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Chapter 5
Regenerated by Grace
When the scion, or branch, of a fruit tree is grafted upon the trunk of another tree, the very first result of that organic union is that the nature and life of the tree begins to impart itself to the ingrafted scion. This first result is quite hid from our view. It is a mysterious operation. In fact, for a time the very opposite may present itself to the observing eye of the husbandman. It may appear as if the ingrafted shoot is dying because of the operation, and whatever buds or sprouts appeared on it before the ingrafting may wither. Yet the fact is, if the grafting is successful, that the ingrafted twig receives the beginning of a new life by virtue of its union with the trunk. The same is true of the sinner who is united with Christ. He is a branch of the wild tree of the guilty and corrupt human race. He has a wild nature and brings forth wild and corrupt fruit. And Christ is that new, cultivated trunk, the root of a new tree. When that dead and wild sinner is united with, ingrafted into Christ, the very first result of that union is that the new nature and life of Christ is imparted to that corrupt sinner. He is principally renewed. Spiritually he has become another man. Also this principal change may not become at once apparent. He may not at once become conscious of the profound change that is wrought within him. Perhaps he does not come immediately to repentance and conscious faith. But the fact is there: if any man be in Christ, he is a new creation: old things are passed away, behold, all things have become new! (II Corinthians 5: 17) This first and profound change the Scriptures call the rebirth, or the regeneration, of the sinner. Frequently and in different ways the Bible refers to this rebirth. Of those who have received power to become the sons of God John writes: "Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God." (J ohn 1: 13) This implies nothing less than that the rebirth is that exclusively divine work whereby God imparts His own nature to us, so that we become like Him, as His sons. To Nicodemus the Savior says: "Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God." (J ohn 3: 3) This clearly teaches us that regeneration is the absolutely indispensable condition for all spiritual activity. Before a man is regenerated, he can do nothing positive in regard to the spiritual things of the kingdom of God. In I Peter 1: 3 the apostle writes that we have been begotten again unto a lively hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and that, too, according to the abundant mercy of God. And in verse 23 of the same chapter we read that we are "born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever." In his first epistle the apostle John frequently emphasizes that believers are born of God. "Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin; for his seed remaineth in him: and he cannot sin, because he is born of God." (I John 3:9) And: "If ye know that he is righteous, ye know that everyone that doeth righteousness is born of him." (I John 2:29) And once more: "We know that whosoever is born of God sinneth not." (I John 5: 18) Hence, believers are frequently called children of God, not only in the juridical sense so that they are adopted to be sons of God, but also in the spiritual sense, according to which they partake of the divine nature and are conformed according to the image of His Son. This change is so fundamental that one who is in Christ is called a new creation. (II Corinthains 5: 17) And it is nothing less than the resurrection from the dead: "Verily, verily, I say unto you, The hour is coming, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God: and they that hear shall live. " (J ohn 5: 25) Now what is this marvelous work of grace that is called the rebirth or regeneration of the sinner? Is it something like a moral reformation, the building of character, the making of a better moral man? Is it the same as conversion? Does regeneration in any sense depend upon man's In general we may state, as is abundantly evident from all the passages of Scripture which we quoted, that regeneration is that wonderful work of God's grace whereby the sinner is raised from spiritual dcath to spiritual life in principle. Without entering into a detailed exposition let us note the following main points: First of all, regeneration, or rebirth, reminds us forcibly that by virtue of his first birth man is dead. He is born dead. For why should the Scriptures otherwise emphasize that he must be born again? Or how otherwise could the Bible speak of this first change of the sinner as resurrection? Besides, that the sinner is dead in sin the Word of God abundantly testifies. Now what does it mean that the natural man is dead? It surely does not mean that he does not possess natural life or that through sin he changed into a different being. That he lives in a natural sense is evident: for he moves about in this world and accomplishes many mighty works. He thinks and wills, he plans and plots, he discovers and invents, he sees and hears and speaks and acts and reacts upon the world about him. But spiritually, that is in relation to God and all that is good, he is dead. His whole nature is corrupt. Sin is not a matter of the deed alone. If this were the case, he would need education and reformation. But spiritual death means that the very nature of the sinner is corrupt. His mind is darkened, so that he cannot discern the good. His will is perverse and obdurate, so that he cannot choose the good. All his inclinations are impure and defiled, so that he cannot have his delight in the good. But spiritual death means still more. The sinner is not a stock and block that is entirely passive, inactive. He is much worse. For, his heart, whence are the issues of life, being corrupt, his mind being darkened, and his will being perverse, he hates that which is good and loves the darkness rather than the light. With respect to the gospel and the things of the kingdom of God, this means that the natural man lacks the power, the faculty, to discern them. He has no eye to see, no ear to hear, no mind to discern, no will to long and to choose for them. He cannot accept Christ, and no amount of persuasion can induce him to accept Christ. He cannot hunger and thirst for righteousness. On the contrary, in that natural condition he will always react against the gospel, resist the Holy Spirit, and reject the Christ of God. Unless a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. But, secondly, we must make one more observation regarding the state of the natural man. He is not only dead in sin; he is also earthy. He was taken from the dust of the earth, and to the earth he is related and bound. This does not mean that Adam in his state of rectitude did not love God and seek His glory in all things. But it does imply that the heavenly things, those things which eye hath not seen, and ear hath not heard, and which have never arisen in the heart of man, were hid from him, too. Hence, even if the natural man were not dead in sin, he is still earthly and would still have to receive new powers in order to discern the heavenly things of God's kingdom and aspire after them. This, too, is presupposed in regeneration: for let us remember that the new birth is resurrection; and resurrection is not a return to a former life, but the raising to a higher, heavenly level of life. In the third place, regeneration is that change in man which empowers him to see and to seek the kingdom of God. It is not the same as conversion, and it must not be confused with it. In conversion man is active: he begins to use the power and faculties which are given him in regeneration. He becomes conscious of the new life. He repents, confesses, turns about, hungers and thirsts after the bread and water of life, believes and embraces Christ and all His benefits, flees from sin and pursues after the good. But this is not the new birth itself, but it is the activity of the spiritually newborn babe. When a child is born, it is active: it cries and moves and kicks and seeks mother's breast and takes nourishment. But the faculties and powers to do all these things that child received in its conception and birth. The same is true of the reborn sinner. He is a newborn babe in a spiritual sense. He must be born again before he can act. He must have eyes before he can see, ears before he can hear, a spiritual faculty before he can discern, a new will before he can long for and accept the things of the kingdom of God. He must have the power of faith before he can believe, the gift of repentance before he can repent; and the love of God must be spread abroad in his heart before he can respond in love. This power is instilled into the heart of the sinner in the new birth, or regeneration. In regeneration God, by the efficacy of the Spirit, "opens the closed, and softens the hardened heart, and circumcises that which was uncircumcised, infuses new qualities into the will, which though heretofore dead, he quickens; from being evil, disobedient, and refractory, he renders it good, obedient, and pliable; actuates and strengthens it, that like a good tree, it may bring forth the fruits of good actions." (Canons of Dordrecht, III, IV, 11) By grace are ye saved, through faith, and that, (that is, that power of faith), not of yourselves, it is the gift of God. Moreover, this new birth is a birth from above. It is resurrection. In the fourth place, in view of all that has been said about the new birth, it should be perfectly evident that it is a sovereign work of God pure and simple, a work in which the sinner himself has no part whatever, in which he does not in any sense cooperate with God, but in which man is wholly passive. It is important that this be emphasized in order to maintain the truth of salvation by grace only. All the more important this is, in view of the fact that in our day this truth is usually distorted and misrepresented. Those who insist on presenting salvation as contingent upon man's will do not know what to make of this new birth, though they often speak of it. Rebirth as a new creation, or as resurrection from the dead, has no place in their conception of salvation. Hence, they make of regeneration something which depends upon the will of the sinner. If man will only accept Christ, he will be regenerated. They offer to the sinner regeneration! They plead with him and beg him to be regenerated! But this is absurd. As well might a man go to the cemetery and beg the dead to come out of their graves! For no more than Adam cooperated in his own creation, and no more than Lazarus cooperated in his own resurrection, no more does the sinner cooperate with God in his own regeneration. It is a work of God alone, without our help. For "this is the regeneration so highly celebrated in Scripture, and denominated a new creation: a resurrection from the dead, a making alive, which God works in us without our aid. But this is in no wise effected merely by the external preaching of the gospel, by moral suasion, or such a mode of operation, that after God has performed his part, it still remains in the power of man to be regenerated or not, to be converted or to continue unconverted; but it is evidently a supernatural work, most powerful, and at the same time most delightful, astonishing, mysterious, and ineffable; not inferior in efficacy to creation, or the resurrection from the dead." (Canons of Dordrecht III, IV, 12) In the fifth place, this truth is of great practical significance. For, first of all, this work being absolutely the work of God, in which the sinner is wholly passive, it is evident that there is no age limit to those who may become the recipients of this wonderful blessing of grace. The most hardened sinner, though he be hoary with age, may be regenerated; but also the infant at his mother's breast may receive this grace of God. In fact, there is good reason to believe that within the sphere of the church God usually regenerates the seed of the covenant in their early infancy. Not only, is there no reason to despair of their salvation if they die in infancy, even though they never heard the gospel; but this truth also requires of us as a church, and as parents, that we bring up our children in the sphere of the gospel and instruct them in the fear of the Lord from their earliest childhood. On mother's breast the child may learn to stammer his prayer; on mother's lap he must be instructed in the first knowledge of the gospel. And as he grows older, he must consistently be instructed in the Word of God, not only in the home, and in the church, but also in the school. Christian instruction is not only a calling: it is also a possibility, thanks be to God and His wonderful work of the new birth! Secondly, this marvelous mystery of the new birth being wholly of divine authorship, we may rest assured that it can never be lost or undone. It might be destroyed as far as we are concerned: for how often we sin and make ourselves unworthy of the grace of God! But God never changes. Once regenerated is always regenerated. For let us remember that this work of grace is wrought by the God of our salvation through Jesus Christ our Lord. It is the first fruit of our being united with Him. It is only in union with Him that we receive this new principle of life. But even after we are reborn we do not possess the new life in ourselves. It is always in Christ, and out of Christ it constantly flows into our hearts by the indwelling Spirit. It remains dependent upon our union with the Savior. But this is exactly why it is safe and secure. For He will never leave us. And nothing can ever separate us from His love! The gifts of God are without repentance! |
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