The Heavenly Birth and its Earthly Counterfeits

Next Part The Heavenly Birth and its Earthly Counterfeits 2

"He came to that which was His own, but His own did not receive Him. Yet to all who received Him, to those who believed in His name, He gave the right to become children of God--children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband's will, but born of God." John 1:11-13

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 beforethe 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 empty idols of their fathers, yet they prostituted the worship of the only true God into lip-service and "bodily exercise". And thus, though nominally worshipers of the only true God, yet they were as far from Him in their hearts, though with their lips they drew near, 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 fulfill all those prophecies, which He before had given concerning the Messiah. Of this period the apostle John speaks in the opening of this chapter. "The true light that gives light to every man was coming into the world. He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God-- children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband's will, but born of God." John 1:9-13

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 2:23). 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, while 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. 4:18). 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 has no form nor loveliness; and when we shall see Him, there is no beauty that we should desire Him" (Isa. 53:2). When the Jews looked upon the Man of sorrows, He was not what their fancy had figured out--a conquering Messiah, who would 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 see the dignity of the Godhead under the veil of the suffering manhood.

2. Another reason was their self-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 loveliness in a bleeding Jesus. Being madly enamored of his own righteousness, and not seeing it in the light of God's countenance as "filthy rags," (Isa. 64:6) 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 3:3, 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 of 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 19:14) 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. 11:5) 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 would 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 endeavored 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 endeavor (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 has He quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins." (Eph. 2:1). 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 18:40.) 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, with which 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 labor;" 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, except that which is given to them, as a free gift, by sovereign 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 Savior 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. 78:41) 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 Savior, 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 2:9), 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 dies 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 sincere love, that goes out to Him as the only object really worthy of 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 Savior 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 those who 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 "casts out all fear that has 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.

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