The New Birth and the Serpent of Brass
Table of Contents
The New Birth and the Serpent of Brass: No. 1
John 3:1-18.
Many years after the Jews had rejected Christ it was written, " He came to his own, and his own received him not. But as many as received him, to them gave he power [or privilege] to become the sons 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 1:11.) How high then the privilege, how great the dignity! Born of God—sons of God. Let us bear this in mind. One of the true marks of the operation of the Spirit was seen in a religious man, Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. There was a felt need in his soul that brought him, though by night, to see Jesus. He owns Jesus as a Teacher come from God, he believes the evidence of the miracles, which could not be done by any man except God be with him. Jesus treated him as all wrong if he supposed that teaching could meet his case or need. " Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again [or wholly anew], he cannot see the kingdom of God." This fills Nicodemus with amazement. He says, Ø How can a man be born when he is old?" &c.
Now the astonishment of Nicodemus shows that the learned Jews had no idea of the new birth. This ought not to have been the case, but it was so. It was distinctly foretold, but it never was understood, till Jesus arose from the dead. We find David, under a deep sense of sin, longing for it. And, as we said, it is distinctly foretold, that when God restores Israel to their own land, then they shall all be born again, or have wholly a new heart. Let us read the words. " For I will take you from among the heathen, and gather you out of all countries, and will bring you into your own land. Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you. and ye shall be clean: from all your filthiness, and from all your idols, will I cleanse you. A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them. And ye shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers," &e. All this is of God. Then afterward they will repent. " Then shall ye remember your own evil ways, and your doings that were not good, and shall loathe yourselves in your own sight for your iniquities, and for your abominations." (Eze. 36:24-31.)
Now is it not remarkable that Nicodemus should have had no idea of this? The disciples also had no knowledge of the new birth. And though all the offerings, and such a scripture as Isa. 53, pointed to the atoning death of Christ, yet neither the Jews, nor the Jewish disciples of Jesus, seem to have understood either Moses or the prophets on that all important foundation truth.
Is it not sad to think that Christendom returned very much to the same state of ignorance, both as to the new birth and the atonement? For the one they substituted baptism, in place of circumcision; and for the other, the blasphemy of the mass.
Let us then read our chapter as a restored revelation from the lips of Jesus, yea, from the heart of God. Jesus answered, " Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God." We must notice that Jesus here is evidently speaking of the kingdom of God to be set up on this earth, as foretold in the scripture above. Man as he was in sinful flesh, had proved himself totally unfit morally for the presence and kingdom of God. He was to be cleansed, purified, of which water was the well-known type. He must have a totally new nature. Nothing could improve the old nature, called flesh in scripture. So that Nicodemus was entirely mistaken in supposing that God had sent Jesus to improve the sinful nature of man in the flesh by education. This was new and astonishing truth, that man's nature was not fit for God, even on earth in that kingdom He had promised to set up. New, yet not new, as it had been foretold, but not understood. Nicodemus himself was a proof of this. The King had come; He was there, the kingdom was there: but until Nicodemus was born again, he could not see nor understand who Jesus was.
Jesus now says a few words which settle the whole question, " That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit." This is a self-evident fact, true in all generations. With all the childish talk, a monkey never brings forth a man. Everything partakes, IS, of the nature of that from which it is born or generated. Gather a thousand different birds' eggs, mingle them together, let them be hatched; the form, the feathers, the very instinct, all is true to its generation. Is it not so? Even a Darwin must have said, Yes. God said, " after his kind, and it was so." This John 3:6 is a most important verse, and corrects a very common mistake as to the new birth. It is not that the sinful nature, the fallen nature of man, is changed, or made holy. That which is born of the flesh is flesh; that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Thus they are, and remain, in each believer, two totally distinct natures. But we must not anticipate, but just take scripture as we find if, on this most important subject. The Lord now shows that the new birth is the sovereign act of the Spirit, even as " the wind bloweth where it listeth," &c. This shows the utter fallacy of baptismal regeneration.
If the act of a priest baptizing the whole population was the new birth, or effected the new birth, there would be no divine sovereignty in it at all. And in like manner, if you say the water of baptism is the agent, or medium by which the Spirit effects regeneration, there would still be no divine sovereignty in regenerating the whole population by water. The whole thing is a gross delusion, not only has it no foundation in scripture, but it is in contradiction of scripture. Happily this is a sure mark of false tradition. When tradition contradicts divine revelation, it is and must be false. That baptism is a figure or type of the regeneration we quite admit.
Let us not forget that the Lord is speaking to a Jew, and about the kingdom of God to be set up in the land given to their fathers. All that that Jew can say is, " How can these things be V " Jesus answered,.... Art thou a master of Israel, and knowest not these things?" Plainly He refers to the things that had been foretold in Eze. 36; so that most assuredly being born of water could not be christian baptism at all, but water is used in the Jewish sense as the emblem of purity. He had spoken of the pure and new nature needed in order to be suitable for the earthly kingdom, and Nicodemus did not understand; as Christ said, "If I have told you earthly things, and ye believe not, how shall ye believe if I tell you of heavenly things?" No man but Jesus knew what was suited to heaven. He spoke that which He knew. No man had been there and could tell, or knew, as He did. You would say no one surely thinks that man in the flesh, in his sinful, vile nature, is so foolish as to suppose that he is fit for heaven, and the presence of God? Friend, that is just what the whole religion of this world is doing, trying to make that sinful nature holy, and thus fit for heaven; some in one way, some in another. Some, by fastings and prayers and sacraments; some, by striving to keep the law; some, by washing in the river Ganges; and some, by holiness by faith. Oh, that all these would ponder the words of Jesus, "That which is born of the flesh is flesh."
There is then this universal feeling, or conscience, that man as he is, is not fit for the presence of God. Just as if a message arrived from the Queen to a collier in the mine, ragged? half naked, covered with dust and soot; you would scarcely need tell him he was not fit for clean carpets, and spotlessly clean apartments, and attendants, and especially the eye of Her Majesty. Would he not be miserable there, and wish himself out? Ah, how well did Jesus know that man in his natural state, his sinful, defiled nature, was totally unfit for the purity of the presence of God in heaven! If He said then to Nicodemus, speaking of the earthly kingdom, " Ye must be born wholly anew," how much more does he thus speak to us now as connected with heavenly things! What is that new birth? How is it effected? Is it enough to give the anxious soul peace with God here? Is it enough to fit a sinful man for heaven? Surely these are deeply interesting questions. Are you quite clear about each of them?
It is far from our desire to attack or offend any reader of these lines, but we do beg you to fairly test whatever you are resting in. Do you really believe that in your baptism you were made a child of God, a member of Christ, an inheritor of the kingdom of heaven? Has this improved or changed your sinful nature? If it be true, then you are fit for heaven. Is it so? Oh, baptized thousands, are ye fit for the holy presence of God? One cannot but pity the man that sincerely believes such a delusion. But what can we say of the man who does not believe it, yet tells people it is so, knowing it to be false? Is it not fearful wickedness? To these we give the word of warning. Could anything be worse than this willful deception? But we affectionately ask the baptized, Are you quite sure, if summoned into the presence of God, that you are fit for that presence?
The same question may be put to such as are seeking fitness for heaven by fastings, prayers, sacraments, masses, and the like. Is your sinful self so improved, that you are fit for the holy presence of God? Or are you supposing that sin, that old. nature, is so eradicated by holiness through faith, or by faith, that you are now so pure that you are fit for heaven? Can you give thanks to the Father that you are now meet for the inheritance of the saints in light?
We will now -leave for a little while our chapter, and see what the Holy Ghost teacheth on these deeply solemn questions. We shall find all in perfect harmony with the words of Jesus, " That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit."
The New Birth and the Serpent of Brass: No. 2
John 3:1-18. No. II
What, then, is regeneration? What is that wholly new birth? What is it to be born of God? What does the Holy Spirit use in sovereignty to effect this new birth? That new birth is a new creation. Not a remodeling of old materials. Such is not a Christian. " Therefore, if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold all things are become new, and all things are of God," &c. (2 Cor. 5:17, 18.) This is what characterizes the new birth, or new creation. As to the old nature, the sin in the flesh—dead with Christ; as to the new life—risen with Christ. (See Col. ii. 20; iii. 1.)
The picture of this regeneration is truly baptism. " Buried with him in baptism, wherein also ye are risen with him through the operation of God, who hath raised him from the dead. And you being dead in your sins and the un-circumcision of your flesh, hath he quickened together with him, having forgiven you all trespasses." (Col. 2:12, 13.) Now, buried in water is not life, but death, as in another place. Read carefully Rom. 6:1-16. " Baptized into his death." (Ver. 3.) " We are buried with him by baptism unto death." (Ver. 4.) " Planted together in the likeness of his death." (Ver. 5.) The old man is not changed, or improved, but we are crucified with him. (Ver. 6.) Nay, every verse teaches death with Him. Is the old man, or our sinful nature, actually dead? No! But we are to reckon ourselves dead unto sin, but alive unto God in Jesus Christ our Lord. (Ver. 11.)
Thus the first part here of the new birth is death to our sinful nature, and the second life new to us in the risen Christ. Thus, baptism is a striking type of this doctrine of the new birth. You take a believer, and bury him in the likeness of the death of Christ. It is not the improvement of the old man, our sinful nature, but the entire setting of him aside in death; the death, not of the old nature, but of Christ: dead with Him. But where then is the new life for us when reckoned dead? Wholly in the risen Christ. And this could never be until He was risen from the dead. And this is by the operation of God who raised Him from the dead. Yes, the new birth, or new creation, is " according to the working of his mighty power which he wrought in Christ, when he raised him from the dead" &c. (Eph. 1:19, 20.) It is God that hath quickened us together with Christ. (Eph. 2:4-10.) This new birth, or new creation, is God's workmanship. (Ver. 10.) How simple all this is when we take the word of God.
Peter gives the same testimony. It is by the resurrection that we are brought into the new creation, or new birth. " Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead," &c. (1 Pet. 1:3.) It is not then by the water of baptism, but by the resurrection of Jesus Christ, that we are born of God. It may be said, But does not Peter himself contradict this? Does he not say we are saved by water, or baptism? No, he says, " The like figure whereunto baptism doth also now save us." But what is the reality, if baptism is the like figure? Peter says, " By the resurrection of Jesus Christ." Yes, Jesus the grain of wheat must die before He could bring forth the blessed fruit of eternal life in a new creation. (See John 12:24.)
If we also turn to Peter's preaching at Pentecost, we find it was only those who received the word that were baptized. And if we compare this with the words of Jesus, it is clear that they had passed from death unto life, or were regenerated before they were baptized. He says, " Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into judgment; but is passed from death unto life." He never said, He that is baptized is passed from death unto life. It is hearing the word, and believing God: then baptism as a sign of it.
We will take another instance of Peter's preaching (Acts 10): Cornelius and his company. They heard the word, they believed God. They were born again, for the Holy Ghost fell upon them; they had passed from death unto life, and were sealed by the Spirit. Was this by baptism? How could it be, for it was before they were baptized?
Further, is there a single instance of one person—the eunuch, the jailer, Lydia, or any company, being baptized before they heard the word, and believed God? Not one. And Jesus assures us that all who hear His word, and believe God that sent Him, have eternal life, and are passed from death unto life. Then we have the unanswerable proof, that every believer was regenerate before he was baptized; hence the extreme folly of that most destructive delusion, baptismal regeneration.
That water is used as a figure of the word, is also clear. In this sense, how beautiful the figure of Jesus washing His disciples' feet: not with blood there, but water. (John 13) And again, " Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it; that he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word," &c. (Eph. 5:25-27.)
Thus false tradition always contradicts scripture. James says, " Of his own will begat he us with the word of truth, that we should be a kind of first fruits of his creatures." (Jas. 1:18.) Peter says, " Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth forever." (1 Pet. 1:23.) John is largely occupied in his first epistle with the eternal life we have in Christ. But not one thought that this is by baptism. " Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the children of God," &c. " Beloved, now are we the children of God," &c. (John 3:1, 2.)
He that practiceth sin is of the devil. Millions that are baptized practice sin. Therefore millions who are baptized are not born of God, but are the children of the devil. For " whosoever is born of God doth not practice sin, for his seed remaineth in him: and he cannot sin [or practice sin], because he is born of God." " And this is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. He that hath the Son, hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God, hath not life."
Thus if we look to the inspired words of Paul, regeneration is, being dead with Christ, and risen with Him. To James and Peter, it is by the word of God: especially as with Paul, by the resurrection of Jesus Christ. This life is seen to be eternal, and in the Son of God, in John. Nothing avails but a new creation. "I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me." Such is regeneration. Not I, but Christ. The old I, reckoned dead and set aside. And as born of God, Christ is all.
A very serious question now arises. Jesus said, " That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit." Does not that imply that the two natures remain distinct? That the flesh is not changed? That though we are reckoned dead with Christ, and are risen with Christ, and have the divine nature as born of God—a nature that cannot sin, or practice sin—are born of God, and have the holy nature of God; are passed from death unto life- seed that can never die; have life eternal in the Son—yet is there still that old evil sinful nature called the flesh? Is it still in the believer? That which is born of the flesh, is it not, as Jesus says, flesh?
How many believers are utterly perplexed because they find it really is as Jesus says? They are born of God, for Jesus says again, that hearing His word and believing God that sent Him, they are born of God; or His words are, " they are passed from death unto life," which is regeneration. But they find an evil nature the very plague of their lives. They find lust, or the desire to do the things they, as born of God, utterly abhor. They are a complete enigma. If they do not, through unwatchfulness, fall into sins, they find the old nature to be far more vile than ever they felt it to be when in it, dead in trespasses and sins.
The truth is, many a believer, who thought that the new birth meant the change, instantaneous or gradual, of the sinful nature, looks at himself, and sees his evil lusts. And here Satan is mostly ready to lend a helping hand. Yes, the believer looks at himself, as a child of Adam, and he sees nothing but an evil nature, ever ready to break out in the most shameful sins. " Oh, my friend," says Satan, " is that what you call the new birth? Depend on it, you are no child of God." No words of mine can describe the misery of a soul when the full light shows him the old poison of that evil nature, the flesh still in him. He says truly enough, All that is not fit for heaven, nor fit for the holy eye of God.
In most cases he, now at this stage, turns away from Christ to the law, and seeks the remedy in an earnest effort, and desire, to keep the law. He now takes the law of God, just and holy, as a rule by which to improve the flesh.
What does he find? Let Rom. 7 answer. He forgets that the effect of the law on them, the Jews, who were once under it, was this: " For when we were in the flesh, the motions of sins, which were by the law, did work in our members, to bring forth fruit unto death." He forgets also that as a believer, he is delivered from the law, being dead to it. But what he finds is this, instead of the law helping him, it only brings out sin. " But sin, taking occasion by the commandment, wrought in me all manner of concupiscence (or lust)." The only effect of law is thus shown to bring out the exceeding hatefulness of sin. If we look at our old sinful self under law, what is it? " I am carnal, sold under sin." " For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) dwelleth no good thing." This is no trifle; it is a most alarming discovery when hoping that by keeping the law, this evil nature will be so improved, that ultimately I shall be fit for heaven, to find as a fixed principle as to that which is born of the flesh, that it is " sin that dwelleth in me;" and to have to say, with deep distress of soul, " I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me."
We might fain say, Surely that is only true of an unconverted man. Nay, it is one who can truly say, " For I delight in the law of God after the inward man." He must have the inward man or new birth before he can delight in the law of God. Yet this very man says, " But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members."
Have you ever said with this man, thus described, I have found that " that which is born of the flesh is flesh "? Have you ever groaned out, " O, wretched man that I am [the old sinful self], who shall deliver me from the body of this death?”
What does all this lead to? " I thank God, through Jesus Christ our Lord." How can this be? What, and how is this deliverance?
We will now return to John 3 He who knew man's utterly lost condition in sin, said there must be an entirely, wholly new birth, or new creation. If for the earthly kingdom, surely how much more is it needed when speaking of heaven and heavenly things! No one knew the holiness of heaven as He knew it. We have been looking at the awful poison of sin—the vile character of our fallen evil nature sin, the source of all lust. We have seen that he who is born of God, and delights after the inner man (that which is born of God) in the law of God, delights to do the will of God; yet he finds another nature, another law of sin, working in his members; and if he' gets from Christ to law, the result is terrible, as a matter of experience.
Which of us, as we have gone on in the journey, have not found this terrible poison of sin? What wretchedness it has caused! How ready to despair is many a soul, thus perplexed and harassed by evil lusts, the very virus of the old serpent! Plainly we want special instruction as to this very thing. Now as to this matter, as if it was not enough to have told out to Nicodemus the truth, entirely new to him, and as new now to many, of the new birth, the Lord now says, " And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up."
For what purpose was the serpent lifted up? If we turn to Numb. 21, we find that the serpent was not lifted up in Egypt. It was not the redemption aspect of the death of Christ set forth; neither was it at the beginning of their journey. It was not at the Red Sea. It was not on the day of atonement, when the blood was sprinkled before God, and when all the sins of the people were laid on the head of the goat. It was not that at all. It did not typify the substitution of Christ, bearing our sins. It was a good way on the journey. It was to meet the poison of the fiery serpents. The people were bitten, the poison was in them, the virus of the deadly serpent, which brought forth death.
" And the Lord said unto Moses, Make thee a fiery serpent, and set it upon a pole: and it shall come to pass that every one that is bitten, when he looketh upon it shall live. And Moses made a serpent of brass, and put it upon a pole: and it came to pass, that if a serpent had bitten any man, when he beheld the serpent of brass, he lived."
Thus the serpent of brass, a serpent in likeness of the fiery serpent, was lifted up, that they might not die from the deadly poison. Mark, it was the likeness of the fiery serpent lifted up, for one specific purpose—to meet the condition of the bitten, poisoned Israelites.
Could there be a more striking figure? The believer finds, it may be, when far on his journey, that sin, the poison of the serpent, is in him; and, as we have seen, all attempts to remedy this by the law, only aggravates the case. It does not cure or improve him in the least; it only brings out the awful workings of lust. He tries to improve his sinful nature, sin in the flesh, by what he calls holiness by faith. The excitement lasts for a little time. Still the poison is there, the plague of his heart, and do what he will, he finds the truth of the words of Jesus. Though born of the Spirit, and delighting in that nature, born of God, to do the will of God, yet he finds " That which is born of the flesh, is flesh." Yes, and though the Spirit dwells in him, he finds this sinful nature, " the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye may not do the things that ye would." (Gal. 5:17.) Have you not, reader, found it so? Have you not found two distinct natures in you? The very nature of God, as born of God, and the very poison of sin, as born of the flesh? Yes, and more, that sinful poison lusts against the Spirit dwelling in you. If a Christian, you have found it really so.
Do not confuse this with the commission of sins, or transgressions. It is your old sinful, poisoned nature. " That which is born of the flesh is flesh." If this were eradicated, christian parents could not transmit it to their children. But it is transmitted, they are born of the flesh. It is not what we have done, but that evil nature that desires to do evil.
Well, in the type, the likeness of a fiery serpent was lifted up, the object of faith. If a man, though he had deadly poison in him, looked at the serpent on the pole, he lived. Jesus says, " Even so must the Son of man be lifted up; that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life." “ For God so loved." Yes, if the love of God has been displayed in the eternal redemption we have through the death of Christ, and in the death of Christ bearing our sins, surely no less has that love been sewn in the way He has met the whole question of sin—the poison of our fallen nature.
How has God in love met the question of the poison of sin, which the law could not reach? " For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God, sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin [or a sacrifice for sin], condemned sin in the flesh." (Rom. 8:3.)
Mark, this is of God. This is how God has met the, to us, insurmountable difficulty, of sin, poison, in the flesh. Just as Moses put the likeness of the serpent that poisoned the bitten ones, so God pointed to the gift of His Son to be lifted up in the likeness of sinful flesh, that by a sacrifice for sin, the very root or poison of sin might be judged, condemned in the flesh. We look at Him not only bearing our sins in His body on the tree, but in the likeness of sinful flesh dealt with for our sin, the nature—that which is born of the flesh. This is evidently the meaning of, or aspect of the brazen serpent—Christ the Son of man lifted up for our sin. As it is also said, " For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin." This is important. Though in the likeness of sinful flesh, yet He personally was sinless. Yet He was dealt with as the sin offering for this very purpose, " That we might be made [or become] the righteousness of God in him." (2 Cor. 5:21.) Oh, the righteousness of God.
Yes, God so loved, as to thus deal with the whole question of our old sinful nature. No wonder that the enemy should ever seek to get us from God's way—the way He has judged our sin and dealt with it, in the Son of man lifted up. What the law could not do, God has done, in the brazen serpent aspect of His Son. Here is the answer to, and deliverance from, the deepest wretchedness the poor heart can ever endure here. Yes, God is the deliverer. " I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord." Have you ever thanked God for meeting the desperate case of sin in your flesh, bringing you into captivity to its law, or power? Have you clearly understood that that deliverance is through Jesus Christ being lifted up in the likeness of sinful flesh; bearing the judgment due to sin, and all its evil desires, so that instead of perishing, through this dreadful virus, poison, sin, you have eternal life; and all this in absolute righteousness?
Now this being the case, there is no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus. What! does not God reckon that evil nature sin to me? and if He does, must He not condemn me? If He does reckon it, He must condemn me. But hold, in righteousness He cannot reckon the sin to me. How so? Because He has reckoned it to His Son lifted up, as the serpent was lifted up on the pole.
It is then in this way. As born of God, the believer is holy, and fit for heaven, but he has an old sinful nature that Is not fit for the holy presence of God., His sins have' been borne by Jesus, and are forgiven. God has sent His Son to be lifted up in the likeness of sinful flesh. The believer's sin is fully judged in Him who knew no sin. All this is reckoned to the believer, dead with Christ, risen with Him, brought into favor in Him. Nothing, no nothing, is left to condemn. What, not my sinful old self left to condemn? No, all is condemned and swept away as to that, in the death of Christ. And I have life in the risen Christ beyond all this. Yes, and that is eternal life. But, you say, I have still that sinful nature. Yes, but it has been judged in the Son of man, sinless Himself, taking the place, lifted up in the likeness of sinful flesh. Thank God, all is of God! There is no condemnation. All is condemned that is unsuitable to God. Then I am now in perfect peace with God.
How then am I to walk in holiness? How am I to follow holiness? How am I to be superior to that power or law of sin in my members?
" The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus, hath made me free from the law of sin and death." (Rom. 8:2.) And that because sin has been judged in the Person of the Son of man lifted up. I have now a law or power in the risen Christ, a life by the Spirit, which is infinitely superior to my old sinful nature. So much so, that we are to reckon the old man dead. Hence we read, " I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh." Every precept shows the flesh is there and lusts, but the divine remedy is, " Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other, so that ye may not do the things that ye would." (Gal. 5:16, 17.)
Now, since this is the way God has shown His love to us, in meeting the whole question of our old nature, it is evident the Spirit will not lead us from God's remedy and deliverance to the law, which only made our case worse; neither can it possibly be of the Spirit to persuade us to ignore this way of God in dealing with the flesh, and seek to make it holy by faith, or any other means. Satan well knows that no way but God's way avails for the flesh. We beg the reader to study the scriptures on this most important subject. In no other way can we overcome the flesh, than by reckoning it dead with Christ, crucified with Him; and now all power is by the Spirit in Christ risen from the dead for a holy walk.
How beautiful and important the connection between the new birth and the serpent of brass.
C S.