The fundamental fact in Christian life.
This is regeneration. The Jew might find it in circumcision; the Gentile, in liberty; but "in Jesus Christ neither circumcision availeth anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new creation" Consider—
I. THAT CHRIST OBLITERATES THE MOST HIGHLY VALUED DISTINCTIONS,
1. In him the old separating distinctions are no longer in force. They have ceased to be. Jews and Gentiles are made one in Christ. They are fellow-citizens, of the same body, of the household of God (Ephesians 2:19). They are made "one new man."
2. In him the old separating distinctions have lost all their value. Neither circumcision nor uncircumcision ever availed anything for justification. The Jew might be ready enough to concede the point as to uncircumcision, but he would be offended to hear that his circumcision availed nothing. The sentence of the apostle cuts up by the roots all the ritualism of the Churches. Eating of meats, celibacy, holidays, are nothing; we are no better for abstaining nor are we the worse for eating.
II. THAT THE FUNDAMENTAL FACT IN CHRISTIANITY IS REGENERATION.
1. This constitutes it an entirely spiritual system, in which the outer is nothing, the inward is everything. It is not a mere change of opinion, or of party, or of outward life. It is not of "blood; "—men may be noble by birth, but they cannot be holy by birth; "not of the will of man," as many a godly father knows by bitter experience as he mourns over the waywardness of ungodly children.
2. The new life originates in Christ. "If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature" (2 Corinthians 5:17). The spiritual renewal springs from union with Christ. It is "not of the will of man," for man cannot change his own heart. Christ is our very Life (Galatians 2:20).
3. It is a new life; for it has new thoughts, new desires, new principles, new affections, and stands in everlasting relation to the new name, the new song, the new Jerusalem, the new heavens, and the new earth. The new birth, in a word, has ushered the believer into a new world.