"Ye must be born again"

"Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again." John 3.7 (or from above, RV margin).
These were the Saviour's words to Nicodemus the Pharisee upon being asked "How can a man be born when he is old?"
Reading the discourse between the Lord and Nicodemus, it is very strange that so many professing Christians believe it is through their own 'free-will' that they can become "born again"; that is through their own efforts to choose or reject God, is it not? For how can one be born again "from above" by his own efforts? Does not the Lord stress this point most vigorously? "Ye must be born from above." as the 1884 revisers correctly tell us. Without this Power from above, no man or woman could ever be saved.

The theology that contends for the truth as it is in Christ has become widely known by the dreaded name CALVINISM! This theology only merely asserts what the Lord Jesus says elsewhere, for example in John 6.44 "No man can come to Me, except the Father which hath sent Me draw him: and I will raise him up at the last day." There is an unseen work going on here, for the resurrected Lord says "the Father which hath sent Me" does the drawing, that is bringing the saved sinner into the everlasting kingdom of God. Is this an offensive teaching? apparently many think so. For if "the Father which hath sent Me" draws His names written in "the Lamb's book of life", (Revelation 13.8) then the flipside must of necessity mean that those who were passed by, or whom the Father did not "draw" toward His Son, were created to be destroyed. Is it not written "Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved." Acts 4.12?

The apostle Paul exclaimed "O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are His judgments and His ways past finding out!" Romans 11.33 (my emphasis).
As was the case with Judas, so will it be with all whose names are not recorded in the Lamb's book of life, they will have none to blame but themselves. Without being "born from above", who could be saved?