Water and Spirit together
Baptism

... both water and the Spirit are together the means of the divine begetting... Water and Spirit together are depicted as the vivifying cause of the new life. They belong together and not apart. In the first treatise on Baptism in early Christian literature, Tertullian refers to Gen 1:2, which speaks of the Spirit moving upon the waters. Thus, argues Tertullian, water is the apt element for God to use in the new creation of Baptism. Water is the most honorable of elements, for it possesses both antiquity as that element which existed even before the first word of God was spoken (Gen 1:3), and it possesses dignity as that element which was the throne of the Spirit. Referring to an early Christian baptismal practice, Tertullian draws the following conclusion:

All waters, therefore, in virtue of the pristine privilege of their origin, do, after the invocation of God, attain the sacramental power of sanctification; for the Spirit immediately [comes down] from the heavens, and rests over the waters, sanctifying them from Himself; and being thus sanctified, [the waters] imbibe at the same time the power of sanctifying.... Therefore, after the waters have been in a manner endued with medicinal virtue through the intervention of the angel, the spirit [of man] is corporeally washed in the waters, and the flesh is in the same spiritually cleansed. Ref. 169

In his own way Luther speaks similarly of a Spiritually empowered water:

"Water". means real, natural water, which is connected with God's Word and becomes a very spiritual bath through the Holy Spirit or through the entire Trinity. Here Christ also speaks of the Holy Spirit and teaches us to regard Baptism as a spiritual, yes, a Spirit-filled water, in which the Holy Spirit is present and active; in fact, the entire Holy Trinity is there. And thus the person who has been baptized is said to be born anew. Ref. 170

Source: Concordia Commentary, Joh. 3:5, pages 390-391, author: William C. Weinrich, 2015