"UNDERSTANDING REGENERATION"

Understanding Regeneration

2 Corinthians 5:17 “If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old things have passed away; all things have become new.”

Recap of Justification

 We are justified through faith in Jesus Christ

 Justification brings us into right standing with God

 The righteousness of Jesus is imputed upon us

 With justification, we have peace with God and are made righteous in His sight Recap of Sanctification

 Sanctification is an ongoing work of God to continually cleanse us from sin

 With sanctification, we have been saved from the penalty of sin, we are being saved from the power of sin, and we will be saved from the presence of sin

THE MEANING OF REGENERATION

The English word “regeneration” is the translation of palingenesia, from palin (again) and genesis (birth). It means simply a new birth, a new beginning, a new order. The word “regeneration” appears only twice in the English Bible. It was used once by Jesus in Matthew 19:28 and once by the Apostle Paul in Titus 3:5. When Jesus used the word, He said to His disciples, “Truly I say to you, that you who have followed Me, in the regeneration when the Son of Man will sit on His glorious throne, you also shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel” (Matthew 19:28). Here, Jesus used the word to refer to His coming kingdom on earth. It is the time of the earth’s regeneration, when the God will set His King upon His holy hill of Zion. The kingdom of Christ on earth will be a time of world-wide subjection to the authority of Christ, when sin, sorrow, sickness, suffering and strife will not touch earth’s inhabitants. In that day God will renew – Regenerate – His creation. “

When the Apostle Paul used the word “regeneration,” he wrote, “He (God) saved us, not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness, but according to His mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit,” (Titus 3:5). The Apostle Paul used the word to refer to the regeneration of an individual being born again into God’s Family and the Church. The Church is a living being. No effort on man’s part can bring him into God’s Church, for it is “not by works of righteousness which we have done” (Titus 3:5).

Regeneration then, may be defined as an act of God where He bestows new life upon the believer. This life is God’s own life, the imparting of His own nature. God Himself is the Source and Bestower of His life, so that believers are said to be “partakers of the Divine nature” as we see in II Peter 1:4, and where we are “created in Christ Jesus” as Paul describes in Ephesians 2:10. In John 1:13, it speaks of being “born of God”, while in John 3:3 it shows that we are “born again”. It is the embodiment of “a new creation” in II Corinthians 5:17.

THE MISTAKES ABOUT REGENERATION

In order to have a clearer understanding of regeneration, let’s look at some things that are not regeneration.

First, water baptism is NOT regeneration.

Jesus’ words to Nicodemus, “Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God” (John 3:5), has led some people to believe baptism is necessary for regeneration. If Jesus was referring to baptism by water, then it follows that all who have died and were not baptized are lost. This mistaken view would mean, then, that the penitent thief on the cross was not saved, although Jesus said he was. So water baptism is not regeneration.

Second, reformation is NOT regeneration.

Most of us have at one time sought to improve ourselves by “turning over a new leaf” and attempting to avoid bad habits. But no matter how far a person is able to proceed in the reformation of the old life, no amount of improving our fallen nature can serve as a substitute for the Divine Nature which is given to us by God when we are born again. You can’t train a bird to crawl, for the same reason you can’t train a snake to fly. True to his nature, a caterpillar crawls, and when we see him fly we don’t say, ‘What an intelligent and accomplished caterpillar!’ But we say the creature has been changed, it has a new nature, it has been born again; it is now a butterfly. The same thing is true of the natural and spiritual man. The inability of the natural man to enter into the Kingdom of God shows the necessity to be born again.

Third, regeneration is NOT hereditary.

Spiritual life can never be transmitted from parent to child. The grace of God does not run through human veins. God has children but He has no grandchildren. In his first reference to the new birth, John refers to those “which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God” (John 1:13). Regeneration is “not of blood,” which means, not even the finest Christian parents can impart Divine life to their offspring. It is impossible for a child of God to transmit the Divine nature to an unsaved person, even if that person is his own flesh and blood. Only God can communicate life.

THE MUST OF REGENERATION

The necessity of regeneration for all men grew out of the depravity of man’s nature. The natural man is “dead in trespasses and sins . . . alienated from the life of God” Ephesians 4:18 describes mankind as, “being darkened in their understanding, excluded from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the hardness of their heart”. Isaiah 59:2 declares that our iniquities have separated us from God. Therefore, we have a desperate need for being regenerated and this need is universal. Romans 3:10 says, “There is none righteous, no, not one. Romans 3:23 says, “For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God”. This is nothing new. As early as the book of Genesis, we see man’s need for regeneration. “And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually” (Genesis 6:5). The Prophet Jeremiah makes it clear, “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; who can know it?” (Jeremiah 17:9). Additionally, the law proves our need for regeneration. In fact, the greatest value of the law is that it proves to us that we need a Savior.

People may get to Heaven without education, wealth, or worldly acclaim, but it will never be reached by those who have not been regenerated. This is a Divine imperative. “That which is born of the flesh is flesh” (John 3:6), and “they that are in the flesh cannot please God” (Romans 8:8), because in the flesh “dwells no good thing” (Romans 7:18). Man’s sinfulness and God’s holiness are opposed to each other so that regeneration is an absolute necessity. Inasmuch as our Lord said, “You must be born again,” you better believe it! There has never been a truer statement; “We must be born again.”

THE MEANS OF REGENERATION

“In the beginning God created . . .” (Genesis 1:1). God is the Source of the new life given to the believer. We are born again, “not of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God” (John 1:13). Since only God possesses creative power, He alone can impart life. Jesus said to Nicodemus, “Except a man is born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God” (John 3:5).

Jesus said, “You are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you” (John 15:3). Peter wrote, “for you have been born again not of seed which is perishable but imperishable that is, through the living and enduring word of God.” (I Peter 1:23). The Word of God is the means by which the God accomplishes the New Birth.

The Word of God is life-producing. “For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow” (Hebrews 4:12). Romans 10:17 says; “So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God”. Jesus said, “Truly, truly, I say to you, he who hears My word, and believes Him who sent Me, has eternal life, and does not come into judgment, but has passed out of death into life” (John 5:24). Without the Word of God no one can be regenerated or born again. God is the Author of regeneration and His Word is the means by which He communicates regeneration. Jesus said, “Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God” (John 3:5). The Holy Spirit is the active Agent in regeneration. Just as there must be the human agent in a human birth, so there must be the Divine Agent in the new birth. When we came into the world by our physical birth, we were born of corruptible seed,

because our parents can produce a child only in their own likeness. Through natural birth they pass on to their offspring their own nature. “That which is born of the flesh is flesh” (John 3:6). On the other hand, “that which is born of the Spirit is spirit” (John 3:6). When we are born again, the Holy Spirit produced new life, Divine life, so that we become “partakers of the divine nature” (II Peter 1:4). The Holy Spirit is the Agent who accomplishes the miracle of regeneration. The Holy Spirit was the active Agent in the creation of man. “And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul” (Genesis 2:7).

The Holy Spirit was also the active Agent in the conception and birth of Jesus Christ. “. . . Joseph, thou son of David, fear not to take unto you Mary as your wife; for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost” (Matthew 1:20). “

The act of imparting life has been the Holy Spirit’s work from the beginning. To be “born of water and of the Spirit” is to be regenerated by means of the Word of God and by the active Agency of the Spirit of God. It is not by the Word of God alone that a man is regenerated, but by the Word and the Holy Spirit, “by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost” (Titus 3:5).

THE MANIFESTATIONS OF REGENERATION

The New Birth produces some glorious effects in the believer’s life. Where life begins it should mature. The effects of Regeneration are the spiritual birthmarks of the born again believers. The New Birth results in a New Life

“Therefore if any man be in Christ he is a new creature; old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new” (II Corinthians 5:17). The regenerated person can testify that things are different now. With our New Birth we receive a new power and pattern for living. The regenerated person is a “new creation,” the “new” meaning a difference in kind. We now possess a different kind of life. A complete change has come. We have here a new creation as against the old creation. The source of the old creation was Adam, and from him we inherited sin and death. The Source of the new creation is Christ, so that a profound and radical change has taken place in us. The New Birth brought with it new life, and the new life has brought an entirely new set of desires, appetites, ideals and goals.

The New Birth results in a New Fellowship

“We know that we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren” (I John 3:14). When someone is born again, he or she instinctively is drawn to people of like mind and faith. All regenerated persons are one in Christ, and love is their badge. Christ said, “By this shall all men know that you are my disciples, if you have love one to another” (John 13:35). All born again persons have God as their Father; therefore they are one in Christ, sharing a mutual love.

The New Birth results in a New Standard of Righteousness

I John 2:29 says, “. . . You know that everyone that does righteousness is born of Him”. Righteousness is that character or quality of being right or just in the sight of God. After we are born again, Christ becomes our righteousness (I Corinthians 1:30). This Righteousness is imputed to the believer by God on the basis of faith apart from human works (Romans 4:5, 6). It is God’s gift to every regenerated person (Romans 5:17). Having become partakers of the Divine Nature we now see sin as God sees it. The things that break the heart of God, now breaks our own heart. We now find our standards of what is right and just in God’s Word.

Spiritually speaking, God brings us to new life (we are “born again”) from a previous state of separation from God (Ephesians 2:5).

Regeneration is the implantation of a new life. With Regeneration, God not only removes the separation that was between us and God, it allows us to be formed into the likeness of God. We take on His values and His qualities. As such, we are made to be true sons and daughters of God. We can call out to Him; “Abba, Father!” We walk in the newness of life that comes only from God Himself. We no longer walk in the power of our own strength; rather, we walk in His power and His strength.

In Regeneration, we are given the power to obey God, the will to grow in grace, and the right to become an heir of God and a joint heir with Jesus Christ. We’re no longer separated from God; we are part of the very Family of God.