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hearing by the Word of God” (Rom. 10:17). Here we have another favorite expression of the Apostle John, viz, “the name.” He uses it frequently both of the Father and the Son (ch. 2:23; 3:18; 5:43; 10:25; 12:13, 28; 14:13, 14, 26; 15:23, 24, 26; 17:6, 11, 12; 20:31; I John 2:12; 3:23; 5:13; 3 John 7; Rev. 2:3, 13; 3:12; 11:18; 13:6; 14:1; 15:4. V. 13: “Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.” Here as already said, we have the truth of regeneration as distinguished from the truth of adop tion in the preceding verse. Those who receive Him prove by that reception that they have been born of God. The source of the new life in which we enter lies wholly and solely in God. This John emphasizes iby the multiplication of nega tive expressions before he gives a posi tive statement. Nothing in man, neither “blood” (literally “bloods”), nor the will of the flesh,” “nor the will of man” ac counts for it in the least. Our human descent, our natural will, our human will in any sense, has nothing to do with it. No combination of human ele ments, neither our physical life, nor our natural instincts, nor our reproduction from a holy ancestry, not even that which is highest in us, the will of the rational man, is competent to work the neces sary change. God, and God alone, can do it. We must be begotten of God. He must impart His own holy nature to us, (cf. II Pet. 1:4; I Pet. 1:23; Jas. 1:18). Westcott calls attention to the fact “That St. John dwells characteristically upon the communication of the new life, while St. Paul dwells upon the gift of a hew dignity and relation (Rom. 8:15; Gal. 4:5; Eph. 1:5). When St. Paul brings out the newness of the Christian’s be ing, he speaks of him as a new crea tion (Gal. 6:15; II Cor. 5:17). The language of St. James (1:18) and of St. Peter (1 Pet. 1:3, 23) corresponds with that of St. John.” The Jew depended upon his natural descent and -rejected the incarnate Word when He came, but the child of God is saved through a spiritual birth. This spiritual birth is infinitely superior to any possible na tural birth. There are many in our day who love to boast of the hundreds of years that they can trace back their genealogy, but we can trace ours back through the eternal ages to the eternal Father. If any one asks our descent we can say, “I am bom of One greater than Alfred the Great, or Charlemagne, I am born OF (“out of”) GOD.”
(Acts 2:36)—to take Him to ourselves to be all this to us, and all that He wills to be to us, this is to receive Him; and whoever receives, no matter who or what he may be, no matter what his ancestry, no matter what his life may have been, no matter how deep he has gone down into sin, or how long he has continued in sin, becomes at once a child of God. No stretch of the human imagination can realize the meaning of such a relation t-o the infinite, all-holy, omniscent, omnipotent Jehovah, but yet if we have received Him that relation ship is ours. To have the right to call God “Father,” our minds stagger under the effort to measure the height and depth and length and breadth and in finitude of the glory of it. We should strive to live worthily of the infinite dignity of our position. “How shall I act?” asked Antigonus of Menedemus. “Like a king’s son,” was the answer. And we should act like sons of God. Hav ing become God’s children, (a) God pro vides for us as children, (Phil. 4:19; Rom. 8:28; Matt. 5:25-33; Matt. 10:30). (b) He educates us as His children (Rom. 8:14; John 14:26; 16:12, 13; I John 2:20, 27). (c) He chastens us as His children (Heb. 12:8,9). (d) He gives us an inheritance as His children (Rom. 8:17; Luke 12:32; I Pet. 1:3, 4). (e) He protects us to the end as His children (1 Pet. 1:5; John 10:29). The one who has received Him has a grand eur and a glory infinitely transcending that of a child of any earthly monarch. The words, “received Him” are given a further explanation in the last clause of the verse “even to them that believe on His name.” To receive Him is to believe on His name and to believe on His name is to receive Him. The “name” stands for .the person and his character as revealed. To believe on His name therefore means to put confidence in the person and character of the Lord Jesus as He reveals Himself to us. To put confidence in Him as all that He offers to be to us. It is to rely on Him as being for us that which He has made Himself known to be. It is in the writ ten word, especially in the four Gospels, that the incarnate Word makes Himself known to us. Therefore to believe on His name is to rely upon Him as He has made Himself known to us in the Bible. It is not enough that we have the Bible—we must study it if we would know Him as He has made Himself known to us, and thus rely upon Him. "So then faith cometh by hearing, and
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