6. Amen, Lord Jesus! May every one who prepareth his heart yet again to seek thy face, receive again that Spirit of adoption, and cry out, Abba, Father! Let him now again have power, so to believe in thy name, as to become a childof God; as to know and feel he hath redemption in thy blood even the forgiveness of sins, and that he cannot commit sin, because he is born of God. Let him be now begotten again unto a living hope, so as to purify himself, as thou art pure! And because he is a son, let the Spirit of love and of glory rest upon him, cleansing him from all filthiness of flesh and spirit, and teaching him to perfect holiness in the fear of God!
SERMON XIX.
THE GREAT PRIVILEGE OF THOSE THAT ARE BORN OF GOD.
1 John iii. 9.
Whosoever is born of God, doth not commit sin.
1.IT has been frequently supposed, that the being born of God was all one with the being justified; that the new birth and justification were only different expressions, denoting the same thing: it being certain on the one hand, that whoever is justified, is also born of God; and on the other, that whoever is born of God, is also justified: yea, that both these gifts of God are given to every believer in one and the same moment. In one point of time his sins are blotted out, and he is born again of God.
2. But though it be allowed, that justification and the new birth are in point of time inseparable from each other, yet are they easily distinguished, as being not the same, but things of a widely different nature. Justification implies only a relative, the new birth a real change. God in justifying us, does something for us: in begetting usagain, he does the work in us. The former changes our outward relation to God, so that of enemies we become children. By the latter, our inmost souls are changed, so that of sinners we become saints. The one restores us to the favour, the other to the image of God. The one is, the taking away the guilt, the other, the taking away the power of sin. So that although they are joined together in point of time, yet are they of wholly distinct natures.
3. The not discerning this, the not observing the wide difference there is, between being justified and being born again, has occasioned exceeding great confusion of thought, in many who have treated on this subject: particularly when they have attempted to explain this great privilege of the children of God; to shew how whosoever is born of God, doth not commit sin.
4. In order to apprehend this clearly, it may be necessary, first, to consider what is the proper meaning of that expression, Whosoever is born of God; and, secondly, to enquire, in what sense he doth not commit sin.
I. 1. First, we are to consider, what is the proper meaning of that expression, Whosoever is born of God. And in general, from all the passages of holy writ, wherein this expression the being born of God, occurs, we may learn that it implies not barely the being baptized, or any outward change whatever; but a vast inwardchange, a change wrought in the soul, by the operation of the Holy Ghost: a change in the whole manner of our existence; for from the moment we are born of God, we live in quite another manner than we did before; we are, as it were, in another world.
2. The ground and reason of the expression, is easy to be understood. When we undergo this great change, we may with much propriety be said to be born again, because there is so near a resemblance between the circumstances of the natural and of the spiritual birth: so that to consider the circumstances of the natural birth, is the most easy way to understand the spiritual.