Word of Salvation – Vol.23 No.50 – September 1977
The New Birth
Sermon by Rev. G. I. Williamson, B.D. on John 3:1-12
Scripture Reading: John 3:1-21
Psalter Hymnal: 299:1-3; 95:1-3; 118:1,2; 118:4,6
One of the greatest preachers in history was George Whitefield. And one of the things that Whitefield loved to preach was the doctrine of regeneration. He often preached on the text: ‘Ye must be born again..!’ One day someone asked him this question. ‘Why do you preach so much on the new birth?’ Well, said Whitefield, it is because you must be born again. It is because you cannot be saved without regeneration. And I would like to say that this is also my reason for devoting a second sermon in this series to the doctrine of irresistible grace. I want every one of you to realize that you too must have this one indispensable thing. I want you to search your own heart, and your own experience, to see whether or not you have been born again!
And I do not think that I am performing a needless service as I do so. The Bible tells me that there is no truth in all the world that is so hard for people to grasp as this one. For if there is anything that is absolutely contrary to all human ideas, this is it. That is why you can even find people of high standing in the Church, who do not have the faintest idea of what it is all about. Take Nicodemus, for example. Now there was a man who belonged to the strictest sect of his day. The Bible also tells us that he was a “ruler” in that religion. We would call such a man an elder in the Church. And for all we know he might have been a teaching elder. Yet here he was, completely ignorant of the most important truth about all true religious experience. When Jesus explained to him that regeneration was necessary for salvation – and when Jesus told him what regeneration was – he didn’t understand the first thing about it. “Art thou a Master of Israel, and knowest not these things?” said Jesus.
One of the great leaders of the Free Church of Scotland was a man by the name of Thomas Chalmers. But when he first began his ministry he wasn’t even aware that there was such a thing as the new birth. Some of the simple little people in the Church knew it, but this great man ― with all his learning and eloquence ― did not know it. You see, God is able to hide these things from the wise and prudent, and he is able to reveal them unto babes. But then one day Chalmers came to realize that he hadn’t really been preaching the gospel at all. In fact, he hadn’t even known what the gospel was He realized that some of his own simple and unlearned people knew far more about the things of God than he did himself. No wonder he went on to become the instrument of God in leading that great revival, and then the separation that resulted in the Free Church. For now he could say, as Jesus did to Nicodemus, “Verily, verily, I say unto you, we speak the things that we know, and testify the things we have seen.”
Children sometimes ask their parents what it is like to fall in love. But if there is one thing that is just too great for words, this is it. You have to experience it to really understand it. You have to have it before you know what it is. And this is even more so in the case of regeneration. For regeneration is the mighty miracle of God’s grace. In fact, the only thing I know of that is really comparable to it, is another miracle. And that is why I am going to try to tell you about the new birth by using as my illustrations some of the miracles of our Lord.
(1) The first thing I can tell you about regeneration, then, is that it always comes first in true religious experience. What I mean is that a man has to be born again before he can enter the Kingdom. You notice how Jesus emphasized this point in his talk with Nicodemus. “Verily, verily, I say unto thee, except a man be born again, he cannot see…!” said Jesus. “Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God”.
The question that people always ask when they begin to think about being saved is this: what must I do. And there is an answer to that question. Jesus says that a man must repent of his sins, and believe in him as his saviour. But before a man can do this before he can repent and believe he first has to be the sort of person who is willing to repent and believe. He has to be something before he can do something. And that is why the first thing is the new birth. For it is only when a man is first born again, that he can then see ― or in other words understand ― and enter ― or in other words, repent and believe.
Now you can see this over and over again in the great miracles of our Lord. We always start first with people who are completely unable. You start with a blind man, who is unable to see; or a deaf man, who is unable to hear; or with a dead man, who is unable to do anything at all. Then along comes Jesus and tells them to do the impossible. He tells the blind man to look. He tells the deaf man to hear. And he commands the dead man to rise. Ah, yes, but that is not all is it? No, for he not only tells them what to do, he also gives them the power to do it. He first gives the blind man his sight, and then he is able to see. He gives the deaf man his hearing, and then he is able to hear. And he gives the dead man life, and then he is able to rise again from the dead.
You may think that this is a very insignificant point. And if you think so, I can assure you that you will have a great many people on your side. For nothing is more common in these days in which we live than to speak of regeneration as if it were something that we could bring about of ourselves. I was just reading a book this week by a famous Evangelist that puts the matter exactly this way. “The whole matter of receiving new life” he says “is like a coin. A coin has head and tail. The receiving of new life has a divine side and a human side. And then he goes on to tell us that the human side is first. First you repent and believe. And then when we have done our part, God regenerates our souls. Well, that certainly sounds attractive doesn’t it. We all like to think that we have the power to do ‘our part’ first. But the fact of the matter is that no man ever has and no man ever will do his part first. For unless, and until, a man is born again, he cannot even see what it is that he must do, and he cannot possibly do what he cannot even understand. So the first point I want you to keep firmly in mind is that regeneration is always first.
(2) The second thing I want you to realize is that we are entirely passive in the miracle of regeneration. And while this is closely related to what we have already said, it is important to spend a moment or two on this point.
If you notice some of the translations of this passage of scripture, you will notice that many of the versions give us another meaning. Instead of saying that man is born again, they say that he is born from above. And I don’t think there is any doubt about the fact that this is closer to the original. After all, the new birth is from above. That is why Jesus went on to say, “That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.” That which has its source in sinful man cannot possibly have anything in common with that which has its source in the Holy Spirit of God. The new birth cannot be partly the result of what sinful man does, and partly the result of what the Holy Spirit of God does. The new birth is not something that we do. It is rather something that we become. It is something that God does to make us what we were not.
And here again we are helped when we think of the miracles of Jesus. Take as an example the man who was blind from birth. We read all about it in the ninth chapter of John. As he “passed by,” says the scripture, “he saw a man which was blind from his birth.” And when the disciples asked him whose fault it was that this man was blind, Jesus said that it was not the fault of his parents, nor the fault of the man himself. But it was appointed by the will of God “that the works of God should be made manifest in him.” Now notice that. It was that the work of God – not the work of man – might be displayed in him. So we go on to read how Jesus healed him of his blindness that day. And the interesting thing about the miracle is that no one was more surprised by it all than the very blind man himself. He was not seeking such a miracle. He was not expecting such a miracle. He did not even know who it was who had healed him. “Whether he be a sinner or not,” he said to the Pharisees, “I know not: one thing I know, that, whereas I was blind, now I see…. he hath opened my eyes.”
Well, there you have a perfect picture of what happens in regeneration. It does not come as a result of human effort. It often comes to those who have not been seeking it. At first they do not even realize who has done this wondrous thing. But they do know one thing. They do know that whereas they once were blind, now they can see. And they do know that they themselves had nothing to do with the miracle One minister describes his experience: “I had not been seeking the Lord. To the contrary. I had been seeking to get away from the Lord. I did not understand the gospel. And I did not want to understand the gospel. And then one day a great miracle took place. God did not ask me if I wanted that miracle. He did not tell me he was going to work that miracle. But one thing I know and one thing I have always known from that day to this whereas I once was blind, now I can see. I can see the wonder and glory and beauty of the gospel of Christ.”
Not everyone has to experience this in the same way. In fact, it is absolutely certain that this is not the case. If you study the miracles of Jesus you will notice that each miracle is different from all the rest. Sometimes it was all done in an instant. Sometimes it was not done all in one instant, but in various stages as it were. Sometimes the miracle involved a little child. Sometimes it involved a person of full maturity. Each case is a little different, and so it is with God’s regenerating grace. But that does not change the fact that every one of these miracles was the same in one important respect. It was the Lord alone who worked the miracle, and man was entirely passive in every single case.
(3) The third thing I want you to notice is that regeneration is a wonderfully mysterious thing. For to the question of Nicodemus, “how can these things be?” there is only one answer. “The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit.” Just as no man can possibly explain how the wind works, so no one can explain either how the Spirit regenerates the soul of sinful man.
The mid-western states of the U.S.A. experience some mighty tornadoes from time to time. There once was a picture taken of a tree with a piece of straw that had been driven right through the middle. So there was a wind so powerful that it could drive a frail straw right through that tree, when a bullet would stop in the middle. And yet that wind was somehow so gentle that the straw wasn’t even damaged in any way! Now that is an amazing thing. No man can possibly explain it. But isn’t that the way it is with the wonderful work of the Spirit Think of the mighty power it must take to make a man a new creature. And yet that work can take place without our feeling a thing! I want to stress this point because here is where many people go wrong. They think of regeneration as if it were some kind of feeling. But ‘verily, verily, I say unto you, regeneration is not a feeling.’ Regeneration is something that leads to feeling. It is something that brings about feeling. But regeneration itself is not something we can feel.
And here again we see a perfect illustration in the miracles. When Jesus brought Lazarus back to life, Lazarus didn’t feel a thing. Lazarus couldn’t feel anything until he already had life. A dead man cannot feel anything. And a living man is no longer dead. As soon as a man is alive again from the dead, the miracle has already taken place. When people talk about what they felt, or what they consciously experienced, they are talking about conversion which follows regeneration. They are talking about what it felt like to repent, and to believe, and to heed the call of the gospel. But regeneration itself always precedes these things. This is something you always notice when you read what people say about their own religious experience. Read for yourself about the wonderful conversion of Augustine, when he heard the voice of a child saying, ‘take, and read, take and read, take and read.’ Or read of the time when Spurgeon went into the little Methodist chapel on a snowy winter day, to hear the gospel for the first time with true faith in his heart. You will always read of the experience in terms of repentance and faith. But no one has ever been able to describe the miracle that first took place. For this is one of the mysteries that God has reserved unto himself.
(4) The fourth thing that we can say about this wonder is that the Holy Spirit is completely sovereign in this thing. Just as the wind blows where it will, so the Spirit works when, and where, and how He will. And this again is illustrated in many of the miracles of Christ.
Perhaps you remember the healing of the man at the pool of Bethesda. “In these,” says John, “lay a great multitude of impotent folk, of blind, halt, withered, waiting for the moving of the water.” In other words, there were many who had exactly the same need. But then what do we read. “And a certain man was there.” And “when Jesus saw him……” he said “rise, take up thy bed, and walk.” Now why was it this certain man that Jesus healed? Why didn’t he heal the others as well? Why didn’t he heal someone else rather than this particular man? People sometimes answer that question or try to answer that question by saying that this man had faith, while the other people didn’t. But that is not what the Bible says. And the interesting thing is that there were other times when Jesus did heal everyone who had need. In Matthew’s gospel we read that “they brought unto him many that were possessed with devils: and he cast out the spirits with his word, and healed all that were sick ” And again it doesn’t say anything about the faith of these people. We only read that “the multitude wondered, when they saw the dumb to speak, the maimed to be whole, the lame to walk, and the blind to see.” So the idea that the miracles of Jesus were only a divine response to human faith is simply not according to the Bible. And that leaves us only one explanation for the difference. Jesus could heal one man, and he could heal a multitude. It was entirely up to him which of the two it would be.
Let us suppose for sake of argument that you are not regenerated. Now suppose you had it in your mind that you have it within your power to go on that way for the rest of your life. Strange as it may seem, there are people in this world who like to think that way. They even take a certain delight in thinking that this is the case. But the amazing fact is that this is not true at all. For God can regenerate your heart at any time that he chooses. We see this quite clearly in the life of the great Augustine. Augustine used to pray this prayer, over and over again: ‘Lord, make me a Christian, but not now.’ He wanted to be a Christian a short time before he died, so that he could go on living his life of sin and pleasure. But then one day the Holy Spirit came and said, ‘No, I am not going to give you any more time to live this life of sin.’ So it wasn’t Augustine who decided, it was the Holy Spirit.
(5) The fifth thing that I can tell you about regeneration is that it never fails. Whenever the Holy Spirit determines to make a new creature he always attains his goal.
Now and then we read of the effects of great hurricanes. And here again we have seen the puny power of man. We always think that man is mighty and that he has mastered everything, until one of these great hurricanes comes along. But then what happens to all these works of men? What happens to the dikes and levees that they have built to frustrate the power of nature? Well, they amount to nothing at all. They are simply swept away as so many straws in the wind. And so it is with all who are regenerated by God’s Holy Spirit.
No man ever built as many barriers against the Holy Spirit as did the Apostle Paul. He was a Hebrew of the Hebrews, and a Pharisee as well. He kept the law so well that everyone considered him blameless. And add to all that his zeal in persecuting the Church. But what did it all amount to when Jesus came to accost him on the road to Damascus? All the mighty barriers were swept away in a second. And Paul – or rather Saul – the proud Pharisee, was brought to kneel before Jesus,
(6) And the last thing I want to tell you is that regeneration is always evident in the life of those who really have it. And here again we can see the perfect parallel in the miracles. When Jesus healed the blind man, everyone knew that he had done it. They knew it because the blind man was able to see. They knew the lame were healed, because they were able to walk. And they knew the dead had been raised, because they lived again.
Now I don’t have the time to develop this point very much. But I want to remind you of at least a few things that regeneration always brings in the life of those who receive it. a) And one of the things it always brings is a life of obedience to God. “Every one that doeth righteousness,” says John, “is born of him.” “Whosoever is born of God doth not practice sin; for his seed remaineth in him; and he cannot sin, because he is born of God.” It is no more than possible for a regenerate man to continue living in sin as he did before, than it is for a resurrected man to continue to live in the cemetery. b) Another thing that we always find in those who are born again is steadfast faith in Christ. For “everyone who is begotten of God,” says the Apostle “overcomes the world; and this is the victory which has overcome the world, even our faith.” It is no more possible for a regenerate man to continue in unbelief, than it is for a recipient of healing to remain laying on his pallet. (c) And “everyone who is begotten of God,” says John, “does not sin, but he who has been begotten of God keeps himself, and the wicked one does not touch him.” Which is just another way of saying that he perseveres to the end, and never again yields his heart and soul to the devil!
I could go on to show you that he who is born again from above will love God, and his brethren. I could also show you other fruits of the Spirit. But just as one cannot see the wind itself, but cannot mistake the sound thereof; so it is with all who are born of the Spirit. For there is always evidence of these things.
When Jesus had finished telling these things to Nicodemus, Nicodemus seemed more baffled than ever. “How can these things be?” was his bewildered response. How can I experience regeneration, when regeneration has to take place before I can have true religious experience? How can I obtain it, when I am entirely passive in the matter? How can I understand it when the whole thing is a mystery? And what can I do about it when the Holy Spirit is sovereign?
Well, if you feel like Nicodemus did, I have good news for you. For this very concern became the beginning of the miracle within his heart. And it was because the Holy Spirit accompanied the words that Jesus spoke to Nicodemus, that he too passed from death unto life. And now may the Lord also take these words today and make them likewise the seed of regeneration. “Being born again,” as Peter says, “not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever…. and this is the word which by the gospel is preached unto you.”
Amen.