EXPLANATORY AND CRITICAL NOTES
John 3:1. In John 2:23-24, we read of many who believed in Jesus because of the miracles He wrought. But their belief was so imperfect that Jesus had “no faith” in it. Here, however, we have a man of a different stamp. He was, it is true, influenced to some extent by Jesus’ miracles, but he came to the Lord as a genuine inquirer and seeker after truth. Nicodemus.—A Greek name, but known among the Jews. “The Talmud mentions again and again a person of this name (Nakedimon), called also Bounaï, reckoned to the number of Jesus’ disciples” (Godet). The word a man (ἄνθρωπος) connects this with John 2:25. He was one of those whom Jesus knew; but he was an exception to the general crowd. The Pharisees.—That sect which, although losing themselves in the quicksands of minute legal observance, yet perhaps included many men possessing a high moral standard. But they did not fully realise the nature of sin and the holiness of God. Therefore, as Hengstenberg remarks, “they knew of no new birth, but of a holiness attained to piece by piece, in which man has the primas partes; God, however, principally the part of spectator and rewarder.” Nicodemus was a ruler of the Jews (ἄρχων), i.e. probably a member of the Sanhedrin (John 7:50).
John 3:2. He came to Jesus.—This suggests a division in the Pharisaic camp. Some were chafing in their bonds and desired spiritual freedom. Nicodemus recognised in Jesus a more than ordinary appearance. The report of the deputation sent to John the Baptist no doubt also raised his interest in Jesus higher; and all this probably coincided with the longing after Messiah and His kingdom which filled the hearts of the best of the race at that time. By night.—Not because he feared, but rather because both Jesus and himself were occupied during the daytime (but see p. 89). He called Jesus Master (ῥαββί), although it seems as if Jesus had not gone through the educational course required ere a Jew could assume this title (John 7:15). But Nicodemus recognised Jesus as a teacher sent from God. The miracles of Christ led him dimly to realise this. We know, etc., shows that a number of the Jewish rulers shared the opinion of Nicodemus.
John 3:3. Verily, verily, etc., expresses the truth and unchanging validity of what was about to be spoken: “Except a man be born again,” etc. (ἄνωθεν means “from above,” “from the beginning”: born again, anew, or reborn is evidently the sense in which Nicodemus understood the phrase). Nicodemus came with a dim perception that these miracles, etc., of Jesus might be evidences of Messiah’s presence. But Jesus showed him that Messiah’s kingdom is inward and spiritual. Cannot see the kingdom of God.—I.e. cannot arrive at an individual participation in God’s kingdom, nor at the attainment of its blessedness. The kingdom of God is that kingdom which the Messiah was expected to establish; and its nature is clearly set forth, e.g., in Luke 17:20-21.
John 3:4. Nicodemus did not misunderstand our Lord. He knew that Christ referred to a spiritual, inward change. But he did not see that such a change was needed in his own case. He was already in the kingdom; and to ask that he should begin anew his moral and religious life, like proselytes who must become as children ere they could become subjects in God’s kingdom—as well expect one who had grown old to be reborn naturally.
John 3:5. Vide separate note, p. 98.
John 3:6. That which is born of the flesh is flesh.—Flesh (σάρξ), means our human nature considered in itself and apart from controlling spiritual power. It is our fallen humanity as it exists with its passions, feelings, etc., not governed by the divine law, and uncontrolled even by our own higher reason and conscience. It lies in sin; and it is thus transmitted from generation to generation. Our Lord when He became incarnate, therefore, was not born by “ordinary generation.” The substantive flesh as a predicate (is flesh) has a much more forcible meaning than the adjective carnal. “The state has in a manner become a nature” (Godet). Hence the need of a new nature. That which is born of the Spirit, etc.—This answers the question, “How can a man be born?” etc., of John 3:4. Spirit contains some reference to that higher spiritual part of us by which we are related to God, and which in our fallen nature is stifled and repressed. Through the quickening power of God’s Spirit that which is dead through sin is quickened and raised up again, and reinstalled in its true position (Ephesians 2:1). And it is the whole man that is thus born of the Spirit. All his nature is affected by this radical change. And only on this condition can he become a subject in the spiritual kingdom.
John 3:7-8. Marvel not, etc.—No doubt Nicodemus did marvel as this wonderful discourse proceeded. Who does not marvel at this exhibition of the manifold wisdom of God? (Romans 11:33-36.) Nicodemus rested on his privileges (birth, etc.) as fitting him for entrance into Messiah’s kingdom, and is naturally confounded at the new ideas presented to him, especially when they are pressed home personally: Ye must be born again, etc.
John 3:8. Wind, etc.—The Greek πνεῦμα and the Hebrew דרּחַ mean both wind and spirit; and some translators and expositors have urged that here the true rendering is “spirit” in both cases. “The Spirit breathes where it listeth.” But the evident sense of the passage is that of the Authorised Version; and it is that accepted by the majority of scholars. Indeed the use of the word φωνή, the “sound” of the wind, etc., shows that here our Lord was using one of His parabolic figures. οὔτως (so) also suggests that we have here an analogy. So is every one, etc.—The origin and rise of the new birth are unseen, and known only to those who experience it; and even they cannot trace the movements and activity of the spirit. By the way of experience alone can men realise it.
John 3:9-10. How can, etc.—Nicodemus confesses his ignorance of all this; and no wonder, for Pharisaism in its devotion to petty ritual-details had become spiritually short-sighted and oblivious of those higher spiritual realities. There is on the part of Nicodemus, however, a hopeful trait—he is willing to be taught. Art thou the teacher of Israel?—The article is not to be taken in an emphatic sense, as specifying Nicodemus as the most widely noted teacher of the time. It rather gives the noun an abstract meaning, as representing a class like ὁ σπείρων (the sower): Matthew 13; 2 Corinthians 12:12. See Wordsworth’s Greek Testament.
John 3:11. We speak what we do know, etc.—Is the “we” merely an example of the pluralis majestaticus? It appears hardly likely when we remember that “I” is used in the foregoing verses. The clearest explanation is that given by Hengstenberg and others, viz. that our Lord here refers to some who already represented the new doctrine (John the Baptist and the disciples already called), and sets them over against the rabbinical school represented by Nicodemus (1 John 1:1-4). Ye receive not, etc. (John 1:5; John 1:19; John 2:19-25).
John 3:12. Earthly things (τὰ ἐπίγεια).—These earthly things refer indeed to the spiritual life, but to those facts in it which take place on earth, e.g. what Jesus had said to Nicodemus regarding the condition of men, the necessity of the new birth, etc., and “His general teaching up to the present time” (Godet). Heavenly things (τὰ ἐπουράνια) have reference to the higher mysteries of redemption, such as the relation of Christ to the Godhead, the counsel of God in reference to the salvation of man, the manner in which the world’s redemption was to be effected, etc. Such great facts are not arrived at by human experience and investigation; they must be divinely revealed.
John 3:13. And no man hath ascended, etc.—καὶ = and yet, and may be connected with John 3:12, i.e. “My testimony is not received, and yet I alone can testify of those heavenly things so indispensable to humanity.” No one from among men has ascended into heaven, and thus is in a position to declare to men those heavenly truths: He alone can do so who, living in unity with the Father, has seen and known them—the Son of man who came down, etc., who now stood before Nicodemus “in the form of a servant.” Son of man.—“He that came down from heaven, even He who being incarnate is the Son of man without ceasing to be what He was before” (Westcott). Which is in heaven.—Omitted by א, B, L, etc. The evidence of A, in which the words occur, is doubtful, as they are written over an erasure. But it is contended that the surface difficulty of the words may have led copyists to omit them. How could Christ while on earth be yet in heaven? But if it be remembered that heaven is a state more than a place, such difficulties vanish, and the words are seen to describe fitly Christ’s close and intimate fellowship with the Father (vide Watkins, etc.).
John 3:14-15. And, etc. (καί).—Jesus not only revealed the way of salvation, He made it. Such is the force of the copula. Lifted up (John 8:28; John 12:32-34).—In reference to the Passion, but also (Acts 2:33) in reference to the Ascension. It was necessary for man’s salvation (δεῖ) that Christ should rise through the cross to the “right hand of power.” That whosoever believeth in Him might have eternal life.—The words should not perish but are omitted in several of the most important MSS.—א, B, L—although found in A.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.— John 3:1-15
Our Lord’s interview with Nicodemus.—This conversation is undoubtedly one of the most important ever recorded. It is one of the most detailed expositions that we have of our Lord’s teaching on one of the most indispensable concerns of the kingdom of God. As we learn from John 2:23, Jesus was at the passover at Jerusalem, and “many believed on His name, beholding the miracles which He did.” One of the number evidently was Nicodemus. He had seen the miracles, had witnessed the cleansing of the temple, when without official power, etc., but simply by the calmness and earnestness of His demeanour and the righteousness of His cause, Jesus had for the time remedied what was to all pious Israelites a crying abuse. Nicodemus was a “man of the Pharisees,” therefore one of those who thought themselves the élite of Israel, who being as they imagined perfect in legal righteousness, were quite prepared to be members of Messiah’s kingdom when He appeared. He was also a member of the Sanhedrin, and thus occupied a conspicuous position among his countrymen. Probably, however, like many good and honest men of his party, he was not only longing for the advent of Messiah’s kingdom, but unsatisfied with his own position spiritually. Therefore the advent of this new, wonderful teacher excited within him those feelings of dissatisfaction and hope; hence—
I. He became an inquirer.—
1. That he was a personal inquirer seems to be evident. In no sense was he like the members of the deputation sent to the Baptist. They were sent officially, in order to furnish an official report. Nicodemus came to Jesus for his own personal satisfaction—to seek for light on some of the questions clamouring for solution in his own mind.
2. Too much, perhaps, is made of the fact that Nicodemus came to Jesus by night as a proof of his timidity and fear of compromising himself with his fellows. No doubt there might be a feeling in his mind that he must not too rashly compromise his position by openly seeking an interview with this Galilean teacher. But the reason for his choosing the evening hours for his visit may be found also, in part, in the fact that both he and our Lord were occupied during the day. No doubt a man in the position of Nicodemus was busily occupied at this busy time in Jerusalem. What hope would there be therefore of uninterrupted converse on the most momentous of all themes in the press and hurry of the day? And indeed, with the full moon of the passover week shining in all its brightness on the crowded streets, the night would be almost as public as the day.
II. The spirit in which Nicodemus began his inquiry.—
1. Jesus did not refuse to receive this man in those hours devoted to rest and refreshment. It was ever His meat to do His Father’s will. And the Saviour received him willingly. Besides, as we are told at the end of chap. 2 (John 3:24-25), Jesus “knew all men, and needed not that any should testify of man,” etc. He saw behind the wrappings of Pharisaic formalism and prejudice of birth and training into the inner being of Nicodemus (as of Nathanael), and recognised there good soil where the good seed might bring forth manifold increase.
2. The opening words of Nicodemus, however, showed that the prejudices of class and training were still strong. He came confident in his own position. He was a leader in the Church of God, and from that very fact, he and all his compeers inferred, a subject of God’s spiritual kingdom. He came to find out indeed the standing of Jesus. Jesus, he felt assured, was “a teacher come from God.” But on what special mission, for what divine purpose, was He sent? It never occurred to Nicodemus that there could be any inquiry or doubt as to his own position.
III. The unexpected answer of Jesus to his inquiry.—In His answer our Lord shook to its foundations the self-confidence of Nicodemus: “Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God” (John 3:3).
1. Our Lord at once reverses the current Jewish ideas concerning Messiah and His kingdom; He here lays the foundation of His teaching as to His kingdom—its spiritual nature and heavenly origin are plainly asserted. Not of human origin, no merely external rule or law, no earthly pomp, were to characterise it and its advent among men. Men do not become subjects of it by right of birth, office, position. They must be new born into it, with a new spirit not subject to evil, but inspired to overcome it.
2. Those who are “born again” (or from above) are those who become what they were not before, in whom an entirely new spiritual life has been implanted, and in whom this change has been brought about, not by the fulfilment of certain ritual or devotional duties, not even by repentance alone, but by the impartation of spiritual power from above. They alone shall “see the kingdom of God”; they alone can know this kingdom and understand it truly. As the eye is fitted for seeing the natural world, so must the inner eye of the soul, the moral being, be fitted by regeneration to see spiritual things. Nicodemus might have found teaching in this direction in the Old Testament revelation (Ezekiel 36:26; Ezekiel 18:31; Ezekiel 11:19; Deuteronomy 30:6; Jeremiah 32:39; Jeremiah 4:4).
3. Thus the ideas expressed in our Lord’s words would not be altogether strange to Nicodemus. Indeed, he felt their truth; but he could not imagine they could be applicable to himself. Was he not already in the kingdom of God? A descendant of Abraham, and from that very circumstance, as a faithful Israelite, the inheritor of the promises, what need for him to go through any new process to fit himself for that kingdom? Would it not be as possible for one grown to manhood to be born again as a little child? Any spiritual renewing for one like him would require to be preceded by a rebirth of the physical being as well.
4. Our Lord in His reply to this question, which reveals the astonishment and perplexity of the inquirer, explains more nearly the meaning of His answer, which Nicodemus had rightly appropriated personally. “Verily, verily, … except a man be born of water,” etc. There cannot here be any reference to Christian baptism, which was not then instituted. The reference was to John’s baptism, which at that time was creating much stir among the people, and which the Pharisees had rejected. Now our Lord here insists on that preparation of the heart of which baptism is the symbol, and which John preached, as an indispensable necessity for entrance into His kingdom (Luke 1:16-17). Repentance and pardon, of which baptism is the sign and seal, must go before, are the first steps in that new birth, which is effected by the Spirit of all grace. “The pardon which is symbolised by water-baptism is only the negative condition, the sine quâ non of the new birth. The positive principle of this inner fact is the Spirit, whom God gives to the soul which has been washed from its sin. As really then as salvation comprehends the two facts, pardon and regeneration, so really did Jesus sum up in the two words water and Spirit the whole of salvation, and consequently man’s entrance into the kingdom of God” (Godet). The baptism of the Spirit is what is essential (Matthew 3:11); but it must be preceded by that repentance and that faith which looks to Christ as the source of pardon, of which baptism is the sign and seal. This last will not be omitted by those who are loyal to Christ’s commands (Matthew 28:19-20) and apostolic usage.
5. “That which is born of the flesh,” etc. (John 3:6). In this truth is seen the possibility of the new birth. Where the Spirit comes with regenerating power, “old things pass away; behold, they are become new.” It is the true answer to “Can a man,” etc., of Nicodemus.
IV. The new birth is mysterious, yet comprehensible.—
1. Perhaps there was here a pause in the conversation, during which the evening breeze of the Syrian spring made its presence felt, as it gently whispered at ‘the chamber window, and entered with refreshing coolness. And then on the ear of Nicodemus fell the words, “Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again. The wind,” etc. (John 3:7-8). The presence and power of the wind are evident. Even in these days, when meteorologists predict the direction, etc., of storm winds, still it is true we cannot tell at what spot it actually rises, etc. Especially is this so with the gentle spring and summer breezes.
2. So is it with the Spirit in the new birth. “Who can trace the weaving of the new life from its first threads which have been woven together by grace divine?” Who can tell when the earliest promptings of divine love began, trace the earliest workings of the Spirit, unfold in all its grandeur the process of the new birth in the soul? But the broad results and facts we can see and know. Just as the ordinary results of the working of the wind are evident, so is it with the working of the Spirit.
3. The time is coming when its full effects will be revealed (Colossians 3:3-4; 1 John 3:2). “It doth not yet appear what we shall be.” Yet even here and now proofs of the Spirit’s presence and activity abound. The fruits of the Spirit are manifest in the lives of God’s people (Galatians 5:22-26). There is a visible growth in grace—a visible change. The spiritually lame walk, dumb speak, etc.
V. The possibility and necessity of the new birth.—
1. “How can such things be?” (John 3:9). It was difficult for the Jew, who relied on his relation to Abraham, his being one of the chosen people of God, and his conformity to the law, to realise the necessity for spiritual regeneration. It was easier for the Gentile to understand this. Yet even among the Jews the necessity for some such change was seen (Psalms 51:12; Isaiah 44:3, etc.). But the scribes and Pharisees darkened the light of such truth by tradition. Thus even the “masters of Israel” (John 3:10) were often ignorant of those truths.
2. “Verily, verily, I say unto thee, We speak what we do know,” etc. (John 3:11). The Saviour in regard to such great truths placed Himself high above all earthly teachers, who often have to guess at truth. He spake what He knew, etc. It is fashionable in some quarters to speak of the nescience of Christ, of His having limited the sphere of His knowledge at His incarnation. Here Christ claims full knowledge of the highest truth. “If I have told you earthly things,” etc. (John 3:12), i.e. things already revealed to the Church on earth, such as this very truth of the new birth, “how shall ye believe if I tell you of heavenly things?” i.e. of the deeper truths of the Spirit’s working—the whence and whither of spiritual life in the soul—the mysteries of Redemption, the Atonement, and the Incarnation?
3. Christ is the revealer, through His Spirit, of these deep truths. He alone is competent to reveal them. “No man hath ascended,” etc. (John 3:13). This is no mere rhetorical expression, but the expression of a deep truth. “He came down from heaven”—as the angel of the covenant—to prepare the way by His Spirit in Revelation, and last in His incarnation. And He is “in heaven”—in His spiritual intimate communion with the Father, and in the sinlessness of His humanity. “I and My Father are one.” Heaven is a state, not a place.
4. The new birth cannot be brought about by our own power. Those dead in trespasses and sins must be quickened; their guilt must be cancelled, they must be reconciled. The atoning work of Christ is the only foundation for the new life. Faith within and His finished work are the means of union with Him; and in that union the new life is assured.
John 3:1-15. The new birth of men.—We assert:—
I. Its necessity on account of the divine Father’s righteousness.—
1. Man by nature is unregenerate. That which is born of the flesh is flesh.
2. The righteousness of the Father cannot, however, receive the unregenerate and unholy into its fellowship, because it requires men to be holy, and holiness is not characteristic of the natural man. If men desire, therefore, to enter into the heavenly kingdom, they must be born anew.
II. It is possible through the “lifting up” of the Son.—
1. Men have sinned, and therefore must some representative of humanity make satisfaction to the divine righteousness, and bear the punishment of sin. This Christ did in that He permitted Himself to be “lifted up” on the cross; in that He, being without sin, died upon the cross.
2. Those who look to the Crucified in faith are made partakers of the fruits of Christ’s death, are reconciled to the Father, and received by Him as children and heirs. For Christ is not lifted up on the cross only, but is also raised to the right hand of the Father, where He intercedes for His own with blessed results, and whence He works among His people through “water and the Spirit.”
III. It is efficacious through the working of the Holy Spirit.—
1. The Holy Ghost fills us with the power of a new life (of which baptism is the symbol), so that we can thereby attain to the renewal of our whole existence.
2. And whilst sin still retains some hold over us, and we may often fall into sin, the Holy Spirit ever aids us to rise again; and when we repent and turn to Christ in faith He imputes to us the work of Christ, assures us of forgiveness and sonship, maintains us in the faith, strengthens us to walk in righteousness and holiness, and finally intercedes for us “with groanings which cannot be uttered.”—From J. L. Sommer.
John 3:3-5. Spiritual regeneration, or the new birth.—The manifestations and operations of the Holy Spirit are manifold, from the time when He “brooded over” the chaotic elements and creation issued in harmony and order. So He works in the disordered moral nature of man. All along the course of history He has been striving “with men.” Through prophets and holy men He inspired God’s people with the hope of deliverance. But especially since, in accordance with Christ’s promise, He descended on the Church at Pentecost, has His working been manifest. We live in the dispensation of the Spirit—the teacher, counsellor, and Paraclete of Christ’s true followers. He dissipates their darkness, strengthens them in weakness, sanctifies their nature. No aspect of His work is more important than that set forth here—the mighty work of regeneration. Day by day is this miracle wrought. He comes into the human spirit in gentle visitings, so that what was before spiritual darkness and disorder becomes filled with light and attuned to order. We do not now intend to state minutely the great doctrine here implied; rather we shall see how the fact appeals to all, the fact of regeneration or conversion—regeneration from the divine, and conversion from the human, point of view.
I. The necessity for the new birth.—“Except ye be born again,” etc. No more important or momentous words could sound in men’s ears or tremble on their lips. If the Bible is God-given, if Jesus is the eternal Word, then there can be nothing passing this in importance. It is the point of junction of two roads,—one leading through many a lowly vale of humiliation, over many a hill of difficulty, but ending in everlasting glory; the other beginning in self-will and ending in despair. Without this vital change there can be for men no true spiritual heavenly life, or constraining love, etc. But what is the attitude of many, even subjects of the outward and visible divine kingdom, here? Do not many look on the subject with ill-disguised contempt? Do not many, when the change passes on others, consider them deluded—almost mad? Are not those under the influence of this change sometimes recommended to throw themselves into the gaieties of the world to drive away the cloud of spiritual care? Fatal folly! How terrible, how irrevocable sometimes are the results! Such men are blind leaders of the blind who regard the workings of the Spirit as signs of fanaticism, requiring to be corrected by their worldly wisdom. But this is the result of either unbelief or ignorance. Nothing is more plainly taught in God’s word than the necessity for this change. And it is not necessary in the case of the grossly wicked merely. They, of course, must be changed, regenerated, ere they can see the kingdom of God. But even men of good repute among their fellows may at heart be destitute of true love to God and man. This they must have if they would be God’s children. And no man can effect it of himself. The Spirit alone can do so, with His quickening and sanctifying power. And it is not a mere outward reformation that He effects. The inner alienation of the heart from God must be removed, and replaced by a totally different feeling. And that no man can do this of himself is simply a fact. The holiest will confess that it is so. True, much latent criminality may be kept in check by what might be called “artificial” means—the laws of social order, etc. But such restraint from sin has no affinity with regeneration. Even the most rigid restraints and the most strenuous self-endeavour cannot attain to it. A man may be benevolent, may give of his goods to feed the poor, may give his body to be burned, yet regeneration might still be afar. And men feel they need this vital change, and that no effort of theirs can effect it (Micah 6:6-7). This true and right state of heart can be attained to only by regeneration, not by any study of the divine character or the example of Jesus. The natural man cannot understand the things of God. It would be as easy to produce a flower by willing it. An artificial flower may be made by laborious work to look very beautiful, and almost to vie with a real flower. But a closer inspection and a test under the microscope will show how wide asunder the two are. God reads our hearts and knows our needs. And the Spirit of God alone can make us new creatures, filling our hearts with love divine. “Every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God” (1 John 4:7).
II. The manner in which the Spirit accomplishes this great work.—It is a mysterious process, as might have been expected. We cannot say when and how the Spirit may work. We can see the effects, as with the wind. The reason is that the spiritual working is conjoined with our human activity (Philippians 2:12), and we cannot always know where the one begins and the other ends in any particular case. [Is there not a tendency to take perhaps too “mechanical” views of the Spirit’s working sometimes in evangelistic work?] The change is not first external, but internal. It does not alter the nature or banish the natural feelings, emotions, etc., of the heart. It does consist, however, of a change in the dispositions that regulate these. In regeneration by the Spirit the will is regulated; the attitude of rebellion is changed; it becomes a will to do good. This change is not altogether disconnected from human agency and the use of means, e.g. the presentation of the Word, etc. But these are not sufficient of themselves; either men will not listen to them, or will not see their force when they do. He who is not born again cannot see the kingdom, etc. As well discourse to the blind of beauty, or to the deaf of harmony, etc. But open the eyes, unstop the ears, and then both will share in the same joy. So is it in the spiritual life; those from whose spiritual vision, etc., the film, etc., has been removed see and hear wondrous things in God’s law. And notice also how human activity is conjoined with the divine working. When the man’s eyes are opened he is to look, etc.
III. The manifestations of this change.—They vary as men vary. Sometimes it is almost imperceptible, when, e.g., the subject of it has been reared in a Christian home, and is of amiable, gentle character, like a Timothy. Yet an imperceptible something will show to those nearest that there is a difference—greater earnestness, more prayerfulness, etc. And it will certainly be known to the man himself, and that most surely by one supreme test—the love of the brethren (1 John 3:14). Yet again, as the wind not only comes in gentle breezes, rippling the lake, sighing through the forest, whispering at the chamber window, but sometimes rushes with hurricane fury, lashing the waters into storm, etc., so with some of strong nature or former great wickedness when they are born of the Spirit. But in every case the change will be evident—as the waving grain on harvest field is evidence that the seed sown germinated, etc. Has this change taken place in us? Nothing can be more important to us. Eternal issues depend upon it. Give no sleep to your eyes, nor slumber to your eyelids, until, if you have not yet experienced it, you pray with earnest desire that you may be “born again.”
A holy hour with Jesus in the silent night.—Let us seek to realise for ourselves this hour—
I. With its great inquiry (John 3:1-4);
II. With its wonderful instruction (John 3:5-12);
III. With its special reference to the Son of man, our Saviour (John 3:13-15).—M. Herold.
John 3:8. Spiritual life a divine inspiration.—Christian men have lost the belief of the apostles that God is speaking in us, witnessing in us; that we have an anointing of the Holy One. They speak instead of impressions and motives and influences, as if God were not to come into close contact with us, but were acting through these. Religious life has become a matter of self-searching into experiences, as things to be produced by exciting impressions. We no longer act as from the inspiration of the Holy Ghost; we no longer live as looking into the spiritual world. The Christian life has therefore lost much of its ancient might. But God’s Spirit is equally close, His voice equally near, though in a different way. Regeneration is impossible, apart from the direct touch and actual inspiration of God.
I. Spiritual life is a direct inspiration from God.—It is difficult to realise the fact. It is a truth out of the common range of everyday thought. This is so because we occupy ourselves so much with the outward aspects of life, and seldom enter the secret chambers of the Spirit. We feel ourselves so cold, etc., that we scarcely dare say, “I am actually touched, moved, inspired by the Almighty.” We think, too, of God as in the heavens. We forget that His presence in the heart alone begets that faith through which He reveals His glory. These words suggest two thoughts:—
1. Spiritual life is impossible apart from this inspiration.—To be born of the Spirit is to have a divine love created within, overthrowing the tyranny of the present, the sensual, the sinful, filling with heavenly hopes and aspirations, raising life above the downward, natural tendency to a life whose whole world is God and God’s heaven. Spiritual life is an elevation above the natural will, the natural inclination and tendency. And this can be produced only by the direct inspiration of the Spirit of God. For man cannot, by mere effort of his own, raise himself above the natural life. Look at Jacob, Saul of Tarsus, John the son of thunder.
2. That inspiration enters man in mystery.—We may trace the early signs of the Spirit’s power in the heart. We cannot penetrate the mystery which shrouds its origin. Man knows not when it begins, though he may know when its energy came forth in actual development. What commenced the change? Not man himself; for he knew it not till its power was felt within. So, too, sudden flashings of new meaning into old truths. What brought this about? Not man himself. Not of himself did he set out on the pilgrim path. A hand touched him, a voice called him.
II. Some of the results of realising this truth.—It would ever work a mighty change. God is brought near, prayer becomes inspired, we are freed from the spell of the material. Did we feel that this communion were ours, this inspiration, it would strengthen spiritual manhood.—Some think this doctrine enervates. They try to rouse themselves. But it rather inspires self-reverence, self-control, resistance of temptations. There is reverence for the soul in which God abides—we must watch its altar flame to keep it pure. It inspires us to work out our own salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who works in us. It imparts nobility to character.—The man who feels the divine Spirit working within him will not waste power in multiplied professions, or in doing things to be seen of men. It gives power to our Christian hope.—All angelic possibilities lie in the fact that we have within us the Spirit of God; for to be inspired by Him, to be thus open to communion with His love, is to have the “power of an endless life.”—E. L. Hull, B.A.
John 3:9. The manner of the new birth.—“How can these things be?”
I. Divine grace gives the new life from above.—
1. Except a man be born from above. This indicates the source of the new life.
2. Water and the Spirit, etc.—In this our Lord reveals the nature and manner of the new birth. The symbolism points back to creation (Genesis 1:2). The new creation follows an order as well as the old. The water is the symbol of spiritual cleansing; the Spirit is the element of a new spiritual life, not the spirit of human wisdom, etc., but the Spirit of God.
3. And it is only through the Son of man that this new Spirit of life comes to us (John 3:13), freeing us from servitude to sin, healing us, through His cross, from the poison of sin (John 3:14).
4. And the original height from which all this blessing flows down to men is the high summit of eternal love (John 3:16).
II. Faith lays hold of this divine gift.—
1. Scripture tells us that Christ has been lifted up, etc. But this does not make salvation my possession, etc.
2. But, brethren, how have you sought to make this gift yours? By your own head, heart, exertions? There is but one way: “We have believed and have known that Thou art Christ, the Son of the living God.” “If any man will do His will,” etc. (John 7:17); “Whosoever believeth,” etc. (John 3:15). Faith in the Son of God opens the door of eternal life.
3. This laying hold by faith is most natural. Suppose you seek to enter the service of some one on earth, how will you find out whether it will be a pleasant service? You can ask those who are already in it, and you can try it yourself. Ask those who have entered Christ’s service, and what is their testimony? Our Lord asked the disciples: “When I sent you without purse, etc., lacked ye any thing?” (Luke 22:35). Think of the history of the faithful—of even those who suffered for Christ’s sake, e.g. a Polycarp, etc. These old servants of Christ, grown grey in His service, testified to the blessedness of His service. And there are millions of witnesses to the same effect.
4. All have not a desire to believe. Humble yourself under the law, and you will see your need of faith, and be led to cry for it. And the cry, “Help Thou mine unbelief,” will speedily be answered.
III. The walk and conversation will bear witness to the new life.—
1. A web has two sets of threads—the warp and woof. A life has two sides: what God does for you, and what you do toward Him.
2. How does God deal with His believing ones? “God sent not His Son into the world to condemn,” etc. (John 3:17-18). As life begins here, so also does eternal death. God’s judgments are ever set. The stream roars loudest when it enters the sea and meets the billows; but it roars also along its course. And thus the stream of God’s judgments is ever flowing. For the unrepentant and unbelieving every calamity is a judgment, every whisper of conscience, and even the grace of God itself. It is dark in the heart when the will-o’-the-wisps of the world’s joy go out, and this darkness closes in the night of the grave, and darker night still.
3. But they who believe are not condemned. Grace and life meet them everywhere—become all their joy. They shall learn to love the Saviour more deeply—to cut away more earnestly the wild branches of the natural man. Grace is to them a cross—God’s pruning-knife. But the heart is light—it rejoices in the blessed light which streams from the throne of God; for those who believe are not condemned. This is how God deals with His redeemed children.
4. The attitude of the life toward God will also be manifest. The new-born spirit lives in Christ, and the walk and conversation are in Him, because Christ lives in them. Then there must be love to God. And their works “come to the light because they are done in God.” No cloak is thrown over the heart. The Lord is openly confessed. “He that doeth truth cometh to the light.” They must not seek to hide themselves. Thus we see how the new life is effected, how it is laid hold of, and how it manifests itself.—Dr. Fried. Ahlfeld.
John 3:14-15. The cross of Christ the source of life eternal.—These verses refer to a most interesting passage in the history of God’s ancient people. The narrative in which it occurs is not as Dean Stanley says, “the obscure record of a dark, confused time,” but rather the definite record of a definite event which left a deep impression on the minds of the people. Nothing could be more absurd than the conclusions stated by modern “higher critics” in reference to this incident. It is trifling with our intelligence to say that it proves that the Israelites were idolaters at the time of its occurrence, and worshipped the serpent—a cult that continued to Hezekiah’s time! (2 Kings 18:4). Did the critics never hear of the holy coat at Treves, and the relic’s adoration in the Romish Church? At the time of the incident, Israel, after being refused a way through the territory of Edom, had to struggle through the barren and rock-strewn valley of the Arabah. It was a terrible march—water was scant and bad, and the people contemned the daily provided manna. They became discouraged “because of the way” (Numbers 21:4). And forgetting former deliverances, they murmured and rebelled. In order to teach these rebellious Israelites their dependence on God, the poisonous spotted snakes common to the region were permitted to inflict on many the burning fiery bite which gave them their name (נְחָשִׁים שְׂרָפִים), so that a number of the people died. The punishment had the intended effect. It led to reflection and repentance. Moses was ordered to erect on a pole, in full sight of the people, an image of a serpent in brass or copper; and the promise was given that when those who were bitten looked on the brazen serpent they should live. Those who did look, believing the divine promise, were made whole.
I. Our Lord in His conversation with Nicodemus took this historical incident in Israel’s history as a type of His own atoning work. The serpent has usually been taken as a symbol of sin, or the power of evil. Even in this view the type will stand; for God made Christ “to be sin for us who knew no sin” (2 Corinthians 5:21). But here rather the effect of the serpent’s bite signifies the results of sin. The sin of the Israelites was their unbelief and base ingratitude—this dread visitation their punishment. They were to learn that just as the reptile’s bite was deadly, so moral evil leads to spiritual death. Sin has introduced an element of confusion into human nature, which has turned it away from its true centre and life. In essence it is the setting up of ourselves and our own wills in opposition to the law and will of God; it leads to contemning the provision God has made for our spiritual life, and to seeking happiness in ways not His. The poison enters our veins. In place of the healthy flow of spiritual life, the elements of corruption begin their deadly work. It is a poison so subtle that it penetrates into all the powers of the soul, infects all the actions, etc. It strengthens as time passes. “Nothing grows weak with age but what will at length die with age” (South). Not so sin. Unless conquered and overcome, it daily grows and increases—a warning to those who linger on the brink of forsaking it. And if men are to be saved from spiritual death, this corrupting influence must be expelled, and a new life transfused in the nature. Men are unable of themselves to effect a cure, as Scripture and human experience tell us. Laws, education, moral teaching—all have failed—not to speak of crude attempts through sacrifice or asceticism. “None can by any means redeem his brother, nor give to God a ransom for him” (Psalms 49:7).
II. There is a divine way of escape from sin.—“As Moses lifted up,” etc. In John 3:13 Jesus had said: “No man hath ascended,” etc. And in John 3:14-15, the reason of the descent of the Son of man is given.
1. Notice the divine necessity of the incarnation and offering up of Christ: “So must the Son of man be lifted up.” If men are to be saved from the power and effects of sin GOD must interpose. As at the command of God Moses set up the serpent of brass on the pole—symbol of the people’s salvation—like, yet so unlike, the source of their danger, the channel by which through faith came healing—so “God sending His Son,” etc. (Romans 8:3). He took on Him the form of our humanity, which had become corrupt and moribund; and in it as the representative of all men He triumphed over the powers of evil, bearing the penalty of sin, though Himself holy, harmless, etc.
2. The immediate means, as in the case of the Israelites, is faith. Faith forms the link between us and the source of all our hopes as we look on this representative of humanity lifted up upon the cross. The divine life and spirit in Him, source of His triumph, flow to us through faith as through an appointed channel, touching our sin-stricken souls. A new life, a new spirit from above, then interfuses and possesses us—the poison is neutralised. We become as new-born, with a nature freed from the deadly plague and quickened unto life eternal. This is God’s way of life. In view of it we may well cry with the apostle, “Oh the depth of the riches,” etc. (Romans 11:33).
III. The consideration of this truth should impress upon us two great outstanding facts.—
1. The terrible nature of sin.—The positions men occupy toward sin are very varied. Some are revelling in its pleasures, but have not yet felt its sting severely. Others have become enslaved by its power, and are filled with its misery. Others again are beginning to loathe the terrible bondage, and long for freedom. But no living man can realise all its awfulness and horror until he has viewed it in the light of the cross. When we come to understand who it was that was “lifted up” on Calvary, and for what end, then we see how eternally hateful and abhorrent sin must be to God. The Holy One was permitted, nay, was sent, to expiate it. And thus when temptation comes the redeemed man will say: “Can I do this great wickedness,” etc. Can I indulge in that to save me from the power of which the Saviour died?
2. And then there is the fact that we owe this great Redemption to the abounding love and mercy of God.—God did not forsake entirely His ancient people when they sinned. He led them to repentance. He did not forsake the whole human race, though they had wandered far from Him. Viewing their misery in the infinite depth of His pitying love, He was, in all the ages, preparing the way for the manifestation of His love in sending His Son. How could many, in view of such glorious declarations, speak in terms which implied that it was the Son’s interposition that turned aside divine wrath from sinful men! True there is divine wrath against sin, for sin cannot dwell with God; but there is also infinite love toward the sinner (John 3:16). “God commendeth His love toward us,” etc. (Romans 5:8).
3. Who that have thought on this mighty exhibition of divine love for their salvation can resist the power of that love, and still continue in their rebellion and alienation? With the story of that great love sounding in our ears—love mighty to save—let us turn away through God’s grace resolutely from sin, looking in living faith to Him who can save us from its guilt and power.
HOMILETIC NOTES
“Ver.
3. Born again.—The new life is called:
1. Being born again, in contradistinction to the natural birth;
2. It is called being born from above, or, born of God, because God and not man effects it;
3. It is called being born of water and the Spirit, in reference to the means through which it is brought about. The Romans observed a festival called Fontinalia—feast of fountains. They decorated the fountains with flowers and wreaths to express their thankfulness for the gift of water. By the light of nature they recognised the greatness of the blessing—that God sendeth the springs into the valleys, etc. (Psalms 104:10-14). The Romans, therefore, held their springs and fountains as sacred, and believed that each was guarded by a goddess. So many Christians hold a sacred festival around the holy spiritual springs opened up in the gospel.—J. J. Weigel.
John 3:3. The gifts of God to the spiritually new born.—Men are not born again in order that they may sin with greater impunity, but in order to live by the power of God, and to let the spirit of His grace work within them for their renewing. The Trinity brings those gifts.
I. God the Father gives His grace and the blessedness of sonship, the assurance of His fatherly care.
II. God the Son gives His love, the fellowship of His sufferings, the merits of His work, the assurance of His true and loving brotherhood, and the participation in His heavenly inheritance.
III. God the Holy Ghost gives His blessed comfort, and the assurance of His gracious indwelling, and mighty controlling power all through life until the end.—Idem.
John 3:4-5. How may we know that we are “fit for the kingdom of God”?—
1. By our confession of the Person of Jesus Christ;
2. By our longing for the regeneration of our inner nature;
3. By our experience of the working within us of the Holy Spirit;
4. By our faith in regard to the testimony of Jesus;
5. By the peace and consolation we experience beneath the cross of Jesus.—J. L. Sommer.
John 3:5. Water and the Spirit.—“Born of water and of the Spirit,” etc. Men must be born of water and of the Spirit. This is the weighty and unchangeable condition of entrance into the kingdom of God, as our Lord shows by the repeated verily (ἀμήν). A number of expositors think the ἐξ ὕδατος has a reference to Christian baptism; and seek to set aside the objection that Nicodemus could have then no knowledge of Christian baptism, with the remark that this was designed to prepare him for the clearer knowledge of it in the near future, when the actual disclosure could not be postponed. We take our place, however, on the side of those who refer the expression ἐξ ὕδατος immediately to John’s baptism. This alone was known to Nicodemus; to it the Saviour could turn the discourse in His teaching. The baptism of John was a baptism with water (John 1:26; John 1:31); and it was a baptism of repentance for the remission of sins (Luke 3:3; Mark 1:4; Matthew 3:6). This baptism had made a deep excitement among the people, which the Pharisees rather resented (John 1:24). It was completed also by immersion; hence the expression ἐξ ὕδατος was most appropriate for this action. It was at this baptism also that John bore witness to Christ (John 1:33), as He who should baptise with the Holy Ghost. By the expression Πνεύματος we are to think of the Holy Spirit. To those who in baptism have their sins taken away and forgiven, which also occurred to those who repented in the case of John’s baptism (although there is a special promise for Christian baptism), God gives the Holy Spirit, which exercises a creative energy on men, because He fills them with the divine powers of life. So Hofmann understands the passage when he says: “Water and Spirit attest the beginning of the new life: water, as the Baptist administered it, and Spirit, as he himself promised it should be given by Him who came after him. He who was obedient to the word of God as it came through John, submitted to the water of his baptism, and held himself ready to receive the baptism with the Spirit from that Jesus to whom John bare witness.” Water and the Spirit—these are the means of the new birth. Through the pardon of sin and the communication of divine powers of spiritual life the new birth comes to pass. In the following verse the water is no more spoken of, but the Spirit, because the water in the transaction of being born again (or the new birth) only removes the hindrances. The creative power comes from the Spirit. Spiritual regeneration is indispensably necessary for entrance into the kingdom of God. For the nature of that kingdom is spiritual, and man by nature is of the flesh.—J. L. Sommer.
He connects the water and the Spirit, because under that visible symbol He attests and seals that newness of life which God alone produces in us by His Spirit.—John Calvin.
John 3:6. Flesh and Spirit.—
1. The rose bush has thorns, and so, too, has the thorn hedge The former, however, bears lovely roses, whilst the latter only pricks and tears with its thorns. How may man be likened to these plants?
(1) Repentant children of God have their faults, and falter in their holy purpose sometimes; yet they will always be found to have heartfelt sorrow, true repentance, prayer, faith and amendment of life.
(2) Hardened and godless men, on the other hand, have only the appearance of godliness in their lives, and then only for a time. But their lives are always filled with sins and transgressions.
(3) Men are not renewed, like a piece of old worm-eaten wood, by being painted over, and made to assume as fair an appearance as possible. They are renewed through grace; the blood of Christ penetrates with its power to the innermost recesses of the soul; and each man, thus born again, receives a new name, a new life, a new power, a new mind and heart.
(4) As from a bitter fountain we cannot draw one drop that is not bitter, and as in leavened dough no part is left unleavened, thus from sinful men nothing can come that is not influenced by their sinful nature.—J. J. Weigel.
John 3:6-7. Three questions answered in our Gospel.—
1. What are we?
2. What ought we to become?
3. How can we attain to what we should be?—V. Stählin.
John 3:8. The Wind and the Spirit.—Whatever be the difficulties that lie in the way of interpreting πνεῦμα as “Spirit,” they are not to be named or numbered with the thicket of difficulties and absurdities which beset its translation and interpretation as “wind.” Even supposing we discard the context, and treat John 3:8 as a saying unrelated to aught that goes before it, can we for a moment imagine that so wise a teacher as our Lord would ever confuse the mind of an enquirer by using an important word like πνεῦμα in two widely different senses within the compass of a single sentence? If that is inconceivable, I ask those who say we are to read “the wind blows,” what did our Lord mean by the words, “So is every one that hath been born of the wind”? This is a specimen of the difficulties which the old translation presents.… The interpretation of John 3:8 must be read in the light of John 3:6: “That which has been born of the Spirit is Spirit.” It contains an amplification and illustration of that statement of the ruling principle of spiritual life. The particle of comparison, οὕτως “so,” limits the likeness to manner of action. The action of spiritual life in the spirit-born resembles the action of the life of the Holy Spirit. It is free; it manifests itself in ways that appeal to the mind and conscience; it is hidden or mysterious. There is no hint here, or in any other part of the record, of an intention to show that the subject was beyond the comprehension or apprehension of Nicodemus. A rabbi, in his distinctive position, … should have had sufficient acquaintance with the revelation of the Holy Spirit, and the record of spiritual life in the Old Testament, to enable him, in some measure, to apprehend such teaching.… The dictum of Meyer, that the Spirit never “blows,” is not so destructive as it looks to the proposal to translate τνέω by “breathe.” It suggests what is, after all, only a minor difficulty of the interpretation which I advocate. In Wilke and Grimm’s Clavis Novi Testamenti, we find under πνέω, “from Homer downwards to breathe, to blow.” In classical authors (see Liddell and Scott) πνέω is sometimes used of flowers giving forth their fragrance.… This suggests a wider meaning and application of the word than is suggested by the few instances in which it is found in the New Testament. It occurs, I believe, six times, πνοή, “breath” (Acts 17:25), “wind” (Acts 2:2). See also Mark 15:37; Luke 23:46; Acts 5:5-10. If the absence of any other instances of such a modification of πνέω in the New Testament is still put forth as an objection to the translation “the Spirit breathes,” I would then say the objectors take a more unwarrantable liberty with πνεῦμα in translating it as “wind.” More reasonable is it, on one occasion, to slightly and legitimately modify the New Testament use of πνέω, which only occurs six times, than to change entirely the meaning of πνεῦμα, which occurs as “spirit” or “breath” three hundred and seventy times. Apart from John 3:8, there is only One instance where πνεῦμα may mean “wind” (Hebrews 1:7), and the interpretation of the quotation from the Old Testament in which it occurs is still in dispute. In this passage πνεῦμα, not πνέω, is the dominant word.—Rev. John Reid in “Expository Times.” [But may not our Lord, led by the circumstances, have made a play on the word, especially when we remember that it was an Aramaic word He would use? Such use of a word in a double meaning was not unknown in the Schools.]
John 3:8.—“The wind bloweth,” etc.—If we do not understand what comes under the cognisance of our senses, how can we understand fully and excogitate what is far beyond all human understanding? A modest acknowledgment of our ignorance is better here than a presumptuous inquisitiveness.
1. The wind blows in the air; the Holy Spirit breathes in the hearts of those who have been born again.
2. The wind awakes those who are slumbering; the Holy Spirit awakens the slumbering soul.
3. The wind drives before it the refreshing rains; the Holy Spirit brings the rain of penitent tears.
4. The wind blows the fire into a flame; the Holy Spirit quickens the spark of faith.
5. The wind purifies the air; the Holy Spirit sanctifies the hearts of believers.—From J. J. Weigel.
John 3:13.—Ascending with Christ.—
1. “No one hath ascended into heaven but the Son of Man”—“and,” said Maximilianus, when this was repeated to him when he was dying, “all who believe on Him.”
2. “If thou wilt ascend into heaven, become a member of Christ” (Augustine).
ILLUSTRATIONS
Nicodemus.—As the noblest mystics proceeded from the monks of the Roman Catholic Church, from the Dominicans especially, and the great Reformer Luther from the Augustinians, so two great witnesses of the most living Christian faith, Paul and Nicodemus, were supplied to the kingdom of God by the Pharisees, a party noted for their sanctimoniousness and bondage to the letter. In the person of Nicodemus, Christ at the very outset of His ministry conquered not only a Pharisee, but a ruler of the Jews, a member of the Sanhedrin. It has been a common hypothesis in schools of theology, but without any foundation, to regard him as a spy, who at first came to Jesus with a sinister design. The sincerity of his inclinations toward Jesus is, from the first, decided; a genuine germ of faith already begins to combat his own pretensions and prejudices; otherwise he, an old man, could not resort to a young man, and, though a distinguished member of the Council, ask questions of the Galilean Rabbi as a scholar, thus putting his whole reputation in peril. We also see how this germ gradually increased in power, till perfected in the ripe fruit of faith, after passing in its development through distinct stages. But that the germ in its first form was feeble, Nicodemus plainly indicates, not only by his coming to Jesus by night, to which, no doubt, considerations of fear determined him, but also by the tenor of his language.—Lange, “Life of Chris.”
John 3:3. The childlike nature is of the kingdom of God.—You have the child’s character in these four things—humility, faith, charity, and cheerfulness. That’s what you’ve got to be converted to. “Except ye be converted and become as little children.” You hear much of conversion nowadays; but people always seem to think they have got to be made wretched by conversion—to be converted to long faces. No, you have got to be converted to short ones; you have to repent into childhood, to repent into delight and delightsomeness. You can’t go into a conventicle but you’ll hear plenty of talk of backsliding. Backsliding, indeed! I can tell you, on the ways most of us go the faster we slide back the better, slide back into the cradle, if going forward is into the grave—back, I tell you—back, out of your long faces, and into your long clothes. It is among children, and as children only, that you will find medicine for your healing, and true wisdom for your teaching. There is poison in the counsels of the men of this world; the words they speak are all bitterness, “the poison of asps is under their lips,” but the “sucking child shall play by the hole of the asp.” There is death in the looks of men, “their eyes are privily set against the poor;” they are as the uncharmable serpent, the cockatrice which slew by seeing. But “the weaned child shall lay his hand on the cockatrice’ den.” There is death in the steps of men; their feet are swift to shed blood; they have compassed us in our steps like the lion that is greedy of his prey, and the young lion lurking in secret places, “but in that kingdom, the wolf shall lie down with the lamb, and the fatling with the lion, and a little child shall lead them.” There is death in the thoughts of men; the world is one wide riddle to them, darker and darker as it draws to a close; but the secret of it is known to the child, and the Lord of heaven and earth is most to be thanked in that “He has hidden these things from the wise and prudent, and has revealed them unto babes.” Yes, and there is death—infinitude of death—in the principalities and powers of men. “As far as the east is from the west,” so far our sins are—not set from us, but multiplied around us: the sun himself, think you how he “rejoices” to run his course, when he plunges westward to the horizon, so widely red, not with clouds, but blood? And it will be red more widely yet. Whatever drought of the early and latter rain may be, there will be none of that red rain; you fortify yourselves, you arm yourselves against it, in vain; the enemy and avenger will be upon you also, unless you learn that it is not out of the mouths of the knitted gun, or the smoothed rifle, but “out of the mouths of babes and sucklings” that the strength is ordained which shall “still the enemy and avenger.”—Ruskin.
John 3:5. Our twofold nature and baptism by water and the Spirit.—We have a twofold nature—the nature of the animal and the nature of God; and in the order of God’s providence we begin with the animal. “Howbeit,” says St. Paul, “that is not first which is spiritual, but that which is natural.” Now the moment when these natures are exchanged is the moment of spiritual regeneration. A man is to be born of water, but far rather of the Spirit. Of this expression there are several interpretations: first, the fanatical one. Men of enthusiastic temperaments, chiefly men whose lives have been irregular, whose religion has come to them suddenly, interpreting all cases by their own experiences, have said that the exercise of God’s Spirit is ever sudden and supernatural, and it has seemed to them that to try and bring up a child for God in the way of education is to bid defiance to that Spirit which is like the wind, blowing “where it listeth”; and if a man cannot tell the day or hour when he was converted, to those persons he does not seem to be a Christian at all. He may be holy, humble, loving; but unless there is that visible manifestation of how and when he was changed, he must be still ranked as unregenerate. Another class of persons, of cold, calm temperament, to whom fanaticism is a crime and enthusiasm a thing to be avoided, are perpetually rationalising with Scripture, and explaining away in some low and commonplace way the highest manifestation of the Spirit of God. Thus, Paley tells us that this passage belongs to the Jews, who had forgotten the Messiah’s kingdom; but to speak of a spiritual, regenerative change as necessary for a man brought up in the Church of England is to open the door to all fanaticism. There is a third class, who confound the regeneration of baptism with that of the Spirit, who identify, in point of time, the being born of water and of the Spirit. And it seems to them that regeneration after that is a word without meaning. Of this class there are two divisions: those who hold it openly in the Church of Rome, and those who do not go to the full extent of the Romish doctrine on this subject. These will not say that a miracle has taken place, but they say that a seed of grace has thus been planted. Whichever of these views be taken, for all practical purposes the result must be the same. If this inward spiritual change has taken place at baptism, then to talk of regeneration after that must be an impertinence. But, brethren, looking at this passage, we cannot be persuaded that it belongs to the Jew alone, nor can we believe that the strength of that expression is mere baptism by water. Here is recorded that which is true not for the Jew or heathen only, but for all the human race, without exception. “Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.”—F. W. Robertson.
John 3:14-15. The crowning attribute of God.—The cross tells us that the attribute by which God fights against sin is His love. The very fact that Jesus Christ appeared in the flesh showed that God had made common cause with us; and the fact that Jesus died upon the cross is the declaration that upon God’s part all hindrance is removed, and that His will—yea, His yearning desire—is that men should be reconciled to Him. It is by the sunshine of His love that He melts our hard hearts. Force is no remedy. Force may break in pieces the ice, and yet every fragment remains hard: “sunshine makes it flow down in sweet water that mirrors the light that loosed its bonds of cold” The thunder of threatening may appal us, the power of God may humble us and crush us, but it is the love of God that brings back the lost, and wins the wayward heart, and quenches the fire of lust, and makes us His true children. The cross tells us that the crowning attribute of God is love. Love, as it were, is throned and sceptred, and uses all the other attributes of God as her tools and instruments. They all are but the “ministers of love, and feed her sacred flame.” God is love. This is the message, above all others, that has gone to the heart of the world.—Dr. W. Robertson Nicoll.