Regeneration

According to the o-ospel of St. John, our Lord taught the doctrine of regeneration at an early period in His ministry. It is remarkable, as illustrative of a point insisted upon at the beg’inning of this essay, that this fact should have been noticed by John alone, showing, as it does, the intensity of his spiritual nature. The narrative given in the third chapter is evidently written con amove, being, as to its tone and purpose, quite in the vein of John’s own sympathies and aspirations. It is certainly made clear that our Lord attached primary importance to the doctrine of the second birth, and that He identified it with the special function of the Holy Spirit. What, then, is this new birth, — this being born again, or born from above y

Regeneration, as our Lord explained it, was evidently a novel doctrine to Nicodemus. “How,’ said he, “can a man be born when he is old y Can he enter the second time into his mother’s womb and be born?” Considerable light is thus thrown upon the intellectual character of Nicodemus: he was a master without mastery, a Horeb without a burning bush, — a fact of which our Lord availed Himself in an arguvientu))i ad hoDiiiieui which must have had a humiliating effect upon the ruler in Israel. When physical facts are set forth as the types of spiritual realities, the success of the figure depends upon the intellectual constitution of the student. One mind reasons upwards, another downwards; so whilst one man seeks the theology of a flower, another is content simply to know its botany. Nicodemus had only one idea of birth, and with all the simplicity of ignorance he instantly applied it to the kingdom of heaven. It would seem as if our Lord always used what we (mistakenly) call common words in their primary signification, and that consequently there was frequent confusion between Him and His hearers. For example: “I will give living water,” is an expression which was taken to mean water out of the well; “Beware of the leaven of Herod,” was regarded as a reference to ordinary bread; “Be born again,” was considered as limited to physical generation. What if our uses of these words should be but secondary and relative, and if a reproof of their misapplication should come from heaven? Our sense of the term “water” or “bread” may be but a convenient misuse of words whose meaning points towards the most solemn necessities and desires of life; in that case we become the offenders by materialising and limiting words current as between the highest spiritual experiences throughout the universe. We say that when our Lord said “bread” in the instance just quoted He was why may not our use of the word “bread” be figurative? Who tauoht man lansfuaofe? Is it inconceivable thai God may have lent man an eternal symbol by which to describe a temporary necessity? So with the word “born:” we limit it to one act, whereas it may describe the progressive transitions by which men and angels pass “from glory to glory” in the highest heavens. It is convenient in a case like this that a man so literal as Nicodemus proved himself to be should lead the conversation, because he will ask questions in their baldest form, which we shall all wish to have answered, but which some of us may have too much pride or too much caution to propound. A dull and candid man often lays his superiors under considerable obligation without knowing it. The presence of such a man in certain companies is invaluable.

A grave difficulty arises on the first reading of our Lord’s doctrine, which may be thus generally expressed — “As a man had no control over his first birth, so he can have no control over his second; the question of regeneration, therefore, is one with which he need not concern himself, for it is entirely beyond his province: if he is to be born again, he will be born again; if not, not; and whether one way or the other, he himself is wholly without will or responsibility.” It has been attempted to support this view of the case (more or less modified) by such quotations as these: “Born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God” (John- i. 13).” Of His own will begat He us with the word of truth, that we should be a kind

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of first fruits of His creatures” (James i. 18). “Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever” (i Pet. i. 23). These words would seem to destroy the action of the human will in regeneration, and to leave man literally without choice or alternative. This would be of small concern where the act of regeneration docs take place and all its dignities and inheritances are secured, but it is another matter where no such act transpires and no such enjoyments are realised. What of the men who are not born again, and are consequently excluded from the kinodom of heaven? Let us look at two theories; —

1. Regeneration belongs wholly to the region of divine sovereignty; it leaves the will of man without choice, election, concurrence, or movement of any kind; in this matter man is simply as clay in the hands of the potter; whether born again or not he is wholly without responsibility. And —

2. The act of regeneration transpires with the consent of the human will, that will having first been moved by the Holy Ghost, or had brought to bear upon it all the motives which are accessible to the most cogent and persuasive appeals, and the man having affirmatively answered the inquiry, Dost thou believe on the Son of God?

Now arc these theories as mutually hostile as they appear to be? Or are they identical in the sense of one being the doctrine and the other its applicatiui? Most decidedly, in our opinion, the latter.

We view the subject in this way: The idea of regeneration is essentially and absolutely God’s, without the slightest admixture of human thought; it never came — it never could have come — within the range of man’s intellectual province. Man could have proposed reformation, satisfaction by penalty, repetition of life on the basis of experience, but at some such point his inventiveness would have ceased and determined; what, then, was to be done? From the /uinian side, nothing; from the divine side what? The question involves an agony. It can be answered only by a revelation,- for the soothsayer is dumb and the seer is blind. God answers the inquiry: He says. Ye must be doyn again. The very phrase took the world by surprise. It was astoundinof. Nicodemus exclaimed in amazement when he heard it, How can these things be? Let this surprise on the part of a ruler of Israel be carefully observed as showing that the most cultivated and trusted minds had never risen to the discovery of such an idea as the possibility of a secjnd birth. When Nicodemus spoke, he spoke not for himself alone; he expressed the bewilderment and confusion of the whole world. Now that we are familiar with the phrase “born again” we may lose nluch of its proper force; but put back the mind to the night on which it was first used and we shall understand something of the concussion by which Nicodemus was stunned. Coming thus suddenly upon the human mind, without consultation with any hiuuan counsellor, the idea of the second birth is so entirely God’s that we are constrained to say, “Of His own will beg’at He us: not by works of rio’hteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy hath He saved us, by the .washing of regeneration and the renewing of the Holy Ghost.” No other words would do justice to the case, so complete and absolute is the sovereignty which interposed the possibility ‘of regeneration between sin and death. So much for the first theory. It is in its substance philosophically and theologically sound. Regeneration is as exclusively a divine idea as is creation, and not the less so that it adds the mystery of grace to the mystery of power.

But how is this proposition, so manifestly divine in its originality and beneficence, to be brought to bear upon mankind? First of all it must, of course, be declared; being declared as a fact, it must in the next place be expounded as a doctrine; but it separates itself so immeasurably from all the tracks of finite thinking, that the mind cannot lay hold of it, — it is like a star which lies beyond the field of the telescope; how then? In the absence of a connecting medium it will mock and trouble every aspiration and every dream of human hope. Is there, then, such a connecting medium? Our Lord says there is, and He proceeds to indicate it to Nicodemus. He preaches redemption by the sacrifice of Himself, as completing all the typical processes with which Israel was familiar. Redemption was Intelligible; it seemed to carry with it the principle of equivalents; it did, indeed, touch the tragic elqment of human life, yet It presented a great practical aspect which easily secured attention and confidence. It is of the first consequence to observe that our Lord connected regeneration inseparably with His own priestly work: apart from this it would, as in the case of Nicodemus, have confounded all human thinking and troubled all human effort by a spectral and indefinable influence. Our Lord proceeded to the divine mystery along the line of the divine love. He said in effect: You must beo-in with the known and find your way to the unknown; you must first study the work of the Son, and then proceed to study the work of the Spirit; if I have told you earthly things and ye believe not, how shall ye believe if I tell you heavenly things y But if )ou cannot at once realise the purpose of My coming, you must go back to Moses, and study afresh the spirit and method of his administration. He did something which will help you to understand what I am about to do, “for as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have eternal life,” — in other words, should be born again. The ground of primary inquiry is thus distinctly defined. We cannot understand Christ until we understand Moses, nor can we understand the Spirit until we understand Christ; “understand,” indeed, in no pedantic or exhaustive sense, but with that tender love which is the best teacher of the intellect. Still, another link is wanting. How is man to la)’ hold upon the ministry of Jesus Christ so as

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to secure its advantages and submit to its discipline? Our Lord Himself is a myster)-, how then can He be known? Undoubtedly He is a mystery, yet nearer to the nature, of man than any purely spiritual being can be. What does He Himself say as to the method of approach? He never changes the condition upon which the blessings of His redemption and fellowship are to be secured — “whosoever bclicveth’,’” he that believeth’’ “be it unto thee according to thy faithy That this condition was emphatic and unchangeable is shown throughout the whole ministry of the apostles whose exhortations may all be expressed in the words of one of themselves — ‘’Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved.” But is not faith itself the gift of God? True: yet “God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith” (Rom. xii. 3); that is, He has given to every one of His responsible creatures a germ, an initial power, call it what you please, on the right use of which depends the destiny of the soul. Every man has something with which to begin the world, — to begin eternity!

Our Lord did not attempt to explain the mystery of regeneration: “The wind bloweth where it listeth, thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh or whither it goeth, so is every one that is born of the Spirit.” Our Lord does not mean to say that the wind is lawles?, or that it blows according to the whim of an arbitrary power; He simply illustrates the limitation of human knowledge in the physical world, and suggests that the same limitation is as actual in a world much hiofher. Yet as Nicodemus would not think of denying the existence of the wind because he did not know its origin and could not trace its destination, so he must not deny the reality of the second birth simply because he was baffled by its mystery. We our selves are daily testifying to the soundness of this very reasoning. Are we not the subjects of many processes which may be described as births, and do we not accept the results without pleading the mysteries as a ground of unbelief and inaction? Thus: is not the child born into the man? How? At what precise moment does the child disappear and the man assert his status and dominion? No man can answer the question. Again: is not tJioitght being continually born and re-born in the mind? Who can explain, beyond all mystery or doubt, the origin and succession of ideas? How do thoughts combine, repel, modify each other, or correct and enlarge themselves? Who can measure the eccentricity of the orbit through which the mind daily passes y Of such experiences it may be truly said, The wind bloweth where it listeth, thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh or whither it eoeth, so are the movements of thine own mind. In every man there seems to be another master than the man himself, — a genius, an angel without a name, with whom he often wrestles, but against whom he may not always prevail. And again:

Is there not a similar experience in the development of the affections? Love has never known its own secret. Why not love all persons alike? By what law do hearts claim kindred, and know one another afar off? What is the law of antagonism and recoil amongst persons marked largely by the same general characteristics, and presumably equal to one another in education and status? How is it that a conversation in the highest electric sympathy and confidence, can be thrown into disorder by a person who is a non-conductor? The wind bloweth where it listSth, thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh and whither it goeth, so are the currents of thine own sympathies and affections!

Reofeneration must be its own witness. It is not to be discovered by a spiritual chemistry known only to a few, but to be proved by a life which the rudest observers cannot but distintruish by its virtue and nobleness. The fruit of the Spirit is manifold, yet it is of one quality and worth throughout: it is described by the Apostle Paul with very remarkable minuteness — “The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance.” Why use so many words? Would not the one word “ofoodness” have sufficed y No. Because spiritual growth is often in individual /6’/;^/i’ rather than in the central substance of the character, and it is helpful to have many lights by which to judg-e of progress. Regeneration does not destroy the primary individualities of human nature: Peter is as ardent and Paul as courageous after spiritual renewal as before, but each must be taught to add to his original characteristics a culture which may seem to lie far beyond his strength, — Peter must add self-control to his ardour, and Paul must attemper his courage by long-suffering and gentleness. Not so much by the development of his specialities as by a movement towards new oraces will the wise man determine his personal regeneration.

In laying down the doctrine of the new birth, our Lord showed how fundamental and complete was the change which human nature must undergo as the condition of entrance into the kingdom of

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heaven. He did not propose to effect merely what is known as a social reformation. He had not to treat the question of external decay but of spiritual death. This statement to Nicodemus is our Lord’s doctrine of what is known as the fall of man; instead of saying in so many words that Adam fell. He stated the fact in an infinitely more comprehensive and impressive form when He said, “Ye must be born again.” All hope of self-reformation was destroyed, and man was sent back to God for new life on the ground of being already dead in trespasses and in sins. Christianity has no ‘other than the same fundamental message to deliver to every man. When its preachers speak any other language the gospel falls below its mission, and misleads its hearers. Given a humanity only partially dismembered and enfeebled, and Christianity Is altogether in excess of the occasion; but given a humanity “born in sin and shapen In iniquity,” then Christianity alone can invest it with eternal life. Man may be staggered by the doctrine of personal and absolute depravity, in the early stages of his serious thinking; it will probably appear to him to be a doctrine of violence; he will point to a grace here and there in his own character which will practically contradict the fierce impeachment; but when he is “born again,” and looks back upon his old self, he will see in the doctrine a truth which has been but too feebly stated. Some truths, like some objects in nature, are best seen by contrasts. The doctrine of what is commonly known as “original sin” is in some respects the hardest of all doctrines for unrenewed man to receive; It assails him so desperately; it shuts up his mouth when he would plead his cause; it divests him of all status in the sanctuary of God; it “will not grant him a single postulate with which to start an” argument in his own defence: what wonder then, if he be goaded to resentment, and retire within the security of his own pride? When, after many an hour of agony, he yields to the pleading of the Holy Ghost, and becomes “a new creature in Christ Jesus,” he will see himself by contrast, and confirm a doctrine which once made him mad.

Regeneration gives its subjects a new standpoint from which to view all outward things, — in a more than poetical sense it gives them new heavens and a new earth. We know how all outward things vary in aspect and value according to the spiritual condition through which we regard them. The world is shadowed or brightened by our own heart rather than by anything in itself; our joy makes the cloudiest day glad, and our grief finds night in the sunniest sky. In that supreme moment when man is first conscious of his i’egeneration, there is no miracle in all the life of Christ that does not appear to him simple and easy, and the removal of mountains by- faith as a grain of mustard seed is only the sober expression of an ordinary truth. Such removal is startling to us in our spiritual coldness and languor, — quite extravagant and absurd indeed, — but the reason is in our ourselves. In a moment of high spiritual realisation St. Paul exclaimed, “I can do all thiho-s through Christ which strengtheneth me.” Exactly so. Let a man feel that the case is not measurable by his own strength but by the power of Christ, and he is at once delivered from the prison of so-called impossibility; he will know that all things are possible to him that believeth, and gird himself to great occasions by offering the all-inclusive prayer, “Lord, I believe; help Thou mine unbelief.” Measuring ourselves by ourselves, miracles are incredible because imjpossible: animated by “the power of an endless life,” miracles

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are to us but the larcje letters In the Bible of nature. If a man be but a -critic of the things that are about him, he will not see them as they really are. He will defeat himself by his own cleverness. His self-consciouness will isolate and impoverish him. But when a man is “born again” he sees that what he calls the universe is but a speck in a higher kingdom, and that what he calls “the laws of nature” are but constabulary forces intended to keep fools in their places and help honest men to do their work tp security.