John 1:13 who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.
John 3:3 Jesus answered and said to him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.” James 1:21 Therefore, putting aside all filthiness and all that remains of wickedness, in humility receive the word implanted, which is able to save your souls.
When Jesus declared to Nicodemus that he (and all others) must be born again, this appeared to shock this religious leader in Israel. Most likely he had large portions of the Old Testament memorized, but that is a far different thing from understanding what he had memorized. Nicodemus knew that he was born a Jew and was an Israelite with the promises of God, but he did not seem to know that his bloodline did not mean that he was in the kingdom of God. Perhaps Nicodemus had not thought of the new birth in these terms before, but he had to learn that being born again was not only necessary to enter the kingdom of God, but it was something beyond his own power to do so. The new birth is in reality something that is so momentous that God alone can do it. It is not something that any flesh can do for itself or for another. It is not something that the will of man can cause or carry out. It is something that only happens to a soul if God wills for it to happen and then works it in the heart of fallen man. Nicodemus was shocked to hear these things, but it appears that many people are as shocked today.
On the other hand, while many are not necessarily shocked to hear that they must be born again, they are shocked to hear (and sometimes virulent in their opposition) that God is sovereign in this matter. They don’t like to hear that God must do this work and that they cannot move Him to do it or cause it in anyway. This, however, is based on ignorance of the nature of God, the nature of man, and why God does anything at all.
Why is it such a necessity that a human being must be born again? Why is it a necessity that God does the work and not man? Why must this be a work that demands that man can have no part of merit in this work? Because man must be turned:
1. From the love of self to the love of God and others.
2. From loving others for the sake of self to love others for the sake of God.
3. From loving God for the sake of self to loving God for the sake of His own glory.
4. From a creature that seeks the comforts of self and self honor and glory to seeking the glory of God.
5. From spiritual death to life, or from a life of the flesh or natural man to spiritual life.
6. From spiritual blindness to spiritual sight.
7. From spiritual deafness to spiritual hearing.
8. From spiritually hating the taste of the things of God to tasting and seeing that the Lord is good.
9. From hating God and being at enmity with Him to loving Him.
10. From being a child of the devil to being a child of the living God.
11. From persecuting those who love Christ to being willing to be persecuted for Christ.
12. From seeking nothing but the things of self in religion to seeking God Himself in all things.
While there are other reasons that the new birth must be the work of God and not of man, it is quite clear from the reasons above that regeneration is a work of God and that man can never earn this or merit any part of it. The glorious teaching of regeneration stands as a teaching that demands that God is sovereign and that this work of regeneration is by sovereign grace alone. But then again, there is no other type of grace but a sovereign grace. Any soul that is awakened by God to see that s/he is a lost sinner knows that s/he has no ability to change his or her own nature. This should teach us to seek the Lord for a humbled and broken heart which He must work in the soul and cry out for Him to give us a new heart that we may love Him.
God Loves... Himself 
Leave a comment