That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit (John 3v6).
Once the necessity of being born again has been proved, the next question is, “How do I get this new birth? Where does it come from? Is it something I can get for myself, or does someone else have to give it to me? If I lack it, where should I look for it, and if I have it, to whom do I give thanks?” These questions have led to some of the most heated theological arguments throughout the centuries; it was the issue between Augustine of Hippo and the followers of Pelagius in the Fifth Century and has been argued about ever since. The question is this: is the New Birth monergistic or synergistic? Is it attributable solely to God, or is it something in which Man must also take a part?
The teaching of the Lord Jesus as He spoke to Nicodemus could hardly be more clear; the mighty power that gives new life to sinners comes from God, the Holy Spirit, and from Him alone. We see this first of all in the very term, born again. Our Lord could have used a variety of terms for this which Nicodemus might have found easier to understand; “You must start again….”, “…..take a new path”, “…..make a new beginning”. But all these terms involve things that we can do for ourselves. The one event in our lives over which we have no control is our birth. The time, the place, our gender (1), our weight and so forth are absolutely nothing that we can influence. The time simply comes for us to arrive and we are born.
We can then go on to look at the Greek word translated here as ‘again.’ This word, anothen, can also mean’ from above’ (2). Indeed, that is its meaning in every other instance where it appears in John’s Gospel. For example, later in this very chapter (v31) John uses the word when he says, ‘He who comes from above is above all’.
Anothen appears in Matthew 27:51 when, as Jesus died, ‘The veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom’, and in James 1:17 where we are told, ‘…..every perfect gift is from above’. Only in Galatians 4:9 does anothen clearly mean again. Here in John 3:3, most translations have rightly rendered the word as again because of the context. Nicodemus obviously understood it to mean that since he replied (v4), “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter into his mother’s womb and be born a second time?” Now it may well be that the conversation took place in Aramaic, not Greek, but it seems to me that the Apostle John chose the word (under the influence of the Holy Spirit) deliberately to bring out this second meaning. “Nicodemus”, our Lord seems to be saying, “You need a birth that all your learning and religious observance cannot give you; you need a birth that comes from above”.
The same point can be seen in our key verse, ‘That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit’. As we have seen, the word flesh (Gk. sarx), when it is contrasted with Spirit (Gk. pneuma) usually refers to sinful human nature (eg. Rom. 8:4ff). What this verse tells us is that anything that comes from Man, from the flesh, is flawed at source, and to suggest that there can be any human agency in the New Birth is to say that the flesh can give birth to spirit. Why is this? Why is Man so helpless to do anything to make himself right with God? Consider Ephesians 2:1; ‘And you [God] made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins’. Mankind’s condition is one of spiritual death. Now, it is all very well calling on men and women to put their trust in Christ; it is all very well to tell them how wonderful it is to be a Christian, to warn them of the perils of Hell and to entice them with the blessings of Heaven- all these things are right and proper- but if they are dead, then unless Almighty God breathes new life into their hearts, all your efforts will ultimately be in vain because dead people can’t hear. Gospel preaching is certainly of the utmost importance (1Cor 1:21) as we shall see when we come to look at the instrumental means of the New Birth, but only as God uses the preached word to bring sinners to salvation.
Just in case not everyone is convinced by the evidence presented so far, consider John 1:11-13; ‘He came to His own (i.e. His Jewish compatriots, God’s chosen people under the Old Covenant), and His own did not receive him. But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe on His name: who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God’. Do you see what this is saying? Coming from a Christian family (“blood”) cannot make you born again; nor your own fallen will (“the flesh”); nor being called to the front and having some minister or evangelist pouring water over you, laying hands on you or praying over you (“the will of man”). It is God, and God alone who saves. Look at Romans 9:16; ‘So then, it is not of him who wills, nor of him who runs, but of God Who shows mercy’, or James 1:18; ‘Of His own will He brought us forth by the word of truth.’. Finally, to see how the New Birth comes about in practice, let us turn to a few verses in Acts:-
Acts 2:47b: ‘And the Lord added to the church daily those who were being saved’. Who added people to the church? Was it the Apostles, with their signs and wonders (v43), or the people themselves making ‘decisions for Christ’? No, it was God Himself drawing men and women to the Lord Jesus (John 6:44).
Acts 14:48b: ‘And as many as had been appointed to eternal life believed’. Not one more nor one fewer, but exactly those to whom God gave new birth.
Acts 16:14: ‘Now a certain woman named Lydia heard us. She was a seller of purple from the city of Thyatira, who worshipped God’. Lydia was a God-fearer, a Gentile who attended the Jewish synagogue and tried to follow the moral teaching of the Old Testament, but she still needed to be born again, so did Paul open her heart to respond to God? Or did she open her own heart as she listened to Paul? Not at all. ‘The Lord opened her heart to heed the things spoken to her by Paul’.
Perhaps someone is thinking to himself, “Just a moment! This can’t be right. It is I who has to repent and to believe in Jesus (Mark 1:15), so being born again must depend on me to some extent”. This is perfectly true as far as it goes. Repentance and faith are, as it were, the two legs on which we enter the Kingdom of God, but it is the Lord Himself Who enables us to turn from sin, and to put our trust in the shed blood of Christ upon the cross to make us right with God. Look at Acts 11:18; ‘When they heard these things they ….glorified God, saying, “Then God has also granted to the Gentiles repentance to life”’ and then at Eph. 2:8; ‘For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God’. So both repentance and faith have their origin not in sinful Man, but in Almighty God. As an old hymn goes:-
‘Not the labour of my hands
Can fulfil Thy law’s demands;
Could my zeal no respite know,
Could my tears for ever flow,
All for sin could not atone;
Thou must save, and Thou alone.
Nothing in my hand I bring,
Simply to Thy cross I cling;
Naked, come to Thee for dress,
Helpless, look to Thee for grace;
Foul, I to the fountain fly;
Wash me, Saviour, or I die.' [Augustus Toplady]
The reader may feel that I have laboured this point rather, but there are a number of important issues which flow from this, the Doctrine of Free Grace. The first is that of assurance; if anything relating to my salvation depends on me, then I cannot be completely sure that I have done it properly, or perhaps there may still be something I still need to do of which I am unaware; but when I have seen myself as a helpless sinner who can do nothing in his own strength to make himself right with God and when I put my trust completely in the Lord Jesus Christ and in Him alone, I can be absolutely sure that I am saved, because, ‘He is also able to save to the uttermost those who come to Him, since He ever lives to make intercession for them’ (Heb. 7:25).
The second issue that flows from the Doctrine of Grace is the supremacy and sufficiency of the Bible. If it is God, and God alone who saves, then why listen to the opinions of men when you have the very words of the Lord before you? Every preacher and every writer must be judged against the Scriptures. ‘To the law and to the testimony! If they do not speak according to this word, it is because there is no light in them’ (Isaiah 8:20). Far too many Christians are being led astray by un-biblical teaching because they do not know their Bible well enough to detect it, or because they are over-awed by the reputation of some famous evangelist or Bible teacher. Yet, ‘God respecteth no man’s person’ (Gal. 2:6 A.V.). Also, if the New Birth comes from God alone, and if the Bible is the word of God, then why listen to those who speak of miracles, dreams or prophesies? Take a few moments now to read through Jeremiah 23, and perhaps to pray about it.
Notes.
(1) With the advances in modern obstetrics, it is true that parents may now have control over the sex of their unborn child; the baby itself, of course, has none.
(2) Or ‘from the beginning’ (Luke 1:3; Acts 26:5).
[continued]
Once the necessity of being born again has been proved, the next question is, “How do I get this new birth? Where does it come from? Is it something I can get for myself, or does someone else have to give it to me? If I lack it, where should I look for it, and if I have it, to whom do I give thanks?” These questions have led to some of the most heated theological arguments throughout the centuries; it was the issue between Augustine of Hippo and the followers of Pelagius in the Fifth Century and has been argued about ever since. The question is this: is the New Birth monergistic or synergistic? Is it attributable solely to God, or is it something in which Man must also take a part?
The teaching of the Lord Jesus as He spoke to Nicodemus could hardly be more clear; the mighty power that gives new life to sinners comes from God, the Holy Spirit, and from Him alone. We see this first of all in the very term, born again. Our Lord could have used a variety of terms for this which Nicodemus might have found easier to understand; “You must start again….”, “…..take a new path”, “…..make a new beginning”. But all these terms involve things that we can do for ourselves. The one event in our lives over which we have no control is our birth. The time, the place, our gender (1), our weight and so forth are absolutely nothing that we can influence. The time simply comes for us to arrive and we are born.
We can then go on to look at the Greek word translated here as ‘again.’ This word, anothen, can also mean’ from above’ (2). Indeed, that is its meaning in every other instance where it appears in John’s Gospel. For example, later in this very chapter (v31) John uses the word when he says, ‘He who comes from above is above all’.
Anothen appears in Matthew 27:51 when, as Jesus died, ‘The veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom’, and in James 1:17 where we are told, ‘…..every perfect gift is from above’. Only in Galatians 4:9 does anothen clearly mean again. Here in John 3:3, most translations have rightly rendered the word as again because of the context. Nicodemus obviously understood it to mean that since he replied (v4), “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter into his mother’s womb and be born a second time?” Now it may well be that the conversation took place in Aramaic, not Greek, but it seems to me that the Apostle John chose the word (under the influence of the Holy Spirit) deliberately to bring out this second meaning. “Nicodemus”, our Lord seems to be saying, “You need a birth that all your learning and religious observance cannot give you; you need a birth that comes from above”.
The same point can be seen in our key verse, ‘That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit’. As we have seen, the word flesh (Gk. sarx), when it is contrasted with Spirit (Gk. pneuma) usually refers to sinful human nature (eg. Rom. 8:4ff). What this verse tells us is that anything that comes from Man, from the flesh, is flawed at source, and to suggest that there can be any human agency in the New Birth is to say that the flesh can give birth to spirit. Why is this? Why is Man so helpless to do anything to make himself right with God? Consider Ephesians 2:1; ‘And you [God] made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins’. Mankind’s condition is one of spiritual death. Now, it is all very well calling on men and women to put their trust in Christ; it is all very well to tell them how wonderful it is to be a Christian, to warn them of the perils of Hell and to entice them with the blessings of Heaven- all these things are right and proper- but if they are dead, then unless Almighty God breathes new life into their hearts, all your efforts will ultimately be in vain because dead people can’t hear. Gospel preaching is certainly of the utmost importance (1Cor 1:21) as we shall see when we come to look at the instrumental means of the New Birth, but only as God uses the preached word to bring sinners to salvation.
Just in case not everyone is convinced by the evidence presented so far, consider John 1:11-13; ‘He came to His own (i.e. His Jewish compatriots, God’s chosen people under the Old Covenant), and His own did not receive him. But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe on His name: who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God’. Do you see what this is saying? Coming from a Christian family (“blood”) cannot make you born again; nor your own fallen will (“the flesh”); nor being called to the front and having some minister or evangelist pouring water over you, laying hands on you or praying over you (“the will of man”). It is God, and God alone who saves. Look at Romans 9:16; ‘So then, it is not of him who wills, nor of him who runs, but of God Who shows mercy’, or James 1:18; ‘Of His own will He brought us forth by the word of truth.’. Finally, to see how the New Birth comes about in practice, let us turn to a few verses in Acts:-
Acts 2:47b: ‘And the Lord added to the church daily those who were being saved’. Who added people to the church? Was it the Apostles, with their signs and wonders (v43), or the people themselves making ‘decisions for Christ’? No, it was God Himself drawing men and women to the Lord Jesus (John 6:44).
Acts 14:48b: ‘And as many as had been appointed to eternal life believed’. Not one more nor one fewer, but exactly those to whom God gave new birth.
Acts 16:14: ‘Now a certain woman named Lydia heard us. She was a seller of purple from the city of Thyatira, who worshipped God’. Lydia was a God-fearer, a Gentile who attended the Jewish synagogue and tried to follow the moral teaching of the Old Testament, but she still needed to be born again, so did Paul open her heart to respond to God? Or did she open her own heart as she listened to Paul? Not at all. ‘The Lord opened her heart to heed the things spoken to her by Paul’.
Perhaps someone is thinking to himself, “Just a moment! This can’t be right. It is I who has to repent and to believe in Jesus (Mark 1:15), so being born again must depend on me to some extent”. This is perfectly true as far as it goes. Repentance and faith are, as it were, the two legs on which we enter the Kingdom of God, but it is the Lord Himself Who enables us to turn from sin, and to put our trust in the shed blood of Christ upon the cross to make us right with God. Look at Acts 11:18; ‘When they heard these things they ….glorified God, saying, “Then God has also granted to the Gentiles repentance to life”’ and then at Eph. 2:8; ‘For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God’. So both repentance and faith have their origin not in sinful Man, but in Almighty God. As an old hymn goes:-
‘Not the labour of my hands
Can fulfil Thy law’s demands;
Could my zeal no respite know,
Could my tears for ever flow,
All for sin could not atone;
Thou must save, and Thou alone.
Nothing in my hand I bring,
Simply to Thy cross I cling;
Naked, come to Thee for dress,
Helpless, look to Thee for grace;
Foul, I to the fountain fly;
Wash me, Saviour, or I die.' [Augustus Toplady]
The reader may feel that I have laboured this point rather, but there are a number of important issues which flow from this, the Doctrine of Free Grace. The first is that of assurance; if anything relating to my salvation depends on me, then I cannot be completely sure that I have done it properly, or perhaps there may still be something I still need to do of which I am unaware; but when I have seen myself as a helpless sinner who can do nothing in his own strength to make himself right with God and when I put my trust completely in the Lord Jesus Christ and in Him alone, I can be absolutely sure that I am saved, because, ‘He is also able to save to the uttermost those who come to Him, since He ever lives to make intercession for them’ (Heb. 7:25).
The second issue that flows from the Doctrine of Grace is the supremacy and sufficiency of the Bible. If it is God, and God alone who saves, then why listen to the opinions of men when you have the very words of the Lord before you? Every preacher and every writer must be judged against the Scriptures. ‘To the law and to the testimony! If they do not speak according to this word, it is because there is no light in them’ (Isaiah 8:20). Far too many Christians are being led astray by un-biblical teaching because they do not know their Bible well enough to detect it, or because they are over-awed by the reputation of some famous evangelist or Bible teacher. Yet, ‘God respecteth no man’s person’ (Gal. 2:6 A.V.). Also, if the New Birth comes from God alone, and if the Bible is the word of God, then why listen to those who speak of miracles, dreams or prophesies? Take a few moments now to read through Jeremiah 23, and perhaps to pray about it.
Notes.
(1) With the advances in modern obstetrics, it is true that parents may now have control over the sex of their unborn child; the baby itself, of course, has none.
(2) Or ‘from the beginning’ (Luke 1:3; Acts 26:5).
[continued]
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