Lectures on the New Testament Doctrine of the Holy Spirit

The volume which is now before the reader consists of a course of lectures delivered in London during a brief part of this summer, and, after an interval of other work, which delayed the needful revision, printed from the shorthand writer’s report. Few, perhaps, will be more sensible of its defects than the author is. Nevertheless the need of souls is so urgent on the one hand, and the broad outline of the truth is so plain and momentous on the other, that he does not hesitate to commit the work to the mercy and the blessing of

the Lord, who loves His own that are in the world,

-and loves them unto the end.

Guernsey, November, 1867.

John iii. 5, THE subject of which I propose to treat will demand, as the course of lectures may call for it, the development, according to God’s word, of many operations of the Holy Ghost only experienced under Christianity, which were unknown in the times which preceded the death and resurrection of our Lord Jesus. But I rejoice to begin this night with that which spreads itself over the entire dealings of God in His mercy towards His saints at all times. That is, we enter upon what is not special, save only as the knowledge of God Himself must distinguish souls in a lost world where grace chooses and saves — what is not special in the sense of being brought out and enjoyed, under peculiar circumstances and at a particular period, in the ways of God with man. On the contrary, what comes before us now is universal for God’s children, was found in the earliest days since sin entered into the world, was never superseded, nor can be, till the last trace of sin is gone for ever. It is the one fundamental want for every soul of man who is brought out of the condition of fallen man — the common lot of man appointed, as we know, B to die, and after that to judgment. God would make Himself known, would reveal Himself; it might be only partially, after sundry measures, as well as in many manners, as the apostle tells us in Hebrews 1; but whatever was the measure or the mode of His revelations, God has always wrought in sovereign mercy to souls, and He has given of His own nature to those who believe in the earth. This is what is meant by being born again. Nor was there ever a time when it was more necessary than now, not only to assert what is special, but to cleave to that which is universal in the sense in which I am now speaking — to maintain that which never changes: while, at the same time, we leave ample space for whatever it may please God according to His own wisdom to bring in, amplifying, clearing, brightening, deepening, and that in every possible form. There is progress, I need not say, in the way in which God does manifest Himself; at any rate, till Christ appeared, and the work of Christ was accomplished. Not that I speak of progress since, but that, in the unfolding of the word of God from the beginning, there is most manifestly an enlarging view given of the divine ways — given until God, and not merely His ways, were fully manifested.

Across the whole course of these varying dispengations, as I gladly allow, we have this great blessing enjoyed. And the reason is manifest: a God of goodness on the one hand, and lost man on. the other. “My Father worketh hitherto,” said the Son, also working in grace. Conscience may give its intimations of a God and His judgment; but the mind of man never can rise up above the fact, or rather the inference, that there must be a God. God Himself is never thus known. Mind, as such, is incapable of finding out God; and, in point of fact, that which gave scope to the reason of man was his ruin. He reasons about God because he has lost God; and all that reasoning can discover in any of its processes is not what zs, but simply, granting this and that, what must be. But a God that simply must be is awful to a conscience burdened with its guilt. The God that must be for him — that is, for a sinner — must be a judge; and if God be the judge of sin and of sinners, what must be the sinner’s lot? If the righteous even with difficulty be saved, where shall the ungodly appear? Now, in the face of all this, God has not merely given a revelation, made promises, given even still more distinct prophetic delineations of what He meant to do: this He has done from the very first; but there was always more than this. And it is of very great consequence to souls even now to recognise that it is not only a direction of the soul of the believer toward God by faith, but that there is, and has always been, far more. It is not too much to assume that those who listen to me here have no need to be told what that link really is. I do not refer now to the new fact that God has sent down the Holy Ghost; but I say, that while there was always faith, there was always more than faith. It is a very imperfect and even pernicious view, that souls simply look to God. However true this is, it is but a part of the truth. Besides the look of faith, besides the laying hold of the word of God by the operation of the Spirit in the soul, there is such a thing as spiritual life; and there always was such a thing; for it is the necessary condition of having to do with God. There always was, as there is, a positive new nature given to B 2 the believer; that is, it is not merely -a question of faith, but of a new life. Faith, of course, is the only means whereby this new nature is imparted, as I shall hope to show; and faith is the true means for the soul to assure itself that it is thus born of God. There may be other evidences to other eyes and hearts; but faith is that which is intended of God to give its possessor the certainty that he is born of God.

Now this truth and indispensable necessity, although it was always made good in souls, it is evident before Christ was very feebly understood, and, in point of fact, in the Old Testament times, was rather implied than explicitly taught. It may be presented in figure, and there may be moral expressions; but nowhere is there a distinct statement of a new birth, save as a predicted privilege. The consequence was, when Nicodemus came to our Lord Jesus, arrested by that which he had seen, but, at the same time, with the sense of a deeper want in his soul, though totally ignorant of what he wanted, he was taken aback and confounded by our Lord’s strong assertion to him, that except one were born again, he could not even see the kingdom of God. The Jews had quietly settled down in the conviction that the Messiah could and would do everything for them. Nor were they, in one sense, wrong. When He came, even’the Samaritans were satisfied that Messiah would show or teach them all things; and the Jews knew that it was not a question merely of teaching, but that He would do all things; He would bring in everlasting righteousness, seal up the vision, anoint the most holy, deal with sin, iniquity, everything. They knew most imperfectly how it was to be done. Still, there was a vague, general, and, at the same time, sure conviction on the mind of every Jew, except, we may say, the infidel portion of them, that the coming of the Messiah would be the turning-point of the world, and would be more especially the incoming of all promised and expected blessing for Israel. Hence it was most startling to hear so solemn an announcement from One now found present in their very midst, whom His forerunner, John the Baptist, declared to be the Messiah, from One who had manifested by miracles that He was really a teacher come from God at the very least. Yet this very One stopped Nicodemus at the threshold with the most cutting declaration of a necessity that he had never apprehended before, and this put in so broad a manner as to make it as absolute for a Jew as for a Gentile. “Except a man be,” &c. No exceptions were entertained, no question was raised about the chosen family of Abraham. It was a divine requirement for those near, as well as the remote. “Except a man be born afresh, he cannot see the kingdom of God.”

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