Let no man think that in the act of ‘being born’ physically or spiritually, either the child possesses or merits either life or its enjoyments—life is not guaranteed. He is only by his birth placed in circumstances favorable to the enjoyment of life, and all that makes life a blessing. “To as many as receive(d) Him (believing in His name, respecting His authority to command), He grants the privilege of being children of God (they have come through the birth canal of water baptism) as He commanded , who derive their birth not from blood ( it matters not to whom they claim physical kinship or ancestry), nor from the desire of the flesh (this birth was not something THEY participated in because of the sometimes uncontrollable demands of re-production given them by God), nor from the will of man (no man or group of men can determine worthiness or sufficiency—all man can do is judge whether obedience has been rendered), but from God (it is what God has done, an act He alone could do—that merited soul-salvation.” John 1:14
“He has saved us,” says the Apostle Paul, “by the bath of regeneration and the renewing of the Holy Spirit, which He poured on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior; that, being justified (because of His sacrifice that He alone could offer), He could favor us by making known to the sons of men His GRACE (the pre-meditated plan), that consummates in the bath of regeneration, so we might be made heirs (here is where we have ancestry) according to the hope (guarantee and confidence) of (His) eternal life (unlike the high priest of the previous administration, He does not dis-continue existence because of death, for He lives (continues to serve) forever.” Titus 3:5 With this plan, called grace, He saves us by the sacrifice HE offered—it was HIS work on the tree of Calvary that made this possible!! Consequently, being born of water and the renewing of the Holy Spirit are not works of merit or righteousness, but ONLY the means of enjoyment!! This “pouring out of the influences, this renewing of the Holy Spirit”, is as necessary as the bath of regeneration to the salvation of the soul, and to the enjoyment of the hope of Heaven, of which the apostle speaks!!
In the kingdom into which we are born—we are a NEW creation, not new creatures for we have lived and existed as we developed the character and nature deemed necessary by the great Creator—the process having been completed. In this “new kingdom”, new existence, new relationship because of the work of Christ, the AIR from a different source!! In the womb, the air breathed by the child-to-be is that from the mother; in the world to which it is born, it begins (at the first recognition of independent life) to breath air directly from the God who gave it the process of life that has now been realized!! The atmosphere/air/breath of the new creature in Christ is the Holy Spirit. In the kingdom into which we are born of water, the Holy Spirit is the means of influence necessary to the new life as the atmosphere is to our animal life in the kingdom of nature!! As a child cannot continue life outside the womb without breathing, neither can the “babe in Christ” continue salvation without the atmosphere of the Holy Spirit!!
All that is done in us before regeneration, God our Father effects by the word, or the gospel as dictated and confirmed by His Holy Spirit written on the pages of His holy book called the Bible. AFTER that birth is done, we are that begotten child having passed through the birth canal of baptism, that needs the “sincere milk of the Word” that we may grow, thereby.” 1 Peter 2:1 The Holy Spirit is shed on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior; of which the peace of mind, the love, the joy, and the hope of the regenerate is full proof; for these are among the fruits of His presence!!
