Philo of Alexandria, a contemporary of Jesus whose works were fairly well received by early Christians, provides an exegesis of Genesis which offers an understanding of the allegorical man as the mind and an understanding of the woman of Genesis as the senses. Philo held that there is a two-fold meaning to the stories of the Bible, literal meanings on some level and allegorical meanings.
The allegorical message is the predominant one in Genesis, where man assisted by woman is said to be the mind assisted by the senses in its comprehension of the universe. This mind is to be assisted by the senses, never led by them, but led by the will of God. The mind of man betrayed the will of God as it succumbed to the passions and desires of the senses enticed by the allure of pleasures, sensations and self-satisfactions (for the senses perceived that the tree was good for food, was pleasant to the eyes, and desirable for wisdom). It was this emergence of self that deceived man and deluded him into perceiving his being as separate from God, therefore a mind not of God's will but of self will. This is the lower mind which submits to the lead of the senses and is imprisoned by flesh (love of self).
To be "born from above" is to experience the resurrection and birth of the Higher Mind, the Mind of Christ. This is the realization of one's True Self through the resurrection of Christ (who is THE resurrection) within. With this resurrection, one sees the true nature (image) of man which is not that of a separate individual, but as a communal being...which is the nature (image) of God. For God is the communion of three distinct persons (beings): the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit; God is the Oneness of these distinct three, and it was the communal nature (image) of these three in which man was modeled, as God said, "Let Us make man in Our image..."
With the Higher Mind and the communal nature that emerges with this mind, man realizes the illusion to which he had become ensnarled...the illusion of self as a separate individual. Man awakens to the light to realize that he is part of the communion of God through his union and assimilation into Christ. The force, power and essence of this union is love, for love allows the transcendence of self will to arrive at devotion to the will of God, and love propels one to transcend self concern in devotion to concern for others. Love, then, is the glue of the union that brings mankind together as the body of Christ, and as such, we are assimilated into the being of Christ, sharing his Higher Mind. Through Christ, we are one with God; through Christ, we participate in the Trinity.
We are born from above, of water and spirit, when we are cleansed of the notion of self that separates us from God and each other, and through our covenantal union the distinct life forces of man becomes in Christ one force, one Spirit...the True Self and Higher Mind of Christ who is One with God.