It has been maintained that new birth is the sovereign act of God, apart from faith. It is said the time when God quickens a soul is a secret with Himself; that when He imparts life, it remains dormant in the soul until it hears the gospel; that hearing the gospel is what rouses the life already communicated into exercise, and that this, the first movement of the life, is faith.

Is this truth from God ? Has God revealed such a doctrine ? Does Scripture teach it ? Or, is it a human definition of new birth ? When we attempt to define divine things, we need to be very careful. Unless we have positive Scripture for our definitions, we may be far astray, and by them do souls incalculable harm. We should naturally expect, if the statements we have referred to are the truth, to find them in the word of God. But they are not there. And, besides, save a simple passage, the true force of which we shall consider in due time, no scripture is given. The word of God does frequently speak of new birth. The quickening into life of those who are dead in sins is indeed one of the subjects of which it treats; but nowhere is the statement found that new birth is apart from faith.

In John 3:5 we find our Lord says to Nicodemus, "Except a man be born of water and the Spirit." That new birth is by the Spirit will, I suppose, be conceded. The Spirit is the divine agent in the work of the impartation of divine life. Those who are born of God are born by the Spirit. But is no agency employed ? Does the Spirit work without means ? Is new birth the fruit of the putting forth
of divine power merely ? These questions are clearly answered by our Lord in the statement He made to Nicodemus, which we have quoted. He connects being born of the Spirit with being born of water. Water here evidently is used as a symbol of the word of God. New birth then is not an act of the Spirit of God apart from the word of God. Taking this statement as an authoritative declaration on the subject, as we are bound to do, we must say quickening into life is a sovereign act of the Spirit of God by the word of God.

Now i Peter i:23 declares the same thing. "Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God! " Here the divine worker in the work of imparting life is not mentioned. From John 3:5 and other passages we know who the worker is. It is the Spirit of God. But here, as in John 3:5, His work is not apart from the word of God.

We must then maintain that no soul is ever born of God without the word of God. This must be in-insisted on as firmly as that no soul is ever born of God apart from the Spirit of God.

But if we are quickened into life by the Spirit and word of God, then we become children of God by faith. If new birth is by the Spirit and the word, only those who believe are born of God. Not all to whom the word of God is addressed are born of God, but only those who receive it-those who believe it.

Now this is what is affirmed in John i:12, 13 Under law the children of God even were not given the right, or privilege, to be practically the children of God. They were treated as servants. They had
to take the place of servants; they were not given liberty to take the place of the children of God. But after Christ came there was initiated a great dispensational change. Those who received Him, who believed on His name, were given the right, or privilege, or liberty, to be practically the children of God. Those born of God are now privileged to take the place that belongs to them as being God's children, 1:e., to be practically children; not now practically servants, as was the case under law. This is the plain, self-evident meaning of the passage.

It has been sought to use the 13th verse as if it were intended to teach that those who now received Christ and believed on His name had been born of God before they received Him and believed on His name; but that is not the purport of the verse. The mind of the Spirit in the verse is that those who received Christ and believed on His name are those who are born of God. It expresses the characteristic class that have the right to be practically the children of God-the liberty to take that place. It is not at all the object of the Spirit to explain how it happens that they receive Christ; or to show that they were first born of God, and then, consequently, when the gospel was preached to them, they believed it. To take it so is to import into the passage what is not there, and to oppose it to such plain and definite passages as we have already looked at. But rightly understood, however, it is in perfect agreement with them.

We do not feel that it is necessary to pursue the subject further. We have seen that Jno. 3:5 and i Pet. i:23 definitely link faith with being born again. These two passages sufficiently establish the fact of the link.* *See also John 20 :30, 31.-[Ed.* In their light the assertion that new birth is the act of God, independently of faith cannot be maintained. It must be refused, as lacking the support of Scripture. C. Crain