James 1:18

Jam_1:18

Of His own will begat He us

Spiritual life: its cause and its grandeur

Let us consider--

I.

THE AUTHOR:

II. THE NATURE:

III. THE INSTRUMENT: and

IV. THE END OF THE GREAT CHANGE.

I. WE HAVE GAINED THE SUMMIT OF THE MOUNTAIN OF TRUTH WHEN WE REACH GOD. What wonders, majesties, mysteries, lovelinesses centre in that name! He is the blessed and only Potentate on whom eternity and creation and redemption repose. How God as a sovereign works the salvation of a soul from the slavery and death of sin, in conformity with the laws of free agency and responsibility, may be incomprehensible to us; but surely there is nothing unreasonable in affirming that infinite perfection works out everything in the highest scale of moral excellence, and in accordance with the designs of Divine wisdom, justice and love, amid a world full of sinful but accountable creatures

III. IN FREE, RICH, AND SOVEREIGN GRACE, THEREFORE, THE LORD BEGETS US. And the outcome means life--spiritual, heavenly, Divine. It is not a mere polishing of the human spirit, or the giving of a right direction to its faculties only. The grandeur of the change is implied in such phrases as, being born of God; passing of death to life; a new creature; quickened with Christ from the death of sin; the washing of regeneration; and the new heart, out of which proceed thoughts, affections, principles, desires, and hopes--all new. The day of its occurrence is called a day of power; a time of refreshing; a springtime of grace. God draws and renews the soul in mercy and truth, and re-traces on it the lines of His own likeness in knowledge, righteousness, and true holiness. It must not be forgotten that a moral life, however estimable in the sight of men, is not acceptable with God unless it be the offspring of the new birth, By no means can a dead soul please a living God. The tree must be made good by the omnipotent workmanship of God, or the fruit will be apples of Sodom. The necessity of life from God is proved by such varieties of evidence as bespeak the greatness of the gift; and show at the same time the criminal nature and heinous guilt of unbelief. The perfect law of liberty demands a pure heart that loves God with all its strength and mind and soul. From every throne and crown of glory and harp of gold in heaven there flashes the demonstration that a sinful man must be born again before he can enter the gate of the golden city.

III. THE WORD OF TRUTH IS THE INSTRUMENT OF CONVERSION. Truth is God at work on a human spirit, for its rectification and investiture with His own perfection and beatitude. The gospel derives its power from the image of God which it mirrors forth; from the knowledge of sin and wrath which it communicates; from its professed design to set forth the propitiation and grace of the Lord Jesus, to make men partakers of the Holy Ghost, of Gods righteousness, and the sunshine of His favour. More glorious than the law, and revealing life and immortality, it moulds men into saints, and constrains them to love and obedience. The gospel is all grace. Invented by God to communicate this blessedness and glory, its excellency is infinite. It civilises, it moralises, it converts. It is the glory of Jehovah that He gave the gospel; of any people, that they possess it; of a soul, that its unsearchable riches are his own; of heaven, that it is the field where its wealth and its wonders shall be displayed; of eternity, that it alone can contain all its magnificence.

IV. THE DESIGN OF GOD IN REGENERATION IS TO MAKE US A KIND OF FIRSTFRUITS OF HIS CREATURES. The incomparable excellence of the new life is seen in the formation of holy character in the sense of duty, which is power. Believers feel themselves to be the property of the great High Priest who bought them; in everything they are desirous to please Him. Under the imperishable principles of the living Word, they are shaped after the Divine likeness in bliss, purity, and moral greatness. It was a law in Israel that the first fruits should be offered to God; and preceded by an oblation for sin, they were accepted by God in worship as a grateful acknowledgment that the riches of the harvest and the beauties of spring and the products of the vegetable and animal kingdom are His. And so it is that ransomed souls in whom the Divine life is, are claimed by God; and, devoted to Him, are, through the expiatory sacrifice of the Lord Jesus, most acceptable in His sight. I have redeemed them, and they are Mine: I have made a covenant with them, and they are Mine: and they shall be Mine in the day when I make up My jewels. Furthermore, the firstfruits, ripened by sun, earth, and air, have the beauty of maturity in their fulness and bloom, and were thus an appropriate offering to Infinite perfection. In the mode in which they were offered we are taught the duty and the privilege of all living souls to dedicate themselves to God in faith, fear and joy. For there is great dignity and excellence about the righteous man. He has better principles than others; a better heart; better affections; better dispositions; and better prospects. He is a son of God; one with Christ; righteous in the Just One; a peculiar treasure to the Majesty of Heaven; a king divinely born; and oh! wonderful, partaker of the Divine nature by grace, and destined to be filled with the fulness of God! The sons begotten of God are the firstfruits of His creatures. That is, the regenerated of the human family are the promise and the seal of the great and glorious change that awaits creation. (W. Magill, D. D.)

Regeneration

1. That which engaged God to the work of regeneration was merely His own will and good pleasure (Rom_9:18). Gods will is the reason of all His actions; you will find the highest cause to be will, love, and mercy. God can have no higher motive, nothing without Himself, no foresight of faith and works, He was merely inclined by His own pleasure (Joh_15:16). This is applicable divers ways.

(1) To stir us up to admire the mercy of God, that nothing should dispose His heart but His own will; the same will that begat us, passed by others: whom He will He sayeth, and whom He will He hardeneth.

(2) It informeth us the reason why, in the work of regeneration, God acteth with such liberty: God acteth according to His pleasure; the Holy One of Israel must not be limited and confined to our thoughts (Joh_3:8).

2. The calling of a soul to God is, as it were, a new begetting and regeneration. This is useful--

(1) To show us the horrible depravity of our nature; repairing would not serve the turn, but God must new make and new create us, and beget us again.

(2) To show us that we are merely passive in our conversion: it is a begetting, and we contribute nothing to our own forming (Psa_100:4).

(3) It showeth us two properties of conversion.

(a) There will be life. A man cannot have interest in Christ, but he will receive life from Him.

(b) There will be a change. At the first God bringeth in the holy frame, all the seeds of grace; and therefore there will be a change: of profane, carnal, careless hearts, they are made spiritual, heavenly, holy Eph_5:8).

3. It is the proper work of God to begetus: He begat. It is sometimes ascribed to God the Father, as here, and so, in other places, to God the Son: believers are His seed. (Isa_53:10). Sometimes to the Spirit Joh_3:6). God the Fathers will: Of His own will begat He us. God the Sons merit: through His obedience we have the adoption of sons Gal_4:5). God the Spirits efficacy: by His overshadowing the soul is the new creature hatched and brought forth. It is ascribed to all the three Persons together in one place (Tit_3:5-6). It is true, the ministers of the gospel are said to beget, but it is as they are instruments in Gods hands. So Paul saith, I begat you (1Co_4:15); and of Onesimus he saith, Whom I begat in my bonds (Phm_1:10). God loveth to put His own honour many times upon the instruments. Well, then--

(1) Remove false causes. You cannot beget yourselves, that were monstrous; you must look up above self, and above means, to God, who must form you after His own image.

(2) It showeth what an honourable relation we are invested with by the new birth. He begat us. God is our Father; that engageth His love, and care, and everything that can be dear and refreshing to the creature.

4. The ordinary means whereby God begetteth us is the gospel (1Co_4:15; 1Pe_1:23). The influences of the heavens make fruitful seasons, but yet ploughing is necessary. It is one of the sophisms of this age to urge the Spirits efficacy as a plea for the neglect of the means.

5. The gospel is a word of truth; so it is called, not only in this, but in divers other places (2Co_6:7; Eph_1:12; Col_1:5; 2Ti_2:15). You may constantly observe that in matters evangelical the Scriptures speak with the greatest certainty; the comfort of them is so rich, and the way of them is so wonderful, that there we are apt to doubt most, and therefore there do the Scriptures give us the more solemn assurance (1Ti_1:15). (T. Manton.)

The new birth: its nature, means, and object

I. THE NEW CREATION. By necessity of birth the state of every infant is guilty, and, therefore, subject to con-detonation. Original sin rests on its head, and subjects it to the penalties of death; so that in law it stands as a criminal convicted, and, therefore, incapable of heavenly privileges. But by the laver of baptism made a recipient of heavenly prerogatives, and thus far innocent in the sight of God, it is capable of receiving those spiritual privileges, which are Divinely ordered to flow from this source. It becomes incorporated into the Church, and, consequently, a member of Christ; whence proceeds its adoption as a son, and its title to an inheritance in the kingdom of heaven. And not only so, but a principle of new life is infused into him. His very nature is changed. In understanding, will, affections, and conscience, he is altogether different.

II. THE ORIGINAL CAUSE OF REGENERATION. Creation is a prerogative solely vested in God. No finite being possesses it. Man is incapable of changing his own state and nature; as incapable of effecting his own regeneration as of bringing himself originally into being. St. John speaks of the regenerated as born of God; St. Paul as partakers of the Divine nature; and again, as being His workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto good works.

III. THE IMPULSIVE OR MOVING CAUSE OF REGENERATION--the will of God The original expression signifies, not will merely, but good will; that is, a decree of the mind caused by His grace in behalf of fallen men. Mans regeneration could not proceed from any advantages accruing to God; for the salvation of a thousand worlds could not add to His happiness, nor their destruction detract from His felicity.

IV. THE INSTRUMENTAL CAUSE OF REGENERATION. AS God in His providence always works His pleasure by instruments, so it is in the kingdom of grace; and that which there effects His purposes is the gospel or Word of truth. By a single expression of His will He might convert the millions that are on earth; but He prefers treating them as reasonable beings with a moral agency, and using means to make them workers together with Him in their own regeneration. And the means He adopts is truth, Divine truth, as expressed in the gospel of His Son, and as set forth in the means of grace flowing through His Church. How these effect their purpose, the mode of their operation, is a mystery hidden in the secrets of God. He has drawn a veil as ranch over His mode of re-creation, as over the philosophy of His own essence, and the original principle of things animate or inanimate. But thus much we do know--that, though He can beget without the Word, the Word cannot beget without Him. It is as seed, which the dew and sun of heaven must act upon, or it will never yield a grain to the will of the sower.

V. THE FINAL CAUSE OF REGENERATION--dedication to God. Christians are a kind of first-fruits of His creatures, the spiritual antitypes, whereof the law-type of the first-fruits was a figure.

1. For, first, they have been redeemed from a bondage worse than that of Egypt. They have been bought with a price, and hence are no longer their own, but His who redeemed them. They answer, then, the character of first-fruits in the object of the oblation, being Gods by right of purchase and possession.

2. Hence, also, like the first-fruits, they are separated from the rest of their kind. They differ from the unchristian world in nature, in maxims and principles, in spirit and temper, in company and conduct. (John Budgen, M. A.)

Regeneration the gift of God

Here is a splendid specimen of Gods good gifts, in that He has given us eternal life through His Son Jesus. This life is the climax of Divine goodness, as death, the child of sin, is the climax of human badness. It was free. It came by no law, it was produced by no necessity, it was the product of no natural evolution, it arose from His own goodness and lovingness. He emphasises us in addressing Hebrew Christians. They were originally chosen by His Divine goodness to be the repository of the oracles of God, the ark, so to speak, which should bear the truth of God down the stream of the centuries. When the fulness of time had come, and Jesus inaugurated the ripened plans for the worlds salvation, those Israelites who earliest became Christians had the distinction of being a kind of first-fruits of all Gods creatures. Christianity had completed to them the revelation that under God the highest beings are men, that humanity is to take the lead of the universe, that men are superior to angels, and men are to live for ever, and are to lead and govern and teach the intelligences of the universe, that those individuals of humanity who are to do this are those who receive eternal life through Jesus Christ, and that the first, as the first-fruits of an abundant harvest, are those Jews who were early in Christ, having been begotten by the Word of truth. (C. F. Deems, D. D.)

The second birth

Every real Christian upon earth has been twice begotten--twice born. First, he was born naturally, and he became a man; then he was born spiritually, and he became a new man. His first birth is to be calculated by his age--his second birth by the length of time that he has been living unto God. This second birth is, on various accounts, a far more excellent one than the first, and is attended with privileges of an infinitely higher order and degree.

I. First, our text points out the AUTHOR of this second birth. He begat us, it says--and of whom does it speak thus? He, then, and He alone, is the Author of the second birth--the Father of the spiritual life of the regenerated soul.

II. His MOTIVE. None of those men to whom He hath given a new birth could be said to deserve to be new born. What, then, determined God to make them new creatures? Of His own will begat He us. And so say a multitude of other texts (Eph_1:5; Rom_9:18; 2Ti_1:9; Tit_3:5).

III. THE MEANS WINCH HE EMPLOYED. We have seen why His people were begotten. Let us now see how--How, at least, in reference to the outward instrument made use of. For who can tell how the process is carried on within? We do, however, know the outward instrument and means which it pleases God to make use of. It is the Word of truth. And what is this Word of truth? The blessed gospel, either as it is written or preached. This, says St. James, is the instrument of mans conversion.

IV. THE END WHICH HE PROPOSED. That we should be, says he, a kind of first-fruits of His creatures. (A. Roberts, M. A.)

Regeneration more than self-improvement

Malan asked a joiner, who said he wished to render himself worthy of the grace of God, whether he had ever succeeded by careful polishing, in turning a piece of common wood into ebony. (J. F. B. Tinling, B. A.)

Necessity of the new birth

A man has bought a farm, and he finds on that farm an old pump. He goes to the pump and begins to pump. And a person comes to him and says, Look here, my friend, you do not want to use that water. The man that lived here before, he used that water, and it poisoned him and his wife and his children--the water did. Is that so? says the man. Well, I will soon make that right. I will find a remedy. And he goes and gets some paint, and he paints up the pump, putties up all the holes, and fills up the cracks in it, and has got a fine-looking pump. And he says, Now I am sure it is all right. You would say, What a Joel, to go and paint the pump when the water is bad! But that is what sinners are up to. They are trying to paint up the old pump when the water is bad. It was a new well he wanted. When he dug a new well it was all right. Make the fountain good, and the stream will be good. Instead of painting the pump and making new resolutions, my friend, stop it, and ask God to give you a new heart. (D. L. Moody.)

With the Word of truth

The Word the instrument of regeneration

Of His own will; by His mere molten, induced by no cause but the goodness in His own breast.

1. To distinguish it from the generation of the Son, which is natural, this voluntary.

2. Not by a necessity of nature, but by an arbitrariness of grace.

3. Not by any obligation from the creature; the will of God is opposed to the merit of man. Begat us, or brought us forth; for the same word (Jam_1:15) is translated brings forth. By the Word of truth, a title given to the gospel both in the Old and New Testament.

And it is called truth by way of excellency, as paramount to all other truth.

1. Either, by an Hebraism, the word of truth; that is, the true word.

2. Or rather, by way of eminency, as containing a higher truth, more excellent in itself, more advantageous for the creature, than any other Divine truth; wherein the highest glory of God, the sure and everlasting happiness of the creature, is set forth; a word which He hath magnified above all His name (Psa_138:2).

And called the Word of truth.

1. In regard of the Author, truth itself; and the Publisher, He who was the Way, the Truth, and the Life.

2. In opposition to all false doctrines, which can never be the instruments of conversion; for error to convert to truth is the same thing as for darkness to diffuse light, or water to kindle fire.

3. In opposition to the windy and fleshy conceits of men, which can no more be instrumental in the begetting a Christian than mere wind can beget a man.

4. In opposition to the legal shadows, the gospel declares the truth of these types. The law was the word of truth, but referred to the gospel as the great end of it. This contains the whole and ultimate purpose of God, for saving men by Jesus Christ, and in Him enriching them with all spiritual blessings, and not by the works of the law; and thus the Spirit, which enlightens and seals instruction upon our souls, is called the Spirit of truth Joh_14:17.

I. FOR EXPLICATION, TAKE SOME PROPOSITIONS.

1. It is not the law that is this instrument. It is true, the law considered in itself is preparatory to cast men down; but the law without the gospel never brought any man to Christ.

2. The gospel is this instrument. It is an instrument to strike off the fetters, and draw out the soul to a glorious liberty.

(1) It is not a natural instrument, to work by any natural efficacy, as food doth nourish, the sun shines, or the air and water cools, or as a sharp knife cuts if it be applied to fit matter. If it were thus natural, it would not be of grace.

(2) It is the only instrument appointed by God to this end in an ordinary way.

(3) It is, therefore, a necessary instrument. In regard of the reasonable creature there must be some declaration. God doth not ordinarily work but by means, and doth not produce anything without them which may be done with them. It is necessary the revelation of this gospel we have should be made. No man can see that which is not visible, or hear that which has no sound, or know that which is not declared. This necessity will further appear, if we consider that it always was so. Adam and Eve were the first after the Fall wherein God did constitute His Church, whose regeneration and conversion were wrought by that promise of the seed of the woman made to them in Paradise (Gen_3:21). It seems to be the standing instrument of it to the end of the world (Psa_68:18, compared with Eph_4:8-9). It is necessary, by Gods appointment, for all the degrees of the new birth, and all the appendixes to it. As God created the world by the Word of His power, and by the Word of His providence bid the creatures increase and multiply, so by the Word of the gospel He lays the foundation, and rears the building of His spiritual house. As it is not a natural instrument, but the only instrument appointed by God, and therefore, upon these and other accounts, a necessary instrument, so it is an instrument which makes mightily for Gods glory. The meaner the appearance of the instrument, the more evident the power and skill of the workman. Consider, as it is an instrument, so but an instrument. God begets by the Word; the chief operation depends upon the Spirit of God. No sword can cut without a hand to manage it; no engine batter without a force to drive it.

II. How DOTH THE WORD WORK?

1. Objectively, as it is a declaration of Gods will, as it doth propose to the understanding what it is to be known, in order to salvation. The Spirit gave us an eye to see, and the Word is the light which discovers the object to the eye. The two chief parts of the Word are--

(1) The discovery of our misery by nature.

(2) A second discovery is of the necessity and existence of another bottom. It discovers our misery by nature, and our remedy by Christ.

2. The Word seems to have an active force upon the will, though the manner of it be very hard to conceive. It is operative in the hand of God for sanctification.

III. THE USE.

1. How admirable, then, is the power of the gospel! It is a quickening Word, not a dead; a powerful Word, not a weak (Heb_4:12).

(1) It is above the power of all moral philosophy. How excellent is that gospel which hath done that for the renewing of millions of souls, which all the wit and wisdom of the choicest philosophers could never effect upon one heart!

(2) Above the power of the law. The natural law makes us serve God by reason, the Mosaical by fear, and the gospel by love.

(3) Its power appears in the subjects it hath been instrumental to change. Souls bemired in the filthiest lusts have been made miraculously clean; it hath changed the hands of rapine into instruments of charity, hearts full of filth into vessels of purity; it hath brought down proud reason to the obedience of faith, and made active lusts to die at the foot of the Cross.

(4) The power of it is seen in the suddenness of its operation. In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, like the change at the last resurrection (1Co_15:51-52).

(5) And this hath been done many times by one part, one particle of the Word. One word of the gospel, a single sentence, hath erected a heavenly trophy in a soul, which all the volumes of the choicest mere reason could never erect; one plain Scripture hath turned a face to heaven that never looked that way before, and made a man fix his eye there against his carnal interest.

(6) And this power appears in the simplicity of it. The gospel is, then, certainly of Divine authority. It shows us the reason why the gospel is so much opposed by Satan in the world. It begets those for heaven whom he had begotten for bell. We see, then, how injurious they are to God, who would obstruct the progress of the gospel in the world, that would hinder the reading and the preaching of the Word. It informs us that the gospel shall then endure in the world, as long as God hath any to beget. Men may puff at it, but they cannot extinguish it; it is a Word of truth, and truth is mighty, and will prevail. It is a sign, then, God hath some to beget, when He brings His gospel to any place. He hath a pleasure to accomplish, and it shall not return unto Him void. It informs us what an excellent thing is new birth! The end is more desirable than the means; this is the chief end of all the ordinances of God in the world. What a lamentable thing is it that so few should be now begotten by the Word of truth! Hereby you may examine whether you are new begotten. It instructs ministers how to preach. The opening the Word is the life of it, and the true means of regeneration. Highly glorify God for the Word of truth, which is so great an instrument. How thankful should we be for an invention, to secure our estates from consuming, houses from burning, bodies from dying! The gospel, the Word of truth, doth much more than this. Bless God in your hearts--

1. That ever you had the Word of truth made known to you.

2. Much more that it has been successful to any of you. Glorify God in your lives. As you feel the power of it in your hearts, let others see the brightness and efficacy of it in your actions. Prize the Word of truth, which works such great effects in the soul. Value that as long as you live, which is the cord whereby God hath drawn any of you out of the dungeon of death. Pray and endeavour for the preservation and success of the Word of truth. Were there a medicine that could preserve life, how chary should we be in preserving that? The gospel is the tree whose leaves cure the nations Rev_22:2). Wait upon God in the Word. Where there is a revelation on Gods part, there must be a hearing on ours. Sit down, therefore, at the feet of God, and receive of His words (Deu_33:3). (S. Charnock, B. D.)

The work of grace

I. Consider THE WORK OF GODS GRACE AMONG MEN IN ITS ORIGIN, This is ascribed to the absolute will of God. Has He not a right to do what He will with His own? and are not all things His own? Is He not absolute, uncontrolled, and sovereign, upholding all things at every moment, managing all creatures infallibly, from the hosts of angels that surround His throne down to the smallest particle of inanimate matter? Men talk of the laws of nature, and if it be rightly understood, we need not object to that phrase. But let it be rightly understood. There can be no laws without a law-maker; there can be no administration of laws without a constant, living executive. Uniform, indeed, they are, but that arises from His perfection. The first time that God did anything He did it in the best way: He would not do it worse, and He could not do it better; therefore He always does it in the best way. These agencies are, then, to be depended on as regards uniformity. But they are not less the agencies of a living, present, acting Being. So it is also in the affairs of men. Men are as thoroughly under His power as matter, though not in the same way. It were to limit His power to say that He can only manage matter and must leave mind to itself. He manages mind in all its liberty as infallibly as He does matter in all its inertness. And so is it, too, in the smaller matters of private life. Health, sickness, wealth, poverty, happy homes or bitter afflictions, these are all under the sovereign arrangement of God, and according to His own will. So, again, in the matter referred to in the text--the changing of the minds and hearts of fallen men--one is taken, andanother left, according to Gods will. Many are called, and few are chosen: of His own free Will. Is there danger in this high truth? Undoubtedly. There is danger to fallen man in every truth, arising not from the truth itself, but from the perverseness with which it is treated. Man, living to himself, either neglects or abuses truth, so that it becomes a savour or death unto death. To say, then, that there is danger in truth, is to say nothing against the truth. Is there difficulty connected with the truth of which I have been speaking? Undoubtedly there is. Why should there not be? Does it reveal anything of God? Then it inevitably involves a difficulty. With a finite understanding either there must be absolute ignorance of God, or difficulty must be involved where the understanding fails. The slightest glimpse of God involves man in a horizon of knowledge. The extent of the horizon may vary a little between man and man; but to the highest created intellect there must still be a horizon, and in the horizon difficulty; and if that which presents the difficulty now were cleared away by some greater truth being exhibited at a greater distance, that new revelation would but occupy the place of the present one, and still leave a horizon to created intellect to all eternity. We do not pretend, then, to divest the truth of difficulty, in asking man to submit his intellect, as well as his will, to the majesty of God. Is there practical perplexity in the truth before us? Yes, there is, through the perverseness of man, who is ready to take advantage of any imaginary excuse for himself, and to throw the blame of his own sin upon Gods sovereignty. But let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God: for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth He any man: but every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed. Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death. There is the pedigree of everlasting death, which man is charged with bringing upon himself. But does it follow, that as man is the author of this evil, he may originate good? Do not err, my beloved brethren. Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning. Of His own will begat He us. It is thus, then, that the apostle treats this subject. He declares, but explains not.

II. Consider THE NATURE OF IT. Begat He us. The phrase is figurative, and the figure is very expressive. It describes a great moral change; a change as complete as that which takes place physically in the state of an infant between the period before and the period after its birth. All things have become new. The element in which it lives is new; the mode in which life is communicated is new. There is a direct exercise of Gods power upon the mans spirit, an immediate agency of the Holy Ghost operating on his mind. Therefore it is that we say you must be born again. That which is born of the flesh is flesh. Man propagates his likeness, but man born again is brought into the likeness of God. It is not the effect of moral suasion or education, or of outward circumstances; it is not produced by the fear of consequences, or by the love of approbation amongst men, or by any of the thousand motives which actuate men in society, but it is wrought by the immediate agency of God upon the spirit of man, without which no man of the race of Adam can be pure or happy. We are all so thoroughly estranged from Him, so thoroughly taken up with creatures to the practical neglect of Him, and when we are compelled to think of Him we think of Him so unworthily and so selfishly, that without this change no man living can have worthy notions of God, or be happy even if admitted into His presence. Now how simply this accounts for the facts of the case as discovered when you look around you in the world i The unconverted men of this world are, as touching God and the things of God, like a man in a deep sleep as touching the things of the world around him. Imagine a man in a deep sleep; dreaming, possibly speaking in his dream; attentive to the visions of the mind on his bed, but quite unconscious of all that is going on around him. His house takes fire, but he knows nothing of it; he is asleep. The fire gains upon a part of the house which is distant from him; some of his children, perhaps, are burnt; but he knows nothing of it, he is still asleep. The fire approaches his own chamber; his wife, lying by his side, convulsed with terror, expires from suffocation; still he is asleep. The fire, however, at length reaches his own person. Now the spell is broken! he starts into sudden consciousness of what has been taking place. But it is too late: the house, the room, the bed, all are gone, and he sinks amid the ruin. Here is a history, in very few words, of the mass of mankind, as touching the things of God. They are dreaming busily of the affairs of this world; money, pleasure, ambition--these are the visions of their minds, and in the affairs of God they feel no more concern than the sleeping man in the state of his house. The hand of God is stretched out. Some of their enjoyments are cut off; some of their friends taken from them: their children are, it may be, snatched away and laid in an early grave, or a wife removed from their sight. Still the unconverted man dreams on, and he continues dreaming, until the Word of God touches himself. Then it is too late, and he sinks into a ruined eternity. Now this sounds very sad, but it is common, and in the course of the world there is nothing peculiar about it. It is, in a few words, I repeat, the history of the mass of mankind, the mass of the community around. I could not add truly the majority of yourselves; yet I cannot doubt that there are many in this congregation who are still in that position, and to whom God is saying, Arise, ye that sleep; awake, and Christ shall give you light. You must be born again, or else be ruined. I know that it is of Gods sovereign will that the new birth is brought about; but He constantly uses means, and I am now using the means which He has appointed for this end, namely, the Word of truth.

III. THE INSTRUMENT BY WHICH THIS GREAT CHANGE IS PRODUCED IN MAN. It is wrought, not by any charm, but by the secret power of God, using a suitable instrument for the purpose. The Word of truth is Gods instrument. Hear, says the prophet, and your souls shall live. Faith, says the apostle, cometh by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God. The work, in virtue of which this change takes place--the work of Christ--is done. All that was necessary has been done; the Word of Godproclaims it as done. And the Word of God further addresses itself to man as requiring this finished work. It addresses itself to him in the condition in which he is found as a fallen creature. It comes to him with light for his understanding, and with love for his affections. These are precisely what he requires; light in his understanding to rescue him from false estimates of things, love in his heart to deliver him from idolatry--the idolatry of creatures. Thus we discover the suitability of the instrument provided by God. Mans understanding is so darkened that he is constantly making false estimates. One grand item is constantly left out of his calculations; and you know that if any item be improperly left out of a calculation, the result must inevitably be erroneous. The grand item which is omitted in all the calculations of man is eternity. He makes calculations in which are included the things of this world only. I do not say that he takes into account only the brief space during which he himself will be in the world. Many worldly men have a posthumous ambition, and desire to benefit society, present and future. Still their views are confined to this world, and the things of this world, either in the present generation or in the persons of children and childrens children. Improvement in political and social institutions, advances in civilisation, and the amelioration of the condition of the various classes of society, occupy mans attention; and his calculations, so far as these things are concerned, are often most accurate and valuable. Still the grand item is omitted. When society shall be reaping the benefit of such designs, in the persons of children and childrens children, the fathers and the grandfathers, where are they? Eternity was not in their plans. They planned for the advantage of posterity, and posterity have obtained the benefit. But they planned nothing for their own salvation; and where are they? What did they value most? Let their history speak.

IV. After having stated the origin, nature and instrument of this work in the Church of God, the apostle adds a few words descriptive of THE PRESENT POSITION OF THE CHURCH RELATIVELY TO THE REST OF THE WORLD That we should be, he says, a kind of first-fruits of His creatures. The creation is described in Scripture as in a groaning state. Man himself is described as waiting for the manifestation of the sons of God. It is for the resurrection of the Church that the world is waiting and must wait. No scheme of man can regenerate, because no scheme of man can get rid of sin; no superstructure can stand which has sin at the foundation. The present state of things was intended to take people out of mankind--a kind of first-fruits. Why is it said, a kind of first-fruits? Because the parallel is not exact. Christ is the first-fruits of the Church. The Church, as the first objects of His care, are to be brought to see what He is. We shall be like Him when we see Him as He is. As the harvest is like the first sheaf, so shall the Church be like Christ. (H. McNeile, D. D.)

The regenerating Word

I. To come to THE EXCELLENCY OF THE WORD, WHICH IS THE MEANS OF OUR REGENERATION, the apostle setteth down the other causes thereof also, so that in Jam_1:18 there are three causes of our regeneration the most apparent testimony of the goodness of God towards man.

1. The efficient.

2. The instrument.

3. The final cause.

1. The good will of God, the gracious favour and free purpose of God, is the first and efficient cause of salvation and regeneration in men.

2. The instrumental cause and means whereby we are regenerate is the Word of God, which St. James expresseth in this place.

(1) In respect of God, the Word and gospel is the Word of truth, because it is Gods Word and gospel, who cannot lie, therefore His Word is, then, the Word of truth.

(2) As in respect of God, the Author thereof, the gospel may rightly be called the Word of truth, so in respect of Christ, who is the Matter, the very Subject whereof the gospel entreateth, it is the Word of truth, for it entreateth of Christ, and Christ is Truth itself, therefore is the gospel the Word of truth.

(3) Moreover, this Word is inspired from the Spirit.

(4) In respect that every particular thing in the gospel contained is true, therefore it is also the Word of truth. Whatsoever is there mentioned is most true. This is the seed of the new birth, from hence our new birth and regeneration ariseth. Whereof St. Paul speaking, testifieth to the Corinthians that he had begotten them through the gospel. If the gospel of Christ be the Word of truth, why do we not believe it? If it be the instrument of our regeneration, why do we not honourably embrace it? If thereby God hath begotten us again, why are we in any wise so careless of it; we come not to the hearing of this Word of truth? But either we talk out at table, or walk out abroad, or sleep out at home, or play out with company, or spend out in vain exercise, or contrive out with dalliance, or pass out by evil means, that time which is appointed for the preaching and hearing of the Word.

3. The final cause of our regeneration is that we should be the first-fruits of His creatures; that is, that out of the whole mass of mankind and kindreds of the earth, we might be select, culled and chosen out, to be a peculiar people unto Him, whose portion and lot, whose inheritance and peculiar people the saints are.

II. The Word of God being then so excellent, THE APOSTLE REMOVETH SUCH THINGS AS HINDER THE ATTENDING THEREUNTO; and the things which greatly hinder the Word are two:

1. Babbling and talking when we should hear with attentive and deep silence

2. Anger, when we are taught and reformed by the Word. Thus by the affections and perturbations of our minds, we oftentimes make the Word of God fruitless in us, and so to lose, not only the blessed effect it would work in us, but also, in a manner, the credit which it should have among men whereunto (were we the servants and true disciples of Christ) we would yield all attentive audience. (R. Turnbull.)

The gospel the Word of truth

The glory of a religion lieth in three things--the excellency of rewards, the purity of precepts, and the sureness of principles of trust. Now examine the gospel by these things, and see if it can be matched elsewhere.

1. The excellency of rewards.

2. Purity of precepts. That Gods children are His first-fruits.

The Word hinteth two things.

1. It noteth the dignity of the people of God in two regards--

(1) One is, they are the Lords portion, His peculiar people (Tit_2:14), the treasure people, the people God looked after. The world are His goods, but you His treasure.

(2) That they are the considerable part of the world. The first-fruits were offered for the blessing of all the rest (Pro_3:10).

2. It hinteth duty; as--

(1) Thankfulness in all their lives. First-fruits were dedicated to God in token of thankfulness. You, that are the first-fruits of God, should, in a sense of His mercy, live the life of love and praise.

(2) It noteth holiness. The first-fruits were holy unto the Lord. Gods portion must be holy. God can brook no unclean thing. Sins in you are far more irksome and grievous to His Spirit than in others.

(3) It noteth consecration. You are dedicated things, and they must not be alienated; your time, parts, strength, and concernments, all is the Lords; you cannot dispose of them as you please, but as it may make for the Lords glory; you are not first-fruits when you seek your own things. (T. Manton.)

First-fruits of His creatures

First-fruits of His creatures

According to the Levitical ceremonial, the first sheaf of the new crop, accompanied with sacrifice, was presented in the temple on the day after the Passover Sabbath. No part of the harvest was permitted to be used for food until after this acknowledgment that all had come from God. A similar law applied to the first-born of men and of cattle. Both were regarded as in a special sense consecrated to and belonging to God. Now, in the New Testament, both these ideas of the first-born and the first-fruits, are transferred to Jesus Christ. In His case the ideas attached to the expression are not only that of consecration, but that of being the first of a series, which owes its existence to Him. That which Jesus Christ is, primarily and originally, all those who love Him and trust Him are secondarily and by derivation from Himself.

I. GODS PURPOSE FOR CHRISTIANS IS THAT THEY SHOULD BE CONSECRATED TO HIM. Mans natural tendency is to make himself his own centre, to live for self and by self. And the whole purpose of the gospel is to decentralise him and to give him a new centre, even God, for whom, and by whom, and with whom, and in whom the Christian man is destined, by his very calling, to live. Now, how can an inward devotion and consecration of myself be possible? Only by one way, and that is by the way of love that delights to give. Consecration means self-surrender; and the fortress of self is in the will, and the way of self-surrender is the flowery path of love. To take the metaphor of Scripture, the consecration which we owe to God, and which is His design in all His dealings with us in the gospel, will be like that of a priestly offering of sacrifice, and the sacrifice is ourselves. So much for the inward; what about the outward? All capacities, opportunities, possessions, are to be yielded up to Him as utterly as Christ has yielded Himself to us. We are to live for Him and work for Him; and set, as our prime object, conspicuously and constantly before us, and to be reached towards through all the trivialities of daily duty, and the common-places of recurring tasks, the one thing, to glorify God and to please Him. Now, remember, such consecration is salvation. For the opposite thing, the living to self, is damnation and hell and destruction. And whosoever is thus consecrated to God is in process of being saved. That consecration is blessedness. There is no joy of which a human spirit is capable that is as lofty, as rare and exquisite, as sweet and lasting, as the joy of giving itself away to Him that has given Himself for us. Such consecration, which is the root of all blessedness, and the true way of entering into the possession of all possessions, is only possible in the degree in which we subject ourselves to the influence of these mighty acts which God has done in order to secure it. He gave Himself for us that He might purchase for Himself a people for His possession. My surrender is but the echo of the thunder of His; my surrender is but the flash on the polished mirror which gives back the sunbeam that smites it. We yield ourselves to God, when we realise that Christ has given Himself for us.

II. GODS PURPOSE FOR CHRISTIANS IS THAT THEY SHOULD BE SPECIMENS AND BEGINNINGS OF A GREAT HARVEST. The sheaf that was carried into the temple showed what sun and rain and the sweet skyey influences had been able to do on a foot or two of ground, and it prophesied of the acres of golden grain that would one day be garnered in the barns. And so, Christian men and women to-day, and even more eminently at that time when this letter was written, are meant to be the first small example of a great harvest that is to follow. If Christianity has been able to take one man, pick him out of the mud and the mire of sense and self, and turn him into a partially and increasingly consecrated servant of God, it can do that for anybody. We have all of us one human heart. Whatever may be mans idiosyncrasies or diversities of culture, of character, of condition, of climate, of chronology, they have all the same deep primary wants, and the deepest of them all is concord and fellowship with God. And the path to that is by faith in His dear Son, who has given Himself for us. What a harvest is dimly hinted at in these words of my text; the first-fruits of His creatures. That goes even wider than humanity, and stretches away out into the dim distances, concerning which we can speak with but bated breath; but at least it seems to suggest to us that, in accordance with other teaching of the New Testament, the whole creation which groaneth and travaileth together in pain until now, will, somehow or other, be brought into the liberty and the glory of the children of God, and, as humble waiters and attenders upon the kings who are the priests of the Most High, will participate in the power of the redemption. At all events, there gleam dimly through such words as my text, the great prospects of a redeemed humanity, of a renewed earth, of a sinless universe, in which God in Christ shall be all in all.

III. GODS PURPOSE FOR CHRISTIANS IS THAT THEY SHOULD HELP THE HARVEST. That does not lie in the Levitical ceremonial of the sheaf of the first-fruits, of course. Though even there, I may remind you, that the thing presented on the altar carried in itself the possibilities of future growth, and that the wheaten ear has not only bread for the eater, but seed for the sower, and is the parent of another harvest. But the idea that the first-fruits are not merely first in a series, but that they originate the series of which they are the first, lies in the transference of the terms and the ideas to Jesus Christ; for when He is called the first-fruits of them that slept, it is implied that He, by His power, will wake the whole multitude of the sleepers; and when it speaks of Him as the first-born among many brethren, it is implied that He, by the communication of His life, will give life, and a fraternal life, to the many brethren who will follow Him. And so, in like manner, Gods purpose in making us a kind of first-fruits of His creatures, is not merely our consecration and the exhibition of a specimen of His power, and the pledge and prophecy of the harvest, but it is that from us there shall come influences which shall realise the harvest of which our own Christianity is the pledge and prophecy. What do you get Christ for? To feed upon Him? Yes! But to carry the bread to all the hungry as well. Do not say you cannot. You can talk about anything that interests you. And are your lips to be always closed about Him who have given Himself for you? Do not say that you need special gifts for it. Any man and any woman that has Christ in his or her heart can go to another and say, We have found the Messiah; and that is the best thing to say. You ought to preach Him. To have anything in this world of needy men who are all knit together in the solidarity of one family--to have anything implies that you impart it. The corn laid up in storehouses gets gnawed by rats, and marred by weevils. If you want it to be healthy, and you own possession of it to increase, put it into your seed-basket; and in the morning sow thy seed, and in the evening withhold not thy hand, and it will come back to thee, seed for the sower and bread for the eater. (A. Maclaren, D. D.)

The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Jas 1:18. Of his own will — Without any necessity on his part, or merit on ours; from a will most loving, most free, most pure, just opposite to our evil desire, Jas 1:15; begat he us — He converted, regenerated us, who believe; by the word of truth — The true word, emphatically so termed, the gospel; that we should be a kind of first-fruits of his creatures — The most excellent of his visible creatures, and consecrated to, and set apart for him in an especial manner. The first-fruits being the best of their kind, by calling the regenerated the first-fruits of God’s creatures, the apostle has shown how acceptable such are to God, and how excellent in themselves through the renovation of their nature; and as the first-fruits, being offered to God, were supposed to sanctify the rest of the harvest, true Christians, who are in a peculiar manner dedicated to God, in some respects may be said to sanctify the rest. The apostle says, a kind of first-fruits, for Christ alone is absolutely the first-fruits.

Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

James

‘FIRST-FRUITS OF HIS CREATURES’

Jas 1:18.

ACCORDING to the Levitical ceremonial, the first sheaf of the new crop, accompanied with sacrifice, was presented in the Temple on the day after the Passover Sabbath. No part of the harvest was permitted to be used for food until after this acknowledgment, that all had come from God and belonged to Him. A similar law applied to the first-born of men and of cattle. Both were regarded as in a special sense consecrated to and belonging to God.

Now, in the New Testament, both these ideas of ‘the first-born’ and ‘the first-fruits,’ which run as you see parallel in some important aspects, are transferred to Jesus Christ. He is ‘become the first-fruits of them that slept’: and it was no mere accidental coincidence that, in this character, He rose from the dead on the day on which, according to the law, the sheaf was to be presented in the Temple. In His case the ideas attached to the expression are not only that of consecration, but that of being the first of a series, which owes its existence to Him. He makes men ‘the many brethren,’ of whom He is ‘the first-born’; and He, by the overflowing power of His life, raises from the dead the whole harvest of which He is the first-fruits.

Then that which Jesus Christ is, primarily and originally, all those who love Him and trust Him are secondarily and by derivation from Himself. Thus, both these phrases are further transferred in the New Testament to Christian people. They are the ‘first-fruits unto God and the Lamb’; or, as my text has it here, with a qualifying word, ‘a kind of first-fruits’; which expresses at once a metaphor and the derivation of the character: They are also ‘the Church of the first-born whose names are written in heaven.’

So, then, in this text we have contained some great ideas as to God’s purpose in drawing us to Himself. And I want you to look at these for a moment or two.

I. First, then, God’s purpose for Christians is that they should he consecrated to Him.

The sheaf was presented before God in the symbolical ceremonial, as an acknowledgment of His ownership of it, and of all the wide-waving harvest. It thereby became His in a special sense. In like manner, the purpose of God in bestowing on us the wondrous gift of a regeneration and new life by the word is that we should be His, yielding to Him the life which He gives, and all that we are, in thankful recognition and joyful consecration.

We hear a great deal about consecration in these days. Let us understand what consecration means. There is an inward and an outward aspect of it. In the inward aspect it means an entire devotion of myself, down to the very roots of my being, to God as Lord and Owner.

Man’s natural tendency is to make himself his own centre, to live for self and by self. And the whole purpose of the gospel is to decentralise him and to give him a new centre, even God, for whom, and by whom, and with whom, and in whom the Christian man is destined, by his very calling, to live.

Now, how can an inward devotion and consecration of myself be possible? Only by one way, and that is by the way of love that delights to give. The yielding of the human spirit to the divine is only accomplished through that sweet medium of love. Self-surrender is the giving up of self at the bidding of love to Him to whom my heart cleaves.

The will will yield itself. There will be no murmuring at hard providences; no regrets darkening a whole life and paralysing duty, and blinding to blessings, by reason of the greatest sorrow which He may have sent. The will will yield in submission; the will will yield in obedience. According to the dreadful metaphor of the founder of the Jesuits - dreadful when applied to the relations of a man to a man, but blessed when applied to the relation of a man to God, and of God to man - I shall be in His hands ‘like a staff’ in the hand of a man, only to be used as He desires.

Consecration means self-surrender; and the fortress of self is in the will, and the way of self-surrender is the flowery path of love.

To take the other metaphor of Scripture, by which the same idea is expressed - the consecration which we owe to God, and which is His design in all His dealings with us in the gospel, will be like that of a priestly offering of sacrifice, and the sacrifice is ourselves.

So much for the inward; what about the outward? All capacities, opportunities, possessions, are to be yielded up to Him as utterly as Christ has yielded Himself to us. We are to live for Him and work for Him; and set, as our prime object, conspicuously and constantly before us, and to be reached towards through all the trivialities of daily duty, and the common-places of recurring tasks, the one thing, to glorify God and to please Him. Consecration means the utter giving of myself away, in the inmost sanctuary of the spirit. And it means the resolute devotion of all that I have and all that I am in the outgoings of daily life to His service and to His praise.

That is what God meant for you and me when He made us Christians; that was His design when He sent His Son. And we thwart and counter-work Him, just in the measure in which we still make ourselves our own centre, our wills our own law, and our well-being our own aim.

Now, remember, such consecration is salvation. For the opposite thing, the living to self, is damnation and hell and destruction. And whosoever is thus consecrated to God is in process of being saved. The relation between the two ideas is not, as it often is put, that you are to he saved that you may be consecrated; but, you are being saved in being consecrated. And the measure in which we have ceased to be devoted to ourselves, and are devoted to Him, is the accurate measure in which we have received the true salvation that is in Jesus Christ.

That consecration is blessedness. There is no joy of which a human spirit is capable that is as lofty, as rare and exquisite, as sweet and lasting, as the joy of giving itself away to Him who has given Himself for us. And such consecration is the true possession of what we give, and the only way of really owning ourselves or our possessions. ‘He that loveth himself shall lose himself,’ and he that gives himself away to God, a weak, sinful man, gets himself back from God, a hero, strong, and a saint.

Such consecration, which is the root of all blessedness, and the true way of entering into the possession of all possessions, is only possessible in the degree in which we subject ourselves to the influence of these mighty acts which God has done in order to secure it. Our yielding of ourselves to Him is only possible when we are quite sure that He has given Himself to us. Our love which melts us, and bows us in willing, joy-fill surrender, can only be the echo of His love. The pattern is set us in the Christ, and set us that we may imitate it, and we imitate it in the measure in which we lie exposed to its mighty power. ‘He gave Himself for us, that He might purchase for Himself a people for His possession.’ My surrender is but the echo of the thunder of His; my surrender is but the flash on the polished mirror which gives back the sunbeam that smites it. We yield ourselves to God, when we realise that Christ has given Himself for us.

Christian men and women, behold your destiny! God’s purpose concerning you is that you might be not your own, because you are bought with a price. And measure against that mighty purpose the halting obedience, the reluctant wills, the half-and-half surrender which is no surrender at all, which make up the lives of the average Christians among us, and see whether any of us can feel that the divine purpose is accomplished in us, or that we have paid what we owe to our God.

II. Secondly, my text suggests that God’s purpose for Christians is that they should be specimens and beginnings of a great harvest.

The sheaf that was carried into the Temple showed what sun and rain and the sweet skyey influences had been able to do on a foot or two of ground, and it prophesied of the acres of golden grain that would one day be garnered in the barns. And so, Christian men and women to-day, and even more eminently at that time when this letter was written, are meant to be the first small example of a great harvest that is to follow. The design that God had in view in our being Christianised is that we should stand here as specimens of what He means the world to be, and as witnesses of what He, by the gospel, is able to make men.

If we strip that thought of its metaphor it just comes to this, that if Christianity has been able to take one man, pick him out of the mud and mire of sense and self, and turn him into a partially and increasingly consecrated servant of God, it can do that for anybody.

The little sheaf, though there be but a handful of nodding heads in it, is a sure pledge of the harvest on the great prairie yonder, as yet untilled and unsown, which will yet hear like fruit to His praise and honour.

‘We have all of us one human heart.’ Whatever may be men’s idiosyncrasies or diversities of culture, of character, of condition, of climate, of chronology, they have all the same deep primary wants, and the deepest of them all is concord and fellowship with God. And the path to that is by faith in His dear Son, who has given Himself for us. If, then, that faith in one case has given to a man the satisfaction of that which all men are hungering for, whether they know it or not, and are restless and miserable till they find it, then there is document and evidence that this gospel, which can do that for the individual, can do it for the race. And so the first-fruits are the pledge and the prophecy of the harvest.

What a harvest is dimly hinted at in these words of my text; the ‘first-fruits of His creatures!’ That goes even wider than humanity, and stretches away out into the dim distances, concerning which we can speak with but bated breath; but at least it seems to suggest to us that, in accordance with other teaching of the New Testament, ‘the whole creation’ which ‘groaneth and travaileth together in pain until now,’ will, somehow or other, be brought into the liberty and the glory of the children of God, and, as humble waiters and attenders upon the kings who are the priests of the Most High, will participate in the power of the redemption. At all events, there seem to me to gleam dimly through such words as those of my text, the great prospects of a redeemed humanity, of a renewed earth, of a sinless universe, in which God in Christ shall be all in all.

The possibility and the certainty of that issue lie in this comparatively humble fact, that some handful of poor men have found in Jesus Christ that which their finding of it in Him manifests to them, is the elixir viloe and the hope of the world. You are meant to be specimens, exhibitions of what God intends for mankind, and of what the gospel can do for the world. Do you think, Christian men and women, that anybody, looking at you, will have a loftier idea of the possibilities of human nature, and of the potentialities of the gospel of Jesus Christ? Because if they will not, then you have thwarted your Father’s design when He sent you His Son.

III. Lastly, my text suggests that God’s purpose for Christians is that they should help the harvest.

That does not lie in the Levitical ceremonial of the sheaf of the first-fruits, of course. Though even there, I may remind you, that the thing presented on the altar carried in itself the possibilities of future growth, and that the wheaten ear has not only ‘bread for the eater but seed for the sower,’ and is the parent of another harvest. But the idea that the first-fruits are not merely first in series, but that they originate the series of which they are the first, lies in the transference of the terms and the ideas to Jesus Christ; for, as I pointed out to you in my introductory remarks, when He is called ‘ the first-fruits of them that slept,’ it is implied that He, by His power, will wake the whole multitude of the sleepers; and when it speaks of Him as’ the first-born among many brethren,’ it is implied that He, by the communication of His life, will give life, and a fraternal life, to the many brethren who will follow Him.

And so, in like manner, God’s purpose in making us ‘a kind of first-fruits of His creatures’ is not merely our consecration and the exhibition of a specimen of His power, and the pledge and prophecy of the harvest, but it is that from us there shall come influences which shall realise the harvest of which our own Christianity is the pledge and prophecy. That is to say, all Christian men and women are Christians in order that they may make more Christians.

The capacity, the obligation, the impulse, are all given in the fact of receiving Jesus Christ for ourselves. If we have Him we can preach Him, if we have Him we ought to preach Him, if we have Him in any deep and real possession, we must preach Him, and His words will be like a fire in our bones, if we forbear; and we shall not be able to stay.

‘Heaven doth with us as we with torches do,

Not light them for themselves.’

What do you get Christ for? To feed upon Him. Yes! But to carry the bread to all the hungry as well.

Do not say you cannot. You can talk about anything that interests you. You can speak about anything that you know. And are your lips to be always closed about Him who has given Himself for you? Do not say that you need special gifts for it. We do need special gifts for the more public and conspicuous forms of what we call preaching nowadays. But any man and any woman that has Christ in his or her heart can go to another and say, ‘We have found the Messiah,’ and that is the best thing to say.

You ought to preach Him. Capacity involves obligation. To have anything, in this world of needy men who are all knit together in the solidarity of one family - to have any anything implies that you impart it. That is the true communism of Christianity, to be applied not only to wealth but to everything, all our possessions, all our knowledge, all our influence. We get them that they may fructify through us to all; and if we keep them, we shall be sure to spoil them. The corn laid up in storehouses is gnawed by rats, and marred by weevils. If you want it to be healthy, and your own possession of it to increase, put it into your seed-basket; and ‘in the morning sow thy seed, and in the evening withhold not thy hand,’ and it will come back to thee, ‘seed for the sower and bread for the eater.’

Now this is a matter of individual responsibility. You cannot get rid of it. Every Christian has the obligation laid upon himself, and every Christian man has some sphere in which he can discharge it, and in which, if he discharge it not, he is a dumb dog lying down and loving to slumber. Oh! I wish I could get into you tongue-tied, cowardly Christian men and women who never open your mouths to a soul for the Master’s sake, this conviction, that you are thwarting God’s purposes, and that the blood of souls lies at your door by reason of your guilty silence.

If you believe these things which I have been saying to you, the application follows. ‘The field is the world.’ And neither criticisms about missionary methods nor allegations of the superior claims of the little hit of the field round about your own doors are a sufficient vindication before God, though they may be an excuse before men, for tepid interest in, or indifference to, or lack of help of, any great missionary enterprise.

We have to sow Beside all waters; and if any men in the world were ever debtors both to the Greek and to the barbarian, both to the Englishman and the foreigner, it is the members of this great nation of ours, which, ‘as a nest hath gathered the riches of the nations, and there were none that peeped or muttered or moved the wing.’ We are debtors to the heathen world, Because whether we will or no we come into contact with heathen lands; and whether we take Bibles or not, our countrymen will take rum and gunpowder, and send men to the devil if we do not try to draw them to God. We are debtors to them in a thousand cases by injuries inflicted. We are debtors by benefits received; and we are debtors most of all because Christ died for them and for us equally.

And so, I beseech you, give us your help, and remember in giving it that ‘God of His own will hath Begotten us by the word of truth, that we should Be a kind of first-fruits of His creatures.’

Alexander MacLaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture (1904–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

1:18 God’s true word is the Good News (1:21-23; 1 Pet 1:23-25). • give birth: The imagery of a mother giving birth shows the full scope of God’s parental love for his children (cp. Luke 13:34; John 1:13; 3:3-8; 1 Pet 1:23). • his prized possession: Literally a kind of firstfruit (cp. Exod 23:16; Lev 23:9-14; 1 Cor 15:20; Col 1:18). Christians are examples of the ultimate restoration of all creation (Rom 8:20-22).

Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Jas 1:18. Βουληθεὶς, of His own will) with an inclination most loving, most free, most pure, most fruitful. In Hebrew אב, from אבה, he willed: comp. Joh 1:13. Ἔλεος, mercy, 1Pe 1:3, corresponds with this. There is an antithesis in the words, Lust, when it hath conceived.—ἀπεκύησεν) begat He. Antithetical to ἀποκύει, bringeth forth (begetteth), Jas 1:15.—ἡμᾶς, us) who believe, especially of Israel. A twofold generation is spoken of, the one opposed to the other; and that which is in evil is described by abstract terms, that which is in good by concrete.—ἀληθείας, of truth) the Gospel.—ἀπαρχήν τινα τῶν αὐτοῦ κτισμάτων, a kind of first fruits of His creatures) We are of God by creation and generation; His workmanship, Eph 2:10; and offspring, Act 17:29. Of all His visible creatures, and they are many and great, the faithful are the first fruits, the chief and noblest part, more holy than the rest and sanctifying the rest; and it is on this account that they (the faithful) are exercised with temptations. A kind of: There is modesty in this expression, for strictly and absolutely Christ alone is the first fruits.

Bengel's Gnomon of the New Testament — English translation (T&T Clark, Edinburgh, 1860) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Jam_1:18. Most interpreters subordinate the thought contained in this verse to the preceding, regarding it either as an example (Laurentius: loquitur Ap. in his verbis de generatione spirituali ut sit quasi exemplum aliquod istorum donorum spiritualium, quae sunt desuper) or as a confirmation and a proof (thus Gebser, Kern, Wiesinger, Bouman; also Lange[80]); on the contrary, according to Theile and de Wette,[81] its relation is that of co-ordination. But in both explanations the peculiar significance which this verse has in the context is mistaken. It is to be recognised as a principal thought, not only because the succeeding exhortations flow from it, but also because the preceding development only comes to its close in it; whilst only in βουληθεὶς ἀπεκύησεν ἡμᾶς is not only the assertion ἀπὸ Θεοῦ πειράζομαι completely refuted, but also all the earlier mentioned assertions have their sure foundation. It is accordingly not a confirmation of Jam_1:17, but rather a special inference from the general idea of that verse.

βουληθεὶς ἀπεκύησεν ἡμᾶς] The verb itself testifies that here the discourse is of the new birth, and not of natural birth, for ἀποκύειν is Synonymous with γεννᾷν; but the man γεγεννημένος ἐκ Θεοῦ (1Jn_3:9; see also 1Pe_1:23) is not man in himself, but man born again. Unsatisfactorily Pott explains ἀποκύειν = facere, efficere, since by this the specific idea of the verb, that the foundation of the life of him who is born again lies in God, and that he is θείας φύσεως κοινωνός (2Pe_1:4), is lost.

ἡμᾶς] not us as men, nor us as Jewish Christians, but us as Christians.

The verse emphatically commences with βουληθείς, by which is expressed not a contrast to the merit of human works (Bede: non nostris, sed beneficio suae voluntatis; similarly Calvin, Hornejus, Grotius, etc.), nor to the Jewish claims of righteousness (Lange), but it is designed prominently to bring forward the thought that the new birth rests on the divine willthe work is that which God has peculiarly willed. But if this be the case, how can πειράζεσθαι proceed from Him? Without sufficient reason, Bengel, Kern, Schneckenburger, Wiesinger, and others put the additional idea of love in βουληθείς.[82]

ΛΌΓῼ ἈΛΗΘΕΊΑς] The instrument of ἈΠΟΚΥῆΣΑΙ is the ΛΟΓΟς ἈΛΗΘΕΊΑς, that is, the gospel,[83] which is so called because ἈΛΗΘΕΊΑ in its entire reality is inherent in it (Harless on Eph_1:13). The words: ΕἸς ΤῸ ΕἾΝΑΙ ἩΜᾶς ἈΠΑΡΧΉΝ ΤΙΝΑ ΤῶΝ ΑὙΤΟῦ ΚΤΙΣΜΆΤΩΝ] express the aim of this new birth, by which is not indicated what Christians, as those who are born of God, ought to become, but what they are, according to the intention of God.[84] By τινα added to ἈΠΑΡΧΉΝ the mode of expression is indicated as figurative, for, as Calvin correctly remarks, ΤΙΝΑ similitudinis est nota, nos quodammodo esse primitias (so also Gebser, Hottinger, Kern, Wiesinger, and others). Also Bengel recognises this, but he puts therein a false reference, observing: quaedam habet modestiam, nam primitiae proprie et absolute est Christus. Still more incorrect is it, with Lange, to explain τινα, that James considered the angels of God as a different kind of first-fruits of creation. Laurentius correctly says: ἈΠΑΡΧΉ allusio est ad ritum legalem in Vetum Testamentum de consecratione primogenitorum, frugum, jumentorum et hominum (so also Calvin, Hornejus, Wiesinger, and others; unsatisfactorily de Wette: chosen and holy). The word has here, as everywhere in the O. T., and predominantly among the classics, a religious signification, namely, the first-fruits dedicated to God; so that James by this expression indicates Christians, as a fruit dedicated to the service of God. But ἡμᾶς emphatically repeated shows that James does not here state the nature of Christians generally, but what the position is which he and those Christians occupy who, according to Rom_8:23, possess ΤῊΝ ἈΠΑΡΧῊΝ ΤΟῦ ΠΝΕΎΜΑΤΟς (see Meyer in loco). They are a kind of first-fruits of Gods creatures, because they, as being born of God, are dedicated to God first among all His creatures. The glorification, which is destined for the whole world, was first imparted to Christians then living.[85] In the N. T. ἀπαρχή is sometimes so used that the religious signification steps into the background (thus in 1Co_15:20; 1Co_15:23; Rom_8:23; Rom_16:5; 1Co_16:15; otherwise in Rom_11:16 and Rev_14:5); and accordingly several expositors explain the expression of James as equivalent to οἱ πρῶτοι τῶν κτισμάτων αὑτοῦ. But against this is, on the one hand, the added τινα, and on the other hand, the existing necessity of conceiving as added to κτισμάτων an attribute, as νέων or καίνων, since the expression τὰ κτίσματα Θεοῦ is not taken by itself, those who are born again, but generally, the creatures of God. It is still more arbitrary to take ἀπαρχή as equivalent to πρῶτοι, in the sense of τιμιώτατοι (Oecumenius; Morus: omnium creaturarum carissimi et dignissimi; the favourites among His creatures), and then to refer the verse to the dignity of man generally, as the Scholiast explains: τὴν ὁρωμένην κτίσιν φησίν, ἧς τιμιώτερον τὸν ἄνθρωπον ἔδειξεν.[86] By αὑτοῦ (Lachmann and Buttmann, αὐτοῦ; Tischendorf, ἑαυτοῦ), emphatically added, the creatures are indicated as Gods property.

[80] Lange strangely designates the new birth as the effect of the δώρημα τέλειον which came down from heaven.

[81] Theile: Deus, luminum pater, etiam parens est generationis nostrae. De Wette: In place of all good gifts, the gracious gift of the Christian salvation is likewise mentioned as a proof that God can be no tempter.

[82] Bengel: voluntate amantissima. Schneckenburger: non merum volendi actum sed beniguam et benigna voluntate ortam volitionem exprimit. The view of Oecumenius is evidently entirely perverted: τὸ βουληθεὶς εἶπεν, ἐπιστομίζων τοὺς αὐτομάτως ὑποστῆναι τόδε τὸ πᾶν ληροῦντας.

[83] If the want of the article should constrain us to translate λόγος ἀληθείας a word of truth, that is, a word whose nature is truth (see Meyer on 2Co_6:7), yet by this word of truth here the gospel can only be understood; but it is more probable that the article is omitted because λόγος ἀληθείας, as an idea definite in itself, did not require the article to designate it.

[84] According to Langes supposition, this teleological mode of expression is chosen in order to indicate that the Jews should become what Christians already are. This is purely arbitrary, as such a distinction is not indicated in the very slightest degree.

[85] It is, however, also possible that James by ἡμᾶς has had in view, not the distinction between the then existing and the later Christians, but only the distinction between Christians and the other creatures, since Christians of all ages form the ἀπαρχὴ τῶν κτισμάτων, until the commencement of the worlds glorification. Lange with truth brings forward the idea that if Christians are ἀπαρχή, they are sureties for the future glorification of the world; but that the first believers of Israel in their unity are sureties for the future conversion of the nation, is an introduced idea which is not indicated by James.

[86] Thus Schulthess: divino rationis et orationis munere, cujus ex tot animantium generibus atque naturis homo solus est particeps, principatum dignitatis ei datum cernimus.

Meyer — Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament — English translation by Peter Christie, edited by Frederick Crombie (T&T Clark, 1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Jas 1:18 . Again we have a verse without any connection between what precedes or follows; the words ἴστε , ἀδελφοί μου ἀγαπητοί of Jas 1:19 seem to belong to Jas 1:18 . As we have seen, Jas 1:17 most probably contains a quotation; the possibility of Jas 1:18 being also a loose quotation, from some other author, should not be lost sight of; it would explain, as in the case of Jas 1:17 , the abrupt way in which it is introduced; the ἴστε , taken as an indicative, might well imply that the writer is referring his readers to some well-known writing, much in the same way as St. Paul does in Act 17:28 , ἐν αὐτῷ γὰρ ζῶμεν καὶ κινούμεθα καὶ ἐσμέν , ὡς καί τινες τῶν καθʼ ὑμᾶς ποιητῶν εἰρήκασιν · “ τοῦ γὰρ καὶ γένος ἐσμέν ”. For the general thought of the verse cf. 1Jn 3:9 . βουληθεὶς ἀπεκύησεν ἡμᾶς λόγῳ ἀληθείας : this is strongly suggestive of an advanced belief in the doctrine of Grace, cf. Joh 15:16 . οὐχ ὑμεῖς με ἐξελέξασθε , ἀλλʼ ἐγὼ ἐξελεξάμην ὑμᾶς . The rare word ἀπεκύησεν is, strictly speaking, only used of the mother. “It seems clear that the phrase has particular reference to the creation of man, κατʼ εἰκόνα ἡμετέραν καὶ καθʼ ὁμοίωσιν . This was the truth about man which God’s will realised in the creation by an act, a λόγος , which was the expression at once of God’s will and man’s nature” (Parry). ἀπαρχήν τινα τῶν αὐτοῦ κτισμάτων : ἀπαρχή = תרומה used in reference to the Torah in Shemoth Rabba , chap. 33; see further below; the picture would be very familiar to Jews; just as the new fruits which ripen first herald the new season, so those men who are begotten λόγῳ ἀληθείας proclaim a new order of things in the world of spiritual growth; they are in advance of other men, in the same way that the first-fruits are in advance of the other fruits of the season. Rendel Harris illustrates this very pointedly from actual life of the present day in the East: “When one’s soul desires the vintage or the fruitage of the returning summer, chronological advantage is everything. The trees that are a fortnight to the fore are the talk and delight of the town” ( Present Day Papers , May, 1901, “The Elements of a Progressive Church”).

The Expositor's Greek Testament, edited by W. Robertson Nicoll (1897–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

The fourth part concerning the excellency and fruit of the word of God. The sum is this: we must hear the word of God most carefully and diligently, seeing it is the seed, wherewith God of his free favor and love hath begotten us unto himself, picking us out of the number of his creatures. And the Apostle condemneth two faults, which do greatly trouble us in this matter, to wit, for that we so please ourselves, that we had rather speak ourselves than hear God speaking: yea, we snuff and are angry when we are reprehended: against which faults, he setteth a peaceable and quiet mind, and such an one as is desirous of purity.

This is it which Paul calleth gracious favor, and good will, which is the fountain of our salvation.

As it were an holy kind of offering, taken out of the residue of man.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

(Joh 1:13). The believer's regeneration is the highest example of nothing but good proceeding from God.

Of his own will--Of his own good pleasure (which shows that it is God's essential nature to do good, not evil), not induced by any external cause.

begat he us--spiritually: a once-for-all accomplished act (Pe1 1:3, Pe1 1:23). In contrast to "lust when it hath conceived, bringeth forth sin, and sin . . . death" (Jam 1:15). Life follows naturally in connection with light (Jam 1:17).

word of truth--the Gospel. The objective mean, as faith is the appropriating mean of regeneration by the Holy Spirit as the efficient agent.

a kind of first-fruits--Christ is, in respect to the resurrection, "the first-fruits" (Co1 15:20, Co1 15:23): believers, in respect to regeneration, are, as it were, first-fruits (image from the consecration of the first-born of man, cattle, and fruits to God; familiar to the Jews addressed), that is, they are the first of God's regenerated creatures, and the pledge of the ultimate regeneration of the creation, Rom 8:19, Rom 8:23, where also the Spirit, the divine agent of the believer's regeneration, is termed "the first-fruits," that is, the earnest that the regeneration now begun in the soul, shall at last extend to the body too, and to the lower parts of creation. Of all God's visible creatures, believers are the noblest part, and like the legal "first-fruits," sanctify the rest; for this reason they are much tried now.

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Verse 18. Of his own will begat he us] God's will here is opposed to the lust of man, Jas 1:15; his truth, the means of human salvation, to the sinful means referred to in the above verse; and the new creatures, to the sin conceived and brought forth, as above. As the will of God is essentially good, all its productions must be good also; as it is infinitely pure, all its productions must be holy. The word or doctrine of truth, what St. Paul calls the word of the truth of the Gospel, Col 1:5, is the means which God uses to convert souls.

A kind of first fruits] By creatures we are here to understand the Gentiles, and by first fruits the Jews, to whom the Gospel was first sent; and those of them that believed were the first fruits of that astonishing harvest which God has since reaped over the whole Gentile world. See Clarke on Ro 8:19, &c. There is a remarkable saying in Philo on this subject, De Allegoris, lib. ii. p. 101: God begat Isaac, for he is the father of the perfect nature, σπειρων εν ταις ψυχαις, sowing seed in souls, and begetting happiness.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

18 Of his own will. He now brings forward a special proof of the goodness of God which he had mentioned, even that he has regenerated us unto eternal life. This invaluable benefit every one of the faithful feels in himself. Then the goodness of God, when known by experience, ought to remove from them all a contrary opinion respecting him.

When he says that God of his own will, or spontaneously, hath begotten us, he intimates that he was induced by no other reason, as the will and counsel of God are often set in opposition to the merits of men. What great thing, indeed, would it have been to say that God was not constrained to do this? But he impresses something more, that God according to his own goodwill hath begotten us, and has been thus a cause to himself. It hence follows that it is natural to God to do good.

But this passage teaches us, that as our election before the foundation of the world was gratuitous, so we are illuminated by the grace of God alone as to the knowledge of the truth, so that our calling corresponds with our election. The Scripture shews that we have been gratuitously adopted by God before we were born. But James expresses here something more, that we obtain the right of adoption, because God does also call us gratuitously. (Ephesians 1:4, 5.) Farther, we hence learn, that it is the peculiar office of God spiritually to regenerate us; for that the same thing is sometimes ascribed to the ministers of the gospel, means no other thing than this, that God acts through them; and it happens indeed through them, but he nevertheless alone doeth the work.

The word begotten means that we become new men, so that we put off our former nature when we are effectually called by God. He adds how God begets us, even by the word of truth, so that we may know that we cannot enter the kingdom of God by any other door.

That we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures. The word τινὰ, “some,” has the meaning of likeness, as though he had said, that we are in a manner firstfruits. But this ought not to be restricted to a few of the faithful; but it belongs to all in common. For as man excels among all creatures, so the Lord elects some from the whole mass and separates them as a holy offering, to himself. It is no common nobility into which God extols his own children. Then justly are they said to be excellent as firstfruits, when God’s image is renewed in them.

John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.

(18) Of his own will begat he us with the word of truth.—There is a greater witness to God’s goodness than that which is written upon the dome of heaven, even the regeneration of man. As the old creation was “by the Word” (Joh_1:3; Joh_1:10, et seq.), the new is by Him also, the Logos, the Word of Truth, and that by means of His everlasting gospel, delivered in the power of the Holy Ghost. So tenderly is this declared, that a maternal phrase is used—God brought us forth in the new birth; and though “a woman” may forget “the son of her womb” (Isa_49:15), yet will He “never leave, nor forsake” (Heb_13:5).

That we should be a kind of firstfruit of his creatures.—And why this mercy and loving-kindness? for our own sakes, or for others and for His? Surely the latter; and “if the firstfruit be holy, the lump is also holy” (Rom_11:16). We know “Who is the firstborn of every creature” (Col_1:15) “the firstbegotten of the dead” (Rev_1:5), nay, “the beginning of the creation of God” (Rev_3:14); “and we are created in Christ Jesus” (Eph_2:10), become new in Him (comp. 2Co_5:17; Gal_6:15), made the firstfruits of His redemption; and, moreover, it would seem we are the sign of the deliverance promised to the brute creation “which waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God” (Rom_8:19; Rom_8:21). The longing for a future perfection is shared by all created beings upon earth, and their discontent at present imperfection points to another state freed from evil (Rom_8:18-22). “The creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of Him who hath subjected the same in hope” (Rom_8:20). And the fruition of this hope is foreshadowed in the words above. “The very struggles,” it has been well observed by Dean Howson, “which all animated beings make against pain and death show that pain and death are not a part of the proper laws of their nature, but rather a bondage imposed upon them from without; thus every groan and fear is an unconscious prophecy of liberation from the power of evil.” “The creature itself also shall be delivered” is the plain assertion of St. Paul (Rom_8:21); comparing his with that of St. James, we must conclude that they point to all nature, animate and inanimate as well. “We look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness” (2Pe_3:13), and “there shall be no more death . . . nor any more pain” (Rev_21:4).

“All creation groans and travails;

Thou, O Lord, shalt hear its groan,

For of man, and all creation,

Thou alike art Lord alone.”

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

18. Of his own will begat he us] The construction of the Greek is participial, willing he begat us, and is parallel to that of Col_2:18, which, rightly rendered, runs “let no man willing, i.e. by the exercise of his will, deprive you.…” The word implies the rejection of the thought either of a destiny constraining the Divine Will, or of chance and, as it were, random impulses, and the reference of our higher spiritual birth to His deliberate Will. Here again we have a parallelism with St John “born … not of the will of man, but of God” (Joh_1:13), and with St Peter (1Pe_1:23).

The word for “begat” is the same as the second “bringeth forth” in Jas_1:15, and is obviously used here, with the general sense of “engendering” or “begetting,” to emphasise the contrast between the process which ends in death and that which issues in a higher life. Here also, though the birth was not monstrous, it was out of the common course of Nature, and therefore the unusual word was rightly employed again.

with the word of truth] So our Lord makes Truth, the “word which is truth,” the instrument of the consecration or sanctification of His people (Joh_17:17-19). The “word of truth” cannot have here the higher personal sense which the Word or Logos has in Joh_1:1, but it is something more than the written Word of the Old Testament Scriptures, or even the spoken word of preachers. It is the whole message from God to man, of which the written or spoken word is but one of the channels, and which to those who receive it rightly is the beginning of a higher life. Comp. Mat_13:19; Mar_4:14.

a kind of firstfruits of his creatures]. The meaning of the term is traced back to the Jewish ritual of Lev_23:10; Deu_26:2. The sheaf of the firstfruits was offered as part of the Passover celebration. On their entry into Canaan the Israelites were to offer the firstfruits of the land (Deu_26:2). In each case the consecration of the part was a symbol and earnest of that of the whole. So St James speaks of the “brethren” who have been born to a higher life, not only as better than others, but as the pledge of a fuller harvest. So St Paul speaks of Christ being “the firstfruits of them that sleep” (1Co_15:20), of a convert being “the firstfruits of Achaia” (1Co_16:15). St John agrees, as usual, more closely with St James, and describes “the redeemed from the earth” of Rev_14:4 as “the firstfruits unto God and to the Lamb.” Christians are called and made what they are by the grace of God, that they may shew of what elevation humanity is capable. Comp. Rom_11:16.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Of his own will begat he us,.... The apostle instances in one of those good and perfect gifts, regeneration; and he pitches upon a very proper and pertinent one, since this is the first gift of grace God bestows upon his people openly, and in their own persons; and is what involves other gifts, and prepares and makes meet for the gift of eternal life; and therefore may well be reckoned a "good" one, and it is also a "perfect one"; it is done at once; there are no degrees in it, as in sanctification; a man is born again, at once, and is born a perfect new man in all his parts; no one is more regenerated than another, or the same person more regenerated at one time than at another: and this comes from above; it is called a being born from above, in Joh 3:3 as the words there may be rendered; and it comes from God the Father, even the Father of our Lord Jesus, as well as of all lights, Pe1 1:3 and who in it produces light, in darkness, and whose gifts of grace bestowed along with it are without repentance. And since this comes from him, he cannot be the author of evil, or tempt unto it. This is a settled and certain point, that all the good that is in men, and is done by them, comes from God; and all the evil that is in them, and done by them, is of themselves. This act of begetting here ascribed to God, is what is elsewhere called a begetting again, that is, regeneration; it is an implantation of new principles of light and life, grace and holiness, in men; a quickening of them, when dead in trespasses and sins; a forming of Christ in their souls; and a making them partakers of the divine nature; and this is God's act, and not man's. Earthly parents cannot beget in this sense; nor ministers of the word, not causally, but only instrumentally, as they are instruments and means, which God makes use of; neither the ministry of the word, nor the ordinance of baptism, can of themselves regenerate any; nor can a man beget himself, as not in nature, so not in grace: the nature of the thing shows it, and the impotent case of men proves it: this is God's act, and his only; see Joh 1:13 and the impulsive or moving cause of it is his own will. God does not regenerate, or beget men by necessity of nature, but of his own free choice; Christ, the Son of God, is begotten of him by necessity of nature, and not as the effect of his will; he is the brightness of his glory necessarily, as the beams and rays of light are necessarily emitted by the sun; but so it is not in regeneration: nor does God regenerate men through any consideration of their will, works, and merits: nor have these any influence at all upon it; but he begets of his own free grace and favour, and of his rich and abundant mercy, and of his sovereign will and pleasure, according to his counsels and purposes of old. And the means he makes use of, or with which he does it, is

with the word of truth; not Christ, who is the Word, and truth itself; though regeneration is sometimes ascribed to him; and this act of begetting is done by the Father, through the resurrection of Christ from the dead; but the Gospel, which is the word of truth, and truth itself, and contains nothing but truth; and by this souls are begotten and born again; see Eph 1:13 and hence ministers of it are accounted spiritual fathers. Faith, and every other grace in regeneration, and even the Spirit himself, the Regenerator, come this way: and the end is,

that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures; either of his new creatures, and so it has respect to such, as James, and others; who received the firstfruits of the Spirit, who first hoped and trusted in Christ, and were openly in him, and converted to him before others; or of his creatures, of mankind in general, who, with the Jews, are usually called creatures; See Gill on Mar 16:15, and designs those who are redeemed from among men, and are the firstfruits to God, and to the Lamb, as their regeneration makes appear: and this shows that such as are begotten again, or regenerated, are separated and distinguished from others, as the firstfruits be; and that they are preferred unto, and are more excellent than the rest of mankind, being made so by the grace of God; and that they are by regenerating grace devoted to the service of God, and are formed for his praise and glory.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

18 Of his own will begat he us with the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures.

Ver. 18. Of his own will begat he us] Gr. απεκυησε, brought he us forth, as a special instance of his free grace and fatherly goodness, Eph 1:4-5. The word properly signifies, He did the office of a mother to us, the bringing us into the light of life. The Hebrew word ילד also signifieth genuit, peperit, parturiit; et est proprium feminarum: quamvis eleganter de viro etiam et aliis rebus dicatur, to bring forth. (Marenus in Arca Noae.)

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Of his own will - Greek “willing.” βουληθεὶς boulētheis. The idea is, that the fact that we are “begotten” to be his children is to be traced solely to his will. He purposed it, and it was done. The antecedent in the case on which all depended was the sovereign will of God. See this sentiment explained in the notes at Joh 1:13. Compare the notes at Eph 1:5. When it is said, however, that he has done this by his mere will, it is not to be inferred that there was no reason why it should be done, or that the exercise of his will was arbitrary, but only that his will determined the matter, and that is the cause of our conversion. It is not to be inferred that there are not in all cases good reasons why God wills as he does, though those reasons are not often stated to us, and perhaps we could not comprehend them if they were. The object of the statement here seems to be to direct the mind up to God as the source of good and not evil; and among the most eminent illustrations of his goodness is this, that by his mere will, without any external power to control him, and where there could be nothing but benevolence, he has adopted us into his family, and given us a most exalted condition, as renovated beings, among his creatures.

Begat he us - The Greek word here is the same which in Jam 1:15 is rendered “bringeth forth,” - “sin bringeth forth death.” The word is perhaps designedly used here in contrast with that, and the object is to refer to a different kind of production, or bringing forth, under the agency of sin, and the agency of God. The meaning here is, that we owe the beginning of our spiritual life to God.

With the word of truth - By the instrumentality of truth. It was not a mere creative act, but it was by truth as the seed or germ. There is no effect produced in our minds in regeneration which the truth is not fitted to produce, and the agency of God in the case is to secure its fair and full influence on the soul.

That we should be a kind of first-fruits of his creatures - Compare Eph 1:12. For the meaning of the word rendered “first-fruits,” see the note at Rom 8:23. Compare Rom 11:6; Rom 16:5; 1Co 15:20, 1Co 15:23; 1Co 16:15; Rev 14:4. It does not elsewhere occur in the New Testament It denotes, properly, that which is first taken from anything; the portion which was usually offered to God. The phrase here does not primarily denote eminence in honor or degree, but refers rather to time - the first in time; and in a secondary sense it is then used to denote the honor attached to that circumstance. The meaning here is, either.

(1)That, under the gospel, those who were addressed by the apostles had the honor of being first called into his kingdom as a part of that glorious harvest which it was designed to gather in this world, and that the goodness of God was manifested in thus furnishing the first-fruits of a most glorious harvest; or,

(2)The reference may be to the rank and dignity which all who are born again would have among the creatures of God in virtue of the new birth.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

By the word of truth. Some, with St. Athanasius, understand the eternal word made man. Others commonly understand the word of the gospel, by which we have been called to the true faith, &c. --- Some beginning [7] of his creatures, (or as the Greek signifies) such a beginning as are the first-fruits; and perhaps St. James may so call the Jews, as being the first converted to believe in Christ. (Witham)

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[BIBLIOGRAPHY]

Initium aliquod creaturæ ejus, Greek: aparchen tina. See Romans xi. 16.; 1 Corinthians xv. 20. and xvi. 15. &c.

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

Of his own will; out of his mere good pleasure, as the original cause, and not moved to it by any dignity or merit in us, Eph 1:9; 2Ti 1:9.

Begat he us; by a spiritual generation, whereby we are new born, and are made partakers of a Divine nature, Joh 1:13; 1Pe 1:3,23.

With the word of truth; i.e. the word of the gospel, as the instrument or means whereby we are regenerated: why it is called

the word of truth, see Eph 1:13.

That we should be a kind of first-fruits; i.e. most excellent creatures, being singled out and separated from the rest, and consecrated to God, as under the law the first-fruits were, Rev 14:4.

Of his creatures; viz. reasonable creatures; the word creature being elsewhere restrained to men: see Mar 16:15; Col 1:15.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

18. Of his own will—That is, not by any changeful caprice or shadow of inconstancy.

Begat he us—By a regenerative begetting.

With the word of truth—The preached gospel was the external instrument by which he regenerated us.

Firstfruits—The first gatherings of the harvest were by the Hebrews gratefully consecrated to God. Hence the word firstfruits symbolically indicates pre-eminent excellence and divine consecration. We are regenerated by divine, unchanging will, through the promulgated word, that among the creatures of God we may be the consecrated and truly first in rank and value. By creation man is first among lower creatures; by regeneration and consecration the sons of God are first even among human creatures.

Kind of—That is, not literal firstfruits, but a figurative sort. This firstfruits has no reference to time; and hence cannot indicate the earlier Christian converts as compared with the later, (as Alford,) and so is no proof of the early writing of this epistle.

The immutability of God’s regenerative will is none the less conditional, and our apostle will next show how we must meet the conditions. It is by due attention to, and reception of, the regenerative word.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Begat; literally, brought forth; ajpekuhsen. The word has been already used of sin in ver. 15. The recurrence of it hero points to the connection of thought. The offspring of sin has been shown to be death. God, too, who is both Father and Mother (Bengel), has his offspring. But how different! Us (hmuv). To whom does this refer?

(1) To all Christians.

(2) To Christians of the apostolic age.

(3) To Jewish Christians, to whom the Epistle is specially addressed.

Probably (3). Just as Israel of old was Jehovah"s firstborn, (Exo_4:22) so now the germ of the Christian Church, as found in these Judaeo-Christian communities, was to be "a kind of firstfruits." The thought may be illustrated from a striking parallel in Philo ("De Creat. Princ."): Tompan jIoudaiwn eqnov...tou sumpantov ajnqrwpwn genouv ajpenemhuh oi=a tiv ajparch tw poihth patri. Transfer this from the Jewish to the Judaeo-Christian communities, and we have the very thought of the apostle. By the word of truth (cf. 1Pe_1:23, where, as here, the new birth is connected with the Word of God) A kind of firstfruits of his creatures (ajparch). The image is taken from the wave sheaf, the firstfruits of the harvest, the earnest of the crop to follow. St. Paul (according to a very possible reading) has the same figure inn);" 2Th_2:13, "God chose you as firstfruits (ajparch) see R.V margin. Elsewhere he applies it to Christ, "the Firstfruits of them that are asleep". (1Co_15:20) "His creatures (ktismatwn)." It does not appear to be absolutely necessary to extend the use of this word so as to include the irrational creation as well as mankind. hydb is frequently used in rabbinical writings for the Gentile world, and ktisma may be given the same meaning here, and perhaps ktisiv in Mar_16:15; Rom_8:19, etc.; Col_1:23.

The chief good is from God.

In this verse the apostle singles out for special mention the highest and best of all God"s gifts to his people that of regeneration. His argument is, that if God voluntarily breathes a new life into those who are spiritually dead, it is inconceivable that he should ever seduce to that which "bringeth forth death.

I THE BEST OF ALL GIFTS. Regeneration is the summum bonum, being a gift which at once supplies man"s deepest want, and satisfies all that is highest in his nature. The new birth is a necessity; for man comes into the world destitute of the principle of spiritual life. It is sad that so much of the fashionable literature of the day should ignore this, and represent natural virtue and amiability as everything in character. But regeneration is a fact; as every Christian knows, both from observation and from his own experience. It does not consist in reformation; it is a new "birth the re-creation of the whole soul after the Divine image, through the infusion of a new spiritual principle. It involves a new heart, a new self, a new character, a new life.

II THE SOURCE OF THE GIFT. Where resides the power that can renew the soul? Not in a man himself; one"s birth is not one"s own act. It is "the Father of the lights" who performs the miracle of regeneration. Such a change can only be effected by his almighty power. To bestow this gift is the special office of God the Holy Ghost; we are "born of the Spirit." And what induces God to confer this invaluable blessing? He gives it of his own will." He is not constrained to give it by fate. He is not moved by fitful impulse. He is not incited by any deservings on our part, for we have none. He is not even prevailed upon to regenerate, as the result of the work of Christ. The ultimate cause is simply "the good pleasure of his will." It is his nature to love, and bless, and bestow gifts of grace upon the undeserving. Man"s will in union with his lust generates sin and death (ver. 15); but the will of "the Father of the lights" imparts new life to dead souls.

III THE INSTRUMENT OF THE GIFT. "By the Word of truth;" i.e. the gospel of Jesus Christ the doctrines of grace contained in the Scriptures. The gospel is in our hands as a definite "word," and one which is absolutely and divinely true. While the Holy Spirit is the Agent in regeneration, he employs the Word as the instrument. Although the Scriptures are charged with moral power, man"s understanding is so blind, and his affections are so corrupt, that they could never by themselves impart life to any soul; but in the hand of the Spirit the doctrines of grace become "living and powerful." Thousands have been regenerated in connection with the private reading of the Bible, and hundreds of thousands as the result of public preaching. The Word is needed in regeneration as the means of calling forth the new thoughts and feelings, the new desires and resolves, of the new life. Only in connection with the apprehension of revealed truth can a man begin to believe the gospel, or love the Savior, or in any way "exercise himself unto godliness.

IV THE PURPOSE OF THE GIFT. "That we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures." These words refer to God"s gracious purpose towards his people themselves. They suggest the dignity and honor which belong to the regenerate. The image is derived from those provisions of the Hebrew ceremonial law by which the firstfruits of the harvest, and the firstborn of man and beast, were dedicated to God. The consecration of the firstfruits asserted their own intrinsic value as Divine gifts; and it also symbolized and foreshadowed the consecration of the harvest that was to follow. Now, these Hebrew Christians of the dispersion were the precious "firstfruits," in the first century, of the entire world of the redeemed. Similarly, we in this age are the "firstfruits" in relation to the Church that is still future. Not only so, but the entire company of believers of all ages and of both worlds is "the Church of the Firstborn." They are all of them elect, precious, devoted to God. Every regenerate man is a pledge of the ultimate regeneration of the multitude which no man could number; as well as of "the restoration of all things," when the new creation of the world shall be accomplished, and Paradise be restored.

In conclusion, have we the assurance that this incomparable gift is ours? Can we say, individually, "He begat us"? What a joy to know, from the marks of grace upon us, that we have passed out of death into life"! C.J.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Of his own will - Most loving, most free, most pure, just opposite to our evil desire, ver. 15. Begat he us - Who believe. By the word of truth - The true word, emphatically so termed; the gospel. That we might be a kind of first-fruits of his creatures - Christians are the chief and most excellent of his visible creatures; and sanctify the rest. Yet he says, A kind of - For Christ alone is absolutely the first-fruits.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

These words are very expressive of four things, namely, of the efficient cause, the impulsive cause, the instrumental and the final cause fo our regeneration.

Observe, 1. The author and efficient cause of regeneration; he that is the Father of lights, mentioned in the foregoing verse, begat us.

Note, that God, and God alone, is the prime efficient cause of regenration; it is subjectively in the creature, it is efficiently from God: Christ appropriates this work to God, Mat 11:23. The Scriptures appropriates it to God, Psa 34:9, called his saints, and God himself appropriates it to himself, I will put my spirit within them, &c. Eze 36:27

Observe, 2. The impelling, impulsive, and moving cause of regeneration, his own will: Of his own will begat he us; by his mere motion, induced by no cause, but the goodness of his own breast, of his own will, and not naturally, as he begat the Son from eternity; of his own will, and not necessarily, by a necessity of nature, as the sun enlightens and enlivens, but by an arbitrariness of grace; of his own will, and not by any obligation from the creature; by the will of God, and not for the merit and desert of man.

Observe, 3. The instrumental cause of our regeneration, the word of truth, that is, the gospel, which is the great instrument in God’s hand for producing the new birth in the souls of his people.

Here note, the gospel is called truth by way of excellency, the word of truth, that is, the true word; and also by way of eminency, as containing a higher and more excellent truth than any other divine truth; the gospel declares the truth of all the Old Testament types.

Observe, 4. The final cause of our new birth, that we should be a kind of first-fruits of his creatures, that is, of his new creatures, the chief among his creatures; the first-fruits were the best of every kind to be offered to God, and were given as God’s peculiar right and portion; thus the new creature is God’s peculiar portion taken out of mankind, which being consecrated to God by a new begetting, they ought to serve him with a new spirit, new thankfulness, as lying under the highest obligations unto new obedience.

William Burkitt's Expository Notes on the New Testament (1700–1703) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

18. Of his own will begat he us. Not in caprice, but our birth as children of God was due to his eternal will. Kind of first fruits. The early converts are often called first fruits of the gospel.

B. W. Johnson's The People's New Testament with Notes (1889–1891) — public domain. Electronic text from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (CCEL) ThML edition.

18. βουληθείς, of His own wish, denoting absolute freedom from necessity or external cause of any kind. βούλομαι and βούλησις are strictly used of the end, not of the means to the end: εἰ δή τι τέλος ἔστι τῶν πρακτῶν ὃ διʼ αὑτὸ βουλόμεθα, Arist. Eth. N. I. 2. 1; ἡ μὲν βούλησις τοῦ τέλους ἐστὶ μᾶλλον, ἡ δὲ προαίρεσις τῶν πρὸς τὸ τέλος, Eth. N. III. 2. 9. See Stewart’s Eth. N. ad loc. cit.

ἀπεκύησεν. The recurrence of this rare word (see above, Jas 1:15) throws into forcible contrast the generation of sin, and the new birth from the Father of lights. This is the more striking as ἀποκύειν is a word strictly used of the mother, not as here of the Father, ‘begat.’ The word generally used in this sense is γεννᾶν. Comp. the use of τίκτειν, Il. II. 742; Aesch. Eum. 630.

The aorist points to the single act of regeneration, as in 1Co 6:11 ἀλλὰ ἀπελούσασθε, ἀλλὰ ἡγιάσθητε, ἀλλὰ ἐδικαιώθητε ἐν τῷ ὀνόματι τοῦ κυρίου, κ.τ.λ.

λόγῳ ἀληθείας, by the word of truth, the instrument by which the work is effected.

λόγος ἀληθείας is the word or message which conveys the truth, the revelation of the truth. Comp. ὁ λόγος τῆς σωτηρίας ταύτης, Act 13:26; ὁ λόγος τῆς ἀληθείας τοῦ εὐαγγελίου, Col 1:5; ὁ λόγος τῆς ἀληθείας, 2Ti 2:15; ὅ ἦν ἀπʼ ἀρχῆς ὅ ἀκηκόαμεν … περὶ τοῦ λόγου τῆς ζωῆς, κ.τ.λ., 1Jn 1:1. Comp. also the frequent ἀμὴν λέγω of our Lord (note the variant ἀληθῶς λέγω, Luk 12:44); in St John always the repeated ἀμὴν ἀμὴν λέγω. See especially, as bearing on this passage, St Joh 3:3; Joh 3:5 ἀμὴν ἀμὴν λέγω σοι, ἐὰν μή τις γεννηθῇ ἐξ ὕδατος καὶ πνεύματος οὐ δύναται εἰσελθεῖν εἰς τὴν βασιλείαν τοῦ θεοῦ.

In the passages quoted above ὁ λόγος τῆς ἀληθ. or τῆς σωτηρίας is the Gospel, that divine revelation by which God regenerated the world in Christ,—a sense which it bears here; but there is a nearer approach to the personal λόγος of Joh 1:1 here than in the other passages. The message of truth in Christ is proved to be the regeneration (ἡ παλινγενεσία) first of Israel, then of the world. The repeated ἡμᾶς points to the privilege of Israel.

εἰς τὸ εἶναι. A final clause denoting the end or object of the spiritual creation.

ἀπαρχήν τινα, a kind of firstfruits. τινα qualifies the boldness of the expression, Winer III. 2 a. In the Hebrew ritual ἀπαρχή meant the firstfruits of men and cattle and harvest, consecrated and offered to God: οἴσετε τὸ δράγμα ἀπαρχὴν τοῦ θερισμοῦ ὑμῶν πρὸς τὸν ἱερέα, Lev 23:10. See also Deu 26:2; Exo 23:19: ἀπαρχὴ therefore besides the primary meaning of ‘firstfruits’ as the promise of harvest and dedication of the coming harvest carried into the New Covenant the thought of consecration to God. Comp. οἴδατε τὴν οἰκίαν Στεφανᾶ, ὅτι ἐστὶν ἀπαρχὴ τῆς Ἀχαίας, 1Co 16:15; οὖτοι ἠγοράσθησαν ἀπὸ τῶν ἀνθρώπων ἀπαρχὴ τῷ θεῷ καὶ τῷ ἀρνίῳ, Rev 14:4.

τῶν αὐτοῦ κτισμάτων, His creatures. The gift of the Incarnation is literally and truly a new life, and the result is a new creature: ὥστε εἴ τις ἐν Χριστῷ καινὴ κτίσις, 2Co 5:17. See Gal 6:15. Thus Christ is πνεῦμα ζωοποιοῦν, 1Co 15:45, because it is by the spiritual communication of His own life that the new creature is effected. With this conception of the new birth as a gift of the Father of lights comp. the use of φωτίζειν, φώτισμα, φωτισμός, as baptismal expressions: οἱ φωτιζόμενοι ἑπτὰ ἡμέρας λαμπροφοροῦσιν, Suicer, sub voc. φωτίζειν.

Cambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges (Cambridge University Press, 1896; 21 vols, various authors incl. Carr, Maclear, Plummer, Farrar, Lumby, Moule, M. R. James, Simcox) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

18.] The greatest example of this position, that all good and perfect gifts come from Him: mentioned not merely as an example, but as leading on to the following context. Because He willed it (the aor. part. is, 1. contemporary with the verb: 2. slightly causal, involving the condition of the act which follows. It was of His own mere will, ‘proprio motu,’ and the emphasis is on this word. “Exprimit quod Deus pro suo beneplacito nos genuerit, atque ita sibi fuerit causa. Unde sequitur, naturale esse Deo benefacere.” Calvin) begat He (ἀποκύειν or -εῖν (see above, ver. 15), here in the sense generare, as there parere. Cf. 1Pe 1:23: 1Jn 3:9. The spiritual birth, not the natural, is meant, as is evident by what follows) us (ἡμᾶς, twice repeated, signifies the Writer and his readers, not Christians in general: not especially as Jewish Christians, Ἰουδαίῳ πρώτῳ,—for that is not (see below) the reference here) with the word of truth (the gen. is one of apposition: cf. Joh 17:17, ὁ λόγος ὁ σὸς ἀλήθειά ἐστι. And the word of truth is the gospel, preached, and ἔμφυτος as below: cf. 1Pe 1:23, ἀναγεγεννημένοι … διὰ λόγου ζῶντος θεοῦ. The failure of the articles does not alter the sense. It is especially a characteristic of the abrupt sententious style of our Apostle. Cf. ποιηταὶ λόγου, ver. 22, where λόγος must be ‘the word;’ and indeed passim. Œc. makes λόγος personal: ἵνα μή τις ὑπολάβῃ ὁμοίως ἡμῖν καὶ τὸν υἱὸν ἀποτεκεῖν αὐτόν, καὶ μεθʼ ἡμῶν καὶ τὸν υἱὸν γεγεννῆσθαι, ἐπάγει τό, λόγῳ ἀληθείας, πάντα γὰρ κατὰ τὸν θεῖον Ἰωάννην διὰ τοῦ υἱοῦ ἐγένετο: and so Athanasius, Serm. iii. advers. Arianos, vol. ii. p. 483; and Bernard, Serm. ii. ad Fratres (?): which is clearly wrong), that we should be (aim, but not the primary aim, of the ἀποκυῆσαι. His gracious purpose with regard to us in particular was, that we should be, &c. His great purpose with regard to all Christians is not here in question. Hence ἡμᾶς is repeated) a kind of firstfruit (“τινα similitudinis est nota, nos quodammodo esse primitias,” Calv. It does not appear to be intended as Bengel, “ ‘Quædam’ habet modestiam, nam primitiæ proprie et absolute est Christus.” Rather, I should say, it would point to the early date of our Epistle, in which an idea afterwards so familiar is thus introduced as it were with an apologetic explanation. The figure in ἀπαρχή is from the appointment of the law by which the firstborn of man, of cattle, of fruits &c., were to be consecrated to God; and the word must be taken with this sacred meaning, not merely as a ‘verbum commune’ indicating priority. The first Christians, to whom St. James is writing, were as firstborn of the great family, dedicated as firstfruits to God. Wiesinger beautifully says, “The thought fully given would be this: they by Regeneration were dedicated as the firstfruits of a sacrificial gift which shall only be completed with the offering up of all κτίσματα”) of His creatures (τὰ κτίσματα αὐτοῦ manifestly extends wider than merely to the great multitude of the regenerated whom no man can number; it embraces all creation, which we know shall partake in the ultimate glorious perfection of the sons of God: cf. Rom 8:20, Rom 8:21. Obviously, the κτίσματα are not the καινὴ κτίσις, as Grot. and many others). Wiesinger has an important note, shewing from this verse what must be the right understanding of much which follows in this Epistle. “This passage,” he says, “is among those which reveal the depth of Christian knowledge in which the practical and moral exhortations of the Writer are grounded: lying as it does expressly (διό, ver. 21) at the basis of them. We will here bring together in a few words the teaching of the passage, for the sake of its important bearing on the rest of the Epistle. It teaches us, 1. as a positive supplement to vv. 14, 15, that the life of man must be renewed, from its very root and foundation: 2. it designates this renewal as God’s work, moreover as an imparting of the life of God (ἀπεκύησε), as only possible by the working of the Spirit, only on the foundation of the objective fact of our Redemption in Christ, which is the content of the λόγος ἀληθείας: 3. it sets forth this re-generation as an act once for all accomplished (ἀπεκύησεν, aor.) and distinguishes it from the gradual penetration and sanctification of the individual life by means of this new principle of life imparted in the re-generation: 4. it declares also expressly that the re-generation is a free act of God’s love (βουληθείς) not induced by any work of man (Eph 2:8, Eph 2:9: Tit 3:5), so that man is placed by God in his right relation to God, antecedently to all works well-pleasing to God: for this the expression ἀπεκύησεν involves: cf. ἐξελέξατο, ch. 2:5, and in so far as this ἀπεκύησεν necessarily implies the justification of the sinner (the δικαιοῦσθαι of St. Paul), it is plain also, that St. James cannot, without contradicting himself, make this δικαιοῦσθαι, in the sense of St. Paul, dependent on the works of faith. 5. λόγος ἀληθείας is specified as the objective medium of re-generation: and herewith we must have πίστις as the appropriating medium on the part of man himself: of the central import of which πίστις in St. James also we have already seen something (vv. 3, 6), and shall see more (ch. 2:5, 14 ff.). 6. Together with this act of re-generation proceeding from God, we have also the high destination of the Christian, which the Apostle gives so significantly and deeply in εἰς τὸ εἶναι κ.τ.λ. And that which God has done to him, is now in the following verses made the foundation of that which the Christian has on his part to do: by which that which we said under (3) and (4) receives fresh confirmation. This passage is one to be remembered, when we wish to know what the Apostle understands by the νόμος τέλειος (1:25; 2:12), and what he means, when (2:14 ff.) he deduces δικαιοῦσθαι from the works of faith. As regards the dogmatical use, which some make of this passage, wishing to shew that regeneration is brought about by the word, as distinguished from the Sacrament of Baptism (Tit 3:5-7), we may remark, that seeing that λόγος ἀληθείας designates the gospel, as a whole, without any respect to such distinction, nothing regarding it can be gathered from this passage. The word of the Lord constitutes, we know, the force of the Sacrament also. ‘Accedit verbum ad elementum et fit Sacramentum.’ And is it meant to be inferred that the readers of this Epistle were not baptized?”

Henry Alford, The Greek Testament (1849–1861) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

18. In contrast with the mistaken idea that God sends temptationis his actual treatment of us, making us sons, and giving us the highest place among his creatures. He is more to us than a consistent benefactor; he is a devoted father, and as such cannot tempt us to evil.

βουληθείς, “deliberately,” and thus showing his real attitude and set purpose. On the specific meaning of βούλομαι (“volition guided by choice and purpose”) in contrast to θέλω, see Hort on this verse, and Lex. s. v. θέλω, with references.

Bede, Calvin, Grotius, etc. take this as marking a contrast to human merit; but this is as far as possible from the context.

ἀπεκύησεν ἡμᾶς, refers either to mankind or to the Christians.

A specific reference to the Jews is sometimes found here, and can be supported by Jer 2:3, by Philo, De const. princ. 6 (ii, p. 366), where Israel is called ἀπαρχή, and by λόγον (but v. l. λόγους) ἀληθείας as a description of the Law in Test. XII Patr. Gad 3:1. But nothing in the context suggests this reference, and for the idea of God as becoming the father of Israel by means of the Law no parallel is adduced.

The reference to Christians is entirely possible and makes a better connection with v. 19. In that case ἀπεκύησεν refers to the new birth; λόγος ἀληθείας is the Gospel (cf. Odes of Son 8:9); and κτισμάτων refers to all creation, but with particular thought of men. The associations of ἀναγέννησις with Greek religious ideas do not seem to be implied here.

If ἡμᾶς is taken to refer to Christians, it must be understood of believers in general, not of the first generation only (Huther) or of Jewish Christians (Beyschlag).

The objections brought against this view are (1) that the context (vv. 12-17) has discussed the subject from general points of view, with no reference to Christians as distinct from others; (2) that for the Gospel ὁ λόγος τῆς ἀληθείας, with the article, would be expected (cf. Eph 1:13, Col 1:5, 2Ti 2:15; note, in a different sense, λόγος ἀληθείας, Psa 119:43, 2Co 6:7); (3) that instead of κτισμάτων some word expressly denoting “men” would have been expected. These objections do not seem conclusive.

The other view, urged by Spitta and especially Hort, takes ἡμᾶς of mankind, begotten by God’s word to be supreme among created things, cf. Ecclus. 15:14. The objection which seems decisive against this is that the figure of begetting was not used for creation (Gen 1:26 does not cover this), whereas it came early into use with reference to the Christians, who deemed themselves “sons of God.”

The idea of a divine begetting and of the entrance into Christian life as a new birth has its roots in Greek not in Jewish thought. So Clem. Alex. Strom. v, 2 (p. 653 Potter) καὶ παρὰ τοῖς βαρβάροις φιλοσόφοις τὸ κατηχῆσαί τε καὶ φωτίσαι ἀναγεννῆσαι λέγεται. See W. Bauer’s note on Joh 3:3 in Lietzmann, Handbuch zum Neuen Testament; A. Dieterich, Eine Mithras-liturgie2, 1910, pp. 134-155, 157 ff. On the verb ἀπεκύησεν (no parallel in N. T.), see R. Reitzenstein, Die hellenistischen Mysterienreligionen, 1910, p. 114. Cf. Joh 1:13, 3:Joh 1:3-8, 1Jn 2:29, 1Jn 2:3:9, 1Jn 2:4:7, 1Jn 2:8, 1Jn 2:5:1, 1Jn 2:4, 1Pe 1:3, 1Pe 1:23 (cf. Hort’s note on 1Pe 1:3), Tit 3:5.

λόγῳ ἀληθείας. The knowledge of God’s truth and will makes us his sons (cf. vv. 21, 22, 23); the “word of truth” is for James mainly the Law (v. 25), which means the Jewish law as understood by Christians. In 2Co 6:7, Col 1:5, Eph 1:13, and perhaps 2Ti 2:15 it is the gospel of salvation.

There is no connection between this verse and Philo’s figure, often repeated in one and another form, of the generative word of God (cf. Leg. alleg. iii, 51, ὁ σπερματικὸς καὶ γεννητικὸς τῶν καλῶν λόγος ὀρθός, and references in Spitta, pp. 45 f.); the idea is utterly different.

ἀπαρχήν τινα, “a kind of first-fruits”; τινα indicates a figurative expression, cf. Winer-Schm. § 26. 1. a.

The “first-fruits,” both of the body and of the field, were sacred, and were often offered to God. See EB, “Firstborn,” HDB, “First-fruits,” Schürer, GJV, § 24, II.

The figure is found with reference to Israel in Jer 2:3 (ἀρχὴ γενημάτων αὐτοῦ), Philo, De const. princ. 6 (διότι τοῦ σύμπαντος ἀνθρώπων γένους ἀπενεμήθη οἶά τις ἀπαρχὴ τῷ ποιητῆ καὶ πατρί), and to the Christians in 2Th 2:13 (Codd. BFG, etc.) and Rev 14:4. But the figure does not seem very common in Jewish thought. With Greek writers the word is more frequent in a figurative sense, see L. and S. and the Scholiast on Eur. Or. 96 quoted in Lex. s. v., which says that ἀπαρχή “was used not merely of that which was first in order but of that which was first in honor.”

κτισμάτων, cf. 1Ti 4:4 (Rev 5:13, Rev 8:9); not used elsewhere in N. T., cf. Wisd. 13:5. In O. T. found only in Wisdom, Ecclesiasticus, 3 Maccabees; not used in this sense in secular writers, and to be associated with the Jewish use of κτίζω and its derivatives.

Von Soden, misled by his failure to see any adequate connection of thought for v. 18, wished to take κτισμάτων of God’s new creation (cf. 2Co 5:17 καινὴ κτίσις, Gal 6:15, Eph 2:10, Eph 4:24), within which these particular Christians addressed are distinguished by reason of their subjection to fiery trials. But (1) this does not suit ἀπεκύησεν, which must at least refer to all Christians; (2) it would require some clearer indication of the restriction, since the idea is not a common one; and (3) while suited to vv. 2-11, it is inappropriate at this point in the chapter.

International Critical Commentary — older volumes (1896–1929), various authors — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Begat [απεκυησεν] . Rev., brought forth. See on ver. 15, and compare 1Jo 3:9; 1Pe 1:23.

A kind of first fruits [απαρχην τινα] . A kind of indicates the figurative nature of the term. The figure is taken from the requirement of the Jewish law that the first - born of men and cattle, and the first growth of fruits and grain should be consecrated to the Lord. The point of the illustration is that Christians, like first - fruits, should be consecrated to God. The expression "first - fruits" is common in the New Testament. See Rom 8:23; Rom 16:5; 1Co 14:20, 23; Rev 14:4.

Marvin R. Vincent, Word Studies in the New Testament (1887–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.