In Scripture Truth for January of the current year there appeared a Letter by W. H. Westcott on new birth and eternal life, giving out views which I will examine in the light of Scripture, and which in my judgment are untenable. The reader must judge for himself which views are in harmony with the Word of God. "Prove all things; hold fast that which is good," is an injunction which we do well to heed.
The Letter states that new birth is accomplished apart from faith; that faith is not the principle by which we receive it, but that it follows it. Let me quote the writer's own words. He says:
"New birth is God's sovereign act, and nowhere does Scripture say, He that believeth shall be born again. To say this would be to take the new birth out of the place in which God has set it, and to make faith antecedent to new birth. The new birth is an operation in which God is first, for no one can be a co-operator in his own birth. The old Adam does not produce faith, or else those that are in the flesh can please God. It is when sovereign power has broken into our dark night, and implanted a new principle of being never there before, that our awakenings and longings, our grief over sin, our breathings after God, can be met, and met only in Christ. Hence in John 3, where this subject is treated, the Lord Himself when speaking of new birth speaks not of faith. It is only when He presents Himself as lifted up, the Subject of testimony, that He speaks of faith in Himself and eternal life."
Again:
"In our case then (the Christian's), new birth is followed by faith in Christ."
Again:
"In the case of the Old Testament believers, new birth was followed by faith in the one true God."
Once more:
"In the case of millennial saints, new birth will be followed by faith in God, and in Jesus as Messiah."
So then, according to this teaching, whether in the past, the present, or the future dispensations, life is imparted to the soul apart from the exercise of faith on the part of the one who receives it. In other words, God quickens the spiritually dead without the exercise of faith in God or His word.
Before looking at texts relative to this point I will give the reader two quotations from the Letter to show by what agency and means the new birth, according to the writer, is accomplished.
"As to new birth, the nature which goes along with the being is determined by its moral parentage. God is the Author of it, and the Word and the Spirit the Seed and the Agency used" (John 1:13; 3:6; 1 Pet. 1:23).
Again:
"Some sovereign communication from God is applied by the Holy Ghost in sovereign power and the subject finds himself possessed of new-born interest, he knows not how nor why."
With this I am certainly in full accord. The Spirit, the third Person in the Godhead, effects this divine work in the soul of man by implanting there the word of God as the seed by which divine life is received (John 3:5).
If the Spirit, then, uses the Word of God, as is admitted by Mr. W., is the word deposited there without faith? Certainly by faith; for as Heb. 4:2 declares, "The Word reached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that heard it." If there is no faith in the hearers, the Word is fruitless. If a person is saved by faith (Eph. 2:8), justified by faith (Rom. 3:28), his heart purified by faith (Acts 19:9), is he not also born again by faith? Mr. W. answers in the negative. To say he is born again by faith is, in his estimation, to say that the old Adam can "produce" faith, and that those in the flesh can "please God." But if a person is born again without faith, then such a person is still unforgiven and unjustified; he is still in his sins and under the wrath and condemnation of God. Will Mr. W. accept this position? For it goes without saying that a person is not forgiven or justified until he believes. Do not quickening and the forgiveness of sins go together? "You, being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath He quickened together with Him, having forgiven you all trespasses" (Col. 2:13). To separate these two divine acts, as to time, is to leave the child of God (for by new birth one becomes a child of God) still in his sins, a thing impossible to contemplate.
"That every new-born soul has life goes without saying," Mr. W. admits (p. 19). A person quickened is alive for quickening means to make alive (John 5). One already born again can not be quickened. The terms born again and quickened, in such texts as Jno. 3; Jno. 5:21; Eph. 2:5; and Col. 2:13. must mean the same thing otherwise there is a "double quickening," which is a contradiction in terms.
The Son quickens by the life that is in Him. "Verily, verily, I say unto you, The hour cometh and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God, and they that hear shall live" (Jno. 5:25). The voice of the Son of God in ver. 25 is certainly the word of Christ in ver. 24:"Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on Him that sent Me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into judgment, but is passed from death unto life."
How then is this new life, this new birth or quickening, received? "Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God" (1 John 5:1). It does not say he was or had been born of God when he believed. Mr. W. asserts that nowhere does Scripture say, "He that believeth shall be born again." True, not in those words exactly; but it does say that he that believeth is born of God. But to say this, according to Mr. W., is to teach that the old Adam produces faith. I fail to see that this is the logical conclusion. The old Adam in his natural condition if left to himself does not believe. Faith is the gift of God. It comes "by hearing," and the "hearing by the Word of God" (Rom. 10:17). God gives faith to the sinner to receive the divine testimony, and thus receive life of which He Himself is the Author, as Christ is the Fountain.
Before closing I would touch on one more point. Mr. W. states that new birth is "instinct with the love of holiness, with the fear of God, the hatred of sin for its own sake, and it clings to God." "The reality of new birth is proved by its continuance," he adds, giving Scripture references. Then to distinguish this from eternal life, he remarks, "Those who have eternal life evidence its possession by certain features, such as keeping Christ's commandments(l Jno. 2:3, 4), they love their brethren (vers. 9-11), they practice righteousness (ver. 29).
I do not see how he can use this last text (1 Jno. 2:29) in favor of his views. It reads, "If ye know that He is righteous, ye know that every one that doeth righteousness is born of Him." The one born of God loves his brethren; "We know we have passed from death unto life because we love the brethren" (1 Jno. 3:14). "Every one that loveth Him that begat loveth him also that is begotten of Him" (1 Jno. 5:1). Thus the features that Mr. W. attributes to one who possesses eternal life, John ascribes to the one "born of God." There is of course no difficulty here, because new birth and eternal life are plainly connected in the texts I have produced; that is, the life imparted to the one born again is eternal life in the Son:"He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life" (1 Jno. 5:12).
The Lord willing, I shall in a following paper speak of eternal life in its various phases as presented in Scripture. It is to me a strange doctrine that a soul may be born again, and have all the instincts attributed to him by Mr. W. and yet be ignorant of Christ! He says, p. 19, "These desires, these movements, can find their only solution in Christ; but as yet it is possible he knows little or nothing of Christ." Again he says, same page, "Our new-born soul may not yet have met with Christ" (!). This language sounds strange indeed to our ears, and very different from those simple gospel statements with which we have been so happily familiar these many years. I fear its effects on simple souls, and for this reason I think the teaching should not pass unchallenged or remain unanswered. J. B. Gottshall