THE NEW BIRTH by G. W. Draper

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Feb 10, 1904

THE NEW BIRTH.

By G. W. Draper

BY G. W. DRAPER.

"If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins." 1 John 1:9. This is a plain statement of the results which will follow a confession of sin. The language used implies that if we confess our sins God is in some way under obligation to forgive us. It implies that if we confess our sins, faithfulness on God's part requires Him to forgive us; that if we confess our sins, justice requires that God should forgive us.

Jesus has suffered death in our stead for our sins and thereby paid the ransom price for our redemption. The everlasting covenant between the Father and the Son was that if Jesus would give His life in their stead all who confess their sins and believe in Him should be forgiven. This covenant God will not break, and as His faithfulness and His justice are immeasurable and absolute, it is an absolute certainty that if we confess our sins He will forgive us. With how much confidence may we lay hold upon the assurance of forgiveness and salvation!

But a mere lip confession, repeated as a magic formula, in which the mind and heart do not join, is not what is referred to here. In a true confession of sin is involved the experience of the new birth. "Except a man be born again, he can not see the kingdom of God" (John 3:3) is an exact parallel to "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins." Many volumes have been written upon the new birth; but a simple consideration of the figure employed will teach us more than to read them all. We must believe that when the Saviour used a figure He used it accurately so far as it is applicable at all. A birth is a coming forth from that which envelops. It is, of course, in a sense the coming forth to enjoy a new life, but it is not the beginning of existence. A creature exists before it is born. So while it, after birth, has a larger and fuller degree of life and enjoys new powers, yet these are not necessarily involved in the idea of "birth." A creature may be born dead and consequently never enjoy any expansion of life and power, yet we, nevertheless, truly speak of it as having been "born."

To be "born," or to be "born again," is for a creature to come forth from that which has previously enveloped it. That is all that is necessarily implied in the idea of "birth."

As the purpose of the new birth, as Christ set forth to Nicodemus, is entrance to the kingdom of God, we may inquire what it is in which man is enveloped which prevents him from "seeing the kingdom of God." Many would reply at once that it is sin, and it is this mistake which keeps many from the kingdom. Sin, when treated as God invites us to treat it, and disposed of by confession, is no barrier to the kingdom. Jesus, by His death, disposed once for all of the question of sin, and God no longer imputes men's acknowledged trespasses unto them. Despairing soul, look up! Confess your sins and they are gone forever.

But there is something in which all men are enveloped by nature which keeps them from confessing their sins, and bars them relentlessly from the kingdom of God. It is self-righteousness. As long as one is enveloped in self-righteousness he can never make a heartfelt acknowledgment of sin. As long as he, in his heart, believes he is good, he can not, except merely with his lips, confess that he is evil.

From this envelopment he must come forth through the energy of the Spirit of God to see that he is by nature vile and unclean. Having thus been "born of the Spirit," he will make heartfelt confession of sin, and God will then, in His faithfulness and justice, forgive and cleanse from all unrighteousness.

When we speak of self-righteousness the mind naturally turns to the Pharisee, because that quality and that character have been so long associated. To bring the lesson down to modern times, where self-righteousness is referred to, we usually think of some person who is very rigid in the performance of recognized duties and nearly always a professor of religion. But while there are too many of this class who "think in themselves that they are righteous and despise others," it would be a serious mistake to suppose that self-righteousness is confined chiefly to those who profess to be Christians. It is the common inheritance of humanity. Man, whatever his rank, profession, or condition, is by nature a self-righteous creature. When overtaken in wrong-doing, he will advance every possible excuse, reasonable or unreasonable, to show that he is not to blame, that others forced or led him into evil-doing, that his intentions were good, and that the peculiar circumstances in which he was placed were the cause of his wrong-doing and in some measure justified or extenuated his acts.

Adam traced the cause of his sin to the woman, and indirectly to God Himself; the woman laid the chief guilt upon the serpent. Aaron, when rebuked for his grievous sin in leading the children of Israel in their idolatry, placed the blame all on them, saying, "Thou knowest the people, that they are set on mischief." Ex. 32:22. And Saul, also, after violating the express command of God, excused his act by saying that he "feared the people," and thus was virtually compelled to do as he had done. 1 Samuel 15.

This is the nature of all mankind except those who have been "born again," who have had their rags of self-righteousness stripped from them by the conviction of the Spirit of God. The thief, the drunkard, the covetous and avaricious, the brawler and the reveler, one and all, will find justifying circumstances for their course of life, and while admitting that people may have reason to take exception to their conduct, yet maintain that they are at heart good, and mean to do right. Such is the deceptiveness of self-righteousness.

Reader, let the solemn words of the divine Teacher, "Ye must be born again," admonish you that all your claims to goodness or good intentions are in vain. Thrust from you as your deadliest enemy all trust in anything that you are, and, yielding to the influence of the Spirit of God, confess your sins, and God is faithful and just to forgive you your sins, and to cleanse you from all unrighteousness.