But Nicodemus did marvel at what our Lord was saying and could only reply “How can these things be?” Nicodemus like many others today had preconceived ideas and prejudices which made it difficult for him either to understand or to accept the divine simplicity of God’s plan of salvation. “He had to descend from the lofty heights of Rabbinical learning and traditionary religion and learn the alphabet of the Gospel in the school of Christ.” Then, too, it would be a most humiliating thing for this prominent leader in religious circles who was supposed to teach others concerning the Kingdom to admit that he himself could not enter the Kingdom except he came as a sinner to a Saviour, confessing his need of a new nature.

But the Lord Jesus takes infinite pains to throw light into the darkened mind of Nicodemus because He knows that He is dealing with a hungry soul. So He tells him the “how” of the new birth.

John 3:8

“The wind bloweth where it will, 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.”

John 3:6

“That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.”

As in justification so in regeneration God takes the initiative and does the work. By grace are ye saved. The spiritual man is born of the Spirit. The new birth is God’s work alone. It is a birth from above.

1 John 3:9

“Whosoever is begotten of God doeth no sin, because his seed abideth in him: and he cannot sin, because he is begotten of God.”

John 1:12-13

^12 “But as many as received Him, to them gave He power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe in His name, ¹³ which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.”

“Born” — “not of blood.” Regeneration has no connection with natural descent. Recently I asked a gentleman if he were a Christian. Instantly he replied, “Certainly, I was born a Christian.” I have a friend who felt quite sure that her first baby was born a Christian but now she has come to be more sure that not one of her seven could have been born Christians. God says distinctly that the divine, eternal, spiritual life of God is not passed to son but is implanted by God, the Holy Spirit, directly in the spirit of man. “Salvation does not run in the blood.” Eternal life is not an inheritance from godly parents but it is the gift of God in Christ His Son.

“Born” — “not of the will of the flesh.” Regeneration has no connection with natural volition. The will of the flesh is hostile to God and left to itself it would never move Godward. Did not Christ say to those who opposed Him, “Ye will not come to me that ye might have life”? Self-will would never abdicate in favor of God. But even if it would choose to do so it is altogether “without strength” (Romans 5:6). Good resolutions made when the heart is touched by an emotional appeal, or the turning over a new leaf on one’s birthday, or at the beginning of the new year, or the fixed determination to cut one’s self loose from an evil practice, do not constitute regeneration. Except grace takes the initiative and the Holy Ghost operates on the will of man he would never desire a new nature or be able to obtain one. “So then it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth; but of God that sheweth mercy” (Romans 9:16).