Great Sermon! Justin, both sides would agree on the necessity of receiving Christ - that is not in dispute. What is in dispute is which comes first, man's act of receiving or God's act of causing the new birth. The very next verse (John 1:13) informs us that our receiving of Christ is due to the fact that we were born of God (an act of God). The verse states that man's will was NOT the deciding factor, but the new birth was.