T. Austin-Sparks · 1 of 3

The Life of the New Creation in Christ

"In him was life; and the life was the light of men... And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us..." John 1:4,14.

"Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit... Ye must be born anew (or, from above)... whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life." John 3:5-7,16.

"If thou knewest the gift of God... thou wouldest have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water... from whence then hast thou that living water? ...The water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life. John 4:10,11,14.

"For as the Father raiseth up the dead, and quickeneth them; even so the Son quickeneth whom he will... The hour is coming, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God: and they that hear shall live. For as the Father hath life in himself; so hath he given to the Son to have life in himself... Ye search the scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me. And ye will not come to me, that ye might have life." John 5:21,25-26,39-40.

"There is a lad here, which hath five barley loaves... So they gathered them up, and filled twelve baskets with broken pieces from the five barley loaves... Work not for the meat which perisheth, but for the meat which abideth unto eternal life... They said therefore unto him, Lord, evermore give us this bread... I am the bread of life... This is the will of my Father, that every one that beholdeth the Son, and believeth on him, should have eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day... He that believeth on me hath eternal life. I am the bread of life... He that eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood hath eternal life: and I will raise him up at the last day... As the living Father hath sent me, and I live because of the Father; so he that eateth me, even he also shall live because of me. This is that bread which came down out of heaven... he that eateth this bread shall live for ever." John 6:9,13,27,34-35,40,47-48,54,57-58.

"If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink. He that believeth on me... out of him shall flow rivers of living water" John 7:37-38.

We will confine ourselves to the third chapter of John for the present, and that which is brought before us in this chapter is undoubtedly the life of the new creation, and that life is Christ. The concern of Nicodemus is evidently the concern about the kingdom of God. He does not use the phrase, nor mention the kingdom so far as is recorded, but the Lord Jesus quite clearly saw what Nicodemus was interested in, and that was the kingdom of God, as would be the case with every true Israelite. So the Lord Jesus, reading his heart, and knowing his mind, immediately took up the whole question of seeing and entering the kingdom of God, and proceeded to point out to Nicodemus that this was not a kingdom into which anyone could be born by nature, not even though he were of the stock of Israel, and a ruler in Israel at that.

Natural Birth Cannot Confer Eternal Life

That natural birth, even though it might be into surroundings where the kingdom of God is the one interest, never brings into it. No one can come into the kingdom of God by natural birth. One may be born into a Christian family, and into the midst of Christianity as a religious system, or what is called the Christian Church, but no one is in the kingdom of God on account of such birth. This is another kingdom altogether, wholly other than the kingdom of nature, even though it may be religious nature; and this, being a new kingdom, and a wholly other kingdom, requires a new and wholly other life. It is a Divine kingdom; it is the kingdom of God, and therefore it requires a Divine life, a life which is God's life. "As the Father hath life in himself, so hath he given the Son to have life in himself". Thus, in the whole universe, the Father and the Son alone have that life in themselves. It is important that we should know that, even when we have received eternal life, we do not have it in ourselves. We will speak further of that presently. "God hath given unto us eternal life, and this life is in his Son". It remains in Him. "He that hath the Son hath life". It is never parted from Him.

The point is that, being a Divine kingdom, this requires a Divine life, and that means, as the Word so fully and clearly shows, that we cannot live according to God, and according to Divine things, by natural life. We cannot get through to God with any natural resource, the resource of our natural mind. We shall beat ourselves against the gates of the kingdom of heaven, and never get through, if it is the natural mind which is making the attempt.

We can never get through to God and His kingdom with the natural heart. We may have all the emotion, all the desire, all the passion, all the zeal; we may work ourselves up to a high tension of emotional concern, and never get through. No one has ever yet been intellectualized into the kingdom of God, or been brought into it by emotionalism.

This is true also of the natural will. "Nor", says the Word, "by the will of the flesh, but of God". We cannot will ourselves into the kingdom of God. We cannot get through to the things of God by the strength of our own natural will, however much we may make up our will, determine, try, work, and resolve. Our will can never take us through. No one has ever yet been "volitionalized" into the kingdom of God; that is, so appealed to in their wills to make decision, and to determine to be in the kingdom of God, as by the strength of that decision and that determination to have got through. It cannot be done.

A great deal of mistake has been made in that connection, and an entirely false position has been brought about for multitudes of people because the effort has been made along those lines, and they have been appealed to along those lines to exercise their own reason, and their own feelings, and their own wills, as though that would regenerate them.

Thus interest and activity in Christianity is one thing, but being in the kingdom is quite another. Multitudes of good-meaning people are interested in Christianity, and are active in Christianity. They see the value of the Christian standard of life, and Christian teaching, and have thought, if only it could be applied, how different the world would be. So they have become busy in Christianity, and have thought they were in the kingdom of God. Not at all! You can have all the interest in Christianity without being in the kingdom.

This is what the Lord Jesus said, in effect, and in other and more concise words, to Nicodemus. The only way in is by our receiving Divine life as a gift through faith in Jesus Christ, and that becomes the new basis of the new creation, the basis upon which everything begins and is carried through, the basis of Divine life. That life has in it all the qualities and energies of the new creation. It constitutes our being in what is called the kingdom of God.

Every Kingdom Governed by its Own Life

It is hardly necessary to remind you that every kingdom is governed by its own life. In the vegetable kingdom there is life, and the vegetable kingdom is governed entirely by that kind of life. That life may be very wonderful in that kingdom, and capable of doing very wonderful things, as we see all around us; we see the variety, the magnificence, the beauty and strength of life in the vegetable kingdom. But it has its limitations; an end is reached. Between the end of the life of the vegetable kingdom and the point at which the life of the animal kingdom begins there is a gap, and there is no bridging of that division.