Moral Cleansing
Our Lord takes water in John 13 and washes the feet of the disciples, saying thereafter, “Ye are clean, but not all.” Then in John 15, when Judas had gone out, He says, “Now ye are clean”—through the water that I washed your feet with? No. “Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you.” Water, in Scripture, is used as a figure of the Word of God applied by the Spirit. It brings God’s thoughts to man and morally judges all that is in him, withal purifying his heart. Again, in John 19, out of the side of the dead Savior, there comes “blood and water”—the blood for expiation from guilt and the water for purification. Water carries the sense of moral cleansing, because man’s nature is vile, whereas the truth is that what is needed for man is a nature suited to God. Therefore Jesus says, “Born of water and of the Spirit,” that is, there must be a new nature thus characterized morally—the water—and in its source—the Spirit. Water purifies that which already exists, whereas “that which is born of the Spirit” in its nature partakes of that of which it is born. It is a new nature imparted by the Spirit—a new life which is really Christ in us. Morally the soul becomes a “partaker of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust” (2 Peter 1:44Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust. (2 Peter 1:4)). I have no doubt, then, that the water, as a figure, is the Word of God, applied by the Holy Spirit to the soul. The Word carries with it the sense and conviction of my defilement and need of purification, which, impossible as of the flesh, is only found through the end, under God’s judgment, of all that it is, in the cross of Christ (hence the water flowed, as the blood, from His side in death) and by the communication of a new life and nature.
The Washing of Water by the Word
Turning now to Ephesians 5:2525Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it; (Ephesians 5:25), we read distinctly what water means: “Christ loved the church, and gave Himself for it; that He might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word.” Again, James 1:1818Of his own will begat he us with the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures. (James 1:18) undeniably attributes new birth to the Word: “Of His own will begat He us with the word of truth.” So also does the Apostle Peter: “Seeing ye have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren, see that ye love one another with a pure heart fervently; being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God which liveth and abideth forever” (1 Peter 1:22-2322Seeing ye have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren, see that ye love one another with a pure heart fervently: 23Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever. (1 Peter 1:22‑23)). Nothing could be more conclusive to any mind subject to Holy Scripture.
The Holy Spirit
We have, therefore, the Word of God the instrumental means of the new birth, but not the Word of God alone, for the Word of God must be conjoined with the living power and energy of the Holy Spirit. If I am born again, I am so by the Word, but also of the Spirit. It is God’s sovereign grace reaching the soul by His own blessed Word and producing faith in it, the Holy Spirit to this end using the Word of the Lord. The result is a new life—a new nature characterized by its source. “That which is born of the Spirit is spirit.” Have I been born again? That is a question that every soul may well ask himself. Thank God, I know that I have been born again, and that is why I am so desirous that you should be also, because it is fundamental to the soul entering into relationship with God. Without this, there is no such relationship, nor is the soul capable of the enjoyment of God and what is of Him. Put a man into heaven, if it were possible, without the nature thus received, and he would desire to get out of it as fast as he possibly could, because he would feel he was, morally, utterly unsuited to the place.
The New Nature
The Holy Spirit, then, is the mighty agent, and the Word of God is the instrument, which being received as the result of this divine action by faith in the soul, there is the imparting of this new nature. To again quote Peter’s words, we are “made partakers of the divine nature.” The possession of this new nature does not carry with it power. Power comes in its due place by the dwelling of the Holy Spirit within the believer. But the point here is that there is imparted, by the Word and the Spirit, a new life, a new nature, a new existence before God. “Born of God” is elsewhere the way John speaks of it. Thus, in chapter 1 of his gospel we read, “As many as received Him, to them gave He power [the right] to become the sons [children] of God, even to them that believe on His name, which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God” (John 1:1212But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name: (John 1:12)). Then in his first epistle we read, “Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God” (1 John 5:11Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God: and every one that loveth him that begat loveth him also that is begotten of him. (1 John 5:1)). Again, “Whosoever is born of God sinneth not” (vs. 18), and, “Whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world” (vs. 4). This I call the New Testament term, in its highest development, for this blessed truth—of which the primary elements have been before us—“born of God,” which carries with it the thought of relationship.
And now, as I close, let me ask, How does it stand with you? Have you been “born of water, and of the Spirit”? Have you yet received eternal life by faith in the Son of God? If so, you will gladly follow the Spirit’s teaching in John’s gospel.
W. T. P. Wolston