To make us meet to be blissful partakers of such heavenly company, this ‘marred clay’, I mean, these depraved natures of ours, must necessarily undergo an universal moral change. Our understandings must be enlightened; our wills, reason and consciences, must be renewed; our affections must be drawn toward and fixed upon things above. And because flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of heaven, this corruptible must put on incorruption, this mortal must put on immortality. And thus old things must literally pass away and behold all things, even the body as well as the faculties of the soul, must become new.
This moral change is what some call, repentance, some, conversion, some, regeneration. Choose what name you please, I only pray God, that we all may have the thing. The scriptures call it holiness, sanctification, the new creature and our Lord calls it a ‘New birth, or being born again, or born from above.’ These are not barely figurative expressions, or the flights of eastern language, nor do they barely denote a relative change of state conferred on all those who are admitted into Christ’s church by baptism. But they denote a real, moral change of heart and life, a real participation of the divine life in the soul of man. Some indeed content themselves with a figurative interpretation but unless they are made to experience the power and efficacy thereof, by a solid living experience in their own souls, all their learning, all their laboured criticism, will not exempt them from a real damnation. Christ hath said it and Christ will stand, ‘Unless a man,’ learned or unlearned, high or low, though he be a master of Israel as Nicodemus was, unless he ‘be born again, he cannot see, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.’
~George Whitefield~
The Sermons of George Whitefield edited by Lee Gatiss (Wheaton, IL; Crossway Books; 2012) Sermon 13: The Potter and the Clay
(Spokane, Washington; Olive Tree Bible Software; 2010) eBook. Vol. 1, Sermon No. 15; Titled: The Bible; Delivered on Sabbath Morning, March 18th, 1855.
The Old Guys 
John Calvin – Repentance Unto Life
4 Feb18 When they heard these things they fell silent. And they glorified God, saying, Then to the Gentiles also God has granted repentance that leads to life. – Acts 11:18
Whosoever will rightly profit in the gospel, let him put off the old man, and think upon newness of life, (Ephesians 4:22;) that done, let him know for a certainty that he is not called in vain unto repentance, but that there is salvation prepared for him in Christ. So shall it come to pass, that the hope and assurance of salvation shall rest upon the free mercy of God alone, and that the forgiveness of sins shall, notwithstanding, be no cause of sluggish security.
~John Calvin~
Calvin’s Commentaries – Acts (Spokane, WA; Olive Tree Bible Software; http://www.olivetree.com) Commentary on Acts 8:2
Books by John Calvin
Biography of John Calvin
Online Books Available
Other Calvin Quotes at the Old Guys
Tags: Calvin's Commentaries, John Calvin