John is describing
something extraordinary and supernatural.
This is not your run-of-the-mill birth, as amazing as a birth might
be. This right bestowed on the ones who
believe in the Word of God, is not brought into this familial existence as a
result of a human action; in other words belief does not cause it to happen.
Faith in the One
who brings “life and light” to all the world (verse 9) is not the catalyst of
this new experience, although it sounds as if that was what John is
saying. But he clarifies this when he states
in three different ways that new family status granted believers in the Word is
not a physical relationship; it is not the result of a human choice; and, it is
not a consequence of human desire. There
is no human element to this change of status.
It is totally a God-thing.
It is not my will that makes it happen—it is God’s will. It is not my intense desire that causes it to come to fruition—it is God’s desire. It is not my choice that convinces God to let me in. No! That choice was already made “before the foundation of the world.” (Ephesians 1:4). So when we are tempted to believe that we are “all that,” let this text set you (and me) straight! In the classic words of E. G. White, the robe of righteousness that changes our status from spiritual street urchins into full-fledged sons and daughters of God “has in it not one thread of human devising.” (My Life Today, pg. 277). I like my odds in that scenario.
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