Waggoner on the Gospel of John - Ellet J. Waggoner

We had nothing to do with bringing ourselves
into this world. We were born of flesh and blood,
and of the will of man, but not of our own will.
Now when we receive the Lord, not as a figure of
speech, but as a real Person, really present with us
through the eternal Spirit, by whom He offered
Himself to God, His will makes us sons of God,
deriving our whole life directly from the Lord as
really as when we were born of the flesh we
derived our lives from our parents.
"Ah, yes," someone says, "but that is spiritual;
it is only spiritually that we are the sons of God."
That is the language by which Satan makes people
deny the truth even while pronouncing the words
of truth. It is true that it is only spiritually that we
are the sons of God, but that does not mean that we
are not really and wholly the sons of God by faith
in Christ Jesus. "They that are in the flesh cannot
please God. But ye are not in the flesh, but in the
Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you.
Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is
none of His. And if Christ be in you, the body is
dead because of sin; but the Spirit is life because of
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