THEOLOGICAL ISSUES #11
STATEMENT
The Holy Spirit gives a spiritual new birth or new life before a person has faith in Jesus Christ.
26% of respondents strongly agreed with 23% somewhat agreeing. So, 49% of respondents agreed to some degree. 19% strongly disagreed and 9% somewhat disagreed, so 28% disagreed at some level. 25% were unsure. I imagine many people have not thought about it.
This is about the doctrine of regeneration.
So, we could restate this sentence as “The Holy Spirit regenerates a person before that persons comes to faith in Jesus Christ.
DEFINITION
Regeneration is the supernatural work of the Holy Spirit of granting spiritual life to spiritually dead sinners so that they are now able to repent and trust in Christ as a new creation.
This is not a work in which man contributes. It is a work of God alone. “Of his (God’s) own will he brought us forth by the word of truth…”. (James 1:18) “As an infant receives no credit for being born, man receives no credit for being regenerated by God. The grace of regeneration is the power of God that grants humans the ability to exercise faith and new inclinations towards God.
Why do we need regeneration?
We need regeneration because, in our natural state, we are spiritually dead. Ephesians 2:1-3 says:
And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience - among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body, and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.
This is not talking about physical death, but spiritual death. We are not born as children of God, but as children of wrath.
What does “children of wrath” mean?
In the Bible, to be a “child of” something was to be characterized by that trait. That trait defined the person and his or her destiny. For example, when Paul instructed Christians to live as “children of light,” or as people defined by their association with the truth and holiness of Christ (Ephesians 5:8)
We are children of wrath because, prior to knowing Christ, we all are under the judgment of God. Because of Adam’s original sin and the way we continued to sin, we all deserved God’s wrath.
God is just. Deuteronomy 32:4 says “his work is perfect,
for all his ways are justice”. The just response to our sins is condemnation. Consider these verses in Romans.
Romans 5:18 says “one trespass (Adam’s) led to condemnation for all men”.
Romans 3:23 tells us “for fall have sinned and fall short of the glory of God”.
Romans 6:23 tells us “For the wages of sin is death”.
We need regeneration because we will not otherwise come to Christ for salvation. Thus, regeneration precedes faith. John 5:1 says “Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God”. Jesus said “no one comes to me unless the Father who sent me draws him”(John 6:44) meaning that coming to Christ in faith is not just a human choice, but requires God the Father to actively draw or enable people through the Holy Spirit; it is a core concept in Christian theology about divine initiative in salvation.
Without regeneration, the “natural person”, the one who has not been regenerated and come to faith in Christ, “cannot accept the things of the Spirit of God for they are folly to him and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned.” (1 Corinthians 2:14)
This does not mean they cannot understand the words. It means they cannot accept them as true and understand the need to come to Christ. Romans 1 tells us the unregenerate person is foolish and his or her mind is darkened.
Jesus explained this to Nicodemus. He said: “Unless one is born again (regenerated) he cannot see the kingdom of God” (John 3:2). Nicodemus did not understand what Jesus meant. He said: “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?” (John 3:4).
Nicodemus failed to see that Jesus was using a human metaphor (birth) to describe a spiritual reality. Nicodemus wanted to know what he could do and Jesus told him what must be done to him.
God may have regenerated Nicodemus, though. He defended Jesus before the Sanhedrin, though that could have just been that he respected Jesus and wanted him to get a fair trial. (John 7:50) But, more telling, is that Nicodemus helped Joseph of Arimathea, who was a disciple of Jesus, prepare Jesus’ body for burial. (John 19:38-40) That was a very public act that would upset his fellow members of the Sanhedrin.
Yes, the believer does choose Christ. But it is only because the Spirit has breathed new life into his dead spirit and shined new light to open his blind eyes.
Previously we were blind to the “light of the gospel”. Paul wrote: “and even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing. In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of unbelievers to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. (2 Corinthians 4:3-5)(
But when God said, “Let light shine out of darkness”, suddenly and instantaneously he “has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ (2 Corinthians 4:6).
We are like Lydia in the book of Acts; until the “Lord opened her heart” she did not believe in the Lord Jesus (Acts 16:14).
SUMMARY
1. Regeneration is the supernatural work of the Spirit.
2. Regeneration is not the work of man but God of alone.
3. Regeneration precedes faith.
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