THE NEW BIRTH (a)

"Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the Word of God, which liveth and abideth forever." -- I Peter 1:23.

     The old Jews were proud of the fact that they were Abraham's seed, and, as a consequence, heirs of the promise. They had become so used to looking upon themselves as superior beings that when even the Son of God attempted to rebuke them for their sins He was made to pay the penalty for His transgression by the ignoble death of the cross.

     There is no doubt that our fisherman disciple, along with others, had imbibed such self-righteous, "I-am-holier-than-thou" sentiments, and it meant much for him to learn that he must place the conditions of sonship on a different footing than that on which he had been taught to believe it rested.

     Much more grace did it take when it meant to abandon Abraham as the head of the spiritual family, Abraham the friend of God, Abraham the father of the faithful, and to substitute in his place the despised, rejected, crucified Son of David, the lowly Nazarene.

     But, thank God, Peter and the other disciples were ready to make the exchange; they chose Christ, and by so doing, they exalted Abraham. If the Jews had been Abraham's spiritual children indeed, they would have received Christ, for the faith of Abraham was founded in his most illustrious Son, whose day he saw by faith, and rejoiced.

     While the Jews were Abraham's children by natural ties) yet, to be his spiritual children, and this means much more than to be his natural children, even they, through whose veins that patriarch's blood coursed, must drink in of the same Spirit which he imbibed, they must partake of the same nature of which he partook.

     But, because some of them refused to thus partake, Jesus rightfully accused them of being children of the devil; that is, they drank in of the spirit of the devil which was opposition to and hatred for the Son of man.

     To be born again is to partake of another Spirit. Man may, in a certain sense, be said to be born again when his eyes are open and he sees the beauty and begins to love art, nature, mathematics, his fellow man, or when any of the finer sensibilities of his nature are aroused to discern the higher aims and pursuits of life.

     But this birth is very limited, indeed, when compared with the "new birth" of which our text treats. Those changes are all consistent with and included within the possibilities of the natural man, while the new birth is within but extends beyond the natural man and encompasses eternity. It drinks of the spiritual fountain, and that fountain is Christ.

     The re-birth of the natural man is a discovery of the less degrading elements of a fallen soul (if less degrading they may be called when they do not lead Godward), while the "new birth" of the soul is a discovery and-a reception of God, of the God-life.

     The re-birth of the natural man is all included within the capabilities of a fallen, corruptible soul, and leaves the corruption just as vile as ever; but the "new birth" of the soul, while touching the capabilities of the natural (not sinful) man, comes primarily from without; it is the infusion of an incorruptible seed, and that seed is Christ.

     The re-birth of the natural man is a remolding or refashioning of the fallen soul, while the "new birth" purifies and elevates the soul, and makes it godlike.

     But the passage before us is more especially a contrast between the natural or physical birth and the re-birth of the spirit. Or it may be a contrast between the Jewish notions of sonship and Gods ideas of sonship.

     The prevailing Jewish idea of sonship was altogether natural, or of the corruptible, fleshly nature; or at best the reception of the spiritual privileges, by inheritance, which they supposed were theirs by right since they were the children of Abraham. But in partaking of the flesh of our parents, -- the descendants of Adam, -- we, through them, partake, of the sinful, corruptible nature of Adam; this is true of the Jew as well as of the Gentile. Then the only boast the Jew could truthfully make was in his greater opportunities, for he possessed the true oracles of God.

     But in Jesus Christ corruptible seed is exchanged for incorruptible. The Christian no longer traces his ancestry through many generations back to Abraham or to Adam; but through Jesus Christ he is a son of God, not indirectly, but directly, -a real son.

     The first birth is by the will of man and of man, but the second birth is by the will of God. The first birth is so completely of corrupt man that the child is nothing but a corrupt man, totally depraved, as the theologians say, possessing in a greater or lesser degree all the infirmities, in kind, of his parents; but the "new birth" is so completely of God that the child is a son of God with the glorious, holy nature of his heavenly parent. He possesses, in a lesser degree, all the spiritual perfections of his heavenly Father.

     The second birth is by the Word of God, which liveth and abideth forever. While those who are born of corruptible seed must die, those who are born of the Word of God shall abide forever.

     Sorrows untold are an accompaniment. or a necessary result which follows the corruptible birth, but the "new birth" is a birth of joy; ever-increasing, all-consuming joy is the heritage of a child of God.

     Lord, I believe that if my soul fully follows Thee, Thou wilt take away my earth-born sorrows and fill me with heaven-sent joy. Such joys are not found in the passing amusements of the worldling, but are as solid and lasting as the everlasting hills, such joys are only given to the bloodwashed. Oh, the bliss of the glorious knowledge! This joy has already begun in my soul, and shall last while eternity endures.

     Macarius, the Egyptian (350 A. D.), describes the joys of the ransomed in the following words:

     "At one time they find themselves at a royal banquet, filled with joy, and rejoice with gladness not to be expressed; at another time they are as a bride, enjoying divine repose in the sweet communion and fellowship of the bridegroom. At other times they are seemingly like angels without bodies, so exceeding light and easy they feel themselves with the body. At other times they are like men overcome with wine; joying and rejoicing in Spirit, and inebriated with divine and spiritual mysteries... At other times they are so enflamed with love by the Spirit that, were it possible, they would take up and enwrap all mankind in their own bowels, making no distinction between bad and good... At other times they are like a strong man taking on him the royal Armor, engaging his enemies in battle, and overcoming them; thus the spiritual man takes the heavenly Armor of the Spirit and wages war with his enemies and lays them flat at his feet...