ON my way down one of the streets of the busy town of —, I was met by a Christian doctor, who hurriedly said to me, “Oh do come and see a poor man who suffered from a bad stroke ' about two years ago, and who will not own that he is a sinner.”
I was only too glad to follow this praiseworthy doctor, inwardly desiring that all medical men had as much the welfare of their patients' souls at heart as he; and eager, too, to see a man who disclaimed the charge of personal guilt. Such a man, in such a world, must indeed be a wonder!
Presently we entered a clean and tidy little house. There sat the paralyzed husband—a man rather under middle age—in an arm-chair near the fire. His wife and two or three young children completed the group, whilst the general appearance of the room gave the idea of a fair measure of intellectual energy on the part of both the husband and wife.
I could not but feel for the poor fellow thus crippled for life, and for the young family dependent on him. I spoke sympathetically on the painful subject of his ailment, but was glad to find that, spite of all, he seemed cheerful and in measure contented.
Next I spoke to him about his sins, only it seemed to me more advisable to approach that subject from an unexpected quarter. To have charged him with the sins common to others would have been, I felt, useless, for the double reason of his probable immunity from them, and also from his having, according to the doctor's statement, successfully parried that thrust hitherto. I therefore said, “Well, Mr.— do you think that you have been born again? has this affliction led you to consider seriously your condition as a child of fallen parents, so that whatever your past life may have been, moral or otherwise, you need this radical change to be experienced before you are fit to enter the kingdom of God?”
He paused a moment, and then frankly said, “No, I cannot say that I have been born again.”
For this honest acknowledgment of his state I was thankful; albeit I deeply grieved, as I thought of the man's terrible danger. Alas! it matters not what a person may be morally or religiously; if he be not born again, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.
Now this is very sweeping, but divinely true. By this fact all are placed on a common platform before God, neither is there one iota of moral superiority in one over another. In this case Nicodemus in John 3, and the Samaritan adulteress in the chapter that follows, are identical in their natural condition before God. In fact it was to the better of the two (morally speaking) that Christ said, "Ye mast be born again." And why so? Just because the nature, the heart, was the same. Lay hold of this truth, my reader. Of course Nicodemus and the adulteress cannot be classed in the same category by man to do so would be absurd. It would ignore relative right and wrong; and put darkness for light, and light for darkness. But it is not here a question of human rules, or of the propriety of human discrimination, but of the root, the springs of life, as seen by the holy eye of God in fallen man. Before such a tribunal, the two appear equally at fault. And hence we read that "there is no difference, for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God," Rom. 3:22, 2322Even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe: for there is no difference: 23For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God; (Romans 3:22‑23). Not one particle of difference is there, as to the common nature, between Nicodemus and the adulteress, between Saul of Tarsus and the impenitent thief, between the apostle John and Judas Iscariot, between the chief priests of Jerusalem and the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices, between the reader and the writer of these lines.
"No difference!" Oh, how leveling! It is so, and it is equally universal. Not a soul but has come short of the glory of God! No, not one. Mark, my reader, it does not speak of the glory of man, his standards of worth or merit, but of God's standard. Now, in view of this, all have failed. Select whom you please; pick and choose out of all the lists of human worthies. Take such as Joseph, Job, Daniel, from pages sacred; or Socrates, as perhaps the best model from pages profane, and you will find this truth abundantly established.
Place yourself under the eye of absolute holiness, and in the rays of God's glory, and you must own that you are defiled. Of outward sins you may be comparatively clear, and assuredly so much the better; but of inward impurity—an evil, deceitful, wicked heart—you must plead guilty. Hence, over and over again, the absolute necessity of the new birth is established.
Having received this honest acknowledgment, I said to our poor friend, by way of a further test, “Whether do you think a man who had lived a blameless life, or a notorious profligate, would have the better chance before the bar of God?” Again he paused a moment, and then said, “I think the first.”
Quite so—I think. But here thought is all out.
God must decide the question.
Again I said, " Suppose I laid two corpses on your floor, one a mere skeleton, the other the newly deceased form of some lovely young lady, which of the two could more readily exhibit the activities of life?”
“Ah!" said he," they would be on a par.”
“Yes," I replied, "the comparative beauty of the bodies could not assist in expressing life, if death placed this on the same platform as that. Both are equally helpless.”
Now that is just the case in point. Man is dead, spiritually dead, "dead in trespasses and sins," and there cannot therefore be degrees of spiritual life, if all are dead! To talk of some being better than others, in this view of the truth, is folly. A beautiful corpse is at best a dead body; and a man, Nicodemus or other, who has not been born again, is a spiritual corpse. Can a truth be found going more deeply into the root of man's state before God? Other scriptures may speak of his guilt, and his consequent responsibility; but this unfolds the really sinful nature inherent in all because of the Fall.
Not only do the branches bear bad fruit, but the roots are poisonous, and the whole tree is therefore useless.
How plainly does this show the necessity of the "new birth," and the reason why the Lord said,
“Ye must be born again.”
But then, what is the new birth?
Well, first, it is not baptism, as is sometimes and falsely taught. "Born of water" has no allusion to baptism; otherwise, seeing that baptism is accepted by the vast majority of professing Christians, who when grown up give no sign of being fit for the kingdom of God,—the holiness becoming that kingdom being completely absent,—all such would be born again.
No, it is a new nature, given by the Spirit of God. “That which is born of the flesh is flesh; that which is born of the Spirit is spirit." And so, in speaking of believers, Jesus says of them, “which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God." This is divine life in the soul; and as Christians, believers in the blessed Son of God, we get eternal life; not merely a divine life on earth, but life in Christ glorified; a life that enjoys, even now, that which is of God, and that will swallow up mortality, so that our bodies, now subject to the effects of sin, may share in that eternal life possessed already by our souls. “The end is everlasting life," as surely as “we know that we have passed from death unto life,"— present for our souls, future for our bodies.
“Mortality" always and only applies, in time, to the body; "Eternal life" always and only, in time, to the soul. The body of the believer (although he possess eternal life) is just as mortal as ever. Thus mortality and eternal life are distinct in time; but bye-and-bye, body and soul will alike possess immortality and eternal life; “this mortal shall put on immortality,"—the” end everlasting life.”
Oh, happy thought! How the heart thrills beneath its living power! Life from the dead; life out of death; life divine; life eternal!
My reader, do you know this life? Do you consciously possess it? Is Christ your life? “He that hath the Son hath life, he that hath not the Son of God hath, not life" (1 John 5:1212He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life. (1 John 5:12)). No matter what else you have, be it never so meritorious in the eye of man, if you have not the Son of God you have not life. J. W. S.