The Doctrine of Regeneration by John MacArthur

...But when you're talking about being born, you're really talking about coming into existence and no one who is not in existence and comes into existence does so based upon something they did, or something they desired, or something they sought. If the Lord wants to talk about what we do, He talks about repentance. If He wants to talk about what we do, He talks about faith. But when the Bible starts talking about being born again, it no longer is talking about anything that you or I could do.

The analogy itself describes a reality to which the one born can by definition make no contribution. We were all born completely apart from any consideration or effort on our part...unless you believe in reincarnation and some kind of pre-birth consciousness which, of course, is completely foreign to the Word of God and untrue. The person being born coming into existence, comes into existence apart from any desire or any action on his own behalf. Birth happens to us not because we desire it, not because we want it, or not because we followed the steps to be born. And that is exactly the point of the analogy.

As I said before, when the Lord chooses an analogy, He chooses an analogy to convey a spiritual truth that is inherent in the simplest understanding of that analogy. It's not complex to say you didn't do anything to be born into this world, and then to say then you do not do anything to be born into the realm of God's world. That is the reason God chose that analogy. No one gives himself physical life, and no one gives himself or herself spiritual life. There are no steps that you do to become alive, either physically or spiritually.

So being born again or being regenerated is clearly an analogy that speaks of something that happens to us apart from us. And by the way, this is not an isolated concept in the Bible, it is a fairly unmistakable, clear and repeated idea.

Now to cut to the very important bottom line, if you will, this idea of regeneration or being born again or new birth is unmistakably presented in the Scripture as the first divine act in salvation. It is primary, theologians say, in what they call the Ordo Salutis, the order of salvation. It is the first thing God does to save us. The only feature that comes before regeneration is election, and that was in eternity past before the foundation of the world.

In time, in life, in reality the first thing God does when He sets to save His elect is to regenerate them. God calls the elect to Himself, we saw this last Sunday night, with an unyielding summons. Maybe the best thing to call it is power grace...power grace draws the sinner. John 6:44, Jesus said, "No man comes unto Me except the Father draw him," that's the effectual call, that's the irresistible grace. Or I like it better, that's the power grace, that's the unyielding summons, that's the divine subpoena. And all whom the Father calls come...as we saw in our study...

Read or listen to the full sermon here.