THE NEW BIRTH   From   From The Pen Of R. H. Boll WORD AND WORK MAGAZINE, MCMLXI

 

THE NECESSITY OF THE NEW BIRTH

      It was to Nicodemus, a Hebrew of Hebrews, of the stock of Israel; as touching the law, a Pharisee; a ruler of the Jews, that the Lord Jesus declared the necessity of the new birth. "Except one be born anew he cannot see the kingdom of God . . . Except one be born of water and the Spirit he cannot enter into the kingdom of God . . . Ye MUST BE born anew." Surely no language could have been chosen to set forth more perfectly the indispensableness of this thing. The necessity of it is absolute. No man can have any part or share in the kingdom of God except on condition he be born anew (John 3).

NICODEMUS

      The Lord picked Nicodemus for this teaching. If any man could have disputed the necessity of the new birth it would have been Nicodemus. If Nicodemus must be born again then all men must. All the grounds upon which men might imagine themselves exempt from the necessity of being born anew--Nicodemus could have pleaded them. "Lord," he might have said, "I am of the noblest of men--one of thy own nation and people." It matters not--thou must be born anew. No man's natural birth, be it the best, entitles him to a place in the kingdom of God. "But Lord I have been a worshipper, devout, zealous, having been taught from a babe the holy scriptures." Yet Nicodemus must be born again. "But, Lord, my life is blameless: I have walked in God's commandments according to the law. I am of the Pharisees--the strictest adherents to the scriptures. I am a teacher, a leader, a ruler in Israel." But for all this there is but one hope and chance for Nicodemus--the one same chance that by the grace of God is open as well for the Gentile and the publican: "Ye must be born anew."

      The necessity for the New Birth lies then in our very humanity. No man's heredity, no man's natural virtue, training or education, no man's good works or worship, piety or morality, can answer. He must be born again. Such a one as Nicodemus, a nobleman among Jews; or the Gentile Cornelius, a devout man, one that feared God with all his house, who prayed to God always and gave much alms to the people--they must alike be born again. There is no exception in this matter. Nothing will take the place of it. Without the new birth all is vain: there can be no entrance into God's kingdom. Why this necessity?

THE NATURAL BIRTH

      A birth is the beginning of a new life--a life not before possessed. The thing born is first begotten, and that--whether in the vegetable, animal, or spiritual sphere--always through seed; and is brought forth as a new creature. The nature of that creature depends on the birth from which it took its rise. The sort of seed that imparts the life determines the nature of the life, and the sort of creature that is brought into existence. A human being has been begotten of man's seed; for here, as elsewhere, the law says "after its kind" (Gen. 1:12). "Adam begat a son in his own image after his likeness." That which [2] is born of Adam's humanity is human; or, as the Lord said it: "that which is born of the flesh is flesh." By this birth one becomes a member of the human race, the race of Adam; a partaker of his nature. And this human nature, the Lord Jesus declares, is not fit to enter the kingdom of God. They must all be born again if they would have a place in the kingdom. This much is clear. But what is the matter with our human nature? Why is humanity as such excluded? And what sort of birth is this "new birth"? And how is it to be accomplished?

WHY A NEW BIRTH?

      The first of these questions, touching the unfitness of our human nature for the kingdom carries, the indictment of all the race that sprang from Adam. It is in its very nature ruined and perverted. This fact is not only revealed to us in scripture, but has been more or less recognized even by pagan philosophers and teachers of all lands and ages. There is one thing that marks all the world of humanity--all that are responsible--they are without exception every one sinners. "There is no difference: they have all sinned and fall short of the glory of God" (Rom. 3:23, 24). But this universal fact has its great underlying cause: it is always a corrupt tree that brings forth evil fruit. To quote from an abler pen (Alexander Campbell, Christian System, page 30):--

      "There is therefore a sin of our nature as well as personal transgression. Some inappropriately call this sin of our nature 'original sin,' as if the sin of Adam was the personal offense of all his children. True indeed, it is; our nature was corrupted by the fall of Adam before it was transmitted to us; and hence that hereditary imbecility to do good, and that proneness to do evil, so universally apparent in all human beings . . . All inherit a FALLEN, consequently a SINFUL nature, though all are not equally depraved."

      Then the writer adds that under those circumstances, "it is impossible" for "man in his present preternatural state . . . to do anything absolutely pleasing and acceptable to God." (Comp. Rom. 8:8.)

      This is enough. The ruin of humanity is a universal condition that pervades and affects the quality and the very nature of our human life. It is not only a question of the sins they commit, but rather of the sinful nature from which those sins spring. It is not simply what men do, but what they are. Manifestly an outward or superficial treatment could not reach the seat of that trouble. Mere pardon and remission of sins could not help it. Mere reformation and suppression of evil deeds would not meet the need. Though one pluck every black feather out of a crow, it would be a crow still; and when the feathers come back they are black as before. Though one prune and trim a thorn-tree, and remove all the thorns, and cultivate and develop it, it is a thorn-tree for all that: it can never bear apples. "How can a man be born when he is old," asks Nicodemus, "can he enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born?" Ah, and what would be the good of that, even if it could be? That would leave [3] him precisely what he was before--a man of fallen nature. "That which is born of the flesh is flesh." There is where the tragedy lies. Many a man thinks he would give all to have ten or twenty years of his life back again. And what for? Oh, he thinks he could avoid the errors and failures he has made, if he were allowed to have his life over again. Perhaps he would--but he would certainly make other blunders, and commit other wrongs, and worse ones than the first it may be. Did not the life he has lived spring from within himself, out of his very nature and being?

      What his deepest need calls for is not merely a new start, but a new start with a new nature. Hence the necessity of the New Birth.

HOW CAN A MAN BE BORN ANEW?

      There are two plain references in the Lord's speech to Nicodemus, showing by what means the New Birth is to be brought about. That man is not passive in the matter can be gathered from the Old Testament promise and prophecy even, and more abundantly from the New Testament. The Lord stated first that this New Birth is by "water and the Spirit." Not by water only, but by water and the Spirit. Not by the Spirit without the water, but by water and the Spirit. Water is water here, as Spirit is Spirit. Water and the Spirit co-join in Acts 2:38 and Titus 3:5. There is no place in all the faith delivered to us, for "water" except in baptism. And baptism is the step of faith, the Divinely stipulated confession in act, of our faith in the gospel (1 Cor. 15:1-4). In it we die with Christ to the old life and the old self; in it we rise with Christ unto a new life, as new creatures (Rom. 6:1-5). For it is, as always, in an appointed act that faith becomes operative, and the promise is received (Col. 2:12). And linked with this is the remission of sins and the gift of the Holy Spirit. That such a step cannot be sincerely taken except it be preceded by repentance is self-evident. Therefore the apostle says, "Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ, for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit" (Acts 2:38).

      But back of all is the fundamental fact of Christ crucified. "As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness," said the Lord to Nicodemus, "So must the Son of man be lifted up, that whosoever believeth, may in him have eternal life." The possibility of our receiving such life depended upon the "lifting up" of the Son of man--that is to say, His crucifixion (John 12:32, 33). In the "word of the cross" (backed to be sure by His resurrection) lay the power of our regeneration. He gave His life for us, as a Sacrifice for our sins, and that we, identified with Him, may die in it, and with Him might rise into new existence--nay, that in His resurrection He might live in us, and we in Him. This is the New Birth, and in it we become sharers in the perfect life and nature of the Last Adam, as by our natural birth we had once shared the fallen life and nature of the first Adam. [4]

[TNB 1-4.]

      The electronic version of R. H. Boll's The New Birth (Louisville, KY: Word and Work Magazine, 1961) has been produced from a copy of the tract in the Alex V. Wilson Collection. Thanks to Mr. Wilson for supplying a loan-copy of the printed text. The essay was first published in part as "Words in Season" in Word and Work 43 (April 1949): 73-77.

      Pagination in the electronic version has been represented by placing the page number in brackets following the last complete word on the printed page. Inconsistencies in spelling, capitalization, punctuation, and typography have been retained.

      Addenda and corrigenda are earnestly solicited.

Ernie Stefanik
Derry, PA

Created 6 January 2001.
Updated 20 June 2003.