Ye Must Be Born Again
-- A Treatise on Conversion and The Way to Life in Christ Jesus --
The Awakening
When the Divine light begins to dawn in a
human soul, and the soul becomes aware of its uncleanness and unworthiness, what
is more natural than one should resolve to mend his ways, to discontinue doing
things which the quickened conscience shows him to be wrong, and to do better!
Thus begins the first skirmish of a battle which is to go
through many stages before victory is won and the soul attains to its liberation
from the power of darkness and evil.
Often, as long as one is a willing servant of sin, he is apt
to harbor the illusion that, should he choose to do so, he could, any time, at
will, throw off his vices and live a virtuous life. It is only after the
soul has challenged the power of sin, by making a resolve to cease from sinning,
that the soul discovers how great the power of sin over it.
Wise are they who at this state learn quickly to seek Jesus
Christ, the Savior, who has broken the yoke of Satan and who is able to make
those who believe and obey Him truly free. But often this wisdom is not so
quickly learned. The human heart is proud and is loath to confess itself,
thus unable to free itself. So the struggle goes on. Sometimes the
soul has victory and rejoices therein, then again it suffers defeat, finding
itself overcome by the power of sin to do what it would not (Romans 7:19) and
goes down into the depths of despair, being condemned of its own conscience.
"O wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver me from the body of death?"
(Romans 7:24)
Under the Law
Thus the soul is brought under the
law. Ever trying to keep the law of righteousness to be justified thereby,
but often failing, it finds no satisfaction and no peace.
No, this is not the way to attain the newness of life: this
patchwork, mending a rent here while a greater one appears elsewhere, overcoming
one weakness by concentration of the will, only to find oneself fallen into
another and perhaps greater one. This is the error to which Jesus refers
when He says, "No man also seweth a piece of new cloth upon an old garment."
(Mark 2:21) Christ means by these words to warn us against patchwork;
against efforts to mend and improve the old natural life in order to attain
virtue and be justified before God.
The remedy is not to improve our natural life, but to give it
up, to lose it, as Jesus said: "Whosoever will lose his life for my sake, the
same shall find it." (Luke 9:24) Paul said strikingly to the Romans: "Our
old man is crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that
henceforth we should not serve sin." (Romans 6:6) Now, we are not
physically crucified with Christ, but we are crucified with Christ, when
through repentance our sinful nature, the sinful life, is nailed to the cross
and perishes.
Thus the way is paved for the new life, for the new birth, as
Christ said to Nicodemus: "Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom
of God." (John 3:3,4)
But what is more natural that Nicodemus's question: "How can
a man be born when he is old?" Or the question of the prison keeper to
Paul and Silas: "What must I do to be saved?" (Acts 16:30)
The Way
In the following paragraphs we shall endeavor
to show, in words as direct and simple as possible, the way by which men can
attain to the new birth, realizing, however, that our best efforts in this
direction are vain if God does not open the hearts to receive, understand, and
believe His word.
The first essential, therefore, is a humble attitude, a
receptive mind, a willingness to be instructed and corrected; in short, a
willingness to cooperate with the grace of God and not to resist Him.
We must have confidence toward God, that He desires our
salvation, as Paul writes to Timothy: "It is the will of God that all men should
be saved." (1 Timothy 2:4) There is nothing lacking on His part. He has
prepared the way and calls men through the gospel to come to Him on this way.
He is faithful and true and keeps His words of promise: "Ask, and it shall be
given you; seek and ye shall find; knock and it shall be opened unto you."
(Matthew 7:7) For He promises two things, two specific works in the New
covenant, namely to enable us to choose and to do His good pleasure.
(Philippians 2:13-16)
But our seeking of God must be a sincere and wholehearted
affair. God is not impressed by words and phrases. He sees the
heart, and the sincere yearnings of our hearts reach Him if they expressed only
in deep sighs or in such simple manner as, "God be merciful to me, a sinner."
On the other hand, He is unmoved by the most eloquent and finely phrased prayers
which scholars can form, if they are not the true expressions of the heart's
yearnings.
If a person would attain to the new life, he should be honest
and sincere with himself and with God, for He knows all things and cannot be
deceived. If we lack sincerity, we deceive only ourselves . If we
approach and seek God in sincerity and true earnestness and in the way
prescribed in the gospel, we cannot fail, for God's way is a way upon which the
simple cannot err, if they are sincere and obedient.
Not only is simplicity of mind no obstacle to our finding
God's way and to our understanding his message, but it is in fact an essential
condition to understanding God's ways. Christ says: "Verily I say unto you
, whosoever shall not receive the Kingdom of God as a little child , he shall
not enter therein." (Mark 10:15)
Among all the obstacles we meet turning from the natural to
the godly life, one of the most difficult is false human wisdom and philosophy.
Just as the human heart desires to be justified in its own virtue, so does it
also desire to be guided by its own wisdom and both of these desires are serious
obstacles to God’s work.
God’s wisdom is infinitely higher than human wisdom, and one
of the highest lessons that we must learn in coming to God it is to completely
subject to our own wisdom and thought to His wisdom and doctrine. The child is
receptive and teachable, whereas the adult mind is full of preconceived notions
and conceit which hinder the wisdom from above from finding lodgment in our
hearts. That is why, Christ said, if we are to receive the kingdom of God, we
must do it in childlikeness (Matthew 18:3), that is, by being teachable,
receptive, and in simplicity.
When the soul has reached a state of humility, of
teachableness and a realization of its dependence upon Christ for grace and
guidance, a large step forward has been taken toward the new birth. Often this
is the most difficult part of conversion, for the natural man loves his “own
life” and is slow to give it up so that Christ might be born in him.
In Repentance
All this time, prayer is playing a great
role in the work of regeneration. Many of us were taught from childhood to
pray, but as long as the sole is untouched by the divine life, our prayers are
mostly an empty form, mere words and phrases rendered largely through habit and
a sense of duty. How futile are such prayers! But a change is taking place.
And the divine light is dawning in the soul. But conscience is quick and then
condemns pitilessly, not only our past transgressions, but such new
transgressions as are still committed, as long as the soul has not laid hold and
faith on Christ as its Savior To. Now the soul is truly under conviction and is
lashed by the accusation and condemnation of the Law. Having not yet laid hold
on faith nor received the strength which comes only through faith in Christ, the
crucified and risen Lord, Who is still the victor over the power of sin and
death, the situation seems hopeless. Doubt, fear, and despair torture the soul.
Now prayer partakes of a different nature. It becomes a
yearning, a crying, a sighing to God for help. The fine phrases are forgotten.
Sometimes without words the soul sighs to God, and sometimes with such simple
words as, “O Lord help me, O Lord be merciful to me and forgive me my many sins
and make me free from sin.” (Romans 10:13)
These are days of darkness and despair, but Oh, how healing
are they if we allowed them to serve the purpose for which they are sent;
namely, to lead us to truly and earnestly seek the Savior. These days make it
possible for the soul to bring to God the one offering which He will not
despise, A broken spirit and a broken in contract heart. (Psalms
51:17) This
is repentance in the sense used in the gospel. It is the deep feeling of
remorse and regret for past sins, a struggle to become free from sin and a
reaching out to God for help. It is borne out of a realization that God is holy
and righteous and that those who would stand in his presence must be purified
and sanctified in order to be acceptable.
Confession
A new important need is now experienced
by the soul- a need which is quite the opposite of what the soul previously
desired. The natural man, in darkness, is not very much concerned because he
has sinned, but he does fear that he might be found out by his fellow men.
Therefore, to keep his sins under cover of darkness is one of his chief
concerns. Now that the soul is enlightened, it is tortured by the consciousness
of its guilt before its Maker and has an actual desire, even a deep felt need to
make confession of its sins.
It is like the impurities of the body gathering into a large,
painful boil. The pain becomes very severe and the sufferer longs for the time
when the boil becomes “ripe” so that it may belch forth its pus and impurities
and allow the healing process to begin. So the soul in repentance has an
increasing desire to “open up” and pour out a confession of its past
sinfulness. David experienced this after he once forgot God and fell into a
great sin for which he afterward repented so contritely. His confession of
repentance was made openly and written into a psalm of instruction and
published, even printed into the Bible, where you and I may read it until this
very day. It is recorded in the thirty-second Psalm, where he says: “When I
kept silence, my bones waxed old through my roaring all the day long. For day
and night Thy hand was heavy upon me; my moisture is turned into the drought of
summer, I have acknowledged my sin unto Thee and mine inequity have I not hid.
I said I will confess my transgressions unto the Lord; and Thou forgavest the
iniquity of my sin.” (Psalm 32:3-5)
Apologies
When a repentant person
becomes convicted in his conscience of wrong doing against another person, it is
essential to confess and apologize and where possible make restitution to that
person. Sometimes this is not so easy because it involves personal
pride. In such cases, it is all the more necessary and wholesome that it
be done. Not only is very helpful and healing to the confessor, but it
gives the very best kind of testimony to the wronged person of the change which
the Grace of God is accomplishing in the repenting person. There have been
many cases where a person to whom the apology is made by a repenting person was
so struck and impressed by the humble and penitent attitude of the confessor
that it caused that person also to turn to repentance and thereby became the
direct means of saving a soul.
But there are sins which are against God and His law only and
involve no other person. In fact, alls sins are primarily against God and
only secondarily against our fellow men. The truly repentant person will
feel the need of confessing these also. (Such confessions are made to
elders and occasionally to ministers when an elder is not available. Such
confession is made with the confidence that the elder will understand and will
know how to counsel the confessor, and will keep such confession
confidential.) Of course, such a confession is always to be made in
sincerity and uprightness.
That confession of sins is an essential fruit of true
repentance is evident in many places of the Scriptures. Even of John the
Baptist it is written, the people "were baptized of him in Jordan,
confessing their sins." (Matthew 3:6) When the gospel of Jesus Christ
was brought to the Ephesians and accepted by them, we also find that confession
was the fruit of repentance. We read: "And many that believed came
and confessed, and shewed their deeds." (Acts 19:18)
When unrepentant people came to John the Baptist for baptism, he
refused them with these cutting words: "O generation of vipers, who hath
warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bring forth therefore fruits
meet for repentance." (Matthew 3:7,8) Undoubtedly an essential part
of the fruit consistent with repentance, which John missed in these insincere
candidates for baptism, was a readiness and willingness to confess their sins as
the others had done, to whom John's baptism was administered.
That confession is an essential part of the cleansing of the heart,
not only in the original cleansing during repentance, but also in the after
life, if a Christian should again through unwatchfulness commit sin, is shown by
the following Scripture texts: "Confess your faults one to another and pray
one for another that ye may be healed." (James 5:16), "If we confess
our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from
all unrighteousness." (1 John 1:9)
Experience
Not only is the confession of sins an
essential part of the Cleansing of the heart in repentance thoroughly
established in the doctrines of the Holy Scriptures, but the experience of those
in our days who have attained regeneration through repentance and faith confirms
the absolute need of confession as a means of unburdening the heart and of
obtaining the strength to resist and throw off the power of sin.
To the soul in repentance who is not yet ready and willing to make
confession of its sins we can only say: "The fruits of repentance are yet
incomplete. Press forward until you have grace to pour out all filth (be
it much or little) of the old life." It is no disgrace for a
repentant person to confess sins, but an honor. It marks definitely the
end of the old life of uncleanness and the beginning of the new life in Christ
in righteousness and purity. *
Wrestling with God
In this state of repentance, the soul must
wrestle with God and Christ in prayer as did Jacob wrestle with an angel of God
all through the night, seeking a blessing. The angel said to him,
"Let me go, for the day breaketh." Jacob replied, "I will
not let thee go, except thou bless me." Jacob prevailed and received
a blessing and a new name; "Thy name shall be called no more Jacob, but
Israel, for as a prince hast thou wrestled with God and men and has
prevailed." (Genesis 32:26-28) So may the repenting soul say to the
Lord, "I will not give up. Thou hast promised to help me and forgive
me. I hold Thee to Thy promise."
It is not hardness nor unwillingness to forgive sins that causes
God to allow the soul thus to suffer and struggle in the slough of
despond. This experience is necessary to bring about certain changes in
the heart. Willfulness and stubbornness must give place to obedience to
Christ; pride and arrogance must be displaced by humility and meekness, and
doubt and unbelief must yield to faith. The will and determination to
serve God only must become overwhelming. Those in repentance, who ask
God's forgiveness, must learn to forgive, where others have offended against
them.
The love of things sinful must be changed into a loathing of them and the
power of sin over us must be broken. The love of vain things must perish
out of the heart. These are fundamental changes which are the real essence
of conversion - of being born again.
Superficial evangelist often speak lightly of "accepting
Christ as our Savior." That of course is necessary. But our
marriage to Christ the heavenly Bridegroom, like all marriages, must be a mutual
affair. It is not only a question of whether we accept Him, but much more
of whether He accepts us. He accepts us; He is bound by His Word and His
promises to accept us and His love prompts Him to accept us when we meet His
conditions and come with the fruits of repentance, asking to be forgiven by Him
and to be accepted of Him. It is while the fruits of repentance are being
developed and ripened that this struggle must go on. The length and
fierceness of the struggle does not depend nearly so much upon the degree of our
sinfulness (for the sacrifice of Jesus Christ upon the cross is sufficient to
atone for all sins, though they be as scarlet), as upon the stubbornness of our
will and the tenacity with which we cling to our old life.
Repentance, then, is not merely remorse for past wrongdoing but a
struggle within ourselves, a struggle between the forces of good and evil, a
struggle in which our will plays an important, but not decisive, part. Our
own will unsupported could never overcome the evil of our nature, not only for
lack of strength, but because it, itself, is not perfectly pure.
As the struggle goes on, the soul becomes more conscious of its
need, of its complete dependence upon the grace of God, in short, of its lost
condition without Christ. It wrestles with God, pleading to be forgiven,
pleading for strength and victory, pleading for peace, and vowing over and over
to God, to obey and serve Him unto death if He will only help and receive it.
The soul becomes more and more ready and willing to yield itself to
Christ and to believe and accept God's way of salvation; to believe in Jesus
Christ as the Son of God and to believe in His atonement for sin through His
death upon the cross and in the shedding of His blood, as a blameless, prefect
Lamb of God, for the atonement and the forgiveness of the sins of all men who
believe and [receive] His salvation.
Accepted by the Savior
But the climax comes,
not when we accept Him, but when He accepts us. When He sees the fruit of
repentance ripened, the heart purified, the will subdued into obedience to Him,
then He changes our hope and belief that He can and will forgive our sins and
accept us, into a conviction, into an assurance that He has accepted and
forgiven us. Thus the struggle ends. Peace and joy fill the heart.
An all-consuming love fills and overwhelms the soul. This love knows no
bounds. It embraces all men - friend and for - and burns with a desire to
tell all men of the life-giving, soul-saving, healing, and liberating power of
God in Jesus Christ.
That soul is converted!
Baptism
The man of sin has
perished in the heart, has been nailed to the cross with Christ; "old things are
passed away; behold all things are become new!" (1 Corinthians 5:17)
The man of sin, the Adam nature, being now slain, crucified
with Christ, that soul may now be baptized into the death of Jesus Christ and
arise with Him to "walk in newness of life." (Romans 6:4)
Thus baptism is not the means of obtaining forgiveness of
sins, but is the ensealing of an established fact, of a conversion that has gone
before. Bu immersion into water, the burial of the Adam nature is
symbolized. The bath in water symbolizes the cleansing of the heart, which
cleansing, however, is not done with water, but by the atonement in the blood of
Christ.
The Holy Spirit
Now, the heart, being
cleansed, is prepared to receive the Holy Ghost as a permanent tenant. He
shall be, and is needed as a comforter, as a guide through life, to guide us
into all truth. (John 16:13) Jesus said, "He shall teach you all things
and bring all things to your remembrance whatsoever I have said unto you" (John
14:26)
The anointing of the Holy Ghost is an essential part, without
which no converted soul is fully furnished and equipped for the journey and
battle of life. A solemn rite is ordained in the Word of God which, when
accepted in obedience and faith, and after proper preparation, becomes the means
by which this precious gift is received, namely by the laying on of hands, with
prayer, after immersion.
The writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews includes this rite,
along with repentance and baptism, as among the principles of the
doctrine of Christ when he says, "Therefore leaving the principles of the
doctrine of Christ, let us go on unto perfection; not laying again the
foundation of repentance from dead works, of faith toward God, of the doctrine
of baptisms and laying on of hands, and of resurrection of the dead and of
eternal judgment." (Hebrews
6:1,2)
Also we find that the Apostles Peter and John when they went
to Samaria, having heard that Samaria had received the Word of God through the
preaching of Philip, practiced the laying on of hands for the giving of the Holy
Ghost upon those who believed and were baptized. We read: "Then laid they
their hands on them, and they received the Holy Ghost." (Acts
8:17)
While this rite is ignored or neglected by most denominations
of nominal Christianity, it is well established in the Holy Scripture and should
be gladly embraced by all true believers who desire to accept the whole counsel
of God.
What A Blessing
What a wonderful experience, to be led out of darkness into light! To be led by God's goodness into repentance; in repentance to be led to faith in the Son of God; by Him to be freed from the power of sin; by Him to be washed and cleansed of our sins that are past, to receive forgiveness of sins and peace with God; to be clothed with the white garment of justification through Jesus Christ; to receive baptism in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit; by the laying on of hands to receive the gift of the Holy Spirit; to have the love of God richly poured out into our hearts!
What A Responsibility
What an experience!
What a blessing! Also what a responsibility!
Henceforth we are no more our own, but are betrothed as the
bride pf the Lamb, to Jesus Christ the Lamb of God, the heavenly bridegroom.
Henceforth we may no more live to ourselves, but unto Him who
lived and died for us.
Blessed are we if we continue in this faith and in the love
all our days, being faithful unto death, bearing fruit of the Spirit, (Galatians
5:22) serving God and our fellow men in love, keeping the commandments of
Christ, growing rich in good works, done in the Lord. "For so an entrance
shall be ministered unto you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord
and Savior Jesus Christ." (2 Peter 1:11)
But woe unto us, if after being saved, and having vowed to
serve God and to keep the commandments of Christ, we fail to do so; if we
content ourselves, merely because we no longer live in sin, and neglect to labor
in Christ's vineyard and harvest field; if after having said "I go sir," when
the Lord has called us to labor for Him, we neglect to go and neglect to labor.
Woe unto us and double death, if after we have been "once
enlightened, and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of
the Holy Spirit and have tested the good work of God, and the powers of the
world to come, if we shall again fall away, and crucify the Son of God afresh
and put Him to an open shame." (Hebrews
6:4-6) There is no second regeneration of such. "But beloved, we
are persuaded better things of you, and things that accompany salvation, though
we thus speak." (Hebrews
6:9)
-- Ben Sommer
Please note [] text changes and * deletions
While this treatise, written by Benjamin L. Sommer and originally published before 1929, reflects substantially the beliefs subscribed to by the Apostolic Christian Church of America, the few changes noted have been made in order to more clearly represent current practices and understandings.
Additional Copies of this pamphlet may by securred from:
Apostolic
Christian Publications Corp.
P.O. Box 52
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