Reading: 1 Cor.
15:45,47; 2 Cor. 5:17; John 3:3,5-7.
I want to bring a word very
simply to you, a word which many may think to be quite elementary, but
it will
be intentionally so. Perhaps there is no fragment of Scripture which at
the
same time is more elementary and yet more comprehensive and profound
than this,
"You must be born anew." I want to place the emphasis where I believe
the Lord Jesus placed
it in that statement. It is on the word "must", you must.
"You must be born anew."
You will have noticed that
the statement was in answer to an unasked question. As far as you can
see as
you read, there was no enquiry made, nothing asked of the Lord Jesus.
All that
Nicodemus said was: "We know that you are a teacher come from God." He
made a
remark about Him, and about His teaching and about His work, and it is
almost
as though the Lord Jesus was abrupt, as though He held up His hand, and
said,
"That is all right, Nicodemus, but it will not get us very far!" It is
as
though in effect He said, "Nicodemus, I know that you are interested in
these
things, you are interested in religious matters, you are interested in
teaching
and good works. But, Nicodemus, that will get you nowhere, and if you
have come
to Me in order that I might say something to you by way of
enlightenment or
help, if you have come in a spirit of enquiry to know things from Me,
Nicodemus, we shall get nowhere until we are on common ground. The
first man is of the earth, earthy; the second man is from heaven.
Nicodemus, I am from heaven. You belong to the first category, and
therefore we
are in two different realms altogether, but there is no bridge across
the gap.
It is no use our trying to talk across that great gulf between these
two
worlds, the old creation and the new, the earthly and the heavenly. We
shall
never get anywhere. If we are going to get anywhere at all, you will
have to
come to the place where I am and become another kind of man; you will
have to
be born from above!"
You know, that is a very
real thing that is very often overlooked. We can never get anywhere
with the
Lord Jesus, with the things of God, we can never have any kind of
understanding, appreciation or enjoyment of the things of the Lord
until
something has taken place in us. We can never get anywhere until that
something
has happened, and that something is what the Lord Jesus called being
"born from
above". Now, let us get down to this with our several passages of God's
Word.
In the first passage, we
have been presented with two men. They go under the name of Adam;
respectively,
the "first man Adam", and the other, not the second, but the "last
Adam". It is
very important not to make that mistake. If there were a second, there
might be
a third, and a fourth, but with the Lord Jesus the thing is brought to
an end,
there is not another. Everything is finished in Him, God has no third,
fourth
or fifth Adam. He has a first and a last Adam, only two races.
This Scripture makes it
perfectly clear that all who are born into this world are by nature in
the
first Adam. That first birth is from the first Adam, and we belong to
his race.
We are born of him. Well, Adam the first was made by God, as we know,
and when
he came from the hand of God he was very good, God was very well
satisfied,
there was nothing wrong with him. But then he was marred, he was
spoilt, he was
ruined by sin, and then he was rejected by God, as no longer pleasing
to God or satisfying Him. He was set aside; sinful in nature, judged as
sinful in nature,
and now dead to God. As the apostle puts it, dead in trespasses and in
sin.
Now, we must recognize
this, that in Adam everyone shares Adam's sin, and Adam's judgment, and
Adam's
rejection. This is where a great many people have made lots of
mistakes, very
vital mistakes. They have misunderstood God altogether as to this
rejected
Adam. This Adam, this first Adam and his race in which all of us are by
nature,
is not pitied by God. He does not look upon us in our sin and
sinfulness and
rejection, and so pity us that He will come to have compassion upon us
and lift
us up and improve us, so that we are restored to His favour. No, with
all that the
Word of God seems to say in that direction, it does not mean that. Yes,
"God so
loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever
believes on
Him should not perish, but have eternal life." You say, surely that
contradicts
what you have just said? No, it does not. Yes, God loves, but He does
not love
that old creation, God does not love that old Adam race. It is
something which
He does not pity, and yet and yet He looks upon us with love that
desires
to get us right out of it, that desires to get us to leave it behind;
not to be
improved in it, not to be mended, but to be made a new creation in
Christ Jesus. There never does come
a moment in our history, however long we may be the Lord's children,
when He
loves our old creation, when He has pity upon it and when He sets
Himself to do
something to repair it. Never! It always remains that right to the
end, always rejected by God. Well, that is where we
are in Adam, and we are all there, as we have said, by nature.
Well, what does God do? God
brings in a new Adam, a new man, and that is His Son, but He does not
bring Him
in in the same way. He comes in from heaven; He is not of the earth,
earthy; He
is from heaven. He is not made in time; He is timeless, eternal. He is,
therefore,
not subject to death. He is deathless, and although He may enter into
death, as
He did, He will conquer death because it was not possible that He
should be
hold of death. He is deathless. This is the new Adam, the Lord Jesus.
It is
very important to get this first point, where this new Adam comes from.
In John 1:51, we have these
words. "Verily, verily, I say unto you, you shall see the heaven
opened, and
the angels of God ascending
and descending upon the Son of man." The heaven open; the angels of God
ascending and descending upon the Son of Man. Well, that clearly
implies two
things. That the Son of Man, the Lord Jesus, belongs to heaven. Heaven
is His
place. He comes from heaven, He goes to heaven. Heaven is His home. The
last
Adam is from heaven. The other thing that it indicates is that the
heaven is
opened, and you notice it says, in the Authorized Version, "Hereafter
(or
afterwards) you shall see heaven open." The Lord Jesus was just
pointing on a
little way to a time not far ahead of when He said those words. When He
said
those words, this was not true. The heavens were not opened, they were
closed.
When the first Adam sinned, the heavens were closed, and from that time
onwards
for all his race the heavens were closed. Just as surely as Paradise
was closed
to Adam, and the cherubim with the flaming sword were set to guard the
way that
he should not return, just so was Paradise removed from the earth and
became
part of heaven and remained closed to Adam's race right up to the time
that the Lord Jesus came, and no one of Adam's race can get into heaven.
That is what the Lord was
saying to Nicodemus. You are interested in heavenly things, Nicodemus,
but
interest in heavenly things will not get you anywhere. The thing is to
get to
heaven, the thing is that heaven should be your home, that you should
belong to
heaven, that you should have the right to heaven, and all that heaven
is and
has should be yours because you were born there, your name is enrolled
there as
a citizen, it is in the Lamb's book of life. That is the thing that
matters,
Nicodemus, not interest in heavenly things so that you talk about them,
discuss
them, sing about them, have a lot of information. No, but that you
belong
there. Now, Nicodemus, I was born there, I belong there, and no one of
Adam's
race can ever come there. You will have to be born from above.
The Lord Jesus in the words
in John 1:51 to which we have already referred, was just pointing on to
that
day not far ahead when He would deal with all Adam's sin and take all
Adam's
state in His own body on the tree and bear it away in judgment, and
then, rising from the dead, become the first man of this new race, this
last Adam. And what happened
to Him? Well, after His resurrection, as they were gathered round one
day, they
suddenly saw Him go up and the way it is described is, He "was received
up into
heaven". You notice, if you look at it, it is put like that frequently.
It does not say He went up into heaven, He "was received
up into heaven". Yes, you see now He has a right of way, everything is
open to
Him, He is received. He has gone back to His own place. He is the last
Adam and
the first man of a new race, and "You shall see the heaven opened, and
the
angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of man", that is,
there will be a way for you. There will be communication, the heaven
will be open. Yes, in the Lord Jesus, that heaven
which was closed to all Adam's race and is closed to everyone of us as
members
of Adam's race, that heaven is open now. In Christ, a new creation, all
from
above. "You must be born from above", which means that we, like the
Lord Jesus,
become possessed of a heavenly nature.
Everything depends then
upon our being in Christ. I do want to press this home to you very
simply and
very earnestly. I expect everyone of us is interested in heavenly
things. You
would sing hymns about heaven, about going to heaven, about desiring to
go to
heaven, about the time when you will be in heaven. "I love to hear the
story";
you know the sort of thing: "unseen things above". We are all
interested, we
all hear about these things, we all read about these things. They are
brought
near to us continually. Yes, but Nicodemus lived in all that world. You
see, his very
life, his business, was to do with things about God. It was his whole
life. He
was a grown man, and probably from his infancy he had been interested
in a very
real way in things about God; that was his world. And yet the Lord
Jesus had to
say to Nicodemus: Nicodemus, this is no good. You may spend your whole
life in
touch with these things, and yet never get into the Kingdom of God! You see, it is
not good enough for us to know about heaven, about the Lord Jesus,
about the
things of God. It is not good enough. It would be a terrible thing, and
it will
be terrible for a great many, to have heard about it, known all about
it, to
have been in touch with it every day in some way or other, and
then, when it comes to the
end, to be outside. Terrible, and yet it is going to be true of many,
and that
is why the emphasis is upon that word "must", "You must
be born again." There is no other way. "You must
be born again." So it is a question as to whether we are in Christ.
We know we are in Adam. If
you have any doubt about that, well, you will not have to go very long
before
you can prove it. I think most of us have proved it very well indeed
that we
are in Adam. We talk about our old Adam, our old man, that nature which
is
ours, that sinful nature. It is there all the time. We know that we are
in Adam
because of the effect of Adam's sin in us. All the hatred, the unlove,
the
disagreeableness, the irritability, the bad temper, all the
selfishness, all
the unkindness; all that, and so much more mountains of it well, that
is
Adam, it is the fruit of Adam's sin in us. We know we were in Adam.
How can we know that we are
in Christ? Well, just in exactly the same way. Being in Christ means
that, just
as we share the life of Adam by nature, the sinful life that Adam has
passed on
to us, so we come to share the life of the Lord Jesus, to have His life
really
in us, and we have it by being born anew. To be in Christ then is to
share His
life. He has given us one very beautiful and very simple illustration
of what sharing
His life means. "I am the vine, you are the branches" (John 15:5). The
phrase
"in Christ" or "in Me" in its various forms occurs more often in that
fifteenth
chapter of John than in any other chapter in the Bible. "Abide in Me."
"If you
abide in Me
". The branches must abide in the Vine. We must abide in
Him. Now,
what is the link, what is it that makes the branches abide in the Vine
and what
is the result of their abiding in the Vine? What is it that makes the
Vine and
the branches one? It is the one life which runs through all, just one
life in
all. If that life were cut off from any branch, that branch would soon
fall off
and cease to be in the Vine, a part of the Vine; something dead, and we
should
not call it part of the Vine at all. It is the life shared by every
part which
is the basis of the oneness and of the abiding in the Vine, so far as
the
branches are concerned. Life, His life, the life in the Lord Jesus,
which He
had and has from heaven, that is the basis of being in Him.
Now, what is the effect of
that life? Well, there are several things, and I will select one or
two. "If we
have been planted together in the likeness of His death, we shall be
also in
the likeness of His resurrection" (Rom. 6:5). And Paul
says concerning that likeness of His resurrection, being planted with
Him, that
"we also should walk in newness of life" (Rom. 6:4). This is newness of
life in Christ, and if you want to know
whether you are in Christ, here is something by which to test it.
Do you know
what that newness of life is? Now, newness of life is a very wonderful
thing. I
think that the thing about it which is its particular
feature and characteristic is its newness, is its wonder, is the
wonderfulness
of it.
Have you ever watched lambs
at play? There they are, skipping, playing all sorts of imaginary
games,
jumping over imaginary fences! There are the old mothers getting on
with the
grazing, just going on quite quietly and steadily, and here are these
little lambs springing and jumping,
almost turning somersaults! It is newness of life. Now, that life was
derived
from that old mother, but you do not see it in the old mother. You
would think
it very wonderful if you saw an old mother sheep doing what the little
lambs
do! There is life there, the same life which has been imparted to the
little
one, and it is simply marvellous what that newness of life does. Has no
parent
ever tried to imitate their little one for half an hour when they are
in a
lively mood? You are exhausted in three or four minutes, you cannot
keep it up.
Newness of life! It is a wonderful thing. It is freshness, it is
energy, it is
activity, it is joyous irresponsibility, just newness of life. Is that
not true
to the experience of everyone born from above? Did you not feel like
that when
you were born from above? Is that not exactly how you have felt at
every fresh crisis of the spiritual life when something more of the
Lord has become real to you? I remember quite well when the real
transaction took place between myself and the
Lord. I remember the newness of life. It was not put on. The
"hallelujahs" that
came from my lips were not artificial. The number of open-air meetings
at which I spoke was not some hard task that I undertook. No, there was
newness of life and I had to talk about it, I had to
let it out somehow or other. If I did not, I felt I should have
exploded! It
was just newness of life. Now, this is very simple, but it is very
real, and I
mention it to test the situation. "You must be born from above." Do you
know
anything about that real newness of life? That is what it means to be
in Christ
to start with.
But it does not of course
mean that it just remains at the start. As we go on with Him, with
every fresh
movement in fellowship with Him, there can be and there is a fresh
experience
of this newness of life. Some fresh act of obedience, some fresh step
in
compliance with His will, some new development in our knowledge of Him,
a new
life it is just wonderful. It is discovering what we have in Christ.
I think that we must realize
that this life, while its outward manifestation may not always be the
same on to the end, this life has got to be a reality to us right on to
the end this different life, this newness of life.
Now,
I have heard quite
a lot of people asking the Lord that they might have back their early
experiences.
They seem to think that, because it is not like it was at the beginning
the
skipping lamb kind of experience they have lost something, and so
they sing,
"Where is the blessedness I knew when first I saw the Lord?" Not
necessarily
have we lost anything. You look at the old mother sheep, and, while it
is not
skipping and dancing and turning over itself, it has got life. It has
got just
as much life as that lamb. I venture to say it has got more life. Put
them both out alone in a storm, and
see which will weather the storm longest. The lamb will not last as
long as the
old mother. The life has gone deeper, the life has become stronger and
more
mature. It is still the same life; the life there is going to prove
itself in
other ways. We all like a little lamb, I think we would like the energy
of a
little lamb. We all like the beautiful trees in spring when the blossom
is on
them. We all like the bubbling brook on the mountain side, or running
in the
valley, shimmering and making such a noise. When the blossom has blown
away,
perhaps we think that the life has gone. Do we? But presently, if we
wait a
little while, we shall see some fruit in the place where the blossom
was. It is
the same life, not making quite so much show, but being a little more
valuable,
more useful. If we follow the brook far enough, we shall find it
widening into
a stream and deepening into a river, and presently in the midst of the
great
city, we shall see laden ships borne by it. It is the same brook, but
it has
become mature. It has the same life, but it is a good deal more useful
now.
That is not to say anything disparaging about young Christians, but you
see my
point. This life is a very real thing, and although at the beginning it
has
these marks of freshness and newness, all the way through it has got to
abide
as that thing which has come out from God and bears its testimony in
different
forms. From the early days of bright, sunny, cheerful, happiness of new
birth,
we go on into storms and tempests, now proving that life by endurance,
by suffering,
and by fruitfulness and usefulness to others. It is the one life, it is
a new
life, an altogether new life.
Now, have you had the first
stage of that? If not, oh! then, this word is a very important word.
Heaven is
closed to you, however much you may think about heaven, and long for
heaven,
and sing about heaven. "You must be born from above." If you are, your
experience will be in common with all those who have been born from
above. You
will know that newness of life which simply bubbles up in joy, in
wonderful
joy, and manifests itself. It is only a half dead lamb that does not
show that
activity and energy, and does not skip.
Be very patient with this
simple word, but let it come home to your hearts and test your own
position. Do
you know the newness of life?
Then you know how often in
the Word this life is called eternal life. "My
sheep hear My voice", said the Lord Jesus. "I give unto them
eternal life,
and they shall never perish" (John 10:27,28). This life
is eternity of life. You see, it has no beginning, it is not something
of time
that is the first Adam. The last Adam out from eternity, passing
through
time on into eternity, timeless life; that is the life which the Lord
gives us
so that we are no longer children of time; though we may pass through
this life
and although this body that we use here for the time being may be laid
aside in the grave, we receive another body which is deathless,
governed
by eternal life, we are alive for ever. "You must be born again", anew,
from
above, to have that life.
Then one other thing about
this life, a thing that ought to be of great help to us as we remember
it,
although we know it perhaps so well the wonderful sustaining power of
the
life of the Lord Jesus. A great deal is said about this in John 6. "You
seek Me... because you did eat of the loaves, and were filled. Labour
not for the meat
which perishes, but for that meat which endures unto everlasting life"
(vv.
26-27). If you look on in that chapter, you will see that, not very far
on, the
question arose about the Israelites in the wilderness. The men
here asked the
Lord Jesus what sign He would give, and they referred Him to the sign
of the
manna in the wilderness. That to them was a sign, it was a miracle.
What kind of miracle
do you show as a sign that you come from God? The Lord Jesus refers
back to the
bread of life. He says that He is the bread of life. The point is this.
There
are tens of thousands of people in a wilderness for forty years. You
know quite
well that you cannot grow anything much in a wilderness, and you know
quite
well that it would be an impossible thing to have stores for tens of
thousands
of people for forty years, and as a matter of fact, we know that these
people did not bring out into the wilderness
food to last them more than perhaps for a day or so. They had no bread
with
them for all that time. The fact is that they did not starve, they did
not
become weak and emaciated for want of food, but they were kept strong,
well,
sustained, supported, able to keep going for all those years, because
God sent
them food from heaven.
Now, the Lord Jesus says
about the life that He gives in Himself, the life which He is, that it
is like that. You may be in what is like a wilderness. There is no
spiritual food, nothing to keep your new life going, nothing to keep
you going as a Christian here everything is against
you; it is like a wilderness. You will not find anything in this world
to help
your spiritual life. There will be nothing here to help you to go on as
a
Christian. It is starvation in this world for Christians. There is
nothing that
they can feed upon or live upon. The wonder is that, here in a world
where there is nothing to make us strong, to make us grow, to enable us
to go on as the Lord's children, we do go on in the midst of all
the difficulty and adversities. This is the miracle of His life in us,
its
sustaining power to keep us going. Oh, it is a great thing to remember
in days like these. We know that in some parts of the world the Lord's
children
are being scattered everywhere in China, for instance
their meetings broken up. No more meetings, no more Christian
fellowship. None
of these things to help, but everything to hinder and make difficulty.
How are we going to have any hope that they will survive at all? It
is here. It does not depend at all upon conditions outside, it is the
life that
is in them, the life of the Lord Jesus. That is the basis, and to be in
Christ just means that, it means to know His power within keeping us
when
there is nothing outside to help. That is being in Christ. That is very
simple.
The link is life, the life which keeps us going when there is nothing
else to
help us, but everything against us.
Then, if I were adding one
more thing, I should remind you again of John 15 the fruitfulness of
that
life. "He that abides in Me, and I in Him, the same brings forth much
fruit"
(John 15:5). The life of the Lord Jesus in us is a fruitful life. "By
their
fruits you shall know them." What are the fruits? Well, the Apostle
puts it
this way. "The fruit of the Spirit is love" (Gal. 5:22). Then he breaks
that up, explains what he means by love, joy, peace, longsuffering,
gentleness,
goodness, faith, meekness, self-control. The fruit of the Spirit, the
fruit of
His life love. That means everything. Yes, joy and peace. Have we got
His
love? Is His love manifested? Is His joy manifested? Is His peace
manifested?
Are these fruits growing in us, being shown in us? That is what it
means to be
in Christ.
All that is very simple,
but I have mentioned it because I feel it ought to just test us right
the way
through. Newness of life, the sustaining power of His life in
adversity, the
fruitfulness of His life in love and all that it means. "You must be
born again."
May the Lord make us very sure about this matter.
First published in the "Golden Candlestick" magazine, Vol 129 from a previously unpublished and undated manuscript.