THE GREAT PRIVILEGE OF THOSE THAT ARE BORN OF GOD. 1 JOHN iii. 9.
_Whosoever is born of God, doth not commit sin._
1. IT has been frequently supposed, that the being born of God was all one with the being justified; that the new birth and justification were only different expressions, denoting the same thing: it being certain on the one hand, that whoever is justified, is also born of God; and on the other, that whoever is born of God, is also justified: yea, that both these gifts of God are given to every believer in one and the same moment. In one point of time his sins are blotted out, and he is born again of God.
2. But though it be allowed, that justification and the new birth are in point of time inseparable from each other, yet are they easily distinguished, as being not the same, but things of a widely different nature. Justification implies only a relative, the new birth a real change. God in justifying us, does something _for_ us: in begetting us again, he does the work _in_ us. The former changes our outward relation to God, so that of enemies we become children. By the latter, our inmost souls are changed, so that of sinners we become saints. The one restores us to the favour, the other to the image of God. The one is, the taking away the guilt, the other, the taking away the power of sin. So that although they are joined together in point of time, yet are they of wholly distinct natures.
3. The not discerning this, the not observing the wide difference there is, between being justified and being born again, has occasioned exceeding great confusion of thought, in many who have treated on this subject: particularly when they have attempted to explain this great privilege of the children of God; to shew how _whosoever is born of_ God, _doth not commit sin_.
4. In order to apprehend this clearly, it may be necessary, first, to consider what is the proper meaning of that expression, _Whosoever is born of_ God; and, secondly, to enquire, in what sense he _doth not commit sin_.
I. 1. First, we are to consider, what is the proper meaning of that expression, _Whosoever is born of_ God. And in general, from all the passages of holy writ, wherein this expression the being _born of_ God, occurs, we may learn that it implies not barely the being baptized, or any outward change whatever; but a vast inward change, a change wrought in the soul, by the operation of the Holy Ghost: a change in the whole manner of our existence; for from the moment we are _born of_ God, we live in quite another manner than we did before; we are, as it were, in another world.
2. The ground and reason of the expression, is easy to be understood. When we undergo this great change, we may with much propriety be said _to be born again_, because there is so near a resemblance between the circumstances of the natural and of the spiritual birth: so that to consider the circumstances of the natural birth, is the most easy way to understand the spiritual.
3. The child which is not yet born, subsists indeed by the air, as does every thing which has life; but _feels_ it not, nor any thing else, unless in a very dull and imperfect manner. It _hears_ little, if at all, the organs of hearing being as yet closed up. It _sees_ nothing, having its eyes fast shut, and being surrounded with utter darkness. There are, it may be, some faint beginnings of life, when the time of its birth draws nigh; and some motion consequent thereon, whereby it is distinguished from a mere mass of matter. But it has no _senses_; all these avenues of the soul are hitherto quite shut up. Of consequence, it has scarce any intercourse with this visible world; nor any knowledge, conception or idea, of the things that occur therein.
4. The reason why he that is not yet born, is wholly a stranger to the visible world, is, not because it is afar off. It is very nigh. It surrounds him on every side. But partly, because he has not those senses, they are not yet opened in his soul, whereby alone it is possible to hold commerce with the material world; and partly because so thick a veil is cast between, through which he can discern nothing.
5. But no sooner is the child born into the world, than he exists in a quite different manner. He now _feels_ the air with which he is surrounded, and which pours into him from every side, as fast as he alternately breathes it back, to sustain the flame of life. And hence springs a continual increase of strength, of motion and of sensation: all the bodily senses being now awakened, and furnished with their proper objects.