"Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above." Then the gift of life--the gift of regeneration--that blessed converting gift, whereby we become new creatures in Christ Jesus, is "from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning. Of his own will begat he us with the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures." (James 1:18) It is of his own will he begat us, "not of the will of the flesh"--"not of blood;" it cannot be inherited, but it must come directly through the power and ministry of the Spirit of God. (George Doudney)
