p. 4 | THE NEW BIRTH by J. H. Durland

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Aug 6, 1894

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 20, No. 39.

THE NEW BIRTH.

By J. H. Durland

BY ELDER J. H. DURLAND.

IN the plan of salvation through Jesus Christ God is ever held before us as a being of love. “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only-begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” John 3:16. He is not willing that any should perish. His wish is that all should live eternally. Satan, by his deceptions, not only insnared our first parents, but has been successful in bringing the human family into bondage. “For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God.” Rom. 3:23. The great deceiver desires to keep all in his bonds, that he may at last cast them down to destruction, thus defeating the purpose of God. While God does not save man against his will, yet he has provided everything that can be provided to show his mighty power to those who will believe. “Behold what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called children of God; and such we are.” 1 John 3:1, Revised Version. But when we speak of being children, the question arises, How can we, servants of Satan, become children of God?

We enter life in this world by being born. Before this act of nature we were to ourselves as though we were not. The only way ordained by God for human beings to come into the conscious possession of earthly life is by a birth. None since Adam ever came into an earthly life in any other way than that of being born. To everyone thus born into this world, his birth is, to him, the beginning of his existence.

Every individual that enters the life in

Christ, and is called his child, must experience a birth. The life that is produced thereby is just as real as is the life following the natural birth. This birth of which we speak is commonly known as the new birth, and, as expressed in the Scriptures, is from above: “That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.” John 3:6.

The Father, the Son, and the Spirit are the three great agencies in creation and redemption, and are all represented as from above. The flesh is used to represent the outward form of human nature, and its sinful condition. The natural birth, which is of the flesh, brings with it the inherent weakness of the parents, which is the door through which Satan enters to bind the soul, that its life may be under his control.

The new birth is not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. “Born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth forever.” 1 Peter 1:23. Before this the individual was as one dead, having no more consciousness and experience of spiritual life than an unborn infant of the life of its parents. He was “dead in trespasses and sins.”

A Necessity.

The corruption of human nature demands just such a change as the new birth will produce. Man’s natural birth, whatever his station in life, brings no good thing with it. “That which is born of the flesh is flesh.” But what is in the flesh? “I know that in me (that is, in my flesh), dwelleth no good thing.” Rom. 7:18. “They that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit. For the mind of the flesh is death; but the mind of the Spirit is life and peace; because the mind of the flesh is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can it be.” Rom. 8:5-7, Revised Version. There is no power in the flesh to produce life, for there is no life in it. It cannot give what it does not possess, and it contains no good thing. “Wherein aforetime ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the Spirit that now worketh in the sons of disobedience; among whom we also once lived in the lusts of our flesh, doing the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest.” Eph. 2:2, 3, Revised Version.

There is no power over death in the life of the natural man, for his life is only death itself. Sin is natural to his heart. “From within, out of the heart of man, evil thoughts proceed, fornications, thefts, murders, adulteries, covetings, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, railing, pride, foolishness; all these evil things proceed from within, and defile the man.” Mark 7:21-23, Revised Version. But the heart is represented as the center of life. “Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life.” Prov. 4:23. The issues of life are from the heart, and the unregenerate heart is filled with sin, which is death, therefore the very life of man is so poisoned that it is only a living death. It cannot be wondered that the convicted and penitent soul should cry, “O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from this body of this death?” Rom. 7:24, margin. This being man’s condition, he is certainly in need of help which he himself does not possess.

His heart being evil, and thoroughly leavened with death, every pulsation is only one more stroke towards the destruction that awaits him.

“A good man out of the good treasure of the heart bringeth forth good things; and an evil man out of the evil treasure bringeth forth evil things.” Matt. 12:35. Then a man that has only evil in his heart cannot bring forth good things. But life is one of the good things that God desires man to have. John 3:16. The fleshly mind cannot receive it, for it is enmity toward God. It is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. The law of God is spiritual (Rom. 7:12), and can only be written in a spiritual mind and heart. Since man is naturally evil, and his heart and mind bring forth only evil, there must be an entire transformation of character before he is fit to dwell with God, or to have Christ dwell with him. To such Jesus speaks, as he spoke to Nicodemus: “Except a man be born again [margin, ‘from above’] he cannot see the kingdom of God.” John 3:3. This change does not come from man, nor by man. It is from God. “Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots? then may ye also do good, that are accustomed to do evil.” Jer. 13:23. Who ever heard of a black man changing the color of his skin? Such a thing would be called a miracle; and such it would be, for it is contrary to all natural law. Until we hear of such a circumstance, we need not expect to hear of a sinner changing his life. It requires a power that can make a dead man live to perform this change. As nothing of which we can form conception can take the place of a birth as a way into physical life, so nothing within the whole sphere of spiritual things can take the place of the new birth, as a door of entrance into the life of grace. As we became partakers of Adam’s nature, and death reigned in us (Rom. 5:12, 17), so we must become partakers of the divine nature (2 Peter 1:4), that the life of Christ may reign in us.

Scripture Figures.

The Scriptures were given to man for instruction, for profit, that he may be wise unto salvation. See 2 Tim. 3:17. The Lord does not want us to put our trust in man’s wisdom or learning for our salvation. The gospel is the “power of God unto salvation.” Rom. 1:15. So the Lord makes the gospel so simple that man can understand if he will but read. We say that a teacher is an excellent instructor who simplifies his instruction by the use of familiar terms, already understood by the student. This is the way the Lord has given his instruction to man. It is his will that all should be saved, and become partakers of eternal life. To this end he uses different expressions to show how man may enter this spiritual life. In one place we read, “Except a man be born again;” in another, “Except ye be converted, and become as little children;” while in another, “Neither circumcision availeth anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new creature.” All these expressions refer to the change that is necessary in order to become Christ’s. In other places we read: “A new heart also will I give you;” “Being justified by faith we have peace with God;” he saved us by “the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost.” Yet in another place the Scriptures saith: “Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean

thing; and I will receive you, and will be a father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty.” All these scriptures lead man in the same direction, i. e., from sin to righteousness. Some of them speak more particularly of man’s part, while others speak of what God does.

The term “conversion” means, literally, “a turning one’s self around, or towards; a turning about.” But man has no power in himself to turn round. He must be moved by the Spirit of God. He can will to turn from sin, but without the power of God he will never accomplish what he wills. To justify is to set forth as righteous, to free a man from his guilt, which stands in his way of being right. Man may will to turn from his sinful life, but that alone does not change his past life. Had he the power to do right when he desires to turn from sin, he could not change his past record. So we see man needs something more than to turn. He needs his past life declared what it has not been, viz., righteous. Who can do this? Not the sinner. “To him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness.” Rom. 4:5. Man’s heart is represented as a fountain of evil. It is not partly good and partly evil. This cannot be. A fountain cannot send forth both bitter and sweet water at the same time. As soon as the bitter water begins to flow, the whole stream becomes bitter. You will have no success cleansing the stream as long as the bitter water is mixing with the sweet. The fountain head must be changed. This is what God wants to do for us. He wants to create within us a new heart, the issues of which will be a fountain of living water.

“If any man be in Christ, let him be a new creature.” 2 Cor. 5:17, margin. Here is another expression used that represents God’s power to the sinner who will turn to him. The word “regeneration” is closely connected with the new creation, for it means, literally, to “create back again.” This would be to put man back again where he was when he was first created. When we speak of the earth being renewed, we understand that the sin in it will be destroyed, and the curse removed from it. So, when man is regenerated, sin must be moved from him, and he be innocent before his Maker.

The Saviour said to Nicodemus, “Except a man be born from above, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” John 3:3, margin. “Born again” is an expression whose literal meaning is “to bear again; a new beginning of personal life.” It means all that conversion and justification can mean, and possibly more than either of them alone. Man converts when he turns to God. He is justified when God declares him righteous. But justification in itself can only deal with past sins. “Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus; whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remissions of sins that are past.” Rom. 3:24, 25. The sinner needs to turn from more than the sins of the past. He needs more than righteousness imputed for past sins. He needs a new life.

Our Righteousness.

Righteousness is the doing, or being, what is just and right. The least deviation from this is unrighteousness, which is sin. But the wages of sin is death; so every unrighteous

act in a man’s life is that much death. A man’s life, like the fountain, is made impure by one unrighteous act. He may think he has some good in his life because he can bring to mind some good things he has done. So a man may say there is good water in his well that has a vein of pure water flowing into it. But if there is another smaller vein of brackish water flowing into it at the same time, it will be difficult for him to prove that his well contains good water by asking his friend to taste and see. So it is with our righteousness. If it be only a small portion of unrighteousness that is there, we may be assured that the whole fountain is contaminated. “We are all become as one that is unclean, and all our righteousnesses are as a polluted garment.” Isa. 64:6, Revised Version.

If our past life has been all unrighteous—“there is none that doeth good, no, not one”—what effect will justification have on our future life? If all our past unrighteous life is blotted out, are we in ourselves any better able to live a better life in the future than we were before? Does it put any goodness into us to pronounce a past sinful life righteous? Is it not here that many honest souls are stranded on the shoals of legalism? While trying to steer clear of the rocks of antimonianism on one side, some have run their bark into the mire of legalism on the other. If we would keep our eyes off from both these errors, and turn them toward the Polar Star, Christ Jesus, we might have much more joy. It is very difficult to distinguish which has the least joy, the soul that is indifferent to all the claims of God’s law, and expecting salvation while living in sin, or he who is constantly trying to be good, and sinning and confessing all the time with his efforts to be righteous.

(Concluded next week.)