"He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God." Have you ever tried to give someone advice and they were not interested in your help? You give the advice but it is not received. And if your advice is not received, then it must not have been believed in the first place. Although a person may know about Jesus, that person must receive Him to become a child of God. Whether or not John is saying in these verses that “receiving” is the same as “believing,” the point is that the right to become a child of God is bestowed by Christ based on an act of faith—believing that Jesus is God and that He came into this world as a human being and died as payment for your sins and was raised from the dead to eternal life so that you can receive eternal life.
