Morning, March 6

Charles Spurgeon · Morning and Evening: Daily Readings

"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.