing to do with it, when Jesus very plainly states in the text that a man must be born of water. Water baptism is a decision WE make, and must make of our own volition, to turn from one form of life and start over living a new one. It represents death to one life, and rebirth into a new one. To think that we have nothing to do with such a decision is the epitome of not only bad judgment but extremely poor logic.
Like I said, I don't dislike MacArthur. In some ways he's a good teacher. But he is as blind as a bat on this one, and it stems from his completely uninformed views on the outpouring of the Holy Spirit.
