Regeneration

This is an incredibly concise Gospel tract. Ryle covers 3 things: What is regeneration, why is it necessary and how do we know what it looks like. He then answers 6 objections, the majority of which were controversies in his day that still hold some value in reading, even though they may be technically irrelevant to many in the American church. Ryle has one focus in this tract: being born again. As a youth pastor, I am always seeking how to best counsel teenagers. The first thing I ask is this: is this person born again? Do they have a new nature, or are they still confined to the old man? This book just adds to the great Truth of the Gospel of Christ, that it is nothing you can say or do that will save you, but it is the work of God in your heart. He creates a new man where the old man once was, and that new man has new desires, new priorities, new everything. If a person is not regenerate, if he is not new, he does not have eternal life. No, he is not born again. Ryle ends his book with this, "You and I are traveling to a place where controversies will all be forgotten, and nothing but eternal realities remain. Would you have a real hope in that day? See to it that you have a real regeneration. Nothing else will do. "Except a man be born again, he cannot see the Kingdom of God (John 3:3)." The truth of the Gospel is so simple, and it is so humbling.