The Epistle of Jude commences and concludes with a similar emphasis. True to his nature, a caterpillar crawls, and when we see him fly we dont say, What an 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. Though regeneration is a one-time act in which God renews the nature, will, mind, and heart of the elect, it is the fountainhead of progressive sanctification. The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; who can know it? (Jeremiah 17:9). In contradistinction to the first covenant, in which the people approached God by means of outward forms and ordinances, the "new covenant" (8:13) brought an "eternal redemption" (9:12) by means of a divine cleansing (9:14). For the Word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the diving asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart (Hebrews 4:12). Fallen in Adam, all people are born dead in sins and trespasses and are incapable of spiritual renewal. These items are neither moral nor immoral; they are amoral. The Word of God assures us that all one needs in order to pass from death to life is to believe the facts and receive the Saviour. When they were saved they were set apart through the operation of the Holy Spirit. The idea of regeneration here occurs therefore--though no technical expression has as yet been coined for the process--in the first meaning of the word elucidated above. Our Lord said to Nicodemus, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God (John 3:5). The Fountainhead of the new creation is Christ, so that a profound and radical change has taken place in the believer. In Acts 20:21, repentance is defined as turning from sin and turning to God. Sin shuts man out from Gods presence. In further support of the water-Word interpretation of John 3:5, the Apostle Paul wrote how Christ sanctifies and cleanses His church with the washing of water by the word (Ephesians 5:26). It is Gods foresight and choice linked together with His own plan and purpose. Having stated the meaning and a definition of the term, let us look at some Scriptures where the word is used: (1) A day can be sanctified. And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. Psychological: W. James, Varieties of Religious Experience, 189-258; G. Stanley Hall, Adolescence, II, 281-362; G. A. Coe, The Spiritual Life, New York, 1900; E. D. Starbuck, Psychology of Religion, New York, 1911; G. B. Cutten, Psychological Phenomena of Christianity, London, 1909; H. E. Warner, The Psychology of the Christian Life, New York, 1910; H. W. Clark, The Philosophy of Christian Experience, London, 1906; Harold Begbie, Broken Earthenware, or Twice-Born Men, London, 1909; M. Scott Fletcher, The Psychology of the New Testament, London, 1912. . Immature Christians are spoken of (as were the proselytes of the Old Testament) as babies, who were to grow to the stature, character and knowledge of "full-grown men" (5:13,14). Now this process of Sanctification goes on during the present life here on earth, but it will be perfected at (Greek en), not until, the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Our standard of living, viewed from the financial and material side, has risen to an all time high, but our standard of living, viewed from the spiritual side, has dropped to an all time low. Justification can be defined as that act of God whereby He declares absolutely righteous any and all who take shelter in the blood of Christ as their only hope for salvation. Here the Lord used the word in a wider sense when referring to His coming kingdom on earth. Men change in their thinking. We should seek it eagerly, endeavor earnestly to acquire it with urgency, pursue it as a hunter stalks his game or as an athlete the winning of the race. In this latter sense the word is typically Christian, though the Old Testament contains many adumbrations of the spiritual process expressed thereby. The saving work of Jesus Christ will culminate in Gods ultimately uniting all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth (Eph. And because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father (Galatians 4:6). I understand the expression "first-fruits" in the sense in which we have noticed Paul's final hope in Romans 8:21-32, where the regeneration of the believing people of God (regardless of nationality) is the first stage in the regeneration or restoration of all creation. Divine foreknowledge is not limited to mere foresight of what men will do at some future time. And you, that were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled in the body of his flesh through death, to present you holy and unblameable and unreproveable in his sight (Colossians 1:20-22). One day the pastor visited the home to congratulate the boy and his mother. Our bodies belong to God by a two-fold right, His right by creation and by redemption. When an earthly judge shows mercy, he is not being just; and when he is just, he cannot show mercy. Here God works in the depths of the soul as silently and securely as if on the remotest world of the stellar universe" (H. E. Warner, Psychology of the Christian Life, 117). For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body . He now can be introduced to the private chamber of the King of kings, even into the holiest of all. Christs resurrection was as necessary for our justification as was His death. The word is sometimes translated sign, denoting a miracle or wonder of Divine origin and authority. Flee also youthful lusts, but follow righteousness, faith, charity, peace, with them that call on the Lord out of a pure heart (II Timothy 2:21, 22). It contains more than 2,500 Bible and Bible-related proper names and their meanings. The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; and a little child shall lead them (Isaiah 11:6), and the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the LORD, as the waters cover the sea (Isaiah 11:9). Abrahams justification is the pattern of the justification of all men. It is not possible for a Christian to die to self. Christian psychology thus traces to its deep-lying retreat the divine elaboration of the regenerated life. That which is born of the flesh is flesh (John 3:6). Although a clear distinction is not always maintained between regeneration and other experiences of the spiritual life, we may summarize our belief in the following theses: (1) Regeneration implies not merely an addition of certain gifts or graces, a strengthening of certain innate good qualities, but a radical change, which revolutionizes our whole being, contradicts and overcomes our old fallen nature, and places our spiritual center of gravity wholly outside of our own powers in the realm of God's causation. Then that Christmas Day arrived when my heart eagerly responded to Gods Word and I was born again, Justified. The living word came from the living God, and it has power to impart life to all who believe it. "International Standard Bible Encyclopedia". If there is going to be any disagreement among us, please let us disagree agreeably. We can be tempted by Satan (I Corinthians 7:5; I Thessalonians 3:5), by the natural desires of the old unregenerate nature (Galatians 4:14; James 1:14), by other persons (Matthew 16:1; 19:3). Though conversion and regeneration, in real-time, appear to Notice the word regeneration in verse 5: He [that is, God] saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the It is the first step in the experience of the believer. We know that our Lord Jesus Christ was sinless and therefore free from all moral impurity, and yet He prayed, And for their sakes, I sanctify myself . The will of God is all-important in the life of the child of God. In general this is still the opinion of pronounced sacrmentarians, while evangelical Christianity has gone back to the teaching of the New Testament. Had He not risen, man would be yet in his sins (I Corinthians 15:17), because Christ would not be what He claimed to be. Quench not the Spirit (I Thessalonians 5:15), and Grieve not the Holy Spirit of God (Ephesians 4:30), and your life will be blessed. There is no trace of infant baptism in the New Testament. The provision for righteousness is solely through the blood of Christ. This is a mighty truth that we must know and on which we need to reckon continuously. But then he added, For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free; and have been all made to drink into one Spirit (I Corinthians 12:13). Very soon the high spiritual meaning of regeneration was obscured by the development of priestcraft within the Christian church. So much lower than Gods standard of holiness is mans that things which are approved of men may be counted as evil in the sight of God. We read, And the earth was without form and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep. It works! The analogy of the movements of the wind to the Spirits operation in Regeneration is clear. . The righteousness of God for sinners has been wrought through the redeeming process of Gods Son. We have already noted the second New Testament passage in which the word "regeneration" occurs (Titus 3:5): "According to his mercy he saved us, through the washing (margin "laver") of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit, which he poured out upon us richly, through Jesus Christ our Saviour." The Reformed vigorously defended the idea that regeneration precedes faith and that it is based on the sovereign working of the Holy Spirit. It is important to keep in mind the fact that all three Persons in the Godhead are active in the believers Sanctification. From this point in our study we will consider Sanctification, not in relation to places or objects, but only to people. Why Does God Compare Our Relationship with Him to That of a Bride and Groom? It is without controversy, that is, beyond all question and doubt. The Spirit regenerates. Total self-dedication to God is the result of self-determined separation to God. The Apostle Paul testified, But I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection: lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway (I Corinthians 9:27). Most of us have at one time sought to improve ourselves by turning over a new leaf and attempting to throw off bad habits. Many theologians believe that Jesus alludes to Ezekiel 36 when teaching Nicodemus about his need for the new birth. The flood washed away the iniquity of the world "in the days of Noah," when "eight souls were saved through water: which also after a true likeness (the Revised Version margin "in the antitype") doth now save you, even baptism, not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the interrogation (the Revised Version margin "inquiry," "appeal") of a good conscience toward God, through the resurrection (-life) of Jesus Christ" (1Peter 3:20,21). It is God that justifieth (Romans 8:33). . At first glance, this issue might seem to be 1:30 ). Just as you did nothing to cause yourself to be born into this fallen world, so you can do absolutely nothing to bring yourself into the divinely renewed world of redemption. God stands at the commencement of all life. But regeneration, according to Jesus, is more than life, it is also purity. James says, Ye see then how that by works a man is justified, and not by faith only (James 2:24). We were brought there by Christ Who said, I am the Door; by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture (John 10:9). Thus Gregory Nazianzen (Orations, xi.2) calls baptism the second of the three births a child of God must experience (the first is the natural birth, the third the resurrection). What do I do about calling a priest father at my Catholic University? He says, . Preparatory and Positional Sanctification are entirely the work of the Triune God, but in the matter of our Practical Sanctification there is that element of human responsibility. It is supposed by some that these words, being addressed "to the twelve tribes which are of the Dispersion" (1:1), do not refer to individual regeneration, but to an election of Israel as a nation and so to a Christian Israel. However, it is equally true that God in His sovereignty has ordained that men should be the means of carrying His Gospel to the unevangelized.
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