The New Birth

Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. JOHN 3:3

When Wesley wanted to name the fundamental doctrines of Christianity, he named two. In his sermon The New Birth he says that if any doctrines may properly be called fundamental, “they are doubtless these two, — the doctrine of justification, and that of the new birth”. The first concerns the great work God does for us, in forgiving our sins; the second, the great work He does in us, in renewing our fallen nature. When he preached at Whitefield’s funeral he summed up his friend’s message in the same two phrases. The new birth was the heartbeat of the revival.

For us and in us

Wesley is careful about how justification and the new birth relate. In order of time, he says, neither comes before the other. In the very moment we are justified by grace through the redemption in Jesus, we are also born of the Spirit. But in order of thinking, justification comes first: we first conceive God’s wrath to be turned away, and then His Spirit to work in our hearts.

This matters because it guards two truths. The new birth is not the ground of our acceptance; we are not forgiven because we have been changed. But forgiveness is never without change. No one is justified who is not also born again, and no one is born again who is not also justified. The same moment brings both.

Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new. 2 CORINTHIANS 5:17

What the new birth is

To explain what the new birth is, Wesley follows Jesus’s own analogy. Before a child is born, he says, it has eyes but sees nothing, ears but hears nothing; it has scarcely any use of its senses and no knowledge of the world it is about to enter. So it is with the soul before it is born of God. It has spiritual senses, but they are closed. It does not see God, does not hear His voice, does not feel His love.

But when a person is born of God, all this changes. The eyes of the understanding are opened. He hears the inward voice of God saying, Be of good cheer, thy sins are forgiven thee. He feels the love of God shed abroad in his heart. And by a kind of spiritual respiration, as Wesley calls it in a companion sermon, grace descends into the soul and prayer and praise ascend to heaven, and the life of God in the soul is sustained.

Then comes his definition. The new birth is “that great change which God works in the soul when he brings it into life; when he raises it from the death of sin to the life of righteousness.” It is the change wrought in the whole soul by the Spirit of God, when the love of the world is changed into the love of God, pride into humility, passion into meekness, and hatred, envy and malice into a sincere and tender love for all mankind.

Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost. TITUS 3:5

Why it is necessary

Wesley gives three reasons why we must be born again. First, it is necessary for holiness, because gospel holiness is not a round of outward duties but “the image of God stamped upon the heart”, and that cannot begin until the heart is renewed. Second, it is necessary for eternal salvation, because without holiness no man shall see the Lord. Third, it is necessary for happiness, even in this world, because while pride, self-will and the love of the world reign in a soul, happiness has no place there.

Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord. HEBREWS 12:14

Not baptism, not sanctification

Wesley draws some careful inferences. First, baptism is not the new birth. He was an Anglican, and he accepted his Church’s teaching that infants baptised are at the same time born again. But he argues from the Church’s own catechism that baptism is the outward sign and the new birth the inward grace, and that the two can be separated. Whatever be the case with infants, he says, it is certain that not all of riper years who are baptised are born again; the tree is known by its fruits, and many continue servants of sin after baptism as before. In The Marks of the New Birth he tells such people bluntly to lean no more on the staff of that broken reed, that they were born again in baptism.

For he is not a Jew, which is one outwardly; neither is that circumcision, which is outward in the flesh: But he is a Jew, which is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart. ROMANS 2:28–29

Second, the new birth is not the whole of sanctification. It is “the gate to it, the entrance into it.” As a child is born in a moment and then grows by degrees, so a person is born of God in a short time, if not in a moment, and then grows gradually to the stature of Christ. This distinction would become important in Wesley’s teaching on perfection.

The marks of the new birth

In a companion sermon, The Marks of the New Birth, Wesley sets out the signs by which a person may know he is born of God, and he takes them from Scripture: faith, hope and love. The faith is not a mere assent but a sure trust in God’s mercy through Christ, and its constant fruit is power over sin. The hope is a lively hope, the witness of the Spirit with our spirit that we are children of God. The love is love for God and for our neighbour, shown in keeping His commandments.

Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is. 1 JOHN 3:2

Where to read with care

Wesley’s handling of baptism will satisfy neither those who think it has nothing to do with regeneration nor those who think it always effects it. He accepted that God regenerates infants in baptism, and also insisted that baptised adults living in sin must be born again. Readers will weigh that as their own traditions lead them. What he would not allow was any outward rite to take the place of an inward change. Go to church twice a day, he says, go to the Lord’s table every week, read ever so many good books: still, you must be born again.

FOR REFLECTION AND ACTION

1. Wesley calls justification and the new birth the two fundamental doctrines. Can you explain in your own words the difference between what God does for you and what He does in you?

2. Ask whether you are relying on any outward sign — baptism, membership, attendance — in place of an inward change.

3. Look for the marks of the new birth in your life: a trusting faith, a living hope, a practical love. Thank God for what you find, and ask for what is lacking.

4. The new birth is necessary for happiness. Where are you seeking happiness away from God?

5. If you are not sure you have been born again, pray the prayer Wesley gives at the end of The New Birth, asking God to deny you anything else rather than this.

A PRAYER

Lord, You have said that except a man be born again he cannot see Your kingdom. Do not let me rest in any outward thing.

If I have not been born of Your Spirit, give me this above all Your gifts. Take away whatever You please, but give me a new heart.

Open the eyes of my understanding, let me hear Your voice, and let me feel Your love shed abroad within me.

And let me grow from that new birth into the whole mind that was in Christ Jesus. Amen.