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