Not of Blood

Observe, it is not of blood. You may inherit a great many natural characteristics from your parents that men may admire; you may inherit tastes, features, and dispositions in some measure at least, but you cannot inherit the grace of God. It is just as true of the children of Christian parents, as it is of any other people born into this world, that they, must be born again.
I remember a few years ago my wife and I and our children were on our way West. We were passing through Colorado. My eldest son, who was just a little boy at the time, was fond of going through the train, playing that he was the news agent. He said, “Father, have you any tracts I could give out?” I had some, and so handed them to him. They sometimes stop me when I go through the train giving out tracts, but I thought they would not stop the little fellow. He handed everybody one of these gospel tracts, and soon most of the people were reading them. A little later I was passing through the car and a lady occupying one of the sections stopped me, and said, “I beg your pardon, sir, but I think it was your child who gave me this tract, was it not?”
“Yes,” I said, “it was.”
“Won’t you sit down a moment?” she asked.
So I introduced my wife, and we sat down.
“You cannot imagine,” she said, “how pleased I am to know that there are other religious people on this train.” “You are interested in these things?” I inquired.
“Yes indeed,” she said, “I have been religious all my life.”
“When were you born again?” I asked.
“Oh,” she replied, “my father was a class-leader, and an uncle and two brothers of mine are all clergymen.”
“That is very interesting,” I said, “and may I ask again, have you been converted yourself?”
“Why, you don’t seem to understand; my father was a class-leader, and my uncle and two brothers are earnest clergymen.”
“But you don’t expect to go to heaven hanging on their coat-tails, even if they are born again, do you? Have you been truly converted to God yourself?” I asked.
“Not at all,” she replied, “but I thought if I put it that way you would understand that religion runs in our family.”
“Religion may run in your family, but religion and Christianity are two very different things,” I said. “There are a great many people who are intensely religious, but they are not saved. Our blessed Lord was speaking to a very religious man when he said, ‘Ye must be born again.’”
I had great difficulty getting that lady to see that salvation is not of blood. She could scarcely understand how a family such as hers needed regeneration. Perhaps you have rather prided yourself in the fact that you too came from a line of Christian progenitors, and have taken it for granted that because your parents were Christians, you are. “Which were born, not of blood.” You are not a Christian simply because you were born into a Christian family.