THE SPIRIT IN THE NEW BIRTH.
It was a startling announcement which Jesus made to “the ruler of the Jews,” “Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born anew [“from above,” margin], he can not see the kingdom of God.” John 3:3, R. V. It ought not to have been startling. “The teacher of Israel” (verse 10) ought to have known this essential truth of salvation, but his spiritual vision was not only blinded by his natural lusts, ambitions, aims, but by centuries of Pharisaic tradition. “The teacher of Israel” ought to have known the origin of Israel. This origin was not in the flesh; it was not in Jacob the supplanter, endeavoring to work out by his own power and craftiness his ambitions and desires, and so by himself inherit the promises of God. Jacob was not Israel. Jacob became Israel by the power of God, by being born again. When the Angel of God’s presence blessed him on that eventful morning by the Ford of Jabbok, He changed the man. He was henceforth no longer the crafty Jacob, “but Israel; for thou hast striven with God and with men, and hast prevailed.” Gen. 32:28. He was no longer a scheming, dishonest “supplanter,” but a prince of God, a prevailer over the flesh and sin. Jacob then saw and knew God’s kingdom. He said, “I have seen God face to face, and my life is preserved.” Therefore he called the name of the place Peniel, “the face of God.” That is what God came for, to preserve his life. He could not give the Jacob a place in His kingdom and inheritance; and outside of that, battling with Esau, Jacob was sure to die. So when Jacob came to that place where he could see the nothingness of the flesh, and so yield it to God, counting the blessing of God more than aught else, God by His Spirit changed the Jacob to the Israel, the slave to the prince. Jacob was born again, and his name was Israel. And forever after God’s remnant, those who compose the true Israel, must, to be numbered there, be born again, or born from above. The power that accomplishes that is the Spirit. The natural man can not understand its process. He does not even know all the secrets of the birth of the natural child. It was not the process which Christ taught. He did not even seek to teach it. Man could not understand it, if He had taught it. Man can not of himself understand the various forces which he calls cohesion, adhesion, gravitation, etc. The wisest have divided in their opinions respecting these forces; how, then, could man understand that infinite power which could make of him another whose thoughts, purposes, motives, principles, were in almost every respect opposite. Jesus presented the necessity of the great fact. The change must take place; the earthly become heavenly. Man must be born from above. To enter the kingdom of God he must be a child of God, not materially merely, but spiritually a child, in character a child. This is the essential. This being true, the material change follows as truly as plant the seed, as leaf the bud, as fruit the flower. Therefore when the old Pharisee brought forth his objection of unbelief, “How can a man be born when he is old?” Jesus did not seek to tell him. It could not be done. The great Teacher more emphatically states the absolute necessity of the great fact, “Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he can not enter into the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.” The nature must be changed. “Marvel not,” wonder not as to the how; accept the fact. The earthly inhabit the earth. To see God, to be of His kingdom, one must possess its nature. Such is the teaching of our Lord. The ways of the infinite God, as Nicodemus recognized, were above man. “The Spirit where He willeth doth blow, and His voice thou dost hear, but thou hast not known whence He cometh, and whither he goeth; thus [in his birth, his new life] is every one that is born of the Spirit.” John 3:8 (Young’s translation). Still doubting, Nicodemus asks, “How?” Jesus replied with that which must have been a heart-probe: “Art thou the teacher of Israel, and understandest not these things? Verily, verily, I say unto thee, We speak that we do know, and bear witness of that we have seen.” Verses 10, 11. If Nicodemus had really known God’s power, he would not have questioned the fact of the new birth. If he had known the power of the great, overflowing life of God in his own life, he would have understood what was meant by being born from above, born of the Spirit. Reader, we can not fathom God’s secret power; it is like a great deep. Let us accept the great fact. We know our sore need; let us accept of His riches. Let us open the heart to the streams of life. Let the power of God in to control, to recreate. Even as the sunlight takes of the malodorous slime of the stagnant pool and transmutes it into the fragrant, pure white lily, so will the Spirit of God take poor carnal man and make him, to the praise of the glory of God’s grace, an heir of the everlasting kingdom. And the power that so transmutes will keep, if it is given control. Do not question over the how of what you can not know, save by experience; let the mighty Alchemist transmute the great fact of His salvation into living truth in your life and character.