New Birth

Pastor Martin draws out the individual implications of Christ's prophetic office. From the Father's command at the Transfiguration — 'Hear ye him' — he shows that hearing must be the hearing of disciples (not beasts or mere rational creatures) in three spheres: personal safety (receiving Christ's hard teachings on the heart, new birth, narrow gate, exclusive claims), personal assurance (John 8:47 — he that is of God heareth the words of God), and personal direction in duty (Manton on swallowing what Christ teaches without dissecting). Preached during Christmas season.

Pastor Martin introduces the doctrine of regeneration as the second threshold blessing alongside calling. He answers the question raised by effectual calling — how can a sinner dead in trespasses respond? — by turning to the grace of regeneration, 'an inner recreating of fallen human nature by the gracious, sovereign action of the Holy Spirit.' He surveys the word's usage (Matthew 19:28 and Titus 3:5) and the history of the term from baptismal perversion through the older Reformed use. Then he turns to the major Old Testament analogies Nicodemus should have known — Deuteronomy 30:6's circumcision of the heart, Ezekiel 11 and 36's giving of a new heart and spirit with cleansing, and the new covenant promises of Jeremiah 31-32 — drawing from each the fourfold emphasis of a sovereign, inward, gracious act that results in love to God, obedience, and mutual covenantal fellowship. He closes with a stinging warning against the cheapened 'born again' language of modern pop evangelicalism.

Pastor Martin turns from the Old Testament analogies of regeneration to the predominant New Testament analogy — the new birth. From John 3 he expounds both the necessity of the new birth (without it none can see or enter the kingdom of God) and its nature (the Holy Spirit is the special agent, spiritual cleansing is inseparable from the new birth as 'born of water and of the Spirit,' and sovereignty, mystery, and efficacy permeate it like the wind). He then shows the same truth in 1 John 3:9 where John hammers on the passive 'begotten of God' nine times, in James 1:18 ('of His own will He brought us forth by the word of truth'), and in 1 Peter 1:3 and 23 (begotten by the resurrection of Christ and by the incorruptible seed of the preached word). He closes by directing the awakened sinner to cry to God for a new heart, refusing to be more fastidious than God who says 'for this will I be inquired of by the house of Israel.'

Pastor Martin completes the survey of New Testament analogies for regeneration by examining two more dominant figures beyond the new birth: the new creation (2 Corinthians 5:17, Ephesians 2:10, Galatians 6:15) and the new life or spiritual resurrection (Ephesians 2:5, Colossians 2:13). He then draws together the three analogies — new birth, new creation, and new life — and shows they teach three common denominators. First, the exclusiveness of the divine agency (no one cooperates in their own birth, creation, or resurrection from the dead). Second, the efficacy of the divine power (God has no stillborn children; new creation always results in transformation; resurrection imparts real life). Third, the graciousness of the divine motive (but God, rich in mercy, for the great love wherewith He loved us). He closes by directing awakened sinners to seek the Lord on the promises of Isaiah 55.