Nor of the Will of the Flesh

John 1:13 Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.

I used to wonder why God said, "nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man" together like this? Mr. Camping explained that the will of the flesh had to do with being born into a Christian home, or having a pastor as your father. Your blood line doesn't save you, he would say.

While it's true that our family relations cannot save us, I think that there's a more specific reason as to why God says we're not born again by "the will of the flesh".

When mankind fell into sin, we died that very day. Death occurred in our soul existence. Yet, mankind maintained, in each generation thereafter, physical life for a period of time. The Bible speaks of this physical life in man as the flesh.

The 'flesh' in man is alive, in the sense that the heart beats, and breathing is taking place. And it is to the flesh (the physical life in man) that the free will false gospels make their plea to accept Christ and become saved (born again).

But what makes the free will gospels false gospels is the fact that they may evoke a physical response from a man to choose Christ, yet, there is no response, cannot possibly be any response from the spiritually dead soul of the individual they are targeting. Therefore, their pleas are entirely directed at the fleshly nature of man. Any acceptance of their pleas to choose Christ is also an act completely performed by the flesh. Of course the big problem that occurs with the idea of a gospel that pleads with the flesh, is that the flesh cannot possibly do anything that would be pleasing to God:

Romans 8:8 So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God.

If a man were able to exercise his fleshly nature to accept Christ and become saved, that would mean he was able to do something pleasing to God while in the flesh. But again, that’s not possible.

So, in case anyone is mislead into thinking that a person can be saved through an act of their own flesh, God makes it abundantly clear that that cannot happen:

John 1:13 Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.

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