Regeneration - everywhere in the New Testament

 

"The idea of a fundamental change equal to a new birth is not something confined to one or two chapters of the New Testament. The idea is found in many places and a variety of illustrations are employed. ... It is clear that the Bible uses a variety of pictures to convey the idea that the Christian life starts with a radical change produced by God. ... washing, receiving a new heart or spirit, God’s law in the mind and on the heart, ... circumcision of the heart, ... a new birth, a new planting, a new creation, a resurrection, a passing from darkness to light, entering a new world, setting out in a new direction, Spirit baptism and being irresistibly drawn. God intends all these pictures to add to our understanding of regeneration and we do well to reflect on them. Is your understanding of new birth all that it should be?"

From my book What the Bible teaches about being born again, pp 65, 74

Regeneration - when and where the Spirit wills

 

"Jesus uses a picture that grows out of the fact that in Hebrew, Greek and other languages, the word for Spirit or spirit is also the word for breath or wind. This is because both are invisible. Just as ‘the wind blows wherever it pleases’, so the Spirit regenerates whom he will. In the same way that you cannot see the wind but you can see where it has been and what it does, so the Spirit works in people’s lives, and though his work is invisible to our eyes, the results are seen in changed lives. Just when and where the Spirit will work next we cannot definitely know."

From my book What the Bible teaches about being born again, p 63