St. Peter declares that to obtain eternal life we must be born again, since by nature we were born but to die.
βBeing born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the Word of God, which liveth and abideth forever. For all flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass. The grass withereth and the flower thereof falleth away. But the Word of the Lord endureth forever, and this is the Word which by the gospel is preached unto youβ (I Pet. 1:23-25).
Our Lord emphasized this same fact to the Pharisee Nicodemus. βThat which is born of the flesh,β He said, βis fleshβ¦ Marvel not that I said unto thee, ye must be born againβ (John 3:6,7).
Nicodemus was devoutly religious, and he even recognized Christ as βa teacher come from Godβ (John 3:2). But he was not saved. He had not been βborn of the Spirit,β and βthat which is born of the flesh is flesh,β even though it is βreligious flesh.β Therefore it must die. Nicodemus, like many sincerely religious people today, needed to be born again β of the Spirit, by faith in the Word, of which the Spirit is the Author.
Some suppose that Paul did not teach the new birth, but they are wrong. He taught it consistently, and nowhere more clearly than in Titus 3:5, where he wrote by divine inspiration:
βNot by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us, by the washing of regeneration [re-birth] and renewing of the Holy Spirit.β source
