When my oldest child was born we fretted over her because at a certain point in the birthing she refused to proceed down the birth canal. This puzzled the obstetrician, who struggled mightily to get her turned face down. But for some painful hours of labor we continued to talk about her refusal to be born. Of course, all of this "refusing to be born" talk is nonsense. No one either chooses nor refuses to be born. Birth just happens to us. No one chooses to be conceived, or to be born. Birth is the word that the Bible uses to describe our changed relationship with our heavenly Father through baptism. We are reborn of water and the Spirit (Jn 3:5). This is God's act to perform, like the divine obstetrician, ours to receive. This reborn life, because it is only received, is described in classic theological terms as received "purely passively."

We get our spiritual backs up about this. The old Adam in us wants us to put in our two-cents worth (that is certainly an overestimate of value!) and claim that we have been involved in causing our own birth. Occasionally, while telling the story of her birth, my wife and I jokingly accuse our daughter of being reluctant to be born. For her that is just a laughing matter, because she realizes that her birth is entirely out of her own hands, her will had nothing to do with it. So it should be for those who have been born of God. Our rebirth is a matter of His gracious decision. We just receive it.