XXXVIII

THE NATURAL MAN AND HOW HE CAN BE MADE, BY
JESUS CHRIST, A WORTHY PARTAKER OF ALL THE

PROVISIONS OF THE CREATOR, GOD, FOR ALL THE
NEEDS OF HIS SOUL

Hitherto much time and space have been devoted to the consideration of the needs of the soul of Man and of the provisions of the Creator, God, for their adequate and satisfactory supply. It is quite as essential indeed that we consider the natural Man and how he may be made worthy to partake freely and without limit of all the amazing and glorious provisions of the Creator, God, for all the needs of his soul.

The natural Man of himself can have no part in the kingdom of heaven. It is a spiritual kingdom and must be spiritually discerned and experienced. The natural Man is dead spiritually, and consequently blind and insensible to the kingdom of heaven and to all of its glorious realities.

A. The Lord Jesus Christ spake very Positively, Definitely, and Clearly on This All-Important Subject in His Interview with Nicodemus.

I. "There was a man of the Pharisees, named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews:

2. The same came to Jesus by night, and said unto him, Rabbi, we know that thou art a teacher come from God:

for no man can do these miracles that thou doest, except God be with him" (John 3: 1, 2).

1. The Natural Man Must Be Born Again

Nicodemus came to Jesus to get first hand information from a teacher direct from God, and he received it. Surely no one was better qualified to afford Nicodemus the information he needed. Accordingly, we must hearken unto and heed the all-inclusive and conclusive statement to Nicodemus by Jesus Christ, not only the teacher from God, but the only begotten Son of God:

3. "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).

This is a far-reaching prohibitory statement. "Except a man" means, except every Man. It includes all men, the whole human race. They are all not only barred from the kingdom of heaven, the kingdom of God, which Jesus Christ was then establishing upon the earth for Man, but from the very sight of it, unless they are born again. Nicodemus did not understand this statement and said unto Jesus,

4. "How can a man be born when he is old? can he enter the second time into his mother's womb, and be born?" (John 3:4).

5. "Again, Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.

6. That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit" (John 3: 5, 6).

In the first part of this second answer of Jesus Christ,

He specified the two births a man must undergo before he can enter into the kingdom of God. He must be born of water and of the Spirit.

In the second part of this answer of Jesus, He made known to Nicodemus the character of these two births and what would come of them. First, the birth of water is the birth of the flesh and the birth of the Spirit is the birth of the spirit.

Second, that which is born of water, of the flesh, is the flesh Man, the carnal Man, the natural Man; and that which is born of the spirit is the flesh Man, the carnal Man, the natural Man, born again of the Spirit and becomes a spirit Man.

A third time Jesus said unto Nicodemus:

7. "Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again" (John 3:7).

While Nicodemus was a Pharisee, a ruler of the Jews, and doubtless a moral and devout man according to the law of Moses, he was yet only a flesh man, a carnal man, a natural man, and must be born again of the Spirit, to be able to see or enter into the Kingdom of God.

Without question, Nicodemus was ready to do anything that Jesus, the teacher come from God, might require of him. He must have been exceedingly perplexed to learn that he could do nothing, that he was a dead man that needed to be born again.

Jesus then proclaimed to the astonished Nicodemus the glorious gospel of the Kingdom of God, that, since he could do nothing of himself to gain entrance into the kingdom of God, he was required to do nothing, but to believe in the all-righteous substitute, Jesus Christ, provided by

God for all men and for him, and receive eternal life and the right to enter into the Kingdom of God.

2. How He Can and Must Be Born Again

This gospel was made very clear to Nicodemus by the following very plain, but all-inclusive and conclusive declaration of Jesus Christ:

14. "And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up:

15. That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life" (John 3: 14, 15).

Nicodemus was well acquainted with the incident of the brazen serpent in the wilderness, recorded in Hebrew history, as follows:

4. "And they journeyed from mount Hor by the way of the Red sea, to compass the land of Edom: and the soul of the people was much discouraged because of the way.

5. And the people spake against God, and against Moses, Wherefore have ye brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? for there is no bread, neither is there any water; and our soul loatheth this light bread.

6. And the Lord sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people; and much people of Israel died.

7. Therefore the people came to Moses, and said, We have sinned, for we have spoken against the Lord, and against thee; pray unto the Lord, that he take away the serpents from us. And Moses prayed for the people.

8. And the Lord said unto Moses, Make thee a fiery serpent, and set it upon a pole: and it shall come to pass, that every one that is bitten, when he looketh upon it, shall live.

9. And Moses made a serpent of brass, and put it upon

a pole, and it came to pass, that if a serpent had bitten any man, when he beheld the serpent of brass, he lived" (Num. 21:4-9).

Because of their sins the Lord sent fiery serpents among the Israelites, whose bites meant certain death. Repentant of their sins, they asked Moses to pray unto the Lord to take away the serpents. In answer to the prayer of Moses, the Lord did not take away the serpents. They were left to bite the people, but He ordered Moses, "Make thee a fiery serpent, and set it upon a pole, and it shall come to pass, that every one that is bitten, when he looketh upon it, shall live."

When any of the Israelites were bitten by these serpents, there was no human cure for them. The bites of the serpents were followed by certain death, but as soon as they looked upon the brazen serpent they were healed. They were not healed, however, by the brazen serpent, but by the Lord God Himself; because they believed His word and obeyed His commandment.

In like manner, said the Lord Jesus, "must the Son of man be lifted up, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life" (John 3:15).

When the bitten Israelite beheld the substitute serpent of brass upon the pole he was instantly cured and saved from temporal death; but remained the same natural When, however, the natural Man believes in the Son of Man, Jesus Christ who died for him upon the cross, he is not only instantly saved from perishing, but is given a new life, a spirit life, an eternal life.

man.

The bitten Israelite had but to look upon the serpent and live, and the natural Man with all of his sin has but