12 However, to all who did receive him, he gave authority to become God’s children,+ because they were exercising faith in his name.+ 13 And they were born, not from blood or from a fleshly will or from man’s will, but from God.+

28 We know that God makes all his works cooperate together for the good of those who love God, those who are the ones called according to his purpose;+

13 However, we are obligated always to thank God for you, brothers loved by Jehovah,* because from the beginning God selected you+ for salvation by sanctifying you+ with his spirit and by your faith in the truth.

23 For you have been given a new birth,+ not by corruptible, but by incorruptible seed,*+ through the word of the living and enduring God.+