We have already seen that Christ as the Son was the revealer of the Father; and as soon as the Father is declared it is of necessity that there should be those who are in the enjoyment of the relationship; in other words, the Father must have His children. Accordingly we find the family in the very same gospel that contains the declaration of the Father’s name. There are, it may be said, three notices of it to which we may call attention.
The first is contained in chapter 1; but we turn now to that found in chapter 11. After the resurrection of Lazarus the Jewish authorities assembled together for consultation. They could not deny the miracle that had been wrought; but, shutting their eyes to its divine significance and their consequent responsibility, and caring only for their own selfish interests and advantage, they determined to rid themselves of the One who so disturbed their peace, and who was making so many disciples. They thought in their wicked councils only of themselves; but God was behind the scene overruling their thoughts, and was about to make their wrath to praise Him in the accomplishment of His own eternal counsels of grace and love. He thus used the mouth of Caiaphas to prophesy that Jesus should die for the Jewish nation, this being God’s purpose from eternity; and to that prophecy the Spirit of God added another in order to embrace the full character of the death of Christ, by the hand of John, who writes, “And not for that nation only, but that also He should gather together in one the children of God that were scattered abroad” (John 11:49-52). We thus learn that not only was the heart of God set upon His children, but that also the death of Christ was requisite, requisite for the glory of God as for the redemption of His people, as the foundation on which the Spirit of God could, through the entreating message of the gospel, go out into every land, and gather in one by one those who should constitute the Father’s family, and as such be heirs of God and joint-heirs with Christ. As the Father could only be fully revealed by the life and death of Christ, so likewise the children could only be sought out, found, and gathered through that death.
The second reference is in chapter 1:12-13, and points out the way in which we become children—the only possible way—and this must be entered upon more fully. It is stated at the very outset in accordance with the character of the gospel. In the three preceding gospels—generally termed the synoptical gospels—Christ is presented to His people for acceptance, and we see Him rejected in the course of the narrative. This is true of all three, though there are characteristic differences. In John, on the other hand, Christ is introduced as already rejected. “He was in the world, and the world was made by Him, and the world knew Him not. He came unto His own, and His own received Him not.” The world was ignorant (knew not God, as in 2 Thess. 1:8), and the Jew rejected Him (did not, as it were, obey the gospel, as also in the scripture cited). Hence we find a fuller display in John of the person of Christ, and the introduction of the cross with its blessed teachings at the commencement (ch. 3) instead of waiting for the historical relation at the close. We have therefore, following immediately upon the statement of His rejection, a class indicated who received Him, and who in receiving Him received power (right or authority) to become (to take the place of) the children of God; and then, to dispel all uncertainty as to the nature of the change thus wrought, it is added, “Who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God” (vs. 13). It is a divine and sovereign operation effected by a power and through agencies outside of man, and with which man, though he may be the subject of their energy, can have nothing to do.
But the consideration of this will lead us back to the very fountain-head of the existence of the children of God. They are born of God. In chapter 3 the Lord tells Nicodemus, that “except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God” (vs. 5); and here we find another truth, that those who are born again through these instrumentalities are brought into relationship of children with the Father. Combining then these scriptures, we shall have before us the whole truth of the process by which the family of God is formed.
1. Its origin is in God Himself; and this same apostle tells us another thing, not only that believers are born of God, but also that their blessed place and relationship flow from the heart of the Father. “Behold,” he exclaims, “what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons” (children—τέκνα) “of God” (1 John 3:1); so that the very fact of our being children is the expression of the Father’s heart. He desired to have His children for His own satisfaction and joy; and if we add another scripture, we shall see that in a past eternity He formed this blessed counsel of grace. “Having,” as Paul writes, “predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, wherein He hath made us accepted in the Beloved” (Eph. 5; 6). We cannot dwell too much upon this outflow of the heart of God, on the fact, we repeat, that our being children is but a simple consequence of the Father’s love. And when in connection with this we consider what we were, the state we were in, our utter alienation from God, the bitter enmity of our hearts towards Him, we shall in some measure enter into the meaning of John’s cry, “Behold, what manner of love!” Yea, it is love unspeakable, unbounded and divine, having no motive for its expression except in that blessed heart whence it has flowed. Well indeed might we be humbled before it when we think that we—once poor sinners of the Gentiles—have become its object, and have been brought into its enjoyment, and that for eternity.
2. The heart of God is the source, but God has His own means of bringing us into His family. “As many as received Him, to them gave He power to become the sons” (children) “of God, even 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 1:12-13). There are two or three important statements in these words. First, that those who received Christ, or believed on His name, are actually born of God. More indeed than this. The very manner of the statement is exclusive of all human agency or claims. With the Jew descent from Abraham, born “of blood,” went for a great deal, as it brought him into the number of the chosen people. But now that Christ is come, natural descent has no preeminency, it is indeed totally set aside, and nothing will avail except being born of God. It is not only therefore, as theologians speak, adoption, blessed and wonderful grace as this would be; it is more, it is an actual new birth, the result of the action of sovereign and divine power by which those who are the subjects of it become partakers of a new nature and a new life. It is thus that John, speaking in the abstract (that is, confining his attention entirely to the character of this new nature, without respect to the old, the Adam nature, which all believers still possess), says, “Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin; for His seed remaineth in him: and he cannot sin, because he is born of God” (1 John 3:9). Yes, nothing short of this—born of God—is the truth; but while of God, if we would come to the special character of the action, it is of the Spirit. The Holy Spirit is the divine agent by whom this wondrous change is effected, according to the scripture already adduced, “born of water and of the Spirit.”
This brings us to the second agency God employs. If the Spirit is the power, and the only sufficient power, the Word, for the “water” is an emblem of the Word (see Eph. 5:26), is the instrumentality which the Holy Spirit uses to effect the new birth. St Peter thus speaks, “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” (all flesh) “withereth, and the flower thereof” (the glory of man) “falleth away: but the word of the Lord endureth forever. And this is the word which by the gospel is preached unto you” (1 Peter 1:23-25). Behold, then, how simple the process—so simple that even a child may comprehend it! The gospel is preached, Christ is presented in the gospel, and by the grace of God the heart receives Christ, receives Him as the Saviour, and thus receiving Him, together with Him a new life and a new nature are possessed. Such a soul is born of God. Faith therefore in Christ is both the sign and the occasion (if we may so speak) of the new birth; and thus we have not to concern ourselves with the divine modes of action, or the divine sovereignty in the action, but only and entirely with faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Everything hangs upon that. If you have received Him, believed on His name, you are born of God; if you have not received Him, you are without the new birth, still flesh; for that which is born of flesh is flesh; and all flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass.
One word should be added to prevent misconception, and, we trust, to minister blessing to feeble souls. When speaking of the necessity, or the fact of being born again, there is a danger—a danger peculiarly seen in the writings of some evangelical teachers—of losing sight of the forgiveness of sins—of forgetting, while rightly pressing regeneration, the need of expiation for sins, cleansing from guilt as well as the new birth. Now in John 3 both things are carefully conjoined. If on the one hand our blessed Lord says, “Ye must be born again,” He also says, on the other hand, “The Son of man must be lifted up.” If it were possible to be in such a case, the new nature would not be, in and by itself, sufficient, as it would still leave the question of our sins untouched. But it need hardly be remarked that when the soul believes in Christ not only is it born again, but it partakes before God of all the efficacy of His redemptive work. This may not always be apprehended. It will often indeed happen, through unbelief, ignorance, or defective teaching, that a soul may be born again for years before entering upon the enjoyment of the forgiveness of sins. The slightest believing contact with Christ is saving, and not only so, but if we are thus brought into contact with Christ, we are before God, though often and generally not in our own souls, in possession of all the value of Christ, and His atoning work. More attention to the truth contained in this chapter (John 1) would save from much confusion. Instead of pressing the necessity of being born again (which still is absolutely requisite) there should be the presentation of Christ to the sinner; for his first felt need springs from the sense of his guilt, and then the moment his heart is open to receive Him as his Saviour, he loses the burden of his guilt, enters upon the enjoyment of forgiveness, and is withal born again—born of God. Everything therefore depends upon the presentation and reception of Christ.
The last thing to be noticed in this scripture is the power, authority, or right conferred. To them—to as many as received Christ—gave He power to become, or to take the place of, the sons (children) of God. All such as we have pointed out are born of God, and as the result of this they are now entitled, divinely entitled, to take their place as God’s children. The word is “children” and not “sons,” as given in our translation. In fact John never uses the term “sons,” with him it is always “children.” Paul uses both. When writing to the Galatians “sons” only; but in Romans 8 he employs both, and gives thereby the clue to their different significance. “Sons” would seem to mark out rather the position into which we are brought consequent upon faith in Christ, “children” speaking more distinctly of the relationship, and of its intimacy and enjoyment.
What a wonderful thing is it then which the evangelist here indicates—that all who believe on the name of Christ are empowered to take the place of being God’s children! Such a thing was never heard of before the advent of Christ The Jewish saints were undoubtedly born of God; but inasmuch as atonement was not yet accomplished, and the Holy Spirit not yet given, because that Jesus was not yet glorified, it was impossible for them to be brought into the place of children, or if they had been it would have been impossible for them to enjoy it. Until through the one offering for sin, accomplished in the death of Christ, there might be possessed “no more conscience of sins”—the knowledge of being perfected forever—there could be no peace or liberty in the presence of God; and it belongs to the very idea of a child that he should be before the Father in perfect freedom, entirely at home, and conscious of the Father’s love. And this is the place we are now warranted—warranted by divine grace and conferred privilege—to take.
The fact of this place belonging to us is here revealed, and at the close of the gospel, as we have seen in the last chapter, the Lord Himself, on the morning of His resurrection, puts His disciples into it. What love and tenderness on His part! Here we are told that it is ours by divine title; and now that we might not from our feebleness and unbelief lose its enjoyment, He condescends to explain its character, and to lead us into its blessedness. “Go,” says He to Mary, “go to My brethren, and say unto them, I ascend unto My Father, and your Father; and to My God, and your God” (John 20:17). We learn then from these words that the place which the Father would have us take as His children is the very place which Christ Himself enjoys. As man, God was the God of our blessed Lord; as Son, His Father—these two relationships covering the whole position which He occupied when here, and now indeed that He is glorified at the right hand of God. It is on this account that we find so often in the epistles the term, “The God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ” (see, for example, 2 Cor. 1:3; Eph. 1:3; 1 Peter 1:3), and also that we thus address God in prayer as our God and Father, because the God and Father of our blessed Lord—these titles revealing at the same time the source of the individual blessings that flow to us on the ground of redemption. But here, since we speak of children, we have chiefly to do with the term Father—“My Father and your Father.” In one word, He gives us His own place, and nothing could so effectually describe for us the marvelous efficacy of His death and resurrection. His own place, we say; and it is His own place of relationship, so that we are permitted to use the same appellation when addressing God as Himself. It is, however, to be carefully remembered, that while He thus associates us with Himself before God, He yet always retains the preeminence. It is not, could not be in His lips, “our” Father, but “My Father, and your Father”; for if He is not ashamed to call us His brethren He is the firstborn, even as we are taught in the scripture which tells us that God has predestinated us to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren. Many of our popular hymns have forgotten this distinction, and have in this way fostered modes of thought and expression which are not of the Spirit of God. If our blessed Lord in His grace and love puts us into His own place, and condescends to call us brethren, it would be on our part to forget what is ever due to Him in His own worthiness, dignity, and absolute supremacy if we addressed Him as our Brother. Close as is the intimacy to which in the greatness of His love He admits His own, and endearing as are the terms which He applies to them, they must never forget, and in proportion as they really enjoy His love they will never forget, that His name is above every name, and that the joy of their hearts in His presence should ever flow out in tones of reverence and adoration. Still He would have us fully understand the character of the place into which He has introduced us, as well as the fact of association with Himself in the presence of God as our God and Father, because His God and Father.
A reference to one other scripture in this gospel may close our meditations on this part of our subject. In John 17, at the close of the wonderful prayer which our blessed Lord presented to the Father before He departed from the world, He says, “I have declared unto them Thy name, and will declare it: that the love wherewith Thou hast loved Me may be in them, and I in them” (vs. 26). In these words we have the full object in the revelation of the Father, and our introduction into the relationship declared. Name, it may be repeated, in Scripture always expresses the truth of what the person is; for example, when saints are said to be gathered to the name of the Lord Jesus Christ (Matt. 18), it signifies that they are gathered to the truth of all that Christ is, and Christ as both Jesus and Lord. So the name of the Father is the revelation of all that He is in the relationship which is thus expressed. The Lord then had declared the name of the Father, and this He would continue to do by the ministry of the Spirit through His servants, so that the same love which had rested upon Him as Son while here in this world, might not only rest upon and be enjoyed by us, but also be in us, and that He Himself might be in us, might be in us as the medium or channel through which this love should flow into our hearts.
A very striking illustration of this may be gathered from chapter 15. He says, “As the Father hath loved Me, so have I loved you” (vs. 9). The Father’s love flowed out of His heart, as from its fountain or source, into the heart of Christ, and then again from the heart of Christ into the heart of His disciples; whence also, in this case, it was to flow out again to one another. But the point here is, that it is the same love—same in character and same in extent Who then could measure or comprehend it?
And what a thought for our souls, when we hear the Father’s voice, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I have found My delight,” that the same boundless and infinite love rests upon, and is in us, if His children. It should be known and enjoyed, but that should not lessen the force of the truth in our souls—that His love rests upon every child of God. You say, perhaps, “I am so feeble, and I walk so badly, that I am ever stumbling, and grieving the Spirit of God.” This may be all true, and, alas! that it should be so; but still it is the fact, notwithstanding all, that you are loved with the same love as Christ was loved, when He was down here as God’s beloved Son. Never lose this blessed truth, but let it have its full weight in your souls; for by the grace of God, and the power of His Spirit, it will tend to keep and strengthen you, it will cheer your heart in times of depression and gloom, comfort you in sorrow and affliction, it will finally flood your soul with its own blessed light and radiance, and thereby give you no mean foretaste of the atmosphere and joy of the Father’s house, when we are there forever with the Lord. While waiting for this, we can all cry—
“O, Holy Father, keep us here
In that blest name of love;
Walking before Thee without fear,
Till all be joy above.”