The Impact of New Birth

Greg Quail

When considering the believer’s two natures, the real question is: what is new birth? 

New birth is the sovereign act of God (John 1:13; Jas. 1:18), by means of His Spirit and His Word (John 3:5; 1 Pet. 1:23), implanting a capacity within a person which renders him or her capable of seeing God’s rights and his or her corresponding obligations (John 3:3), and which causes the person to crave a deliverance that can only be met by the knowledge of the redemptive work of Christ and the power of the Spirit (1 Pet. 1:2; Rom. 7:24; 8:2). 

In the Bible, this new capacity is called a ‘seed’ (1 John 3:9). It is planted with the objective of producing fruit (Jas. 1:18). It is not material but spiritual (John 3:6), and takes character from the Spirit of God who produces it. This new capacity enables persons to:

• see the kingdom of God (John 3:3);
• enter the kingdom of God (v. 5);
• practise righteousness (1 John 2:29);
• not practise sin (1 John 3:9);
• love one another (1 John 4:7);
• believe that Jesus is the Christ (1 John 5:1); and
• keep themselves from the wicked one (v. 18).

As is clear from the citations above, the matter of being born again is named by three New Testament writers: James, Peter and John (the three men who are described as pillars in Christianity in Galatians 2:9). While it is not referred to expressly by Paul, its effects are very clearly described by him in Romans 7. This chapter, often misunderstood,[1] gives an abstract description of one who has an inward man capable of delighting in God’s law (v. 22) — and who must therefore have been born again — but who is still in the flesh (v. 5), having desires to practise good without the power to do so (v. 19) and thus bringing forth fruit unto death (vs. 5, 10). It describes a process by which such a person learns that there are two opposite influences working within him (vs. 20–21) and at the end of which he learns to cry out to the one who can provide for him a once-for-all deliverance (vs. 24–25).

The result of this deliverance is seen in Romans 8. After thus receiving Christ, the indwelling of the Holy Spirit can be known — as the power of life (vs. 1–13) and as a living person who leads, witnesses, intercedes and so on (vs. 14ff).

Neither the reception of a new capacity — a new seed — by new birth nor the reception of the Holy Spirit — a new power — by believing Christ’s person and work (Eph. 1:13) eradicates the existence of the ‘flesh’ in a believer. It remains flesh (John 3:6). It remains sinful (Rom. 7:17). It remains in me (vs. 18, 20) — but I must not, and need not, live according to it (8:12–13). Although the flesh is in me, I am no longer ‘in the flesh’ (Rom. 8:9) — that is, my position before God is not characterised by what I am naturally as a child of Adam.

The Biblical terms ‘the flesh’, ‘indwelling sin’ (a shorthand for Romans 7:17) and ‘the law of sin’ are often described by the human term ‘the old nature’. ‘The new nature’ is the human term for God’s seed, a new spirit, the inward man and other related Biblical concepts.

[1] ‘The point, which divides the mass of those who have written and preached on it, as well as of multitudes of those influenced by them, is the question whether the experience described is that of a natural man or of a Christian. It is assumed on both sides that one or other it must be. But the assumption is an error, and the failure of both lies exactly here. It is impossible rightly to understand the passage if applied either to a natural man or to a Christian. There may be, there is, a transitional state constantly found in souls when they are born again, but not yet in conscious deliverance; and this is the precise state here in question. … It is the case of one quickened, but not yet submitting to the righteousness of God. Hence, being jealous for God but ignorant of the full place in which redemption sets the believer, such a soul places itself under law; and the operation of the law is therefore exhibited to us. There is an awakened conscience, but no power. If the new nature were not there, such experience could not be; if the Holy Ghost were there, power would follow, as we see in Romans 8 where we have the proper normal state of the Christian. The state described, however, is in no case I believe final, but transitional, though bad and legal teaching may keep a soul in it till grace acts fully …’ (William Kelly, Notes on Romans (ch. 7).

From: Truth and Testimony, 2023