Chapter One

The Significance of Regeneration: A Crucial Truth

In a country where almost half of the adults claim to be "born again" it is obvious that there is great confusion about the meaning of regeneration.1 This mis-understanding is widespread within the evangelical church. The concept has been so weakened and diluted of its biblical meaning that people without any concrete evidence of lasting spiritual change are routinely regarded as being "born again Christians."

The unbroken sinfulness and rebellion of professing Christians is commonly explained by the fact that they have not yet "surrendered" to Christ. The result of all this is that there has been a devaluing of the radical nature of God’s renewing work. As we shall see, the new birth (or regeneration, to use the theological term) is a radical change of the core disposition and nature of a person that fundamentally transforms both their attitudes and behavior for life.

In this study I will look at several key aspects of regeneration. I will begin by looking at the critical importance of rightly understanding the biblical teaching regarding regeneration. Next I will discuss the necessity of regeneration because of man’s depraved sinful condition. After that I will examine the characteristics and nature of regeneration. followed by a look into the unfailing consequences and evidences of regeneration in a persons life. The relationship between regeneration and faith will be examined in chapter five. In the closing chapter I will discuss the practical ramifications of what we have learned about this great work of the Holy Spirit.

Regeneration Is Crucial Because of the Nature of Salvation
The Lord Jesus Christ Himself stressed this in His encounter with Nicodemus. Jesus told this self-righteous Pharisee "Truly, truly I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God" (John 3:3). And then again He said, "Truly, truly I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit he cannot enter the kingdom of heaven." To see involves comprehension and understanding. To enter involves access to and enjoyment of. Christ stated the same idea in two different ways to emphasize the fact that no one will be saved unless God intervenes and recreates them with a new birth. Heaven and hell, then, are the issues! Therefore it is imperative that our understanding of regeneration be what the Bible teaches. A sub-biblical doctrine of regeneration has grave consequences. First and foremost is that it leads to false assurance. People believe, and are encouraged by others to believe, that they are saved, when in fact their continual disobedient lifestyle should warrant no such assurance (1 John 2:4, 5).

The issue is this: Does regeneration simply impart divine life as an added capacity alongside the old nature, which may or may not effect radical change? Or does regeneration impart divine life that fundamentally reworks and recreates a person’s core nature so that a new disposition and behavior inevitably follows?

My thesis is that the biblical and historical Christian position is that regeneration actually breaks and dethrones the general controlling power of sin so that the believer’s basic life-direction is now away from self and sin and toward God and holiness. Anything less is sub-biblical and will lead to false assurance and a discounting of what constitutes a true Christian. It will also help populate churches with people like those Christ spoke of when He said, "Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name cast out demons and in your name perform many miracles?’ And then I will declare to them, I never knew you. Depart from me you who practice lawlessness" (Matthew 7:22, 23). Christ says there will be many who sincerely believe they are saved, who hold to right beliefs about the person and work of Christ, who do things in His name (in the church and out), but manifest their lost condition by their disobedient lives. Christ characterizes them as those who lack a heart which "does the will of my Father in heaven" (Matthew 7:21), but which rather "practice lawlessness." In other words regeneration, the root of obedience and holiness, has never taken place. Their desperate appeal to their works and profession of faith in the final analysis means nothing to Christ. It is my belief that the present day evangelical church is filled with such self-deluded people, even in leadership positions.

Regeneration is Crucial Because of the Nature Of Grace
The biblical teaching on regeneration is also central to the doctrine of grace. It destroys and discredits any attempt at salvation by a "works righteousness."

There probably has never been a person more assured that his own works would earn his way to heaven than Nicodemus. Nicodemus, as a Pharisee, was steeped in his law-keeping as a basis of righteousness before God. In fact he had achieved prominence even among the most religious and dedicated of law workers. Jesus Himself referred to him as "the teacher of Israel" (John 3:10). Yet Christ totally discredited his efforts.

His purpose with Nicodemus (as with the entire Sermon on the Mount) was to show that external righteousness is totally inadequate. All the works of the unregenerate person are polluted by a corrupt heart. They are as filthy rags in the sight of God (Isaiah 64:6). Christ’s words are a sweeping rejection of Nicodemus and his entire life of law works and of any others like him as well.

Christ’s analysis of man’s sin is that he has a double problem. He is not only under condemnation legally, but his very nature is corrupted morally. He not only needs his judicial guilt removed, but he also needs his heart depravity replaced. He not only needs a pardon for his sins, but also a purification from his sinfulness. Christ makes it very clear that a person must come to grips with their corrupted heart.

This is exactly what Nicodemus and the Pharisees refused to do. They evaluated themselves only by the external, giving no concern to the state of their inner heart and thoughts. Yet Christ dictates that heaven is barred from a person whose heart is left in its natural corrupted and un-renewed state. The author of Hebrews stated the same basic idea like this, "Pursue sanctification without which no man will see the Lord" (Hebrews 12:14). The sanctification here is a practical holiness. We don’t pursue positional holiness, this is given to us. The context clearly speaks of a practical growth in holiness without which no one will see the Lord. This is fundamentally in principle what the Lord Jesus said to Nicodemus. Man does not just need his guilt pardoned, he needs his nature purified. The root must be transformed to bring forth the new fruit or he will not see heaven. Practical holiness is nothing more nor less than the inevitable outworking of the mighty working of the "washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit" (Titus 3:5).

So while Christ discounts law works for salvation, He demands a renewed heart instead. This is of course something completely beyond the capacity of man to accomplish and Nicodemus knew it. There must be a washing (1 Corinthians 6:11)—a purification (1 Peter 1:22) of the inner man—by God’s own creative power. Without it there is no salvation.

We are saved by grace, through faith, plus nothing (Ephesians 2:8). However, where there is faith there is regeneration and where there is regeneration there is the new life that follows (1 John 3:7-10). Any other teaching misrepresents Scripture and gives false assurance. A correct profession of faith is meaningless in the context of continual, unbroken sinfulness, whether in or out of the church. The word "continual" is chosen carefully. Christians can sin, even grievously. This cannot be denied. The issue, however, is not sin, per se. The issue is the unbroken pattern of sin and rebellion of those who profess to be Christians, even leaders in the church, and the casual assumption that such people are saved.

The church must return to a biblical doctrine of regeneration or our churches will become increasingly filled with those who can recite all the right doctrine, while having no heart for obedience to Christ, the real evidence of new life. People with ongoing lifestyles of sin will continue to be quickly regarded as saved, and casually assured that they are. No thought will be given to the fact that their continual inability to submit to God’s Word and obey the commands of Christ may very well indicate their lost state.2 The church, rather than casually assuming someone’s salvation and giving assurance where there is a continual inability to follow Christ commands must once again heed Paul’s words to the Corinthians, "Test yourselves to see if you are in the faith; examine yourselves, or do you not recognize this about yourselves that Jesus Christ is in you unless indeed you fail the test" (2 Corinthians 13:5). Paul obviously assumed that the presence of Christ within, meant a new life demonstrated without. Any other teaching is defective with no biblical basis.