The truth of new birth, of which our Lord spoke to Nicodemus, is more important and far-reaching than many suppose. It entirely overturns the whole of the ritualistic and sacramental systems, which propose to fit man for heaven by the ordinances and rituals of the Church. But man being a sinner, ruined and lost, born in sin and shapen in iniquity, as Scripture declares, cannot by any process, religious or otherwise, work himself into a state of fitness for a holy God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, be it ever so amiable or religious, and cannot be anything else. Unless a man is born again he cannot "see" or "enter" the kingdom of God.

It is striking the way in which the Lord meets Nicodemus in John 3. He does not discuss with him whether He were a teacher come from God or not, but He goes direct to the point, "Ye must be born again." New birth was an absolute necessity, and this is true both for the kingdom of Messiah on earth (for which the Jews were looking) and also for the heavenly blessings brought in later. Indeed, it is true for all times.

"Born again" involves, not any mere improvement of man as he stands, but that which is radically and essentially new. The word "again," as it stands in the A. V., interprets the meaning of the original in this place better than "from above," -which it might also mean, for the object in view is to show that the life and nature which we get at new birth, though it be "from above," is also something distinctly new, not any improvement or change of the old.

"Born of water and of the Spirit"-the "water" is commonly understood in Christendom to mean baptism; but it cannot be this because Christian baptism had not then been instituted, and baptism is a sign of death-"baptized into His death"-whereas new birth is the communication of life.. Baptism is outward; the baptized person may be a true child of God or may not, or it may be an infant:new birth, on the other hand, is inward and real; it is a work of God in the soul-in the heart and conscience.

Water, then, is a figure of the word of God and is often so used in Scripture (1 Pet. 1:23; James 1:18; John 15:2; Eph. S:16, etc.).

Moreover, Nicodemus ought to have understood these things-but of Christian baptism he could have known nothing. The Psalms and Prophets had spoken about God's purging Israel by the application of water (figuratively) in a future day. We read in Ezek. 36:25-27, "And I will sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean; from all your filthiness, and from all your idols;" and in psalm 51:7-10, "Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow" (see also Isa. 1:16; Jer. 4:14, etc.).

As we have said, new birth was needed for the earthly kingdom as well as for the heavenly, so that Nicodemus should have known about these things. But what was it that stood in the way? It was want of faith. Twice the Lord here uses the word "believe"-"If ye believe not … .how shall ye believe?" New birth is the sovereign action of God by the Word applied by the Holy Spirit, just as the wind bloweth where it listeth; but there must be faith, or else the Word (the water) will be inoperative.* *New birth, faith, and eternal life all go together, though they are not the same thing. The one who believes is "born of God"; and faith and eternal life are both the "gift" of God (1 John 5:1; Eph. 2:8; Rom. 6:23). It is remarkable that, though we do not find the word "faith" in John's Gospel, we find the word "believe" (which, in Greek, is the verb answering to the substantive "faith") nearly 100 times.*

Turning now to John 1:12,13, we read, "He came to his own (things), and his own (people) received Him not." But if Israel would not have their own Messiah, the outflow of divine grace was in no way restricted. To those who did receive Him (by faith, of course) He gave the right to take the place of children of God. Blessed relationship, involving, not merely a position, but a birth-tie!

And how could this be brought about? Not by descent from Abraham, of which they boasted-that was of no avail-but by being born of God. So that the true children are not those born after the flesh, or of the flesh by human will, but of God-of the Spirit. The source and origin of their nature and life is from God.

Let us follow out this truth a little in the 1st epistle of John. In chapter 2:29, everyone who practices righteousness is born (or begotten) of God; in 3:9, he does not practice sin, because His seed abides in him, and he cannot sin, because he is born of God; in 4:7, he loves God and knows God; in 5:1, everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, etc.; in 5:4, he gets the victory over the world, and such an one believes that Jesus is the Son of God; in 5:18, he "does not sin" (compare chap. 3:9) but keeps himself, and that wicked one toucheth him not.

Space forbids our entering in detail into the precious truths here presented, but they show what characterizes one who is born of God, and what distinguishes the life, nature, and relationships which are consequent upon new birth. These are formed after the character of God Himself-and He is both light and love. Peter says we are "made partakers of the divine nature"-a nature which answers, morally, to God's holy nature.

One might ask, in view of these things, What other life could the believer receive at new birth but eternal life and what is meant by being "born of God" and"His seed remaining in us?" Surely this involves the distinct communication of the divine life and nature of which Scripture speaks. Indeed, to question that eternal life is communicated to us at new birth seems so opposed to Scripture that one can only say, as Paul did to the Galatians of old, "This persuasion cometh not of Him that calleth
you."

We have already referred to 1 Peter 1:23, born again by the living and abiding Word of God; and the outcome of this new nature was shown in fervent love to one another-a very practical fruit indeed! This passage makes it quite plain that what God uses to effectuate this great change called new birth is the Word of God.

Now Peter was writing to Jews here, but in Acts 15- alluding to Gentiles-he speaks of "purifying their hearts by faith;" and, referring to them also, Paul says in Eph. 2:8, that they are saved "by grace through faith." Bringing Jew and Gentile in on one common platform of grace in Romans 10, he tells us that the "word of faith" which we preach-the confession of Jesus as Lord and believing with the heart that God raised Him from the dead- brings salvation.

We take up these scriptures as showing the importance of faith in connection with every work of God in the soul, new birth included (see also Gal. 3:26).

Let us conclude with a brief reference to James 1:18. Peter, at the opening of his epistle, had spoken of God's abundant mercy in having begotten us again unto a living hope, based, not on His promises to Israel, but on the resurrection of Jesus Christ from among the dead. James says that God, according to His own will, has begotten us with the Word of truth that we might be a kind of first-fruits of His creatures; the Word producing in us a walk in conformity with itself.

Truly, indeed, every good thing comes from God Himself, from the Father of lights, who is unchanging in His purposes of grace towards us and in the fulfilment of them. It is here also the Word-the "Word of truth" -which is the instrument that God uses to bring about the new birth. "A kind of first-fruits of His creatures" is a remarkable expression. We believe it alludes to the new creation, which is developed more fully elsewhere, and to which the believer already belongs. It will be displayed in all its blessed fulness in that coming day when God shall make all things new. F. G. Burkitt