"The difference then between the spiritual man and the natural man is not a difference of development, but of generation. It is a distinction of quality, not of quantity. A man cannot rise by any natural development from "morality touched by emotion," to "morality touched by life." Were we to construct a scientific classification, science would compel us to arrange all natural men, moral or immoral, educated or vulgar, as one family. One might be high in the family group, another low; yet, practically, they are marked by the same set of characteristics—they eat, sleep, work, think, live, die. But the spiritual man is removed from this family so utterly by the possession of an additional characteristic that a biologist, fully informed of the whole circumstances, would not hesitate a moment to classify him elsewhere. And if he really entered into these circumstances it would not be in another family but in another kingdom. It is an old fashioned theology which divides the world in this way—which speaks of men as Living and Dead, lost and saved—a stern theology all but fallen into disuse. This difference between the living and the dead in souls is so unproved by casual observation, so impalpable in itself, so startling as a doctrine, that schools of culture have ridiculed or denied the grim distinction. Nevertheless the grim distinction must be retained. It is a scientific distinction. "He that hath not the Son hath not Life."[A]
[Footnote A: He that has not spiritually been born is not spiritually alive.]
"Now it is this great law which finally distinguishes Christianity from all other religions. It places the religion of Christ upon a footing altogether unique. There is no analogy between the Christian religion and, say, Buddhism or the Mohammedan religion. There is no true sense in which a man can say. He that hath Buddha hath life. Buddha has nothing to do with life. He may have something to do with morality. He may stimulate, impress, teach, guide, but there is no distinct new thing added to the souls of those who profess Buddhism. These religions may be developments of the natural, mental, or moral man. But Christianity professes to be more. It is the mental or moral man plus something else or some One else. It is the infusion into the spiritual man of a new life, of a quality unlike anything else in nature. This constitutes the separate Kingdom of Christ, and gives to Christianity alone of all the religions of mankind the strange mark of divinity.
CHAPTER XXI.
(Scripture Reading Exercise.)
"LIFE FROM LIFE"—SPIRITUAL LIFE FROM SPIRIT (Continued).
ANALYSIS. | REFERENCES. |
VI. Fundamental Elements in the Spiritual Man that are Absent in the Natural Man. | The works and Scripture cited in the body of this lesson. |
VII. Terms Used to Express Elements in Spiritual Man. | |
VIII. Process of Regeneration in the Individual Man. | |
IX. Insignificance of the Time Element. |
SPECIAL TEXT: "Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall he: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is." (I John iii:2, 3.)
DISCUSSION.
1. The Spiritual Man Contrasted with the Natural: If it shall be asked what it is that constitutes the difference between the natural man and the spiritual man, the answer, though necessarily brief, can take on various forms; but in the last analysis it will be found to consist in one thing: One has been "born again"—"born of the Spirit;" the other has not. One has received the Holy Ghost; the other has not.