God is righteous, holy, and good, He is rich in mercy and He is love. He is also just.
God created Adam perfect, meaning he had the ability (free will) to not sin or to sin.
Adam, fell, he sinned and brought death into this world and on the day that he sinned he died spiritually to God.
Every human from Adam is born into sin, born spiritually dead to God, from the man this is our first birth. This is why Jesus was born of the virgin Marry conceived by the Holy Spirit. The sin nature was not passed down to Jesus and therefore Jesus had no sin nature (Hebrews 7:26).
But man is born spiritually dead to God.
The heart of man is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?
Therefore, man in his entirety is corrupt, he does not seek God, he does not desire God, he is hostile towards God, he does not understand God nor accept him, he thinks anything to do with God is completely foolishness.
This is why Jesus says to Nicodemus, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.”
Unless a man is born again, he “CANNOT” see the kingdom of God.
What does Jesus mean to be born again?
Let me show you another time Jesus says something similar, in John 6:44 Jesus says, “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him.”
Jesus says, “No one “CAN” come to Him.
Why does He say that? Is He forbidding them to come to Him? No, Jesus is sayin the same thing He said in John 3:3, He is saying no one is “ABLE” to come to Him because they are spiritually dead to Him and the MUST be born again, or as Paul says in Ephesians 2:5, “made ALIVE.”
What Jesus is speaking of is a supernatural miracle by God where He takes out the hard rebellious heart and give us a new heart, he gives us a new spirit and He puts His Spirit within us, making us a “NEW” creation. He grants us the gift of repentance and faith to where now we can hear the gospel and respond, we are now made able to seek Jesus, to trust Jesus, to believe in Jesus and repent of our sins, mainly our unbelief.
This is what Peter means when he says in 1 Peter 1:3, “he has caused us to be born again to a living hope “!
Salvation from beginning to end is all God, even the faith and repentance are gifts from God.
If you have been saved it is by the grace of God alone, “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.” (Ephesians 2:8-9)
My friend if you say you accepted Jesus, then you have something to boast in!
There is so much to the study of God and salvation, and it is so frustrating when people come with their traditions or what they think or have been told and try and fight against the sovereignty of God over the salvation of His creatures.
I will leave you with this one last verse, in 2 Thessalonians 2:13 Paul says,
“But we should always give thanks to God for you, brothers and sisters beloved by the Lord, because God has CHOSEN you from the beginning for salvation through sanctification by the Spirit and faith in the truth.”
God has CHOSEN you from the beginning for salvation, if you’re saved you have been chosen by God, accept it, stop fighting against it.