New Thoughts (7/30/05-8/2/05)
The great new thought of this portion of the conversation between Nicodemus and Jesus is found in verse 8, when Jesus likens the spirit-filled life to the wind. What has preceded this in His response to Nicodemus’ questions has largely been a recapitulation of what He already said. He has but clarified what He meant by that necessary rebirth. Nicodemus had focused on the natural function of birth, and therefore got caught on the mental shoals of scientific understanding.
In verse 6, Jesus points out where he has gotten caught up. He makes plain the fact that He is not speaking of any sort of physical function at all. The fleshly birth has already served its function, and produced a physical life. What is needed now is a spiritual matter. The spirit has not yet been born. Can we really call it dead? How can that be dead which has never lived? In school we were taught that the things of the earth divide roughly into three categories: animal, plant, and mineral. Of these, the only one that does not live is the mineral. It might be spoken of as dead, although in that case, it is not that life has departed, it is that life is not a function of the material at hand.
It occurs to me that this fits the description of the heart of the man who has not been reborn. “I will remove your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh,” says the Lord (Eze 36:27). The stony heart is not just dead. It has never really been alive. It has beat within us, keeping the blood flowing, but it has never been more than a dead, thoughtless, organ to us. Oh, we may have spoken of our heart’s desire, how our heart ached for some loss, but it was nothing more than fleshly emotions, emotions of death. God comes with this promise for us, that He will give us a real, living heart. He cleanses the emotions from all their misconceptions. No longer will we mistake lust for love. No longer will we confuse pity and compassion. No longer will envy be our motivation. See, the heart of flesh is the product of being born of the Spirit.
It is just at this point that science fails us. Science can explain the body. Science understands all about physical birth. It is beginning, at least, to understand how it is we think, the physical functions that lead to thought and emotion. But, at the spirit, science stops. Physics cannot explain the origin of the spirit. Pointing back down the lines of evolution to that primordial ooze cannot explain what gave rise the soul of man. So, we are given to understand that it was pretty much a freak accident, a chance mutation that the force of natural selection found to be of benefit. This, however, is not so much a scientific hypothesis as a hand wave. It is the scientific method overstepping its bounds, seeking to explain what it cannot explain. The origins of the spirit in a man are not subject to scientific investigation. The scientific community having largely discounted the very possibility of God in their thinking has in that same degree lost the possibility of arriving at the answer they seek. Meanwhile, those who have been begotten by the Spirit, those who have received a heart of flesh, already know the answer. They need no theory to explain what has occurred to them. They have the answer within them.
Now, I recognize that there are things being found in science that can even, so far as they understand it, explain what motivates certain reactions in us. They find certain medications that produce certain mental responses, or perhaps they are more subliminal. They see this, and they think perhaps that they have come to the root of the process. See? It is the presence of this chemical in the brain that produces the urge to buy, it is that which produces restlessness, and so on. But, what explains the great change in a man when he has been reborn of the Spirit? Who or what has come that in a moment the chemical makeup of that man has been so radically altered as to produce the change of character that all around can testify to? Science may be able to explain the phenomena, the organic process, but it cannot put its finger on the Cause, because it has denied that there is a Cause. It has placed a mere method on the throne of its heart, and will not suffer the God of all Creation to sit there.
What Jesus has declared to us is that the flesh can only beget flesh. The Spirit must beget spirit in us, else the spirit is a dead and worthless thing. He then looks at Nicodemus and says, “This really shouldn’t surprise you.” Indeed, if we have any expectation as walking as the sons of God, if we are willing to be called the sons of God, surely we must expect that our Father begat us! We rejoice in the name of a Savior conceived in the womb of Mary, born of a woman and therefore under the Law of Moses (Gal 4:4). Yet, we know that no man was involved in that conception, but the Holy Spirit came upon Mary, overshadowing her in His creative force (Lk 1:35). It is because the Holy Spirit fathered this child that He would be called the Son of God. Now, we know that He was always the begotten Son of God, that He was the Son before there was a world into which He could come, before there was a time into which He could step. Yet, in His incarnation, He entered the world born of the flesh, begotten of the Spirit.
Is it really any wonder that the same requirements are placed on those of us who seek to be children of God? We, too, although we may not claim that experience of conception that was uniquely given to Jesus, must know the begetting of the Holy Spirit. Now, I have been laboring the difference between born and begotten here because there is a distinction. It is a distinction that Nicodemus missed, because Greek really wasn’t his native language. But, it’s an important distinction, for it maintains the unique roles of father and mother in the role of procreation. Begetting, although it occasionally gets used of the mother’s role, is intended to specify the father’s role.
In the case of the Holy Spirit, and His work here at the beginning of renewed life, I think this distinction is critically important. Nicodemus, missing the distinction, thought primarily of the woman’s role, for it is her role that is so evident for so long in the process of birthing. For months we see the woman in her role of nurturing and feeding this new life. The role of man is largely hidden from view, or it ought to be at any rate. It is a thing accomplished in intimate privacy. Indeed, so private is that moment in which the seed is planted that the man himself will not know that he has begotten life until some time hence.
The spiritual counterpart to this is the work of the Holy Spirit. We tend to focus more on the work He does in us as we mature in faith, but here Jesus is focusing our attention on the opening moments of God’s redemptive purpose being worked out in the individual. The Holy Spirit comes in a moment of divine, intimate privacy. None knows of His visit except God and the individual He has come to. The seed He plants in that moment is, thanks be to God, an imperishable seed (1Pe 1:23). It is not subject to failure. The seed of man more often than not fails of its target, and the egg of life remains infertile. The seed of the Spirit is not so. Where He plants, there will be growth. Yet, like that successful seed of a man, the growth will not be evident immediately. It will take time for this freshly planted faith in God to grow to the point that it is noticeable.
It will be noticeable first to that one who bears the seed. The woman is the first to recognize that something has happened, that life has come to be within her. So it is with the spiritual rebirth. That one who bears the seed of the Spirit will be the first to notice that life has entered in. He may not understand what has occurred, but he will surely know that something has. There may well be another brother or sister who is closely connected to this newly born life. They will doubtless learn of the change shortly thereafter. For the rest, it will take some time, though. They perhaps don’t know the old person well enough to notice the small changes that come at the start. But, the time will come when the thing that has been birthed in them by the Holy Spirit will have grown too large to keep in.
It would happen in Nicodemus, though he did not understand much of what Jesus was saying to him here. It would take a few years before that which was planted in this encounter came to full fruition. Then, we would see a Nicodemus who no longer came by night, stealthily avoiding notice by his peers. In his place we would see instead a Nicodemus who stood up for this Savior who had spoken life to him. Though his Savior hung dead on a cross, his faith was unwavering enough that he went to Pilate to seek the body. No thought remained in him for the opinions of man, only the life of the spirit that had been engendered this day.
“This shouldn’t surprise you,” said Jesus. After all, how can we be sons of God except that He has fathered us? Isn’t that the greatest part of why Jesus came? He came that He might be the firstborn of many brothers (Ro 8:29). God has ordained that this be so. He ordained the moment of your conception, and the moment of your rebirth. It is God who says, “I have chosen you” (Isa 41:9). He is determined that you will be conformed to His image, the image of His Son (Ro 8:29). He has begun that work. The seed is planted, and the whole of this life, we shall be as children growing. Yet, we can grow with confidence, knowing this very thing: He who began the work will perfect it (Php 1:6). He will continue that work until it is completed in the day of Christ Jesus. What we understand only to a degree, that Truth of which we can only speak from partial knowledge, will be ours in full in that day. What now seems a vague image in a dusty mirror will be sharp and clear when we come to see Him face to face. In that moment, we shall know as fully as we have always been known by Him (1Co 3:9-12). What an awesome promise from that Faithful One!
What a glorious hope is ours, a hope that has reason to persist even when all we can see in ourselves is failure. We walk by faith, not by sight, precisely because our eyes tend to focus on what remains to be done in us, and we know that what remains is huge. We see still a vast chasm separating us from the Lord who is our great desire. So great a sea of sin still tosses restlessly within us. Yet, we know. Though all hope seems dead within us, we know. Though He slay us, we know. He has promised this, He has begotten in us the imperishable seed of this life HE promises. See, it’s all about Him. We struggle, knowing that we must, but we struggle also in the vain thought that it depends on us doing well enough. We read of the goats and the sheep, and we are so fearful that in spite of it all we will be judged as goats in that day of His judgment. We still haven’t really internalized that He meant it when He said, “It is finished.” What a wonderful word that is! “It is finished.” Everything has been completed that needed to be done. The seed has been planted, the child has been raised to the point where its survival is assured. The future for that child has been established, trust funds are set up in his name that he shall always have his needs cared for. And, lest that child sicken from worry and anxiety, this promise is written for him, a declaration of his inheritance: “It is Go who is working in you, both to will and to work in accord with His good pleasure” (Php 2:13). What anxiety is there in that?
Is there still worry in your heart? Are you still plagued by doubts that you are good enough for God? Listen to Peter, that man who walked with Jesus for three years, and in the moment of crisis, found himself denying that same Jesus three times. How his heart ached! How he despaired when he realized what he had done. Yet, his Jesus returned to him and restored him to hope. For each denial that there had been, came a confession of his love for Jesus. For each denial that there had been, came a word of forgiveness and a declaration of mission from that same Jesus. It is this man, who had so experienced his own failure and God’s forgiveness who would write to the church both of his day and ours, “Though you may be judged as men in the flesh, you are yet given to live in the spirit, for this is the will of God” (1Pe 4:6).
Now I come to that verse which appears to introduce a new thought into the conversation. In just about every translation, the passage reads in a fashion comparing the ways of the wind to the ways of the Spirit-born. Only Young’s Literal Translation leaves the possibility that the wind is never mentioned. The possibility, of course, arises from the fact that both wind and spirit are translations of the same underlying Greek word. This becomes important when we try to understand just how this last part of Jesus’ response connects with the rest.
I confess that when I read this section, I don’t see an immediate connection of thought here. He appears to have moved on from the necessity of being reborn, and begun to explore the life of the reborn. I have also, as I mentioned in the previous study, seen in this sentence a message of comfort for Nicodemus. There is that sense in which it could be said that Jesus is reassuring that cautious man. He had come by night, lest any of his comrades see him in the company of this Jesus they despised. Yet, he came. Jesus’ words, in light of Nicodemus’ stealth, speak reassurance to him: None of those around you will be necessarily aware of your rebirth. Neither will they acknowledge your destiny, your purpose. They will sense that something has changed in you, but they will not understand it.
That is a possible understanding of this passage, but it is not necessarily the correct understanding. I must recall that this is a conversation, that Jesus is presenting a logical argument for belief, however odd it may seem to me. It behooves me to understand this verse as somehow connecting to what has been said thus far. Having looked at Young’s Translation this morning, his choice both of punctuation and wording make a possible connection plain. Now, it must be noted that punctuation is largely a matter of opinion in this work of translation, and I must also remain aware that not a single translation apart from his appears to accept his choice of words, but it is worth considering in spite of this.
As he words it, “The Spirit blows where He wills. You hear His voice, but don’t know where that voice has come from. You don’t know where He is going. So is every one who has been born of the Spirit.” OK. This is not without problems. The comparison to the reborn leaves a bit to be desired here. Are we to say that those born of the Spirit go wherever they will to go? Are we to say that they hear Him but don’t understand? No, that doesn’t seem right.
Yet, as the topic has been that of rebirth it seems not unreasonable to think that this verse is somehow connected with that idea. It is the breath of the Spirit, after all, which brings life. He blows where He wills. Well, it goes without saying that His will and the Father’s will are one, for they are One. In that sense, we could take this, as some of the paraphrases do, as speaking of our inability to discern where He will cause one to be reborn. In the sense that it is His call, His choice to plant His seed, this is not unreasonable. We don’t know the reasons by which He makes His choice. We don’t know the moment of rebirth even in ourselves, necessarily, let alone in others. Yet, we hear the sound of it. We know the impact of that new life, we sense the change, though we may not know the moment at which it started. We see the direction this new life is headed in, yet it is not given us to know the full purpose of that new life. If this is true for us, even though we are numbered amongst the reborn, how much moreso will it hold true for those who are not reborn?
Apart from that rebirth, you cannot see the kingdom, cannot understand the kingdom of God (Jn 3:3). Those who have been reborn by the imperishable seed of the Spirit are entered into that kingdom even now. Though we continue to walk in this world, our citizenship is no longer in the country of our birth, but rather in the kingdom of our rebirth. We have become citizens of that heavenly kingdom, and we are in the process of our naturalization into that kingdom. We no longer serve our own interests, but rather serve the interests of our King. He has prepared our purpose beforehand, that we might walk in it. He has renewed our spirit within us that we might be willing to walk in it. He continues to work within us that we will walk in it. Yet, our path is unknown and unknowable to those who are not of His kingdom. They may see us walking, but they won’t know why we are on the road we travel. We can explain it to them, yet they will not understand. They will just walk away shaking their heads.
Now, here is a third sense in which we would be wise to understand what Jesus has said. If we return to the idea that this is speaking of the Spirit’s act of implanting that seed of rebirth, then we might focus ourselves on that first part of the sentence, “He blows where He wills.” We are not given to know, thank God, who shall be saved and who shall not. We may despair at the reception our words of faith receive amongst those who don’t understand. We may not wish to share our destiny and purpose anymore, because we are tired of the response of unbelief. But, when we feel thus, we need to recall this: “You don’t know where it comes from, You don’t know where it’s going.” We don’t know when the word we are willing to speak bears within it the seed of the Spirit’s implanting. We don’t know when the breath of our own speaking bears in its winds the breath of the Spirit. We don’t know if the seeds we plant are in vain or not.
The farmer and the gardener must plant in faith. They put their seed in the ground, and they expend all manner of effort to see to it that the seed is well watered, well fertilized, kept free from weeds and pests. Yet, however great their effort, it may all prove in vain. A turn in the weather, some animal in the night, or some bird by day; any manner of things may lay all their efforts waste. It requires faith to believe that even when no green thing has poked its head above the surface, that yet the plant will grow. In the economy of the kingdom, we are often told to plant, and yet we are not given to remain in the area to tend to what has been planted. So much greater must be our faith in the Father. It is His seed, after all, that we are planting, and we are planting it for His good pleasure. If it is going to grow, it will be because He has willed it so. He has blessed us with the right to participate in what He is doing. Yet, we must go to the work in faith believing that what He has started in those little seeds, He is faithful to complete. Whether we are blessed to witness the growth or not, we must trust in Him to bring it about.
Now, there is one further thing I should like to say of this verse. It is almost as true of the believer as of the unbeliever. We are blessed to know the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit, and yet it remains the case with us that we generally do not know what He is doing in those around us. We may now have some limited understanding of what His purposes are in us, what He is accomplishing in us. Yet, even this is something we know only in part. Truth be told, it seems to me that I often awake to realize what He has accomplished without having sensed His working towards that goal in me at all. Only in retrospect do I see what He has been doing.
When it comes to our fellow believers, our senses are even less capable of perception. What may be the prompting of the Holy Spirit in them may seem wholly inappropriate to us. Now, I am not saying that anything goes, when it comes to God. Not at all. There are boundaries that faith demands we respect. There are activities that holiness and righteousness require that we refrain from. On these, there can be no question of personal inspiration calling the believer to violations of holy Law. Yet, the Bible has many examples of rather questionable activities done at God’s prompting to preserve His people. To the faithful observer, these actions might seem wrong. They may offend us. Yet, God is pleased to be served by such actions, and uses the willing to protect the more fastidious.
By way of example, I turn to our worship leader’s testimony, as he spoke to us of it last week. A part of his experience was that he was led of the Spirit to stop seeking out the normal channels of employment because God had better things in mind for him. To those of us who were around him at the time, this seemed a crazy, irresponsible course. He was clearly (to us) abandoning all responsibility to his wife and children in pursuit of this dream he held on to. Yet, events have shown that he was pursuing God’s course, not his own imaginings. Never has his family been found wanting for its needs. Never has a dream been realized by less explicable means.
One could turn to the lives of countless missionaries to exemplify the same point. Their decisions often involved setting aside all visible means of support. Some were called to give away great wealth, rather than use that wealth to support themselves as they went out. People looking on were not going to understand what would make a man do such a thing. I have no doubt that even in the churches from which they were sent there were many who saw, but could not really believe or comprehend what these people were doing. Yet, as events unfolded in the lives of these laborers, everybody could perceive the effect of their Spirit-led efforts.
It may have taken years. The laborers themselves may have wondered at times if they were accomplishing anything. Yet, the Holy seed was being planted, faithfully watered, and the time of its growth and ripening would come for all to witness. Suddenly, as it were, there would be a burst of spiritual growth after long seasons of apparent barrenness, and all would realize that something had happened. Not many would know the cause. Nor would those who were told of the real cause accept it. No, they would insist that there must be a natural, ‘rational’ explanation for what had transpired. But, the people of God, hearing the voice of the Spirit rejoicing; they will know what lies behind the transformation.
Knowledge has its prerequisites. It is true in the course of education. We cannot attain to higher learning until we have mastered the basics. We cannot, for example proceed into physics without a firmly established grasp on mathematics. It is true, as well of the things of God. Solomon, that wisest of rulers, put it this way: “You do not know the path of the wind. Neither do you understand how bones form in the womb. Even so, you don’t know the ways of the God who makes all things” (Ecc 11:5). You can hear the echoes of this thought in Jesus’ words. Now, there are those today who can begin to explain the paths of the wind. There are doctors and scientists who are making great strides towards understanding how the bones form, how cells determine what they are to become. They can explain a great deal about the universe in which we live. Yet, they cannot, in the end, explain how anything is created. They can explain processes, but they cannot explain origins. The best of theories regarding evolution cannot pierce that initial moment, because those who are seeking reject the God who makes all things. They don’t know His ways, and it is His ways that have done these things. It is His ways that has established the orderliness of this universe they explore. Yet, they will not have Him. So, they are trapped in that place where they can sense the passing of events, can even discern the paths by which those events have unfolded, yet they can not explain what gave rise to those events, nor do they appreciate the things those events are leading to.
They have been born only of the flesh, and it is only the flesh which they understand. The things of the spirit are beyond their understanding, for they are matters belonging to a kingdom that is unknown to them. We who have become children of that kingdom, have been born into that kingdom. The ways of the kingdom of God are become natural to us as we are naturalized into His demesnes. By the working of the Holy Spirit upon us, we have found life in the Spirit. By the working of the Holy Spirit within us, we are made a “house where faith and God’s word are at home,” as Martin Luther put it. Our souls have been thoroughly roused, fully awakened by the Holy Spirit, and are now wholly intent on God. Our flesh may continue to focus on the day to day, but even in the midst of it our spirit remains intent on higher things.
I tell you, if we will but keep our ears on what our own spirits are hearing in this awakened life, we will sense God in action all around us. If we listen to the news of the day through the ears of the spirit, a very different report will come through. If we perceive the labors of the day through the eyes of the spirit, we will no longer see tedious chores and drudgery, but rather we will see promise and opportunity. If we will heed the direction of the Spirit within us, and do those things He instructs us to do, we will see amazing things happening in our lives, and in the lives of those around us. We have been awakened. We have been transformed from a dead lump of flesh into a living temple of the Holy Triune God of Creation. We have been made His home. We have been blessed with the opportunity to partake in His great work of redemption. Will we ever recognize what privilege that is? He really doesn’t need our help. He really doesn’t require us to ‘be His hands and His feet.’ He is quite able to do it all on His own. Yet, He is blessed to bless us with the opportunity to participate. He generously allows us to do our bit, even though it may mean more work for Him. Why? Because He loves us. Because He knows we love Him, however poorly we may show it at times.
Holy Spirit, I thank You. In recent months I have felt so much more in tune with You than I have felt before. So often You have spoken to my moment. I know that You were speaking just as often before, but I wasn’t listening, or listening, I would not heed. Yet, You have been patient and persistent. To Whom could I possibly give the credit for what You have done, except You alone? Yet, I remain keenly aware of how much remains in need of Your renewal. There is so much in me that ought not to be. There is so much missing in me that ought to be there. Oh! But I shall not despair, for You have made it so very clear that You are with me.
How many times, Holy One, have You spoken to me even as I left this study behind to prepare for my day? How many times have You practically shouted to my spirit of things that needed to be done, and done now? Yes! And events have shown that Your word was precisely aimed to the need. Even in the little things, Lord, You have been speaking. I think of that car that was ahead of me last Saturday. You spoke to me to back off because the hubcap was loose. Sure enough, though it was not the one I had seen, that car did indeed throw a hubcap, and thanks to You, I was back far enough to avoid it. Oh! But, You are a faithful God, a sure Guide, and a most wonderful Companion.
God, I see what You are beginning to work in my daughter. I ask that You forgive me my doubts. Forgive me for declaring things impossible, for giving up. But, You have begun something there, and I pray that You accelerate her growth in this new life. Guard her, Holy Spirit, as You have guarded me all these years. Even if she should seem to walk away from what You have, help me to stand in faith, knowing that what You have begun, You will surely bring to full fruition. Yes, and You have established in us the fact that You have begun that work. Help me and my wife both to stand firm in the knowledge that You are faithful to complete it.
