The New Birth (2)

Albert N. Martin

Turn with me, please, to the gospel according to John 3:1-8.

“Now there was a man of the Pharisees, named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews; the same came unto him by night and said unto him, ‘Rabbi, we know that You are a teacher come from God; for no one can do these signs that You do, except God be with him.’ Jesus answered and said unto him, ‘Verily, verily I say unto you, except one be born anew [or born from above or born again] he cannot see the kingdom of God.’ Nicodemus said unto Him, ‘How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?’ Jesus answered, ‘Verily, verily I say unto you, except one be born of water and the Spirit he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not marvel that I said unto you, ‘You must be born anew.’ The wind blows where it will and you hear the voice [or the sound] thereof, but know not whence it comes and whither it goes; so is everyone that is born of the Spirit.’”

“That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not marvel that I said unto you, ‘You must be born again.’”

Now, notice the context of this statement. It is sandwiched in between our Lord pressing the absolute necessity for the new birth, Nicodemus’ question “how can I be born again when I am old?” and Jesus’ final statement in verse 7 of the absolute necessity, “Marvel not that ye must be born again. In between those assertions He explains why it is that nothing less than a new birth, nothing less than a birth from above, nothing less than a birth of water and of spirit will enable us to see and enter the Kingdom of God.

He says it is because “that which is born of the flesh is flesh,” and I think William Hendriksen’s comments are the most accurate and simple to grasp. He said an accurate paraphrase of the thought of our Lord would be this: “sinful, human nature produces only sinful, human nature.” That’s it.

“That which is born of the flesh.” Fathers and mothers who are inherently sinful men and women with sinful human natures—what can they beget in natural generation? “That which is born of the flesh is flesh”! So that our children born of us, by natural generation, can only receive from us that which is fleshy, that which is sinful, human nature!

Job asked the question in Job 14:4: “Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? Not one.”

“That which is born of the flesh is flesh.” Sinful, human nature can produce only other sinful, human nature, and in those simple words, our Lord is seeking to get to the heart of Nicodemus’ problem. He’s seeking to show to him that though he was born of sinful nature that was exceedingly religious, and though he was privileged to have his own sinful nature surrounding with all of the benefits of the covenant people of God, and the intensified benefits of intimate contact with the Scriptures and the temple and synagogues and instruccion from the Word of God and the tradition of the elders and all of a life bound up in religious things, he is still sinful flesh, because “that which is born of the flesh is flesh,” and nothing that has only what momma and daddy gave me can either see or enter the Kingdom of God.

In a day when we are being told on every hand that what we are, by nature, is fundamentally, essentially good and noble and praiseworthy, and therefore we must stroke our self-worth and our self-esteem, it is vital to thunder into the ears of this generation drunk with the poisonous, deadly wine of self-deception: “that which is born of the flesh is flesh”!

Sinful nature can only produce and beget sinful nature, and according to Scripture, what are the characteristics of sinful nature? Let me just give you a couples of them as samples.

The same family of words is used in Romans 8:7: “for the carnal mind [the mind of the flesh,] is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can it be.” Flesh produces flesh, and the mindset, the prevailing disposition of every son and daughter born of fleshly parents, the disposition is one big, clenched fist in the face of God! The carnal mind is in its very essence enmity against God. “It is not subject to the law of God, neither [indeed] can it be”!

“That which is born of the flesh is flesh,” and as flesh, it has a clenched fist in the face of God, and it will live and die and go to Hell that way, unless Almighty God intervenes.

“It is enmity, it is not subject to God, neither, can it be.”

Furthermore, take a text like 1 Corinthians 2. The natural man receives not the things of the Spirit of God. The man, woman, boy, or girl only has what his momma and his daddy could give him by conception and birth and training and education and culture and nurture. Still, a natural man has never been born of the Spirit! He only has that which nature and training and culture can give him.

“The natural man receives not the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness unto him; neither can he know them” (1 Corinthians 2:14).

He has no faculty to truly know and perceive them, because they are spiritually discerned and he does not possess the Holy Spirit, because “that which is born of the flesh is flesh”! It is not only one big, clenched fist in the face of God, it’s one big, blind eye to the things of God.

Now, I know that is not very, very helpful to self-esteem to be told, “I am one massive, clenched fist in the face of God, and I am one massive, blind eye before the things of God,” but that’s reality, my friend!

That’s reality! It was the reality of Nicodemus. He wasn’t a bum; he wasn’t a whoremonger; he wasn’t a thief! He was a Pharisee; he was a teacher in Israel; he was a ruler in Israel! A religious, devout, upright. Influential man, but he was, by nature, one massive, clenched fist, and one big, blind eye!