These words were a shock to my system. I had entered seminary
believing that the key work of man to effect rebirth was faith. I
thought that we first had to believe in Christ in order to be born
again. I use the words in order here for a reason. I was thinking in
terms of steps that must be taken in a certain sequence. I had put faith
at the beginning. The order looked something like this:
“Faith - rebirth -justification.”
I hadn’t thought that matter through very carefully. Nor had I
listened carefully to Jesus’ words to Nicodemus. I assumed that even
though I was a sinner, a person born of the flesh and living in the
flesh, I still had a little island of righteousness, a tiny deposit of
spiritual power left within my soul to enable me to respond to the
Gospel on my own. Perhaps I had been confused by the teaching of the
Roman Catholic Church. Rome, and many other branches of Christendom, had
taught that regeneration is gracious; it cannot happen apart from the
help of God. Continue at R. C. Sproul
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