'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 it ­the 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.