“If ye know that He is righteous, ye know that every one that doeth righteousness is born of Him” (I John 2:29).

This is the first of seven occurrences of the phrase “born of God,” or “born of Him,” in the little epistle of First John. If anyone wishes to know how to recognize one who has truly been “born again,” these seven descriptors are available for that purpose.

“I marvel that ye are so soon removed from Him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel” (Galatians 1.6).

“For thus saith the LORD to the men of Judah and Jerusalem, Break up your fallow ground, and sow not among thorns” (Jeremiah 4:3).

“The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly” (John 10:10).

“Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen” (Hebrews 11:1).

The marvelous “faith chapter,” Hebrews 11, is an amazing chapter. Here, faith is defined, not as some intangible wishfulness, but as “substance” and “evidence.” Let us look closely.