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Title: Born of Flesh, Born of Spirit
Text: John 3: 6
Date: March 9, 2017
Place: SGBC, New Jersey
John 3: 1: There was a man of the Pharisees, named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews: 2: The same came to Jesus by night, and said unto him, Rabbi, we know that thou art a teacher come from God: for no man can do these miracles that thou doest, except God be with him.
John 3: 3: Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.
John 3: 4: Nicodemus saith unto him, How can a man be born when he is old? can he enter the second time into his mother’s womb, and be born?
John 3: 5: Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of 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.
Proposition: God the Holy Spirit causes a new man to be born in his child and that new man is spirit and not our old fleshly man.
LIKE BEGETS LIKE
John 3: 6: That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.
Flesh generates flesh. God the Holy Spirit births spirit.
What is it to be born of flesh? To be born of flesh is to be born of Adam’s corrupt seed. When the apostle Peter said believers are born “not of corruptible seed”—he is speaking of our first birth of Adam’s corrupt seed. (1 Peter 1: 23) It is why the Psalmist said, “Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me.” (Ps 51:5)
To be born of flesh is to be born of Adam with Adam’s fallen, sinful image.
Genesis 5:3: And Adam lived an hundred and thirty years, and begat a son in his own likeness, after his image; and called his name Seth:
To be born of the flesh is to be born in sinful flesh governed by sinful lusts—like begets like.
Ephesians 2:3: Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others.
Since like begets like, God the Holy Spirit begets spirit. God promised to put in us a new heart, a new spirit.
Ezekiel 36: 25: Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean: from all your filthiness, and from all your idols, will I cleanse you. 26: A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh. 27: And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them. 28: And ye shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers; and ye shall be my people, and I will be your God.
The new spirit is one with the Holy Spirit. But it is a new spirit, which is of the Holy Spirit. It is not the fleshly sin-nature but a new spirit.
AN OLD MAN AND A NEW SPIRITUAL MAN
The Holy Spirit begets a new spiritual man and causes us to put on the new man and put off the old, fleshly man with his deeds.
Ephesians 4: 21: If so be that ye have heard him, [Christ] and have been taught by him, as the truth is in Jesus: [we are born again of the incorruptible seed by the gospel] 22: That ye put off concerning the former conversation the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts; 23: And be renewed in the spirit of your mind; 24: And that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness.
Notice the contrasts between the old man and the new man:
The old man is flesh after Adam; the new man is after God.
The old man of flesh is born of natural generation; the new man is created entirely new of the Spirit of God in supernatural regeneration.
Notice, the new man is created. Christ formed in you is indeed one with the new man and the new man is of the Spirit of Christ. But Christ is not created. The new spirit, the new man, is created within us. So though Christ and the new man are one, the new man is a new spirit which is created of the Spirit.
The old man is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts which we got from our father Adam; the new spiritual man is after God created in righteousness and true holiness—of Christ our Righteousness and our Sanctification.
PARTAKERS OF THE DIVINE NATURE
The old fleshly man is partakers of Adam’s sinful nature with Adam’s fallen image;
Genesis 5:3: And Adam lived an hundred and thirty years, and begat a son in his own likeness, after his image; and called his name Seth:
The new man is partaker of the divine nature, recreated in God’s image.
2 Peter 1: 1: Simon Peter, a servant and an apostle of Jesus Christ, to them that have obtained like precious faith with us through the righteousness of God and our Saviour Jesus Christ: 2: Grace and peace be multiplied unto you through the knowledge of God, and of Jesus our Lord,3: According as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue: 4: Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.
The apostle Peter says here what he said in his first epistle. Believers are “born-again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth forever…and this is the word which by the gospel is preached unto you.” (1 Peter 1: 23, 25)
By God’s divine power we are born-again of these exceeding great and precious promises—the incorruptible seed, the word by which the gospel is preached unto you. By these promises of the gospel, we are made partakers of the divine nature in the new birth by God’s divine power who gave us all things, in the new man, that pertains to life and godliness. He hath called us to glory and virtue. This is the only way we escaped the corruption that is in the world which is the corruption of our old sinful flesh, which is only lust. If you read on it is obvious Peter is speaking of Christ creating in us a new man, making us partaker of Christ’s image, because Peter tells us to continue in the word that we may grow in the virtues of God’s grace.
What does partaker of the divine nature mean? The same word translated “partaker” is used in Hebrews 2. God is declaring that it behooved Christ to be made one with his brethren. That is what partaker means to be made one. In order to become one with his people, the Son of God had to partake of our nature. Notice, how one Christ became with us.
“Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same; that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil; And deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage. For verily he took not on [him the nature of] angels; but he took on [him] the seed of Abraham.” (Heb 2:14-16)
Brethren, how much of a partaker of flesh and blood are you? We are one with flesh and blood by our first father Adam. The Son of God partook of our flesh and blood in that same oneness, without sin, when he became the GodMan. As real as he was made flesh he was made sin that he might be made a curse. And by doing so, he delivered God’s elect because our old man is crucified with Christ and the body of sin is destroyed.
Now, the apostle Peter says by his divine power, we are born-again of the incorruptible seed and made partakers of his divine nature (which is Sprit) in the same oneness as he became one with us.
1 Corinthians 6: 16: What? know ye not that he which is joined to an harlot is one body? for two, saith he, shall be one flesh. 17: But he that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit.
God predestinated that we would be conformed to the image of his Son. That is what it is to partake of the divine nature. It is to have a new man within created in Christ’s image. That new man is spirit because he is born of God the Holy Spirit. Like begets like.
Be sure to understand. God gets all the glory for this work: This work of Christ for us and in us is the only way he has made us to escape the corruption of our old lustful, fleshly man which corrupts this entire world--having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust
FRUIT IN THE NEW MAN
It is in the new spirit, the new man, that the Holy Spirit produces his fruit—not in our flesh! Notice the difference in the works of the flesh and the fruit produced by God the Holy Spirit.
Galatians 5: 19: Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, 20: Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, 21: Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God. 22: But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, 23: Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law. 24: And they that are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts. 25: If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.
The reason the inward man does not sin is because he is the creation of God the Holy Spirit and all his fruit is of God the Holy Spirit. And against the fruit of the Spirit there is no law. So the inward man cannot sin.
Flesh and spirit in a believer are two separate things. Our spirit is one with the Holy Spirit but distinct. It is in the new man that the Holy Spirit creates this fruit.
RENEWED IN THE INWARD MAN
By the same exceeding great and precious promises given in the gospel, he renews the inward in the knowledge of Christ daily and makes us persevere in faith following only the word of God looking to Christ alone for All.
Colossians 3: 9…seeing that ye have put off the old man with his deeds; 10 And have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him:
By God the Holy Spirit the new man, the spiritual man, the inward man is renewed in the knowledge of Christ. The new man is renewed…after the image of him that created him, which is Christ who created the new man. The Holy Spirit renews the new man in the knowledge of Christ. This new man is one with Christ. But the new man is not Christ alone because the new man is renewed in the knowledge of Christ and created in Christ’s image who created him. This is God’s eternal purpose…
Romans 8:29: For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren.
He does this work through the gospel where we behold Christ and are changed into his image by the Holy Spirit.
2 Corinthians 3: 18: But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.
But this change is not in our flesh; it is a new spirit of the Spirit of the Lord.
2 Cointhians 4:16: For which cause we faint not; but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day.
CHRIST IS ALL AND IN ALL
In the new man, Christ is All and in All! Old things have passed away,
Colossians 3: 11: Where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision, Barbarian, Scythian, bond nor free: but Christ is all, and in all. (Col 3:9-11)
We are not judging after the flesh in the old way we once did: we no longer know men after the flesh such as judging by a person’s race because in the new man there is neither Greek nor Jew. Nor do we just the old way by whether a person was born under the law or not because in the new man there is neither circumcision nor uncircumcision. We no longer judge men after the flesh in the old way of whether or not they are educated, uneducated, bond or free for in the new man there is neither Barbarian, Sychthian, bond nor free.
But when Christ in us then Christ is All! The only way we are in Christ, in our experience of God’s grace, is for Christ to be in us. In all who he has created a new man, Christ is All and in all!
NOT IN FLESH BUT IN THE SPIRIT
When the new man is created by Christ being formed in you then you are in Christ in the experience of his grace and made perfect in Christ. And all things are become new because now we are made willing to look only to Christ rather than to our flesh. We are in Christ in our experience of God’s grace when Christ is formed in us. Christ gives this to us. He said,
John 17: 22 And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one: 23 I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast loved me.
Read Romans 8. If the Spirit of Christ is in you then you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit. It means by the Holy Spirit, we are in the Spirit and we walk after the Spirit, minding the things of the Spirit, our affection is set on Christ at God’s right hand, who is our Life. The body is dead because of sin. But the Spirit is life because of righteousness. But the same Holy Spirit that has created the new spirit in us will one day also quicken our mortal bodies and they too shall be raised spiritual.
This new creation is the work of God. Why would we not rejoice and glorify Christ for doing this work in us now? Christ is preaching this message to Nicodemus. He says it is of utmost importance. One day Christ will finish this new creation in body soul and spirit. We will not be Christ but we will be like him. And we will praise him then so why not now, seeing as how the new man is created by him after his image now!
Believers rejoice in Christ for creating a new man in us because notice verse 16, “the Spirit bears witness in our spirit that we are sons of God.” The Holy Spirit does not bear witness in our fleshly nature nor with himself but only in our new spirit. This shows us that the Holy Spirit and the new spirit are distinct from each other though they are united in inseparable union.
THAT IS, IN MY FLESH
Please get this most important point. I keep pointing out to you that the Holy Spirit of God and the new spirit that he puts in us are one but distinct because the new spirit is not our fleshly old man. The new spirit is not to be confused with the flesh by saying all we are is flesh.
Paul made the distinction when he said “I know that in me (that is in my flesh) dwelleth no good thing.” In our flesh dwells nothing good. Therefore, Paul would not deny the glory that goes to God for creating a new man within him separate from that old man of sin. This is why Christ is preaching that we must be born again of the Spirit of God.
Our flesh does not worship God. Our flesh lusts against the Holy Spirit of God within us. It is only by the Holy Spirit that the old man is subdued. That is why we are taught to “Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh.” (Gal 5: 16) It is because the Spirit of God keeps our old man down so that we cannot do the sinful things we would. Read the context of Galatians 5 to see this.
We only worship God in the new spirit, by God the Holy Spirit. By God the Holy Spirit we are renewed in the knowledge of Christ in the new spirit through the gospel spoken effectually into our new hearts. Christ said,
John 6:63: It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.
To say that all I am is sinful flesh, to say it is the Spirit of God that makes me believe, is either saying the Spirit believes for me (which is not so) or my flesh believes (which cannot be so). We do not worship Christ in the flesh, only in the new spirit, the new man, in which Christ dwells. Christ said,
John 4: 23: But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him. 24: God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.
This is why Christ preached this most important message saying,
John 3: 5: Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of 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.
By Christ making us a new creation by his work for us and in us old things pass away and all things become new so that we are now constrained in the inner man by Christ and no longer know men after the flesh. Now, we know and believe we are in Christ and all things—our new man, our righteousness, holiness, wisdom, sanctification and redemption are all of God in Christ.
2 Corinthians 5: 14 For the love of Christ constraineth us; because we thus judge, that if one died for all, then were all dead: [our old man is dead before God] 15 And that he died for all, that they which live [we arose in Christ and by him we now live in spirit] should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him which died for them, and rose again. 16: Wherefore henceforth know we no man after the flesh: yea, though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth know we him no more.
We no longer look at the sin that yet dwells in our old fleshly man and judge that all we are is sin, now, the new thing we know is that our old man is crucified with Christ. Therefore, before the judgment seat of God he is dead. Our new man is risen with Christ so that our life is in Christ at God’s right hand. The life we now live in this flesh, is because Christ dwells in us in the new spirit he has put within us. And all things that pertain to life and godliness are in him and from him.
2 Corinthians 5: 17: Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new. 18: And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation;
Sinner be ye reconciled to God! Stop fighting against giving Christ all the glory for the work he has done for us and for the work he does in us. Both are necessary! Do not diminish one in order to exalt the other—that is the sin of the old fleshly man and is devilish. Both the work for us and in us are of Christ and are absolutely necessary to make us his new creation! Believe the word of God. Believe on Christ! And ignore anyone who speaks contrary to the word of God!
Amen!