Our Lord said to Nicodemus, “Verily, verily I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God” (John 3:3). The oft-debated question among Christian denominations is, “How is one born of God?” Many believe that they are born of God by their faith. They are told to believe in Jesus Christ that they might be born again, thus making their faith the cause of their new birth. But didn’t Jesus compare the new or spiritual birth to the old or physical birth? Read John 3:4-8. Whoever heard of anyone being the cause of his own birth? We are not born of faith, repentance, baptism, or any such act; we are born of the Spirit (John 3:8).

Faith, therefore, is not the cause of the new birth but the fruit of new birth. “Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God” wrote John in 1 John 5:1. The present tense “believeth” is the result of the perfect tense “is born.” The new birth enables one who is a sinner to believe in Jesus. John 1:12, 13 confirms this interpretation. We were not born “of the will of the flesh.” If our faith caused our new birth, then we would have been born of the will of the flesh, and not of God, because there could be no new man until we were born again, thus making the new birth the result of the will of the flesh. But John 1:13 clearly states we are born of God, not of the will of the flesh.

Believing that the flesh does something to cause the new birth has led to the false teachings of decisional salvation and baptismal regeneration. Both of these erroneous doctrines make the flesh the cause of the new birth. The truth is we believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and identify with Him in baptism because we have been born of God. Faith, repentance, and obedience are the fruit of regeneration, not its cause. Persevering in the faith is the evidence of new birth, not its source. We owe our new birth, not to any decision or act of ours, but to the free and sovereign grace of our gracious God and Father.