19 Regeneration Essential to Salvation
Regeneration Essential to Salvation By Rev. E. O. Taylor, D. D., of Providence, R. I.
“Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” John 3:3. Is Regeneration essential to salvation? This question is definitely settled by our Lord himself, in his conversation with Nicodemus. In no abstract way could the necessity of the new birth have been so forcibly taught. In this “ruler of the Jews” we have the highest reach of nature and of law in their efforts to fit a man for the “kingdom of God.” Here is their brightest blossom and their fairest fruit; but as God had not respect unto Gain and his altar garlanded with flowers and enriched with the best products of the earth, so our Lord could not accept the righteousness of Nicodemus—though none of Israel was more worthy than he—as fitting him to be a subject of that spiritual kingdom which Christ came to establish. Canon Farrar suggests [34] that the title in verse 10, “Master of Israel,” may signify his rank as “the teacher” or “the wise man,” the third member of the Sanhedrim. It is evident that he was a man of culture, refinement, and of zeal for the law; a religious man, sincere in his convictions, and honest in his desire to do right. It would seem as if all meritorious qualifications met in him; and yet over against them all the unseen hand of truth had written, “come short,” and “thou art weighed in the balance and found wanting.” Jesus sweeps away with a breath all hope of fitness for God’s kingdom by natural birth or natural development, saying, “except a man be born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.”
[34] Life of Christ, Vol. I., p. 199.
I—Let us define terms. According to Godet, [35] “In the view of Nicodemus and his colleagues, the kingdom of God was only this life glorified, and its appearance an external and political matter. Hence to them the new birth must be of the same nature as the first.” But, though by the “kingdom of God” here is not meant heaven, yet it is the heavenly rule on earth, as if a section of heaven had come down to earth with heaven’s atmosphere, and laws, and requirements for citizenship; it is the spiritual kingdom begun here, which shall be transferred to and continued in the eternal sphere; and, as our Lord uses the phrase, it is equivalent to saying that a mail must be born again to enter heaven.
[35] Commentary on John, Vol. II., p. 48.
Though the phrase “born again” may be rendered, as in the margin, “born from above,” the stronger rendering of oar accepted translation is better, both by grammatical construction and by the fact that Nicodemus so understands it, inquiring, perhaps with an assumed ignorance, “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter the second time into his mother’s womb and be born?” The expression is one which denotes a change which is radical and fundamental, and implies that a man needs to be renewed in the very source of his being; that he must become a new creation, as much as if he were decomposed into his original parts, and formed anew. For, as says Dean Alford, “it is not learning, but life, that is wanted for the Messiah’s kingdom, and life begins by birth.” What this great change is, we shall discuss farther along. In saying “Except a man,” and in addressing one who was an exalted type of what education, sincerity and religious influences can do for a man, Jesus teaches us the absolute and universal necessity of the New Birth. It is something predicated of the whole human race, and grows out, not of unfortunate circumstances in which some may be placed, nor of special weaknesses and moral deformities which may be conspicuous in others; but out of man’s condition as man, as lost, as dead, as ruined, as tainted through and through, and corrupted by sin, and as having a nature which is hostile to God and can never be brought into subjection to him. It is not of yonder dissipated and blasphemous wretch, nor of that despised outcast, of whom Jesus speaks; but in this phrase “except a man,” he embraces the noble and the virtuous, as well as the worthless and the vile. This was a hard saying to Nicodemus, and is now to such as would build up a righteousness of their own upon the rotten basis of the old self. But Jesus explains by saying, “That which is born of the flesh is flesh.” It can never become spirit. It can never be other than flesh, with its sin and decay, and offensiveness to God. A skeleton in ribbons is still a hideous thing, and all the more unsightly from the futile attempt to give it an appearance of life. Man at his best is as much included in this necessity of Regeneration as at his worst. For it is only that which is born of the Spirit that is Spirit, and that birth of the Spirit is Regeneration. The tallest of men is not appreciably nearer the sun than the shortest. Both alike would need to cross the line of the sun’s superior attractive power in order to journey to that great centre. Though they may differ in age, and height, and color, and attainments, yet in this “there is no difference;” and whatever differences there may be in men in the matter of cultivation, or moral development, they alike are included in our Lord’s declaration, “Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” There is force also in the word “see,” as here used; for the old nature is blind, and cannot discern spiritual things. There is a spiritual world, a kingdom of God, which has come down to us, but men do not see it, nor will they, until the new nature, which has spiritual vision, is implanted. Having thus denned the terms which our Lord employs in this broad and sweeping assertion, let us consider the great truth which is presented in it, that—
II.—Regeneration, or the New Birth, is Essential to Salvation. We may here define Regeneration as that act of God upon us by which, through the Gospel as a means, the governing disposition of the soul is made holy. It includes, or brings about, an entire change of character, and gives a holy meetness for heaven.
1. The Scriptures are very full and explicit upon this point. To the objections offered by Nicodemus, Christ replies, explaining the nature of the new birth, and repealing in the most peremptory form, “Ye must be born again.” Indeed, our Lord expresses surprise that the “master” or leader “of Israel” should not know these things; because a careful study of the Old Testament Scriptures would surely reveal them. Not that Christ’s phrase, “born again,” will be found there, but the same teaching runs through them from beginning to end. All such Scriptures as represent man as destitute of spiritual life, as hostile to God, as dead in sin, as corrupt, as having a heart which is “deceitful above all things and desperately wicked” (Jeremiah 17:9), imply the necessity of the new birth, that man may enter the heavenly kingdom. Early in the history of our race God saw that “every imagination of the thoughts of man’s heart was only evil continually” (Genesis 6:5.) The words “every,” “only” and “continually” are significant. “The Lord looked down from heaven upon the children of men, to see if there were any that did understand, and seek God. They are all gone aside, they are all together become filthy; there is none that doeth good—no, not one.” (Psalms 14:2-3.) Can assertion of the condition of man’s old nature as irremediable go further? Can any conclusion be stronger, or more legitimate from such facts, than that he must have a new nature if he would be in harmony with God and heaven? But in Ezekiel there is the direct teaching to this effect. “Make you a new heart and a new spirit; for why will you die, O house of Israel?” “A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you.” (Ezekiel 18:31; Ezekiel 36:26.) As also in David’s prayer: “Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.” (Psalms 51:10.) Thus much for the Old Testament, which abounds in expressions of equal force with those quoted, and which our Lord believed should have taught Nicodemus that doctrine which fell so strangely upon his ears. The entire scope of the New Testament is in harmony with the words of Jesus as in the text. The Apostle to the Gentiles sets at naught all the claims of the Jew as a child of God on account of his descent from Abraham, saying, “In Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new creature.” (Galatians 6:15.) “If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature. Old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.” (2 Corinthians 5:17.) The uniform testimony of the inspired writers is that, by nature, our state is one of irrecoverable ruin. “The carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God; neither, indeed, can be.” (Romans 8:7.) And furthermore, man’s condition is not only one of native ruin, but also of native helplessness, so far as remedying the fatal defect. “Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots? then may ye also do good who are accustomed to do evil.” (Jeremiah 13:23.) There is no promise of blessedness in the future world to the unregenerate. Jesus says: “Many will say unto me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name, and in thy name cast out devils, and in thy name done many wonderful works? and then will I profess unto them, I never knew you; depart from me, ye that work iniquity.” (Matthew 7:21-23.) And the most terrible threatenings are spoken concerning such as remain in their sins. How fallacious are the hopes of the ungodly! And God is unchangeable, the day of reckoning will find him as determined to punish those who die in nature and in sin as when he uttered the proclamation of wrath. Look at the Scripture as we will, at the picture of man’s ruin; of his helplessness; of the wrath to come upon the ungodly; at the demands for holiness, without which no one can see the Lord; at the character of God; at the descriptions of heaven; at the cross of Christ and the shed blood, without which there is no remission; at invitations and warnings; at parable and story and didactic teaching; all join in confirmation of the assertion of Christ, “Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.”
2. If we look at the nature of Regeneration, we shall see that it is Essential to Salvation. We have already seen that it is something radical and fundamental. It is not mere reformation, or a simple renunciation of error and reception of truth. That may occur, and the heart be unaffected. A newly-awakened love of family, or desire for respectability, may prove powerful incentives to restrain a man from evil, or may lead one out of the slough of sensualism. A certain loftiness of mind may keep one from degrading sins; or strong selfish motives, such as a miser has in hoarding his gold, may prove a barrier against dissipation. Yet the evil within is not eliminated or lessened, and like a fire in the earth, repressed in one place, it bursts forth in another. Sin reveals itself in forms less offensive to society, but equally hateful in the sight of God. Men’s reforms are like lopping off branches of the evil tree, while the poisonous root, from which other branches will spring, is not only unharmed, but cherished and assiduously cultivated. A man in an easy chair cannot lift the chair with himself in it by tugging at its arms. He needs a power outside and above him. And men need a divine power to lift them from the weight of their own dead selves.
Regeneration is more than is included in a life of morality. Else the young ruler who came running to Christ with the all-important question, “What shall I do that I may inherit eternal life?” (Mark 10:17), would not have gone away sorrowful. Nor would it have been necessary for Christ to chill, with the words of the text, the advances of so distinguished and important a supporter as Nicodemus was likely to be. Society is permeated with the Pantheistic sentiment that holiness, or at least fitness for heaven, can be obtained by merely natural growth or development. Men tell us that “the salvation of the soul is no more miraculously obtained than that the grass grows, or the rain falls, or the sun shines miraculously.” That is, salvation comes according to nature, as much as the swelling of the buds and the growth of the seeds. The mistake lies not so much in the analogy of development, as in the fact that holiness has in human nature nothing to be developed from. “Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? Not one.” (Job 14:4.) There must be the seed created by the divine hand, and cast into the barren earth, before the fields can smile with abundant harvests. In vain would be all the husbandman’s exhortations either to empty soil, or to the pebbles and stones that may be scattered around,
to yield him a crop of cotton or of wheat. He must have like to produce like. And the “carnal mind,” that is not simply at enmity with God, but enmity itself, has in it nothing to produce likeness to God. Cultivation carried to the highest extent can never turn the pebble into the living tree. After all, Regeneration is a miracle wrought by the Holy Spirit in man; so mysterious, so hidden in its operation, that it is known only by its effects; so subtle that the learned “Master of Israel” could not understand it, and even Christ contents himself with asserting it. It is infinitely more than the highest result which man can, with all his efforts, produce upon himself. For he has not the inclination, the power, the soil, nor the seed, from which this marvellous work of Regeneration comes. Let men talk as they will, there is no true morality aside from the working out in life whatever God works in, in Regeneration. All else is in his sight but the garnishing of the sepulchre, which within is full of dead men’s bones.
“They talk of morals, O thou bleeding Lamb,
The grand morality is love to thee.”
It is needless to say that the profession of faith is not synonymous with the new birth. Else the Pharisees had been the favorite children of the Lord: for profession, as an ivy vine, spread with a profuse growth over them, concealing from man, but not from Christ, the rottenness within. It was to such as made broad their phylacteries, more intent upon carrying the law upon their foreheads than in their hearts; who uttered long prayers at the street corners, and gave but to be seen of men, that Jesus turned with withering denunciation, saying: “How can ye escape the damnation of hell?” This work of Regeneration is not to be transferred to the intellect as its seat. That the understanding is enlightened and the mental faculties quickened in the process is true, but these are but accompaniments, and not the work itself. Perhaps the Scriptural truth as to this matter has no greater foe than that pride of intellect which arrogates to itself the right of first place and chief consideration, and would make itself the subject as well as the judge of even spiritual processes. The Gospel, to the ancient Greek, was foolishness; and it is now to some scientists, because it was neither discovered, nor can be fathomed, by the intellect. There is no flavor of man’s wisdom in the cross; there is no detecting by men’s microscopes the operation of the Spirit in the new birth, nor the dropping of the seed of a divine faith into the penitent heart. From the eye of mere culture, the spiritual world is hidden, and therefore men say that it does not exist. Hence the restlessness, and more, the antagonism, which this levelling doctrine of the new birth encounters among many cultivated men, and the intense desire to carry it into the region of the head, and there settle it, when its sphere is distinctively that of the heart. For it is the heart, and it is the will, that are the seat of moral death and ruin, and it is with the heart that man must believe unto righteousness. A man bitten by a deadly serpent may have in his hand the sufficient remedy for the poison which is coursing through his veins, and which is about to bring congestion and death; he may hold it up to the light and admire it, and talk learnedly about its ingredients, and tell just how the medicine, when taken, will counteract the disease; and yet he may perish, and will, if he does nothing more. For it is not the hand that holds the medicine, nor the mind that discourses eloquently upon it, that is the point to be reached; but the whole system, of which the stomach is the centre, and from which life, through the remedy received into it, must radiate to every part. How many talk learnedly of religion, and even of the doctrines of grace, who recoil from the humbling teaching of the new birth, and like Nicodemus, know not “these things.” The new birth is not a creation of new faculties, nor an increase in the number of original endowments. Here is a man who yesterday was in sin, and to-day is in Christ. He is a new creature, by the operation of God through the truth. Yet he has the same physical structure—the same eyes, face, form, mind, breadth, culture. Yesterday his tongue blasphemed God; such is not the case to-day — not because it is paralyzed, and cannot utter wicked words, for, on the contrary, it is active in praising God. His arm that was raised in rebellion is the same that now puts forth its energy in the Lord’s work. If you ask him wherein is the difference, he may not be able to explain it. But, putting his hand upon his heart, he says: “The difference is here — old things are passed away; all things are become new.” There is a new ruler in the house of the soul, who has swept and garnished it, and has taken possession as the controlling and governing force; who has rescued his faculties and powers from the thralldom of sin, and has purified and turned them about, and taken them into the exalted service of holiness. For these faculties of body and mind are not the seat of sin, and were not made for its base uses. They are adapted, by the divine hand, to higher ends. They may be fitted for such service as angels give, and find in it their true employment and development. Yonder is a ship upon the high seas, perfect in all its equipments, and freighted with precious lives and valuable merchandise. It was constructed for noble uses, and the sky is clear, and the winds are favorable to speed it on its way to its proper port. But there is an evil pilot on board, whose intent it is to destroy it. He is steering it towards that reef of rocks, and, in his efforts to bring it to ruin, he is aided by the very excellence of its parts. The sturdy masts, and strong sails, and stiff breeze, but hasten it to its destruction. But. change your pilot; put a true man in charge, and every spar and bit of cordage feels the difference; and wind, and sail, and masts, and rudder, all combine to bring the vessel safely to its haven. No illustration is perfect, and this is far from it; but it may illustrate this one point, that in Regeneration there is a new governing power, and that every fibre of body and mind is to feel the thrill of its rulership, and to own its sway. And this new governing power is no less than a new nature. It is not the divine method to seek to improve that which is dead and worthless, or to attempt to turn enmity into love. The old nature is beyond cultivation, even by the divine hand, and it is fit only to be crucified. There is the implanting of a new nature, the becoming “partakers of the divine nature” (2 Peter 1:4); and this new nature begotten in us by God “with the word of truth” (James 1:18) is that which is the new man in Christ Jesus; is that which sings at the approach of its Lord; is that which alone rejoices in his love, delights in his presence, and, becoming master of the regenerated one, is in harmony with God and heaven.
If such be the nature of Regeneration; if it be higher, and deeper, and broader than man’s best attainments; if it be the crucifixion of the old, and the imparting of a new nature which hates sin and loves holiness; of a nature which is in harmony with God’s character and requirements; then man must be regenerated, or he is in perpetual dissonance with the government and the holiness of God, at eternal war with his Creator—and that means eternal wretchedness and misery.
3. Regeneration is essential to bring man where he is influenced by Gospel motives, and by the Word of God. According to Scripture, we are “born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the Word of God, which liveth and abideth forever.” (1 Peter 1:23.) Gospel truth is the means through which the new life comes to the soul. It is “he that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life.” (John 5:24.) For all is in perfect keeping here. One needs to be begotten “with the Word of truth,” which is the new birth, in order to be guided and moulded by the truth. But this truth is from God, and endures forever. There is no salvation but in conformity to it. “Indignation and wrath” are the portion of such as “do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness.” (Romans 2:8.) In 2 Thessalonians 1:7-8, we are taught that “the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels, in flaming fire, taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.” And, in 1 Peter 4:17, we are asked the solemn question, “What shall the end be of them that obey not the Gospel of God!” Furthermore, the children of God “purify their souls in obeying the truth” (1 Peter 1:22), and are kept clean from the defilements of life by “the washing of water by the Word.” (Ephesians 5:26.) In all of which we see that he alone is saved and conformed to the image of the Son, who hears and receives the Word; who has the new life come to him through the Word; and to whom the Word is “the lamp to his feet and the light to his path;” who is controlled, shaped, cleansed, seized upon and possessed by the Word; who can say with the Psalmist (Psalms 119:11), “Thy Word have I hid in mine heart that I might not sin against thee.” But all this is the work, the accompaniment, and the result of Regeneration. It is the new birth alone, and not any culture of the old nature, which brings us into the position where the Word of God, which is the law of heaven, is infinitely sweet, and his will the soul’s supreme delight. This is far from being the case with the unregenerate. “The ungodly are not so.” Their delight is not in the law of the Lord, nor do they meditate in the law day and night. (Psalms 2:2.) They cannot say, “How sweet are thy words unto my taste! yea, sweeter than honey to my mouth!” (Psalms 119:103.) On the contrary, the Gospel falls upon dead ears; the book of God is shunned because it condemns them; its precepts, which mould the character for heaven, are disregarded. How, then, can the unregenerate man be saved, when the Gospel, the means by which life comes to him, is unheeded; and the Word, which gives the heavenly pattern to which the saved conform, is to him as an idle tale?
4. The Regeneration of the soul is demanded by the nature and employments of the Heavenly World. The superficial thought is prevalent that “the only obstacle to the eternal felicity of the ungodly is the determination of Jehovah to close against them the gates of the eternal city.” [36] It is argued that, this being the case, God is too fonder and complaisant to bold out in this arbitrary enactment, but will yield at last, in a gush of sentiment, and receive the evil and the good alike into glory. It seems to be conveniently forgotten that,” constituted as man is, misery is the natural and necessary result of unholy character. For God himself does not attempt the impossible task of saving his people in their sins, but from them.” [37] Neither the torments of the damned nor the bliss of the saved will result mainly from the place to which they shall be consigned, though the place be hell with its horrors, or heaven with its unspeakable splendor. Not denying or underrating the positive punishments inflicted upon the lost, yet it will be true that “the hell of the sinner will be in his own bosom;” and if the hand of God should not directly touch him, yet his portion will be with the never-dying worm of an accusing conscience; with the unquenchable fire of self-reproach, with the torments of an unholy nature which shall know no restraints in its developments in sin. It is not an arbitrary fiat, “He which is filthy, let him be filthy still; and he that is holy, let him be holy still.” (Revelation 22:11.) It is but the expression of the unalterable nature of things. Yet men, ignorant of the nature of the heavenly world, and picturing it as adapted to their unrenewed tastes, and imagining that a change of circumstances will cure the ills which attend this life, suppose that if, by any means, they could break down the decree which keeps them out, or could elude the vigilance of the angel wardens and enter, they would be supremely blest forever. They forget that character determines destiny, and that in the case of the angels who kept not their first estate, even heaven itself was a place of misery until they were cast out. It is a true sentiment which Milton has put into the mouth of Satan, [36] Payne’s Lectures, p. 388 [37] Payne’s Lectures.
“Which way I fly is Hell; myself am Hell.” Could it be that the unregenerate man should enter heaven, it would yield him no delight. Its duties would be irksome, its pleasures insipid and joyless. The illiterate boor, shut up in the society of philosophers, soon wearies of their learned discourse, and longs to break loose and rejoin his boon companions. Now, to the unregenerate holiness is insufferable here. They do not delight to meditate upon it, nor to seek after it. It belongs to a world outside of their existence. But holiness is the supreme characteristic of heaven. Seraphims there, with veiled faces, cry, “Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord of hosts.” (Is. 6: 3.) “And into that city there shall in no wise enter anything that defileth, neither whatsoever worketh abomination, or maketh a lie; but they which are written in the Lamb’s book of life.” (Revelation 21:27.) Holiness is the bliss of heaven. To be freed from the corpse of sin which is chained to us here; to be purified from every taint of evil; to be made holy like God, beyond the reach of the lusts of the flesh or the temptations of Satan; this is the ardent longing of every child of God, and because of this attainment, heaven to him is unutterably glorious. But there is nothing in death, nor in change of location, to give to the unregenerate man that relish for holiness and spiritual delights, which is foreign to him here, and which he must have to enter and enjoy the celestial city. The pursuits of heaven are such as are here irksome to the unregenerate. For they are hearty and incessant service to God and the Lamb. In the view of the heavenly city, in Revelation, we see the four living creatures and the elders—as representatives of the Church of God—and the angelic hosts vieing with each other in their ascriptions of praise, and of honor, and of glory, and of power, to him that sitteth on the throne, and to the Lamb forever. They sing with wondrous enthusiasm the new song of Redemption through the blood. But, however men may join in external acts of worship here, is it true that the unregenerate delight in the perfections of God, and in the atoning work of Christ? Is their will lost in his, and is it their joy to present their “bodies as a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is their reasonable service?” (Romans 12:1.) To the redeemed soul, heaven is nothing without the enjoyment of God and the presence of Christ. Paul, in the fulness of his labors, expresses his desire “to depart and be with Christ, which is far better.” (Php 1:23.) The Apostle John exultingly says: “We know that when he shall appear, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.” (1 John 3:2.) And, in Revelation, Christ is seen in heaven as the Lamb bearing the marks of sacrifice, and the centre of adoration and worship. To meet him whom here we have known as the “man of sorrows,” and see him as the glorified Son of God; to greet him not as a stranger, but as the friend who died for our sins and rose again for our justification; to be associated with him forever; this is the blessed prospect which stirs the Christian heart with a deathless enthusiasm, and causes us to joyfully respond to our Lord’s declaration, “Surely I come quickly;” with the prayer, “Even so, Lord Jesus, come.”
But, do the unregenerate delight in Christ here? Is he to them the one “altogether lovely?” Is the thought of God one which inspires them with pleasure? or do they not desire to banish him from their minds and hearts? And if, perchance, the subject of personal union with Christ be introduced as a theme in their presence, there is constraint; and they are at ease again only when the topic is exchanged for some worldly one. Jesus is not “All the day long
Their joy and their song.”
They cannot sit under his shadow with great delight. How, then, shall they endure Heaven, when the presence of God and the Lamb is that which gives to the upper world its inextinguishable radiance? Introduce that unregenerate heart into the glorious company of the angels and redeemed. Let him visit circle after circle, and group upon group of the heavenly inhabitants, and endeavor to share in their service and delights, and what congeniality is there for such as he? He listens to them telling of redeeming love; he hears their acclamations of praise; he sees them striking their harps to the lofty strains of joy. But wherever he turns, there is but the one theme Redemption through God’s abounding grace; and of this they never weary. There is the impress of holiness in their faces, and the mark of God’s proprietorship upon their foreheads. He could not be happy there, for to share in heaven’s enjoyments, one must be born again.
Thus, not arbitrary is this radical saying of Jesus. The whole tenor of Scripture; the lost condition of man; the nature of the work of regeneration; the imperative necessity of a holy character; the nature of the heavenly world—all combine to give emphasis to this saying of Jesus, “Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.”