Do not think that when God made man, He made him with such a bad nature that he would need to be born again. O no, when Adam came from the hand of God, he came from that hand a perfect man. And love and power had prepared a scene of blessedness for that man—Paradise. And when he got into paradise, he found everything suited to his nature; and his nature suited to everything there.
How is it that our need of a new life, a new nature, is essential to our seeing, or entering, the kingdom of God? Because the best of us are so bad by nature. And that is what has been impressed in my mind of late to bring before my own soul and others, what I am by nature; and what and who God is by nature.
Friends, you have to do with God—God as God, first. Are you ready for that? Have you had to do with Him?
I speak now for a moment to the unconverted. My unconverted friend, do you think if God took you into heaven, that you would be happy? If God took you into heaven unborn again, unconverted, the first thing you would wish to do, would be to get out. Why? O, you would find the light of the holiness of God there; and you would find yourself all exposed to light. No, if God were to take an unconverted man into heaven, he would be utterly unhappy.
Well, what shall He do with him then? Put him into hell? Would he be happy then? Why, I believe he would be as unhappy in heaven as he would be in hell. In heaven the light of the holiness of God would constantly expose and bear down upon him; in hell, the weight of God’s judgment is upon him.
I know it is not common to talk in this way of heaven and hell in these days. But, dear friend, heaven or hell, forever and forever, will be your portion and mine. Think of that. That is worthy of consideration—an eternal home in heaven, all suited to heaven and to the God of heaven; or a place in hell, under the judgment of God, for my sins.
Well, Nicodemus cannot understand it. “How can a man be born when he is old? can he enter the second time into his mother’s womb, and be born?” What would be his need afterward, in order to see or enter the kingdom of God? To be born again; and I repeat the new version in that way. No, it is another kind of birth.
So this perplexed this master in Israel; and it perplexes masters in Israel today. But the Lord Jesus emphasizes the fact:
“Except a man be born again, he cannot enter, or see the kingdom of God.”
O, let these fundamental words and gospel truth remain in our souls. I have known the truth many years; but I find it blessed to go back to the fundamentals. So he goes on, and the Lord Jesus says to him:
“That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.”
There might be a great deal of difference in the circumstances of two or three men; but if they have not been born again, they are unsaved masters in Israel.
“That which is born of the flesh is flesh” —what does that mean?
Suppose we should send, say, an unconverted child of ours to a theological seminary to be made a preacher; and he would pass the course of study, and graduate. What is he in nature? What he was when he entered— “That which is born of the flesh is flesh.” He remains an unconverted man.
I use the terms born again and converted as almost the same, though they are not exactly the same thought in Scripture. But conversion or new birth is essential.
“Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again.”
What is the need of it? That I as a sinful man, have a nature that can not be changed, but remains a sinful one. The moral and the immoral man are the same in nature. It was not an immoral man to whom the Lord Jesus was talking here, who had come to Him by night, with a sense of need in his soul. Both the moral and the immoral are in need of conversion, of being born again.
What does this new nature give to those who receive it? The nature from above is another kind of birth; and what does it make them? It makes them children of God—by nature, spiritual nature. What a vast and wonderful change! “Heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ.” (Rom. 8:17). But that is not the rich part of it. The rich part of it is that each child is partaker of the nature of God; he is a child of God by nature. And he can enjoy, and does enjoy and worship God, as one that has a new nature. How fine and sweetly here on earth the child of God gets a foretaste of home; that is, heaven. Communion with God and his Saviour is a foretaste of what will be his everlasting portion.
Well, all this perplexed this learned man—he was a member of the Sanhedrin. And it perplexes the learned at all times; in order to understand it, they have to take the place of being sinners in God’s sight, with a nature that is utterly contrary to His.
(To Be Continued)