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.
The great and glorious doctrine of regeneration, though largely ignored in the modern world of religion, is found in various ways throughout Scripture though the language is not always the same. John 1:13 speaks of being born of God, John 3:3-5 speaks of being born again (or from above), and there are other passages that speak to this doctrine in their own ways. For example, Ephesians 2:1-5 goes not use the word “birth” or “born” or anything just like that, but it is speaking of the same great truth.
Ephesians 2:1 And you were dead in your trespasses and sins, 2 in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience. 3 Among them we too all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest. 4 But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, 5 even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved)
The text in Ephesians sets out man as being dead in trespasses and sin, a slave to the prince of the power of the air, a slave to the lusts of the flesh and mind; and then of being by nature a child of wrath. The contrast to all of those things is of being made alive together with Christ by grace. But what must happen to a person that is dead if that person is going to be with Christ in a form of life? That person must be made alive. In other words, that person must be born from above or born again. The person that is spiritually dead must be made spiritually alive way if that person is going to be a spiritual person.
What must happen to a person that is a slave to the prince of the power of the air? That person must be made free from that prince. When a person is a slave in the sense that a person is a slave to sin, that person must be freed from the slavery of sin. But this can only happen when that person is freed from the bondage of sin and of spiritual death, so again that person must be made alive in Christ Jesus.
What must happen to a person that is a slave to the lusts of the flesh and of the mind? As Galatians sets out for us in chapter five of that book, the flesh wars against the Spirit. Those who are controlled by the fleshly nature are those that are not controlled by the Spirit who works spiritual things in those with spiritual natures. Men must be made alive by the Spirit and be born of the Spirit in order to be made spiritual men. It is not just that men must stop having certain desires of the flesh and of the mind, which come from the fleshly nature, but instead they must have a new nature and so have new desires of the Spirit and of the mind. This person must be made alive and be born from above by the Spirit in order to have those things.
What must happen to a person that by nature is a child of wrath? That person must be born from above in order to have a nature that is from God and so be a child of God. All men are born in a nature that shows them to be children of the devil, which is to be born in a state of wrath. That nature must be changed by a new birth so that a person can become a child of the living God. In other words, it is impossible for a person to be saved from the wrath of God until a person has his nature changed. If a person is by nature a child of wrath, then that nature must be changed for the person to be something other than a child of wrath. So many people want salvation to come to them for praying a prayer, an act of the will, or by changing the behavior. But that simply cannot be. As long as a person has the same nature that s/he was born with, that person will be by nature a child of wrath. That nature cannot be changed by that nature and that nature cannot be changed by the person in any way. The nature must be changed by the living God who alone can cause a child of wrath to be a new creation in Christ Jesus. How desperately men need to be regenerate or to be born again, and yet they go sleepily on their way to everlasting wrath as long as they remain in the nature they were born with. You must be born again.
God Loves... Himself 
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