“Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.”—JOHN iii. 3.
There are set forth in this chapter—and more especially in this first portion of it, dealing with Nicodemus—many of the outstanding truths of the Christian faith. What we are continually exposed to, regarding such a field of divine truth, is the danger of growing weary of meditating therein, or of hearing of it with any degree of frequency. The successive truths as to the new birth, the kingdom (the mystery, yet reality of it), the death of Christ, and the love of the Father antecedent to that death and manifested in virtue of that death, all seem so unquestionable, so generally accepted, as to be beyond the shadow of a doubt. So, to a great extent, we hasten to agree that these superlative truths should receive due attention, and forthwith allow and encourage the mind to wander to and in fields congenial to our sadly disordered and diseased frames. If the Spirit of truth be our guide and enable us in our time of need to receive the wisdom which is pure and peaceable, the word before us will renew its youth in interest and freshness, and be unto us as a path loved by reason of association, wherein we may walk and talk with our hearts, and come to know what is said of wisdom: “Her ways are ways of pleasantness, and all her paths are peace.”
* Mr. Macfarlane, who resides meantime at Rogart, is minister of the combined F.P. congregations of Lairg, Dornoch, Rogart, and Bonar.—Ed.
Let us note at the outset that, though we shall have especially before our minds this testimony of our Lord regarding the kingdom and admission to the presence of the King, we shall not restrict our remarks to this verse as such ; but, as necessary, endeavour to bring the substance of the record regarding the Saviour and Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews, to bear on this central truth—a truth which continues to be proclaimed wherever the Gospel is preached, and in all times of the Church’s history till He come.
In endeavouring, then, to handle this portion of the Word, we may deal conveniently with these main aspects of the subject :—
1. The necessity of being born again ;
It is very evident that in our hearing about being born again and the necessity of it, we are not to take the language of the Teacher come from God literally, any more than we are to look upon Him as a door or gate when He says, “I am the door ; by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out and find pasture.” Nicodemus apparently did not understand our Lord, and so—most probably in unfeigned astonishment—proceeded to inquire into the meaning of these words from a literal point of view. “How can a man be born when he is old ?” Nevertheless, though one can be born into this world only once and have only one such birthday, there is another kind of birth into another world or state of being, and we must have our real, actual, heavenly birth into it, and birthday connected with it, be it known or unknown to the soul at the time—and that must take place while we are in this world—otherwise “that which is born of the flesh” will in principle remain “flesh,” not only in the world that now is, but also in that which is to come. Why, the soul may ask, must one be born again ? Why this unspeakably necessary change, so utterly beyond the power of a created being that it requires the exceeding greatness of the gracious power of God to perform it, and so to Him will belong the glory of it forever ? Why, but that we are “born of the flesh.” And so we inquire briefly what this word “flesh” means for us. A twofold use of the word will suffice for our present purpose. First, it has a good meaning ; and, secondly, it is used in a bad sense, or to convey a meaning of an evil nature.
As to its good meaning, a passage or two may be found in this gospel to serve as an example.
There are the well-known portions : “And the Word was made flesh.” “And the bread that I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world. Whoso eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood hath eternal life ; and I will raise him up at the last day.” As used thus, the word obviously refers to the coming of the Lord into humanity and to the work of redemption in its full extent, which He undertook to accomplish. In this He was sinless, yet sin-laden. The word, therefore, when employed as above concerning Christ, involves complete freedom from impurity and pollution. He took upon Him our nature, and made manifest to all ages that it is possible to have a body of flesh and blood or flesh and bones, and yet to be untainted with evil.
Prior to examining the word in its opposite meaning, we may here remark that it is very frequently used in what may be called a relative or non-moral sense. This is especially common in the Old Testament. Adam said of Eve, when the Lord brought her to him, “This is now bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh.” Many such instances might be given. The main meaning in such cases is what in general and naturally belongs to rational being.
But the meaning which falls to be most closely attended to in the present connection is of course that pertaining to moral evil, to sin, as involving the penalty of death, and that “filthiness of the flesh (literally) and spirit” which invariably is its accompaniment. That “flesh” should be employed to mean what is sinful, polluted in body and depraved in the sphere of spirit, is not surprising. It is plain that when lust first conceived and brought forth sin, the members of the body very effectually became instruments for evil of the perverse will and besotted mind. The lower passions and appetites obtained dominion. Moral purity—native love of holiness—ceased on the entrance of sin, and the whole man now minded “the things of the flesh.” Self-satisfaction became the leading motive in action, the leading end in existence—even in matters otherwise quite lawful, not to mention what is forbidden. And so, having become “sold under sin,” we desire independence of God, and were the depraved nature permitted, we should deprive Him of His eternal independence. “So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God.”
This, then, is what is true concerning all mankind since “sin entered into the world, and death by sin.” Adam, the first father and representative of the race, “begat a son in his own likeness, after his image,” and ever since—with the exception of the last Adam, the Lord from heaven—”that which is born of the flesh is flesh.” Now, to be a sinful creature, as Nicodemus was, until “washed with the washing of regeneration,” involves two things.
The first is, that the Christless person is under the curse of his Maker, the Judge of all.
This is, verily, sad truth. Who can understand it in its unsearchable depths—what it implies for a soul to be separated from the God of holiness and love? “Who knows the power of thy wrath?” Yet we are plainly told that the soul under the sway of sin—unholy, unhealthy, and continuing disobedient to Him to whom all rational creatures, by necessity of nature, owe loving obedience—will inevitably be outside of His gracious kingdom, and so be an object of that holy displeasure which for ever is “the wrath to come.” For the soul continuing alienated from the life of God in Christ, is yet God’s prisoner—a prisoner of divine, unchangeable law. And a prisoner is one who is not allowed to go free until the law is satisfied as to his innocence, or until the penalty of his misdeeds has been paid. The way whereby we, as his prisoners, may go free is amply set before us in this portion of the Word, and the time may be nigh—even at our doors—when for us the Gospel will cease to be proclaimed any more. “But I will forewarn you whom ye shall fear. Fear him which, after he hath killed, hath power to cast into hell ; yea, I say unto you, Fear him.”
The second truth is, that the sinner is not only worthy of death, but that, in his moral nature, he is directly contrary to the nature of God.
It is true that he is a rational being, and continues to be so—accountable to the Creator. Sin does not deprive man of his rational faculties, but rather perverts him in the God-honouring use of them. Without enlarging on our want of will to take any spiritual interest in His ways and works and house and kingdom, and our depravity in general, we may rather here seek to know that while sin reigns in our mortal bodies we remain unhealthy in soul and body. The slave of sin is moribund, that is, full of death. The Psalmist recorded what is true, whether we are conscious of that or not. “There is no soundness in my flesh because of thine anger : neither is there any rest in my bones because of my sin. I am feeble and sore broken : I have roared by reason of the disquietness of my heart.”
Is not, then, a change necessary—one so great as to require new life, a new beginning, an entrance into a state of freedom which we do not, as “sold under sin,” enjoy, and in addition a nature like that of God? Otherwise we shall die in our sins—Christ-less, faith-less, hope-less, life-less.
2. So we proceed to inquire, in brief, what is implied in being born again.
To be born after a natural manner means that a being different from all others is brought into the world. New life, is there, and a new beginning. There is need of care and cherishing. So it is in a spiritual way. There is new life, and also—as the Lord tells Nicodemus—a mystery connected with the work of the Holy Spirit therein ; just as there is mystery in the blowing of the wind, which “goeth toward the south, and turneth about toward the north ; it whirleth about continually.” We do not see it nor grasp it, yet we do not deny its presence and power. The new life is real and spiritual, as its issue, in a life and conversation becoming the Gospel, duly shows. But there is something in addition to the work of the Spirit of Christ in the soul in regenerating and bringing into the kingdom of God, which must previously be, otherwise there is no salvation. This is that specific work of the Redeemer Himself which He alone could perform, for all the ransomed are indebted to Him for redemption. It is to this work which the Father gave the Son to do that attention may first of all be directed.
In considering what the Father gave the Son to do, and what the Son undertook to perform, we shall here confine our remarks to two essential things: first, that this Saviour is the Son of God; and secondly, that He is a Priest in order to His being a Prophet and King over the holy hill of Zion.
First: that He was, is, and ever shall be the Beloved Son of the Father, is a truth we do not render thanks to God for as we ought.
We have much reason of heart-grief to think how little we wonder and are amazed at the divine love, that it should please the Father to set apart the Son, the Ancient of Days, to be the Rock of Salvation as well as the Rock that begat all things that exist. If we gradually realise how little we at most know—even though there be reason to conclude that one may have saving knowledge—of this theme of praise and thanksgiving to the taught of the Lord, it is surely becoming to seek earnestly an increasing knowledge of the glorious object of salvation, of Him who is God, with whom there is fulness of grace and truth; the Saviour, born in the city of David, who is Christ the Lord, who “became what he was not, but never ceased to be what he eternally is.” May the eyes of our understanding be opened to view the abounding excellence of the Mediator of the better Covenant, for were we engrossed more in all that He is in Himself, and in what He became and accomplished in order that sinners might eventually be with Him where He is and behold His glory, how changed we all should be! What manner of persons we should then be in all holy conversation and godliness! May He grant us hearts to know Him, that we, too, may be permitted to sit at His feet and, in spirit and in truth, drink in that doctrine that drops as the rain and that speech that distils as the dew!
Secondly, let us observe that Christ, the Son of God and the Lord over all, blessed for evermore, became a Priest in order to His being a Prophet and King in a gracious way.
If God has a kingdom of grace, mercy, and peace, and the Son rules over this kingdom, wearing a crown that shall flourish for ever, it is because He, the Son of Man, was lifted up, “even as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness.” It is because He was “given” as a surety, a sacrificial victim, a Lamb to take away the sin of the world. Hence the work of the Lord Jesus in offering Himself without spot to God, comes previous in order to His being a King, to subdue and hold sway, and to His being a Prophet, to bless His people with bread and advance them for evermore.
There is much that merits attention in meditating on such a subject as the Priesthood of our Lord. Such an Epistle as that to the Hebrews is taken up avowedly with it. Meantime, let us keep in view some of its main features. Foremost among these is that our Lord was the called one and the consecrated of the Father, to do this foundation work of salvation. To that end He received the Holy Spirit not by measure. In the human nature the Son-servant acted on behalf of all for whom the Father, in His sovereign authority, delegated Him to act as surety, as near kinsman, as the heaven-chosen and heaven-qualified propitiation. This is a truth evidently set forth in the Word of Truth. Secret things belong unto the Most High, and while this is rightly so we are called upon to wait patiently on Him alone, and to use the means as means which are set before us in His Word for our salvation. Let us also bear in mind that Christ, the Priest of the Most High God, offered the sacrifice of sacrifices only once. His obedience began with His being made flesh, and embraced His pouring out His soul unto death in bearing sin away by enduring the penalty due thereto. It was an obedience unto death, and included His being buried and coming under the power of death for a time, to the end that He might abolish death and bring life and incorruptibility to light through the Gospel. By one offering He hath for ever perfected them that are sanctified, and has become the author of eternal salvation unto all who believe on Him. For if any soul receive not Christ as Saviour from the guilt, stain, and being of sin, it is not due to the lack of merit or worth in His infinitely meritorious work—He being a person of infinite dignity—but rather because that soul will not come unto Him to have life. He offers Himself—whole and undivided—to every sinner to whom the tidings of great joy come. May He enable us to receive Him, that we may be made whole!
Such, then, are some of the outstanding truths concerning this foundation work of the Son of God, who “shall bear the glory, and shall sit and rule upon his throne, and shall be a Priest upon his throne.”
What is it, then, to be born again, in view of the Lord of Glory being lifted up on Calvary’s Cross, and dying without the gate, in the place of the unclean? To be born again is to come as a guilty creature and morally unclean unto the Lord Jesus Christ, for salvation from death and for cleansing from all unrighteousness. It is to come in order to be made whole by Him, that we may love, serve, and obey Him who is the good Master, and able to save to the uttermost all who come unto God through Him. This coming is performed in the exercise of that faith whereby we appropriate to ourselves or receive Him as all our salvation and all our desire; whereby we rest upon Him wholly, finally, restfully, for salvation as He is offered to us in the revealed will. In believing in the Lord Jesus, a change occurs in a moment. The sinner, hitherto a prisoner of God, is now for ever free, and is accounted righteous with the righteousness of Christ. The sinner now stands upon Christ’s merits, and knows no other stand. The Judge will remember his sins and iniquities no more. May our entreaty be that many be washed in the fountain opened for sin and uncleanness, that many, in view of such a gracious provision, may be espoused unto such a Bridegroom; that this man and that man there may be born in Zion, and be enrolled among those who say, “I am the Lord’s,” and surname themselves by the name of Israel.
But not only is the soul in virtue of union to the Head of the Church brought into an estate of freedom, but he comes to be a partaker of the nature of the first-born among many brethren. Now Christ is the alone fountain of His people’s holiness as well as the source of their righteousness. He puts a new heart and a right spirit within them, gives them an heart of flesh. They become lovers of God and of moral purity and of His truth, and are taught by Him in many wonderful ways what sin is and what its dire effects are. They grow in the loathing of sin and its false pleasures as they grow in their knowledge of Himself, their physician and source of health. Thus they are endowed with new life and begin to live unto God. This life is holy life and deathless life. No person, no power, no thing opposed to God and His kingdom can reach such life to cause irretrievable harm. Death hath over this rich life no power. And just as there is progress in natural life and need of daily sustenance, so there is progress in the spiritual sphere and daily need of the bread of life and of an appetite for it, and of being guided and preserved in all our goings, and that by the keeper of Israel, who slumbers not nor sleeps. As an instance of such development and fruit-bearing unto holiness, the case of Nicodemus himself may be cited. He is found on the death of our Lord with Joseph of Arimathea wrapping the body of the Saviour in the bundle of myrrh and aloes and laying the body in the new tomb in the garden. He was in this honoured in being permitted to do what he could. His work was a labour of love and all like-minded will likewise be heirs of the kingdom that faileth not away.
There is a truth that might again be adverted to and emphasised before passing on to the closing part of our subject. It is that while a soul, willingly and consciously, believes savingly in Christ and becomes a debtor to the grace of God for salvation, yet it is God by His Spirit, all unconsciously to the soul and most mysteriously, who prepares the heart to receive Christ. The heart of man is in His hand “as the rivers of water; he turneth it whithersoever he will.” By His almighty gracious power He disposes the man to seek and empowers him to lay hold upon Christ. To receive the Son is to receive the Father, for “he that receiveth me receiveth him that sent me.”
No one of himself desires to forsake sin with its delusions and service. May we learn this and be diligent in the use of the appointed means, waiting for and expecting, for the Mediator’s sake, deliverance right early, if we have no reason to conclude that we possess it now. “I love them that love me; and those that seek me early shall find me.”
3. With these remarks on the unalterable change which takes effect when the Lord Jesus Christ reveals Himself to a sinful creature, and that person closes in with Him, saying, “I am thine: save thou me,” let us note the issue of this new creation.
“Verily, verily,” says our text, “Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. “A man is born again by the reception of Christ through the Spirit as his all-in-all. As Prophet, Christ lives for ever to show the soul the path of life which in His capacity as Priest He opened up when He obtained the new and living way into the holiest of all with His own blood which cleanses from all sin. And as King He leads sinners into that way and guides them therein, bringing them at last to the full enjoyment of the kingdom that cannot be moved. This part of the subject leads to a large sphere. A few chief truths regarding the kingdom may here be noted.
First, this kingdom of Christ is especially a gracious and immovable one.
God is in Christ “reconciling the world unto Himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them.” He rules over the chosen and causes all things here below to work for His glory and their good. It is also an immovable kingdom, and yet in certain aspects of it, transitory in as far as limited by the conditions that now exist. The world and the fashion thereof pass away, and when His kingdom in this world reaches the bounds which in God’s secret will be appointed to it, it will cease to exist in its present form. His children enjoy now the earnest of the abiding inheritance, but when He comes without sin unto salvation, the gospel will cease to be proclaimed and the sacramental bread and wine eaten and drunk in the courts of His house. Yet in its main features, this kingdom is immovable. For as “the Lord shall reign for evermore,” so also
“His kingdom hath none end at all;
It doth through ages all remain.”
Secondly, in this world there is no personal perfection, though souls are brought into the number and have a right to all the privileges of the sons of God.
We see in our day British prisoners freed from an enemy country, but, sad to say, coming home broken down in health. They are free from imprisonment, yet sorely require restoration to health. So with the soul in the day of mercy. It is freed as a bird out of the snare, yet it is to a great extent in ill-health spiritually, and has repeated occasion to lament, “O wretched man that I am!” but yet the renewed man can, in gratitude and good hope, add, “I thank God.” The believer is being restored to health, is dying unto sin, is learning of the greatness of the great salvation, and in the day of Christ, will be without spot or blemish or any such thing.
And in conclusion, let it be a word of encouragement to know that, whereas an earthly monarch cannot be expected to know more than a few of his subjects in a personal way, not to mention their needs and frailties and goodwill toward him, this King, eternal, immortal, invisible, having our nature in union with His glorious person—and the otherwise bridgeless gulf between creator and creature so spanned—knows each one of His own. “I know them, and they follow me.” Not one of them will be outside of the kingdom in the day when He makes up His jewels. He took knowledge of them helpless, godless, wilful, dead. He knows them when quickening them that they may call upon Him. He knows them in their frailty, despondency, and mourning their felt distance from the kingdom of God. He knows them in their repentance, love, and new obedience, for they are indebted to Himself for all heavenly growth. And in the great day when the good work begun among men in Eden will be brought to completion, He will confess them before the Father and before the holy angels, “Behold, I and the children whom the Lord hath given me.”
May we be among them in that day, and now obtain repentance toward God and faith toward the Lord Jesus Christ. “None perish that Him trust.” Amen.