New Birth

The New Birth

T. P. Simmons

I. THE NECESSITY OF THE NEW BIRTH

That image was two-fold. Adam had a moral or spiritual likeness to God in holiness. He had a natural likeness to God in personality. For further discussion of these see chapter on "The Original State and Fall of Man." When man fell he lost the moral or spiritual likeness to God, and thus ceased to be a spiritual child of God. But he did not lose his personality, did not fall to the level of a brute, and thus he retained a natural basis of sonship. This explains Acts 17:28,29.

Hence there is nothing in man’s nature that qualifies him for citizenship in a spiritual kingdom. One that is dead spiritually can no more inhabit a spiritual kingdom than one that is dead physically can inhabit a physical kingdom. Thus man must be born anew in order to enter God’s kingdom.

II. THE NATURE OF THE NEW BIRTH

The old or carnal nature, as distinguished from the new nature or ruling disposition established in the new birth, is designated in various ways in the New Testament. It is called (1) the flesh—Gr. "sarx" (John 1:13; Rom. 7:18, 25; Rom. 8:4, 5, 8, 9, 13; 1 Cor. 5:5; II Cor. 10:2; Gal. 5:13, 16, 17, 19, 24; Eph. 2:3; Col. 2:11, 23; 1 Pet. 3:21; 11 Pet. 2:10, 18; 1 John 2:16); (2) body—Gr. "soma" (Rom. 6:6; 7:24; 8: 13; 1 Cor. 9:27; Phil. 3:21; Col. 2: 11); (3) old man—Gr. "palaios anthropos" (Rom. 6:6; Eph. 4:22; Col. 3:9); (4) indwelling sin—Gr. "oikousa en emoi hamartia" (Rom. 7. 17,20); (5) carnal mind—Gr. "to phronema tes sarkos" (Rom. 8: 7).

There are several things which these Scriptures do not mean, viz., (1) They do not mean that the physical matter of which the body is composed is sinful. There is in these passages no suggestion that matter is inherently evil, as the Manicheans taught. (2) They do not mean that there are in the saint two souls or two spirits. (3) They do not mean that the believer has two personalities. (4) They do not mean that the believer has two faculties of will

These passages do mean that out of the physical body while animated by the regenerated soul there arise lusts—evil desires (Gal. 5:16, 17; Col. 3:5; 1 Thess. 4:5; Jas. 1:14, 15; 1 John 2:16), which tend always to produce all the works of the flesh mentioned in Gal. 5:19-21; and thus the regenerated soul is hindered in putting forth effective executive volitions fully conformed to its immanent preference or its fixed choice of holiness as an ultimate end, as set forth especially in Rom. 7:15-25; Gal. 5:17.

Regeneration or being born again is a supernatural, instantaneous work of God in the region of the soul below consciousness, whereby the sinful bent imparted to the faculties of the soul in the fall of the race is rectified and, through the instrumentality of the Word of God, the initial exercise of the holy disposition thus imparted is procured .

Regeneration consists of a begetting and a bringing forth, a quickening and a birth. And, because of this, some have tried to make out such an analogy between the physical and spiritual births as would interpose a lapse of time between begetting and birth. But separation in point of time between begetting and birth in the physical realm is brought about by conditions that are peculiar to the physical realm. No such conditions prevail in the spiritual realm.

Some have tried to interpose a time element between begetting and birth by making a distinction between passages of Scripture, listing some as referring to begetting and others as referring to birth or bringing forth. There are three Greek words used with reference to the new birth. They are: "apokueo," used only once (James 1:18); "anagennao," used only twice (I Pet. 1:3,23) ; and "gennao," used many times and translated by both "beget" and "born". The Greek words have the same substantial meaning. They refer to the entire work of regeneration, and so do the passages in which they are used.

Delitzsch says quite appropriately that we "who live in an earthly body have, as the background of our being, a dim region, out of which our thinking labors forth to the daylight; and in which much goes forward, especially in the condition of sleep, of which we can come to a knowledge only by looking back afterwards." Then he says further: "Certainly the depth of man’s internal nature, into which in sleep he sinks back, conceals far more than is manifest to himself. It has been [published in 1855] a fundamental error of most psychologists hitherto, to make the soul only extend so far as its consciousness extends: it embraces, as is now always acknowledged, a far greater abundance of powers and relations than can commonly appear in its consciousness" (A System of Biblical Psychology, pp. (Jer. 17:9)).

That it was in this subconscious region that depravity took place is evidenced by the fact that we are said to be dead in sin by nature (Eph. 2:5; Col. 2:13) and to have a heart whose deceitful wickedness we cannot fully know (Jer. 17:9).

That this is the region where regeneration takes place and where the Spirit dwells in union with the regenerated soul and carries on His work is proved by (1) the fact that quickening must occur in the same region where we are dead—that the natural state of spiritual death is back of the will (and, therefore, below consciousness) is further proved by the fact that whereas in the natural state we can will we cannot will that which is pleasing to God (Jer. 13:23; John 6:65; 12:33-40; Rom 8:7,8; 11 Cor. 4:3,4; 11 Tim. 2:24-26); (2) the fact that the life-giving power of the Spirit is said to operate as the wind—beyond our control and understanding, and apprehended by us only in its effect (John 3:8); (3) the fact that the Holy Spirit dwells in us and seals us (John 7:37-39; 14:17; 1 Cor. 6:19; Eph. 1:12-14, moving us to pray Gal. 4:6), interpreting our unutterable groanings (Rom. 8:26,27), and yet are not conscious of a second person within us; (4) the fact that God works in us to will (Phil 2:13), and thus must work back of the will. In this way alone can God guarantee that the child of God "cannot sin" (I John 3:9) in the sense of renouncing the ultimate end upon which the will is fixed in regeneration.

Thus the believer has the image of God restored in the soul (Eph. 4:24) and partakes of the divine nature (2 Pet. 1:4) as the holy faculties of the soul are brought to expression.

From the foregoing we see that man is not wholly passive in regeneration. He is passive in the initial impartation of life, in which the moral faculties of the soul are recovered from the depravity of the fall and a holy ruling disposition is established; but in the initial exercise of this holy disposition, man is active.

III. HOW THE NEW BIRTH IS ACCOMPLISHED

A. There is no conceivable way in which baptism can remove sin from the soul or impart a holy ruling disposition. Physical means can never work a spiritual change. The idea of baptismal regeneration "is part and parcel of a general scheme of mechanical rather than moral salvation, and is more consistent with materialistic than with a spiritual philosophy" (Strong). If it be said that in baptism we come into contact with the blood of Christ, the reply is that this is an unscriptural and childish subterfuge that could be adopted by none except those who are defeated and do not have the honesty to admit it.

B. Peter affirms that baptism is not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, (carnal nature) but the answer of a good conscience toward God (I Pet. 3:21). A good conscience is one that has been purged by the blood of Christ (Heb. 9:14). Until thus purged, the conscience is evil (Heb. 10:22). And when one has been purged there is no more conscience of sins (Heb. 10:2). Hence one who has a good conscience will never do anything in order to be saved, for he has no conscience of sins, no feeling of need of salvation. All of this proves that one is saved prior to baptism, and not through baptism.

C. The words of Jesus in Matt 3:15 imply that baptism is a work of righteousness, and Paul says we are not saved by works of righteousness (Titus 3:5).

D. Faith must precede baptism (Acts 2:41; 8:37; 19:1-5), and when faith is exercised one is already saved (John 3: 18; 5:24; I John 5:1). This is an argument that no advocate of the instrumentality of baptism in salvation has ever had the courage to face squarely.

E. When faith has been exercised, regeneration is complete; hence baptism which follows faith cannot be instrumental in regeneration. That faith is wrought in the heart in regeneration has been shown already, and will be made even clearer in the chapter on conversion.

F. The thief on the cross was saved without baptism. The supposition that this thief must have had John’s baptism previous to his crucifixion is groundless. Such baptism would have been no better than the baptism received by the twelve at Ephesus, because it would have been, like theirs, without faith in Christ, and hence not valid. The notion that the thief and others during the personal ministry of Christ were saved apart from the gospel by some special dispensation of God or Christ implies Christ’s death was unnecessary. If God could save a few apart from the gospel, He could just as well save all thus. The effort to make out that Christ’s words to the thief formed a question instead of a declaration is absurd and without the slightest pretext in the Greek. That paradise is Heaven, the immediate presence of the Father is evident from Rev. 2:7 and 22:1, 2.

Passages thought by many to teach that baptism is necessary to salvation are treated in chapter on Baptism.

(1) By the Holy Spirit.

"The scriptural assertions of the indwelling of the Holy Spirit and of His mighty power in the soul forbid us to regard the divine spirit in regeneration as coming in contact, not with the soul, but only with the truth. Since truth is simply what it is, there can be no change wrought in the truth. The phrases, ‘to energize the truth,’ ‘to intensify the truth’, ‘to illuminate the truth,’ have no proper meaning; since God cannot make the truth more true. If any change is wrought, it must be wrought not in the truth, but in the soul" (Strong, Systematic Theology, p. 453).

Man’s depravity and inability by nature to receive the truth and turn from sin to Christ and righteousness (Jer. 13:23; John 6:65; 1 Cor. 2:14) also show the absolute necessity of the immediate impact and operation of the Holy Spirit upon the soul in regeneration. "No mere increase of light will enable the blind to see; the disease of the eye must first be cured before external objects are visible. So God’s work in regeneration must be performed within the soul itself. Over and above all influences of truth, there must be the direct influence of the Holy Spirit upon the heart" (ibid).

However it needs to be understood (as we have before implied) that in the first phrase of regeneration (quickening) the Spirit operates on the soul independent of the Word. The spiritually dead soul must be given life before it can see and act upon the truth. It is by quickening that one is enabled to come to Christ (John 6:65). It is thus that God gives men over into possession of Christ (John 6:37).

IV. EVIDENCES OF THE NEW BIRTH

One has not been regenerated until he is willing to trust his eternal welfare wholly to Christ. He must have repented of dead works (Heb. 6:1). All works engaged in for salvation are dead works. No faith is counted for righteousness, and hence is not saving faith, except the faith of him "who worketh not" for salvation (Rom. 4:5). As long as one is looking to anything other than Christ he is not regenerated.

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