Born Again

18 Of his own will he brought us forth by the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures (James 1:18).

How did you become a Christian? Becoming a Christian involves hearing the truth of the Gospel, turning from sin, trusting in Jesus for salvation, and desired to follow him by faith.

That is a glorious truth!

There is a small problem though. The way we often understand being saved is that we are the
ones making the decision to follow Jesus. It feels that way. We hear the word, we repent, we choose, and we follow.

But our verse today shows up that before all that happened, God was at work. It says, “Out of
his own will.” Whose will? It was God’s will that enabled us to come to him. This verse shows that what God was doing in salvation was most important. It was his will, he brought us forth, by his word of truth. We didn’t bring ourselves to God, he brought himself to us!

This is very important because it humbles us to know that God would reach out to us first before
we could ever reach to him. The word of God’s gospel is the best gift we could ever get. He gets all the glory for enabling us and empowering us by drawing us to himself through his glorious Gospel.

Read John 1:11-13

• How did we become born again? Who first decided we should be saved?
• According to this verse, if God is the one who causes our salvation, do we still have a part to play? What are we responsible for? (Receive him and believe in his name.)

Prayer
Our Father, thank you that you have saved those who believe in you and follow you. Thank you that you incline our hearts to know you. Apart from you loving us first, we would not love you. Apart from you drawing us to yourself, we would not be drawn to you. Apart from you awakening us to your truth, we would still be fast asleep in our sin. Apart from you we can do nothing. In Jesus’ name, Amen.