New Birth,
New Creature

“It is the spirit that quickeneth.” —John 6:63

The Holy Ghost testifies, “If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature” (2Co 5:17). This testimony is true. For

FIRST, HE LOVES AND WORSHIPS A NEW GOD.

The natural man is a god to himself, and he has many other gods as well. Whether it be self-righteousness, self-gratification, the world, wealth, family, in whatever form it appears, “other lords have dominion over him” to the exclusion of the one true and living God. The nature of the human mind is such that it must love and worship some object supremely. In his state of innocence, Jehovah was the one and supreme object of the creature’s love and adoration. Seduced from that state of simple and supreme affection by the tempter’s promise that if they ate of the fruit of the tree forbidden of God, they should be as gods (Gen 3:5), in one moment they threw off their allegiance to Jehovah, renounced Him as the object of their supreme love, the center of their holiest affections, and became gods to themselves. The temple was ruined, the altar was thrown down, the pure flame was extinguished, God departed, and “other lords” entered and took possession of the soul.

But what a change does grace produce! It repairs the temple, rebuilds the altar, rekindles the flame, and brings God back to man! God in Christ is now the supreme object of his love, his adoration, and his worship. The idol self has been cast down, self-righteousness renounced, self-exaltation crucified. The “strong man armed” has entered, cast out the usurper, and, “creating all things new,” has resumed His rightful supremacy. The affections, released from their false deity and renewed by the Spirit, now turn to and take up their rest in God. God in Christ! How glorious does He now appear! Truly it is a new God the soul is brought to know and love. Never did it see in Him such beauty, such excellence, such blessedness as it now sees. All other glory fades and dies before the surpassing glory of His char-acter, His attributes, His government, and His Law. God in Christ is viewed as reconciled now: enmity ceases; hatred has passed away; opposition grounds its weapons; hard thoughts of His Law and rebellious thoughts of His government subside; love kindles in the soul, and, in one precious Christ the one Mediator, God and the sinner meet, embrace, and blend. Truly, they become one. God says, “Thou art mine.” The soul responds, “Thou art my God—other lords have had dominion over me, but henceforth, Thee only will I serve, Thee only will I love. ‘My soul followeth hard after thee; thy right hand upholdeth me’ (Psa 63:8). ‘One thing have I desired of the LORD, that will I seek after; that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the LORD, and to enquire in his temple’ (Psa 27:4).”

God in Christ is his Father now. “I will arise, and go unto my Father” (Luk 15:18) is the first motion of a renewed soul. “Father, I have sinned against…Thee” is the first confession rising from the broken heart. The Father hastens to meet and embrace His child, and clasping him to His bosom exclaims, “This my son was dead, and is alive again” (Luk 15:24). Reconciled, he now looks up to Him truly as his Father. “And because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father” (Gal 4:6). “Thou shalt call me, My father; and shalt not turn away from me” (Jer 3:19). Does God speak? It is the voice of a Father he hears. Does God chasten and rebuke? It is from his Father, he feels. Are his hopes disappointed, his plans crossed, his cisterns broken, his gourds withered? “My Father has done it all,” he exclaims. Blessed Spirit of adoption! Sweet pledge and evidence art Thou of the new creature.

God in Christ is now the object of confidence and trust. Trust in a reconciled God and Father was no mark and portion of his unrenewed state. It was then trust in self, in its imagined wisdom, strength, and goodness. It was then trust in the arm of flesh, in second causes. Now the soul trusts in God: trusts Him at all times and under all circumstances, trusts Him in the darkest hour, under the gloomiest dispensation, trusts Him when His providences look dark and lowering, and God seems to hide Himself. It even trusts Him “though He slay me” (Job 13:15)…Oh, how safe he feels in God’s hands and under His government now! His soul, his body, his family, his business, and his cares are completely surrendered, and God is all in all. Reader, this is to be born again.

SECOND, THE REGENERATE SOUL POSSESSES AND ACKNOWLEDGES A NEW SAVIOR.

How glorious, suitable, and precious is Jesus to him now! Not so formerly. Then he had his saviors, his “refuges of lies” (Isa 28:17), his many fatal confidences. Jesus was to him as “a root out of a dry ground: he [had] no form nor comeliness” (Isa 53:2). It may be that he denied His deity, rejected His atonement, scorned His grace, and slighted His pardon and His love. Christ is all to him now. He adores Him as the “mighty God, the everlasting Father, the Prince of peace” (Isa 9:6), as “over all, God blessed for ever” (Rom 9:5); as “God…manifest in the flesh” (1Ti 3:16); as stooping to the nature of man, becoming bone of our bone and flesh of our flesh; as offering Himself up as the “propitiation for our sins” (1Jo 2:2); as dying, “the just for the unjust” (1Pe 3:18). His righteousness is glorious as justifying from all things (Act 13:39); His blood is precious as cleansing from all sin (1Jo 1:7). His fullness of grace is valued as supplying all need. Oh, how surpassingly glorious, inimitably lovely, and unutterably precious is Jesus to a renewed soul!

Truly a new Savior! “Other lords” he has renounced; “refuges of lies” he has turned his back upon; “false Christs” he no longer follows. He has found another and a better Savior—Jesus, the mighty God, the Redeemer of sinners, “the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth” (Rom 10:4). All is new to his recovered sight; a new world of glory has floated before his mind. Jesus the Lamb is the light and glory thereof. Never did he suppose there was such beauty in His person, such love in His heart, such perfection in His work, such power and such willingness to save. That blood which was trampled underfoot is now precious. That righteousness which was scorned is now glorious. That name which was reviled is now as music to the soul, even a “name that is above every name” (Phi 2:9).

Jesus is his only Savior. Not an allowed confidence has he out of Christ. The covenant of “dead works” he has renounced. The Spirit, having brought him out of and away from it, has led him into the cov-enant of grace, the substance and stability and glory of which is Jesus. On the broad basis of Immanuel’s finished, atoning work he rests his whole soul; and the more he presses the foundation, the more he leans upon the cornerstone, the stronger and the more able to sustain him does he find it. True, he feels a self-righteous principle closely adhering to him all his journey through the wilderness. When he prays, it is there; when he speaks, it is there; when he labors, it is there; when he reflects, it is there. He detects it when suspicion of its existence would be most at rest. But in the sober moments of his judgment, when prostrate beneath the cross and looking up to God through Jesus, this principle is searched out, abhorred, confessed, and mourned over; and with the eye of faith upon a suffering Savior, the language of his expanding heart is, “Other refuge have I none, Hangs my helpless soul on Thee.”

THIRD, NEW AND ENLARGED VIEWS OF THE HOLY SPIRIT MARK A REGENERATE MIND.

Having received the Holy Ghost as a Quickener, he feels the need of Him now as a Teacher, a Sanctifier, a Comforter, and a Sealer. As a Teacher: discovering to him more of the hidden evil of the heart, more knowledge of God, of His Word and of His Son. As a Sanctifier: carrying forward the work of grace in the soul, impressing more deeply on the heart the Divine image and bringing every thought and feeling and word into sweet, holy, and filial obedience to the law of Jesus. As a Comforter: leading him in the hour of his deep trial to Christ; comforting, by unfolding the sympathy and tenderness of Jesus, and the exceeding preciousness and peculiar fitness of the many promises with which the Word of truth abounds for the consolation of the Lord’s afflicted. As a Sealer: impressing upon his heart the sense of pardon, acceptance, and adoption; and Himself entering, as the “earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession” (Eph 1:14). Oh, what exalted views does he now have of the blessed and eternal Spirit—of His personal glory, His work, His offices, His influences, His love, tenderness, and faithfulness! The ear is open to the softest whisper of His voice; the heart expands to the gentlest impression of His sealing, sanctifying influence. Remembering that he is “a temple of the Holy Ghost” (1Co 6:19), he desires so to walk—humbly, softly, watchfully, and prayerfully. Avoiding everything that would grieve the Spirit, resigning every known sin that would dishonor and cause Him to withdraw, the one single aim of his life is to walk so as to please God, “that God in all things may be glorified through Jesus Christ” (1Pe 4:11).

[Next], it would be an imperfect enumeration of some of the strong features of the new creature did we omit to notice the growing nature and tendency of the vital principle of grace thus implanted in the heart of the regenerate. Nothing more strikingly and truly proves the reality, we would say the divinity, of the work within than the growing energy and holy tendency that ever accompany it. It is the property of that which has life in itself to increase, to multiply itself. The seed cast into the earth will germinate. Presently will appear the tender sprout; this will advance to the young sapling, and this in time to the gigantic tree with its overshadowing branches and richly laden with fruit. Obeying the law of its nature, it aspires to that perfection which belongs to it. It must grow. Nothing can prevent it but such a wound as will injure the vital principle or the cutting of it down entirely. The life of God in the soul of man contains the principle of growth. He that is not advancing—adding grace to grace, strength to strength; fruitful in every good word and work; increasing in the knowledge of God, of his own heart, of the preciousness, fullness, and all-sufficiency of Jesus; and in Divine conformity growing up into Christ in all things (Eph 4:15)—has great reason to suspect the absence of the Divine life in his soul…But the spirit we are now considering is that of a man truly “born again.” “Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect: but I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus. Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark…” (Phi 3:12-14). O holy resolve of a regenerate man! Here is the springing up of the well of living water in the heart. Here is the turning of the soul to God. See how the fountain rises! See how the flame ascends! It is the mighty energy of God the Holy Ghost drawing the soul upward, heavenward, God-ward!

Let not the Christian reader close this chapter with a burdened heart. Let no dear child of God write hard and bitter things against himself as he reads this last sentence. Let him not come to any hasty, unbelieving, doubting, and God-dishonoring conclusions. What are you to yourself—worthless, vile, empty? What is Jesus to you—precious, lovely, all your salvation, and all your desire? What is sin to you—the most hateful thing in the world? And what is holiness—the most lovely, the most longed for? What is the throne of grace to you—the most attractive spot? And the cross—the sweetest resting-place in the universe? What is God to you—your God and Father, the spring of all your joys, the fountainhead of all your bliss, the center where your affections meet? Is it so? Then you are born again; then you are a child of God; then you shall never die eternally. Cheer up, precious soul! The day of your redemption draws near. Those low views of yourself—that brokenness, that inward mourning, that secret confession, that longing for more spirituality, more grace, more devotedness, and more love does but prove the existence, reality, and growth of God’s work within you. God the Holy Spirit is there…Look up then, reader, and let the thought cheer you: that soul never perished that felt itself to be vile and Jesus to be precious.

From The Work of the Holy Spirit