Jesus has expressed to Nicodemus the imperativeness and the inflexibility of the necessity of a new birth for the implantation of the new life. But has Jesus made an arbitrary, perhaps even an unreasonable demand, or has He only stated a law of the spiritual Kingdom, which admittedly is as reasonable as the law which governs the physical kingdom?
In the physical realm we recognize two laws which operate everywhere and always; physical life is the result of physical birth, and the thing that is born partakes of the nature of that which gave it birth. Like begets like. Natural begets natural. Jesus told Nicodemus that the same kind of a law prevails in the spiritual realm; the spiritual life is the result of spiritual birth and that that which is born of God partakes of the nature of God. Like begets like. Divine begets divine.
John 3:6, 7, "That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Ye must be born again."
In these verses Jesus has stated with intentional conciseness and clarity four profound truths:
1. There are two distinct spheres in which man lives.
2. Entrance to each sphere is by birth.
3. Flesh begets flesh and Spirit begets spirit.
4. Any one who wishes to pass out of the sphere of the flesh into the sphere of the Spirit can do so only by a second birth.
Nicodemus coveted for himself something which Jesus possessed. That which Nicodemus coveted was a spiritual thing. It belonged only to those living in the spiritual sphere; it could be bestowed only upon those who possessed a spiritual nature. But Nicodemus was living in the sphere of the flesh. He was no doubt living up to the best that he knew in that sphere; in fact he came to Jesus for more light on how to live a still better and more useful life in that same sphere. Was it not a reasonable and even laudable desire and should it not be granted?
Again Jesus goes to the very heart of the difficulty and shows the utter impossibility of making the flesh spiritual. "That which is born of the flesh is flesh" and it can never be anything else. It may be educated flesh, cultured flesh, traveled flesh, moral flesh, yes, even religious flesh, but it is still flesh.
Even God makes no attempt to make the flesh anything but flesh. He tells us why in His Word.
Romans 8:7, 8, "Because the mind of the flesh is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can it be. And they that are in the flesh cannot please God."
The flesh is God-hating and God-defying. It is irreconcilably hostile to God. Because the flesh is what it is it is unchangeable and unimprovable. So God makes no attempt either to repair the ruin or to reconcile the enmity of the old, corrupt, defiled, rebellious, lawless nature. Even when outwardly clothed in the beautiful garments of geniality, amiability, kindness, generosity, courtesy and gentleness, it is still at heart God-hating and God-defying. "They that are in the flesh cannot please God."
How then could God permit one to enter His family as a son, or His Kingdom as a citizen, who had only the old nature of the flesh? How could one obey the laws of a spiritual Kingdom with only a fleshly nature? How could a corrupt, defiled nature that loved sin and hated holiness ever make a man or woman holy? Upon what would God have to build to conform the natural man into the image of His Son? Or what enjoyment would Heaven offer to an unregenerate soul? If on earth those living in the flesh find no pleasure in the companionship and converse of those living in the Spirit surely this would be even more true in Heaven. The pursuits and pleasures, the desires and the deeds of the natural man, are the exact antitheses of those of the spiritual man. If Nicodemus were to possess and enjoy the spiritual thing for which his heart hungered he must have a spiritual nature.
"That which is born of the flesh is flesh." The old, fleshly nature equips one to live in the sphere of the flesh but nowhere else. So Jesus held out to Nicodemus no hope of his heart's desire and need being met and satisfied through any change either sudden or gradual in his old nature. Jesus makes no proposal to reinvigorate or reinforce the old nature by the addition of spiritual gifts and graces or by the subtraction of evil tendencies and practices. Jesus will not put a new piece on an old garment. Jesus shows unmistakably that "there is no process, even of diving alchemy, by which the base metal of the flesh can be transformed into the fine gold of the Spirit." The flesh cannot be improved, changed or utilized by God. There is nothing in it which God can accept.
What then does God purpose to do to equip a repentant, believing sinner for membership in the new order of heavenly holy men and women? He purposes to endow him with a new nature that fits him or her for citizenship in His Kingdom and for sonship in His family. He purposes to bestow upon him His own divine nature which will fructify in a supernatural life. To live the live of God one must have the nature of God, therefore through the new birth God plants His own seed in the spirit of man to abide there.
2 Peter 1:4, "Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises; that by these ye might become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust."
1 John 3:9, }Whosoever is begotten of God doeth no sin, because his seed abideth in him; and he cannot sin, because he is begotten of God".
The believer in Christ Jesus becomes the possessor of something which he never possessed before - the nature of God Himself. The eternal lie of the uncreated God is implanted in the innermost part of his human personality and his whole being throbs with the divine energy of a new life. The new birth is the impartation of a new intellectual, emotional, volitional nature which produces in man a totally new life and fits him to live in a totally new sphere.
~Ruth Paxson~
(continued with # 2)
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