The Pulpit Commentary — John — Volume 1 — Section 254

Destitut.e of any higher birth th1tn the birth point of humnu experience, and urged in of flesh. mRn is fleshly, psychiool, eMthly, the form of a direct appeal to conscience. <r<1p,c11,J,. 1/Jvx,,cds, xoi",cJs (Rom. ·\"ii. 14-25), In this disr.omse to Nicodemus tho enme 1',n<l, more' th1m that, positively opposed to change is exhibited on ite Divine side, nnd t,be will and grace of God, la,shed with as one produced by tho Spirit of God. In 1,assions, defiled with debRsing ideas, in tho Sermon on the Mount "mockncss," enmity against God. Hence the birth "poverty of spirit," "mourning," "hunger "from the Spirit" ie entirely antithetic to o.fter righteousness," " purity of heart," tho the birth from the flesh. That whioh hath spirit of forgiveness and long-suffering, been born of the Spirit, is spirit. Tbcre is o.re the moral conditions of those minds o.nd a birth which supervem•s on the flesh-be- hearts which would become the city of God gotten mnn, and it is supernaturally wrought and the light of the world (llfntt. v. 1-12). by the Spirit of God. As in the first On this occn.sion, when addressing the instance, at man's cren,tion, God brcnthed learned mbbi, Christ sums all up in the into mHn the breath of life, and by that demnnd for a birth from tile Spirit--0 new operation man becnme a living soul; so now and spiritual recommencement of life from the new birth of man is wrought in him by the Spirit of God. The clause found in the the Spirit. and there is a new life, a new Vetus !tale. and the Syrfac, quia Deu.a mode of being, a new bias and predomi- spirit'U.8 est, et de Deo natus est, is a. gloss nating impulse. "A spiritual mind which is sustained by no Greek manusc1·ipt authority. life and peace" has taken the place of the Thoma here quotes two interesting pa.sea.gee old carnal mind. He is "spirituo.1," no from Philo, i. 533, 599, where the voiis is longer "psychical," or "carnal," but able spoken of as given to man from above, e.nd to discern the things that are freely given where the supremacy of the spiritual over t.o Lim. The eye of the spirit is opened, the fleshly is made the only guarantee of un..sea.led, the .,-a .,-oii ,n,,,',µa.,-or are revealed admission into the world of spirit. But Philo to him (1 Cor. iL 12-16; iiL 1-5). The obviously meant the intellectual rather than reference to " birth of ,oater" is not re- the moro.l element in human nature, and peated, because the birth from water ie prized the ascetic process rather than the relatively unimportant, and of no value supernatural regeneration. apart from the Spirit-change of which it Ver. 7.-Ma.rvel not that I said unto thee, may be a picture, or even a synonym. More Ye mnst be born a.new. Nicodemus had re- than that, the Spirit-birth, the Di vine ope- vealed, by his expressions of countenance ration, is the efficient cause of thnt which, or unrecorded words, hie surprise. This under the form of a human experience, is further explanation deepened the solem- ea.lied µ,.,-a.voU1.. The human melanoia, nity of the first assertion by a bold anti- rather than the new birth, is the great thesis between the birth of flesh producing burden of our Lord's public address, as re- nothing but flesh, however high its culture, corded in the synoptic Gospels. In both and the birth of spirit from the Spirit representations the same fact, the same con- himself, the heavenly e.nd Divine Origi- dition and state of the human consciollS- nator of all genuine repentance, and the nees, is referred to. In "repentance," how- sole Cause of the new life. Nicodemus ever, and in the moral characters which are was clinging more and. more eagerly to the the severe.I preliminaries to the beatitudes old ideas of national privilege, of sacra- of the Sermon on the Mount, a change is mental purification, of soundly taught prin- declared necessary for the constitution e.nd ciples and habits. He marvelled at such n. inauguration of the kingdom of heaven. representation which took the heart out of This change is there viewed from the stand- all his previous training. The MeBBianic kingdom for which he had been looking and Jamieson, 'Profound Problems in Theology longing seemed to fade away in the clouds and Philosophy,' of Edward Irving's hy- of e.n utter mysticism, and to vanish out of potLesis of the sinfulness of the flesh of his power of recognition, Our Lord gently Christ. "The Logos was made flesh," i.e. reproved the expression of his surprise, e.nd " sin " for us and be was " without sin" reminded Lim of the previous utterance, "1 only by th~ s~nctifying energy of the Holy said to thee, Ye,'' etc. Nicodemus had come Spirit, and bis continuous victory over it. in the name of others. Jesus replies, and There is no position in Christiau theology reasserts the principles for the entire gl'oup t!.iat is not modified or transformed by this of persons wuich Nicodemus might be sup- hypothesis. If we have to put away sin posed to represeut. We must not fail to witll our lower powers, witll no indwell- notice that, whereas in other parts of tho iug Logos to aid us after the manner of discourse our Lord speaks in the plural first Christ, to secure tile salvation which he he.a person, yet he discriminates himself from tnught llS thus to effectuate, what hope iB others in this str1tement. He does not say, ibere for the humr,,n race? 1' We mu81," otr., IJ1.1t " Ye muet," et<,, Ho Oil, Ill, 1-36.] THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. JOHN. 117