FROM GRACE TO GLORY BORN AGAIN by Octavius Winslow

with all the arguments which the Scriptures supply, and with all the
solemnity which eternity inspires.
What are some of the grounds of the ABSOLUTE NECESSITY of the
new birth? Briefly these. It is necessary, in order to fulfill the eternal
purpose of God with regard to His people. All His saints are born again.
In the mystery of the Spirit's operations--viewless, noiseless as the
wind; in the sovereignty of His grace--that wind blowing where it wills--
all His elect people pass through the process of the heavenly birth. "So is
every one that is born of the Spirit."
It logically follows that the new birth is necessary in order to
authenticate our spiritual union with the Lord's people. We possess no
scriptural, valid evidence that we are the true disciples of the Lord
Jesus, or that the privileges of God's Church, and the immunities of the
heavenly citizenship are ours, until we are born again. The true Church
of God is composed alone of living stones; the Family, of reconciled and
adopted children, the Kingdom of Jesus, of living subjects made willing
in the day of His power. All other materials now outwardly mixed up
with this--the wood, the hay, the stubble--will be consumed in the fire
of the last day, for that day shall try every man's religion and hope of
what sort it is.
Solemn thought! Reader, is your conversion of such a nature as to stand
this fiery test? Are you spiritually, truly born again? Away with your
rites and rituals, your forms and ceremonies, your morals and splendid
virtues, your ecclesiastical relations, lifeless creeds, and costly doings. It
is written, yes, it is written, "You MUST be BORN AGAIN!"
The New Birth is necessary, also, to the bringing forth of real holiness.
There is not one grain of holiness in our unrenewed, unsanctified
nature. There dwells in the flesh no good thing. In vain we garnish and
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