V

NEWNESS OF LIFE

ATTENTION has been fixed in the preceding chapters upon the act or process of change from an un-Christian to a Christian life to which the description of "New Birth" is applied. In speaking of this change it has naturally been impossible to avoid suggesting a good deal about the new life to which the New Birth leads. But there are some thoughts more directly concerning the nature of the new life which may conveniently be gathered together in a separate chapter.

It is worth while to emphasize the fact that the regenerate life is, in a full sense of the word, a new life, different in kind from the unregenerate life. It is striking to notice how the thought of newness is insisted upon by Jesus Christ. It is implied in the Parables of the Cloth and the Wine Bottles in St. Mark ii. 21, 22: "No man also seweth a piece of new cloth on an old garment: else the new piece that filled it up taketh away from the old, and the rent is made worse. And no man putteth new wine into old bottles: else the new wine doth burst the bottles, and the wine is spilled, and the bottles will be marred but new wine must be put into new bottles." In other words, the whole spirit of the Gospel is new, and the forms through which it finds expression must be new also. The same fact is suggested in the references to St. John the Baptist. "The law and the prophets were until John since that time the kingdom of God is preached, and every man presseth into it" (St. Luke xvi. 16). "Among those that are born of women, there is not a greater prophet than John the Baptist: but he that is least in the Kingdom of God is greater than he" (St. Luke vii. 28).

This newness of the Gospel as contrasted with the old Jewish dispensation is not disproved but only defined in nature by such a saying, expressive of the spiritual continuity of the two dispensations, as "Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil" (St. Matt.

v. 17). The Old Testament was fulfilled and its highest expectations and ideals were realized in the rise of an order which was new. For proof we have but to refer to Jeremiah's great prophecy (xxxi. 31): "The days come, saith the Lord, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah," and to our Lord's reference to it at the close of His life: "This cup is the new testament [R.V. covenant] in my blood, which is shed for you."

When we pass on from the Master to the disciples, we remember the phrase of St. Paul, "a new creature." "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. Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away: behold all things are become new" (2 Cor. v. 16, 17). "In Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new creature. And as many as walk according to this rule, peace be on them, and mercy, and upon the Israel of God" (Gal. vi. 15, 16). We remember also the echoes of the Master's teaching in St. John's passage about the new commandment to love one another. There are also pictorial expressions of the great truth in the visions of the Revelation, where we have the new name written on the stone (ii. 17), the new song (v. 9), the new Jerusalem and the new heaven and earth (xxi. 1, 2), all crowned by the sweeping final promise in xxi. 5: "Behold, I make all things new."

This newness is much less noticeable in the case of those happy people whose lot it has been to be brought up in a good Christian home and to be sheltered from the world's worst temptations. Their growth in the Christian life has been as natural and as steady as their growth in all other directions; and yet even for them in some degree there is a real newness, seen perhaps most clearly at some crisis in their lives. Those who have had the privilege of close personal dealing with Confirmation candidates in the adolescent stage of their development know full well how new a thing the Christian religion often seems to them, even though they have been brought up in it all their lives. But the newness is unmistakable in the case of those who have been rescued from lives of sin and misery and brought to Christ in mature life. The full contrast between the Christian and the un-Christian life is seen best when the Christian flower grows amid the uncongenial surroundings of heathen darkness and degradation, or even in those dark spots which spoil a country nominally Christian.

Wherein, then, does this newness consist? To answer that question adequately would be to write a book upon Christian life and character, and would, therefore, be aside from the present purpose. It must suffice to venture upon a modern definition, and to give some illustrative quotations from the First Epistle of St. John. Regeneration, it has been said,1 is "that work of the Holy Spirit in a man by which a new life of holy love, like the life of God, is initiated." Likeness to God in His two great leading characteristics of holiness and love is the distinguishing mark of the regenerate man.

Almost the whole of St. John's First Epistle is a commentary upon that statement.2 "If ye know that He is righteous, ye know that every one that doeth righteousness is born of him.' "Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when He shall appear, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. And every man that hath this hope in Him purifieth himself, even as He is pure." "Whosoever doeth not righteousness is not of

God: neither he that loveth not his brother: for this is the message that ye heard from the beginning, that we should love one another." "We know that we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren." "Beloved, let us love one another for love is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God. He that loveth not knoweth not God: for God is love."

Righteousness and love are two characteristics of the regenerate Iman which affect his relations to his fellow men. But St. John does not forget his relations to God, and we find that he also emphasizes the connection between the New Birth and faith. "Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God: and every one that loveth Him that begat loveth Him also [i. e. Jesus Christ] that is begotten of Him." "Whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world, and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith. Who is he that overcometh the world, but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God?" The foregoing quotations are given in the order in which they come in the Epistle. The Apostle rises from righteousness to love, and from love to its source in faith. He bids us notice, too, that the qualities of the new life are very closely related. "This is His commandment, that we should believe on the Name of His Son Jesus Christ, and love one another," he writes in iii. 23; and in v. 18, just before he closes his letter, he turns 1 See Hastings' D.B. IV. 221a.

The quotations are in ii. 29; iii. 2, 3, 10, 11, 14; iv. 7, 8; v. 1, 4, 5.

back again to the important matter of practical holiness, and ascribes it to that energy of Christ which can only manifest itself in the faithful heart: "We know that whosoever is born of God sinneth not: but He that is begotten of God keepeth him so R.V.], and that wicked one toucheth him not."

Where there is life, there must be growth. This is a law of the spiritual world no less than of the natural. A man who has passed from death unto life ought to be constantly gaining more life and fuller life. "I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly." So said the Lord Jesus in His parable of the Good Shepherd (St. John x. 10). It was only a variation of metaphor when He said in the Parable of the Vine: "I am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman. Every branch in me that beareth not fruit He taketh away: and every branch that beareth fruit, He purgeth it that it may bring forth more fruit" (St. John xv. 1, 2). A Christian man ought to be constantly increasing his fruit of faith and love and holiness. His life should be a richer thing at the end than it was at the beginning. It should be possible from time to time to mark the difference and measure the growth. A tree grows so slowly that, as you watch it, you can see no change. But if you come back to look after an interval, you can see the change distinctly. Similarly the soul of man grows slowly, but it should be always growing nevertheless.

It is this thought, among others, that lies behind such verses as Rom. vi. 3, 4, 10, 11, 12. St Paul there says that a Christian man at his Baptism died with Christ and rose again with Him. "Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into His death? Therefore we are buried with Him by baptism into death." But he goes on to say that the death and resurrection which then took place in principle and intention must be accomplished afterwards in literal fact, even though by slow stages. "In that He died, He died unto sin once; but in that He liveth, He liveth unto God. Likewise reckon ye also ourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body." The "reckoning" of ourselves to be dead unto sin is a process, a struggle which extends over the years.

There is the same thought in Col. iii. 1-5: "If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth. For ye are dead, and

your life is hid with Christ in God. Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth." Christians are dead to sin in principle, but the actual process of dying has still to take place. The resolution to kill all the old vices may be made suddenly: the actual putting of them to death takes time. It is a process which is always incomplete, but it should always be going on its way towards completion.

All this means incidentally that it is not easy to draw a rigid line between Regeneration and the regenerate life. They shade off into one another. Sometimes, as we have seen, Regeneration is a sharp and decided action at a perfectly definite time. In this case it marks a clear beginning of the new life and can be quite easily distinguished from it. In other cases Regeneration is more like a gradual process. This is specially so with persons who have been brought up in a strong Christian atmosphere. It is almost impossible here to say where Regeneration ends and the regenerate life begins. Happily there is no need to try to draw the dividing line. If the person is seen to be bringing forth at least in some measure the fruits of holiness and love and faith, we can say with confidence that he is regenerate. The ultimate test of Regeneration is its fruits. It is the lesson of the wind which Jesus gave to Nicodemus: "The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh or whither it goeth. So is every one that is born of the Spirit." The wind is known by its moan. The Spirit-born man is known by his life.