Why the necessity of the New Birth to Believe !
Why the necessity of the New Birth to Believe and or receive the Truth ? You see believing the Truth is receiving the Love of it, its not just an Intellectual mind acceptance, though an mind comprehension is required, For Paul writes that the reprobate receive not the Love of the Truth 2 Thess 2:10
And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved.
Receiving the Love of the Truth denotes an Heart felt affection for it, which is given in the New Birth as described in Heb 8:10
10 For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord; I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts: and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people:
Please notice here the law of God being put into the Mind and written in the Heart, which Law converts the soul Ps 19:7
7 The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul: the testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple.
Its put into the Mind, the Intellect for Spiritual persuasion and intelligent understanding, for by nature the mind is darkened Eph 4:18
Having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart:
The word understanding dianoia means:
the mind as a faculty of understanding, feeling, desiring
But the Heart goes deeper, its root into the affections, and it becomes something we love, David said Ps 119:97
O how love I thy law! it is my meditation all the day.
Ps 119:163
I hate and abhor lying: but thy law do I love.
See David as well as all True Believers had experienced the New Covenant Mercy of Heb 8:10, God's Gospel Laws in Christ written in his heart.
Recall how Jesus implied that some receive the Truth in their minds only, yet without it being rooted in their hearts and affections, the stony heart hearers Matt 13:20-21
20 But he that received the seed into stony places, the same is he that heareth the word, and anon with joy receiveth it;
21 Yet hath he not root in himself, but dureth for a while: for when tribulation or persecution ariseth because of the word, by and by he is offended.
As you can see, it was received in the mind with joy Vs 20 but in Vs 21 it took no heart root !
See Mark 4:16-17 ; Luke 8:13 !
This happens when we have but a carnal intellectual acceptance of the Truth, much like the ones of 2 Peter 2:20-21,
But it was not both Intellectual and affectionately heart felt and embraced by the Power of the Holy Spirit, when Believing is the result of the New Covenant Blessing, it reaches both Mind and Heart and so Heb 8:10 is evident. The Sanctifying Work of the Spirit in us, not only gives us belief of the Truth as Per 2 Thess 2:13, but Love of it as well 2 Thess 2:10
10 And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved.
In order to receive it in the Love of it, the Truth, therein lies the necessity of the New Birth Heb 8:10 !