CHAPTER 10
THE NEW BIRTH
A few years ago I noticed a very strange thing whilst sitting in the pulpit. The chapel clock was going the wrong way round! The service started at seven, but by the time we had sung the first hymn it was five to seven! and at the end of the Bible reading it was a quarter to seven! At first I wondered if my eyes were playing tricks and even came down from the pulpit to ask!
That clock had been going round in one direction only, day after day, week after week, year after year. But now suddenly, unexpectedly, it started going round completely the opposite way. I began to think. That is what we see happening in the lives of men and women, girls and boys—a complete change. We have it in the Bible with some who were very wicked—we think of Manasseh and Mary Magdalene.
Sometimes it is called conversion: 'Except ye be converted and become as little children ye cannot see the kingdom of heaven.' It is God's work, not man's; not just turning over a new leaf, not just reforming, not just giving up some sinful habit. The chapel clock soon went back to its old ways, but a true conversion continues. On the Day of Pentecost there were 3000 and they all 'continued stedfastly'.
A godly minister was once walking down the street and his attention was drawn to a drunkard lying in the gutter.
'There is one of your converts!' someone called.
'Yes,' replied the minister, 'it looks like my work. If it had been God's work, he would not be lying there!'
The Bible also speaks of the new birth, the giving of a new life, life from God in the heart. It is this that causes the conversion, the turning round. So the new birth (regeneration it is sometimes called) must come before everything else. A baby is born; then it begins to cry, hunger, thirst, move, etc. When we are born again, we begin to hunger and thirst after Christ, and to move in different ways.
As this is completely God's work, it does not matter how bad the person was before. There are countless stories of most wicked persons whose hearts and lives have been changed by God's grace. A man once went to hear George Whitefield preach, carrying several stones to throw at his head during the sermon. But as the sermon began, the stones one by one were dropped on the floor. (Instead of the man breaking Whitefield's head, God broke the man's heart.) Another time a man climbed on a table in a public house to mimic Whitefield's preaching; but as he spoke his own words affected his heart, and he fled from the place in deep sorrow of soul. He became a godly man and a minister.
The Lord Jesus clearly preached the new birth and the point He insisted on was that it is vital. There is no substitute for it. We often go into a shop and are told, 'We don't have what you want, but we have something that is just as good.' There is no substitute for the new birth.
Nicodemus, who was a ruler among the Jews (we might say, a Member of Parliament), came to Jesus secretly by night. Outwardly he was a good man, a religious man, and he spoke so kindly to the Lord Jesus. But Jesus came straight to the point: 'Ye must be born again.' No salvation without it! In other words: Nicodemus all your religion and good works will not do. You are wrong at heart. You need that complete change, that new life that only God can give.
The important thing in the change is new life. Often in the Bible it is compared to a resurrection. What Jesus did for Jairus' daughter, Lazarus, and the widow of Nain's son, we need Him to do for us. Sometimes going into a house we notice a beautiful display of colourful flowers. On going up to them, though, we find they are artificial. There is no life. We do not want to be like the artificial flowers.
Where there is this life given, this change, we repent and believe. There is so much in the Bible about repentance and faith.
We need to repent because of our sin, our disobedience, our rebellion against God. Jesus preached that 'men ought to repent'. So John the Baptist preached repentance, and the Apostles preached repentance. It is very clear that there is no forgiveness without repentance.
What is repentance? To be sorry for our sins and turn from them to God. It is a turning round (like the clock). How we need to be sorry for all our sins, and to confess them! But what good is it if we even weep about our sins, and still go on the same? The little children's hymn is very much to the point:
Repentance is to leave
The sins we loved before,
And show that we in earnest grieve
By doing them no more.
We well remember an old man, a ruffian, well known in the town, who came to chapel once a year at the anniversary. Throughout the service he would weep, and at the end would say, 'I know this is where I should be! I know this is where I should be!' Then we would not see him for another year. One year he was not there; he had taken his own life. Tears, however many, without forsaking sin—that is not repentance.
Then there is faith. This is not just to believe that Jesus lived, and died, and rose again, but to trust Him. And both repentance and faith are the gift of God. Where there is real conversion, where the new birth takes place, then we renounce any hope in ourselves, or any confidence in what we have done, and trust only in the Lord Jesus.
How important that little word only is! At the time of the Reformation the great debate between Protestants and Roman Catholics was about justification by faith. But the Roman Catholics were willing to agree to justification by faith—so long as the word 'only' or 'alone' was left out. 'Be sure you don't give up that word only,'' was the advice given to a few ministers as they journeyed to a debate with their opponents.
Faith is personal and there is always that element of trust in it. How much there is in the story of Blondin, the famous tightrope walker! He could walk blindfold across a tightrope stretched over the Niagara Falls. He could even push a man across in a wheelbarrow, unbelievable as it seems! On one occasion he was talking to a friend about his achievements. He asked the friend if he really believed that he could push a man safely across. 'Yes,' said his friend. Blondin pressed him on this point as to whether he really believed it would be safe.
I have no doubt at all, from what I know of your ability, of the man's safety.'
But he would not climb into the wheelbarrow! He did not really trust him!
How important is the Holy Spirit's work in the new birth, enabling us to turn from sin to God, and to trust the Lord Jesus!
To quote Whitefield once more: he was once staying at a house where he was treated with the greatest courtesy and kindness. However, sadly, he could see they were strangers to the new birth. Praying as to how he could deal with the matter, he picked up a diamond ring and wrote on the mirror, 'yet one thing thou lackest', and God made that word a blessing.
On one occasion the Lord Jesus was asked, 'Are there few that be saved?' They just wanted to satisfy their curiosity: 'Are there few that be saved?' Jesus answered their question, but not as they expected: 'Strive to enter in at the strait gate.' In other words: What about yourself!
'One thing is needful' (Luke 10: 42).
'Ye must be born again' (John 3: 7).
'Except a man be born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God' (John 3: 5).
'Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven' (Matthew 18:3).
'Except ye repent ye shall all likewise perish' (Luke 13: 3, 5).
Suggested Bible readings
John 3: 1-17.
Ephesians 2: 1-9.