We have already seen that the apostle, in verse 12, introduces the believing Jews as being brought into all the blessings spoken of in the previous portion. Then, addressing the Gentile saints at Ephesus, he says, “In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation; in whom also, after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise.” It may be profitable to enter into a further development of the Holy Spirit's presence and action. Men soon departed far from the truth of God. Before the three last centuries we know that a thick cloud of darkness hung over Christendom. But even since the light that shone at the Reformation, Christians have been struggling to realize in their own souls that they were born of God and justified in Christ. One fully admits the immense importance that a soul should be thoroughly established. But were regeneration and justification intended to be the sum and substance of the Christian's research, efforts, and desires. On the contrary, are they more than the very threshold, or at most, the foundation on which a Christian has to build? Does not God look for it, that being born again, instead of occupying ourselves with continual searching after signs and tokens that we are so, we should be making progress in Christ? To be born again is the first essential work of the Spirit of God, without which there is no life towards God, no possibility of advance in the things of God. It is the universal condition in order to any soul's having part in the blessing of God at all times and in all dispensations.
Hence, when Nicodemus came to our Lord, wishing to be taught of Him, our Lord at once begins there. The Rabbi owned that Jesus was a teacher come from God, by whom He wanted to be taught. But our Lord stops him in a peculiarly solemn manner: “Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” Nicodemus, astonished, asked how such a thing could be? Our Lord, however, meets his unintelligent question with a re-assertion, only in still stronger terms: “Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.” There we have clearly the explanation of what it is to be born again. It is to be born of water and of the Spirit. Nicodemus still expresses his amazement at this, that a Jew, a moral, religious Jew, who was no heathen, had the law and seemed to have been peculiarly honored of God, should need to be born afresh; that he himself, a master in Israel in a pre-eminent sense, should thus be met by what was really a rebuke to him, that pressed the necessity of a vital change, which so far from having realized, he did not even think to be necessary. This was indeed a thing that arrested Nicodemus at the very start. Our Lord, however, shows that he ought to have known these things from the prophets themselves. Mark this, because it is a thoroughly satisfactory answer to those who wish to connect the being born of water with baptism. He who is acquainted with the views taught here cannot fairly think that there is any depreciation of that institution of Christ. For I hold, that, nobody ought to be owned on Christian ground till he is baptized with water. I do not mean that he may not be a believer; but if he have not submitted to baptism in the name of the Lord, he is not yet ostensibly off Jewish or Pagan ground. And our Lord elsewhere insisted on the necessity of being baptized as well as believing. (Mark 16)
But important as baptism may be as the appointed sign of death and resurrection in Christ, yet our Lord did not directly refer to the rite with Nicodemus. For He says—not, “Art thou a disciple of Christ's?”, but — “Art thou a master of Israel and knowest not these things?” That is, as a Jew he ought to have known this. How could he know Christian baptism as a Jew? To such an one this was a novelty; it did not even exist at the time. How could that be known which was not yet brought out? He ought to have known what was meant by being born of water and of the Spirit, and to have felt the absolute necessity of it. What then was meant? This, that no matter where, when, or who, everyone who should see or enter the kingdom of God must be born of water and of the Spirit, must have the Holy Spirit communicating a new life to him. And how is that life produced? By an ordinance? No. By Christian walk? No. By what means, then? By prayer? Nay; but by the reception of God's Word revealing Christ. Therefore it is written that we are born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth forever.” With the testimony of Peter there is that of James also: “Of His own will begat he us with the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of His creatures.” The instrument employed for God's begetting us is “the word of truth.” So that water is clearly used in this passage in John 3 as figurative of the Word of God applied by the Spirit. The two are joined together that it should not be supposed it is merely the Spirit using an ordinance, but rather applying God's Word with quickening power to the soul. Therefore, when speaking about believing, it is said, “How shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard?” It is necessary the Word should be preached. “So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.” Compare also 1 Corinthians 4:1515For though ye have ten thousand instructors in Christ, yet have ye not many fathers: for in Christ Jesus I have begotten you through the gospel. (1 Corinthians 4:15). It is no matter what positive passage of Scripture you take up, all teach the same thing. Our Lord insists that every one who enters the kingdom must enter by that door. What, then, is to become of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob? Some may say that circumcision is equivalent; but do not believe the dream for a moment; if so, what would become of so many before or outside both circumcision and baptism? All these explanations are mere clumsy guesses at Scripture. Even if there were no real difference between baptism and circumcision, when our Lord lays down the new birth He refers to neither. He does not insist on a rite with certain exceptions, but an absolute and universal spiritual necessity. He is not speaking of the comparatively modern rite of baptism—of that which, as it came late into the world, will not abide in it. For there is no ground, that I know, to suppose that during the millennium baptizing people with water will proceed. It is a rite peculiar to Christian times, at least baptism into Christ's death.
But John 3 speaks of what every person must pass through without qualification or exception, if he is to see and enter the kingdom of God—what was as true of the thief upon the cross as of Saul of Tarsus. All children of God, past, present, or future, are born again; all have this new life given to them. There is the communication of divine life to them. But as far as regards those who hear the Word, it is plainly through the Holy Spirit using the Word as a means of life. It is emphatically the presentation of Christ. In John 4 we enter on another operation of the Holy Spirit. “If thou knewest the free-giving of God, and who it is that saith to thee, Give me to drink; thou wouldest have asked of Him, and He would have given thee living water.” The living water is plainly the Holy Spirit, whom Christ gives. Here it is not the quickening operation of the Spirit, indispensable for all times and under all circumstances, if any souls are to belong to God; but it is a special privilege that Christ bestows personally. And you will find in the discourse of our Lord which follows, and is connected with what He had said to the woman of Samaria, that the Holy Spirit is given to believers now as the means of worshipping their God and Father in Spirit and in truth. Thus we have in John 4 a totally different operation of the Spirit from what was urged in John 3, and to whom did our Lord disclose this? To a poor, wretched, abandoned woman; not even a Jewess, but a Samaritan. Our Lord is there showing the grace that goes out to the very vilest. God was now no longer, as before, putting the law forward. He displays Himself as a giver: under the law God is rather a receiver; He asks, demands, insists that the creature render Him the honor due to His Majesty. In the gospel, God is the giver of His own Son. Instead of seeking something from guilty, lost man, He confers His very best on one who did not even ask Him. “If thou knewest the gift—the free-giving—of God (what a new sound to the Samaritan!) thou wouldest have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water.” This is what He does—He is giving the Spirit, the power of eternal life. The consequence of this most precious opening out of the truth is, that we have the Holy Spirit in us as the spring of communion and power of worship. It is not so much as using the Word of God to deal with us in our natural uncleanness and to communicate a new life which cleaves to God and hates sin, with new feelings, new desires, new wants, which are only answered in Christ, and which every regenerate soul must have, if it were a poor nun, or a superstitious priest going through the mass. Yet if one were born of God, he could not but have a yearning after what he had not, and find, in the long run, Christ the object that attracted his soul—Christ the contrast of all that was found on earth or anywhere—Christ the only One that suited him, and the One, too, whose glory it was so to bless him. Of what would this be the proof that he was born of God. For there is no proof but what may turn out a delusion save this—that my wants turn me to Christ, and make me find in Him the only One that can satisfy the soul.
But in John 4 it is not the case of a proud ruler of the Pharisees who is made to feel the need of regeneration, but a depraved woman, that had lost her character, to whom no one would have spoken, except—wonderful to say—the Son of God! It is to her that the Lord brings out this great truth, the gift of the Spirit: no longer merely acting morally on the soul or quickening, but Himself dwelling in the heart, the Holy Spirit —the power of divine fellowship and worship. What a joy! The Holy Spirit dwelling in believers, the Father seeking such to worship Him. Do you know this? Or are you still trammeled by what is now past, what once existed, and then had the sanction of God? By the rule of a past dispensation for an earthly people? By rites which no longer have the slightest value in His sight who reveals Himself as Father? The day of forms and ceremonies is entirely gone. How often people say, We do not attach importance to such things? The truth is, that they are now a very bad thing, and contrary to God's actual order. It is not only that fine sights and sounds should not be an object in worship, but it is a positive sin to seek or admit them. It is, in principle, a going back to idolatry and a condemned world. Therefore, in John 4, our Lord brings in “The hour cometh and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth.” There is the truth enunciated about worship. At Jerusalem the splendor of ceremonials had been at its height; but now all this is over, and any one fighting for it now unwittingly rebels against Christ. Our Lord shows that it is no longer in that mountain nor at Jerusalem that God should be worshipped—there was just about to dawn a new condition of things. But what does God value now? The true worshippers adoring the Father in spirit and in truth. Who are they? His children. “The Father seeketh such to worship him.” He is gathering children, forming them for His own praise, putting the Holy Spirit within them to give the consciousness of their relationship with Himself, and, having this, to draw near to Him as their God and Father.
It is plain, then, that the notion now of having a mixed worship of people, some converted and some not, is a direct contradiction of Christianity. It could not be otherwise before the cross. There was then no such thing as God separating His children from those that were not thus related to Him. It would have been a sin for a believing Israelite to have said to an unbeliever, I cannot worship with you, because you are not born of God. But now the sin is to join in God's worship with those who are not His children; and for this simple reason, that the Father is seeking true worshippers, and none but such, to worship Him. I do not mean that it is a sin for those not converted to be in the same place as spectators and hearers. But the attempt to join every body in the worship of God is a fatal delusion, dishonoring to Himself and destructive to the souls of those that are not true worshippers. But people have not faith to stand separate from the world. They like to have the countenance of men; and of course it is trying to have to act decidedly. We are warned of God that if we seek to please men we should not be the servants of Christ. We must run the risk of paining them, but faithful are the wounds of a friend. Some confound hearing the gospel or other truth with worship. But they are totally different. In worshipping God, Christians offer up to God services of praise and thanksgiving. Worship is what goes from the believer to God; whereas in the gospel or other ministry it is a message coming down from God for the good of souls, for the instruction of believers, or for the conviction and salvation of unbelievers. But whether it be one or other addressed, it is always that which comes from God to them, and not what goes from them to God; so that the confounding of these two things is a serious evil. Among many the thing which makes them attached to the old walls and routine is not the prayers, but because they hope to hear something good in the sermon. They entirely thus pass out of the condition of worshippers. Worship is the true expression of the heart's praise and thanks by the Holy Spirit, whether by an illiterate man or not. We know in the case of the apostles that they could not speak correctly (Acts 4); but, for all that, they were the chosen vessels of such a power of God as never visited this earth before or since, in men of like passions with ourselves. And I believe it is so still and always will be so. God chooses the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty. Although there may be a Paul brought in occasionally, these are the exceptions, and God never intends that the exceptions should become the rule.
Thus, besides regeneration, which is the first operation of the Spirit of God, there is the further gift of the Holy Spirit. “In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation.” They were born of water and of the Spirit. They heard the word of truth, which we find in this very epistle set forth under the figure of water. “That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word” (ch. 5:26). It is not only that the Church is washed by the word, but the poor sinner is born of the word when he believes the gospel—born of water and of the Spirit. But was it merely that they were born of water and of the Spirit? “In whom also, after that ye believed (or having believed), ye were sealed with that holy spirit of promise.” It is very startling to many to find that, after they have been born of the Spirit, there is such a thing as being sealed by the Spirit. That is the reason why men invented confirmation. They felt from the Scripture that there is something over and above being born of water. Therefore a religion of forms first made baptism to regenerate everyone, and then confirmation to crown it. But forms are no better than idolatry: it is putting something in the place of Christ. After the apostles left, this grew apace—ceremonies, done by the hand of men, were substituted for the power of the Holy Spirit acting on the souls of men. Finding from the Word of God that there were these two things, regeneration first and then the subsequent gift of the Holy Spirit, they adopted two different ceremonies—in one sense very properly, if there should be a religion of forms at all. But it is a total mistake of the very nature of Christianity.
Yet the truth remains that there were two different operations of the Holy Spirit. The first is, when a man is brought to a sense of sin. What makes a man abhor himself? He is born of God. He has no happiness at all, perhaps, but a deep sense of ruin; yet his heart cleaves to God. That man is born of God—truly converted: no comfort as yet perhaps in his soul, but his heart is open to listen further to the word of the truth, the gospel of salvation. He believes it. What then? He is sealed of the Holy Spirit, as a believer, not only in Christ, but in the gospel of our salvation—the work that Christ has done. For I do not think that you can have a soul sealed with the Holy Spirit, unless he enters into the work as well as the person of Christ. This accounts for the fact that there were persons born of the Holy Spirit who never were sealed. For instance, the Old Testament saints were believers in Christ; they all looked for Christ. All were born of God, but not one was sealed with the Holy Spirit. To be born of the Spirit and sealed with the Spirit are very different things, which may or may not be united in the same person. All must be born of the Spirit, but it is never said that all must be sealed with the Spirit in order to enter into the kingdom of God. Wherever the Holy Spirit speaks of the sealing of the Spirit, it proves the contrary. Who was the first person said to be sealed with the Spirit? Our blessed Lord Himself. He had it in a way peculiar to Himself. When was He sealed? When redemption was accomplished, and He went up to heaven? No; but when Christ was upon earth. “Him hath God the Father sealed.” It was as Son of man He was sealed, and as Son of man on earth before redemption—without bloodshedding, because He knew no sin: there was no guile found in His mouth. He was absolutely sinless: He could have the Holy Spirit abiding on Him entirely apart from blood, because He was the Holy One—the Saviour. He needed no work—no blood—no redemption; but yet He died, and there was blood shed and redemption effected. Why so? That we might be sealed—that we, who had no natural title to be brought nigh—that we, in whom the Holy Spirit could never take up His abode, might have the same Holy Spirit who dwelt in Him abiding in us.
This is what our Lord gradually brings out to view. “Thou wouldest have asked of Him, and He would have giving thee living water.” Therefore it was that the Lord taught the disciples to ask for the Holy Spirit; and this, after they were already regenerate. Yet he tells them to ask the Father for the Holy Spirit. (Luke 11) Is it the same thing now, seeing that He has given the Spirit? Am I to ask for the Holy Spirit, when I have Him dwelling in me? It would have been the most flagrant unbelief after Christ was in the midst of the disciples, had they asked God to send Christ. And now, when the Holy Spirit is sent from heaven, and given to be in us a well of water springing up into everlasting life, what is it for persons to entreat for the Holy Spirit to be given?—for Christians to be praying for an outpouring of the Holy Spirit? It is a practical denial that the Holy Spirit is sent down from heaven, and is dwelling in us. It is quite right to pray that we may not grieve Him, and that we may not quench Him. To pray that we may be strengthened with all might according to His Spirit in the inner man is according to the Word of God; but we ought not to say one word that implies the Holy Spirit is not here when He is. A most grievous cloud of darkness rests on the minds of many children of God as to this subject. They do not believe their privileges; they do not know that the Holy Spirit dwells in them. Does not the Holy Spirit feel this? If you had one caring for you day by day, and you were to write, either reproachfully, or doubting his care of you, it would show that you did not feel what was being done. There is a mist over your eyes, and you are asking for the very mercies that are already given. This is neither wisdom nor faith. It is quite true that we may ask God to bless the gospel to the unconverted and to regenerate them. But people pray for a pouring out of the Spirit—a different thing from conversion, and only mentioned in connection with the Holy Spirit's being given, first to the Jews, next to the Samaritans, and thirdly to the Gentiles. From that day to this, there is not the smallest ground to ask God for an outpouring of the Holy Spirit. It is an unintelligent prayer, founded on unbelief of the truth that the Holy Spirit is poured out. Even God Himself could not add to the blessedness of the gift He has already given. There was a great difference between a Jew, a Gentile, and a Samaritan; and therefore it is mentioned expressly in connection with the three. The Holy Spirit never will be poured out again upon the Church. It is ignorance of the ways of God to look for it. He has been poured out upon the Church as truly as it is possible for God to give. But when the heavenly saints have been taken to be with Christ at His coming, there will in due time follow an outpouring of His Spirit on a new people, when the Jews and Gentiles will be brought as such distinctly to the knowledge of Jesus. But as long as the Church is on the earth, there never will nor can be such a thing. Can it be repeated, any more than there can be another dying of the Lord Jesus upon the cross? Nor is this a mere matter of speculation. It is connected in the deepest possible way with our worship.
You will find that faith in the presence of God's Spirit, or unbelief of it, is that which puts to the test saints in the present day. It behooves us to look to it well that we really do enter into the mind of God about it. Let us understand that which constitutes us Christians is not only that we believe in Christ, but that we are now sealed with the Holy Spirit. This was the decisive proof of a man's being a Christian. Peter thus alleges the fact: “Can any man forbid water, that these should be baptized which have received the Holy Spirit as well as we?” It was not merely that they had believed; but God had given them the Holy Spirit, and could they dare to refuse persons in whom the divine Person dwelt, on whom God had conferred such a signal grace Such is the ground of all Christian unity—the presence of the Holy Spirit. The question is not merely, Is there life?, but, Have you believed that the Holy Spirit dwells in you? It was the possession of the Spirit, and not life merely, that was made the turning point. It was not until they had received the Holy Spirit that the Gentiles were acknowledged as part and parcel of the Church of God. (Acts 11) The Church is not only bound to accept life, and to believe that there is life in the soul, but is also authorized from the Word of God to wait till there is such a manifestation of it, as to be plainly manifest that they have the Holy Spirit dwelling in them. There never was such a thing as owning as an assembly till there was recognition of their being on common ground with the Church by the reception of the Holy Spirit.
All this makes the true way of dealing with saints now very manifest. The Church would be justified in expecting this manifestation of the power of the Spirit. It is not true charity which does not look for it. “In whom also, after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise, which is the earnest of our inheritance, until the redemption of the purchased possession, unto the praise of His glory.” Without dwelling on the last verse, I would make this remark again—that as the seal of the Spirit could not be till the work of Christ was done (the Son only being sealed upon earth who needed no redemption, but who came on the contrary, to redeem us to God), as we now, on the footing of redemption, receive the Holy Spirit to dwell in us, so we receive the earnest of the inheritance. This last, I believe, to be as peculiar to the Church of God since Pentecost, as the sealing of the Spirit. As the disciples were not sealed with the Spirit, so neither had they the earnest of the inheritance till the Holy Spirit was sent down from heaven. This earnest is the power of the Holy Spirit giving a believer now present joy, present anticipation of the glory to which he is going. This may be hindered in many a believer's heart by a want of knowledge of the truth, or by the workings of the flesh, worldliness. But still it remains true, that, now the Holy Spirit is given, a believer ought to look up and pray to God if there be anything that hinders his entering into the joy of His blessed inheritance, that it may be detected and put away. I am quite sure that the caring only for being born of God has acted greatly to the injury of the children of God; it has stopped them short, as if the only object were, that the children should learn this and no more. But our business is, having believed, to go on and learn other truths, and above all, Christ Himself. So it is precisely that the Holy Spirit's regenerating a soul is to occupy the soul with the fact that it is regenerate; but being born of God, we have to go forward, to enter into the blessed truths of God, which cluster around both our redemption and our future glory.
As the seal, the Holy Spirit is the witness of the perfectness of our being cleansed from our sins—the effect of the work of Christ. That operation of the Spirit is meant which supposes the work done, and that we are set apart to God on the ground of redemption. We are sealed because redemption is finished. If I look at glory, it is not finished. Therefore the figure is changed when he speaks of our inheritance. “Sealing” would not do in connection with that, because we have it not as a fact; we are not yet put in possession of what we are to have along with Christ. Hence the Holy Spirit is spoken of as “the earnest of our inheritance.” The same Spirit who seals us is the earnest of our bright future “till the redemption of the purchased possession.” First of all, we have the privileges of divine grace that chose us in Christ; predestined us to the place of sons; took us into full favor without a single question, “in the Beloved;” gave us redemption even now in Christ through His blood, even the forgiveness of sins. But no sooner has the Holy Spirit thus established us in the full knowledge of God's love to us, and the present effect of it in putting away our sins, than He brings before us the inheritance. Hence comes in the relation of the Holy Spirit to these two things. And as there are two great parts in God's choice of us personally, so the Holy Spirit takes a double relationship. He is the seal of the grace and blessing that we have in Christ, and He is the earnest of the glory we are going to have with Christ. These are the relations of the Holy Spirit to the individual believer. All the general dealings of the Spirit have a secondary place compared with His ways with the soul individually, which, requiring some further development, has now received a measure of notice.