Charles Spurgeon on Regeneration

When God first begins the work of changing the heart, he finds man totally averse to any such thing. By nature man kicks and struggles against God: he will not be saved. I must confess I never would have been saved, if I could have helped it. As long I could I rebelled and revolted, and struggled against God. When he would have me pray, I would not pray: when he would have me listen to the sound of preaching, I would not. Moreover, when I did listen and the tear rolled down my cheek, I wiped it away and defied him to melt my heart. When my heart was a little touched, I tried to divert it with sinful pleasures. And when that would not do I tried self-righteousness, and would not have been saved until I was hemmed in, and then he gave me the effectual blow of grace, and there was no resisting that irresistible effort of his grace. It conquered my depraved will, and made me bow myself before the scepter of his grace.

So it is in every case. Man revolts against his Maker and his Savior; but where God determines to save, save he will. God will have the sinner, if he designs to have him. God has never yet been thwarted in any one of his purposes. Man resists with all his might, but all the might of man--tremendous though it is on account of sin--is not equal to the majestic might of the Most High when he rides forth in the chariot of his salvation. He irresistibly saves and victoriously conquers man's heart.

To sanctify a man is the work of the whole life; but to give a man a new heart is the work of an instant. In one solitary second, swifter than the lightning flash, God can put a new heart into a man, and make him a new creature in Christ Jesus. You may be sitting where you are today as an enemy of God with a wicked heart, hard as a stone, and dead and cold; but if the Lord wills it, the living spark shall drop into your soul, and in that moment you will begin to tremble--begin to feel; you will confess your sin, and fly to Christ for mercy. Other parts of salvation are done gradually but regeneration is the instantaneous work of God's sovereign, effectual, and irresistible grace.