Light in the World Pt. 3

We’ve been learning about Christ. We’ve been learning about the
one John refers to as the Word and without further ado I want
to return to that passage so that we can review it in its
entirety. John chapter 1 and we begin in verse 1 once again
as we delve into a new section of scripture there in verses
9 through 14. Back in verse 1, John writes,
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and
the Word was God. He was, in the beginning, with
God. All things came into being through
Him, and apart from Him, nothing came into being that has come
into being. In Him was life, and the life was the light of
men. And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness
did not comprehend it. There came a man sent from God
whose name was John. He came as a witness to testify
about the light, so that all might believe through him. He
was not the light, but he came to testify about the light. There
was the true light, which, coming into the world, enlightens every
man. He was in the world, and the
world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him. He
came to His own, and those who were His own did not receive
Him, but as many as received Him, to them He gave the right
to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name
who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh,
nor of the will of man, but of God. And the Word became flesh
and dwelt among us. And we saw His glory, glory as
of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.”
After that opening section where John heralds what he refers to
as the Word, we discovered Him to be none other than the Lord
Jesus Christ that he’s referring to. was in the beginning the word
became flesh and dwelt among us. That essentially encapsulates
that entire thought and tells us that the one that Jesus or
that John here is referring to is none other than Jesus Christ.
Well, he tells us not only about Christ in those opening five
verses, he tells us that he had a witness. He had John the Baptist
as the forerunner who is coming before Christ to tell the world
of him. And then in verses 9 and following,
John returns to the great subject of the Word, only now he refers
to Him as the Light. He refers to the Lord Jesus Christ
now in a new metaphor. No longer as the Word, now he
refers to Him as the Light. And essentially what he says
is that this Light has to interface with humanity. Humanity must
deal with the light. And so we are considering humanity
and how it reacts to the light. We’ve seen several of those points
of light thus far. First of all we consider the
light and his effect. In verse 9 we learn that there
was the true light which coming into the world enlightens every
man. In a very real way Christ has revealed himself to all.
We also saw the light in his general rejection. John doesn’t
mean to point out that Jesus Christ was summarily rejected
by the totality of humanity, but he does say, generally speaking,
Jesus Christ was rejected. We saw that in verse 10. He was
in the world, and the world was made through him, and the world
did not know him. They didn’t recognize him for
who he was. And then last Lord’s Day, we began that third point,
the third point of light, if you will. Not only the light
and its effects, not only the light in his general rejection,
but the light in his particular reception. And we saw there in
verse 11 that John is, or that we’re alluding to this word reception
in an interesting way. That in a sense, he wasn’t received. Look at verse 11. He came to
His own, and those who were His own did not receive Him. Let
me just take a moment to remind everybody exactly where we are
and nestle us in to this outlook. We find ourselves this morning
approaching verses 12 and 13, but those verses are merely a
continuation of that sub-point that we’ve identified, the light
in His particular reception. Verses 11 through 13 establish
a distinction as we saw from verse 10. There in verse 10 we
learned that the world in general had rejected the light. But John
wants to delve deeper into the consideration of the matter and
he wants to look at specific people groups. We’ve already
seen one response. The Jewish nation in verse 11
tells us that his own people, the Jewish nation, did not receive
him. Well, that’s one particular response,
but there is another, and that’s what verses 12 and 13 give us.
John’s purpose is, in verse 11 through 13, is to look at these
different people groups, and he tells us that one group just
dismissed him. They didn’t receive him into
their hands. That’s what that word meant.
They didn’t receive him to themselves as they should have. In fact,
not only were they not like Joseph, who was told with that same word
to take Mary as his wife, instead, they didn’t want anything to
do with him. They rejected him. They pushed him away. It was
decisive. They didn’t welcome him. Essentially, we saw that
they pulled up the welcome mat. His own people, the Jewish nation,
rejected Him. And generally speaking, that
is the report. But not all of them rejected
Him, and that’s the point of verses 12 through 13. There’s
an obvious contrast there. It’s established in verse 11,
but it’s contrasted here in verse 12. Lance down if you would.
In verse 11, John tells us that his own people did not receive
him. But here in verse 12, John tells us that some did, as many
as. In John 11, we saw that John
used that compound form of the word to receive, to take to themselves
as their own. But here in verse 12, he uses
a simplified form of that word, the root, to just say that there
were some that took it. They took it in and it highlights
the acceptance of what was offered, the blessing that was received.
It’s an abrupt, isn’t it? Back and forth, good news, bad
news, good news, bad news. Go back to verse 9. There was
the true light which coming into the world enlightens every man.
Good news! He was in the world and the world
was made through him. Good news! The world did not know him. Bad
news. He came to his own, verse 11,
good news. Those who were his own did not
receive him. Worse things. And then verse 12, but as many
as received him to them, he gave the right to become children
of God, even to those who believe in his name. Amazingly, astoundingly,
surprisingly good news. It’s a back and forth. and as
sad and as bewildering as the news of verse 11 hits us, that
his own people did not welcome him. The opening line of verse
12 has to hearten us, doesn’t it? But as many as received him,
that tells us that there were some, at least. It acknowledges
that while the Jewish nation as a whole rejected him, not
every Jew did, Some believed. John doesn’t want us to leave
with the conclusion that no Israelite ever believed in Jesus Christ. That little clause, as many as,
is a statement of hope. It’s factual proof that while
the nation in general disowned him, many individual Jews and
others welcomed him for who he was. He was the Savior and Lord
sent by God himself. further this clause, as many
as, not only tells us that many Jewish people, as I said, became
believers, but so also did a lot of other people. Some undefined
number who did receive Him. That number included Jewish people,
but it also encompassed non-Jews, Gentiles, Greeks. And as we step
backward and we look at what John is saying here, in this
little transition, we see that regardless of whether they were
Israelites or heathens, there were some who believed in Jesus. We appreciate the way that the
ESV translates this section, this verse, verse 12. As many
as received Him. The ESV says it quite interestingly
if you If you have the ESV, this will be easy. If not, just listen.
The ESV says, but to all who did receive Him, who believed
in His name, He gave the right to become children of God. I like that because I think what
it does is help clarify what receiving Him meant. What the ESV does is put those
two clauses very close together. to all who did receive Him, those
who believed in His name, it means that they believed in Him. They believed in the Lord Jesus
Christ. That’s what it meant to receive
Him. But I want you to note that the word order in those phrases
is rather jumbled in the ESV. The NAS, if you’re reading that,
and many other translations, have them separated as they are
in the Greek. This is how it reads almost literally
in the Greek. But as many as received him,
to them he gave the right to become children of God, even
to those who believe in his name. But for our purposes this morning,
let’s consider that final clause. of verse 12, the clarifying clause. What is it to receive Christ?
It’s to believe in Him. John has already told us that
there were some who received Christ for who He was and all
who received Him, He granted the right to become God’s children. What John does at the end of
verse 12 is simply further define who these people were, what receiving
Jesus meant. As many as received and those
who believe point to the same people. We’ve already established
the importance of faith and belief. John puts a premium, that’s his
focus throughout his gospel, faith and belief. And we see
it again here. This construction John uses throughout
his gospel to believe in, he uses 35 times. It wasn’t just
a general knowledge, in other words. It wasn’t just faith.
People talk a lot about faith nowadays. They talk about it in some undefined
way, as if just a general belief in God is good enough, and it’s
not. For John, the Apostle John, faith
in general was not good enough. It was faith in something, faith
in some person. and specifically it was faith
in the Lord Jesus Christ. Faith in Christ was crucial.
To believe in Jesus Christ was to receive Him. One could not
receive Jesus Christ except by faith. But let’s be clear about
the nature of that faith. It wasn’t just a casual ascent
to who Jesus was. Remember, it wasn’t just an acknowledgement
of the list of facts about who Jesus claimed to be. Yes, I believe
he was a good man. I believe he was a prophet. I
believe that he, you know, and it wasn’t a matter of just going
down the list and giving assent to a list of facts about Christ.
This faith was the strongest kind of faith. As one pastor
said it, it involves not only intellectual assent, but also
personal appropriation and commitment. They gave their lives to Christ.
They gave everything to Christ. It’s not just that they believed
a set of facts. Those who received Him accepted
His message about His person and the purpose of His ministry,
and they entrusted themselves, their entire lives to Him. It
was a complete trust. It was a trust for forgiveness.
It was a trust for salvation in the One who had come for that
purpose and the only One. Verse 9 has already informed
us, remember, effectively, that any man Any person ever born
on the face of the earth is without excuse to at least acknowledge
God’s existence. And in a very real way, that’s
what he reiterates in verse 9. Every person born on the face
of the earth is without excuse to have at least some acknowledgement
that Jesus Christ was in existence. So faith in Christ cannot be
talking about that kind of belief. The Word tells us that It wasn’t
just a one-time exercise. As if to place one’s faith in
Christ was a one-time thing, and then you sit back and wait
for heaven. It’s a lifelong effort. It’s ongoing. It’s not only initiated,
but it’s a sustained faith in Christ. It’s a walk of faith. One faithful Commentators said
it this way, it is so to accept a statement of a person so as
to rest upon them, to trust them practically, to draw upon and
avail oneself of all that is offered in him. That’s faith. But I want you to glance down
at the clause again. Depending on your version, it
may be the last clause, it may be the middle clause if you’re
reading the ESV. We’re talking about verse 12,
as many as received him, to those who believed in his name. This little prepositional phrase,
in his name, shouldn’t be overlooked. John isn’t just creatively referring
to the Savior here, referring to Jesus indirectly, as if he
was afraid to say his name. Nor is he referring to Jesus
vaguely, leaving his hearers to decide exactly to which name
is he really referring. To give us something to debate,
you know, in Bible study. Is he talking about the name
Jesus? Is he talking about the name Christ? Messiah? Is he talking about the name
Lord? Is he talking about the name Savior or Messiah? Is he talking about the word,
the Logos, which he’s already introduced in this section? Is
he talking about the name, the light? I think to delve into
and to even get into all that is to lose the point entirely.
For the Jews, largely to whom John is writing, to refer to
the name of a person was a phrase that was very frequently used
in the Old Testament. As one commentator explained
it, names were often so significant, given sometimes even by God himself,
that a man’s name served not merely to tell who he was, but
what he was. It was an index of his character. So it isn’t a matter of some
people coming to a point of faith and belief in a set of facts
or in His particular name, Jesus, the Christ, the Messiah, or even
as the Lord, or that He existed, or that He was the son of Joseph
and Mary, or that He hailed from Galilee. When writers refer to the name
in the Old Testament, they refer to all of God’s character, His
person, insofar as He had revealed Himself to people. Listen, 2
Samuel 7.13, He shall build a house for My name, meaning for all
that I am, for all that I present Myself to be. Isaiah 18.7, these
are just two of hundreds. of these kinds of references.
At that time, a gift of homage will be brought to the Lord of
hosts from a people tall and smooth, even from a people feared
far and wide, a powerful and oppressive nation whose land
the rivers divide to the place of the name of the Lord of hosts. To refer to the name, to reference
that, and to allude to that was to refer to all that God is. And when John does it here, and
refers to the Lord Jesus Christ as the name. He’s not only attributing
to him deity, he’s saying, look, it’s all of who Christ is. Everything
about Christ, they place their faith in that. As one said, it
is the sum of qualities which mark the nature and character
of a person. John says, look, There were some, some who received
Christ. How did they receive Him? They
believed in Him. They believed in His name. They
believed in everything about Him. John says here that there
were some who believed, and he means that they believed in Him
as He is, completely in all that He is. It points to a complete
submission to Him as God in the flesh, and as Lord and Savior
sent to earth. for the sake of sinners, He is
the Lord of all. To believe in Him is to acknowledge
that He is God and to embrace Him in the fullness of His being.
That’s what John says when he says, as many as received Him. To them, even to those who believed
in His name. To those who received Him, to
those who placed their faith in Him, there was this divine
exchange. That’s the only way you can look
at it. As many as received Him, even to those who believe in
His name, to them He gave. But the interesting thing is,
the form of those two births are exactly the same, and there’s
no way to tell which came first, because there’s no way to separate
it. It’s really silly to try and decide Which came first,
my faith or God’s gift of salvation? When it’s really woven into the
secret counsels of God himself, one pastor said it this way,
the passage defines no temporal or causal relationship between
believing and being born of God. In other words, he says, there’s
no way to back up and separate the two. To decide, was it my
faith that led to this gift of God, or was it this gift of God
that led to my faith? Both things are true. And both
things happened concurrently. But let’s look at the gift. As
many as received Him, even those who believe in His name, to them
He gave. gave a right. That’s fascinating
language, isn’t it? Gave us the right. In other words,
becoming part of the family of God is God’s prerogative. And that means that we don’t
inherently have that right. We don’t have the right to assign
ourselves as children of God. We don’t have the right to barge
into His family gatherings. We don’t have a right to be called
His children. But to those who received the
Lord Jesus Christ, to those who believed in everything that He
is, God gave that right. It’s His prerogative. It’s His
to give or it’s His to withhold. And in some way that only God
can explain, it’s linked. with this reception by faith.
When an individual receives the Lord Jesus Christ for who he
is, places his faith in him alone for salvation, they are granted
new rights. One of which is to become part
of God’s glorious family. To become a child of God. This word right or authority
is one of, there are six words that could be used and translated
to communicate that. Two primary words, one is dunamis,
power from where we get, you’ve heard it, dynamite. That talks
about an inward capacity, an inward capability. And that would
be really problematic if John had used that word here. That
God gave them the inward capability to change, essentially, their
nature. and to change their destiny.
That’s not what he says. He uses the word here, exousia,
which talks about a liberty of action, a freedom to roam and
reign. Authority, it’s translated a
lot of times, delegated authority. As one translated it, or rather
defined it, exousia means right, liberty, authority to do a thing. It’s legitimate, rightful authority. It’s bestowed authority. It’s
authority that no one can question. And the amazing thing is, this
word is used of Christ. He, too, had rights. He, too,
had authority. John 5, 27, just a few verses,
listen. He gave him authority to execute
judgment. John 10, 18. No one has taken
my life from me. I lay it down on my own initiative.
I have authority to lay it down. I have authority to take it up
again. John 17, 2. You gave him authority over all
flesh. John 19, verse 10. Pilate said,
You do not speak to me. Do you not know that I have authority
to release you and I have authority to crucify you? And Jesus said
to him, Let me tell you about authority. Verse 11, Jesus answered,
you would have no authority over me unless it had been given you
from above. For this reason, he delivered me to you as the
greater sin. Jesus says, essentially, I have authority over you. I
gave you this authority. But we need to be very careful
here. When it’s applied to those who believe, what do we mean
that we have authority now? J.C. Ryle and his really excellent
commentary. If you bought one, that would
be a good place to start. One commentary on the Gospel
of John, I’d be hard pressed to buy anything other than J.C.
Ryle. J.C. Ryle in his commentary very
carefully points out a pitfall here. He says, this verse does
not mean that Christ confers on those who receive Him a spiritual
and moral strength, dunamis, by which they convert themselves,
change their own hearts, and make themselves God’s children. You know, there’s a vast amount
of believers that think this. That once they place their faith
in Christ, boy, they have the power to do anything. And then he points out, essentially
what we’ve already discovered, the Greek word used 102 times
in the New Testament, never on one occasion, he says, in the
sense of physical, moral, or spiritual strength to do a thing. What he’s saying is that God
granted these who received Christ authority. God granted these
who placed their faith in Christ a right A right to be called
and considered, to experience and enjoy the fullness of what
God means to be in His family. They are already welcomed in
to God’s family. They have a right to be there.
It’s not talking about power. I’m not talking about some kind
of human superpower. They have no inherent power of
their own. They are not independent from
God. They have no power of their own over sin. They have no power
of their own over their own life. They have no prerogative either
to advance into the kingdom of heaven or not. As if they could say, take it
or leave it. What John says here is that they
are already and instantly conferred as members of God’s family. As
one pastor said, the plain indication here is that the power to become
a son of God is not natural and inherent, but it’s acquired.
It is the special gift of God. And it’s not optional. It’s not like you can say, can
I get back to you on that? The family thing sounds really
good, and I know the family parties and things and gifts. Oh, can
I get back to you, God? That’s not it at all. If I think
about it long enough, I might exercise this power to become
one of your children. That’s not it at all. The Bible makes it clear enough
that this is a work of God. Philippians 2. So then, my beloved,
just as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but
now much more in my absence, work out your salvation with
fear and trembling. For it is God who is at work
within you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure.
God is the one that has made you a part of His family. If
you have believed and received the Lord Jesus Christ, you are
already part of God’s And look at how plain it is.
Look at verse 12 again, if you would, as many as received Him.
To them He gave a right to become children of God. What a beautiful
little image, isn’t it? Especially, I didn’t pick it
this way, but what a beautiful image for Father’s Day. This
language of family orientation is common in the New Testament.
Jesus uses it, Paul uses it, Peter uses it, John here uses
it. All of them talk about this idea
of family relationship with regards to God. Paul, Paul speaks of
entry into this family with an interesting image, different
from John. Paul uses the image of adoption. That, if you will, is Paul’s
angle on this relationship, how it came to be. Paul says, look,
we were all orphans. And God, in His mercy, reached
down and He adopted us into His. What a beautiful image, isn’t
it? We were not His children. We
had no parents. We had no life. We had no family.
But now we are. That’s Paul’s angle. John, on
the other hand, looks at it at this spiritual family relationship
from the human side, namely birth. It’s not that they’re arguing
and bickering. It’s not that they’re at odds
with one another. From Paul’s perspective, Paul
steps back. And from his perspective, it’s
merely a legal view. It’s from the standpoint of the
Roman law in which Paul was steeped One is now placed into God’s
home. He’s adopted into God’s home
and he enjoys legal protection from that transaction. Someone
has stepped in. They’ve adopted this child into
their home. That child is now part of the family as if he were
a born son. But for John, John never goes
there. John speaks of birth. John speaks
of the natural process of entering into a family, to be a child
of God, as opposed to just this legal consideration as an heir,
as a son. It’s a much more intimate relationship
that John mentions. Both of them are beautiful images.
And both images are absolutely true. According to Paul, from
God’s perspective, we were hopeless and homeless, but we’ve been
taken in and adopted and granted legal status as being part of
God’s family. We’re not stepchildren. We now have dignity. We have
standing. We have status. We have a family. God is our Father. Here’s how
Paul says it in Romans 8. Remember Romans? For you have
not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again, but you
have received a spirit of adoption as sons by which we cry out,
Abba, Father. The Spirit Himself testifies
with our spirit that we are children of God. And if children, heirs
also, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, if indeed
we suffer with him, so that we may also be glorified with him.
We weren’t part of the family, but now by God’s grace we are. Galatians 4, 5 and 6 say essentially
the same thing. that He might redeem those who
are under the law, that we might receive adoption as sons. Because you are sons, God sent
forth the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, Abba, Father. It says the same thing. But John
too, as he does here, uses an equally beautiful image. Not
that of adoption, but that of being naturally born. into God’s
family. We have watched time and time
again. In life, friends of ours who could not have children of
their own, they adopt. And then, through almost a miraculous
process, God says, and now I’ll give you a natural-born child. Essentially, what John’s talking
about here is that natural birth process. And according to these
biblical images, a young person can become a son by adoption,
but a child by way of birth. John uses this phrase frequently
throughout the gospel. We’ll see it again and again.
John 11, 52, he came for not only this nation, but in order
that he might also gather together into one the children of God. Can you imagine that? What a
beautiful family gathering that is. He uses it again in 1 John,
over and over again. The fascinating thing is that
the apostle John never once uses Paul’s illustration. It’s as
if he treated it as Paul’s illustration of the process. Adoption, John
never uses that. Instead, he uses an image much
more striking than that of legal adoption. He uses the image of
new life, a birth, Now this phrase, children of God, it’s a deeply
rooted Jewish concept. The image of the family community
with God, not merely heirs, but children and part of God’s family.
They believed, the Jews did, that they became exclusively
part of God’s family by their blood ties to Abraham. And so
in the midst of this beautiful image, children of God, that
a person receiving Jesus Christ by fully believing in Him for
salvation literally becomes part of God’s family, what a beautiful
image. But no sooner does that image
settle into our minds that John has to move to clarify, because
he’s writing to Jews. He has to move to clarify that
this family entrance isn’t by typical means. He’s using a very
typical illustration, that of natural birth, but it isn’t talking
about human birth. And He’s not talking about adoption.
It’s by birth, but it’s by a very different kind of birth. Glance
down, if you would, at the passage. But as many as received Him,
to them He gave the right to become children of God, even
to those who believe in His name, who were born not of blood, nor
of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.
They were born of God. First of all, what does he mean
when he says they were born not of blood? As John begins to clarify,
he says first that this is a birth, this entrance into God’s family
is Not by adoption, it’s by normal means, birth. But he says that
this isn’t just the average kind of birth, and he says it three
different ways. The first exception is not of blood. And it literally
is plural, not of bloods. We’ll come back to that in a
moment. What does he mean when he says that we don’t become
children of God by being born of blood? Predictably, there
were a number of attempts to explain this. Some said that
it was just merely by physical descent. You don’t become a Christian
by physical descent. Now, we would all agree with
that. We would all know that what the scriptures teach, they’re
not pointing at all to the fact that merely by having children,
we could propagate the earth with Christians. I wish that
were true. It’s true that it’s not by physical
descent, but it’s so obvious that that can’t possibly be the
meaning that John is referring to here. Of course, salvation
is not by physical descent. Just because one’s grandmother
or parent was a faithful Christian has no bearing on an individual’s
spiritual standing. Of course that’s true. Some said that it means that
this being born by blood means that we didn’t descend by Abraham. That he says, look, you trace
your lineage back, you might trace it to Abraham, but that
doesn’t prove anything and it doesn’t make you a spiritual
child of God. And that much is true as well.
Paul proves that point over and over again. This would address
the Jewish pride, but the principle is also true for Gentiles. Neither
for them is salvation a matter of blood. So it can’t be limited
to that. There’s a third option. One suggested that what John
is referring to here when he says that we were not born of
blood, literally bloods, some kind of spiritual human descent,
what one called a matter of heredity. inheritance, that we were born
into a really good family, either by the father’s line or the mother’s
line. Two different bloodlines, blood,
plural. It wasn’t by heredity of any
kind, not Abraham, not some family tree, not some long line of faithful
Christian heritage, not children of pastors, not missionaries.
That’s not how we’re born into God’s family. The bottom line,
first of all, a person doesn’t become a child of God simply
through being born into some kind of family tree. Look at
verse 13 again. We’re born not of blood, nor
of the will of the flesh. What can this possibly mean?
Not only is individual salvation not dependent upon bloodline,
heredity, family tree, some other kind of physical lineage, neither
is it due to the will of the flesh. But what does that mean? There were some who quite frankly
veered far off course here, in my opinion. Basically, they said
that the will of the flesh merely refers to the natural human desire
for intimacy. Sort of saying the same thing
that he had just said a little more bluntly. A lot more bluntly?
A person doesn’t become a child of God through the act of husband-wife
intimacy. That simply isn’t the case. And there were some translations
that grabbed this interpretation and ran with it. The New Living
Translation has it this way. They are reborn, not with a physical
birth, resulting from human passion and plan. I mean, that would
be family planning, wouldn’t it? I think we’ll go make some
Christians. And the wife and I will have many children, and
they will all be Christians. That’s essentially what they’re
alluding to. Thankfully, there’s a milder
way of considering this exception. As one pastor put it, it’s not
by resolution. It’s not by mere determination.
I think that today, I think I’ll become a Christian. Why, this
Christianity thing sounds really good. I think I’d like to try
that. You have bumper stickers now
that essentially say that. Try Jesus. OK. It’s not through
the efforts, it’s not through the determination, it’s not through
our own will that we come into God’s family. It wasn’t a result
of human decision, through a person’s will at all. It wasn’t a result
of any wishful thinking on anybody else’s half either. It’s great
to have people praying for you, but no one ever literally prayed
anybody into the kingdom of God. The bottom line here is that
as one pastor said it, is the will of the natural man is opposed
to God. And he has no will Godward until
he is born again. It doesn’t matter how much you
wish to become a Christian. Becoming a child of God isn’t
like becoming a child of an earthly family. We’re not born into it
by natural means, through bloodlines, through natural inclinations
to desire the family of God. There’s a third exception. Look
at verse 13. They were born not of blood,
nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man. Well,
how is that any different than the previous phrase? The will
of the flesh and the will of man? John comes to this third exception. And not only is this new birth
not by way of blood or flesh, neither is it brought about by
man’s will. This particular exception was
variously translated and interpreted as well. Many people took this
clause to be suggestive of a husband’s or at least a man’s desire, a desire evidently to procreate
and make more children. Of course, there were translations
that adopted this. God’s word translation says it
this way, these are people who haven’t been born in a physical
way from a human impulse or from a husband’s desire to have a
child. Well, that’s just not at all
what John’s saying here. I think we can safely take this
much more generally. It doesn’t have to refer to a
husband here, and the desire doesn’t have to refer to a father’s
leadership in family planning. In other words, if someone is
saved, it’s not by the deeds and acts of others. It’s not
because of anything in the man, anything that he brings about.
It isn’t ever because someone or some man willed it to be. A person’s salvation doesn’t
depend on anyone, what anyone does or desires for you, for
themselves, for anyone else. And you say, oh, how then do
we become children of God? We’ve already seen that we receive
Christ for who He is. That means to place our faith
completely in Him as the Savior. But how then are we born into
this family of God? A little phrase at the end. The
end of verse 13, who are born not of blood, nor of the will
of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. That’s a
Johnism. John uses that little phrase
over and over again. Born of God. Born of God. Born of God. John makes it absolutely
clear. Just by using this image of birth,
that the entrance into God’s family is not a matter of our
human will, As one said it, the idea of self-generation, to give
birth to yourself, is an impossibility of fact and an absurdity of thought. Birth, or to use the theological
word, regeneration, is God’s Word. The Holy Spirit enlivens
sinners and brings them to faith in God’s family. Samuel Davies, one of the godliest
pastors our country’s ever known, said this about the human condition. Men are estranged from God and
engaged in rebellion against Him, and they love to continue
so. They will not submit nor return
to their duty and allegiance. Hence, there is a need of a superior
power to subdue their stubborn hearts and sweetly constrain
them to subjection. What he’s saying is they need
God. They need God to work on their behalf. They need God to
intervene in this whole mess. Paul alludes to the new birth. Peter alludes to the new birth.
Peter says it this way, blessed in the opening chapter of his
first epistle, blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus
Christ, who according to His great mercy has caused us to
be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus
Christ. New birth. God in action. God taking dead
sinners and bringing them to life to be part of His family. Paul says the same thing. In
Ephesians 2, remember you were dead in your trespasses? You
were dead in your trespasses and sins, but God even when we
were dead in our transgressions, made us alive. The idea of regeneration
is throughout the scriptures. The idea of bringing to life
that which was dead, it’s the only way of entrance into God’s
family. One faithful shepherd said, the
birth here spoken of is the new birth. Regeneration that complete
change of heart and nature which takes place in a man when he
becomes a real Christian. It is a change so great that
no other figure but that of birth can fully express it. It is as
when a new being with new appetites, wants, and desires is brought
into the world. It’s the new birth. John says that those who received
Christ, those who placed their faith, they were given the right
to become children of God. How were they born? They were
born of God. They were born of God. Are you? Our merciful King, we humble
ourselves before you. Lord God, we know that many,
many people trust in these other means. If they suggest that they
place their faith at all in Christ, is it a complete faith? Father
God, if so, we let go of those other means of birth. We let
go of bloodlines. We let go of people’s desires. We let go of even our own desire. It wasn’t our will, but God’s. Lord God, we long to be born
of God. We long to be changed by You.
We long for You to do the work of transformation in our hearts. Lord God, we pray that You would
have Your way with every soul. We thank you and we praise you,
in Jesus’ name. As we close, if you would take
your bulletins and we’ll stand together and sing Creation Sings,
the Father’s Song.