The third chapter of John first brings the subject of the operations of the Spirit before us at large.— “A man must be born again,” born of water and of the Spirit. But, while this is generally taken simply, that he must be regenerate to be saved, the passage states much more.—He cannot see nor enter into the kingdom of God, a kingdom composed of earthly things and heavenly things, of which a Jew must be born again to be partaker (however much he fancied himself a child of the kingdom) even in its earthly things, which Nicodemus, as a teacher of Israel, ought to have known, as from Ezek. 36:21-38; and to the heavenly things of which the Lord could not direct them then, save as showing the door, even the cross, a door which opened into better and higher things: wherein (as in the Spirit’s work, being prerogative power, “so was every one that was born of the Spirit,” and Gentiles therefore might be partakers of it—for it made, not found, men, what it would have them) the Lord declared that God loved not the Jew only, but the world. In this passage itself, then, we have not merely the individual renewed, and fit for heaven, but the estimate of the Jew, a kingdom revealed, embracing earthly and heavenly things, which the regenerate alone saw, and into which they entered—to the heavenly things of which, the cross, as yet as unintelligible as the heavenly things themselves, formed the only door: wherein was exhibited the Son of man lifted up, and the Son of God given in God’s love to the world. “In the regeneration,” of which the Spirit’s quickening operation in the heart was the first fruits, “this Son of man would sit on the throne of His glory.”
The principle then, on which men dwell, is true; but the revelation of this chapter is much wider and more definite than they suppose. It is not merely that the man is changed or saved; but he sees and enters a kingdom the world knows nothing of till it comes in power; and moreover, that such an one receives a life as true and real, and much more important and blessed than any natural life in the flesh. It is not merely changing a man by acting on his faculties, but the giving a life which may act indeed now, through these faculties, on objects far beyond them, as the old and depraved life on objects within its or their reach; but in which he is made partaker of the divine nature, in which not merely the faculties of his soul have new objects, but as in this he was partner with the first Adam, the living soul, so in that with the second Adam, the quickening Spirit. And we must add, that the Church, in order to its assimilation with Him in it, is made partaker of this, consequent upon His resurrection, and therefore is made partaker of the life according to the power of it thus exhibited; and has its existence consequent upon, yea, as the witness of, the passing away (blessed be God!) of all the judgment of its sins; for it has its life from, and consequent upon, the resurrection of Christ out of that grave in which He bore its sins. It exists, and has not its existence but, consequent upon the absolute accomplishment and passing away of its judgment.
This, then, is the real character of our regeneration into the kingdom, where the charge of sin is not, nor can be, upon us, being introduced there by the power of that in which all is put away. The life of the Church is identified with the resurrection of Christ, and therefore the unqualified forgiveness of all its flesh could do, for it was borne, and borne away. The justification of the Church is identified with living grace, for it has it, because quickened together with Him, as out of the grave, where He bore all its sins.
Thus are necessarily connected regeneration and justification; and the operation of the Spirit, not a mere acting on the faculties, a work quite separate from Christ and known by its fruits, while the death of Christ is something left to reason about; but it is a quickening together with Christ out of their trespasses and sins, in which I find myself indeed morally dead, but Hint judicially dead for me, and therefore forgiven, and justified necessarily, as so quickened. The resurrection of Christ proves that there will be a judgment, says the apostle. (Acts. 17.) It proves that there will be none for me, says the Spirit by the same blessed apostle, for he was raised for my justification. He was dead under my sins; God has raised Him; and where are they? The Church is quickened out of Jesus’ grave, where the sins were left.