The New Birth (3)

Albert N. Martin

Will you turn with me, please, to the Gospel according to John, the book we have been working through in our consecutive reading. 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.’”

If we believe that it’s a sovereign work of the Holy Spirit, we will have no sympathy for this notion that the new birth is just a kind of emotionally-triggered, religious burp. That’s what a lot of people think the new birth is: an emotionally-triggered, religious burp in which Jesus has a little something to do somehow or other, and you feel better about yourself and about other people. You know when you have a good burp, how you feel so good afterwards? You feel relieved. That’s why I use the terminology. You see, you can admit it: you feel good after having a burp, don’t you? Sure you do! You’re getting rid of gas that doesn’t belong there. You see why I use the term? Having an emotionally-triggered, religious burp that makes you feel good, and Jesus is somehow in the midst of that! That’s not the new birth! Anyone can produce that. It can be a self-induced, psychological experience.

The new birth is a sovereign work of the Holy Spirit. It’s an effective work of the Holy Spirit, or you may want to use the word ‘discernible.’ It is an effective work of the Spirit! How do we know that?

Look at the text: “The wind blows where it wills, [sovereignty], so is everyone born of the Spirit, and you hear the sound thereof.” How do you know the wind is present? Not because you can cognize when it began and where it will go and end, but because of its immediate, present effect upon you. “You can hear its sound.” The Lord could have said, “You can feel its pressure; you can see its activity.” It is an effective, working element in God’s Creation, so is everyone born of the Spirit.

This is why—in the book of 1 John—John can state at least five things that are true of everyone who is born again. 5:1, “He that believeth that Jesus is the Christ is begotten of God.” 3:9, “He that is begotten of God does not make a practice of sin.” 2:29, “He that is begotten of God practices righteousness.” 3:14 and 4:7, “He that is born of God loves the brethren.” 5:4, “He that is begotten of God overcomes the world.” 5:18, “He that is begotten of God keeps himself and the evil one touches him not.”

John says wherever there is the new birth there is an effective work of the Holy Spirit! Listen carefully, he doesn’t say one word about hearing voices, seeing angels, speaking in tongues, or having goosebumps. The tests are all ethical, moral, and doctrinal.

Those are the tests that the Spirit has done His work of a new birth, if we truly have cast the weight of our souls upon Christ! Jesus of Nazareth is our only hope of life and salvation. We’ve done so, because we’ve been begotten of God! Faith in Christ is the first motion enacting of a regenerate heart. “Whoever is born of God does not make a practice of sin.” In the divine begetting there is a vomiting out of sin, a turning from sin as a way of life, a turning from sin’s dominion and lordship, and a commitment to universal holiness.

“He that is begotten of God practices righteousness,” (2:29). He’s committed to an active pursuit to the evangelical obedience to the Law of God. He takes the Law of God seriously in all its length and breadth and spirituality. He loves the brethren with all their warts and moles and quirks and irritants! He loves them because they are brethren, because they’re born of the same God, indwelt by the same Spirit, and the image of the mutuality-trusted Christ has begun to be formed in them.

He overcomes the world. “He that is begotten of God overcomes the world”(1 John 5:4). The world does not squeeze him into his mold, and hold him there so that we’re worldly even in how we view our dress. Don’t talk about spirituality if it doesn’t touch your wardrobe! More of that when we come to love “does not behave itself unseemingly” (1 Corinthians 13:5a).

The Bible does talk about modest apparel, and God doesn’t give us a ten-page manual saying so-many inches off the floor and so-many inches from the sternum to the cleavage, but He does say “modest” and He does say: “there met him a woman with the attire of a harlot” (Proverbs 7:10), assuming that in every given culture there are the symbols in our clothing of modesty or immodesty. The woman begotten of God is prepared to be considered a little dowdy if to be modest she’s called “dowdy”!

The world has its music. It has its standards of luxury and uncleanness and godlessness and materialism and moral relativism, with hatred and brutality and sadism breathing out from everything from so-called soft rock to hate rap. “He that is born of God overcomes the world” (1 John 5:4a). He rejects that as any part of his entertainment! How can one born of the God of truth and the God of love and the God of righteousness and the God of order entertain himself while listening to that, which breathes of the spirit of darkness and hate and disorder?

My friends, stop playing games. You listen to the same music as your neighbors who don’t profess anything of Christian faith, what proof do you have that you’ve overcome the world?

I’m talking in generic terms. The world comes in its specific propositions to us with its styles, with its entertainments, with its music, with its avocations, with its recreations, with its standards of what’s worthy of being pursued.

God says we are to pursue holiness; we are to seek first the Kingdom! The world says: “Seek riches,” and God says: “No, charge them to be careful about seeking riches. For they that would be rich fall into manifold snares and drown themselves in perdition” (1 Timothy 6: 9, 17). “If riches come,” God says: “set not your heart upon them” (Psalm 62:10b). They can go a lot quicker than they came.

Do you overcome the world? Do you keep yourself from the enemy, the evil one?

You see, the new birth, my friend, is not being able to look back to some time when you had a nice, warm feeling, because you had some kind of an emotionally-triggered burp. It was a morally, ethically, religiously, transforming work of the Spirit of God.

“The wind blows where it wills, so is everyone born of the Spirit.” You can’t tell where it comes, where it goes, but you hear it sound. So, it is an effective work of the Spirit.