LIFE MEETING THE NEED OF MAN’S EVERY CASE
The Need of the Moral –
Life’s Regenerating (1)
Verses:
John 3:1-8
1 But there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews.
2 This one came to Him by night and said to Him, Rabbi, we know that You have come from God as a teacher, for no one can do these signs that You do unless God is with him.
3 Jesus answered and said to him, Truly, truly, I say to you, Unless one is born anew, he cannot see the kingdom of God.
4 Nicodemus said to Him, How can a man be born when he is old? He cannot enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born, can he?
5 Jesus answered, Truly, truly, I say to you, Unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.
6 That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.
7 Do not marvel that I said to you, You must be born anew.
8 The wind blows where it wills, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from and where it goes; so is everyone who is born of the Spirit.
Ministry Excerpts:
Chapter three through chapter eleven [of John], the writer…relates nine cases to prove the principle of life set forth in the first sign in chapter two. He uses these cases to signify some spiritual and meaningful points. These cases first expose the condition and need of man, and then they reveal how the Lord can deal with all the conditions and meet all the needs of man. Life meets the need of man’s every case. We must realize that life here means the Lord Himself, the Word which was God and which became flesh. Although the Lord might have dealt with thousands of human cases, John selected only nine of them to illustrate how the Lord as life could and still can meet the need of every human case.
Regeneration
The first case, that of Nicodemus, is the case of regeneration. Nicodemus was a person of the highest class, and we need to consider his virtues and attributes. Firstly, he was a teacher with the highest attainment in education. As a teacher of the Jews, he taught the Old Testament, the Sacred Word. Secondly, Nicodemus was “a ruler of the Jews.” He had a position with a certain amount of honor and authority. Thirdly, he was an old man. As an old man, he had a good deal of experience. He was a man full of experiences. Fourthly, he was undoubtedly a moral man, a good man. If you look at the way he talked, you will realize that he was a moral man. Fifthly, Nicodemus was a man who was truly seeking after God. Although he was somewhat fearful of the Pharisees, he still came to the Lord Jesus by night. This indicated that he was seeking God. Sixthly, he was very humble. Nicodemus was an old man of perhaps sixty or seventy years of age, yet he came to see the Lord Jesus, who was only a little over thirty years of age. That such an experienced, educated, and elderly man would come to see someone much younger than he indicates his humility. Furthermore, although Nicodemus was a teacher, he addressed the Lord Jesus as Rabbi. Among the Jews, to call a person Rabbi means that you are humbling yourself. Seventhly, Nicodemus was an honest man. His speech reveals his honesty. Can you find a better person than Nicodemus? He was a man of a superior standard, high attainment, and morality.
When Nicodemus came to the Lord Jesus, the Lord took the opportunity to reveal the true need of mankind. In His conversation with Nicodemus, the Lord revealed that regardless of how good we are, we still need regeneration. Regeneration is the first need of man. Moral people, as well as immoral people, need regeneration. Many Christians hold the mistaken concept that people need regeneration simply because they are fallen. However, if man had never fallen, he still would have needed regeneration. Even if Adam had not fallen, he still would have needed regeneration. That was why God put him in front of the tree of life. If Adam had partaken of the tree of life, he would have been regenerated.
Since we are human beings, we all have a human life. The problem is not a matter of whether or not our human life is good or bad. Regardless of the kind of human life we have, as long as we do not have the divine life, we need to be regenerated. To be regenerated simply means to have the divine life besides our human life. God’s eternal purpose is that man be a vessel to contain the divine life. Our being with our human life is a vessel to contain God as life. The divine life is God’s goal. The divine life is God Himself. God’s goal is that we, as people with a human life, receive the divine life into our being as our real life. This is the true meaning of regeneration. Many Christians are not clear about this fact, thinking that regeneration is necessary simply because we are fallen and sinful. According to this concept, we need to be regenerated because our life is bad and cannot be improved. This concept is wrong. I say once again that even if Adam in the garden of Eden had never fallen, he still would have needed to be regenerated, to be born again, that he might have another life, the life of God. Therefore, to be regenerated is to receive the divine life, God Himself.
Due to human culture and Jewish religion, Nicodemus thought that man needed to behave. Since man must have good conduct and worship God in a proper way, man needs much teaching. Nicodemus considered Christ to be a teacher come from God. This indicates that he might have thought that he needed better teachings to improve himself. But the Lord’s answer in the following verse unveiled to him that his need was to be born anew. To be born anew is to be regenerated with the divine life, a life other than the human life received by natural birth. Hence, his real need was not better teachings, but the divine life. Nicodemus was seeking for teachings which belong to the tree of knowledge, but the Lord’s answer turned him to the need of life, which belongs to the tree of life (cf. Gen. 2:9-17). The Lord told Nicodemus very emphatically that what he needed was to be born again. Thus, man’s real need is to be regenerated with another life. All of us must realize that what we need is not religion or teaching to regulate and correct us, but another life, the life of God, to regenerate us. Man needs regeneration because he needs the divine life. Regardless of how good you are, you still do not have the life of God. You need another birth in order to receive the life of God with His divine nature. Although you may feel that you are good, yet you must admit that you do not have the life of God with His divine nature. Another birth, regeneration, is necessary that you may receive another life, the divine life of God.
The Spirit Begetting Spirit
To be born anew is to be born of the Spirit in our spirit. The divine Spirit regenerates our human spirit with God’s divine life. Regeneration, that is, receiving the divine life, is absolutely a matter that transpires in our spirit. Our spirit was made by God for this very purpose. We have such a special organ, our human spirit, deep within us. In His creation, God made us with a spirit for the purpose that one day we might exercise it to contact Him and to receive Him into our being. The function of the human spirit is to contact God. Regeneration is not a matter of our mind, emotion, or will; it is altogether a matter in our spirit. Verses 12 and 13 of John 1 say, “But as many as received Him, to them He gave authority to become children of God, 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.” In what part of our being are we born of God? In our spirit. That which is born of the Spirit is spirit. God is a Spirit, and only a spirit can touch a Spirit. Only a spirit can be born of a Spirit. So, regeneration is absolutely a matter in our spirit. It does not matter whether you have a sober mind, a proper emotion, or a strong will. Such things are in another realm. Regeneration transpires in the realm of our spirit. Our spirit is the sphere in which regeneration transpires. In order to be regenerated, you do not exercise your mind, will, or emotion. Simply open yourself up, forgetting what you are, and from deep within your spirit, call on the name of the Lord Jesus, believing in Him. If you do this, immediately God the Spirit will touch your spirit. This will happen quickly, perhaps taking less than a second. If you open yourself from deep within your spirit, calling on the name of the Lord Jesus, in that one second, God the Spirit will enter into your spirit and you will be regenerated. The delivery of a reborn child happens very fast. There is no need of a midwife, nurse, or doctor. When you say, “Lord Jesus, I believe in You,” you are reborn in your spirit.
For the Entry into the Kingdom of God
In verse 3 the Lord said, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a man is born anew, he cannot see the kingdom of God,” and in verse 5 He said, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a man is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.” The Lord’s words here are a clear revelation that regeneration is the unique entrance into the kingdom of God. In order to enter into the kingdom of God, we need to be born again. There is no other way by which we can enter into the kingdom of God. The kingdom of God is the reign of God. It is a divine realm to be entered into, a realm which requires the divine life. Only the divine life can realize the divine things. Hence, to see or to enter into the kingdom of God requires regeneration with the divine life.
A kingdom is always related to life. The vegetable kingdom is related to the vegetable life, and the animal kingdom is related to the animal life. If you want to share in a certain kind of kingdom, you first need the life of that kingdom. Only birds can partake of the bird kingdom because only they have the life of a bird. Likewise, only men can participate in the human kingdom because only they have a human life. So, without the life of God, how could we ever share the kingdom of God?
The kingdom of God is not only the reign of God, but also the divine realm or sphere. In order to participate in the reign of God and to be in the divine realm, we need the divine life of God. Only those who have the divine life can be in the divine realm and share the divine kingdom. Thus, we need to be regenerated that we may have the divine life which enables us to enter into the divine realm and participate in the divine kingdom. Even if we were not fallen or sinful, we would still need to be born again, because regardless of how good, pure, and clean our human life might be, it is not able to realize the things of the divine realm and it is not qualified to enter into the divine kingdom. Only the divine life is qualified to be in the divine realm. Only the life of God meets the requirements of the kingdom of God. How can our human life know the divine things of the kingdom of God? How can it match the divine kingdom? It is impossible. We need the divine life. We need to be born again. Regeneration is the only way, the unique entrance, into the kingdom of God. (Life-study of John, msg. 8-9)