THE DEFINING FIRST DOCTRINE IN JOHN’S GOSPEL
The first chapter of John’s gospel introduces the New Man, the Word become flesh, first of a new order of humanity. He was also the Second Man in divine purpose (I Cor:15:47) and the Spirit alludes to this in the words of John Baptist “… He that cometh after me is preferred beforeme …..”. Students of Scripture will have noted the divine preference for a second man, enshrined in many Old Testament types commencing with Abel.
So, in chapter 1 we have the first New Man, in chapter 2 the first miracle and in chapter 3 the first doctrine, important and defining in its implications.
First things in scripture are significant and the words of the Lord to Nicodemus define a fundamental principle for the new Christian era. He made clear that natural man could neither see nor enter the kingdom of God, indicating it was unseen by natural faculties and therefore spiritual in nature. On a later occasion He would say, “My kingdom is not of this world”. A spiritual kingdom could be discerned only by spiritual means, by being born-again into a spiritual life.
It follows, therefore, that the Kingdom of God is a spiritual sphere of fellowship, one which is unseen and unknown so far as the world of natural man is concerned. According to the Lord’s teaching, the natural and spiritual spheres are entirely different and separate, their mutual exclusivity emphasised by His words in verse 6, “That which is born of the flesh is flesh and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit”. The corollary is that the Kingdom of God in its present spiritual form, the divine system of Christianity represented by local New Testament churches or assemblies, is solely concerned with spiritual things, the unseen things that are eternal (2 Cor.4:18).
The apostle Peter understood this principle for he described each local gathering of dispersed Jewish saints as living (born-again) stones built up a spiritual house (1 Pet.2:5), while Paul described the saints at Corinth as a (spiritual) garden, building and temple (1 Cor.3). As already indicated, he then went on to say, “We look not at the things which are seen but at the things which are unseen …….. but the things which are unseen are eternal” (2 Cor.4:18).
It is clear from these scriptures that the flesh (human nature in all its aspects) and the secular things of daily life form no part of the spiritualsystem of Christianity. That the inherited tradition of Christendom dictates otherwise merely demonstrates that its tradition is wrong. Christendom is a counterfeit work of Satan designed to confuse believers and convince the unregenerate that it is Christianity. In order to achieve this aim it presents the things of God in a naturalistic way so that natural man can readily comprehend them. It brings spiritual things down to the natural level, interpreting Scripture in terms of morals, social graces, etc. with the view to improving human nature and man’s world. This is the tradition mistakenly subscribed to by many of the Lord’s people; it is Satan’s grotesque misrepresentation of God’s spiritual system for the new man and should be rejected by every born-again saint.
The believer clearly has a secular life and a spiritual life, subject to commandments of the Lord relating to both. He is thus a new (spiritual) creation in Christ involved with unseen things, principally in House of God circumstances, whilst also being involved with the natural, seenthings of secular life, the two activities being entirely different and separate.
The Lord’s defining first doctrine also has implications for the interpretation of Scripture. Failure to note the distinction He draws between the natural and spiritual conditions is to approach divine things from the naturalistic standpoint of Nicodemus. The inevitable result is that our understanding of Scripture falls short of the Spirit’s intentions with undesirable consequences for both secular and spiritual life. The correct interpretation of divine revelation will always have this defining principle as its starting point, viz. that we are a spiritual people concerned in the Christian walk with spiritual things.
However, to deny the explicit meaning of the Lord’s words, even to the point of opposing exposition of them, is to follow the rebellion of the Pharisees.
Paul had no difficulty recognising the spiritual nature of The Faith; writing to the saints at Corinth he said, “…… the letter killeth but the Spirit giveth life” (2 Cor.3:6). A ministry which takes no account of the Lord’s stated distinction between the natural and spiritual conditions is a ministry of (spiritual) death.
The divine system of Christianity cannot properly be understood or practiced without embracing the clear implications of the Lord’s ministry to Nicodemus.