I love this quote from our Soteriology Study last night: "The spiritual condition of pre-Christians is grave; superficial remedies cannot redress such a cluster of problems. The only hope lies in a radical, spiritual solution. What ‘once-born’ people need is supernatural transformation of their lives by the power of God. This transformation the Bible calls regeneration or the new birth.
Bruce A. Demarest, The Cross and Salvation : The Doctrine of Salvation (Wheaton, Ill.: Crossway Books, 1997). 292.