p. 629 | THE NEW BIRTH by J. H. Durland

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Aug 13, 1894

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 20, No. 40.

THE NEW BIRTH.

By J. H. Durland

(Concluded.)

It is very clear to most minds that a man has no righteousness in himself before his justification. Yet there are some who confess their sins, and then act as though they thought they were the ones to do all the good after their past sins were forgiven. When they fail, they take it as an evidence that they were not forgiven, and fall back into darkness. They think God’s forgiveness depended on their future obedience, and as they have failed, he must have taken back his forgiveness. But does God’s forgiveness depend on our future obedience? God knows our future life as well as he knows our present or past life. If he showed us mercy for any foreseen works of ours, because he knew we would repent, believe the gospel, and walk worthy of it, mercy would be turned into justice and would lose both its name and its nature. Mercy is that perfection in God which disposes him to treat an offender better than he deserves; and the moment God shows us mercy because we do good, we are saved by our works. If most Christians would look over their lives since they gave themselves to the Lord, to see how much good they have done, they would be led to say, with Jacob, “Few and evil have the days of the years of my life been.”

Jesus answered the young man that came to him and called him good master, by saying, “There is none good but one, that is, God.” If God alone is good, what does man make himself to be when he thinks he is good, or has any goodness?—Equal with God. We will do well to take heed to ourselves lest we fall under the condemnation of the text that we are so free to apply to the Papacy. See 2 Thess. 2:4. But God alone is good, and it is very plain that if man ever has any righteousness either before or after his conversion, it must come from outside of himself. In other words, he must become another man. He must have a life entirely different from his natural fleshly life. This is what some express themselves as desiring. We frequently hear men and women say they are going to live a different life. But how do they begin?—They start in with the same old life of sin and weakness, and in a short time they fail. Can we expect any better results? If a man gets into debt by a lack of business tact, and some kind friend pays up all his

back debts, and you hear him say, I am going to do differently from now on, while he commences with no better plans or knowledge than before, do you expect that he will succeed any better than in his last experience? You would say, He will soon need his friend’s assistance again. Is that not the way many professed Christians are living? They run on their own resources until they are bankrupt, then come to the Lord for justification, that they may run up another bill, for which they expect to ask forgiveness.

In order for a man to live a different life from what he has been living, he must have a different life to start with. As has already been said, God alone is good. His life is goodness itself. Every act of his life is good. This cannot be said of man. One’s life is just what his ways are. “Blessed are the undefiled in the way, who walk in the law of the Lord. Blessed are they that keep his testimonies, and that seek him with the whole heart. They also do no iniquity; they walk in his ways.” Ps. 119:1–3. This is God’s life. If man walks in that way, he will have a life like God; but man cannot live God’s life. Only God can do that. Then can man be righteous?—Yes. How?—The life of God must be manifested in him, and God himself must live the life. “I am crucified with Christ; nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.” Gal. 2:20. This can only be experienced by being born again.

The Change Wrought.

Nicodemus asked Jesus, “How can a man be born when he is old?” He desired every step so explained that it would have become a mechanical work. There are many of that same inquiring family to-day, who hesitate to accept the word of God because they cannot explain all its workings. The answer given at that time is as applicable now as it was then: “The wind bloweth where it listeth [wills, desires], and thou hearest the sound thereof, but cannot tell whence [or of what place, source, author, cause, or manner], it cometh, and whither [to what place] it goeth; so [in this manner, on this wise] is everyone that is born of the Spirit.” John 3:8. Men do not question about whether the wind blows or not because they cannot explain from whence it started or whither it will go. They may look up and see the clouds moving in one direction and the wind coming from another, and not be able to give any explanation why it is so, yet they are not disposed to dispute the fact that the wind blows. In this manner man should accept the work of the Spirit of God in the transformation of his life. There are things connected with this change, as there are in all God’s works, that cannot be explained by means of knowledge, and as God has not revealed all his workings, we can safely take what he has given, and be assured of the fact.

“But as many as received him, to them gave he power 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 1:12, 13. It is evident that the new birth can never take place in an unbeliever. But “faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.” Rom. 10:17. It does not come by the will of man, but by his faith. But it does come by the will of God, which

is found in his word. But here God and man meet. God wills in his word that sinful man shall be clean, and a temple for his own self alone; man believes this word, and there is power in it to do the work. “Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth forever.” 1 Peter 1:23. God’s word contains life, and that is just what the sinner needs. It contains power, and that is just what man has not, but needs. When Jesus went into the synagogue, he met the man with the withered hand. This man might use all the will power he had to move that arm, but to no purpose. He might long to stretch it forth, but he had no power to do so. Why?—Because there was no life in it. Had he taken the other hand and raised the lifeless member up, it would have fallen again as soon as the support was taken away. When Jesus said, “Stretch forth thine hand,” and the man believed it, he received power to have a whole arm. Just so it is with the sinner that comes to Jesus for the healing of his sins. Not only was the man’s arm restored to its original size and strength, but the word spoken put life into it.

Some will say, “I could have more faith in the word if Jesus was here personally and would say in an audible tone, ‘Thy sins be forgiven thee,’ but the word I read was spoken so long ago that my faith cannot take hold of it to appropriate it to myself.” Let us consider this point for a moment. In Gen. 1:11 we read, “And God said, Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself, upon the earth; and it was so.” Has that word yet failed? Why do you not refuse to put the flower seed in the ground, or plant the corn, or sow the wheat, until God shall again speak to your seed that it shall again bring forth? You know that in every seed there is a germ of life that contains the power of God, ready to spring forth as soon as connected with God’s air, earth, rain, and sunshine. You are so sure of it that you do not stop to open every kernel of wheat to see if the life is there. Were you to be as full of doubt in regard to your seeds as you are your conversion, you would not put them in the ground at all until you had opened every grain, but the working of your unbelief would destroy the life that was there.

The only way to strip God’s word of power is to doubt it. The trolly wire of an electric car line may be powerfully charged with electricity, but the car on the track will not move if the motor man waits until he can see the power before connecting his motor with the wire. So God wants us to stop looking for power, and take hold of his word, that created and upholds the world. “Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God.” 1 John 5:1. This is a very simple statement, and yet one that contains the whole matter. Believing the Lord—much more than giving an assent to the word of the Lord. It is to accept God’s word as the most certain thing on earth. And why?—Because everything in the universe is upheld by the word of his power. See Heb. 1:3. It is to rest the whole soul upon it, when everything seems contrary to it. It is like asking a man to step out on nothing. All feelings must be surrendered, and the word, and the word alone, be accepted. “Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness.” Rom. 4:3.

We will carry this a little further. We are born by believing. 1 John 5:1. We are born by the word. 1 Peter 1:23. We are born by the Spirit. John 3:5. “It is the Spirit that quickeneth; . . . the words I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.” John 6:63. What kind of life?—“Thou hast the words of eternal life.” Verse 68. “He that heareth My word, and believeth on Him that sent Me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation.” John 5:24. “There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.” Rom. 8:1. These and other texts show the power of the word of God to the believer.

Now let us consider its practical workings. 1. The sinner is convicted of his sins by the word and the Spirit of God. 2. He sees his condition, and loathes it, and deplores it. The Spirit of the Lord, through the gospel, points him to the Saviour. 3. The sinner turns, and, by repentance, acknowledges that there is no good thing in him. He hears the words: “Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.” “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins.” He confesses, and believes they are all forgiven. He rests upon the word that his past sins are removed, and that he is counted as though he had been righteous all his life. The very thought that he stands in the sight of God as though he never had sinned, brings joy and peace to the heart. 4. God’s word, the incorruptible seed, is in his mind and heart, and he is a new creature. He does not now think of the good works he is to perform, but praises the Lord that he is surrendered to his service, and expects God, who alone is good, to work in him. His part of the work is to yield, as the clay in the hands of the potter, for God to mould his life. A new life permeates every part of the being, and love fills the heart. It is a new heart, because there are new issues. The things he formerly loved he now hates, and the things he once hated he now loves. He realizes that only the power that can make a world can do what has been done in him. All things are become new. He has new conceptions of God’s word, which he now loves to feed upon. The conversation is about the One who is keeping him moment by moment with the power that upholds the world. Every day is a new day to the newborn soul. He can say, “Christ liveth in me.” Such a soul will be constantly telling the people what the Lord has done for him.

Will he not have severe temptations?—Ah, yes, he expects them, for the word which upholds him tells him that they which “will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution.” This does not frighten him, for the same word that gave him his new life says, “Ye are of God, little children, and have overcome them; because greater is He that is in you, than he that is in the world.” He rests his whole weight upon that promise, and it works righteousness in him.

Dear reader, may the Lord help you to enter into this life, if you have not yet done so. If you have experienced the change of heart that has made you his child, trust him to work in you his own righteousness.