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December, 1936
T H E K I N G ' S B U S I N E S S
beseech God to send a remedy. Moses asked, and was told to fashion a piece of brass in the form of a serpent and place it upon a pole. The promise made by God was that a bitten one, by looking at that brazen serpent, would be made whole. There was no healing efficacy in that piece of brass, nor was there healing efficacy in looking at it; only when any one believed and obeyed did healing come. The means of the healing was mysterious and not understood, but healing was a certain result. In like manner all who will fulfill the con ditions of the new birth by simply believ ing in the Lord Jesus Christ .will be born again, born from above, born of God. It is God’s work to fulfill His promise, regard less of how mysterious, how seemingly im possible it may appear, or how imperfectly we understand the process. T o attempt to understand before believing is to miss the truth and to go without the new birth; to simply believe is to have the healing effi cacy applied, the death of nature removed, and life from above bestowed. The reason for this new birth is that “ God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have ever lasting life” (v. 16). Professor Dawson has pointed out that this verse answers various errors, such as the following: nat uralism, or salvation without change; legal ism, or life without faith; sentimentalism, or life without blood; ecclesiasticism, or life by the church; Judaism, or life by caste; universalism, or life without excep tion. The world was condemned and needed salvation, and for this purpose the Son was sent. He came not to condemn, but to save (v. 17). The one and only condition for salvation is simple faith in Him. Points and Problems The phrase “ born of ’water,” mainly due to ritualistic commentators, has been so widely and seriously misunderstood that it deserves special consideration in these notes. 1. If, as is popularly supposed, the phrase refers to water baptism, then water becomes an agent of the new birth of equal impor tance with the Holy Spirit, and no one can be saved until baptized in water. This should give us thoughtful pause. 2. If the reference is to water baptism, then it cannot mean Christian baptism, for that ordinance was not given by our Lord to His church until after His death and resurrection (cf. Matt. 28:19). 3. The hey to the meaning of the phrase is found in verses 9 and 10. Whatever Christ meant, Nicodemus, the Jewish teach er should have been familiar with it. This means that the reference was to something in the Old Testament which Nicodemus, as a teacher of Israel, was expected to know. Not a line of the New Testament had yet been written. 4. The Old Testament reference is so clear and unmistakable in its meaning, that it is surprising that any one could misun derstand it. In His picture of the new birth, our Lord was referring directly to Ezekiel 36:25-27. Notice the parallel: Christ speaks of three things: New Birth, Water, and
unwilling to believe that He was the prom ised Saviour. Lesson Story: One of the men who was puzzling about this question of who Jesus was, was Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. But he didn’t just go around and talk with his friends about it. He went to Jesus and told Him what was on his mind. He said: “W e know that thou art a teacher come from G od: for no man can do these miracles that thou doest.” And of course, after he had said this, he probably hoped that Jesus would say either, “ Yes, I am the promised Saviour, the Son of God, sent to bring the people back to God,” or, “ No, you are mistaken; I am a man like your self.”;-, Nicodemus really wanted this question settled. But Jesus had something more im portant to tell Nicodemus first. He wanted to tell him how he— Nicodemus— and every one else might get into the heavenly king dom, so He said: “ Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” This was hard for Nicodemus to under stand. How could a man be born again ? Jesus told him that there are some things, and very real things, that we cannot see— things like the wind, He said. And then Jesus told Nicodemus how he could be born into the heavenly kingdom. It was very simple. John 3:16 tells us. W ill you say it with me ? Objects: A Bible with a chain padlocked around it, three keys, a small imitation college cap tied to one key, a small glove tied to one key, and a red cardboard cross tied to the key that fits the padlock. Lesson: Isn’t this a strange-looking Bible ? Years ago Bibles were so scarce that they were chained to the pulpits in churches, but this one is chained shut. This Bible con tains God’s message, and it is very impor tant that we should be able to open it and read it. Here are some keys. W e will see whether they fit the lock. This is the key of educa tion. There is a college cap attached to it. This key cannot open the Bible for us. In struction of the right kind is good, but we should always remember that education alone will not unlock the secrets of the Bible to us. Nicodemus, the man mentioned in the third chapter.of John, was a well- educated man, but he could not understand what Christ meant when He spoke of the new birth. This other key has a gardener’s glove attached to it. It is the key of hard work, but even this key does not fit the lock, and cannot open the Bible for us. No matter how hard he tries, the natural man— the man who has not been “ born again”—■ Object Lesson A C h ain ed B ible
Spirit. Ezekiel also speaks of three things: New Heart, Water, and Spirit. And both are speaking of what must be done in order to prepare men for the kingdom. 5. Now the question is, what is this "water” which prodiices the new heart in the new birth? In answer, let us be care ful not to repeat the blunder made by the Samaritan woman in the following chapter of John’s Gospel. She thought the “ water” offered by our Lord was material water (4:10-15), when, as a matter of fact, it was “living water,” even the Word of God. In the New Testament, “ water” is a com mon symbol of the Word (cf. John 15:3 and Eph. 5:26). If in the fourth chapter of John’s Gospel the “ water” is the Word of God, why may it not have the same meaning in the third chapter? Why not allow our Lord to interpret His own teach ing? Surely He is a safer guide than the best commentators. 6. If we regard the “ water” of John 3:5 as a reference to the W ord of God, then the passage is in perfect accord with the whole New Testament doctrine of the new birth, for the Word of 'God is more than once set forth as an agent of the new birth (cf. Jas. 1:18: “Begat he us with the word of truth,” and 1 Pet. 1:23: “Being born again, . . . by the word of God” ). On the other hand, material water’s being an agent of regeneration is something utterly un known in the New Testament, and is also contradictory to its teaching. “ I was once walking in the country with an eminent artist,” said a prosperous busi ness man, “ and as we halted and looked across a stretch of beautiful country, the artist turned to me and said, ‘Do you see the purple in the picture?’ Frankly, I did not. But I was not foolish enough to say there was no purple. A master of color has a right to say what color is there, and it is fitting that I, who am not a master in color, should suspect, not his vision, but my own blindness.” How wonderful it would be if those who “cannot see the kingdom of God” would be willing to suspect their own blindness and to turn to the Saviour who can give new life and new sight!—Adapted from the Sunday Companion. Golden Text Illustration J ohn 3 :3 Jesus Answering a Man’s Question J ohn ."3 :l-36 Memory Verse: “ He whom God hath sent speaketh the words of God” (John 3:34). Approach: Last week we talked about how slow the people were in taking the G ift that God had sent to them. They
knew, from the won derful miracles that the Lord Jesus did, that He was differ ent from any one w h o m t h e y had k n o w n before, but still they were puz zled. T h e y talked about this wonderful Man a m o n g them selves, but they were
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