I listened to a valuable sermon from John Piper entitled, The Free Will of the Wind. It is excellent; check it out when you get a chance.

Based on John 3:1-10, the message underscores the sovereignty of God, for the unregenerate cannot believe, much less love God and love Him for all of eternity, no more than can the dead walk, hug us, and give us a birthday party. How messed up we are as people—so PRIDEFUL—our sinful nature thinking that we have the final decision, as if we were God's CEO!

But, I totally get it: I used to believe that we were surrounded by the Walking Dead, who only had to come down and recite magical words to become alive. But, the dead are not animated. A more apt science fiction analogy is from the re-imagined Battlestar Galatica series. The elect are just "flipped on" like Cylon agents who had no knowledge of their true identity before the signal was broadcast. I would flesh that analogy out more, but at 2am, I was lucky just to make the connection.

The first thing, therefore, that God does when He makes any one a new creature in Christ, is to send light into his heart, and show him that he is a guilty sinner. The material creation in Genesis began with "light," and so also does the spiritual creation. God "shines into our hearts" by the work of the Holy Ghost, and then spiritual life begins. (2 Cor. 4:6.)—Dim or indistinct views of sin are the origin of most of the errors, heresies, and false doctrines of the present day. If a man does not realize the dangerous nature of his soul's disease, you cannot wonder if he is content with false or imperfect remedies.

J.C. Ryle

I am reminded of Ephesians 2:1–10.