As many as received Him, to them gave He power to become the sons of God
St.
John’s first view of Christ the key to his Gospel
I. These verses DESCRIBE THE SPIRITUAL EXPERIENCE OF ST. JOHN. In this point of view the order of time is different from the order of the statements. The several steps are these
1. The apprehension of the glory of Jesus,
2. The receiving Him and believing on His name.
3. The effect of the power to become sons of God.
This agrees with the actual experience of the evangelist.
1. He sees Jesus as pointed out by the Baptist. But where was the glory?
(1) That of “the Lamb of God.”
(2) The revelation of grace and truth in him. God’s infinite love, holiness, justice: His own self-sacrifice.
2. He goes home with Jesus and gave himself up to His gracious influences, believed on His name.
3. What followed we know. He became a son of God.
II. THIS EXPERIENCE DETERMINED THE STRUCTURE, SUBSTANCE, AND SPIRIT OF THE GOSPEL.
1. It serves to account for the subordinate place which miracles and Christ’s external life generally hold in it. John’s grand purpose, as marked by his own experience, was to illustrate the self-commending glory of Christ as the Word and only-begotten of the Father, that those who had never seen Him with the eye of sense might come to the blessedness of those who had not seen and yet had believed.
2. It serves to account for the prominent place which the inner life of Christ and the manifestation of His Sonship-glory occupies here. The two grand pivots on which the Gospel turns are Christ the LIGHT, and Christ the LIFE. Christ the Light, revealing the Father and all that concerns the Father; Christ the Life, communicating by the Spirit a new life to men so as to make them God’s sons. Its twofold purpose is to set forth Christ as the Incarnate Word and Only Begotten, full of grace and truth; and also the reception of Christ, the believing on His name as the commencement of the new life of sonship. Thus it is that so much prominence is given to Christ’s relation to the Father on the one hand, and to the fellowship of Christ with His people on the other.
3. From these considerations we see the groundlessness of the objections against the Johannian authorship of the Gospel. Given John’s conversion, as here shadowed forth, and his warm, fervid nature, his life of Jesus could not well have been any other than it is.
III. THE MORE GENERAL RELATIONS OF THE SUBJECT, as setting forth the essential glory of Christ and the glory communicated to all who, by receiving Him, become sons of God.
1. What is the connection between the two? That there is a connection is seen in the difference between John and his companions and the mass of the Jews. The one perceived His glory, the other saw it not. To the one He appeared a miserable pretender, to the other the Eternal Son. Moreover they recognized in Him the Saviour that taketh away the sins of the world. They received Him, and then the standing and spirit of sonship became theirs.
2. How is it that this view of Christ’s glory is followed by such effects?
(1) By such means we see our emptiness, guilt, and misery.
(2) But He invites us to Him, tells us of His fulness, pardon, grace, asks us to receive Him and let Him put forth His power.
(3) Must we not welcome Him? The blessed change is wrought in the very act of seeking it. (W. G. Blaikie, D. D.)
Receiving Christ and becoming sons
I. CHRIST WHO HAS COME INTO THE WORLD SEEKS ADMISSION TO THE HEART as a lawful and everlasting tenant. The Christ in the book, in the creed, in the church, effects but little for us. Christ in the heart becomes all our salvation and desire.
II. THE RECEPTION OF CHRIST IN THE HEART IS FOLLOWED BY SENSING.
1. There is a natural sonship pertaining to all men; for we are all His offspring.
2. There is a special, redemptive, restored sonship bestowed on those who receive Christ.
3. All that pertains to this sonship is supernatural. Adam was not a son by blood, nor by the will of the flesh, but by the will of God; and a restored son is as marvellous a creation as Adam.
III. THIS SONSHIP INVOLVES A NEW BIRTH AND ELEVATION TO THE HIGHEST POSSIBLE POSITION. There is nothing higher than being admitted to sonship with God. What we want is not some new spiritual dignity, but the recognition of this exalted condition.
IV. TRUE FAITH IS HERE DESCRIBED AND EVIDENCED.
1. Faith in receiving. Christ comes into the believer. Christ without does not save, but Christ within.
2. Faith is evidenced by the opening of the eyes to see the glory of Christ, and the affiliation to God which follows.
V. GOD HERE RECEIVES ALL THE PRAISE.
1. The power and the will are of God. Ascribe to Him the wisdom and the glory.
2. The Christ whom we receive is God’s “unspeakable gift.”
3. Faith and its attendant privileges are by power bestowed by God. (S. Martin.)
The connection between receiving Christ and becoming sons
I. These two things are connected IN RESPECT OF GOD; it is the will of God that all should believe in Christ, and He has appointed the mediation of Christ as the channel through which all should receive salvation, and all that is necessary for its attainment.
II. These things are connected IN RESPECT OF CHRIST: for, in consequence of what He has done, all may become the sons of God, and, may be enriched with all the blessings of His grace.
III. They are connected IN RESPECT OF MEN: all who would obtain salvation must receive Jesus Christ as the only Saviour. (C. C.Tittman, D. D.)
That act by which we do effectually apply Christ to our own souls
I. THE NATURE OF THIS RECEIVING OF CHRIST.
1. No man can do this in the darkness of natural ignorance. If we know not His nature and offices we do not take, we mistake Christ. The receiving act of faith, then, is guided by knowledge.
2. This receiving of Christ implies the assent of the understanding to the truths of Christ in the gospel--His Person, offices, incarnation, satisfaction--which assent, although it is not saving faith, is its groundwork. This is more than conjecture or opinion, it is belief.
3. This also implies hearty approbation, liking, and estimation; yea, the very acquiescence of our souls in Christ as the most excellent remedy for wants, sins, and dangers (1 Peter 2:7). There are two things in Christ which must gain the approbation of the soul.
(1) That it can find nothing unsuitable to it in Christ as it does find in the best creatures--no weakness, pride, inconstancy, or passion. He is the altogether lovely.
(2) That it can find nothing wanting in Christ necessary or desirable. In Him is the fulness of wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption.
4. It consists in the consent and choice of the will; and this is the opening of the heart and stretching forth of the soul to receive Him (see Christ’s complaint, John 5:40, and Ephesians 1:19).
5. The respect that this act of acceptance has unto the terms upon which Christ is tendered to us in the Gospel. Faith answers the gospel offer, as the impress on the wax does the engraving on the seal (1 Corinthians 15:11). There is no receiving Christ but on His own terms.
(1) He is offered sincerely and really, and is received with a faith unfeigned 1 Timothy 1:5).
(2) He is offered entirely, and is received in all His offices as Christ Jesus the Lord (Acts 16:13).
(3) He is offered exclusively, and the soul singly relies on Him (Ac 1 Corinthians 3:11), and not partly on His righteousness and our own.
(4) He is offered freely as the gift, not the sale of God (John 4:10;Isaiah 55:1.; Revelation 22:17). So the believer comes to Him with an empty hand.
(5) He is offered orderly. First His Person, then His privileges (Romans 8:32), so the believer does not marry His portion first.
II. THIS IS THE JUSTIFYING AND SAVING ACT OF FAITH.
1. The faith which gives the soul right and title to spiritual adoption, with all the privileges and benefits thereof, is true saving faith.
2. That only is saving faith which is in all true believers, in none but true believers, and in all true believers at all times.
III. THE EXCELLENCY OF THIS ACT OF FAITH (2 Peter 1:7; JmsJohn 6:29).
1. Considered qualitatively it has the same excellency that all other precious graces have. It is the fruit of the Spirit. It is singled out to receive Christ. As it is Christ’s glory to be the door of salvation, so it is faith’s glory to be the golden key that opens that door.
(1) It is the bond of our union with Christ (Ephesians 3:17).
(2) It is the instrument of our justification (Romans 5:1).
(3) It is the spring of our spiritual peace and joy (Romans 5:1; 1 Peter 1:8-9).
(4) It is the means of our spiritual livelihood and subsistence. Take away faith and all the others die (Galatians 2:20).
(5) It is the great scope and drift of the Gospel to get men to believe. The urgent commands aim at this (1 John 3:23; Mark 1:14-15; John 12:36). Hither, also, look the great promises and encouragements (John 6:35-37; Mark 16:16). The opposite sin of unbelief is everywhere threatened (John 16:8-9; John 3:18; John 3:35).
IV. APPLICATION:
1. For information: If there be life in receiving Christ, there must be death in rejecting Him.
2. If faith be accepting Christ, then there are fewer believers among professors than were thought to be, and more believers than dare conclude themselves such.
3. Those who have the least degree of saving faith, have cause for ever to admire the bounty of the grace of God to them therein (Ephesians 1:3).
4. For examination:
(1) The antecedents of faith--illumination (Acts 26:18); conviction Mark 1:15); self-despair (Acts 2:37); vehement and earnest cries to God for faith.
(2) The concomitants of faith--seriousness (Acts 16:29); humiliation Ezekiel 16:63; Luke 8:38); a weary condition (Matthew 11:28); a longing condition.
(3) The consequents of faith--evangelical meltings (Zechariah 12:10); love to Christ, His ways, and His people (Galatians 5:6); heart purity Acts 15:9); obedience (Romans 16:26).
5. For exhortation:
(1) What is in Christ whom you are to receive?
(2) What is the offer of Christ by the gospel?
(3) What is in the rejecting of that offer? (J. Flavel.)
Reception of Christ our introduction into sonship
I. THE HONOUR. To become sons of God not merely by adoption, but by generation (Romans 8:16; 1 John 3:1). On our side is sonship, on God’s Fatherhood. Sonship is
1. Higher;
2. Nearer;
3. More blessed;
4. More glorious than--creaturehood. There is sonship in the angels, in unfallen man; but this is beyond these. As
(1) Introducing us into a more intimate intercourse;
(2) Making us partakers of the Divine nature.
II. THE GIVER OF IT. Christ Himself; elsewhere it is the Father. All gifts are in Christ’s hands--living water and bread of life, Himself, sonship. This right or power of sonship He purchased for us; for those who had no right, or power, or title.
III. THE WAY OF ATTAINMENT.
1. Receiving Him--doing the reverse of what Israel had done; accepting and owning Him for all that God announced Him to be.
2. Believing on His name, i.e, Himself.
IV. THE PERSONAL CHANGE THROUGH WHICH THIS IS REACHED. “Born:”
1. Not of natural descent.
2. Not by natural generation.
3. Not by human adoption.
4. But of God (James 1:18). (H. Bonar, D. D.)
The grace of Christ to those who received Him
The grace appears in
I. HIS PREVAILING WITH MEN TO EMBRACE THE OFFER MADE TO THEM, and in what is implied in that.
1. Christ offers Himself, and we welcome and receive Him. The first acting of true faith is to accept Himself; not merely the special benefit He brings.
2. We exercise implicit confidence in Him. We have a right knowledge of Him; rejoice in His character; accept and hide Him in our hearts.
3. In the form in which Jesus is proclaimed in the Gospel, His saved ones receive and believe in Him. “So we preach; so ye believed.” There is a correspondence between the Gospel and faith of the same kind as that between the seal and the wax.
(1) Christ is offered sincerely, and He must be accepted with a faith unfeigned.
(2) He is offered exclusively, and must be accepted as the sole basis of our hope.
(3) He is offered as a gift; we must not attempt to merit Him.
4. The actual committing of our all to Christ When we receive Him. What is the saving act of faith?
(1) Not assent, although that must be a part of it.
(2) Not assurance, although that will follow it.
(3) But acceptance of Him and confidence in Him.
II. THE SPECIAL PRIVILEGE WHICH HE BESTOWS ON THOSE WHO RECEIVE HIM.
1. The saved are by nature the children of wrath; but in His person God is reconciled towards them.
2. Having reconciled them, He makes them sons--co-heirs with Himself.
3. Of Him also is the comfort and dignities of sonship.
III. THE CHANGE WROUGHT IN THEM WHO RECEIVE HIM, to which their accepting Him is ascribed.
1. A new form of existence--a new birth; all things have become new.
2. This change is
(1) not by natural inheritance;
(2) nor by the operation of the natural will;
(3) nor the fruit of superior endowment or acquisition;
(4) but of God, by the office and operation of the Spirit. (A. Beith, D. D.)
Man’s part in the advent
I. THE RECEPTION. A true reception of Christ for every man alike is of three parts.
1. Belief that He is what He says He is. For any messenger the first condition of acceptance is that He be found to be what He claims to be--much more the Saviour of mankind.
2. Sympathy. A plenipotentiary, an agent, a purely mental operator does not need this. But the moment you include a moral purpose, spiritual influence, there must be common feeling and assimilation. Interests must be felt to be identical. Loyalty must bind the subject to his king. Enthusiasm must mount at the leader’s name. If Christ’s purpose was to fill human hearts with love, we cannot be His without loving Him.
3. Service: not compulsory, but that which love disdains to call service. In the hungry, sick, ignorant, etc., the Lord makes new advent to your heart every week; and Christ will not be received till everybody within our reach is made, somehow, better by our faith in Him.
II. THE BLESSING. Servants and creatures we were before, and, in a sense--but not the full and glorious sense--children of God. Now sons ofGod, a royal line, conquerors, sufferers rejoicing in the midst of temptation. Born now, their immortal seed remained in them.
III. THOSE WHO BELIEVE IN CHRIST’S NAME WILL SEEK TO RECEIVE HIM.
1. By giving up the dearest preference that hurts the simplicity and humility of their faith.
2. In the New Testament, Christian instruction, prayer, doing God’s will; and counting faith, not doubt, the glory, and power, and joy of man.
3. In the communion of His body and blood. (Bishop Huntington.)
A new year’s guest
The text in connection with Matthew 25:35. Suggested by the motto on a new year’s card.
I. A STRANGER TAKEN IN. House-room is a larger gift than refreshment at the dour. We must not be satisfied with benefactions to His representatives. Notice three strange things.
1. That He was in the world and the Maker of it, and yet a stranger.
(1) When born in the Bethlehem of His father David, there was no room for Him in the inn.
(2) Soon there was no room in the village itself, whence He had to flee into Egypt, a stranger in a strange land.
(3) On His return, there was no room among the mass of the people. Jew and Gentile proved how truly He was a stranger. All this a sadly singular thing; and yet we need not wonder, for how should a wicked and selfish world know Jesus or receive Him.
2. That we should be able to receive the Lord Jesus as a stranger. He has gone to glory, but we can yet receive Him.
(1) By owning Him when and where believers are few and despised.
(2) By showing brotherly kindness to a poor saint.
(3) By holding fast His faithful Word when its doctrines are in ill-repute.
(4) By taking up our cross where Christ’s precepts are disregarded, His day forgotten, and His worship neglected.
(5) By receiving the gift of spiritual life. Profession is abundant, but the secret life is rare.
3. That Christ will deign to dwell in our hearts. This is a miracle of grace, yet the manner is simple enough.
(1) A humble, repenting faith opens the door, and Jesus enters.
(2) Love shuts to the door with the hand of penitence, and holy watchfulness keeps out intruders.
(3) Meditation, prayer, praise, and obedience, keep the house in order.
(4) And then follows the consecration of our whole life as His people.
II. THE STRANGER MAKING STRANGERS INTO SONS. The moment Christ enters the heart, we are no more strangers and foreigners, but of the household of God.
1. He adopts us and puts us among the children.
2. The designation of sons brings with it a birth, with the actual condition of sons.
3. Living, loving, lasting union seals our sonship.
4. This union creates in us a likeness to God. A small window will let in the great sun; much more will Jesus let in the life, light, and love of God into our souls, making us like God.
III. HAVING RECEIVED JESUS AS A STRANGER, WE FEEL A TENDERNESS HENCEFORTH TOWARDS ALL STRANGERS; for we see in their condition some resemblance to our own. When Christ is in us, we search out opportunities of bringing prodigals, strangers, and outcasts to the great Father’s house. (C. H.Spurgeon.)
Receivers and sons
I. BELIEVING IS A RECEIVING OF CHRIST.
1. Under what notion should we receive Christ? As our Mediator. Isaiah 61:3-4).
(1) Our Prophet, receiving His doctrine as delivered by Himself Hebrews 1:2; Hebrews 2:2-3); by His prophets and apostles (Hebrews 1:1; Matthew 10:40); by His ministers (2 Corinthians 5:19-20; Hebrews 4:11-12).
(2) Our Priest (Hebrews 7:23-26); and so we must believe
(a) His satisfaction for our sins (2 Corinthians 5:21; Hebrews 9:28; 1 John 2:2), to the justice and law of God Galatians 3:13);
(b) His intercession for our souls (Romans 8:34; Hebrews 9:11-12; Hebrews 9:24).
(3) Our King (Psalms 110:1-2): so we must
(a) acknowledge His sovereignty (Matthew 28:18);
(b) obey His laws (Luke 6:46; John 14:15);
(c) submit to His penalties (Colossians 3:24-25).
2. How should we receive Him?
(1) Penitently (Acts 2:36).
(2) Willingly (Psalms 110:3).
(3) Affectionately (Luke 14:26).
(4) Constantly (Revelation 2:26).
(5) Only (Acts 4:12).
II. BELIEVERS ARE THE SONS OF GOD.
1. In what sense? Not by generation, but regeneration (John 3:31).
(1) Man lost the favour of God (Romans 5:19).
(2) The Son undertakes his redemption
(a) by becoming man;
(b) by dying, whereby He purchases all believers to Himself, to be members of His body (1 Corinthians 6:20; Titus 2:14);
(c) and so from Himself the dead conveys His own spirit unto them Titus 3:5-6).
(3) The Spirit regenerates and makes them new creatures (2 Corinthians 5:17).
(4) Being new creatures, they are received into the favour of God Romans 8:15), and made His sons (Romans 8:14).
2. With what privileges?
(1) Privative. They are freed from the slavery of sin (Romans 6:14); from., slavish fears (Romans 8:15); from the curse of the law (Galatians In. 13).
(2) Positive.
(a) They have access to God (Galatians 4:6).
(b) They are interested in God’s providence (Romans 8:28; 2 Corinthians 6:18).
(c) They rejoice in God (Philippians 4:4).
(d) God rejoices over them (Zephaniah 3:17).
(e) Their glorious inheritance is assured (Colossians 1:12; Colossians 1:18).
(f) This inheritance is witnessed to them here (Romans 8:16-17), and sealed (Ephesians 4:30), whereof they now have the pledge (Ephesians 1:13-14).
3. How known?
(1) By prayer (Galatians 4:6).
(2) Obedience (1 Peter 1:14-15).
(3) Parity (2 John 1:1:9).
(4) Conformity to the Divine image (Romans 8:29).
(5) Faith (Son 3:26).
USES.
1. See the honour of believers.
2. Live like the sons of God.
(1) By despising the world.
(2) By patiently enduring all chastisements (Hebrews 12:6-9.
(3) By longing to come to your inheritance in heaven (Psalms 42:1-2). (Bishop Beveridge.)
Faith and its attendant privileges
I. FAITH MAKES THE GRANDEST OF DISTINCTIONS AMONG MEN. “He came to His own, and His own received Him not”--that is one company; “but as many as received Him”--that is another.
1. There are many distinctions among men--rich and poor, governors and governed, teachers and taught. But these will pass away. The grand distinction, which will out-last all time, is that of faith or the want of faith.
2. This distinguishing faith is
(1) A receptive faith; one which accepts Christ by confiding, trusting, and depending on Him.
(2) Faith in His name, as
(a) The Word: receiving His messages from the Father.
(b) The Life: receiving His vitality in spirit.
(c) The Light: seeing all things in the light of Christ..
3. This distinction is one which obliterates all others. If a chimney-sweep receives Christ, he is a child of God; so is an emperor--but not the one more than the other.
II. FAITH OBTAINS THE GRANDEST OF ALL ENDOWMENTS. “Sons of God.”
1. There is a distinction here between son and servant. The believer ceases to be a slave, and becomes a child; and yet he becomes a servant. Christ was first His Father’s Son, and then His servant; so we, being sons, have the joy of serving our Father.
2. We are also sons by likeness--miniatures, and sometimes caricatures, yet resemblances.
3. We are sons, in having the privilege of free access to our Father.
III. FAITH IS THE EVIDENCE OF THE GRANDEST EXPERIENCE. Every believer is a regenerate man. It is of no use to attempt to mend the old nature. A man brought his gun to be repaired. The gunsmith told him it wanted a new stock, lock, and barrel. That looked like making a new one. You must begin de novo. Baptism cannot regenerate; nor blood, the natural way of birth; nor man’s carnal will, nor his best will; but God, who, as the Creator, newcreates the soul.
IV. FAITH RAISES THE BELIEVER TO THE NOBLEST CONCEIVABLE CONDITION. He is fitted to be a child of God.
1. Notice the inconceivable honour. All others pale before it.
2. The safety.
3. The happiness.
4. The duties. There is an old French proverb which says, “nobility obliges.” There is an obligation on nobles. If you are a son of God, you must act like one. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Faith is receiving
It is the empty cup placed under the flowing stream; the penniless hand held out for the heavenly alms. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Sonship more than adoption
The sonship is not effected in virtue of a mere act of adoption on the part of God. A child may be taken out of the family to which he originally belonged, and be planted in another; he may get a new name; he may be trained to forget that he had other birth; he may be made heir to great estates; he may be as dearly loved and as tenderly cared for as if he were own child to those who have adopted him: but the fact remains that he is really the child of another, and nature may prove too strong for the new bonds, and he may pine for his native home, and at length go back to it. The “sons of God,” however, are sons by birth, for such is the significance of the word here used, having not only a new name and position, but also a new life. It is not simply that they are called sons; they are sons, partakers of the Divine nature, with a filial relationship, and a filial resemblance to the eternal God. The sonship is already established in fact and in principle, though it awaits its full manifestation hereafter (1 John 3:1-2). (J. Calross, D. D.)
Comfort for the dying
When Philip Melanchthon was dying, he said aloud and distinctly to his surrounding friends, “I have those words of John concerning the Son of God, my Lord Jesus Christ, before me continually: ‘The world received Him not; but as many as received Him, to them gave He power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on His name.’“ (R. Besser, D. D.)
Receiving the light
Suppose you were in a dark room in the morning, the shutters closed and fastened, and only as much light coming through the chinks as made you aware it was day outside. And suppose you could say to a companion with you, “Let us open the windows, and let in the light.” What would you think if he replied, “No, no; you must first put the darkness out, or the light will not enter”? You would laugh at his absurdity. Just so we cannot put sin out of our hearts to prepare for Christ’s entering; we must open and take Him in, and sin will flee; fling the window open at once, and let Christ shine in. (J. Edmond, D. D.)
The honour of adoption
I have heard of some fine gentleman in London, dressed in all his best, walking out in the park. He had a poor old father who lived in the country, add who came up dressed in his rustic raiment to see his son. As the son was not at home when the father reached the house, he went into the park to find him. Now the fine gentleman did not absolutely disown his father, but he went out of the park at a pretty sharp trot, for fear anybody should say, “Who is that country fellow you were talking with?” He did not like to own his father, because he was a labourer. We could not thus wonder if the glorious Lord refused to own us. There is such a come-down from the loftiness of His holiness to the depth of our faultiness. But yet He has such love, such a manner of love, that He bestows upon as this honour, that we should be openly called the sons of God. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
The treasure unreceived
A nobleman once gave a celebrated actress a Bible, telling her at the same time that there was a treasure in it. She, thinking he meant religion, laid the Bible aside. She died, and all she had was sold. The person who bought the Bible, on turning over its leaves, found a £500 note in it. Poor creature! had she read the book, she might not only have found the note, but the “pearl of great price.” (Sunday School Chronicle.)
Christ must be received
There is dew in one flower and not in another, because one opens its cup and takes it in, while the other closes itself, and the drops run off. God rains His goodness and mercy as wide-spread as the dew, and if we lack them, it is because we will not open our hearts to receive them. (H. W. Beecher.)
Believing is receiving Christ
He comes to your door. He wants to get in. He knocks. He waits. Is not that wonderful? I was lately visiting that part of the country where our beloved Queen stays when she comes to Scotland. She visits among the poor. I saw some of the cottages to which she is in the habit of going. In the house of one of her servants I saw her own likeness, and the likenesses of several of her family--all gifts from themselves. You say, What kindness! what condescension! And so it is: But what would you think if I told you--what I am glad I cannot tell you, for it would not be true--that when they saw the Queen coming, they locked their doors and pretended to be out, and kept her standing knocking at the door, refusing to let her in, though she came to speak kindly to them and to do them good? You would say, Surely the people must not be in their right mind. And yet that is just what King Jesus does--Queen Vietoria’s King. He comes to your door to bless you, to save you. He says, “Behold, I stand at the door and knock.” Most people keep Him out, and will not have anything to do with Him. They say, “Depart from us, for we desire not the knowledge of Thy ways.” Opening the door to Him, saying, “Come in, Lord Jesus, come in”--taking Him to our heart, and only fearing lest He should ever go away again--is believing. The believing heart is the heart that has let in Jesus, and in which he dwells Ephesians 3:17). (J. H. Wilson.)
Privileges of adoption
By adoption, God gives us
1. A new name (Numbers 6:27; Revelation 3:12).
2. A new nature (2 Peter 1:4). Whom God adopts He anoints; whom He makes sons, He makes saints.
3. A new inheritance (Romans 8:17). When the Danish missionaries in India were translating a catechism, with some of the convetted natives by their side, and when they came to a part where it was said of Christians that they were the sons of God, one of the natives, startled at so bold a saying, as he thought it, said, “It is too much; let us rather translate it: ‘They shall be permitted to kiss His feet.’”
Adoption and justification
Justification is the act of God as a Judge, adoption as a Father. By the former we are discharged from condemnation, and accepted as righteous; by the latter, we are made the children of God and joint-heirs with Christ. By the one, we are taken into God’s favour; by the other, into His family. Adoption may be looked upon as an appendage to justification, for it is by our being justified that we come to a right to all the honours and privileges of adoption. (Dr. Guyse.)
Which were born
Three great negations
The children of God are born
I. NOT OF BLOOD. Grace does not run on the lines of nature. Many beautiful and graceful things do come by gentle and noble blood, but not this. It needs a very narrow field of observation to convince us that no parent, however pious, can command the conversion of his children. Else why should there be in this world that bitterest spectacle of a pious parent’s heart being broken by a wicked child!
II. NOT OF THE WILL OF THE FLESH. The expression relates to any desire which, ruling in a man’s mind, might be supposed to lead him to some act whereby he should become a child of God, and the idea is utterly repelled. Every one who is a subject of the grace of God is so first passively, that afterwards he may be so actively. He is first acted upon by a will and power without him, and then he acts out that will and manifests that power.
III. Not of the will of man. Observe the steps. Not of parents, not of self, nor of any creature whatsoever. One man, indeed, may will the conversion of another; and if he clothe that will with prayer, if he offer that will with faith, and if he does all in his power to forward that will, God may give him that man’s soul. But God never promises He will do this. A soul passes into the family of God and becomes an heir in the register of sons when he receives Christ, and only then. (J. Vaughan, M. A.)
The three negations illustrated
When it pleased God to bring Abraham and his family into covenant with Him, that family consisted of three classes of persons; first of all, there were his own children; secondly, there were those who were born of his men-servants and maid-servants; thirdly, there were those slaves, whom he purchased and adopted. All these three classes were admitted into covenant with God, by reason of their relation to Abraham. “Abraham took Ishmael his son, and all that were born in his house, and all that were bought with his money, and circumcised them” Genesis 17:23). Of these classes, Ishmael was born of blood, as being his own flesh and blood, as we say; those born of the flesh were the other children born in his house, not his own; and those born of the will of man were those who, having no right to his protection, being yet bought of his free will, acquired a right by purchase and adoption. To these three classes were the benefits of the first covenant confined.… The truth, which St. John here announces, is that to all who received the message of the Lord Jesus, all who believed on His Name and submitted to His ordinances, to all those He gave the same power, even to become sons of God Genesis 3:16-17; Romans 5:13). (G. Cornish.)
The being born of blood and of God considered
I. In their ANTAGONISM.
II. In their essential DISTINCTION.
III. In their congenial CONNECTION.
IV. In the MEDIATOR OF THEIR UNION. (Lange.)
The new, celestial, divine birth constitutes the true nobility of grace as contrasted with
I. The aristocracy of BIRTH.
II. The aristocracy of MONEY.
III. The aristocracy of MERIT.
IV. The aristocracy of FAME. (P. Schaff, D. D.)
Not of blood
The blood through which the chyle is distributed to the different parts of the body is the seat of life, hence the connection between child and parents is called blood relationship; and in classic usage also we have the expression “to spring from the blood”--that is, from the seed of any one (Acts 17:26). (Tholuck.)
Not of the will of man
According to the teaching of some men, how is it? “I am a minister of God--I am a man--as a man I may will to take a child and baptize it, and I may will to baptize it by a certain hour of the clock; and just as I am going to baptize it, I may will to put it off till to.morrow; and when to-morrow comes, I may will that I will not baptize that child at all--for if baptized, the child may die. And so, according to the caprice of my will, the child is baptized at this hour, or at that, to-day, or to-morrow, or it is not baptized at all; and therefore, following the caprice of my will, and just according to my will, the child is inevit ably a child of God at this time of the clock, or at that time of the clock--today, or to-morrow, or the next day, or never at all.” What, I ask, is this but to be “born of the will of man”? (J. Vaughan, M. A.)
The simultaneity of faith and regeneration
We must be careful that we do not interpet the words “which were born” as if the new birth was a change which takes place in a man after he has believed in Christ, and is the next step after faith. Saving faith and regeneration are inseparable. The moment that a man really believes in Christ, however feebly, he is born of God. The weakness of his faith may make him unconscious of the change, just as a new-born infant knows little or nothing about itself. Bat where there is faith there is always new birth, and where there is no faith there is no regeneration. (Bishop Ryle.)
The spirituality of religion
This verse is most emphatically in the style of John. Never can he lose sight of the perfect spirituality of Jesus Christ’s work. John shows the very religiousness of religion. Christianity is to him more than a history, more than an argument, more than a theology--it is a spiritual revelation to the spiritual nature of man. On the part of man it is to be not an attitude, but a life--the very mystery of his spirit, too subtle for analysis, too strong for repression, too divine to be tolerant of corruption. (J. Parker, D. D.)
The higher generation
The result of receiving Him remains to be explained. How could they become “sons of God”? The word which has been used (John 1:12) excludes the idea of adoption, and asserts the natural relation of child to father. The nation claimed this through its descent from Abraham. But they are Abraham’s children who are of Abraham’s faith. There is a higher generation, which is spiritual, while they thought only of the lower, which is physical. The condition is the submissive receptivity of the human spirit. The origin of life is “not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.” (H. W. Watkins, D. D.)