earnestly and faithfully: “Have I been born again? Have I been born of the Spirit? Have I passed from death unto life?”
There is a class of men who say that special religious meetings are very good for a certain class of people. They would be very good if you could get the drunkard there, or get the gambler there, or get other vicious people there—that would do a great deal of good. But “we do not need to be converted.” To whom did Christ utter these words of wisdom? To Nicodemus. Who was Nicodemus? Was he a drunkard, a gambler, or a thief? No! No doubt he was one of the very best men in Jerusalem. He was an honorable Councillor; he belonged to the Sanhedrim; he held a very high position; he was an orthodox man; he was one of the very soundest men. And yet what did Christ say to him? “Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.”
But I can imagine someone saying, “What am I to do? I cannot create life. I certainly cannot save myself.” You certainly cannot; and we do not claim that you can. We tell you it is utterly impossible to make a man better without Christ; but that is what men are trying to do. They are trying to patch up this “old Adam” nature. There must be a new creation . Regeneration is a new creation; and if it is a new creation it must be the work of God. In the first chapter of Genesis man does not appear. There is no one there but God. Man is not there to take part. When God created the earth He was alone. When Christ redeemed the world He was alone.
“That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.” (John 3:6) The Ethiopian cannot change his skin, and the leopard cannot change his spots. You might as well try to make yourselves pure and holy without the help of God. It would be just as easy for you to do that as for the black man to wash himself white. A man might just as well try to leap over the moon as to serve God in the flesh. Therefore, “that which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.”