JOHN 1:12-13
12ὅσοι δὲ ἔλαβον αὐτόν, ἔδωκεν αὐτοῖς ἐξουσίαν τέκνα θεοῦ γενέσθαι, τοῖς πιστεύουσιν εἰς τὸ ὄνομα αὐτοῦ, 13οἳ οὐκ ἐξ αἱμάτων οὐδὲ ἐκ θελήματος σαρκὸς οὐδὲ ἐκ θελήματος ἀνδρὸς ἀλλ ̓ ἐκ θεοῦ ἐγεννήθησαν. (TGNT:UBS)
12But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name, 13who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God. (NASB)
“12But as many as received Him”—
Q. Does this not assume that a person has a choice to either receive Him or not receive Him?
Q. Does this potential choice basically assume the exercising of a person’s will in the act of receiving Him?
Q. Is not God, through the pen of John, laying the responsibility for a person’s becoming a Child of God, squarely at the feet of their own decision—the expression of their own will?
But if one now moves to verse 13 they will find three ways God says this “birth as a child of God” CANNOT happen (out of blood; out of the will of the flesh; and out of the will of man) and one way that it does happen (out of God).
Significant among the three ways God says that this birth CANNOT happen is birth “out of the will of man”
Observation: In verse 12 we have the "birth of a child of God" resulting from a person choosing to receive Him, while in verse 13 we have the "birth of a child of God" by the will of man specifically excluded by God.
Q. How does one resolve this apparent contradiction? We are invited in verse 12 to receive Him and become children of God (assumed by the exercise of a man's will) while verse 13 says this this birth explicitly does not happen by the exercise of a man's will.
Q. If we are "dead in our trespasses and sins" (Eph 2:1), how can dead people do anything or respond to anything--i.e., how can they "exercise a will" about anything?
Q. How can a man receive Him without the exercise of the man's will?
Your thoughts?
