You Must Be Born Again! Part 2

     God is Sovereign, even over salvation.

     "Yet to all who received Him, to those who believe in His name,
     He gave the right to become children of God - children born not
     of natural descent, nor of human decision, or a husband's will, but
     born of God" (John 1:12-13).


     All who have been born again certainly DO believe in Jesus, but
     their new birth is not because of anything inherited from their parents,
     or the exercise of their own free will, or any decision they made, or to
     any decision anyone else made, but because of the Sovereign grace and
     work of God.


     Notice that Jesus did not tell Nicodemus (John 3:3&7) "how to be born
     again."  He doesn't tell him, "here's what you need to do to be born again,"
     because there is nothing a person CAN do of his own power.  It's totally
     from God!

     You may be thinking, "don't we have to repent and believe" to be born
     again?  Yes, but both repentance and faith do not come from within us -
     they are gifts from God.
    
     REPENTANCE
     Acts 5:31:  "God exalted Him to His own right hand as Prince and Savior
     that He might give repentance and forgiveness of sins to Israel."

     FAITH
     Ephesians 2:8-9:  "For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith -
     and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God - not by works, so that
     no one can boast."


     The gospel of John makes it clear that saving faith is a result of regeneration,
     not the cause of it.  "Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been
     born of God" (1 John 5:1).
     Everyone who in the present believes, has in the past, been regenerated by
     God.  Faith does not produce regeneration.  Regeneration produces faith.

     James 1:18 emphasizes the same theme - "Of His own will He brought forth
     by the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures."
     We are given new life by God's exercise of His own will, not because of ours.
     God moves first, prompting us to act.

     1 Peter 1:3 continues the idea - "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord
     Jesus Christ!  According to His great mercy, He has caused us to be born again
     according to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead."

    
     God the Father gave us new life according to His mercy, not because of a request
     from us.  We would never make such a request because we were "dead in our sins"
     (Ephesians 2:1), and we "who are controlled by the sinful nature cannot please God"
     (Romans 8:8).
    
     Certainly, seeking Him for salvation would be pleasing to God, but we are
     unable to do so under our own power.
     "None is righteous, no, not one;  no one understands;  no one seeks for God"
     (Romans 3:10-11).
     "The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit
     of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because
     they are spiritually discerned" (1 Corinthians 2:14).
     God reveals Himself and His plans for us by His Spirit (1 Corinthians 2:10).


     God is in total control of salvation, not man!



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     Next time in part three:  why we need to be born again, and what regeneration really is.