You Must Be Born Again'

By Charles E. Spurgeon

'Ye must be born again.'­ John 3:7

    Regeneration is a subject which lies at the very basis of salvation,
and we should be very diligent to take heed that we really are 'born
again,' for there are many who fancy they are, who are not.  Be
assured that the name of a Christian is not the nature of a Christian;
and that being born in a Christian land, and being recognized as
professing the Christian religion is of no avail whatever, unless there
be something more added to it­the being 'born again,' is a matter so
mysterious, that human words cannot describe it.

    'The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof,
but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one
that is born of the Spirit.' Nevertheless, it is a change which is known
and felt: known by works of holiness, and felt by a gracious experience.
This great work is supernatural.  It is not an operation which a man
performs for himself: a new principle is infused, which works in the heart,
renews the soul, and affects the entire man.

    It is not a change of my name, but a renewal of my nature, so that I am
not the man I used to be, but a new man in Christ Jesus.  To wash and
dress a corpse is a far different thing from making it alive: man can do the
one, God alone can do the other.

     If you have then, been 'born again,' your acknowledgment will be,
'O Lord Jesus, the everlasting Father, Thou art my spiritual Parent; unless
Thy Spirit had breathed into me the breath of a new, holy, and spiritual life,
I had been to this day 'dead in trespasses and sins.' My heavenly life is
wholly derived from Thee, to Thee I ascribe it. 'My life is hid with Christ in
God.' It is no longer I who live, but Christ who liveth in me.'

    May the Lord enable us to be well assured on this vital point, for to be
unregenerate is to be unsaved, unpardoned, without God, and without hope.

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Yours in Christ,
Paul N. F.