HIS QUICKENING WORK

HIS QUICKENING WORK
We have had before us the personality of the Holy Ghost and we have also considered His gracious work with regard to the Word of God. Now we will enquire into His work in the soul in producing new life towards God, where once sin and death reigned.
This is unfolded very simply in John 3:1-36. Nicodemus came to the Lord by night. He had been outwardly convinced by the miracles which the Lord was performing, as were many others in Jerusalem at that time (John 2:33). He came "by night," feeling instinctively that the world and Jesus were opposed, and that to be seen going to Him would bring down persecution, or at least reproach upon himself. He opened by saying, "Rabbi, we know that thou art a teacher come from God, for no man can do these miracles that Thou doest, except God be with him." The Lord met him instantly with the solemn statement, "Verily, verily, I say unto thee except a man he born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God."
How deeply humbling! What a check upon the thoughts of the ruler of the Jews! We learn here the solemn fact, that man in his natural condition, cannot perceive or understand the things of God. Privileges or advantages make no real difference. Nicodemus had many. He was not a profane or immoral man, nor was he even a Gentile. He was a Jew of high position as a teacher among his fellows, acquainted with the letter of Scripture, and, we have no reason to doubt, moral and religious. What fairer specimen of humanity can be supposed?
Saul of Tarsus was just such another. Read his account of himself in Philippians 3. Possessed of every natural, dispensational and religious advantage.
Some, perhaps, would have understood the matter better if the Lord had spoken of the new birth in John 4:1-54 instead of John 3:1-36. In John 4:1-54 He is seen dealing with an openly wicked woman at the well of Sychar. Not there, but here, does the Lord say, "Ye must be born again."
All must learn sooner or later that man's nature is altogether antagonistic to God, — altogether bad and corrupt before Him. It is not only that men have done bad things, but the very nature is bad beyond repair. Few accept this. We hear much in these days of improvement of man, of the raising of the masses, etc., but all this only shows that men have not accepted the verdict of God about themselves. If they did but bow to it, they would be thankful to be objects of God's sovereign grace and love.
But it remains true, in flesh dwells no good thing. Its mind is enmity against God, and they that are in the flesh cannot please God (Romans 7:18; Romans 8:7-8). This admits of no appeal and no modification. A man must be born again, or he can never see or enter the kingdom of God.
But how is this brought about? Nicodemus could not tell, nor can many in this day, but the Lord Jesus explains. "Verily, verily, I say unto thee, except a man be born of water and of the Spirit," etc. Here we have it in a few words. It is the direct work of the Spirit of God, acting by means of the word of God upon the soul. Perhaps I need hardly say that "water" here is the figure of the word of God. Some have imported the idea of baptism into this chapter and the Lord's Supper into John 6:1-71. But Christian baptism was not instituted until after the Lord's resurrection, and the Lord's Supper not until the night of His betrayal. Consequently neither can possibly be found in the early chapters of John's Gospel.
The water is a symbol of the word of God, which the Jewish teacher should have understood from such Old Testament passages as Ezekiel 36:25, and Psalms 119:9. Christians have the thought confirmed in Ephesians 5:26 and John 15:3. The Spirit of God brings the word to bear upon the soul, convincing it of sin and revealing the Saviour dead and risen. To this the soul believingly bows, and thus a positive new life and nature is imparted. As we read in 1 Peter 1:1-25. "Being born again, not of corruptible seed but of incorruptible, by the word of God which liveth and abideth for ever." This is not an improvement of the old nature. By no means. That remains as evil as ever, to be kept under by the soul that has learnt deliverance through the death and resurrection of Christ. It is a life imparted that had no existence in the person before, enabling him now to sorrow for sin according to God, to believe the gospel, to love the Saviour, to pray and worship, and to love the ways of holiness and truth. It partakes of the nature of Him Who is its source — "That which is born of the Spirit is spirit."
This is not peculiar to Christianity. Ever since sin came into the world, men have been thus graciously wrought upon by the Holy Spirit. What is peculiar to this period is the Spirit's indwelling, of which we shall speak in another chapter; but His quickening operation in the soul is true at all times, irrespective of dispensational differences.
Still, the Lord says more in John 3:1-36 than could have been made known in Old Testament times; He speaks of eternal life. He had come from heaven to make God known and to show what suits Him and His presence, and He was the manifestation of eternal life. Eternal life was in Himself; yea, He was it, a life heavenly in its source and character, of which heaven is proper and suited sphere, but which is the enjoyed portion now of all who believe in the Son. The Son has been uplifted that life might be bestowed upon all who trust His name. It is not hereby denied that saints of old time had eternal life. But the life was not made known in its full and heavenly character until the only begotten Son came forth from the Father into the world.