IT demands a measure of acquaintance with the history of exercised souls to enable us fully to appreciate the difficulties which surrounded Nicodemus, and drew forth from him the oft-quoted question, “How can a man be born when he is old?” We are not to suppose that this was the inquiry of a mere heartless caviler, or of one who raised difficulties merely for the sake of raising them. We believe Nicodemus was thoroughly in earnest. We do not see how this can be called in question. The very fact of one, so high up in the social, moral, and religious sphere, coming to Jesus, proved a measure of real earnestness; and hence we must regard him, not as a curious, but as an anxious, inquirer.
But a hazy mist enwrapped his understanding. He had been trained from his earliest days to look upon the Jewish system as of God; and to consider the Jewish people as the children of Abraham, the special objects of divine favor. What, then, could be the meaning of this new birth? Whence the need of it? And how was it to be accomplished? The divine Teacher bad just assured him that this new birth was essential to his entrance into the kingdom of God. According to this, he certainly was not in that kingdom, inasmuch as he had never been born again, nor did he even know the meaning of any such thing. Were it a question of moral reform, of getting rid of certain bad habits, and adopting good ones, he could easily understand that. The very best stand in need of improvement, and the most perfect character will be found, on close inspection, to have some defects.
All this he could easily comprehend. We may safely believe that Nicodemus would at once have entered upon any new line of conduct which the Teacher come from God might suggest to him. But this being born again was entirely beyond him. He could not grasp it. How was it possible for a man to be born when he was old? Could he enter the second time into his mother’s womb and he born? In short, he was completely at sea. The ground on which he had hitherto been resting was giving way. Tie had no doubt considered himself in the kingdom of God, inasmuch as he was one of Abraham’s seed; but now this heavenly Teacher insists upon a new birth as an indispensable pre-requisite for entrance into that new and heavenly kingdom which was being announced. What could this new birth mean? How is it possible for a man to be born again?
Reader, mark the divine reply. “ Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God; that which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.”
Here we have the entirely divine character of the new birth most pointedly and forcibly set before us. It is perfectly evident that a man can have nothing to do either with his being born, or his being born again. Both the one and the other are independent of himself; and, most assuredly, the latter is not less so than the former. The very idea of a man’s having aught to do with his new birth is as irrational as it is unscriptural.
It is wholly and absolutely of God. It is an essentially divine operation in every respect, from first to last. It is wrought by the word of God and by the Spirit of God, and nothing else. It is not of man in any way, but altogether of God.
Does this touch, in the smallest degree, the great question of man’s responsibility? Assuredly not. No one truth can ever interfere with another. Each truth occupies its own sphere, and rests upon its own basis. If this be lost sight of, we must, of necessity, be perplexed and bewildered. A moment’s calm reflection will enable the reader to see that, in speaking of the subject of the new birth, it must be taken up on its own merits, and viewed entirely apart from the subject of human responsibility. The two things are perfectly distinct; to confound them is to mar the integrity of each, and interfere with its action. When we think of the new birth, we think of something which is quite as independent of man as the creation of the world, or his own entrance, as a creature, into the world. On the other hand, when we think of man’s responsibility, we are occupied, not with a divine operation, but with the bounden duty of man as a responsible being. To make use of any one divinely established truth, in order to weaken another, can only be regarded as the fruit of man’s folly and Satan’s craft. If we are to be taught by holy scripture, if we are to bow down to its authority in all things, then, verily, we must believe, on the one hand, that man is a responsible being, whose duty it is to bow to the testimony of God; and, on the other, that he is dead in trespasses and sins, and needs the mighty action of the word and Spirit of God to quicken him into new and eternal lire. Are we to reason about such things? No; we are to believe. If we attempt to reason, we sit in judgment upon God. This will never do. God is wiser than we. He knows what is best. He understands what is fitting for Him to do—what is worthy of Himself. It is of no possible use for men to reason in opposition to divine revelation, for God must have the upper hand. He must judge, and not man.
But we must return to our subject, and seek to understand how a man is born again. Doubtless, hundreds are plunged in as deep a mist as was the master in Israel.
And yet it is all most simple. It is nothing more than receiving into the heart the precious, incorruptible, seed—the word of God, unfolded and applied by the power of the Holy Ghost. Thus we read in Jas. 1, Of his own will begat he us with, the word of truth.” So also, in 1 Peter, “ 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 the 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.” Chapter 1:23-25.
From these most precious passages we learn that the word of God is the grand agency, in the hand of the Holy Ghost, in producing the new birth. The gospel of the grace of God, implanted in the heart by the blessed ministry of the Holy Spirit, is the incorruptible seed whereby the soul is quickened into new life. Wherever the glad tidings of salvation come with power to the heart, there the new birth takes place; and there, too, is the clear and most comfortable evidence of the sours election of God, as the apostle says, in his Epistle to the Thessalonians, “ Knowing, brethren beloved, your election of God. For our gospel came not unto you in word only, but also in power, and in’ the Holy Ghost, and in much assurance.”
This makes it all so blessedly simple for the heart. It clears away a thousand difficulties. A person may say, “ I would give worlds to know that I am born again.” Have you received the glad tidings of God’s salvation into your heart? Do you believe in the love of God, as proved in the gift and the death of His only begotten Son? If so, you are born again; you have gotten new and everlasting life; the word of God is the germ of life planted in your heart by the power of the Holy Ghost; you have passed from death to life; you are a child of God; you have actually entered the kingdom of God; and, blessed be His name, you can never perish.
The reader cannot possibly be too simple in his apprehension of this glorious truth. Thousands of earnest souls are sadly perplexed about it. The enemy has spared no pains in surrounding it with all sorts of difficulties, and shrouding it in a thick mist, so that the poor heart is often on the very borders of despair, ardently longing for the new birth, and not knowing the blessed fact that that birth has actually taken place.
Now, it is the sense of all this that leads us to press upon the anxious reader the importance of attending, with simplicity of heart, to the teaching of holy scripture on the subject of the new birth. We shall not occupy his time or our own in combating the ritualistic absurdity of baptismal regeneration—the foolish notion that any soul can get life by water baptism. The scriptures we have quoted prove, beyond all question, that our Lord, in His interview with Nicodemus, refers to the word, under the well-known figure of water. This is an established truth with all spiritual students of scripture, and hence there is no need for us to enter upon any elaborate proof of it in this place. We believe most surely that when our Lord speaks of “ being born of water,” He means being born of the word. There is nothing mystical, abstruse, or puzzling, in the matter. Every one, man, woman, or child, who receives into the heart the blessed gospel of the grace of God, has received Christ Himself, and this is life eternal.
As many as received him, to them gave he power [right, authority, or privilege, εζουσιαν] to become the sons of God, 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 1:12, 1312But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name: 13Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. (John 1:12‑13).
How clear and consolatory is all this for the anxious soul! lit is divine. It opens up the entire question of the new birth with wonderful power and fullness, and places it upon a basis entirely independent of man. How am I to know that I am born of God? If I have received into my heart the blessed message of God’s free love—if I have believed in the gift of God, His own Son—if the word of the gospel has come with power to my heart, then, verily, I am born of God, I am a child of God, I have entered the kingdom, I am the happy possessor of a life which I can never lose, because it is divine and everlasting. A link has been formed between my soul and God, by means of His word, which no power of earth or hell, men or devils, can ever break. I am in relationship with God, and nothing can ever dissolve it. I have eternal life, as the gift of God, and we know—for scripture tells us—that “ the gifts and calling of God are without repentance.” All praise to His name throughout the everlasting ages!
But how new and strange must all this marvelous truth have appeared to a master of Israel, a ruler of the Jews, a man of the Pharisees! Nicodemus felt the entire platform on which he was standing giving way before the powerful teaching of the Son of God. All his religious advantages, all his privileges as a Jew, all that he had been taught to cling to and lean upon from his earliest days—all was being swept away from him. This new birth left him not so much as a single shred of his own righteousness; it stripped him completely of everything, and placed him on a level with the very vilest and guiltiest of the sons of men. The very worst of men needed nothing more, and the very best could do with nothing less than this blessed new birth. “ That which is born of the flesh is flesh;” and “ the flesh profiteth nothing.” “ They that are in the flesh cannot please God.” Do what you will with flesh—with man’s fallen, sinful, guilty nature—and you cannot make it acceptable to God, or fit for His heavenly kingdom. A man may leave off his wicked works; he may give up certain gross forms of worldliness and outward sin; he may turn over a new leaf, and become outwardly moral and religious; he may even become a public preacher and teacher of religion, and yet never have experienced the new birth—never passed from death to life never been born of water and the Spirit.
How deeply solemn is all this! How needful to have it pressed home upon the heart and conscience, in this day of wide-spread profession! Can aught be more sad than to see men and women deceived by the notion that they are all right because they have given up certain forms of outward sin and worldliness, and become zealous sticklers for religious forms, vigorous supporters of christian institutions, and liberal contributors to the various schemes of religion and philanthropy? There may be all this, and yet the soul be unsaved. “ That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.” Do what you will with flesh—educate it, cultivate it, improve it, elevate it to the very highest possible point of civilization and refinement, and you cannot change it into spirit—you cannot make it fit for the kingdom of God. Religious “ flesh” is no nearer to God than the very grossest and vilest forms in which fallen humanity can clothe itself. “ We must be born again.”
Say, reader, have you been born again? Have you passed from death to life? Have you really come to Jesus, as one utterly and hopelessly lost in yourself, and found in Him salvation? Turn not away, we beseech thee, from this weighty subject. Be not offended with our plain and pointed dealing. Do not fling this paper from thee in disgust and impatience. Say not, „I am sick of this everlasting dunning of religion in my ears. I am weary of this perpetual preaching to me about religion and eternity. I am no worse than my neighbors. I shall take my chance. God is merciful.”
Oh! beloved friend, speak not thus, we earnestly entreat thee. Let nothing induce thee to neglect the great business of thy soul’s salvation. “ What shall it profit a man if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?” Do, then, think of thy precious immortal soul! Think of eternity!—think of the unutterable horrors of the lake of fire—the unspeakable joys of the Father’s house; look to Jesus now, and be saved!