‘You must be born again’ - a command?

 

"The you in ‘you must be born again’ (John 3:7) is plural. Everyone needs to be born again, not just Nicodemus. The words are often misunderstood to mean that we must do something ourselves to be born again. Yet the picture itself suggests the very opposite. Grammatically, this is an indicative not an imperative, a statement not a command. Just as we cannot decide to be born, so we cannot decide to be born again. Just as birth comes at the beginning of our conscious human life so new birth is at the start of the Christian life."

From my book What the Bible teaches about being born again, p 62

Is faith necessary for new birth?

 

"The fact that receiving or believing appears to arise before becoming children of God or being born of God in these verses tempts some to think that receiving or believing is a condition for being born of God. However, the whole point of the passage is that becoming a child of God is not a matter of ‘natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will’. God makes it happen. As Paul observes: ‘I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God made it grow’ (1 Corinthians 3:6). Only God, the giver of life, can make alive. The same point is made in a previous quotation from Ezekiel 36, where God says, 'I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh [italics mine].'"

From my book What the Bible teaches about being born again, p 62

Stalemate, Impasse, Mexican standoff

Anecdote

I remember my father telling me a story once of when he was in school. My father was a football  fanatic, especially when a boy. (He was desperate not to pass the 11-plus as if he left the elementary school he would have to play rugby not soccer). Anyway, one day the teacher called the class to attention and announced that unless someone owned up to some misdemeanour that had occurred the day before, there would be no football that day. As soon as the class was over my dad went straight to the teacher and confessed it was him. "Go away, Brady" said the teacher "you weren't here yesterday"!