The Lamb of God has in a book

The names of those with life.

Twas written ere the world was made

Tis the Lamb's book of life.

He knew the names of all His own

For them He came to die.

He shed His blood for all their sin,

The Just to justify.

These had no hope and without God

Are saved by His rich grace.

Their kingdom is His kingdom now,

In Christ reserved a place.

The preaching of the Gospel calls

To bring them life and faith.

For in the dear Lamb’s book of life

Their names are written there

They're even written on His hand.

Their name He'll not blot out.

Already in the heavenlies,

There none to be cast out.

Christ loved His own unto the end.

Their way to Him is sure.

Their Sovereign God be magnified.

He's Light and Life and Pure.

(Tune: “"My Faith Has Found a Resting Place" ” p. 228)

Happy Birthday! 20th - Jesse Frady

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A woodpecker was perched on a tree trunk drilling for bugs in its bark during a thunderstorm. A bolt of lightning struck the tree, knocking him senseless to the ground. When he awoke and beheld the tree split in two from top to bottom and lying on the ground, he exclaimed, “Behold what I have done!”

This parable often comes to mind when I hear certain religious folks say things like, “Let me tell you what happened when I got saved: I found the Lord / I let God save me / I accepted Jesus / I decided for Jesus / I gave my heart to Jesus / I let Jesus come into my heart / I came to Jesus of my own freewill / I got born again / I made Christ my Lord / I made Jesus my personal Savior.”
They may as well boast like the woodpecker taking credit for an act of God, “Behold what I have done!” But they are warned that if they take credit for what God has done, He has not done it for them, for He will not permit another to have His glory (Isaiah 42:8 & 48:11).

Saints speak differently regarding their salvation. You will search the Holy Scriptures in vain for any saved person describing his salvation or conversion in the terms of the religious people cited above. Saints speak of what God does in salvation for them, not what they do in salvation for Him and themselves. For example, consider the example of the Gadarene demoniac saved by the Lord Jesus Christ (Mark 5:1-20 / Luke 8:26-39). “Jesus ... said to him, ‘Go home to your friends, and tell them what great things the Lord has done for you, and how He has had compassion on you.’ And he departed and began to proclaim in Decapolis all that Jesus had done for him.” His testimony was not “Behold what I have done!” but rather “Behold what God has done for me!”

We answer, It is not the removal of anything from the sinner, nor the changing of anything within the sinner; instead, it is the communication of something to the sinner. The new birth is the impartation of the new nature. When I was born the first time I received from my parents their nature: so, when I was born again, I received from God His nature. The Spirit of God begets within us a spiritual nature: as we read in 2　Peter 1:4, “Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature.”

... The child always partakes of the nature of his parents. That which is born of man is human; that which is born of God is Divine. That which is born of man is sinful, that which is born of God is spiritual.

Here, then, is the character or nature of the new birth. It is not the reformation of the outward man, it is not the education of the natural man, it is not the purification of the old man, but it is the creation of a new man. It is a Divine begetting (James 1:18). It is a birth of the Spirit (John 3:6). It is a being made a new creation (2　Cor. 5:17). It is becoming a partaker of the Divine nature (2　Pet. 1:4). It is a being born into God’s family. Every born again person has, therefore, two natures within him: one which is carnal, the other which is spiritual. These two natures are contrary the one to the other (Gal. 5:17), and in consequence, there is an unceasing warfare going on within the Christian. It is only the grace of God which can subdue the old nature; and it is only the Word of God which can feed the new nature.

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