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JOHN 2,3

FER The last two verses of chapter 2 bring before us the extent to which man as such can go, that is, a mental conviction — believing on account of the miracles which he saw. Simon Magus went that far. It leaves them without light from God, though, at the same time, it leaves them without excuse. Signs bring no light from God, and a man might see the signs, and yet be unaffected morally. I take it that is the reason why the Lord would not trust them; no impression was really made upon them from God. The effect of God’s touch is that a man does not stop at miracles. He might see a leper cleansed, or a dead person raised, but it is not a question merely of the miracles, but of light from God, and the grace which could come in touch with man’s need. With the Lord, the great point was for them to receive His testimony concerning Himself and so it is now. The reception of the Spirit’s testimony of Christ is really what converts a man; but, from the very outset, the Lord did not trust Himself to man. He knew what was in man, just as He could reveal what was in God. He knew the worst feature in man, and that is, that he is not to be trusted if it be a question of the things of God. If a man were put to the test in regard to the things of God, he would always prove unfaithful. The fact is, God is the only One whom you can really trust.

All this paves the way for what comes out in the next chapter, I mean for the truth that man must be born again. A man must be made sensible of his need of God, for that is really the effect of being born again. Men do need God, but they are not sensible of it. He needs God even for happiness here in this world. He may be surrounded by everything, and yet there is one great element lacking if he has not God. I do not covet the richest man in the world if he has that lack, because it is such a lack — such a moral deficiency. God is really a necessity to man’s happiness, and He meant to be. Man secured his own will, and a great artificial world was built up for the glory of man, but he has not secured happiness thereby. Even where you least expect it, I believe there is a great deal of heart-burning and discontent. Man is man all the world over; you may get different training and surroundings, but that does not alter the man. God never intended that man should be happy without Him.

Nicodemus comes to the Lord with the conviction, and expresses it to the Lord, “Thou art a teacher come from God”. He had come to that point, but he had only the idea of being taught — he had not got the thought that man was to be the reflex of God Himself. Nicodemus, like most people, did not get beyond material ideas, and the Lord rebukes that. He says, “That which is born of the Spirit is spirit”,

^[p. 32] and not anything material. That is beyond the compass of man’s mind, while he can understand “That which is born of the flesh is flesh”.

Ques What is “born of water”?

FER It is very difficult for us to understand. The source of it is referred to here, but the water here does not refer to a testimony presented. Israel, to whom the passage quoted from Ezekiel refers, will be sprinkled with clean water, but I do not see that testimony is brought to them. New birth is a work of God in man — a work brought about by divine agency. There is no divine work in man save what is done by God Himself. It is the work of God which makes the light presented by the servant effective in the soul. People are begotten by the testimony — I can understand that. So converts are accounted children of the testimony. The apostle says, “In Christ Jesus I have begotten you by the gospel”; but we cannot understand, or follow, or take account of new birth. It is the secret work of the Spirit of God, and like the wind you cannot tell whence it comes or whither it goes. In divine things it is very true that you cannot take account of anything until you have got it. “New birth” is absolutely clean, from the very nature of it, water being the source of it. It produces a cry, from sheer craving after God — it is pure in that sense. A man may be in distress and cry to God, but I would not call that pure. The cry of new birth is absolutely pure — a real craving after God, with no ulterior motive.

If you make “born of water” the word, it is making it too definite, and you lose the moral idea. “Water” is used in Scripture as a figure of “the word”, but so it is of the Spirit, and it is also indicative of cleansing, but I believe the idea intended to be conveyed here is being born of the Spirit. The Lord puts it very definitely, “That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit”. It would ^[p. 33] be too absolute if it were put, “He who is born of the Spirit is spirit”, and therefore it is put in an abstract form. New birth is a work by which God becomes a necessity to man. It is a genuine, bona fide work of God, which produces the first real cry of desire after God. The effect of it is that we can see, and there is nothing like it. The kingdom was presented to man in the way of testimony, and, for that reason, it needed new birth for a man to see and enter into it. The Lord here, as a humble Man on earth, was really the testimony of the kingdom, while man was so high that he could not look down and see it, and he needed, therefore, to be born again to see the kingdom there in the Person of the humbled Christ. I wonder what God would think of man’s kingdom, as man glories in it! It is simply man glorying in his shame — his armaments, and such like. That will not do for God. The fact is, all that God brings in is moral, and for men to boast in the means of destruction is to glory in their shame, and ought rather to lead them to hide their diminished heads. Man needed to be born again to see the kingdom in a humbled Christ, and now he needs it to see the kingdom in a glorified Christ. One was too low, the other is too high. The work of God was needed to bring man to a collapse, like a rent balloon, so that he should have eyes to see what is of God.

Men come into the kingdom by faith; they accept it first and so come into it. We want to preach the kingdom of God now, that is, to bring man’s soul under the moral sway of God. The epistle to the Romans all goes on the ground of the kingdom of God. “Righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit”, infinitely transcends all that this world can give me.

Ques “We speak that we do know”, etc. (verse 11) what is that?

FER It refers to the particular character of the Lord’s testimony. No prophet could have said that. It says the prophets searched diligently “what ... the Spirit of Christ which was in them did signify”. They could not go beyond that. John the Baptist was the close of one order of testimony, and the Lord was bringing in a new order, and it is this character of testimony which marks Christianity. The secret for us lies in the Spirit. The practical effect of speaking of new birth to a Jew was to put the Jew, as such, out of court, in order to put things upon a broader platform, and lead up to the “whosoever”.

There is a complete change in the character of the testimony from verse 11. The great subject of the testimony now is Christ, and we can say, “We see Jesus ... crowned with glory and honour”. We can, as it were, say, “We speak that we do know”. Our witness is simply a confirmation of what the Lord introduced. Everything is changed, for the Lord goes on to say in verse 12, “If I have said the earthly things to you”, and “if I say the heavenly things”. It is only here and in Hebrews 9: 23, as far as I know, where you get the expression used, “heavenly things”, and I believe it refers to Christianity.

All the promises of God go to make up one great system. This we get in the Old Testament scriptures, and then in the New Testament we see a completely new element, and that is a worshipping company, the church, really the “heavenly things”. “Heavenly things” bring in an additional thought to what we get in the Old Testament; there will be a vast system of blessing, but it would not be complete without the worshipping company. We do not get the heavenly things until He has entered in. He is there the last Adam in subsisting righteousness, and the system is formed, the answer to it being that the house of God is formed down here.

Then another thing comes out here, that we are shut up to the Lord for light as to these things (verse 13),

“^[p. 35] No man hath ascended up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven, even the Son of man which is in heaven”. “Son of man ... in heaven” is a remarkable designation; it is what is characteristic of Him, that He is in heaven. He may leave that place, but His proper habitation is heaven.

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