Jn.1:13 – who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of a man, but of God.

I remember one of my first Christmas’s as a Christian I was selling Christmas Cards for our printing company at our Bible School to churches in our nearby city. Our cards weaved the message of the cross into the message of the nativity of Christ. I got an appointment with the pastor of a large church in town and was hoping he would purchase some of our Christmas cards. I remember being thoroughly embarrassed as he lectured me about Christmas, was not the time to be talking about the cross. I was a new Christian and only twenty one; this conversation got me thinking. I came to the conclusion that the cross was the only purpose of the manger, they were really one and the same. It was His birth and death that enabled us to be born again. That’s why He came, that I could become a son of God. Here is how Albert Barnes describes today’s verse.

“God produces the change, and confers the privilege of being called his children. The heart is changed by his power. No unaided effort of man, no works of ours, can produce this change. At the same time, it is true that no man is renewed who does not himself desire and will to be a believer; for the effect of the change is on his will, and no one is changed who does not strive to enter in at the strait gate. This important verse, therefore, teaches us:

1. That if men are saved they must be born again
2. That this work is the work of God, and no man can do it for us.
3. That we should forsake all human dependence, cast off all confidence in the flesh, and go at once to the throne of-grace, and beseech of God to adopt us into his family and save our souls from death.”

The whole point of the birth of Christ was our new birth. Think about it for a minute. If you are a Christian you are born of God. That is really unthinkable. The life of God entered into you and you became a new person. You are not who you use to be. You have become a literal child of God. That is the real Christmas story.