How is it they came to believe? ‘Which were born, not of blood’ – I am a son of Abraham, my lineage, my race will save me. I am a Jew, descended from Abraham.
Some teach that the order of salvation is found in verses 12-13 – the first stage is verse 12 and the second stage is verse 13. It seems very logical, verse 13 follows verse 12. According to this view, if you receive Christ by your own will, and you determine or decide to follow him and believe on him, then you will be born again. So you need to receive Christ. But we have to ask, ‘Why did those people believe? Why did so many not believe and yet these people believed? Was there something good in them? Was there some deeper discernment in them?’, and verse 13 explains it. Because those people, were ‘born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.’ God did something first. Verse 13 explains verse 12. God opens the heart; God casts in the seed of life; God awakens our soul so that we come under conviction, and we see what Christ has done, and our wills are inclined, and we come to him, ‘Lord save me’, but it is all because God moved first. This is why John later quotes Christ as saying, ‘No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him: and I will raise him up at the last day. It is written in the prophets, And they shall all be taught of God. Every man therefore that hath heard, and hath learned of the Father, cometh to me’ (John 6:44).