Section Two:

THE NEW BIRTH

We must now examine in some detail WD’s approach to that vital teaching of the Scriptures that has to do with the process of conversion. WD writes: “His [i.e. Jesus’] coming by the Spirit into our lives is an essential element in the process of conversion, referred to in John’s Gospel as being born again.”³² I suggest the reader peruse carefully WD’s comments on John 3:2-8 on pages 3-4 of his booklet. In summary he says:

1. Entering the Kingdom of God depends on being born of water and spirit. ³³

2. This refers to one birth (of water and spirit) not to two (a birth of water and a birth of spirit).

3. The water is the symbol and the Spirit’s activity the outcome.

4. The invisible Spirit of God breathes into the hearts of men and women. The result is a changed life dedicated to God and His Son.

The thing that shocks me about this — and, indeed, about the greater part of WD’s treatise — is the way that the process of conversion takes place with little, if any, contribution from the Word of God. When WD refers to the Scriptures it is usually to wrest them in an attempt to bolster his preconceived view of the way in which he perceives the Spirit to work in the hearts of men.

What is the new birth?

We start with two fundamental statements from the Apostle:

“I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth...” (Romans 1:16).

“The word of the cross is them that are perishing foolishness; but unto us which are being saved it is the power of God” (1 Corinthians 1:18 RV).

The unambiguous teaching of these two Scriptures is that the power that produces salvation is the message preached — the message that consists of “the things concerning the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ” (Acts 8:12), and which is referred to as “the gospel”. In the record of apostolic preaching never, ever, do we find men and women being exhorted to open their hearts to the direct influence of the Spirit. The message was, “Repent...”, “Believe the gospel”, “If thou believest...”, “Believe on the Lord Jesus...” There is never, anywhere, the slightest hint that unless the Spirit first touched their hearts, repentance and faith would be impossible.

1. The Planting of the seed

The Scriptures present the process of conversion as “being born again.” This new birth, like any birth, is indeed a process. It commences, as far as the individual is concerned,³⁴ with the planting of the gospel seed. Jesus gave expression to this when, admittedly employing a different figure, he said in the parable of the sower, “The seed is the word of God” (Luke 8:11).

Peter is very clear when he writes:

“[we are] born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever... and this is the word which by the gospel is preached unto you” (1 Peter 1. 23, 25).

James says,

“Of his own will begat he us with the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures” (James 1:18).

2. The seed takes root and grows

The response to the preaching of the gospel is also mirrored in the Parable of the Sower. Some seeds never take root. Others find lodgement in stony ground or among thorns and begin to develop but never come to maturity for one reason or another. Our interest is in that seed that falls on good ground.

Whether a person is stony ground, thorn and thistle infested ground, or good ground, is not due to some outpouring of Holy Spirit, or lack of it. It is entirely dependent on how the individual responds to the word preached — the choice rests with the individual. He either responds with belief and obedience, or with unbelief and rebellion. This is the teaching of some of the simplest verses in Holy Writ:

“Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature. He that believeth and is baptised shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned” (Mark 16:15-16).

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life” (John 3:16).

Thus belief, or faith as it is also called, is the response of the individual — it is not something that is infused into him by the Spirit. As the apostle testifies:

“If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe [i.e. have faith] in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation... So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God” (Romans 10:9-10, 17).

3. The new man brought forth

The final act in the process of a birth is the bringing forth of the baby. The final act in the new birth process is the bringing forth of the “new creature”, which is done by the act of water baptism. This is the public manifestation of that which has been conceived and developed in the mind of the individual by “the word of the truth of the gospel”. Only when a person has been baptised is he said to be “in Christ”:

“For as many of you as have been baptised into Christ have put on Christ” (Galatians 3:27).

“Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptised into Jesus Christ were baptised into his death?” (Romans 6:3).

Having been baptised into Christ the process of new birth is complete:

“Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new” (2 Corinthians 5:17).

Born of water and Spirit

It is easy to see in baptism, the ‘water’ aspect of the new birth. But according to the Scriptures set out above the Holy Spirit plays no part in this process. So how can we harmonise them with the teaching of Jesus

when he said that for a man to enter the kingdom he had to be born “of water and spirit”? The passage quoted from 1 Peter 1:23 says that we are “born again... by the word of God... which by the gospel is preached unto [us]”. In the same chapter he explains how, in those days, they “preached the gospel... with the Holy Spirit sent down from heaven” (v. 12). Whilst the phrase ‘spirit word’ is not found in the Bible, it cannot be denied that the Scriptures were given by the Holy Spirit (2 Peter 1:21; John 14:26; John 16:13), and before those Scriptures were completed the gospel was preached by Spirit inspired apostles, evangelists and teachers. Since the Word produces the new birth, and since the Spirit produced the Word, it follows that the new birth is in that sense brought about by the Spirit.

The reality of the new birth

The new creature that comes into existence at baptism is a new man of the mind. What those whose thinking is clouded by evangelical teaching do not always appreciate is the reality of this new birth. By the willing and eager acceptance into the mind of the truth about Jesus and the kingdom something is created that did not exist before — new values and ideals; new hopes; a new focus in living. In short there has been created within the mind a mental and moral likeness of the One who has begotten him by the word of truth. The New Testament refers to this variously as “the new man” (Ephesians 4:24; Colossians 3:10); “a new creature” (2 Corinthians 5:17); “Christ... in your hearts” (Ephesians 3:17); “the Spirit of Christ” (Romans 8:9); “the Spirit” as opposed to “the flesh” (Galatians 5:17); “the spirit of your mind” (Ephesians 4:23); “the inward man” (Romans 7:22).

This new mind — “the Spirit of Christ” — is produced by the incorruptible divine seed called by Peter “the word”. The new creature therefore is produced by God through the instrumentality of the Word. It is this new creature to which the Apostle refers when he says:

“Furthermore, we had the fathers of our flesh to chasten us, and we gave them reverence: shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the Father of our spirits, and live?” (Hebrews 12:9 RVm).

When WD writes “The Spirit of Christ and the Holy Spirit are one and the same Spirit”³⁵ he confuses, as his evangelical sources do, that which is created in us by the Word (the mind or spirit of Christ), with that power from God which caused men to speak his word and which was given, in its various manifestations, to the New Testament Ecclesia.

The Holy Spirit and the Spirit of Christ are not the same

The record in Acts chapter 8 tells how Phillip went to Samaria and preached Christ to them. We are informed that many of them accepted the truth:

“When they believed Philip preaching the things concerning the kingdom of God, and the name of Jesus Christ, they were baptised, both men and women” (verse 12).

This being so, since they were baptised, they were “in Christ” for the Apostle says:

“Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptised into Jesus Christ were baptised into his death?” (Romans 6:3).

Since they were “in Christ”, they belonged to Christ, for the Apostle also says:

“For as many of you as have been baptised into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus. And if ye be Christ’s, then are ye Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise” (Galatians 2:27-29).

Also, since by baptism they were Christ’s, as the apostle says they were, then on the basis of remarks he makes elsewhere, they quite definitely did have the Spirit of Christ, for, says Paul:

“If any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his” (Romans 8:9).

But these Samaritan believers, who had been baptised into Christ, belonged to Christ and therefore had the Spirit of Christ, did not have the Holy Spirit. For it was only when the apostles Peter and John came down and “laid... their hands on them, [that] they received the Holy Spirit” (Acts 8:17).

Thus we have confirmation from this record that ‘the Spirit of Christ’ and ‘the Holy Spirit’ are not different terms for the same thing. What they had as a result of accepting the gospel message was the Spirit of Christ — the mental and moral likeness of Jesus created in them by their ready acceptance of the Word preached, which thus for them became “the power of God unto salvation”. What they received from Peter and John was the gift of the Holy Spirit given to the New Testament Ecclesia.