3.
IT must have been a startling thing for a serious, thinking man, accustomed to be looked up to as an authority in religious matters, to have heard that word addressed to him by the lips of Him who is truth itself― “Ye must be born again.”
Born again! It was a new idea. How could it be? We had not dreamed of it. Strictly observant of the forms and ceremonies, the institutions under which his forefathers had lived and died―knowing them, too, to have been divinely given― (for if the law was given by Moses, surely Jehovah was its author) ― how could he be wrong? Or how need aught but that which the law prescribed, or contained within itself? What could this new thing mean, this being born again, or from above? It lay beyond his ken altogether. And is it not the same with many now? “What is your Christian name?” asked one of a fellow traveler. “Names do not make us Christians, friend,” was the reply. Quite true, they do not. What does make a Christian, then? This new birth, surely. But how comes it? Whence comes it? The Scripture answers, Of water and the Spirit. Thrice is the Spirit named (10:5, 6, 8) ―the water once. The Holy Ghost, then, is the author of the second birth. But it is said, “Of water and the Spirit.” Is [then] water here to be understood as denoting the natural element? I think not. The Lord was speaking of a spiritual, heavenly birth. “That which is born of the Spirit is spirit.” It was His wont to use natural objects as emblems of spiritual things. “The words that I speak unto you they are spirit and they are life.” We have an instance in His conversation with the Samaritan woman: “If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith unto thee, Give me to drink, thou wouldest have asked of Him, and He would have given thee living water.” Then, contrasting the two ― “Whosoever shall drink of this water shall thirst again, but whosoever shall drink of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life.” And again, in chapters 7, “If any men thirst, let him come unto Me and drink. He that believeth on Me, as the Scripture hath said, Out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.” But this spake He of the Spirit, which they that believe on Him should receive. Thus much to show that water is used as a figure. But is it not used as a figure of the word in some places? “Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you.” (John 15) “Christ also loved Himself for it, that He might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word.” (Ephesians 5) If this be so―if water represents the word there will be no difficulty in shewing how this passage in the 3rd of John’s Gospel harmonizes fully with other Scriptures as to the means by which regeneration is produced. The Apostle James writes (chapters 1.), “Of His own will begat He us with the word of truth,”―and Peter (1 epis. 1), “Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth forever. For all flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass. The grass withereth, and the flower thereof falleth away: but the word of the Lord endureth forever. And this is the word which by the gospel is preached unto you.” How precious, then, the gospel of grace, as the means of eternal life to sinners! for it finds man a sinner, and addresses him as such, else why does he need regeneration? Christ, the Lord, brings this fully before Nicodemus. “As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up: that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.”
Here is the loving message of the God of love to a lost world; here the mighty lever by which poor souls are lifted up and drawn to God, ―the atoning work of His beloved Son. Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God! And the change effected through the heartfelt reception of the Gospel by the power of the Holy Ghost, is as real as that which passed upon Creation when God said, “Let there be light, and there was light.” The formless void which earth presented when darkness was upon the face of the deep, and ere the Spirit of God had moved upon the face of the waters, is an apt image of the soul that knows not God, that knows not Christ, but
“Where the Lord has planted grace,
And made His glories known”―
where it can be said, “God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, is He who hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God, in the face of Jesus Christ”―there is regeneration. There Is a new, a spiritual, a heavenly life, a life which cannot fail, ―which has its springs in God Himself; for He in whom the soul believes is life, ―life eternal. “God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in His Son.” (1 John 5) “Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on Me hath everlasting life.” Surely this is enough. He who is rich in mercy―He who is Lord over all, who is rich unto all that call upon Him―hath provided an abundant blessing, outside all the ruin of the fall. O that men were wise―that they would think of this―would look to Jesus and be saved! For God hath shined―hath revealed His glory in the face of Jesus Christ. Beholding this, the soul reposes in the enjoyment of a love that knows no end. Now indeed, through a glass, dimly, while the moms tabernacle clothes the spirit; but hereafter, face to face, in scenes of perfect light and holiness and peace and bliss.