"Of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named."
(Eph. 3: 15)
Said the Lord Jesus Christ to Nicodemus, a "noble," a "ruler" of the Jews:
“Truly, truly, I say to you, unless someone is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.”Nicodemus said to Him, “How can a person be born when he is old? He cannot enter his mother’s womb a second time and be born, can he?” Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless someone is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which has been born of the flesh is flesh, and that which has been born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not be amazed that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’ The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it is coming from and where it is going; so is everyone who has been born of the Spirit.” (John 3: 3-8 nasb)
There are both similarities and differences between natural birth and spiritual birth. Physical birth is a being "born of the flesh." Spiritual birth is a being "born of the spirit." By natural birth we enter the kingdom of humanity or of the world. By spiritual birth we enter the kingdom of God. In birth a person has both a father and a mother. In being born of the Spirit a person has God for his Father and the community of believers and Jerusalem as his mother. Notice these words of the apostle Peter which further details the differences between birth of the flesh and birth of the spirit.
"Now that you have purified yourselves by obeying the truth so that you have sincere love for each other, love one another deeply, from the heart. For you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God.." (I Peter 1: 22-23 NIV)
Conception and birth result from "seed" and a child begotten in the womb is called "the fruit of the womb." The first birth, natural birth, the birth of flesh, is the product of "perishable" or "corruptible" seed. But, the second birth is the result of "imperishable" or "incorruptible" seed. The seed (Greek sperma) of the second birth is divine seed, the seed of God. It is a metaphor denoting the divine nature and life. The divine life, eternal life, is communicated to the soul and spirit in being "born of God." The Spirit is the agent of rebirth and the instrument is "the living and enduring word (logos) of God," the message or discourse of the gospel, as Peter says "this is the word (message) which by the gospel is announced (preached) unto you." Born "of" the Spirit, "of" the seed, but "through" the word of the gospel. (vs. 25)
Like begets like. Things reproduce "after their kind." (Gen. 1) We saw in the previous chapter how being born of a father involves the son taking on the likeness and image of his father (or mother). Paul said:
"And as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly." (I Cor. 15: 49)
Though this is said in reference to the bodies of believers, yet it is equally true of the soul and spirit. They too bear "the image of the earthy," of the carnal, in their souls. In regeneration (or rebirth) the soul takes on the image of the heavenly and divine. It is in the resurrection that the body will change into the "image of the heavenly."
Birth inaugurates our existence as creatures. In natural birth we become human beings, earthly creatures. In spiritual birth we become spiritual creatures. Wrote Paul: "Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new." (II Cor. 5: 17) Everything is new to a baby when first entering into the world outside of the womb. This is true in both natural and spiritual birth. Every baby is a new creature and "comes into the world" (John 1: 9) as such by birth. The repenting sinner in receiving Christ becomes a child of God through being "born of God" (John 1: 12-13) and comes into the family of God thereby.
By natural birth a man is endowed with physical and mental abilities. By spiritual birth a man is spiritually endowed with abilities in the spirit. In natural birth a newborn requires mother's milk for growth and for preservation of natural life. The same is true in spiritual birth. Wrote Peter: "As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that you may grow thereby." (I Peter 2: 2)
Being born, as we have seen, results from a father's "seed," together of course with the egg from the mother. But, the child born is not only the product of seed, but is also designated as being "seed" itself, a family seed. Christ in his human nature is "the seed of David" and "the seed of Abraham." Also, "Israel after the flesh" (I Cor. 10: 18) is called "the seed of the blessed of the LORD" (Isa. 65: 23) although it was only applicable to those Jews who believed in the Messiah. Those Jews who rejected God and his Messiah do not belong to the true spiritual "seed of the Lord" for they have not been "born of God." They, like all men, are born depraved, born of corruptible seed, and are described as being a "seed of evildoers." Wrote Isaiah:
"Ah sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, a seed of evildoers, children (offspring) that are corrupters: they have forsaken the LORD, they have provoked the Holy One of Israel unto anger, they are gone away backward." (Isa. 1: 4)
The Seed Of The Lord
"A seed shall serve him; it shall be accounted to the Lord for a generation." (Psa. 22: 30)
Believers, those who have been chosen and called by God, are the "seed of the Lord," the seed of Christ. In the parable of the wheat and tares, the children of God are "the good seed," planted by Christ, and the tares are the "bad seed" (tares), sown by the Devil. (Matt. 13) Also, as we will see, God's elect are "the seed of the blessed of the Lord," the "seed of Israel," the "seed of Abraham," the seed that collectively represents the "children of God" and the "family (or household) of God." As such they are "of the seed royal" (Jer. 41: 1; II Kings 11: 1) by their connection with Christ and through their having been begotten of the Father and Spirit. This is the "seed" mentioned in the prophecy of the Messiah in Isaiah chapter fifty three where Messiah is pictured enduring sufferings because he kept in focus the result, saying "he shall see his seed and be satisfied." (Isa. 53: 10) The seed of the Lord are they who have been born into the heavenly family. Every human being is either "good seed" (wheat) or "bad seed" (tares). Believers are the good seed and unbelievers are the tares (weeds). As respecting the seed of the Lord, the seed of Abraham, Paul wrote:
"Not as though the word of God hath taken none effect. For they are not all Israel, which are of Israel: Neither, because they are the seed of Abraham, are they all children: but, In Isaac shall thy seed be called. That is, They which are the children of the flesh, these are not the children of God: but the children of the promise are counted for the seed." (Rom. 9: 6-8)
"Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He saith not, And to seeds, as of many; but as of one, And to thy seed, which is Christ...And if ye be Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise." (Gal. 3: 16, 29)
The first thing to observe is how salvation is promised to a certain people. All the "promises" of eternal life, unending peace and joy, immortality, are directed to a people designated by God the Promisor. "To whom" are the promises made? Not to all men, not to all the seed of Adam. That would be universal salvation. Rather, they are made specifically to one class of people, to those designated as "Israel," as "the seed of Abraham." Paul lays down the premise, saying "to Abraham's seed" are the "promises" directed. They who are of this illustrious seed are equated with that body of people designated as "the children of God." So then, who is "Israel"? Who is "the seed of Abraham"? Who are "the children of God" and "the children of the promise"? Who are "the heirs according to the promise"?
They are not "Israel after the flesh," but are rather "Israel after the spirit," for "they are not all Israel which are of Israel," that is, all they who are of the physical nation according to the flesh are not of the spiritual nation and people, not the true spiritual Israel. There is the physical nation, composed of those who are descended biologically from the genes of Abraham through physical birth, and there is the spiritual nation, composed of those who are "born of God," by a spiritual union with Christ. Paul thus gives two definitions for the name "Israel." He did the same for the name "Jew" when he wrote:
"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, in the spirit, and not in the letter; whose praise is not of men, but of God." (Rom. 2: 28-29)
Being Jewish or an Israelite according to the flesh avails nothing when it comes to becoming a spiritual Jew and Israelite. So too with being one of "the seed of Abraham." The promises of salvation and eternal life and blessing are not made to the physical descendants of Abraham but to his spiritual descendants. Christ is the one true "seed of Abraham," the one to whom the promises are chiefly made, and believers, by their union with Christ by faith, are the true "seed of Abraham," the ones God had in mind when he made promise to the seed of Abraham. Paul specifically and emphatically says that "the children of the flesh" (of Abraham and Israel) "are not the children of God." This calls to mind the statement of the apostle John that we observed in the previous chapter where John says that the children of God are "not born of bloodlines," but "born of God."
Rather, the testimony of the apostle is 1) "they which are of faith, the same are the children of Abraham" and 2) "the blessing of Abraham" comes on "the Gentiles through Jesus Christ" so that 3) "we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith." He strongly asserts - "to Abraham and his seed were the promises made." (Gal. 3: 7, 14, 16) He also affirms that the connection with Abraham is through faith, through a spiritual rebirth, and not through the flesh. But, was not Ishmael of "the seed of Abraham" and therefore entitled to the promise made to Abraham's seed? No, because he was not chosen by God to be the one to whom the Abrahamic promises of eternal blessing pertained. That promise was reserved for a future son of Abraham, to Isaac, called "the child of promise."
God is showing us, through the life stories of Isaac and Ishmael, that it is God's sovereign choice and gracious promise alone which determines who becomes the children of Abraham and heirs of the promises. He first shows that the rejection of Ishmael and the acceptance of Isaac to be the "heir of promise," was not through a physical relation to Abraham, for they were both equally the seed of Abraham. This was a common misunderstanding among the Jews in the first century and before. It was the boast of the Pharisees and Sadducees - "we are Abraham's seed." Jesus responded by denying that they were the real seed of Abraham. He told them that Abraham rejoiced to see his coming, but they were opposing him. John the Baptist also confronted this same boast and said to them - "And think not to say within yourselves, We have Abraham to our father: for I say unto you, that God is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham." (Matt. 3: 9) Recall Paul's affirmation - "if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham's seed and heirs according to the promise." He also wrote:
"Now we, brethren, as Isaac was, are the children of promise. But as then he that was born after the flesh persecuted him that was born after the Spirit, even so it is now. Nevertheless what saith the scripture? Cast out the bondwoman and her son: for the son of the bondwoman shall not be heir with the son of the freewoman. So then, brethren, we are not children of the bondwoman, but of the free." (Gal. 4: 28-31)
Isaac is a picture of saved spiritual people who are born of the Spirit. Ishmael is a picture of unsaved people who are born of the flesh. Isaac's birth was miraculous, both Sarah and Abraham being "dead" as far as being able to reproduce, Sarah's womb being "dead" and Abraham's body as also "dead" (Rom. 4: 19). Ishmael's birth was natural, not supernatural. His birth was of the flesh, but the birth of Isaac was of the Spirit. The birth of Isaac was the result of God's choice and creation of him, the result of God's promise that Abraham would have his heir through Sarah, even though this was no longer humanly possible.
Being like Isaac, the believer is "born after the Spirit," is "the son of the free woman" (Sarah). He is, as a result of God's choice and promise, and from a birth of the Spirit, constituted "heir" of all the "blessings of Abraham," of an "eternal inheritance" (Heb. 9: 15), of "the promises."
The unbeliever, however, is pictured in Ishmael. He was not chosen. He was not born of the Spirit but was only born after the flesh, having only a natural birth. He was the son of a slave (Hagar the Egyptian), the result of Abraham's unbelief in the promise of God and his efforts to choose and produce the promised heir through Hagar. He was different in character from Isaac as a result of his rejection by God and from his being the product of Abraham's unbelief.
Such a noble birth do believers have through being "born of God"! On this nobility we will continue to examine in the next chapter.
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