The works of the Rev. John Wesley, Vol. 03 (of 32)

by John Wesley

SERMON XLV.
THE NEW BIRTH.
John iii. 7.

Ye must be born again.

1.IF any doctrine within the whole compass of Christianity may be properly termed fundamental, they are doubtless these two, the doctrine of justification, and that of the new birth: the former relating to that great work, which God does for us, in forgiving our sins; the latter, to the great work, which God does in us, in renewing our fallen nature. In order of time, neither of these is before the other: in the moment we are justified by the grace of God, thro’ the redemption that is in Jesus, we are also born of the Spirit: but in order of thinking, as it is termed, justification precedes the new birth. We first conceive his wrath to be turned away, and then his Spirit to work in our hearts.

2. How great importance then must it be of to every child of man, throughly to understand these fundamental doctrines? From a full conviction of this, many excellent men have wrote very largely concerning justification, explaining every point relating thereto, and opening the scriptures which treat upon it. Many likewise have wrote on the new birth; and some of them largely enough: but yet not so clearly as might have been desired; nor so deeply and accurately: having either given a dark, abstruse account of it, or a slight and superficial one. Therefore a full, and at the same time, a clear account of the new birth seems to be wanting still: such as may enable us to give a satisfactory answer to these three questions, first, Why must we be born again? What is the foundation of this doctrine of the new birth? Secondly, How must we be born again? What is the nature of the new birth? And thirdly, Wherefore must we be born again? To what end is it necessary? These questions, by the assistance of God, I shall briefly and plainly answer, and then subjoin a few inferences which will naturally follow.

I. 1. And, first, Why must we be born again? What is the foundation of this doctrine? The foundation of it lies near as deep as the creation of the world: *In the scriptural account whereof we read, [3]And God, the three-one God, said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him: not barely in his natural image, a picture of his own immortality, a spiritual being, endued with understanding, freedom of will, and various affections: not merely in his political image, the governor of this lower world, having dominion over the fishes of the sea, and over all the earth: but chiefly in his moral image, which according to the apostle, is [4]righteousness and true holiness. In this image of God was man made. God is love: accordingly man at his creation was full of love: which was the sole principle of all his tempers, thoughts, words and actions. God is full of justice, mercy and truth: so was man as he came from the hands of his Creator. God is spotless purity: and so man was in the beginning pure from every sinful blot. Otherwise God could not have pronounced him, as well as all the other works of his hands, [5]very good. This he could not have been, had he not been pure from sin, and filled with righteousness and true holiness. For there is no medium: if we suppose an intelligent creature, not to love God, not to be righteous and holy, we necessarily suppose him not to be good at all: much less to be very good.

2. But although man was made in the image of God, yet he was not made immutable. This would have been inconsistent with that state of trial, in which God was pleased to place him. He was therefore created able to stand, and yet liable to fall. And this God himself apprized him of, and gave him a solemn warning against it. Nevertheless man did not abide in honour: he fell from his high estate. He ate of the tree whereof the Lord had commanded him, Thou shalt not eat thereof. By this wilful act of disobedience to his Creator, this flat rebellion against his Sovereign, he openly declared, that he would no longer have God to rule over him: that he would be governed by his own will, and not the will of him that created him, and that he would not seek his happiness in God, but in the world, in the works of his hands. Now God had told him before, In the day that thou eatest of that fruit thou shalt surely die. And the word of the Lord cannot be broken. Accordingly in that day he did die: he died to God, the most dreadful of all deaths. He lost the life of God: he was separated from him, in union with whom his spiritual life consisted. The body dies, when it is separated from the soul; the soul, when it is separated from God. But this separation from God Adam sustained in the day, the hour he ate of the forbidden fruit. And of this he gave immediate proof; presently shewing by his behaviour, that the love of God was extinguished in his soul, which was now alienated from the life of God. Instead of this, he was now under the power of servile fear, so that he fled from the presence of the Lord. Yea, so little did he retain even of the knowledge of him, who filleth heaven and earth, that he endeavoured to [6]hide himself from the Lord God, among the trees of the garden! So had he lost both the knowledge and the love of God, without which the image of God could not subsist. Of this therefore he was deprived at the same time, and became unholy as well as unhappy. In the room of this, he had sunk into pride and self-will, the very image of the devil, and into sensual appetites and desires, the image of the beasts that perish.

3. If it be said, “Nay but that threatning, In the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die, refers to temporal death and that alone, to the death of the body only;” The answer is plain; to affirm this, is flatly and palpably to make God a liar: to aver, that the God of truth positively affirmed a thing contrary to truth. For it is evident, Adam did not die in this sense, in the day that he ate thereof. He lived in the sense opposite to this death, above nine hundred years after. So that this cannot possibly be understood of the death of the body, without impeaching the veracity of God. It must therefore be understood of spiritual death, the loss of the life and image of God.

4. And in Adam all died, all human-kind, all the children of men who were then in Adam’s loins. The natural consequence of this is, that every one descended from him, comes into the world spiritually dead, dead to God, wholly dead in sin: entirely void of the life of God, void of the image of God, of all that righteousness and holiness, wherein Adam was created. Instead of this every man born into the world, now bears the image of the devil, in pride and self-will; the image of the beast, in sensual appetites and desires. This then is the foundation of the new birth, the entire corruption of our nature. Hence it is, that being born in sin, we must be born again. Hence every one that is born of a woman, must be born of the Spirit of God.

II. 1. But how must a man be born again? What is the nature of the new birth? This is the second question. And a question it is, of the highest moment that can be conceived. We ought not therefore in so weighty a concern, to be content with a slight enquiry; but to examine it with all possible care, and to ponder it in our hearts, ’till we fully understand this important point, and clearly see, how we are to be born again.

2. Not that we are to expect any minute, philosophical account, of the manner how this is done. Our Lord sufficiently guards us against any such expectation, by the words immediately following the text: wherein he reminds Nicodemus of as indisputable a fact, as any in the whole compass of nature: which notwithstanding the wisest man under the sun, is not able fully to explain. The wind bloweth where it listeth, not by thy power or wisdom, and thou hearest the sound thereof: thou art absolutely assured, beyond all doubt, that it doth blow. But thou canst not tell, whence it cometh, neither whither it goeth. The precise manner how it begins and ends, rises and falls, no man can tell. So is every one that is born of the Spirit. Thou mayst be as absolutely assured of the fact, as of the blowing of the wind: but the precise manner how it is done, how the Holy Spirit works this in the soul, neither thou nor the wisest of the children of men is able to explain.