The Scriptures abound with illustrations which were intended to portray the varying conditions of the Christian's experience, and, unless we give careful attention to the details of these word pictures, we are liable to become confused as to their true significance. In the conversation which Nicodemus had with our Lord Jesus (`John 3:1-8`), the Master, in explaining the matter of spiritual regeneration, used the natural order or arrangement to represent the spiritual–"That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the spirit is spirit." Just as there is the begetting of the fleshly being, then the quickening and finally the birth, so also with the spiritual ones. The Christian is first begotten of the spirit (Begotten again–`1 Pet. 5:3`), then quickened by the spirit (`Rom. 8:11`) and then having attained to full development as an embryotic "New Creature" he will be "born of the spirit" in the resurrection–"changed" from a fleshly, human being to a heavenly spiritual one–See `1 Cor. 15:50-53`. All who experience the new birth will be invisible, powerful, even as are the angels and all spirit beings. Observe the force of the Master's words–"Marvel not that I said unto thee, ye must be born again. The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the spirit."
