The New Birth, Part 1

“In Christ Jesus neither circumcision avails anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new creature,” Galatians 6, verse 15.

“For no one can lay any other foundation than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ,” First Corinthians 3, verse 11.

Hear my words, all people, and understand them, all you who imagine that you are Christians and presumptuously boast of the grace, merits, flesh, blood, cross, kingdom and death of the Lord — although we find among you neither Christian faith, brotherly love, repentance, the right use of the sacraments of Christ, the pure doctrine, nor the blameless, godly life which is of God, to which the Scriptures admonish us; neither the true divine service, an evangelical disposition, nor obedience; but throughout nothing else than abominable, dark unbelief, a lewd, carnal life, false doctrine, false, self-devised sacraments, a devilish heart and mind, an accursed, heathenish idolatry under the name of Christ, blind, bloodthirsty tyranny, envious and furious vengefulness against all the children of God; indeed, open obstinacy, disobedience and rejection of the words of Christ and of his Holy Spirit, as may be very plainly perceived and seen throughout the world.

So that you may no longer comfort yourselves with lying and vain hopes, contrary to all the Scriptures, to your eternal damnation, nor glory in vain in the riches and glory of the children of God just mentioned — namely the kingdom, grace, merits, flesh, blood, cross, death and promises of Christ, and so on — which do not yet belong to you, because you are still altogether earthly, carnally and devilishly minded, reject Christ, and do not keep to his Spirit, word and example, without which no one can be a Christian: for this reason I have undertaken, through the merciful grace of the Lord and as far as is in my power, to inform you briefly in this my epistle, by the infallible, powerful, saving word of the holy gospel of Christ and out of the pure doctrine of his holy apostles, who they are, or who they are not, that are endowed through the grace of God, and to whom the gifts, merits and promises of Christ just mentioned belong.

Tell me, most beloved, where or when did you read in the Scriptures, which are the true witness of the Holy Spirit and the plumb line of our consciences, that the unbelieving, disobedient, carnal adulterer, whoremonger, drunkard, avaricious, idolatrous or pompous man had a single promise of the kingdom of Christ and his church, or indeed any part or communion in his merits, death and blood? I tell you the truth: nowhere do we read it in the Scriptures, nor ever will we. But this is what Paul writes: “For if you live after the flesh you shall die.” Adulterers, whoremongers, buggerers, the effeminate, the unclean, idolaters, drunkards, the proud, the avaricious, betrayers of the innocent and shedders of blood, thieves, murderers, backbiters, perjurers, sorcerers, liars, the unmerciful, and those disobedient to God and Christ (if they do not repent) will not inherit the kingdom of God; indeed, their portion will be in the fiery lake which burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death, Romans 8, verse 13; First Corinthians 6, verse 10; Ephesians 5, verse 5.

See, worthy reader, this is God’s irrevocable sentence and judgment on all who live after the flesh, whoever they are: emperor or king, duke or earl, knight or squire, noble or lowly, priest or monk, learned or unlearned, rich or poor, male or female, bond or free. All who live after the flesh must forever remain under the just sentence and eternal wrath of God; otherwise the whole Scriptures are untrue.

Therefore the poor, ignorant people are comforted in vain with masses, matins, vespers, confessions, pilgrimages and holy water, and, what is more, with Christ’s grace, death and blood. The word stands firm: “For if you live after the flesh you shall die; for to be carnally minded is death.” Therefore I advise and entreat you all in general to hear Christ Jesus, who is sent to us from heaven as a witness of the truth; for this is what he says: “Truly I say to you, Except you be converted and become as little children, you shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven.” In another place: “Truly, truly, I say to you, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” Again: “Truly, truly, I say to you, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.”

Faithful reader, take heed: these words are not invented or instituted by man, nor are they the resolution of any council; they are the infallible, precious words which the Son of God, Christ Jesus, brought to us from the mouth of his Father and declared to pious Nicodemus, the scribe, with a double affirmation. That word is powerful and clear, and it refers not only to Nicodemus but to all the children of Adam who have come to the years of maturity. But alas, it is so obscured by the offensive, leavened mire of human commands, statutes and glosses that scarcely one or two in a thousand are found who have the true sense and understanding of the heavenly birth, much less its active nature, power, properties and fruits. Indeed, through their philosophy, wisdom and self-chosen holiness they have brought it so far that the eternal Wisdom of God, Christ Jesus, eternally blessed, has been banished like a poor, senseless fool out of the house of his honor, which is his church, together with his Holy Spirit, word, baptism, Supper, divine worship, separation and blameless example; and the man of sin, the son of perdition, has been put in his place, with his abominable doctrine, idolatrous infant baptism and supper, with his unclean purifications and promises, with his churches, convents, priests, monks, masses, matins, vespers, holy water, images, pilgrimages, purgatory, vigils, confessions, absolutions and so on. In short, all of these are nothing but the doctrines and commands of men, raised up contrary to the Scriptures; an accursed idolatry and abomination; an open denial of the Lord’s death and offering; a despising of the New Testament, or of the covenant which was sealed by the innocent blood of the Lamb; a destroying and laying waste of the saving ordinances of Christ — of doctrine, baptism, Supper, life and separation — abundantly testified in the Scriptures, which ordinance he taught in this world with incontrovertible clearness and power, according to the command of his Father, and left to his children in his word; and no other can ever be established that will stand before him.

In short, the writers and the learned, through their councils, decrees and statutes, together with all the tyranny and violence of the great, have so corrupted everything that scarcely a single article remains whole of all that Christ and his holy apostles taught. I call all the abominations just mentioned, together with the ungodly, carnal life of the whole world, as witnesses; nevertheless they would be called the holy Christian church, and whoever admonishes them in sincere, pure love, with the Spirit and word of the Lord, must be an accursed Anabaptist and heretic. I tell you again: they want to be the Christian church, and it is evident from all their actions that they are not Christians, but carnal, proud, avaricious, lascivious, lewd, drunken, idolatrous, blind heathen; and what is worse, some of them are unmerciful, murderous, ferocious, vengeful and bloodthirsty fiends; many of their works are done according to the will of the devil. We may rightly complain of this; for the righteous judgment has come upon them, so that they cannot be converted and little that is saving remains with them.

O how miserably the fair vineyard is laid waste, and how lamentably its branches are withered! Its walls are broken down; the destroying foxes have destroyed the grapes; the clouds are dry and give no rain; there is neither pruner nor knife at hand, and if there is one, he must be devoured by the dragon or slain by the apocalyptic woman who is drunk with blood. O merciful, gracious Father, how long will this great misery last? Our rulers are like ravenous lions and bears. Our fathers are our betrayers; our leaders, our deceivers; and those who pretend to be our pastors are thieves and murderers of our souls. Well may we sigh and lament from the depths of our hearts, for our house is left to us desolate. For what was formerly the church and kingdom of Christ is now, alas, the church and kingdom of antichrist, and for no other reason than that they ungratefully rejected the word of grace and will not have the ruling Lord Jesus Christ to rule over them with the righteous scepter of his holy word and Spirit. Nevertheless this poor, blind people hope to obtain the grace and promises of God through their infant baptism, masses, confession and similar superstitious ceremonies and idolatries, which they call the true divine service and use as a remedy for their sins. Ah, no, most beloved, no! For Solomon says, “The hope of the ungodly is like dust that is blown away with the wind.” I have said it once and say it again, and that from the mouth of the Lord, who can neither lie nor deceive: “Except you be converted, and become as little children, you shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven.” And: “Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God,” Matthew 18, verse 3; John 3, verse 3.

My beloved reader, take heed to the word of the Lord, and learn for once to know the true God. I warn you faithfully to take heed: he will not save you, nor pardon your sins, nor show you his mercy and grace, except according to his word — namely, if you repent, if you believe, if you are born of him, if you do what he has commanded and walk even as he walked. For if he could save unjustified, carnal man without regeneration, faith and repentance, then he did not teach us the truth; but he is the truth, and there is no lie in him. Therefore I tell you again that you cannot be reconciled with all your masses, matins, vespers, ceremonies, sacraments, councils, statutes and commands under the whole heavens, together with all the popes and their followers from the beginning; for I warn you, they are abominations and not reconciliations. Christ says, “In vain do they honor me,” because they teach the commandments of men. But if you wish by any means to be saved, your earthly, carnal, ungodly life must be reformed; for the Scriptures teach nothing but true repentance and reformation, and present us with admonitions, threatenings, rebukes, miracles, examples, ceremonies and sacraments; and if you do not repent, there is nothing in heaven or on earth that can save you, for without true repentance we are comforted in vain. The prophet says, “O my people, those who lead you cause you to err, and destroy the way of your paths,” Isaiah 3, verse 12. We must be born from above, must be changed and renewed in our hearts, transplanted out of the unrighteous and evil nature of Adam into the true and good nature of Christ, or we can never be saved by any means, human or divine. Wherever true repentance and the new creature are not found (I speak of adults), man must be eternally lost; this is incontrovertibly clear. On this everyone who does not wish to deceive his soul may confidently rely.

The regeneration of which we write, from which comes the penitent, pious life that has the promise, comes only from the word of the Lord, when it is rightly taught, and rightly understood and received in the heart by faith through the Holy Spirit. The first birth of man is out of the first, earthly Adam, and therefore its nature is earthly and Adamic — that is, carnally minded, unbelieving, disobedient and blind in divine things, deaf and foolish — and its end, if it is not renewed by the word, will be damnation and eternal death. If you would therefore have your inborn evil nature reformed, and be free from eternal death and damnation, so that you may obtain with all true Christians what is promised them, you must be born again. For the regenerated are in grace and have the promise, as you have heard. They therefore lead a penitent and new life, for they are renewed in Christ and have received a new heart and spirit. Before, they were earthly and carnally minded, but now they are heavenly and spiritually minded; before, unrighteous, now righteous; before, evil, now good. They live no longer after the old, depraved nature of the first, earthly Adam, but after the new, sincere nature of the new and heavenly Adam, Christ Jesus; as Paul says, “Nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ lives in me.” They renew their poor, weak life daily, more and more, after the image of him who created them; their minds are after the mind of Christ; they gladly walk as he walked; they crucify and mortify their flesh with its evil lusts; they bury their sin with baptism into the Lord’s death and rise with him to a new life; they circumcise their hearts with the word of the Lord, and are baptized with the Holy Spirit into the spotless, holy body of Christ, as obedient members and fellow heirs of his church, according to the true ordinance and word of the Lord. They put on Christ and show his Spirit, nature and power in all their fruits; they fear God with all their heart, and in all their thoughts, words and works seek nothing but the praise of God and the salvation of their beloved brothers. They know nothing of hatred and vengeance, for they love those who hate them, do good to those who despitefully use them, and pray for those who persecute them. They hate and resist avarice, pride, unchastity, pomp, drunkenness, fornication, adultery, hatred, envy, backbiting, lying, cheating, quarreling, bloodshed and idolatry, all impure, carnal works, and forsake the world with all its lusts. They meditate on the law of the Lord day and night; they rejoice at the good and are grieved at the evil; they do not repay evil with evil, but with good; they do not seek themselves or their own good, but what is good for their neighbors, both in body and in soul. They feed the hungry and give drink to the thirsty; they take in the needy, release prisoners, visit the sick, comfort the fainthearted, admonish the erring, and are ready, after their Master’s example, to give their lives for their brothers. Again, their thoughts are pure and chaste; their words are true and seasoned with salt; with them yes is yes and no is no; and their works are done in the fear of the Lord. Their hearts are heavenly and new; their minds peaceful and joyful; they seek righteousness with all their powers. In short, they are so assured in their faith through the Spirit and word of God that, by virtue of their faith, they will valiantly overcome all bloodthirsty, cruel tyrants with all their tortures, punishments, banishments, plundering, stocks, stakes, executioners, tormentors and counsels; and out of a pure zeal, with an innocent, pure, simple yes and no, they are willing to die. The glory of Christ, the sweetness of the word and the salvation of souls are dearer to them than anything under heaven.

See, worthy reader, all those who are born of God with Christ, who conform their weak life to the gospel in this way, are converted in this way and follow the example of Christ, who hear and believe his holy word and follow the commands he gave us in plain words in the holy Scriptures — these form the holy Christian church which has the promise: the true children of God, the brothers and sisters of Christ; for they are born with him of one Father and of the new Eve, the pure, chaste bride. They are flesh of Christ’s flesh and bone of his bone; the spiritual house of Israel; the spiritual city Jerusalem, temple and Mount Zion; the spiritual ark of the Lord, in which are hidden the true bread of heaven, Christ Jesus and his blessed word, the green, blossoming rod of faith, and the spiritual tables of stone with the commands of the Lord written on them. They are the spiritual seed of Abraham, children of the promise, confederates in the covenant of God, and partakers of the heavenly blessings.

These regenerated ones have a spiritual king over them, who rules them by the unbroken scepter of his mouth, namely with his Holy Spirit and Word. He clothes them with the garment of righteousness, of pure white silk; he refreshes them with the living water of his Holy Spirit and feeds them with the bread of life. His name is Christ Jesus. They are the children of peace, who have beaten their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks, and know of no war; and they give to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s and to God the things that are God’s, Isaiah 2, verse 4; Matthew 22, verse 21. Their sword is the sword of the Spirit, which they hold in a good conscience through the Holy Spirit. Their marriage is that of one man and one woman, according to the ordinance of God. Their kingdom is the kingdom of grace, here in hope and hereafter in eternal life, Ephesians 6, verse 17; Matthew 19, verse 5; Matthew 25, verse 1.

Their citizenship is in heaven; and they use the creatures below — eating, drinking, clothing and dwelling — with thanksgiving, for the necessary wants of their own lives and for the free service of their neighbor, according to the word of the Lord, Isaiah 58, verse 7. Their doctrine is the unadulterated word of God, testified through Moses and the prophets, through Christ and the apostles, on which they build their faith and save their souls; and everything that is contrary to it they consider accursed. They use and administer their baptism on the confession of their faith, according to the command of the Lord and the doctrines and practice of the apostles, Mark 16, verse 16.

They celebrate the Lord’s Supper in remembrance of the favors and death of their Lord, and to remind one another of true and brotherly love.

The ban extends to all the proud scorners, great and small, rich and poor, without any respect of persons, who heard and obeyed the word for a season but have fallen away again, and who teach or live offensively in the house of the Lord, until they sincerely repent again.

They sigh and lament daily over their poor, displeasing, evil flesh, and over the many errors and faults of their weak lives. They wage war inwardly and outwardly without ceasing. They seek and call on the Most High; they fight and struggle against the devil, the world and the flesh all their lives, and press on toward the prize of the high calling, that they may obtain it. And they prove by their actions that they believe the word of the Lord, that they know and have Christ in power, and that they are born of God and have him as their Father.

See, worthy reader, as I said before, so I say again: these are the Christians who have the promise and are assured by the Spirit of God, to whom Christ Jesus is given and bestowed, with all his merits, righteousness, intercession, word, cross, suffering, flesh, blood, death, resurrection, kingdom and all his possessions — and all this without merit, given by God out of pure grace. But what kind of doctrine, faith, life, regeneration, baptism, supper, ban and divine service the sectarian churches have, of whatever name, and what kind of reward is promised them in the Scriptures, I will leave the reasonable to meditate upon with the help of the Spirit and word of the Lord.

Here I would call on all the high and mighty lords, princes and rulers under the whole canopy of heaven, and also on all the popes, cardinals, bishops, the wise and the learned, who from the beginning have perverted and darkened the Scriptures, to show us one single word in the whole Bible — I say in the Bible, for we pay no regard to human fables and lies — that an unbelieving, rebellious, carnal man, without true repentance and regeneration, ever was or ever will be saved simply because he boasts of faith and of the death of Christ, or has heard the masses and service of the priests, as the whole world does. If they can, they shall have won the point. But this has never been so from the beginning and never will be to the end of time. If such vile men could be saved without repentance and regeneration, by hearing masses and confessing, as they, poor children, hope without any warrant from Scripture, then we might truly say that the means just mentioned (idolatrous though they are) were stronger than the word of the Lord; for the word knows no mass, but says, “Except you repent, you shall all likewise perish,” Luke 13, verse 3. Then Moses and the prophets, Christ and his apostles would also have been false witnesses and would have miserably deceived us poor sheep, because they directed us onto such a narrow path.