Post by Watchman on Jan 16, 2007 17:38:37 GMT -5
THE HEAVENLY BIRTH AND ITS EARTHLY COUNTERFEITS
Preached on July 23rd, 1843, at Zoar Chapel, Great Alie Street, London.
by J. C. Philpot
(1802-1869)
"He came unto His own, and His own 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; which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God." - John i. 11-13.
HYPOCRISY and self-righteousness never probably rose to such a height as at the period when the Lord of life and glory was upon earth. The besetting sin of the Jewish nation before the Babylonish captivity was idolatry, as we find recorded in the pages of the Old Testament; but after their return from that captivity (more than five hundred years before Christ came into the world), they never relapsed into open idol-worship. The form of ungodliness in them was changed. The human heart, ever "deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked," put on a new mask; and though they no longer bowed down to gods of wood and stone, nor went after the vain idols of their fathers, yet they prostituted the worship of the only true God into lip-service and "bodily exercise". And thus, though nominally worshippers of the only true God, yet they were as far from Him in their hearts, though with their lips they drew nigh, as when their forefathers bowed down before stocks and stones.
It was at this period, then, that God sent His only begotten Son into the world; and chose at this time to fulfil all those prophecies, which He before had given concerning the Messiah. Of this period the apostle John speaks in the opening of this chapter. "That was the true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world. He was in the world, and the world was made by Him, and the world knew Him not. He came unto His own, and His own 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; which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God" (John i. 9-13).
The text speaks of two entirely distinct classes of characters-those who received Christ, and those who received Him not: and it further tells us what was the happiness and blessed privilege of those who received Him into their hearts and affections as the Son of God.
I. Now, what was the reason of this difference? How came it to pass that of men born in the same nation, living in the same period of time, and placed in precisely similar circumstances, some received Christ, and others received Him not? Must we not trace it up to God's absolute sovereignty?-that the reason why some did not receive Him was because God willed it so? And why others did receive Him was equally because God willed it so? Can we admit any other final cause of this difference than the sovereign will of God, determining rejection by one, and reception by the other.
But when we come down from looking at God's sovereignty to view the workings of the human heart, we see that there were certain instrumental causes which operated on the minds of the one, as there were certain instrumental causes which influenced the wills of the other. Those that "received Him not" were under the influence of certain workings. They knew nothing of divine sovereignty; they had no idea that what they said and did was according to God's "determinate counsel" (Acts ii. 23). In doing what they did, they followed the bent of their own minds; and thus they were seemingly left to the exercise of their own will, whilst God really ordered every action, that it might be to His own glory.
1. One cause, then, why those who "received Him not" scornfully rejected Him, was the blindness and ignorance of their heart. And this is one cause why men still to this day reject the Lord of life and glory. As the apostle says, they were "alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart" (Eph. iv. 18). And to this the prophet alludes when he says, speaking in the name of the Jewish people, "He shall grow up . . . as a root out of a dry ground; He hath no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see Him, there is no beauty that we should desire Him" (Isa. liii. 2). When the Jews looked upon the Man of sorrows, He was not what their fancy had figured out-a conquering Messiah, who should come to deliver them from the Roman yoke. And therefore, being spiritually ignorant of His Person and work, they rejected Him, because their eyes were not opened to sec the dignity of the Godhead under the veil of the suffering manhood.
2. Another reason was their sell-righteousness. And this same cause operates in men's minds now. Until self-righteousness is in a measure broken down in a man's heart, he never can see any beauty nor comeliness in a bleeding Jesus. Being madly enamoured of his own righteousness, and not seeing it in the light of God's countenance as "filthy rags," (Isa. lxiv. 6) he has no eyes to see, no ears to hear, no heart to receive that glorious robe of righteousness, which the Son of God wrought out, and which is imputed to all that believe on His name.
3. Another cause was the worldliness of their minds. They were buried in the world, in the poor perishing things of time and sense. Being dead in sin, they had no spiritual faculty, whereby eternal things were perceived; no spiritual appetite, whereby heavenly food was relished; no spiritual birth, whereby they could enter into the kingdom of heaven. When Nicodemus therefore came to Jesus by night, the very first truth that the Lord laid before him was the new birth: "Except a man be born again" he can neither "see," nor "enter into the kingdom of God." (John iii. 3 and 5).
4. But the grand prevailing cause, after all, was unbelief. It was not the determinate purpose of God to give them faith; He left them therefore in their unbelief. Thus, having no spiritual faith to believe the testimony of God concerning His dear Son, and being left altogether to the power of unbelief, they first inwardly rejected, and then openly crucified the Lord of life and glory. The same cause operates now. When we consider Christ's miracles, we may look with astonishment upon the unbelief of the Jews; but the same unbelief reigns by nature in the hearts of all; and as long as men are blind, self-righteous, worldly, and unbelieving (and they are all these until God "works in them to will and to do of His good pleasure"), they will reject Jesus, and say secretly, "We will not have this Man to reign over us," (Luke xix. 14) just as their forefathers the Jews rejected Him openly when He stood at Pilate's tribunal.
II. But God's will was not to be frustrated; the Almighty's purposes were not to be disappointed by the almost universal rejection of Jesus by the Jews. He had from eternity "a peculiar people," who had an everlasting and indissoluble union with His dear Son. There was "a remnant according to the election of grace," (Rom. xi. 5) who stood eternally in Christ: for whom He gave Himself, shed His precious blood, laid down His life, was entombed in the grave, rose on the third day, and now sits at God's right hand, as their Intercessor and Mediator. And thus, however far a man may be from God, however desperate his wickedness, however thick his blindness, however powerful the unbelief of his heart, yet if he is a vessel of mercy, the light and life of God's Spirit will penetrate through all, and bring him into a knowledge, first of his ruin, and then of those blessings which are stored up for him in his covenant Head. Though Christ "came to His own, and His own received Him not" (that is not His own by election, redemption, and regeneration, but His own nation, His own property as Lord of heaven and earth), yet there was a people, who should receive Him by living faith as their Lord and their God.
III. But as we have looked at God's sovereignty in the way of rejection, and then endeavoured to trace out the various causes by which the great mass of the Jewish nation rejected the Lord of life and glory, so will we endeavour (having seen God's sovereignty in choosing a peculiar people), to trace out also the secret causes which led some to receive Him whom the others received not.
1. The first cause, then, was the quickening life of God's Spirit put into their souls; according to those words: "You hath He quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins." (Eph. ii. 1). Until God by His Spirit quickens the soul into spiritual life, there must be a determined rejection of Christ. However a man may receive Him into his judgment, the inward bias of his heart and the secret speech of his soul is, "Not this Man, but Barabbas" (Luke xviii, 40.) If, then, there be any who do believe in Him, receive Him, love Him, and have a blessed union with Him, it all springs from the quickening Spirit of God, working with power in their souls.
Now this quickening work of God the Spirit upon the heart is manifested by certain fruits and evidences, which ever flow out of His blessed operations. For instance, wherever the quickening power of God's Spirit has passed upon a man's conscience, he is invariably brought to see and feel himself to be a sinner. This inward sight of self cuts him off sooner or later from all legal hopes, all Pharisaic righteousness, all false refuges, and all vain evidences, wherewith he may seek to prop up his soul. In many cases the work may begin in a way scarcely perceptible, and in other instances may go on very gradually, for we cannot lay down any precise standard. But I am sure of this, that the Lord will "bring down the hearts" of all His people "with labour;" will convince them all of their lost state before Him, and cast them as ruined wretches into the dust of death-without hope, strength, wisdom, help, or righteousness, save that which is given to them, as a free gift, by distinguishing grace.
And when the soul is brought down by the hand of God upon it to know the exceedingly heavy burden of sin, the wretchedness of the malady with which we are infected, the holiness and justice of God who cannot clear the guilty; and feels itself not only implicated in Adam's transgression, but also condemned by actual commission of sin, it then begins to find its need of such a Saviour as God has revealed in the Scriptures. And this work of grace in the conscience, pulling down all a man's false refuges, stripping him of every lying hope, and thrusting him down into self-abasement and self-abhorrence, is indispensable to a true reception of Christ. Whatever a man may have learned in his head, or however far he may be informed in his judgment, he never will receive Christ spiritually into his heart and affections, until he has been broken down by the hand of God in his soul to be a ruined wretch.
2. We cannot indeed tell how long a man may be in coming here; some may be weeks, others may be months, and some may be years; but when he is effectually brought here, the Lord is pleased, for the most part, to open up to his astonished view, and to bring into his soul some saving knowledge of the Lord of life and glory. And this He does in various ways, for we cannot "limit the Holy One of Israel;" (Ps. lxxviii, 41) sometimes by a secret light cast into the mind; sometimes by the application of a passage of Scripture with power; sometimes alone in the secret chamber; sometimes under the preached Word. In various ways, as God is pleased Himself to choose, He casts into the mind a light, and He brings into the heart a power, whereby the glorious Person of Christ, His atoning blood, dying love, finished work, and justifying righteousness, are looked upon by spiritual eyes, touched by spiritual hands, and received into a spiritual and believing heart.
3. But wherever faith is given to the soul thus "to receive" Christ, there will be mingled with this faith, and blessedly accompanying it, love to the Lord of life and glory; and sometimes we may know the existence of faith when we cannot see it, by discerning the secret workings and actings of love towards that Saviour, in whom God has enabled us to believe. There will be from time to time, in living souls, a flowing forth of affection towards Jesus. From time to time He gives the soul a glimpse of His Person: He shows Himself, as the Scripture speaks, "through the lattice" (Song ii. 9), passing, perhaps, hastily by, but giving such a transient glimpse of the beauty of His Person, the excellency of His finished work, dying love, and atoning blood as ravishes the heart, and secretly draws forth the affections of the soul, so that there is a following hard after Him, and a going out of the desires of the soul towards Him.
Thus, sometimes as we lie upon our bed, as we are engaged in our business, as we are occupied in our several pursuits of life; or at other times under the Word, or reading the Scriptures, the Lord is pleased secretly to work in the heart, and there is a melting down at the feet of Jesus, or a secret, soft, gentle going forth of love and affection towards Him, whereby the soul prefers Him before thousands of gold and silver, and desires nothing so much as the inward manifestations of His love, grace, and blood.
And thus a living soul "receives" Christ; not merely as driven by necessity, but also as drawn by affection. He does not receive Christ merely as a way of escape from "the wrath to come," merely as something to save a soul from "the worm that dieth not, and the fire that is not quenched," but mingled with necessity, sweetly and powerfully combined with it, and intimately and intricately working with it, there is the flowing forth of genuine affection and undissembled love, that goes out to Him as the only object really worthy our heart's affection, our spirit's worship, and our soul's desire. And we cannot say that less than this comes up to the meaning of the Scripture expression-"to receive Christ." If we cannot, then, trace out in our hearts more or less of this work, which I have attempted feebly to describe, we cannot yet be said spiritually to have "received Christ."
This is a very different thing from receiving Him into our judgment, or into our understanding in a doctrinal manner. To receive Him in the depths of a broken heart, as the only Saviour for our guilty soul, as our only hope for eternity, as the only Lord of our heart's worship, and the only object of our pure affection; so that in secret, when no eye sees but the eye of God, and only the ear of Jehovah hears the pantings of our pleading heart, there is the breathing out of the spirit after the enjoyment of His love, grace, and blood-to know and feel this stamps a man to have "received" Christ into his heart by faith.
IV. But in the words of the text we read of a peculiar privilege, a sacred blessing, which is connected with and attached to the receiving of Christ. And perhaps you have been struck sometimes with the words: "As many as received Him, to them gave He power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on His name." Did the word become never strike you as a singular word? Does it not intimate a further step? Does it not clearly imply that to "receive Christ," and to "become a son of God" are two distinct things, and that one precedes the other?"
It is so. For it is only to those who "receive Christ," that the "power" (or "the privilege," as we read in the margin), is given, "to become sons of God."
What then is it to "become a son of God?" For it is evidently not the same thing as "receiving Christ," but a step that follows on after receiving Christ; a privilege given to and reserved for those who do spiritually "receive Him." To "become a son of God" is to become so experimentally; to receive the Spirit of adoption, whereby the soul cries. "Abba, Father;" to have that love which "casteth out all fear that hath torment;" and not merely to receive Christ as our hope of salvation from eternal perdition, but to be enabled by the witness and work of the Spirit in the soul to enjoy that relationship.
V. But in speaking of these "sons of God," the apostle describes them negatively as well as positively; he tells us what they are not, and he tells us what they are. And it is by contrasting what they are not with what they are, that we may arrive at some spiritual knowledge of their real character and position.
1. Those then that have "received Christ," and by receiving Christ have "become the sons of God" manifestively, are said "not to have been born of blood." The Jews, we know, laid great stress upon their lineal descent from Abraham. "We be Abraham's seed," they said to the Lord on one occasion, "and were never in bondage to any man; how sayest Thou, Ye shall be made free?" "Art Thou greater," asked they, "than our father Abraham?" (John viii. 33, 53). Their lineal descent from Abraham was the ground of their hope; and they believed that, being his children, they were interested in all the promises which were made to him. They saw no distinction betwixt the children of Abraham literally and the children of Abraham spiritually; and those promises which were made to the spiritual seed of Abraham, as "the father of all them that believe" (Rom. iv. 11), they appropriated to themselves as his lineal and literal descendants. Now the apostle in the text demolishes that false idea, cuts from under their feet the ground on which their vain hopes rested, and declares that those who are so highly favoured as to "become the sons of God" had something more than being "born of blood."
If you look at the word "born," it implies some change. Birth is a transition from a state of almost non-existence into existence-a coming from darkness to light. When the apostle then says of them, that they were "born not of blood," he implies that a change of some kind might take place, analogous to the natural birth, and yet not be such a change as makes a man become a child of God. Is there not such a false birth frequently now? Are there not what are called "pious children of pious parents?" And could you trace their religion to the very source and run it up to its first origin, you would find that it had no better beginning than parental piety; that the religious father taught religion to his child, and by dint of admonition and instruction made him just as religious as himself. So that a change may have taken place; seriousness may have taken the place of trifling, religious books may have been taken up instead of novels, and hymns be sung instead of songs; but after all, the change is a mere birth "of blood." There has been no spiritual change, no almighty work of the Holy Ghost in the soul; but the religion has been handed down from parent to chi]d, and stands upon no better footing than a mother's instruction or a father's tuition. Those who were "born of God" had something better than this to stand upon.
2. But the apostle, in tracing out the character of those who were "the sons of God," brings forward another imitation of a spiritual birth; he says they were not born " of the will of the flesh." Has "the flesh," then, a will to be religious? Aye, surely; we have a religious "old man," as well as an irreligious "old man." Nature is not confined to one garb; she wears many masks, and can put on various appearances. Thus there is a will in man-at least in many men-to be religious, and, if possible, save themselves. But those who were "born of God," and had "power given to them to become the sons of God," had experienced a deeper, higher, because a spiritual and supernatural work upon their consciences, than any such birth "after the will of the flesh."
The flesh, however high it may rise, can never rise above itself. It begins in hypocrisy, it goes on in hypocrisy, and it never can end but in hypocrisy. Whatever various shapes it puts on-and it may wear the highest Calvinistic garb, as well as assume the lowest Arminian dress-a fleshly religion never can rise above itself. There is no brokenness of heart, no contrition of spirit, no godly sorrow, no genuine humility, no living faith, no spiritual hope, no heavenly love, "shed abroad in the heart by the Holy Ghost," in those that are "born after the will of the flesh." No abasing views of self, no tender feelings of reverence towards God, no filial fear of His great name, no melting of heart, no softening of spirit, no deadness to the world, no sweet communion with the Lord of life and glory, ever dwelt in their breasts. The flesh, with all its workings, and all its subtle deceit and hypocrisy, never sank so low as self-abhorrence and godly sorrow, and never mounted so high as into communion with the Three-One God. The depth of the one is too deep, and the height of the other too high for any but those who are "born of God."
Preached on July 23rd, 1843, at Zoar Chapel, Great Alie Street, London.
by J. C. Philpot
(1802-1869)
"He came unto His own, and His own 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; which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God." - John i. 11-13.
HYPOCRISY and self-righteousness never probably rose to such a height as at the period when the Lord of life and glory was upon earth. The besetting sin of the Jewish nation before the Babylonish captivity was idolatry, as we find recorded in the pages of the Old Testament; but after their return from that captivity (more than five hundred years before Christ came into the world), they never relapsed into open idol-worship. The form of ungodliness in them was changed. The human heart, ever "deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked," put on a new mask; and though they no longer bowed down to gods of wood and stone, nor went after the vain idols of their fathers, yet they prostituted the worship of the only true God into lip-service and "bodily exercise". And thus, though nominally worshippers of the only true God, yet they were as far from Him in their hearts, though with their lips they drew nigh, as when their forefathers bowed down before stocks and stones.
It was at this period, then, that God sent His only begotten Son into the world; and chose at this time to fulfil all those prophecies, which He before had given concerning the Messiah. Of this period the apostle John speaks in the opening of this chapter. "That was the true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world. He was in the world, and the world was made by Him, and the world knew Him not. He came unto His own, and His own 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; which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God" (John i. 9-13).
The text speaks of two entirely distinct classes of characters-those who received Christ, and those who received Him not: and it further tells us what was the happiness and blessed privilege of those who received Him into their hearts and affections as the Son of God.
I. Now, what was the reason of this difference? How came it to pass that of men born in the same nation, living in the same period of time, and placed in precisely similar circumstances, some received Christ, and others received Him not? Must we not trace it up to God's absolute sovereignty?-that the reason why some did not receive Him was because God willed it so? And why others did receive Him was equally because God willed it so? Can we admit any other final cause of this difference than the sovereign will of God, determining rejection by one, and reception by the other.
But when we come down from looking at God's sovereignty to view the workings of the human heart, we see that there were certain instrumental causes which operated on the minds of the one, as there were certain instrumental causes which influenced the wills of the other. Those that "received Him not" were under the influence of certain workings. They knew nothing of divine sovereignty; they had no idea that what they said and did was according to God's "determinate counsel" (Acts ii. 23). In doing what they did, they followed the bent of their own minds; and thus they were seemingly left to the exercise of their own will, whilst God really ordered every action, that it might be to His own glory.
1. One cause, then, why those who "received Him not" scornfully rejected Him, was the blindness and ignorance of their heart. And this is one cause why men still to this day reject the Lord of life and glory. As the apostle says, they were "alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart" (Eph. iv. 18). And to this the prophet alludes when he says, speaking in the name of the Jewish people, "He shall grow up . . . as a root out of a dry ground; He hath no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see Him, there is no beauty that we should desire Him" (Isa. liii. 2). When the Jews looked upon the Man of sorrows, He was not what their fancy had figured out-a conquering Messiah, who should come to deliver them from the Roman yoke. And therefore, being spiritually ignorant of His Person and work, they rejected Him, because their eyes were not opened to sec the dignity of the Godhead under the veil of the suffering manhood.
2. Another reason was their sell-righteousness. And this same cause operates in men's minds now. Until self-righteousness is in a measure broken down in a man's heart, he never can see any beauty nor comeliness in a bleeding Jesus. Being madly enamoured of his own righteousness, and not seeing it in the light of God's countenance as "filthy rags," (Isa. lxiv. 6) he has no eyes to see, no ears to hear, no heart to receive that glorious robe of righteousness, which the Son of God wrought out, and which is imputed to all that believe on His name.
3. Another cause was the worldliness of their minds. They were buried in the world, in the poor perishing things of time and sense. Being dead in sin, they had no spiritual faculty, whereby eternal things were perceived; no spiritual appetite, whereby heavenly food was relished; no spiritual birth, whereby they could enter into the kingdom of heaven. When Nicodemus therefore came to Jesus by night, the very first truth that the Lord laid before him was the new birth: "Except a man be born again" he can neither "see," nor "enter into the kingdom of God." (John iii. 3 and 5).
4. But the grand prevailing cause, after all, was unbelief. It was not the determinate purpose of God to give them faith; He left them therefore in their unbelief. Thus, having no spiritual faith to believe the testimony of God concerning His dear Son, and being left altogether to the power of unbelief, they first inwardly rejected, and then openly crucified the Lord of life and glory. The same cause operates now. When we consider Christ's miracles, we may look with astonishment upon the unbelief of the Jews; but the same unbelief reigns by nature in the hearts of all; and as long as men are blind, self-righteous, worldly, and unbelieving (and they are all these until God "works in them to will and to do of His good pleasure"), they will reject Jesus, and say secretly, "We will not have this Man to reign over us," (Luke xix. 14) just as their forefathers the Jews rejected Him openly when He stood at Pilate's tribunal.
II. But God's will was not to be frustrated; the Almighty's purposes were not to be disappointed by the almost universal rejection of Jesus by the Jews. He had from eternity "a peculiar people," who had an everlasting and indissoluble union with His dear Son. There was "a remnant according to the election of grace," (Rom. xi. 5) who stood eternally in Christ: for whom He gave Himself, shed His precious blood, laid down His life, was entombed in the grave, rose on the third day, and now sits at God's right hand, as their Intercessor and Mediator. And thus, however far a man may be from God, however desperate his wickedness, however thick his blindness, however powerful the unbelief of his heart, yet if he is a vessel of mercy, the light and life of God's Spirit will penetrate through all, and bring him into a knowledge, first of his ruin, and then of those blessings which are stored up for him in his covenant Head. Though Christ "came to His own, and His own received Him not" (that is not His own by election, redemption, and regeneration, but His own nation, His own property as Lord of heaven and earth), yet there was a people, who should receive Him by living faith as their Lord and their God.
III. But as we have looked at God's sovereignty in the way of rejection, and then endeavoured to trace out the various causes by which the great mass of the Jewish nation rejected the Lord of life and glory, so will we endeavour (having seen God's sovereignty in choosing a peculiar people), to trace out also the secret causes which led some to receive Him whom the others received not.
1. The first cause, then, was the quickening life of God's Spirit put into their souls; according to those words: "You hath He quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins." (Eph. ii. 1). Until God by His Spirit quickens the soul into spiritual life, there must be a determined rejection of Christ. However a man may receive Him into his judgment, the inward bias of his heart and the secret speech of his soul is, "Not this Man, but Barabbas" (Luke xviii, 40.) If, then, there be any who do believe in Him, receive Him, love Him, and have a blessed union with Him, it all springs from the quickening Spirit of God, working with power in their souls.
Now this quickening work of God the Spirit upon the heart is manifested by certain fruits and evidences, which ever flow out of His blessed operations. For instance, wherever the quickening power of God's Spirit has passed upon a man's conscience, he is invariably brought to see and feel himself to be a sinner. This inward sight of self cuts him off sooner or later from all legal hopes, all Pharisaic righteousness, all false refuges, and all vain evidences, wherewith he may seek to prop up his soul. In many cases the work may begin in a way scarcely perceptible, and in other instances may go on very gradually, for we cannot lay down any precise standard. But I am sure of this, that the Lord will "bring down the hearts" of all His people "with labour;" will convince them all of their lost state before Him, and cast them as ruined wretches into the dust of death-without hope, strength, wisdom, help, or righteousness, save that which is given to them, as a free gift, by distinguishing grace.
And when the soul is brought down by the hand of God upon it to know the exceedingly heavy burden of sin, the wretchedness of the malady with which we are infected, the holiness and justice of God who cannot clear the guilty; and feels itself not only implicated in Adam's transgression, but also condemned by actual commission of sin, it then begins to find its need of such a Saviour as God has revealed in the Scriptures. And this work of grace in the conscience, pulling down all a man's false refuges, stripping him of every lying hope, and thrusting him down into self-abasement and self-abhorrence, is indispensable to a true reception of Christ. Whatever a man may have learned in his head, or however far he may be informed in his judgment, he never will receive Christ spiritually into his heart and affections, until he has been broken down by the hand of God in his soul to be a ruined wretch.
2. We cannot indeed tell how long a man may be in coming here; some may be weeks, others may be months, and some may be years; but when he is effectually brought here, the Lord is pleased, for the most part, to open up to his astonished view, and to bring into his soul some saving knowledge of the Lord of life and glory. And this He does in various ways, for we cannot "limit the Holy One of Israel;" (Ps. lxxviii, 41) sometimes by a secret light cast into the mind; sometimes by the application of a passage of Scripture with power; sometimes alone in the secret chamber; sometimes under the preached Word. In various ways, as God is pleased Himself to choose, He casts into the mind a light, and He brings into the heart a power, whereby the glorious Person of Christ, His atoning blood, dying love, finished work, and justifying righteousness, are looked upon by spiritual eyes, touched by spiritual hands, and received into a spiritual and believing heart.
3. But wherever faith is given to the soul thus "to receive" Christ, there will be mingled with this faith, and blessedly accompanying it, love to the Lord of life and glory; and sometimes we may know the existence of faith when we cannot see it, by discerning the secret workings and actings of love towards that Saviour, in whom God has enabled us to believe. There will be from time to time, in living souls, a flowing forth of affection towards Jesus. From time to time He gives the soul a glimpse of His Person: He shows Himself, as the Scripture speaks, "through the lattice" (Song ii. 9), passing, perhaps, hastily by, but giving such a transient glimpse of the beauty of His Person, the excellency of His finished work, dying love, and atoning blood as ravishes the heart, and secretly draws forth the affections of the soul, so that there is a following hard after Him, and a going out of the desires of the soul towards Him.
Thus, sometimes as we lie upon our bed, as we are engaged in our business, as we are occupied in our several pursuits of life; or at other times under the Word, or reading the Scriptures, the Lord is pleased secretly to work in the heart, and there is a melting down at the feet of Jesus, or a secret, soft, gentle going forth of love and affection towards Him, whereby the soul prefers Him before thousands of gold and silver, and desires nothing so much as the inward manifestations of His love, grace, and blood.
And thus a living soul "receives" Christ; not merely as driven by necessity, but also as drawn by affection. He does not receive Christ merely as a way of escape from "the wrath to come," merely as something to save a soul from "the worm that dieth not, and the fire that is not quenched," but mingled with necessity, sweetly and powerfully combined with it, and intimately and intricately working with it, there is the flowing forth of genuine affection and undissembled love, that goes out to Him as the only object really worthy our heart's affection, our spirit's worship, and our soul's desire. And we cannot say that less than this comes up to the meaning of the Scripture expression-"to receive Christ." If we cannot, then, trace out in our hearts more or less of this work, which I have attempted feebly to describe, we cannot yet be said spiritually to have "received Christ."
This is a very different thing from receiving Him into our judgment, or into our understanding in a doctrinal manner. To receive Him in the depths of a broken heart, as the only Saviour for our guilty soul, as our only hope for eternity, as the only Lord of our heart's worship, and the only object of our pure affection; so that in secret, when no eye sees but the eye of God, and only the ear of Jehovah hears the pantings of our pleading heart, there is the breathing out of the spirit after the enjoyment of His love, grace, and blood-to know and feel this stamps a man to have "received" Christ into his heart by faith.
IV. But in the words of the text we read of a peculiar privilege, a sacred blessing, which is connected with and attached to the receiving of Christ. And perhaps you have been struck sometimes with the words: "As many as received Him, to them gave He power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on His name." Did the word become never strike you as a singular word? Does it not intimate a further step? Does it not clearly imply that to "receive Christ," and to "become a son of God" are two distinct things, and that one precedes the other?"
It is so. For it is only to those who "receive Christ," that the "power" (or "the privilege," as we read in the margin), is given, "to become sons of God."
What then is it to "become a son of God?" For it is evidently not the same thing as "receiving Christ," but a step that follows on after receiving Christ; a privilege given to and reserved for those who do spiritually "receive Him." To "become a son of God" is to become so experimentally; to receive the Spirit of adoption, whereby the soul cries. "Abba, Father;" to have that love which "casteth out all fear that hath torment;" and not merely to receive Christ as our hope of salvation from eternal perdition, but to be enabled by the witness and work of the Spirit in the soul to enjoy that relationship.
V. But in speaking of these "sons of God," the apostle describes them negatively as well as positively; he tells us what they are not, and he tells us what they are. And it is by contrasting what they are not with what they are, that we may arrive at some spiritual knowledge of their real character and position.
1. Those then that have "received Christ," and by receiving Christ have "become the sons of God" manifestively, are said "not to have been born of blood." The Jews, we know, laid great stress upon their lineal descent from Abraham. "We be Abraham's seed," they said to the Lord on one occasion, "and were never in bondage to any man; how sayest Thou, Ye shall be made free?" "Art Thou greater," asked they, "than our father Abraham?" (John viii. 33, 53). Their lineal descent from Abraham was the ground of their hope; and they believed that, being his children, they were interested in all the promises which were made to him. They saw no distinction betwixt the children of Abraham literally and the children of Abraham spiritually; and those promises which were made to the spiritual seed of Abraham, as "the father of all them that believe" (Rom. iv. 11), they appropriated to themselves as his lineal and literal descendants. Now the apostle in the text demolishes that false idea, cuts from under their feet the ground on which their vain hopes rested, and declares that those who are so highly favoured as to "become the sons of God" had something more than being "born of blood."
If you look at the word "born," it implies some change. Birth is a transition from a state of almost non-existence into existence-a coming from darkness to light. When the apostle then says of them, that they were "born not of blood," he implies that a change of some kind might take place, analogous to the natural birth, and yet not be such a change as makes a man become a child of God. Is there not such a false birth frequently now? Are there not what are called "pious children of pious parents?" And could you trace their religion to the very source and run it up to its first origin, you would find that it had no better beginning than parental piety; that the religious father taught religion to his child, and by dint of admonition and instruction made him just as religious as himself. So that a change may have taken place; seriousness may have taken the place of trifling, religious books may have been taken up instead of novels, and hymns be sung instead of songs; but after all, the change is a mere birth "of blood." There has been no spiritual change, no almighty work of the Holy Ghost in the soul; but the religion has been handed down from parent to chi]d, and stands upon no better footing than a mother's instruction or a father's tuition. Those who were "born of God" had something better than this to stand upon.
2. But the apostle, in tracing out the character of those who were "the sons of God," brings forward another imitation of a spiritual birth; he says they were not born " of the will of the flesh." Has "the flesh," then, a will to be religious? Aye, surely; we have a religious "old man," as well as an irreligious "old man." Nature is not confined to one garb; she wears many masks, and can put on various appearances. Thus there is a will in man-at least in many men-to be religious, and, if possible, save themselves. But those who were "born of God," and had "power given to them to become the sons of God," had experienced a deeper, higher, because a spiritual and supernatural work upon their consciences, than any such birth "after the will of the flesh."
The flesh, however high it may rise, can never rise above itself. It begins in hypocrisy, it goes on in hypocrisy, and it never can end but in hypocrisy. Whatever various shapes it puts on-and it may wear the highest Calvinistic garb, as well as assume the lowest Arminian dress-a fleshly religion never can rise above itself. There is no brokenness of heart, no contrition of spirit, no godly sorrow, no genuine humility, no living faith, no spiritual hope, no heavenly love, "shed abroad in the heart by the Holy Ghost," in those that are "born after the will of the flesh." No abasing views of self, no tender feelings of reverence towards God, no filial fear of His great name, no melting of heart, no softening of spirit, no deadness to the world, no sweet communion with the Lord of life and glory, ever dwelt in their breasts. The flesh, with all its workings, and all its subtle deceit and hypocrisy, never sank so low as self-abhorrence and godly sorrow, and never mounted so high as into communion with the Three-One God. The depth of the one is too deep, and the height of the other too high for any but those who are "born of God."