John 1:13

Which were born, not of blood,— They who thus believed on him, became possessed of this privilege; not in consequence of their being born of blood, or of their being descended from the loinsof the holy patriarchs, or sharing in circumcision and the blood of the sacrifices; nor could they ascribe it to the will of the flesh, or to their own superior wisdom and goodness; as if by the power of corrupted nature they had made themselves to differ; nor to the will of man, or to the wisest advice and most powerful exhortations which their fellow-creatures might address to them; but must humbly acknowledge that they were born of God; and indebted to the efficacious influences of his unmerited and regenerating grace for all their privileges, and for all their hopes. Compare John 3:1 and Titus 3:3. This is a very important and edifying sense of the present passage, which is very difficult, and has been variously translated and understood.