IN the July number of The Gospel Messenger (p. 169), occurs this paragraph regarding New Birth and Eternal Life:—“These two are distinct, for if I think of the new birth, I do not think of Christ.
It would be blasphemy to think of new birth in connection with Him. New birth is what I need. If I think of eternal life I can only think of Christ, for He is ' the true God and eternal life.'”
Some have written to inquire what I mean by these words, evidently drawing from them a meaning I did not, and do not, attach to them—in fact, quite misunderstanding their import. By “these two are distinct," I mean the two terms, new birth and eternal life, are distinct, though I do not in the least deny that to be born again is substantially to have eternal life. But, in John 3, the Lord, having first stated the need of man, viz., to be born again—true in all ages—passes on to declare the need of a work being done, in order to give God a righteous title to bestow blessing on sinful man.
This He does in the wonderful words of verse 14, “As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but "— what? be born again? no!—" have eternal life.”
Without doubt here we have a change of terms on His part, who cannot err, of the deepest moment.
In all ages, if one were born of God, I have no doubt that divine life was there, and that life eternal. Nevertheless we may be sure the Lord had an infinitely wise reason for the change He makes here. When He comes to express the application of this universal necessity of new birth to the believer in Himself— the Son of Man, the Son of God, who was going to die, to accomplish redemption, to lay the basis really of all blessing from God to man—He does not describe it as new birth, but gives it another title and character altogether— eternal life. This change is connected with His Person, and His work on the cross, and most fitting it is that it should be. Beyond all controversy He, the Son of God, is the quickener of all, whether in Old Testament times, or now, for “the Son quickeneth whom he will." There is but one Savior, and Jesus is He, hence the new birth, which all need, was ever the revelation of Christ to the soul, by the Holy Ghost, through the Word (see 1 Pet. 1:23-2523Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever. 24For all flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass. The grass withereth, and the flower thereof falleth away: 25But the word of the Lord endureth for ever. And this is the word which by the gospel is preached unto you. (1 Peter 1:23‑25)).
The change in the terms, however, is noticeable for, if I think of "new birth," it is what I need, and get through grace, but it does not, in terms, convey the thought of association with Christ in the same full way as the words "eternal life," which Christ is, and which I possess when I possess Him.
By the words, “It would be blasphemy to think of new birth in connection with Him," I meant that while new birth is the need of man—of all in every age—Jesus is the one exception. He, though become a man, did not need it; to think that He did would surely be blasphemy. Blessed be His name, it is He who had "life in himself," and died to enable God, in righteousness, to impart it to us.