As brought to the fore by a certain commenter (see comments) who goes by the name Theophilus, the Spurgeon quote below is being reposted because of the seriousness of the subject, i.e. being born twice, or 'again'. Very important to have a correct understanding of this most important truth. For that reason, it is hoped that reposting this with the added comment just below and the reader comments would be an overall help:
The word 'again', in the original Greek, is 'anothen' (an'-o-then), meaning literally 'from above'. To speak of being 'born twice' then, is to speak of a second birth experience which comes 'from above', or even more specifically, an altogether new experience which is nothing less than to actually be 'born...of God' (John 1:13). Truly, a man can have nothing more to do with taking credit for his natural birth, then to take any credit for a second 'supernatural' birth. If a man is truly born 'again', God, and God alone, has brought forth that new life, with no help whatsoever from one who has yet to even be conceived. This is the starting point in understanding God's great plan of salvation. "Except a man be born again"...first, according to the Lord Jesus Christ, he will be absolutely unable to even 'see' the Kingdom of God. Nevertheless, this doctrine, called 'election', has for the most part been completely set aside by that sad parody of what passes for the Christian church in these Laodicean days in which we live, replaced with a little magic formula called the 'sinner's prayer'. Say the magic words, and you're in....saved forever and ever...and you don't even have to understand it...just say the words. That's all there is to it...welcome to the club. Is it really any wonder, then, to find that the organized church, across the board, has now become thoroughly apostate, joining themselves to such things as the global interfaith movement and the homosexual agenda? Rev. 18:4
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"...if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature" 2 Cor. 5:17
The ungodly cannot comprehend the godly; they scoff at them, they turn their glory into shame because they themselves love vanity and seek after lying. The godly man is not understood by the people among who he dwells; God has made him to be a stranger and a foreigner in their midst. They who are born twice have a life that cannot be comprehended by those who are only born once. Those who have received the Spirit of God have a new spirit within them that is so singular that the carnal mind cannot perceive what it is.
Spiritual things must be spiritually discerned. When a man has become a new creature in Christ Jesus, the old creatures round about him cannot make head or tail of him. They look at him, they see him actuated by motives they cannot understand, they see that he is kept in check by forces they do not acknowledge, that he is constrained by energies of which they are not partakers, and that he looks for something they do not desire; so the Christian becomes in a measure like to Christ Himself, of Whom the poet sings, “The Jewish world knew not their King, God’s everlasting Son.”
“Therefore, the world knoweth us not, because it knew Him not” - 1 John 3:1.
Spurgeon
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John 3:3 Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.