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XXXV - 10(02) “Watchman, what of the night?” "The hour has come, the
hour is striking and striking at you,
The New Birth A Re-Study of John 3:1-15 Page 2 Self Renunciation Symbolized Page 5 The Kingdom of God Page 6
Editor's Preface
This entire issue of WWN is devoted
to the night conversation that Nicodemus had with Jesus, and John's
illustration of what it means to be born from above. The reason for so doing,
is that there is being taught in the community of Adventism that one must be
born again before he can be justified. In principle, this is the same concept
that was enunciated at the Council of Trent and constitutes the Tridentine
Gospel of Rome. Nicodemus was recognized by Jesus
"as a teacher in The value of the record that John
has left for us in this experience of Jesus with Nicodemus is the fact that it
is so necessary for us as Laodiceans to recognize that
we, too, have a similar attitude as did the Pharisees of Christ's day. We are
rich and increased with good works, needing nothing. trusting
in our own righteousnesses. knowing not that we are
"wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked" needing to
be "born from above." Until we can come to the place where we
recognize our spiritual poverty,. and
worthlessness, will we ever cry out, "God be merciful to me, a
sinner." Page 2
The New Birth In reporting the night conversation
that Nicodemus had with Jesus, John for the Second time in his gospel makes
reference to the Pharisees. There is a connection. It was the Pharisees who
sent a deputation from John told the deputation that there
was One standing among them "whom ye know not." That One, he said
"is preferred before me" ( Why did Nicodemus come to Jesus,
with this consultation report, "We know ... "? Was it to discuss His
actions in the Verily,
verity, I say unto thee, Except a man he born of
water, and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the Too often, we separate these verses
when quoting them. They constitute one thought and that thought is vital when
studying the "new birth." If a man could be "born again,"
the result would still be "flesh," with all that that term means in
Scripture. He must be born from above by the Spirit so "as to enter into
the Jesus continued to explain to
Nicodemus the meaning of the "new birth" from the viewpoint of
"from above." He said: The
wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but cannot
tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth; so is everyone that is born of the
Spirit. (v. 8, KJV) In the Greek text the same identical
word, to pneuma, is used at the beginning of the
verse, as at the end. John knew the proper Greek word for wind, anemoV, and used it in John 6:18. A free
translation of this verse could read: The
Spirit breathes where it wills, and thou hearest His voice; but thou dost not
know how He is coming and where He will lead. This is the experience of
everyone who is born out of the Spirit. This was the concept understood by
those who lived immediately after John penned his gospel. Ignatius in AD 110,
as he was being led to martyrdom, said, Page 3 "The Spirit knoweth whence it
cometh and whither it goeth." Jesus emphasized that the birth from
"above" was a dual experience "out of" (ek) the water, and out of the Spirit. This recalls the first
creation when the earth "without form and void" lay entombed in
"the waters." Upon that mass, "the Spirit of God moved."
(Gen. 1:2). Out of it came forth a perfect creation in its entirety. Some of
the mass became trees; some of it beasts of the field, and some of the mud, man
in the image of his Maker. It was the Spirit's determination, and to the
Spirit's voice all matter yielded to find its place. The life of man in sin is chaotic, a
desolation, with his soul in darkness unable to find peace. Well did Isaiah
describe the state of the man in sin: The wicked are like a
troubled sea, when it cannot rest, whose waters cast up mire and dirt. Their is no peace, saith my God, to the wicked. (57:20-21). I have stood on a rock overlooking
the mighty Pacific. The breakers came in, restless and surging. When they
receeded, there was left filth and dirt. More than water is required -
"except a man be born out of the Spirit." The earth in its state of
chaos could have existed millenniums, and nothing would have happened. But let
the Spirit brood, and there came forth order, form, and beauty. It is the
Spirit that can give order and direction to a life of chaos and restlessness. We must never forget that the first
work of the Spirit is to convince us of our sinfulness. (John 16:8) And the why
is given: "Because they believe not on Me" (v 9) When we come to the
place when we realize that we cannot trust in our own works; and what those
"righteousnesses" in which we trust really are, Will we cry out,
"God be merciful to me a sinner" (Luke 18:13). Isaiah states it clearly
- whether saint or sinner - "We are all as an unclean thing, and
all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags" (64:6). He is not saying that
our "iniquities" are as filthy rags, which they are, but that our
"righteousnesses" are likewise such. Man has nothing upon which to
rely of himself. The message of John the Baptist was, "Behold the Lamb of
God, the One bearing away ('o airwn) the sin of the world" (John
1:29 Gr.). He not only takes away my sins and iniquities, but He stands in
place of my "righteousnesses." He becomes, "THE LORD OUR
RIGHTEOUSNESS" (Jer. 23:6). This is the One
whom John the Baptist told the delegation from Isaiah after describing the
"righteousnesses" of even "saints" caps his statement with
the meaning of the "new birth" as Jesus defined it to Nicodemus that
night long ago. He wrote: But
now 0 Lord, thou art our father; and we are the clay, and Thou our potter; and
we are all the work of Thy hand. (64:8). To be born from above means simply,
we return to the "mud" of the first creation, so God can begin the
regeneration required for us to see the eternal kingdom. Because of sin, death
is required, a return to dust for God decreed, "Dust thou art, and unto
dust shalt thou return" (Gen. 3:19). Actually, the second death is the
return to dust (ashes" - Mal. 4:3) eternally. We have a choice now in life
to return to dust to be remolded after the Divine likeness, or to be returned
to dust at the end of the age nevermore to be. The way to life has been
provided by the Lamb who came to bear away the "sin" (singular) of
the world. At the same time that Jesus reminded
"the Jews" (Pharisees) that at one point they were willing "for
a season to rejoice in the light" provided by John, He also said to them, "Ye
search the Scriptures, because ye think that in them ye have eternal life; and
these are they which Page 4 bear witness of Me; and
ye will not come unto Me, that ye may have life" (John The whole issue of the Gospel is the
relationship we have toward the Lord Jesus Christ. Do we believe in Him, or do
we not? Or do we believe in ourselves!? True, He has become to us an
"example" that we should follow in His steps. But that Example
clearly stated, "Of mine own self, I can do nothing" (John The hardest part of this experience
could well be that which is defined as "whence [the Spirit] cometh and
whither it goeth" which was quoted by Ignatius on the way to martyrdom. We
are not asked how we want the course of our life to be, or to end; it is the
Spirit of God who makes that decision. This is to walk by faith and not by
sight. This is placing one's self in the Hand of the Potter to be and to serve
to His glory where He wills and in the way He indicates. To be doing the Spirit's
bidding rather than the way we would like to be doing, is evidence of genuine
conversion. This will be the experience of everyone born out of the water and
the Spirit. To have a one to one experience with
the Lord Jesus Christ will call forth in us the same response it did in Paul -
"Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?" (Acts 9:6).
Then, all my plans and purposes in life will be subordinated to that one
objective no matter how humiliating to human pride, that
work may be. We need to realize that in this "new birth" experience
from above, God remoulds us to fit His objective for us, not what we may want. Consider two antediluvians - Enoch
and Noah. Of Enoch it was written - "Enoch walked with God" (Gen.
5:22). likewise of Noah it is stated, "Noah
walked with God" (6:9). In this walk, Noah did .according to all that God
commanded him" ( Are we willing to trust our lives
each day in the hands of the Potter, or are we still thinking that our
".righteousnesses" are first required? Or in
the broader aspect are we shrinking from the consequences that such a surrender may require? There is no record of any decision
that Nicodemus made that night as the result of the conversation. only a parting word from Jesus - '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 have eternal life" (John
Many who profess to be His followers have an anxious,
troubled spirit, because they are afraid to trust themselves with God. They do
not make a complete surrender to Him: for they shrink from the consequences
that such a surrender may involve. Unless they do make this surrender, they
cannot find peace. (The Desire of Ages, p. 330) Page 5 Self Renunciation Symbolized To be born from above as defined by
Jesus leads to but one experience, the renunciation of self. Nicodemus, understanding
Jesus to mean to be born "again" asked, "How can a man be born
when he is old? Can he enter the second time into his mother's womb and be
born?" The answer is, he cannot do so. Neither
can a man become again mud entombed in water, and be thus recreated. However,
Jesus with John the Baptist entered into a ceremonial experience that would
"fulfil all righteousness" (Matt. First, I cannot baptize myself. Jesus could not do it either, and thus declared to
John, "It becometh us to fulfil all righteousness." Paul asked the
Christians at There is something awesome here. A
man stands as an ambassador of Christ (II Cor. What will lead one to enter fully
into this "death" in life? When one sees himself as he really is, as
God sees him, he voluntarily dies because he is too putrid to live. Well does Isaiah describe our condition: The
whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint. From the sole of the foot even
unto the head, there is no soundness in it; but wounds, and bruises, and
putrifying sores: they have not been closed, neither bound up, neither
moIlified with ointment. (1:5-6). It is also Isaiah who reminds us
that our "righteousnesses" are as "filthy rags" (64:6).
Paul summerizing the state of man, drawing from Old Testament references,
wrote: There
is none righteous, no, not one: there is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God. They are all gone
out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth
good, no, not one. ( This represents our condition as
"Laodiceans," perceiving ourselves to be what we are not, nor can be
of ourselves. Thinking that we are "in need of nothing" while in
reality we are "wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and
naked" ( The whole course of life is toward
death. We will die. But from the death which comes at the close of a life
governed by our desires, there will be no return. When viewed from this
perspective, there is not much to renounce for self has little, if any, value.
When I come to this realization, the true conviction of what sin is, and has
done to me, then by the same Spirit, there is offered to me a new birth. To
enter in, I must die. It is a choice of deaths - a death in life, or a death
that will end all life forever. The Divine Dictum - 'Dust thou art,
and unto dust shalt thou return" - is never altered. It is a matter of
"When." Jesus offers us a choice. I can be "crucified with
Him" and live (Gal. Page 6 hid with Christ in God, so that when
Christ, who is my life shall appear, I shall also appear with Him in glory
(Col. 3:3-4). It might be well to carefully
consider the words of Paul in Galatians 2:19-20, translated as literally as
possible from the Greek text. He wrote: For
I through law to law died in order that to God, I might live. In Christ, I have
been crucified. But I live, no longer I, but lives in me Christ. But that which
now I live in flesh, in faith I live, the faith of the Son of God, the One who
loved me and gave Himself in my behalf. Note, he writes, "I live, no
longer I" The Apostle Paul is no longer Saul the Pharisee. There is a
clear, evident difference. The difference came on the way to Paul declared that "in
faith" he lived, but it was not even his own faith. It is the faith which
the Son of God authored, a complete trust in God that He would carry out the
terms of the Counsel of Peace that had been formulated "between the Two of
Them." (See Zech. 6:13). It could be called "the Faith of the
Cross," for in His dying words, as He passed into the "outer
darkness" of the second death, Jesus placed Himself in the "hands of
the Father." It is well stated: Christ, in His life on
earth, made no plans for Himself. He accepted God's plans for Him, and day by
day the Father unfolded His plans. So should we depend upon God, that our lives
may be the simple outworking of His will. As we commit
our ways to Him, He will direct our steps. (Ministry,of
Healing, p. 479) A brief altering of Christ's final
commitment to the Father must become the basis of our "new birth"
experience. Read the text in Luke God never leads His
children otherwise that they would choose to be led, if they could see the end
from the beginning, and discern the glory of the purpose which they are
fulfilling as co-workers with Him. (ibid.) God is too wise to err, and too good
to withhold from anyone whom He loves and who loves Him, that which is for their
best interest. I must be crucified in Christ, but by that death, and the
resurrection which follows, I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me
and gave Himself for me. The The However, the conditions for entrance
into either kingdom - grace or glory - are the same. As far as Page 7 the kingdoms are concerned, one
succeeds the other. Our inheritance with the holy ones in light follows our
deliverance from "the power of darkness" by the translation "into
the kingdom of His dear Son" now, "in Whom
we have redemption through His blood, even the forgiveness of sins" (Col.
1:12-14). Once I have been planted together in
the likeness of His death - "Father into Thy hands, I commend my
self" and give up - the same mysterious movings of the Spirit begin - " Thou dost not know where He is leading." If we
are honest with ourselves, as we review the past years of our lives, be they
few or many, we have to admit that every major failure which has brought
remorse, and with it regret and guilt, stems from the fact that we did not
follow the Spirit's leading, but chose our own way. Jesus taught His disciples to pray -
"Our Father, Who art in heaven ... thy will be done in earth, as it is
heaven" (Matt. Not more surely is the place
prepared for us in the heavenly mansions than is the special place designated
on earth where we are to work for God. (Christ's
Object Lessons, p. 327) In this third chapter of John's
gospel, the record of the conversation between Jesus and Nicodemus is followed by
an illustration of what Jesus meant when He told Nicodemus - "Ye must be
born from above." Commenting briefly (vs. 16-21) on the parting statement
of Jesus (v. 15), the gospel narrative returns to the ministry of John the
Baptist (vs. 23-30). A question concerning religious
practice was used as an opportunity to plant, if possible, seeds of jealousy
between John and Jesus. How did John respond? He reminded those Jews that he
had told them previously that he was "not the Messiah," but was "sent
before Him" (vs. 28; Here was man of whom Jesus would
testify that "among them which are born of women there hath not risen a
greater than" he. (Matt. 11:11). He was born to an elderly couple. We are
not told how old he was when he laid them to rest. He chose not to follow his
father in temple service for he "'was in the deserts till the day of his
showing unto
WEBSITE
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Originally published by Adventist Laymen's Foundation of Mississippi/Arkansas
Wm. H. Grotheer, Editor
Adventist Laymen's Foundation was chartered in 1971 by Elder Wm. H. Grotheer, then 29 years in the Seventh-day Adventist
ministry, and associates, for the benefit of Seventh-day Adventists who were deeply concerned about the compromises of fundamental
doctrines by the Church leaders in conference with those who had no right to influence them. Elder Grotheer began to publish the monthly "Thought Paper," Watchman, What of the Night? (WWN) in January, 1968, and continued the publication as Editor until the end of 2006. Elder Grotheer died on May 2, 2009.
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