Regeneration
VIEW:28 DATA:01-04-2020
REGENERATION.In the language of theology, regeneration denotes that decisive spiritual change, effected by Gods Holy Spirit, in which a soul, naturally estranged from God, and ruled by sinful principles, is renewed in disposition, becomes the subject of holy affections and desires, and enters on a life of progressive sanctification, the issue of which is complete likeness to Christ. The term, however, to which this word corresponds (Gr. palingenesia), occurs only twice in the NT (Mat_19:28, Tit_3:5), and in the first instance denotes, not the renewal of the individual, but the perfected condition of things at the Parousia (cf. Act_3:21, 2Pe_3:13; see Restoration). In the other passage (Tit_3:5), the expression the washing [laver] of regeneration connects the renewing of the Holy Ghost with the rite of baptism, which is its outward symbol and seal (see below). The doctrine, nevertheless, is a thoroughly Scriptural one, and the change in question is expressed by a great variety of terms and phrases: born, born anew, a new creation, renewed, quickened, etc., to which attention will immediately be directed. The fundamental need of regeneration is recognized in the OT as well as in the NT (e.g. Psa_51:10-11), though, necessarily, the prophecies speak more frequently of national renewal (Jer_31:31 ff; Jer_32:38-40, Eze_36:25-28, Hos_6:1-3 etc.) than of individual.
The classical passage on the need of regeneration is Joh_3:3 ff. Spiritual life, it is taught, can come only from a spiritual source, and man, naturally, has not that life (Joh_3:6). Hence the declarations: Except a man be born anew, he cannot see the kingdom of God; Except a man be born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born anew (Joh_3:3; Joh_3:5). The miracle is wrought by the Spirit of God, whose action is sovereign (Joh_3:8). Many do marvel, like Nicodemus, at the strangeness and universality of this demand of Christ; yet the strangeness will disappear, and the need of a supernatural agent to effect the change will be felt, if due consideration is given (1) to the vastness of the change, and (2) to the condition of the human nature in which the change is to be made.
(1) It is sufficient, to show the vastness of this change, to reflect that here, and elsewhere, regeneration means nothing less than a revolution of such a kind as results in the whole man being brought round from his ordinary worldly way of feeling, and thinking, and willing, into harmony with Gods mind and will; truly brought round to Gods point of view, so that he now sees things as God sees them, feels about things as God feels about them, judges of things as God judges of them, loves what God loves, hates what God hates, sets Gods ends before him as his own. Who can doubt, if this is the nature of the change, that it does not lie in mans own powers to produce it; that it can be effected only through a higher power entering his being, and working the change?
(2) The need of a supernatural agency in the change is further evident from the condition of the human nature in which the change is wrought. The testimony of Scripture is uniform that man has turned aside from God (Psa_14:1-3, Rom_3:9 ff.), and that his nature has undergone a terrible depravation (Gen_6:5; Gen_8:21, Psa_51:5, Isa_1:2-4, Rom_7:14 ff., Eph_2:1-3; Eph_4:17-18 etc.); that the bent of the will is away from God (Rom_8:7-8); that the love of God has been replaced by love of the world, and the self-seeking principles connected therewith (1Jn_2:15-16, cf. Joh_5:42; Joh_5:44); that the better nature is in bondage to a law of sin, which works lawlessness in thought, feeling, and desire (Rom_7:22-23, 1Jn_3:4 RV [Note: Revised Version.] ). Is it not obvious, leaving out of account altogether the darker forms in which evil manifests itself, that this is a condition of soul which only a Divine power can rectify?
Nothing, therefore, is more plainly taught in Scripture than that this spiritual change we call regeneration is one which nothing short of Divine power can effect. It is spoken of as a being born of God (Joh_1:12-13; Joh_3:5, 1Jn_3:9 etc.); as a new creation (2Co_5:21); as a being raised from the dead (Eph_2:5-6). It is compared to that great work of the omnipotence of God in raising Christ Himself from the dead (Eph_1:19; Eph_1:22; Eph_2:1; Eph_2:6). It is a complete renewal, transformation, of the inner man (Rom_12:2, Eph_4:23, Col_3:10, Tit_3:15, 1Pe_1:22-23). Yet, while so distinctively a supernatural work, it is made equally clear that it is not a magical work; not a work bound up with rites and words, so that, when these rites and ceremonies are performed, regeneration is ipso facto effected. This is the error of sacerdotalism, which binds up this spiritual change with the rite of baptism. It would be wrong to say that baptism has no connexion with the change, for it is often brought into most intimate relation with it (Rom_6:4, Tit_3:5, 1Pe_3:21; perhaps even in Christs words, Joh_3:5; with the historical examples of the connexion of the receiving of the Spirit with baptism, Act_2:38; Act_19:2-8 etc.). Baptism is connected with regeneration as outwardly representing it, and being a symbol of it; as connected with profession (1Pe_3:21), and pledging the spiritual blessing to faith; but it neither operates the blessing, nor is indispensable to it, nor has any virtue at all apart from the inward susceptibility in the subjects of it. In some cases we read of those on whom the Spirit of God fell, that they were baptized afterwards (Act_10:44; Act_10:48), and in all cases faith is presumed to be already present before baptism is administered; that is, the inward decisive step has already been taken.
On the other hand, when we look to the meansthe instrumentalityby which the Holy Spirit effects this change, we find it always in Scripture declared to be one thing, namely, the word. This is what is meant by saying that regeneration is effected, not magically, but by the use of. rational means. It is connected with the outward call of the gospel (hence the older divines were wont to treat of this subject under the head of vocation, or effectual calling). We speak, of course, only of adults, of those who are capable of hearing and understanding the call, and are far from limiting the grace of God in infants, or others whom this call does not or cannot reach. What is affirmed is, as regards those who have come to years of intelligence, that Gods dealing with them is through the word, and this is the constant representation. The OT equally with the NT extols the saving, converting, quickening, cleansing, sanctifying power of the word of God (e.g. Psa_19:7 ff., Psa_119:1-176). Jesus declares the word to be the seed of the Kingdom (Luk_8:11). He prays: Sanctify them in the truth; thy word is truth (Joh_17:17). Conversion, regeneration, sanctification, are connected with the word (Act_11:19-21, Eph_1:13, Col_1:5, 1Th_2:13, 2Th_2:13, Jam_1:18, 1Pe_1:23-25 [Begotten again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, through the word of God, etc.])
If this is the nature, generally, of regeneration, then it has what may be termed a psychology; that is, there is a process which the mind goes through in the experience of this spiritual change. The Spirit of God, doubtless, has innumerable ways of dealing with human souls; still, if we look closely, it will be found that there are certain elements which do in some degree enter into all experience in regeneration, and furnish, so far, a test of the reality of the change. There is first, of necessity, the awakening of the soul out of its customary spiritual dormancyout of that deep insensibility to spiritual things in which ordinarily the natural mind is held (Eph_5:14, cf. Rom_14:11-12). Especially there comes into view here the peculiar awakening of the soul through the conscience, which takes the form of what we call conviction of sin towards God (cf. Act_16:29-30). Probably no one can undergo this spiritual change without in some degree being brought inwardly to the realization of his sinful condition before God, and to the sincere confession of it (Psa_51:4). The law of God has its place in producing this conviction of sin; but law alone will not produce spiritual contrition. See Repentance. For this there is needed the exhibition of mercy. Hence the next stage in this spiritual process is that described as enlightenmentgrowing enlightenment in the knowledge of Christ, This also, like the preceding stages, is a Divine work (Joh_16:14-15, 2Co_4:4). Even with this, however, the work of regeneration is not complete. The will of God for mans salvation has not only to be understood, it has also to be obeyed. There is the will to be laid hold ofthe will, the centre and citadel of the being. So the work of the Holy Spirit is directed, finally, to the renewing of the will. It is directed to the renewing of the will, first of all, in the form of persuasion, for the Holy Spirit does none of His work by violence. Everything that God accomplishes is accomplished in accordance with the nature He has given us; but God most graciously, most lovingly, brings His persuasions to bear upon our wills, and by the power of appropriate motives draws us to the acceptance of Christ (Joh_6:44). With this there goes what, in the next place, may be called the potentiation of the willthe enabling of it, or imparting to it the power needful in order to lay hold on Christ with full and fast faith (Eph_4:16). Last of all, this work of regeneration is completed when the soul is brought to the point of absolute surrender of itself to Christwhen, drawn and persuaded, and at length enabled by the Spirit, it yields itself up entirely to Christ as its Saviour, and lays hold on Christ for a complete salvation. There is now union with Christ by faith, and, with that, entrance into the lifethe experienceof the newborn child of God. If any man is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things are passed away; behold, they are become new (2Co_5:17).
James Orr.
Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible
Edited by James Hastings, D.D. Published in 1909
palingenesia. Only twice in the New Testament: Tit_3:5 of the regeneration of the soul by the Holy Spirit, and Mat_19:28 the regeneration of the body and of the material world. (See BAPTISM.) Besides his natural birthday the believer has a spiritual birthday in this life, and a birthday to glory in the life to come. The marks of regeneration are given 1Jn_3:9; 1Jn_3:14; 1Jn_5:1; 1Jn_5:4. Only if God's Spirit regenerate the soul now will the same Spirit quicken to immortality and glory the body hereafter (Rom_8:11; Php_3:21).
The third and crowning step will be the regeneration of our home, this earth, and of "the whole creation," "the restitution of all things" (Act_3:21; Mat_19:28; Rom_8:19-23). Nations and society shall be first regenerated in the millennial world, with Israel as their priest-kingly head (Isa_2:2-4; Isa_2:11); wars shall cease, and even the wild beasts cease to rage. (See THOUSAND YEARS.) (Revelation 20; Isa_65:16-25). The final regeneration of the earth and nature shall be after the millennium (Revelation 21; 2Pe_3:7-13).
Fausset's Bible Dictionary
By Andrew Robert Fausset, co-Author of Jamieson, Fausset and Brown's 1888.
a new birth; that work of the Holy Spirit by which we experience a change of heart. It is expressed in Scripture by being born again, Joh_3:7; born from above; being quickened, Eph_2:1; by Christ being formed in the heart, Gal_4:19; by our partaking of the divine nature, 2Pe_1:4. The efficient cause of regeneration is the divine Spirit. That man is not the author of it, is evident from Joh_1:12-13; Joh_3:4; Eph_2:8; Eph_2:10. The instrumental cause is the word of God, Jam_1:18; 1Pe_1:23; 1Co_4:15. The change in regeneration consists in the recovery of the moral image of God upon the heart; that is to say, so as to love him supremely and serve him ultimately as our highest end, and to delight in him superlatively as our chief good. The sum of the moral law is to love the Lord our God with all our heart, and soul, and strength, and mind. This is the duty of every rational creature; and in order to obey it perfectly, no part of our inward affection or actual service ought to be, at any time, or in the least degree misapplied. Regeneration consists in the principle being implanted, obtaining the ascendancy, and habitually prevailing over its opposite. It may be remarked, that though the inspired writers use various terms and modes of speech in order to describe this change of mind, sometimes terming it conversion, regeneration, a new creation, or the new creature, putting off the old man with his deeds, and putting on the new man, walking not after the flesh, but after the Spirit, &c; yet it is all effected by the word of truth, or the Gospel of salvation, gaining an entrance into the mind, through divine teaching, so as to possess the understanding, subdue the will, and reign in the affections. In a word, it is faith working by love that constitutes the new creature, the regenerate man, Gal_5:6; 1Jn_5:1-5. Regeneration is to be distinguished from our justification, although it is connected with it. Every one who is justified, is also regenerated; but the one places us in a new relation, and the other in a new moral state. Our Lord, in one instance, uses the term regeneration for the resurrection state: Ye which have followed me, in the regeneration, when the Son of man shall sit on the throne of his glory, ye also shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging, Mat_19:28. And, accordingly, Dr. Campbell translates the passage thus: At the renovation, when the Son of man shall be seated on the glorious throne, ye, my followers, sitting also upon twelve thrones, shall judge. We are accustomed, says he to apply the term solely to the conversion of individuals; whereas its relation here is to the general state of things. The principal completion will be at the general resurrection, when there will be, in the most important sense, a renovation or regeneration of heaven and earth, when all things shall become new.
Biblical and Theological Dictionary by Richard Watson
PRINTER 1849.
All people are sinners; therefore all are spiritually dead and unable to give themselves spiritual life. They are cut off from God, with no hope of salvation through anything they might plan or do. God, however, can save them from this hopeless condition by forgiving their sins, giving them new life and restoring them to a right relationship with himself. This experience is called the new birth, or regeneration, and is the work of the Spirit of God within the individual. It takes place when people humbly submit to Jesus Christ and trust him for forgiveness, salvation and life (Joh_1:12-13; Joh_3:3-6; Eph_2:1; Eph_2:5; Tit_3:5).
To be regenerated means, in other words, to be born anew, to be spiritually re-created. This is not something people themselves can do. It is entirely the work of the merciful and sovereign God (Joh_1:13; Joh_3:5; Tit_3:3-7; Jam_1:18; 1Pe_1:23; cf. Psa_51:10; Eze_11:19). Without it sinners remain in their hopeless state and are incapable of experiencing spiritual life (Joh_3:5-6). Through it they become children of God and enter his kingdom (Joh_1:12-13; Joh_3:3; Joh_3:5; see also ADOPTION).
Regenerated people are new people (2Co_5:17; 1Pe_2:2; cf. Gal_6:15). They have new life inwardly, characterized by renewed minds that govern all his thinking and attitudes (Rom_12:2; Eph_4:23-24; cf. Eze_36:26-27; Jer_31:33). They also have new life outwardly, characterized by loving behaviour towards others, hatred of sin and victory over the worlds temptations (Col_3:10; Col_3:12-13; 1Jn_2:29; 1Jn_4:7; 1Jn_5:4; 1Jn_5:18; cf. 1Co_5:7-8).
Bridgeway Bible Dictionary by Don Fleming
PRINTER 1990.
rḗ-jen-ẽr-ā?shun, re4-:
I. THE TERM EXPLAINED
1. First Biblical Sense (Eschatological)
2. Second Biblical Sense (Spiritual)
II. THE BIBLICAL DOCTRINE OF REGENERATION
1. In the Old Testament
2. In the Teaching of Jesus
3. In Apostolic Teaching
III. LATER DEVELOPMENT OF THE DOCTRINE
IV. PRESENT SIGNIFICANCE
LITERATURE
I. The Term Explained.
The theological term ?regeneration? is the Latin translation of the Greek expression παλινγενεσία, palingenesı́a, occurring twice in the New Testament (Mat_19:28; Tit_3:5). The word is usually written παλιγγενεσία, paliggenesı́a, in classical Greek. Its meaning is different in the two passages, though an easy transition of thought is evident.
1. First Biblical Sense (Eschatological):
In Mat_19:28 the word refers to the restoration of the world, in which sense it is synonymical to the expressions ἀποκατάστασις πάντων, apokatástasis pánton, ?restoration of all things? (Act_3:21; the verb is found in Mat_17:11, ἀποκαταστήσει πάντα, apokatastḗsei pánta, ?shall restore all things?), and ἀνάψυξις, anápsuxis, ?refreshing? (Act_3:19), which signifies a gradual transition of meaning to the second sense of the word under consideration. It is supposed that regeneration in this sense denotes the final stage of development of all creation, by which God's purposes regarding the same are fully realized, when ?all things (are put) in subjection under his feet? (1Co_15:27). This is a ?regeneration in the proper meaning of the word, for it signifies a renovation of all visible things when the old is passed away, and heaven and earth are become new? (compare Rev_21:1). To the Jew the regeneration thus prophesied was inseparably connected with the reign of the Messiah.
We find this word in the same or very similar senses in profane literature. It is used of the renewal of the world in Stoical philosophy. Josephus (Ant., XI, iii, 9) speaks of the anáktēsis kaı́ paliggenesı́a tḗs patrı́dos, ?a new foundation and regeneration of the fatherland,? after the return from the Babylonian captivity. Philo (ed. Mangey, ii. 144) uses the word, speaking of the post-diluvial epoch of the earth, as of a new world, and Marcus Aurelius Antoninus (xi. 1), of a periodical restoration of all things, laying stress upon the constant recurrence and uniformity of all happenings, which thought the Preacher expressed by ?There is no new thing under the sun? (Ecc_1:9). In most places, however, where the word occurs in philosophical writings, it is used of the ?reincarnation? or ?subsequent birth? of the individual, as in the Buddhistic and Pythagorean doctrine of the transmigration of souls (Plut., edition Xylander, ii. 998c; Clement of Alexandria, edition Potter, 539) or else of a revival of life (Philo i. 159). Cicero uses the word in his letters to Atticus (vi. 6) metaphorically of his return from exile, as a new lease of life granted to him. See ESCHATOLOGY OF THE NEW TESTAMENT, IX.
2. Second Biblical Sense (Spiritual):
This sense is undoubtedly included in the full Biblical conception of the former meaning, for it is unthinkable that a regeneration in the eschatological sense can exist without a spiritual regeneration of humanity or the individual. It is, however, quite evident that this latter conception has arisen rather late, from an analysis of the former meaning. It is found in Tit_3:5 which, without absolute certainty as to its meaning, is generally interpreted in agreement with the numerous nouns and verbs which have given the dogmatical setting to the doctrine of regeneration in Christian theology. Clement of Alexandria is the first to differentiate this meaning from the former by the addition of the adjective πνευματική, pneumatikḗ, ?spiritual? (compare anapsuxis, Act_3:20; see REFRESHING). In this latter sense the word is typically Christian, though the Old Testament contains many adumbrations of the spiritual process expressed thereby.
II. The Biblical Doctrine of Regeneration.
1. In the Old Testament:
It is well known that in the earlier portions of the Old Testament, and to a certain degree all through the Old Testament, religion is looked at and spoken of more as a national possession, the benefits of which are largely visible and tangible blessings. 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. Whether the divine promises refer to the Messianic end of times, or are to be realized at an earlier date, they all refer to the nation of Israel as such, and to individuals only as far as they are partakers in the benefits bestowed upon the commonwealth. This is even true where the blessings prophesied are only spiritual, as in Isa_60:21, Isa_60:22. The mass of the people of Israel are therefore as yet scarcely aware of the fact that the conditions on which these divine promises are to be attained are more than ceremonial and ritual ones. Soon, however, great disasters, threatening to overthrow the national entity, and finally the captivity and dispersion which caused national functions to be almost, if not altogether, discontinued, assisted in the growth of a sense of individual or personal responsibility before God. The sin of Israel is recognized as the sin of the individual, which can be removed only by individual repentance and cleansing. This is best seen from the stirring appeals of the prophets of the exile, where frequently the necessity of a change of attitude toward Yahweh is preached as a means to such regeneration. This cannot be understood otherwise than as a turning of the individual to the Lord. Here, too, no ceremony or sacrifice is sufficient, but an interposition of divine grace, which is represented under the figure of a washing and sprinkling from all iniquity and sin (Isa_1:18; Jer_13:23). It is not possible now to follow in full the development of this idea of cleansing, but already in Isa_52:15 the sprinkling of many nations is mentioned and is soon understood in the sense of the ?baptism? which proselytes had to undergo before their reception into the covenant of Israel. It was the symbol of a radical cleansing like that of a ?new-born babe,? which was one of the designations of the proselyte (compare Psa_87:5; see also the tractate Yebhāmōth 62a). Would it be surprising that Israel, which had been guilty of many sins of the Gentiles, needed a similar baptism and sprinkling? This is what Eze_36:25 suggests: ?I will sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean: from all your filthiness, and from all your idols, will I cleanse you.? In other passages the cleansing and refining power of fire is alluded to (e.g. Mal_3:2), and there is no doubt that John the Baptist found in such passages the ground for his practice of baptizing the Jews who came to him (Joh_1:25-28 and parallel's).
The turning of Israel to God was necessarily meant to be an inward change of attitude toward Him, in other words, the sprinkling with clean water, as an outward sign, was the emblem of a pure heart. It was Isaiah and Jeremiah who drew attention to this (Isa_57:15; Jer_24:7; Jer_31:33-35; Jer_32:38-40, et passim). Here again reference is made to individuals, not only to the people in general (Jer_31:34). This promised regeneration, so lovingly offered by Yahweh, is to be the token of a new covenant between God and His people (Jer_31:31; Eze_11:19-21; Eze_18:31, Eze_18:32; Eze_37:23, Eze_37:24).
The renewing and cleansing here spoken of is in reality nothing else than what Deu_30:6 had promised, a circumcision of the heart in contradistinction to the flesh, the token of the former (Abrahamic) covenant (of circumcision, Jer_4:4). As God takes the initiative in making the covenant, the conviction takes root that human sin and depravity can be effectually eliminated only by the act of God Himself renewing and transforming the heart of man (Hos_14:4). This we see from the testimony of some of Israel's best sons and daughters, who also knew that this grace was found in the way of repentance and humiliation before God. The classical expression of this conviction is found in the prayer of David: ?Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right (margin ?stedfast?) spirit within me. Cast me not away from thy presence; and take not thy holy Spirit from me. Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation; and uphold me with a willing spirit? (Psa_51:10-12). Jeremiah puts the following words into the mouth of Ephraim: ?Turn thou me, and I shall be turned? (Jer_31:18). Clearer than any passages of the Old Testament, John the Baptist, forerunner of Christ and last flaming torch of the time of the earlier covenant, spoke of the baptism, not of water, but of the Holy Spirit and of fire (Mat_3:11; Luk_3:16; Joh_1:33), leading thus to the realization of Old Testament foreshadowings which became possible by faith in Christ.
2. In the Teaching of Jesus:
In the teaching of Jesus the need of regeneration has a prominent place, though nowhere are the reasons given. The Old Testament had succeeded - and even the Gentile conscience agreed with it - in convincing the people of this need. The clearest assertion of it and the explanation of the doctrine of regeneration is found in the conversation of Jesus with Nicodemus (Jn 3). It is based upon (1) the observation that man, even the most punctilious in the observance of the Law, is dead and therefore unable to ?live up? to the demands of God. Only He who gave life at the beginning can give the (spiritual) life necessary to do God's will. (2) Man has fallen from his virginal and divinely-appointed sphere, the realm of the spirit, the Kingdom of God, living now the perishing earthly life. Only by having a new spiritual nature imparted to him, by being ?born anew? (Joh_3:3, the Revised Version margin ?from above,? Greek ἄνωθεν, ánōthen), by being ?born of the Spirit? (Joh_3:6, Joh_3:8), can he live the spiritual life which God requires of man.
These words are a New Testament exegesis of Ezekiel's vision of the dead bones (Eze_37:1-10). It is the ?breath from Yahweh,? the Spirit of God, who alone can give life to the spiritually dead.
But regeneration, according to Jesus, is more than life, it is also purify. As God is pure and sinless, none but the pure in heart can see God (Mat_5:8). This was always recognized as impossible to mere human endeavor. Bildad the Shuhite declared, and his friends, each in his turn, expressed very similar thoughts (Job_4:17; Job_14:4): ?How then can man be just with God? Or how can he be clean that is born of a woman? Behold, even the moon hath no brightness, and the stars are not pure in his sight: how much less man, that is a worm! and the son of man, that is a worm!? (Job_25:4-6).
To change this lost condition, to impart this new life, Jesus claims as His God-appointed task: ?The Son of man came to seek and to save that which was lost? (Luk_19:10); ?I came that they may have life, and may have it abundantly? (Joh_10:10). This life is eternal, imperishable: ?I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, and no one shall snatch them out of my hand? (Joh_10:28). This life is imparted by Jesus Himself: ?It is the spirit that giveth life; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I have spoken unto you are spirit, and are life? (Joh_6:63). This life can be received on the condition of faith in Christ or by coming to Him (Joh_14:6). By faith power is received which enables the sinner to overcome sin, to ?sin no more? (Joh_8:11).
The parables of Jesus further illustrate this doctrine. The prodigal is declared to have been ?dead? and to be ?alive again? (Luk_15:24). The new life from God is compared to a wedding garment in the parable of the Marriage of the King's Son (Mat_22:11). The garment, the gift of the inviting king, had been refused by the unhappy guest, who, in consequence, was 'cast out into the outer darkness' (Mat_22:13).
Finally, this regeneration, this new life, is explained as the knowledge of God and His Christ: ?And this is life eternal, that they should know thee the only true God, and him whom thou didst send, even Jesus Christ? (Joh_17:3). This seems to be an allusion to the passage in Hosea (Hos_4:6): ?My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge: because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee, that thou shalt be no priest to me.?
3. In Apostolic Teaching:
It may be said in general that the teaching of the apostles on the subject of regeneration is a development of the teaching of Jesus on the lines of the adumbrations of the Old Testament. Considering the differences in the personal character of these writers, it is remarkable that such concord of views should exist among them. Paul, indeed, lays more stress on the specific facts of justification and sanctification by faith than on the more comprehensive head of regeneration. Still the need of it is plainly stated by Paul. It is necessary to salvation for all men. ?The body is dead because of sin? (Rom_8:3-11; Eph_2:1). The flesh is at enmity with God (Eph_2:15); all mankind is ?darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God? (Eph_4:18). Similar passages might be multiplied. Paul then distinctly teaches that thus is a new life in store for those who have been spiritually dead. To the Ephesians he writes: ?And you did he make alive, when ye were dead through your trespasses and sins? (Eph_2:1), and later on: ?God, being rich in mercy,... made us alive together with Christ? (Eph_2:4, Eph_2:5). A spiritual resurrection has taken place. This regeneration causes a complete revolution in man. He has thereby passed from under the law of sin and death and has come under ?the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus? (Rom_8:2). The change is so radical that it is possible now to speak of a ?new creature? (2Co_5:17; Gal_6:15, margin ?new creation?), of a ?new man, that after God hath been created in righteousness and holiness of truth? (Eph_4:24), and of ?the new man, that is being renewed unto knowledge after the image of him that created him? (Col_3:10). All ?old things are passed away; behold, they are become new? (2Co_5:17).
Paul is equally explicit regarding the author of this change. The ?Spirit of God,? the ?Spirit of Christ? has been given from above to be the source of all new life (Rom 8); by Him we are proved to be the ?sons? of God (Gal_4:6); we have been adopted into the family of God (νἱοθεσία, huiothesı́a, Rom_8:15; Gal_4:5). Thus Paul speaks of the ?second Adam,? by whom the life of righteousness is initiated in us; just as the ?first Adam? became the leader in transgression, He is ?a life-giving spirit? (1Co_15:45). Paul himself experienced this change, and henceforth exhibited the powers of the unseen world in his life of service. ?It is no longer I that live,? he exclaims, ?but Christ liveth in me: and that life which I now live in the flesh I live in faith, the faith which is in the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself up for me? (Gal_2:20).
Regeneration is to Paul, no less than to Jesus, connected with the conception of purity and knowledge. We have already noted the second New Testament passage in which the word ?regeneration? occurs (Tit_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.? In 1Co_12:13 such cleansing is called the baptism of the Spirit in agreement with the oft-repeated promise (Joe_2:28 (in the Hebrew text Joe_3:1); Mat_3:11; Mar_1:8; Luk_3:16; Act_1:5; Act_11:16). There is, of course, in these passages no reference to mere water baptism, any more than in Eze_36:25. Water is but the tertium comparationis. As water cleanseth the outer body, so the spirit purifies the inner man (compare 1Co_6:11; 1Pe_3:21).
The doctrine that regeneration redounds in true knowledge of Christ is seen from Eph_3:15-19 and Eph_4:17-24, where the darkened understanding and ignorance of natural man are placed in contradistinction to the enlightenment of the new life (see also Col_3:10). The church redeemed and regenerated is to be a special ?possession,? an ?heritage? of the Lord (Eph_1:11, Eph_1:14), and the whole creation is to participate in the final redemption and adoption (Rom_8:21-23).
James finds less occasion to touch this subject than the other writers of the New Testament. His Epistle is rather ethical than dogmatical in tone, still his ethics are based on the dogmatical presuppositions which fully agree with the teaching of other apostles. Faith to him is the human response to God's desire to impart His nature to mankind, and therefore the indispensable means to be employed in securing the full benefits of the new life, i.e. the sin-conquering power (Jam_1:2-4), the spiritual enlightenment (Jam_1:5) and purity (Jam_1:27). There seems, however, to be little doubt that James directly refers to regeneration in the words: ?Of his own will he brought us forth by the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures? (Jam_1:18). It is supposed by some that these words, being addressed ?to the twelve tribes which are of the Dispersion? (Jam_1:1), do not refer to individual regeneration, but to an election of Israel as a nation and so to a Christian Israel. In this case the aftermath would be the redemption of the Gentiles. I understand the expression ?first-fruits? in the sense in which we have noticed Paul's final hope in Rom_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. The ?implanted (the Revised Version margin ?inborn?) word? (Jam_1:21; compare 1Pe_1:23) stands parallel to the Pauline expression, ?law of the Spirit? (Rom_8:2).
Peter uses, in his sermon on the day of Pentecost, the words ?refreshing? (Act_3:19) and ?restoration of all things? (Act_3:21) of the final completion of God's plans concerning the whole creation, and accordingly looks here at God's people as a whole. In a similar sense he says in his Second Epistle, after mentioning ?the day of God?: ?We look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness? (2Pe_3:13). Still he alludes very plainly to the regeneration of individuals (1Pe_1:3, 1Pe_1:13). The idea of a second birth of the believers is clearly suggested in the expression, ?newborn babes? (1Pe_2:2), and in the explicit statement of 1Pe_1:23 : ?having been begotten again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, through the word of God, which liveth and abideth.? It is in this sense that the apostle calls God ?Father? (1Pe_1:17) and the believers ?children of obedience? (1Pe_1:14), i.e. obedient children, or children who ought to obey. We have seen above that the agent by which regeneration is wrought, the incorruptible seed of the word of God, finds a parallel in Paul's and James's theology. All these expressions go back probably to a word of the Master in Joh_15:3. We are made partakers of the word by having received the spirit. This spirit (compare the Pauline ?lifegiving spirit,? 1Co_15:45), the ?mind? of Christ (1Pe_4:1), is the power of the resurrected Christ active in the life of the believer. Peter refers to the same thought in 1Pe_3:15, 1Pe_3:21. By regeneration we become ?an elect race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God's own possession? in whom divine virtues, ?the excellencies of him who called you? (1Pe_2:9), are manifested. Here the apostle uses well-known Old Testament expressions foreshadowing New Testament graces (Isa_61:6; Isa_66:21; Exo_19:6; Deu_7:6), but he individualizes the process of regeneration in full agreement with the increased light which the teaching of Jesus has brought. The theology of Peter also points out the contact of regeneration with purity and holiness (1Pe_1:15, 1Pe_1:16) and true knowledge (1Pe_1:14) or obedience (1Pe_1:14; 1Pe_3:16). It is not surprising that the idea of purity should invite the Old Testament parallel of ?cleansing by water.? 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? (1Pe_3:20, 1Pe_3:21).
The teaching of John is very closely allied with that of Jesus, as we have already seen from the multitude of quotations we had to select from John's Gospel to illustrate the teaching of the Master. It is especially interesting to note the cases where the apostle didactically elucidates certain of these pronouncements of Jesus. The most remarkable apostolic gloss or commentary on the subject is found in Joh_7:39. Jesus had spoken of the change which faith in Him (?coming to him?) would cause in the lives of His disciples; how divine energies like ?rivers of water? should issue forth from them; and the evangelist continues in explanation: ?But this spake he of the Spirit, which they that believed on him were to receive: for the Spirit was not yet given; because Jesus was not yet glorified.? This recognition of a special manifestation of divine power, transcending the experience of Old Testament believers, was based on the declaration of Christ, that He would send ?another Comforter (the Revised Version (British and American) ?advocate,? ?helper,? Greek Paraclete), that he may be with you for ever, even the Spirit of truth? (Joh_14:16, Joh_14:17).
In his Epistles, John shows that this Spirit bestows the elements of a Godlike character which makes us to be ?sons of God,? who before were ?children of the devil? (1Jo_3:10, 1Jo_3:24; 1Jo_4:13, etc.). This regeneration is ?eternal life? (1Jo_5:13) and moral similarity with God, the very character of God in man. As ?God is love,? the children of God will love (1Jo_5:2). At the same time it is the life of God in man, also called fellowship with Christ, victorious life which overcomes the world (1Jo_5:4); it is purity (1Jo_3:3-6) and knowledge (1Jo_2:20).
The subject of regeneration lies outside of the scope of the Epistle to the Hebrews, so that we look in vain for a clear dogmatical statement of it. Still the epistle does in no place contradict the dogma, which, on the other hand, underlies many of the statements made. Christ, ?the mediator of a better covenant, which hath been enacted upon better promises? (Joh_8:6), has made ?purification of sins? (Joh_1:3). In contradistinction to the first covenant, in which the people approached God by means of outward forms and ordinances, the ?new covenant? (Joh_8:13) brought an ?eternal redemption? (Joh_9:12) by means of a divine cleansing (Joh_9:14). Christ brings ?many sons unto glory? and is ?author of their salvation? (Joh_2:10). 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? (Joh_5:13, Joh_5:14).
III. Later Development of the Doctrine.
Very soon the high spiritual meaning of regeneration was obscured by the development of priestcraft within the Christian church. When the initiation into the church was thought of as accomplished by the mediation of ministers thereto appointed, the ceremonies hereby employed became means to which magic powers were of necessity ascribed. This we see plainly in the view of baptismal regeneration, which, based upon half-understood passages of Scripture quoted above, was taught at an early date. While in the post-apostolic days we frequently find traces of a proper appreciation of an underlying spiritual value in baptism (compare Didache vii) many of the expressions used are highly misleading. 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). This birth is ?of the day, free, delivering from passions, taking away every veil of our nature or birth, i.e. everything hiding the divine image in which we are created, and leading up to the life above? (Ullmann, Gregor v. Nazienz, 323). Cyril of Jerusalem (Cat., xvii, c. 37) ascribes to baptism the power of absolution from sin and the power of endowment with heavenly virtues. According to Augustine baptism is essential to salvation, though the baptism of blood (martyrdom) may take the place of water baptism, as in the case of the thief at the cross (Augustine, De Anima et Eius Origine, i. 11, c. 9; ii. 14, c. 10; ii. 16, c. 12). Leo the Great compares the spirit-filled water of baptism with the spirit-filled womb of the virgin Mary, in which the Holy Spirit engenders a sinless child of God (Serm. xxiv. 3; xxv. 5; see Hagenbach, Dogmengeschichte, section 137).
In general this is still the opinion of pronounced sacrmentarians, while evangelical Christianity has gone back to the teaching of the New Testament.
IV. Present Significance.
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.
(2) It is the will of God that all men be made partakers of this new life (1Ti_2:4) and, as it is clearly stated that some fall short of it (Joh_5:40), it is plain that the fault thereof lies with man. God requires all men to repent and turn unto Him (Act_17:30) before He will or can effect regeneration. Conversion, consisting in repentance and faith in Christ, is therefore the human response to the offer of salvation which God makes. This response gives occasion to and is synchronous with the divine act of renewal (regeneration). The Spirit of God enters into union with the believing, accepting spirit of man. This is fellowship with Christ (Rom_8:10; 1Co_6:17; 2Co_5:17; Col_3:3).
(3) The process of regeneration is outside of our observation and beyond the scope of psychological analysis. It takes place in the sphere of subconsciousness. Recent psychological investigations have thrown a flood of light on the psychic states which precede, accompany and follow the work of the Holy Spirit. ?He handles psychical powers; He works upon psychical energies and states; and this work of regeneration lies somewhere within the psychical field.? The study of religious psychology is of highest value and greatest importance. The facts of Christian experience cannot be changed, nor do they lose in value by the most searching psychological scrutiny.
Psychological analysis does not eliminate the direct workings of the Holy Spirit. Nor can it disclose its process; the ?underlying laboratory where are wrought radical remedial processes and structural changes in the psychical being as portrayed in explicit scriptural utterances: 'Create in me a clean heart' (Psa_51:10); 'Ye must be born again' (Joh_3:7 the King James Version); 'If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold all things are become new' (2Co_5:17 the King James Version), is in the region of subconsciousness. To look in the region of consciousness for this Person or for His work is fruitless and an effort fraught with endless confusion. Christian psychology thus traces to its deep-lying retreat the divine elaboration of the regenerated life. 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).
(4) Regeneration manifests itself in the conscious soul by its effects on the will, the intelligence and the affections. At the same time regeneration supplies a new life-power of divine origin, which enables the component parts of human nature to fulfill the law of God, to strive for the coming of God's kingdom, and to accept the teachings of God's spirit. Thus regenerate man is made conscious of the facts of justification and adoption. The former is a judicial act of God, which frees man from the law of sin and absolves him from the state of enmity against God; the latter an enduement with the Spirit, which is an earnest of his inheritance (Eph_1:14). The Spirit of God, dwelling in man, witnesses to the state of sonship (Rom_8:2, Rom_8:15, Rom_8:16; Gal_4:6).
(5) Regeneration, being a new birth, is the starting-point of spiritual growth. The regenerated man needs nurture and training. He receives it not merely from outside experiences, but from an immanent power in himself, which is recognized as the power of the life of the indwelling Christ (Col_1:26, Col_1:27). Apart from the mediate dealings of God with man through word and sacraments, there is therefore an immediate communication of life from God to the regenerate.
(6) The truth which is mentioned as the agent by whom regeneration is made possible (Joh_8:32; Jam_1:18; 1Pe_1:23), is nothing else than the Divine Spirit, not only the spoken or written word of God, which may convince people of right or wrong, but which cannot enable the will of man to forsake the wrong and to do the right, but He who calls Himself the Truth (Joh_14:6) and who has become the motive power of regenerated life (Gal_2:20).
(7) Recent philosophy expressive of the reaction from the mechanical view of bare materialism, and also from the depreciation of personality as seen in socialism, has again brought into prominence the reality and need of personal life. Johannes Muller and Rudolf Eucken among others emphasize that a new life of the spirit, independent of outward conditions, is not only possible, but necessary for the attainment of the highest development. This new life is not a fruit of the free play of the tendencies and powers of natural life, but is in sharp conflict with them. Man as he is by nature stands in direct contrast to the demands of the spiritual life. Spiritual life, as Professor Eucken says, can be implanted in man by some superior power only and must constantly be sustained by superior life. It breaks through the order of causes and effects; it severs the continuity of the outer world; it makes impossible a rational joining together of realities; it prohibits a monastic view of the immediate condition of the world. This new life derives its power not from mere Nature; it is a manifestation of divine life within us (Hauptprobleme der Religionsphilosophie, Leipzig, 1912, 17 ff; Der Kampf um einen geistigen Lebensinhalt, Leipzig, 1907; Grundlinien einer neuen Lebensanschauung, Leipzig, 1907; Johannes Muller, Bausteine fur personliche Kultur, 3 volumes, Munchen, 1908). Thus the latest development of idealistic philosophy corroborates in a remarkable way the Christian truth of regeneration. See also CONVERSION.
Literature
New Testament Theologies by Weiss, Beyschlag, Holtzmann, Schlatter, Feine, Stevens, Sheldon, Weinel. Textbooks on Systematic Theology: articles ?Bekehrung? by R. Seeberg; ?Wiedergeburt? by O. Kirn in Hauck-Herzog RE3; ?Regeneration? by J. V. Bartlett in HDB; ?Conversion? by J. Strachan in ERE; George Jackson, The Fact of Conversion, London, 1908; Newton H. Marshall, Conversion; or, the New Birth, London, 1909; J. Herzog, Der Begriff der Bekehrung, Giessen, 1903; P. Feine, Bekehrung im New Testament und in der Gegenwart, Leipzig, 1908; P. Gennrich, Die Lehre yon der Wiedergeburt, Leipzig, 1907. 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.
International Standard Bible Encyclopedia
PRINTER 1915.
Regeneration
(παλιγγενεσία, Tit_3:5, a being born again), that work of the Holy Spirit by. which we experience a change of heart. It is expressed in Scripture by being born anew (Joh_3:7, from above); being quickened (Eph_2:1); by Christ being found in the heart (Gal_4:19); a new creation (2Co_5:17); a renewing of the mind (Rom_12:2); the washing, i.e. the purifing of regeneration (Tit_3:5); a resurrection from the dead (Eph_2:6); a putting off the old man, and a putting on the new man (Eph_4:22-24). And the subjects of this change are represented as begotten of God (Joh_1:13; 1Pe_1:3); begotten of the Spirit (Joh_3:8); begotten of water, even of the Spirit (Joh_3:5); new creatures (Gal_6:15); and partakers of the divine nature (2Pe_1:4). The efficient cause of regeneration is the divine spirit. Man is not the author of the regeneration (Joh_1:12-13; Joh_3:4; Eph_2:8; Eph_2:10); the instrumental cause is the word of God (Jam_1:18; 1Pe_1:23; 1Co_4:15).
The change in regeneration consists in the recovery of the moral image of God upon the heart; that is, so as to love him supremely and serve him ultimately as our highest end. Regeneration consists in the implantation of the .principle of love to God, which obtains the ascendency and habitually prevails over its opposite. Although the inspired writers use various terms and modes of speech to describe this change of mind, styling it conversion, regeneration, a new creation, etc., yet it is all effected by the word of truth or the Gospel of salvation gaining an entrance into the mind through divine teaching, so as to possess the understanding, subdue the will, and reign in the affections. In a word, it is faith working by love that constitutes the new creature or regenerate man (Gal_5:6; 1Jn_5:1-5). Regeneration, then, is the recovery of the moral image of God, and consequently of spiritual life, to a soul previously dead in trespasses and sins. It is the work of the Holy Spirit, opening the eyes of the mind, and enabling the sincere penitent to believe the Gospel and receive Christ as his only Saviour. This gracious work is in accordance both with the character of the Holy Spirit and with the constitution of man; hence, by it no violence is done to any physical, intellectual, or moral law or mode of action in human nature. The change is produced in the will, or heart, that is, in the moral, and not the natural, faculties of the soul. As depravity is wholly in the will and heart, the source and seat of all moral action, the divine operation consists in renewing the heart, and communicating a change of views, with a relish for the things of the Spirit. As justification places us in a new relation to God, so regeneration produces in us a new state of mind. In the case of children dying in infancy, they, of course, need regeneration to fit them for the eternal world. And there can be no difficulty in conceiving that they are regenerated by the Holy Spirit, in virtue of Christ's death, in the same sense in which they are depraved, in consequence of Adam's transgression; the disposition to sin is removed, the disposition to holiness is implanted, and thus their salvation is secured. The evidences of regeneration are conviction of sin, holy sorrow, deep humility, knowledge, faith, repentance, love, and devotedness to God's glory. The properties of it are these:
1. It is a receptive work, and herein it differs from conversion. In regeneration we receive from God; in conversion we are active and turn to him.
2. It is a powerful work of God's grace (Eph_3:8).
3. It is an instantaneous act, for there can be no medium between life and death; and here it differs from sanctification, which is progressive.
4. It is a complete act, and perfect in its kind; a change of the whole man (2Co_5:17).
5. It is a great and important act, both as to its author and effects (Eph_2:4-5).
6. It is an internal act, not consisting in bare, outward forms (Eze_36:26-27).
7. Visible as to its effects (1Jn_3:14).
8. Delightful (1Pe_1:8).
9. Necessary (Joh_3:3). SEE CONVERSION; SEE NEW BIRTH. Our Lord in one instance (Mat_19:28) uses the term regeneration for the resurrection state. Accordingly, Dr. Campbell translates it the renovation, and remarks that the relation is here to the general state of things in the future world, where all things will become new. SEE NEW CREATION; SEE RESTITUTION.
CYCLOPEDIA OF BIBLICAL, THEOLOGICAL AND ECCLESIASTICAL
press 1895.
The classical passage on the need of regeneration is Joh_3:3 ff. Spiritual life, it is taught, can come only from a spiritual source, and man, naturally, has not that life (Joh_3:6). Hence the declarations: Except a man be born anew, he cannot see the kingdom of God; Except a man be born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born anew (Joh_3:3; Joh_3:5). The miracle is wrought by the Spirit of God, whose action is sovereign (Joh_3:8). Many do marvel, like Nicodemus, at the strangeness and universality of this demand of Christ; yet the strangeness will disappear, and the need of a supernatural agent to effect the change will be felt, if due consideration is given (1) to the vastness of the change, and (2) to the condition of the human nature in which the change is to be made.
(1) It is sufficient, to show the vastness of this change, to reflect that here, and elsewhere, regeneration means nothing less than a revolution of such a kind as results in the whole man being brought round from his ordinary worldly way of feeling, and thinking, and willing, into harmony with Gods mind and will; truly brought round to Gods point of view, so that he now sees things as God sees them, feels about things as God feels about them, judges of things as God judges of them, loves what God loves, hates what God hates, sets Gods ends before him as his own. Who can doubt, if this is the nature of the change, that it does not lie in mans own powers to produce it; that it can be effected only through a higher power entering his being, and working the change?
(2) The need of a supernatural agency in the change is further evident from the condition of the human nature in which the change is wrought. The testimony of Scripture is uniform that man has turned aside from God (Psa_14:1-3, Rom_3:9 ff.), and that his nature has undergone a terrible depravation (Gen_6:5; Gen_8:21, Psa_51:5, Isa_1:2-4, Rom_7:14 ff., Eph_2:1-3; Eph_4:17-18 etc.); that the bent of the will is away from God (Rom_8:7-8); that the love of God has been replaced by love of the world, and the self-seeking principles connected therewith (1Jn_2:15-16, cf. Joh_5:42; Joh_5:44); that the better nature is in bondage to a law of sin, which works lawlessness in thought, feeling, and desire (Rom_7:22-23, 1Jn_3:4 RV [Note: Revised Version.] ). Is it not obvious, leaving out of account altogether the darker forms in which evil manifests itself, that this is a condition of soul which only a Divine power can rectify?
Nothing, therefore, is more plainly taught in Scripture than that this spiritual change we call regeneration is one which nothing short of Divine power can effect. It is spoken of as a being born of God (Joh_1:12-13; Joh_3:5, 1Jn_3:9 etc.); as a new creation (2Co_5:21); as a being raised from the dead (Eph_2:5-6). It is compared to that great work of the omnipotence of God in raising Christ Himself from the dead (Eph_1:19; Eph_1:22; Eph_2:1; Eph_2:6). It is a complete renewal, transformation, of the inner man (Rom_12:2, Eph_4:23, Col_3:10, Tit_3:15, 1Pe_1:22-23). Yet, while so distinctively a supernatural work, it is made equally clear that it is not a magical work; not a work bound up with rites and words, so that, when these rites and ceremonies are performed, regeneration is ipso facto effected. This is the error of sacerdotalism, which binds up this spiritual change with the rite of baptism. It would be wrong to say that baptism has no connexion with the change, for it is often brought into most intimate relation with it (Rom_6:4, Tit_3:5, 1Pe_3:21; perhaps even in Christs words, Joh_3:5; with the historical examples of the connexion of the receiving of the Spirit with baptism, Act_2:38; Act_19:2-8 etc.). Baptism is connected with regeneration as outwardly representing it, and being a symbol of it; as connected with profession (1Pe_3:21), and pledging the spiritual blessing to faith; but it neither operates the blessing, nor is indispensable to it, nor has any virtue at all apart from the inward susceptibility in the subjects of it. In some cases we read of those on whom the Spirit of God fell, that they were baptized afterwards (Act_10:44; Act_10:48), and in all cases faith is presumed to be already present before baptism is administered; that is, the inward decisive step has already been taken.
On the other hand, when we look to the meansthe instrumentalityby which the Holy Spirit effects this change, we find it always in Scripture declared to be one thing, namely, the word. This is what is meant by saying that regeneration is effected, not magically, but by the use of. rational means. It is connected with the outward call of the gospel (hence the older divines were wont to treat of this subject under the head of vocation, or effectual calling). We speak, of course, only of adults, of those who are capable of hearing and understanding the call, and are far from limiting the grace of God in infants, or others whom this call does not or cannot reach. What is affirmed is, as regards those who have come to years of intelligence, that Gods dealing with them is through the word, and this is the constant representation. The OT equally with the NT extols the saving, converting, quickening, cleansing, sanctifying power of the word of God (e.g. Psa_19:7 ff., Psa_119:1-176). Jesus declares the word to be the seed of the Kingdom (Luk_8:11). He prays: Sanctify them in the truth; thy word is truth (Joh_17:17). Conversion, regeneration, sanctification, are connected with the word (Act_11:19-21, Eph_1:13, Col_1:5, 1Th_2:13, 2Th_2:13, Jam_1:18, 1Pe_1:23-25 [Begotten again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, through the word of God, etc.])
If this is the nature, generally, of regeneration, then it has what may be termed a psychology; that is, there is a process which the mind goes through in the experience of this spiritual change. The Spirit of God, doubtless, has innumerable ways of dealing with human souls; still, if we look closely, it will be found that there are certain elements which do in some degree enter into all experience in regeneration, and furnish, so far, a test of the reality of the change. There is first, of necessity, the awakening of the soul out of its customary spiritual dormancyout of that deep insensibility to spiritual things in which ordinarily the natural mind is held (Eph_5:14, cf. Rom_14:11-12). Especially there comes into view here the peculiar awakening of the soul through the conscience, which takes the form of what we call conviction of sin towards God (cf. Act_16:29-30). Probably no one can undergo this spiritual change without in some degree being brought inwardly to the realization of his sinful condition before God, and to the sincere confession of it (Psa_51:4). The law of God has its place in producing this conviction of sin; but law alone will not produce spiritual contrition. See Repentance. For this there is needed the exhibition of mercy. Hence the next stage in this spiritual process is that described as enlightenmentgrowing enlightenment in the knowledge of Christ, This also, like the preceding stages, is a Divine work (Joh_16:14-15, 2Co_4:4). Even with this, however, the work of regeneration is not complete. The will of God for mans salvation has not only to be understood, it has also to be obeyed. There is the will to be laid hold ofthe will, the centre and citadel of the being. So the work of the Holy Spirit is directed, finally, to the renewing of the will. It is directed to the renewing of the will, first of all, in the form of persuasion, for the Holy Spirit does none of His work by violence. Everything that God accomplishes is accomplished in accordance with the nature He has given us; but God most graciously, most lovingly, brings His persuasions to bear upon our wills, and by the power of appropriate motives draws us to the acceptance of Christ (Joh_6:44). With this there goes what, in the next place, may be called the potentiation of the willthe enabling of it, or imparting to it the power needful in order to lay hold on Christ with full and fast faith (Eph_4:16). Last of all, this work of regeneration is completed when the soul is brought to the point of absolute surrender of itself to Christwhen, drawn and persuaded, and at length enabled by the Spirit, it yields itself up entirely to Christ as its Saviour, and lays hold on Christ for a complete salvation. There is now union with Christ by faith, and, with that, entrance into the lifethe experienceof the newborn child of God. If any man is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things are passed away; behold, they are become new (2Co_5:17).
James Orr.
Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible
Edited by James Hastings, D.D. Published in 1909
palingenesia. Only twice in the New Testament: Tit_3:5 of the regeneration of the soul by the Holy Spirit, and Mat_19:28 the regeneration of the body and of the material world. (See BAPTISM.) Besides his natural birthday the believer has a spiritual birthday in this life, and a birthday to glory in the life to come. The marks of regeneration are given 1Jn_3:9; 1Jn_3:14; 1Jn_5:1; 1Jn_5:4. Only if God's Spirit regenerate the soul now will the same Spirit quicken to immortality and glory the body hereafter (Rom_8:11; Php_3:21).
The third and crowning step will be the regeneration of our home, this earth, and of "the whole creation," "the restitution of all things" (Act_3:21; Mat_19:28; Rom_8:19-23). Nations and society shall be first regenerated in the millennial world, with Israel as their priest-kingly head (Isa_2:2-4; Isa_2:11); wars shall cease, and even the wild beasts cease to rage. (See THOUSAND YEARS.) (Revelation 20; Isa_65:16-25). The final regeneration of the earth and nature shall be after the millennium (Revelation 21; 2Pe_3:7-13).
Fausset's Bible Dictionary
By Andrew Robert Fausset, co-Author of Jamieson, Fausset and Brown's 1888.
a new birth; that work of the Holy Spirit by which we experience a change of heart. It is expressed in Scripture by being born again, Joh_3:7; born from above; being quickened, Eph_2:1; by Christ being formed in the heart, Gal_4:19; by our partaking of the divine nature, 2Pe_1:4. The efficient cause of regeneration is the divine Spirit. That man is not the author of it, is evident from Joh_1:12-13; Joh_3:4; Eph_2:8; Eph_2:10. The instrumental cause is the word of God, Jam_1:18; 1Pe_1:23; 1Co_4:15. The change in regeneration consists in the recovery of the moral image of God upon the heart; that is to say, so as to love him supremely and serve him ultimately as our highest end, and to delight in him superlatively as our chief good. The sum of the moral law is to love the Lord our God with all our heart, and soul, and strength, and mind. This is the duty of every rational creature; and in order to obey it perfectly, no part of our inward affection or actual service ought to be, at any time, or in the least degree misapplied. Regeneration consists in the principle being implanted, obtaining the ascendancy, and habitually prevailing over its opposite. It may be remarked, that though the inspired writers use various terms and modes of speech in order to describe this change of mind, sometimes terming it conversion, regeneration, a new creation, or the new creature, putting off the old man with his deeds, and putting on the new man, walking not after the flesh, but after the Spirit, &c; yet it is all effected by the word of truth, or the Gospel of salvation, gaining an entrance into the mind, through divine teaching, so as to possess the understanding, subdue the will, and reign in the affections. In a word, it is faith working by love that constitutes the new creature, the regenerate man, Gal_5:6; 1Jn_5:1-5. Regeneration is to be distinguished from our justification, although it is connected with it. Every one who is justified, is also regenerated; but the one places us in a new relation, and the other in a new moral state. Our Lord, in one instance, uses the term regeneration for the resurrection state: Ye which have followed me, in the regeneration, when the Son of man shall sit on the throne of his glory, ye also shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging, Mat_19:28. And, accordingly, Dr. Campbell translates the passage thus: At the renovation, when the Son of man shall be seated on the glorious throne, ye, my followers, sitting also upon twelve thrones, shall judge. We are accustomed, says he to apply the term solely to the conversion of individuals; whereas its relation here is to the general state of things. The principal completion will be at the general resurrection, when there will be, in the most important sense, a renovation or regeneration of heaven and earth, when all things shall become new.
Biblical and Theological Dictionary by Richard Watson
PRINTER 1849.
All people are sinners; therefore all are spiritually dead and unable to give themselves spiritual life. They are cut off from God, with no hope of salvation through anything they might plan or do. God, however, can save them from this hopeless condition by forgiving their sins, giving them new life and restoring them to a right relationship with himself. This experience is called the new birth, or regeneration, and is the work of the Spirit of God within the individual. It takes place when people humbly submit to Jesus Christ and trust him for forgiveness, salvation and life (Joh_1:12-13; Joh_3:3-6; Eph_2:1; Eph_2:5; Tit_3:5).
To be regenerated means, in other words, to be born anew, to be spiritually re-created. This is not something people themselves can do. It is entirely the work of the merciful and sovereign God (Joh_1:13; Joh_3:5; Tit_3:3-7; Jam_1:18; 1Pe_1:23; cf. Psa_51:10; Eze_11:19). Without it sinners remain in their hopeless state and are incapable of experiencing spiritual life (Joh_3:5-6). Through it they become children of God and enter his kingdom (Joh_1:12-13; Joh_3:3; Joh_3:5; see also ADOPTION).
Regenerated people are new people (2Co_5:17; 1Pe_2:2; cf. Gal_6:15). They have new life inwardly, characterized by renewed minds that govern all his thinking and attitudes (Rom_12:2; Eph_4:23-24; cf. Eze_36:26-27; Jer_31:33). They also have new life outwardly, characterized by loving behaviour towards others, hatred of sin and victory over the worlds temptations (Col_3:10; Col_3:12-13; 1Jn_2:29; 1Jn_4:7; 1Jn_5:4; 1Jn_5:18; cf. 1Co_5:7-8).
Bridgeway Bible Dictionary by Don Fleming
PRINTER 1990.
rḗ-jen-ẽr-ā?shun, re4-:
I. THE TERM EXPLAINED
1. First Biblical Sense (Eschatological)
2. Second Biblical Sense (Spiritual)
II. THE BIBLICAL DOCTRINE OF REGENERATION
1. In the Old Testament
2. In the Teaching of Jesus
3. In Apostolic Teaching
III. LATER DEVELOPMENT OF THE DOCTRINE
IV. PRESENT SIGNIFICANCE
LITERATURE
I. The Term Explained.
The theological term ?regeneration? is the Latin translation of the Greek expression παλινγενεσία, palingenesı́a, occurring twice in the New Testament (Mat_19:28; Tit_3:5). The word is usually written παλιγγενεσία, paliggenesı́a, in classical Greek. Its meaning is different in the two passages, though an easy transition of thought is evident.
1. First Biblical Sense (Eschatological):
In Mat_19:28 the word refers to the restoration of the world, in which sense it is synonymical to the expressions ἀποκατάστασις πάντων, apokatástasis pánton, ?restoration of all things? (Act_3:21; the verb is found in Mat_17:11, ἀποκαταστήσει πάντα, apokatastḗsei pánta, ?shall restore all things?), and ἀνάψυξις, anápsuxis, ?refreshing? (Act_3:19), which signifies a gradual transition of meaning to the second sense of the word under consideration. It is supposed that regeneration in this sense denotes the final stage of development of all creation, by which God's purposes regarding the same are fully realized, when ?all things (are put) in subjection under his feet? (1Co_15:27). This is a ?regeneration in the proper meaning of the word, for it signifies a renovation of all visible things when the old is passed away, and heaven and earth are become new? (compare Rev_21:1). To the Jew the regeneration thus prophesied was inseparably connected with the reign of the Messiah.
We find this word in the same or very similar senses in profane literature. It is used of the renewal of the world in Stoical philosophy. Josephus (Ant., XI, iii, 9) speaks of the anáktēsis kaı́ paliggenesı́a tḗs patrı́dos, ?a new foundation and regeneration of the fatherland,? after the return from the Babylonian captivity. Philo (ed. Mangey, ii. 144) uses the word, speaking of the post-diluvial epoch of the earth, as of a new world, and Marcus Aurelius Antoninus (xi. 1), of a periodical restoration of all things, laying stress upon the constant recurrence and uniformity of all happenings, which thought the Preacher expressed by ?There is no new thing under the sun? (Ecc_1:9). In most places, however, where the word occurs in philosophical writings, it is used of the ?reincarnation? or ?subsequent birth? of the individual, as in the Buddhistic and Pythagorean doctrine of the transmigration of souls (Plut., edition Xylander, ii. 998c; Clement of Alexandria, edition Potter, 539) or else of a revival of life (Philo i. 159). Cicero uses the word in his letters to Atticus (vi. 6) metaphorically of his return from exile, as a new lease of life granted to him. See ESCHATOLOGY OF THE NEW TESTAMENT, IX.
2. Second Biblical Sense (Spiritual):
This sense is undoubtedly included in the full Biblical conception of the former meaning, for it is unthinkable that a regeneration in the eschatological sense can exist without a spiritual regeneration of humanity or the individual. It is, however, quite evident that this latter conception has arisen rather late, from an analysis of the former meaning. It is found in Tit_3:5 which, without absolute certainty as to its meaning, is generally interpreted in agreement with the numerous nouns and verbs which have given the dogmatical setting to the doctrine of regeneration in Christian theology. Clement of Alexandria is the first to differentiate this meaning from the former by the addition of the adjective πνευματική, pneumatikḗ, ?spiritual? (compare anapsuxis, Act_3:20; see REFRESHING). In this latter sense the word is typically Christian, though the Old Testament contains many adumbrations of the spiritual process expressed thereby.
II. The Biblical Doctrine of Regeneration.
1. In the Old Testament:
It is well known that in the earlier portions of the Old Testament, and to a certain degree all through the Old Testament, religion is looked at and spoken of more as a national possession, the benefits of which are largely visible and tangible blessings. 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. Whether the divine promises refer to the Messianic end of times, or are to be realized at an earlier date, they all refer to the nation of Israel as such, and to individuals only as far as they are partakers in the benefits bestowed upon the commonwealth. This is even true where the blessings prophesied are only spiritual, as in Isa_60:21, Isa_60:22. The mass of the people of Israel are therefore as yet scarcely aware of the fact that the conditions on which these divine promises are to be attained are more than ceremonial and ritual ones. Soon, however, great disasters, threatening to overthrow the national entity, and finally the captivity and dispersion which caused national functions to be almost, if not altogether, discontinued, assisted in the growth of a sense of individual or personal responsibility before God. The sin of Israel is recognized as the sin of the individual, which can be removed only by individual repentance and cleansing. This is best seen from the stirring appeals of the prophets of the exile, where frequently the necessity of a change of attitude toward Yahweh is preached as a means to such regeneration. This cannot be understood otherwise than as a turning of the individual to the Lord. Here, too, no ceremony or sacrifice is sufficient, but an interposition of divine grace, which is represented under the figure of a washing and sprinkling from all iniquity and sin (Isa_1:18; Jer_13:23). It is not possible now to follow in full the development of this idea of cleansing, but already in Isa_52:15 the sprinkling of many nations is mentioned and is soon understood in the sense of the ?baptism? which proselytes had to undergo before their reception into the covenant of Israel. It was the symbol of a radical cleansing like that of a ?new-born babe,? which was one of the designations of the proselyte (compare Psa_87:5; see also the tractate Yebhāmōth 62a). Would it be surprising that Israel, which had been guilty of many sins of the Gentiles, needed a similar baptism and sprinkling? This is what Eze_36:25 suggests: ?I will sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean: from all your filthiness, and from all your idols, will I cleanse you.? In other passages the cleansing and refining power of fire is alluded to (e.g. Mal_3:2), and there is no doubt that John the Baptist found in such passages the ground for his practice of baptizing the Jews who came to him (Joh_1:25-28 and parallel's).
The turning of Israel to God was necessarily meant to be an inward change of attitude toward Him, in other words, the sprinkling with clean water, as an outward sign, was the emblem of a pure heart. It was Isaiah and Jeremiah who drew attention to this (Isa_57:15; Jer_24:7; Jer_31:33-35; Jer_32:38-40, et passim). Here again reference is made to individuals, not only to the people in general (Jer_31:34). This promised regeneration, so lovingly offered by Yahweh, is to be the token of a new covenant between God and His people (Jer_31:31; Eze_11:19-21; Eze_18:31, Eze_18:32; Eze_37:23, Eze_37:24).
The renewing and cleansing here spoken of is in reality nothing else than what Deu_30:6 had promised, a circumcision of the heart in contradistinction to the flesh, the token of the former (Abrahamic) covenant (of circumcision, Jer_4:4). As God takes the initiative in making the covenant, the conviction takes root that human sin and depravity can be effectually eliminated only by the act of God Himself renewing and transforming the heart of man (Hos_14:4). This we see from the testimony of some of Israel's best sons and daughters, who also knew that this grace was found in the way of repentance and humiliation before God. The classical expression of this conviction is found in the prayer of David: ?Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right (margin ?stedfast?) spirit within me. Cast me not away from thy presence; and take not thy holy Spirit from me. Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation; and uphold me with a willing spirit? (Psa_51:10-12). Jeremiah puts the following words into the mouth of Ephraim: ?Turn thou me, and I shall be turned? (Jer_31:18). Clearer than any passages of the Old Testament, John the Baptist, forerunner of Christ and last flaming torch of the time of the earlier covenant, spoke of the baptism, not of water, but of the Holy Spirit and of fire (Mat_3:11; Luk_3:16; Joh_1:33), leading thus to the realization of Old Testament foreshadowings which became possible by faith in Christ.
2. In the Teaching of Jesus:
In the teaching of Jesus the need of regeneration has a prominent place, though nowhere are the reasons given. The Old Testament had succeeded - and even the Gentile conscience agreed with it - in convincing the people of this need. The clearest assertion of it and the explanation of the doctrine of regeneration is found in the conversation of Jesus with Nicodemus (Jn 3). It is based upon (1) the observation that man, even the most punctilious in the observance of the Law, is dead and therefore unable to ?live up? to the demands of God. Only He who gave life at the beginning can give the (spiritual) life necessary to do God's will. (2) Man has fallen from his virginal and divinely-appointed sphere, the realm of the spirit, the Kingdom of God, living now the perishing earthly life. Only by having a new spiritual nature imparted to him, by being ?born anew? (Joh_3:3, the Revised Version margin ?from above,? Greek ἄνωθεν, ánōthen), by being ?born of the Spirit? (Joh_3:6, Joh_3:8), can he live the spiritual life which God requires of man.
These words are a New Testament exegesis of Ezekiel's vision of the dead bones (Eze_37:1-10). It is the ?breath from Yahweh,? the Spirit of God, who alone can give life to the spiritually dead.
But regeneration, according to Jesus, is more than life, it is also purify. As God is pure and sinless, none but the pure in heart can see God (Mat_5:8). This was always recognized as impossible to mere human endeavor. Bildad the Shuhite declared, and his friends, each in his turn, expressed very similar thoughts (Job_4:17; Job_14:4): ?How then can man be just with God? Or how can he be clean that is born of a woman? Behold, even the moon hath no brightness, and the stars are not pure in his sight: how much less man, that is a worm! and the son of man, that is a worm!? (Job_25:4-6).
To change this lost condition, to impart this new life, Jesus claims as His God-appointed task: ?The Son of man came to seek and to save that which was lost? (Luk_19:10); ?I came that they may have life, and may have it abundantly? (Joh_10:10). This life is eternal, imperishable: ?I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, and no one shall snatch them out of my hand? (Joh_10:28). This life is imparted by Jesus Himself: ?It is the spirit that giveth life; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I have spoken unto you are spirit, and are life? (Joh_6:63). This life can be received on the condition of faith in Christ or by coming to Him (Joh_14:6). By faith power is received which enables the sinner to overcome sin, to ?sin no more? (Joh_8:11).
The parables of Jesus further illustrate this doctrine. The prodigal is declared to have been ?dead? and to be ?alive again? (Luk_15:24). The new life from God is compared to a wedding garment in the parable of the Marriage of the King's Son (Mat_22:11). The garment, the gift of the inviting king, had been refused by the unhappy guest, who, in consequence, was 'cast out into the outer darkness' (Mat_22:13).
Finally, this regeneration, this new life, is explained as the knowledge of God and His Christ: ?And this is life eternal, that they should know thee the only true God, and him whom thou didst send, even Jesus Christ? (Joh_17:3). This seems to be an allusion to the passage in Hosea (Hos_4:6): ?My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge: because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee, that thou shalt be no priest to me.?
3. In Apostolic Teaching:
It may be said in general that the teaching of the apostles on the subject of regeneration is a development of the teaching of Jesus on the lines of the adumbrations of the Old Testament. Considering the differences in the personal character of these writers, it is remarkable that such concord of views should exist among them. Paul, indeed, lays more stress on the specific facts of justification and sanctification by faith than on the more comprehensive head of regeneration. Still the need of it is plainly stated by Paul. It is necessary to salvation for all men. ?The body is dead because of sin? (Rom_8:3-11; Eph_2:1). The flesh is at enmity with God (Eph_2:15); all mankind is ?darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God? (Eph_4:18). Similar passages might be multiplied. Paul then distinctly teaches that thus is a new life in store for those who have been spiritually dead. To the Ephesians he writes: ?And you did he make alive, when ye were dead through your trespasses and sins? (Eph_2:1), and later on: ?God, being rich in mercy,... made us alive together with Christ? (Eph_2:4, Eph_2:5). A spiritual resurrection has taken place. This regeneration causes a complete revolution in man. He has thereby passed from under the law of sin and death and has come under ?the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus? (Rom_8:2). The change is so radical that it is possible now to speak of a ?new creature? (2Co_5:17; Gal_6:15, margin ?new creation?), of a ?new man, that after God hath been created in righteousness and holiness of truth? (Eph_4:24), and of ?the new man, that is being renewed unto knowledge after the image of him that created him? (Col_3:10). All ?old things are passed away; behold, they are become new? (2Co_5:17).
Paul is equally explicit regarding the author of this change. The ?Spirit of God,? the ?Spirit of Christ? has been given from above to be the source of all new life (Rom 8); by Him we are proved to be the ?sons? of God (Gal_4:6); we have been adopted into the family of God (νἱοθεσία, huiothesı́a, Rom_8:15; Gal_4:5). Thus Paul speaks of the ?second Adam,? by whom the life of righteousness is initiated in us; just as the ?first Adam? became the leader in transgression, He is ?a life-giving spirit? (1Co_15:45). Paul himself experienced this change, and henceforth exhibited the powers of the unseen world in his life of service. ?It is no longer I that live,? he exclaims, ?but Christ liveth in me: and that life which I now live in the flesh I live in faith, the faith which is in the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself up for me? (Gal_2:20).
Regeneration is to Paul, no less than to Jesus, connected with the conception of purity and knowledge. We have already noted the second New Testament passage in which the word ?regeneration? occurs (Tit_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.? In 1Co_12:13 such cleansing is called the baptism of the Spirit in agreement with the oft-repeated promise (Joe_2:28 (in the Hebrew text Joe_3:1); Mat_3:11; Mar_1:8; Luk_3:16; Act_1:5; Act_11:16). There is, of course, in these passages no reference to mere water baptism, any more than in Eze_36:25. Water is but the tertium comparationis. As water cleanseth the outer body, so the spirit purifies the inner man (compare 1Co_6:11; 1Pe_3:21).
The doctrine that regeneration redounds in true knowledge of Christ is seen from Eph_3:15-19 and Eph_4:17-24, where the darkened understanding and ignorance of natural man are placed in contradistinction to the enlightenment of the new life (see also Col_3:10). The church redeemed and regenerated is to be a special ?possession,? an ?heritage? of the Lord (Eph_1:11, Eph_1:14), and the whole creation is to participate in the final redemption and adoption (Rom_8:21-23).
James finds less occasion to touch this subject than the other writers of the New Testament. His Epistle is rather ethical than dogmatical in tone, still his ethics are based on the dogmatical presuppositions which fully agree with the teaching of other apostles. Faith to him is the human response to God's desire to impart His nature to mankind, and therefore the indispensable means to be employed in securing the full benefits of the new life, i.e. the sin-conquering power (Jam_1:2-4), the spiritual enlightenment (Jam_1:5) and purity (Jam_1:27). There seems, however, to be little doubt that James directly refers to regeneration in the words: ?Of his own will he brought us forth by the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures? (Jam_1:18). It is supposed by some that these words, being addressed ?to the twelve tribes which are of the Dispersion? (Jam_1:1), do not refer to individual regeneration, but to an election of Israel as a nation and so to a Christian Israel. In this case the aftermath would be the redemption of the Gentiles. I understand the expression ?first-fruits? in the sense in which we have noticed Paul's final hope in Rom_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. The ?implanted (the Revised Version margin ?inborn?) word? (Jam_1:21; compare 1Pe_1:23) stands parallel to the Pauline expression, ?law of the Spirit? (Rom_8:2).
Peter uses, in his sermon on the day of Pentecost, the words ?refreshing? (Act_3:19) and ?restoration of all things? (Act_3:21) of the final completion of God's plans concerning the whole creation, and accordingly looks here at God's people as a whole. In a similar sense he says in his Second Epistle, after mentioning ?the day of God?: ?We look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness? (2Pe_3:13). Still he alludes very plainly to the regeneration of individuals (1Pe_1:3, 1Pe_1:13). The idea of a second birth of the believers is clearly suggested in the expression, ?newborn babes? (1Pe_2:2), and in the explicit statement of 1Pe_1:23 : ?having been begotten again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, through the word of God, which liveth and abideth.? It is in this sense that the apostle calls God ?Father? (1Pe_1:17) and the believers ?children of obedience? (1Pe_1:14), i.e. obedient children, or children who ought to obey. We have seen above that the agent by which regeneration is wrought, the incorruptible seed of the word of God, finds a parallel in Paul's and James's theology. All these expressions go back probably to a word of the Master in Joh_15:3. We are made partakers of the word by having received the spirit. This spirit (compare the Pauline ?lifegiving spirit,? 1Co_15:45), the ?mind? of Christ (1Pe_4:1), is the power of the resurrected Christ active in the life of the believer. Peter refers to the same thought in 1Pe_3:15, 1Pe_3:21. By regeneration we become ?an elect race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God's own possession? in whom divine virtues, ?the excellencies of him who called you? (1Pe_2:9), are manifested. Here the apostle uses well-known Old Testament expressions foreshadowing New Testament graces (Isa_61:6; Isa_66:21; Exo_19:6; Deu_7:6), but he individualizes the process of regeneration in full agreement with the increased light which the teaching of Jesus has brought. The theology of Peter also points out the contact of regeneration with purity and holiness (1Pe_1:15, 1Pe_1:16) and true knowledge (1Pe_1:14) or obedience (1Pe_1:14; 1Pe_3:16). It is not surprising that the idea of purity should invite the Old Testament parallel of ?cleansing by water.? 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? (1Pe_3:20, 1Pe_3:21).
The teaching of John is very closely allied with that of Jesus, as we have already seen from the multitude of quotations we had to select from John's Gospel to illustrate the teaching of the Master. It is especially interesting to note the cases where the apostle didactically elucidates certain of these pronouncements of Jesus. The most remarkable apostolic gloss or commentary on the subject is found in Joh_7:39. Jesus had spoken of the change which faith in Him (?coming to him?) would cause in the lives of His disciples; how divine energies like ?rivers of water? should issue forth from them; and the evangelist continues in explanation: ?But this spake he of the Spirit, which they that believed on him were to receive: for the Spirit was not yet given; because Jesus was not yet glorified.? This recognition of a special manifestation of divine power, transcending the experience of Old Testament believers, was based on the declaration of Christ, that He would send ?another Comforter (the Revised Version (British and American) ?advocate,? ?helper,? Greek Paraclete), that he may be with you for ever, even the Spirit of truth? (Joh_14:16, Joh_14:17).
In his Epistles, John shows that this Spirit bestows the elements of a Godlike character which makes us to be ?sons of God,? who before were ?children of the devil? (1Jo_3:10, 1Jo_3:24; 1Jo_4:13, etc.). This regeneration is ?eternal life? (1Jo_5:13) and moral similarity with God, the very character of God in man. As ?God is love,? the children of God will love (1Jo_5:2). At the same time it is the life of God in man, also called fellowship with Christ, victorious life which overcomes the world (1Jo_5:4); it is purity (1Jo_3:3-6) and knowledge (1Jo_2:20).
The subject of regeneration lies outside of the scope of the Epistle to the Hebrews, so that we look in vain for a clear dogmatical statement of it. Still the epistle does in no place contradict the dogma, which, on the other hand, underlies many of the statements made. Christ, ?the mediator of a better covenant, which hath been enacted upon better promises? (Joh_8:6), has made ?purification of sins? (Joh_1:3). In contradistinction to the first covenant, in which the people approached God by means of outward forms and ordinances, the ?new covenant? (Joh_8:13) brought an ?eternal redemption? (Joh_9:12) by means of a divine cleansing (Joh_9:14). Christ brings ?many sons unto glory? and is ?author of their salvation? (Joh_2:10). 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? (Joh_5:13, Joh_5:14).
III. Later Development of the Doctrine.
Very soon the high spiritual meaning of regeneration was obscured by the development of priestcraft within the Christian church. When the initiation into the church was thought of as accomplished by the mediation of ministers thereto appointed, the ceremonies hereby employed became means to which magic powers were of necessity ascribed. This we see plainly in the view of baptismal regeneration, which, based upon half-understood passages of Scripture quoted above, was taught at an early date. While in the post-apostolic days we frequently find traces of a proper appreciation of an underlying spiritual value in baptism (compare Didache vii) many of the expressions used are highly misleading. 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). This birth is ?of the day, free, delivering from passions, taking away every veil of our nature or birth, i.e. everything hiding the divine image in which we are created, and leading up to the life above? (Ullmann, Gregor v. Nazienz, 323). Cyril of Jerusalem (Cat., xvii, c. 37) ascribes to baptism the power of absolution from sin and the power of endowment with heavenly virtues. According to Augustine baptism is essential to salvation, though the baptism of blood (martyrdom) may take the place of water baptism, as in the case of the thief at the cross (Augustine, De Anima et Eius Origine, i. 11, c. 9; ii. 14, c. 10; ii. 16, c. 12). Leo the Great compares the spirit-filled water of baptism with the spirit-filled womb of the virgin Mary, in which the Holy Spirit engenders a sinless child of God (Serm. xxiv. 3; xxv. 5; see Hagenbach, Dogmengeschichte, section 137).
In general this is still the opinion of pronounced sacrmentarians, while evangelical Christianity has gone back to the teaching of the New Testament.
IV. Present Significance.
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.
(2) It is the will of God that all men be made partakers of this new life (1Ti_2:4) and, as it is clearly stated that some fall short of it (Joh_5:40), it is plain that the fault thereof lies with man. God requires all men to repent and turn unto Him (Act_17:30) before He will or can effect regeneration. Conversion, consisting in repentance and faith in Christ, is therefore the human response to the offer of salvation which God makes. This response gives occasion to and is synchronous with the divine act of renewal (regeneration). The Spirit of God enters into union with the believing, accepting spirit of man. This is fellowship with Christ (Rom_8:10; 1Co_6:17; 2Co_5:17; Col_3:3).
(3) The process of regeneration is outside of our observation and beyond the scope of psychological analysis. It takes place in the sphere of subconsciousness. Recent psychological investigations have thrown a flood of light on the psychic states which precede, accompany and follow the work of the Holy Spirit. ?He handles psychical powers; He works upon psychical energies and states; and this work of regeneration lies somewhere within the psychical field.? The study of religious psychology is of highest value and greatest importance. The facts of Christian experience cannot be changed, nor do they lose in value by the most searching psychological scrutiny.
Psychological analysis does not eliminate the direct workings of the Holy Spirit. Nor can it disclose its process; the ?underlying laboratory where are wrought radical remedial processes and structural changes in the psychical being as portrayed in explicit scriptural utterances: 'Create in me a clean heart' (Psa_51:10); 'Ye must be born again' (Joh_3:7 the King James Version); 'If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold all things are become new' (2Co_5:17 the King James Version), is in the region of subconsciousness. To look in the region of consciousness for this Person or for His work is fruitless and an effort fraught with endless confusion. Christian psychology thus traces to its deep-lying retreat the divine elaboration of the regenerated life. 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).
(4) Regeneration manifests itself in the conscious soul by its effects on the will, the intelligence and the affections. At the same time regeneration supplies a new life-power of divine origin, which enables the component parts of human nature to fulfill the law of God, to strive for the coming of God's kingdom, and to accept the teachings of God's spirit. Thus regenerate man is made conscious of the facts of justification and adoption. The former is a judicial act of God, which frees man from the law of sin and absolves him from the state of enmity against God; the latter an enduement with the Spirit, which is an earnest of his inheritance (Eph_1:14). The Spirit of God, dwelling in man, witnesses to the state of sonship (Rom_8:2, Rom_8:15, Rom_8:16; Gal_4:6).
(5) Regeneration, being a new birth, is the starting-point of spiritual growth. The regenerated man needs nurture and training. He receives it not merely from outside experiences, but from an immanent power in himself, which is recognized as the power of the life of the indwelling Christ (Col_1:26, Col_1:27). Apart from the mediate dealings of God with man through word and sacraments, there is therefore an immediate communication of life from God to the regenerate.
(6) The truth which is mentioned as the agent by whom regeneration is made possible (Joh_8:32; Jam_1:18; 1Pe_1:23), is nothing else than the Divine Spirit, not only the spoken or written word of God, which may convince people of right or wrong, but which cannot enable the will of man to forsake the wrong and to do the right, but He who calls Himself the Truth (Joh_14:6) and who has become the motive power of regenerated life (Gal_2:20).
(7) Recent philosophy expressive of the reaction from the mechanical view of bare materialism, and also from the depreciation of personality as seen in socialism, has again brought into prominence the reality and need of personal life. Johannes Muller and Rudolf Eucken among others emphasize that a new life of the spirit, independent of outward conditions, is not only possible, but necessary for the attainment of the highest development. This new life is not a fruit of the free play of the tendencies and powers of natural life, but is in sharp conflict with them. Man as he is by nature stands in direct contrast to the demands of the spiritual life. Spiritual life, as Professor Eucken says, can be implanted in man by some superior power only and must constantly be sustained by superior life. It breaks through the order of causes and effects; it severs the continuity of the outer world; it makes impossible a rational joining together of realities; it prohibits a monastic view of the immediate condition of the world. This new life derives its power not from mere Nature; it is a manifestation of divine life within us (Hauptprobleme der Religionsphilosophie, Leipzig, 1912, 17 ff; Der Kampf um einen geistigen Lebensinhalt, Leipzig, 1907; Grundlinien einer neuen Lebensanschauung, Leipzig, 1907; Johannes Muller, Bausteine fur personliche Kultur, 3 volumes, Munchen, 1908). Thus the latest development of idealistic philosophy corroborates in a remarkable way the Christian truth of regeneration. See also CONVERSION.
Literature
New Testament Theologies by Weiss, Beyschlag, Holtzmann, Schlatter, Feine, Stevens, Sheldon, Weinel. Textbooks on Systematic Theology: articles ?Bekehrung? by R. Seeberg; ?Wiedergeburt? by O. Kirn in Hauck-Herzog RE3; ?Regeneration? by J. V. Bartlett in HDB; ?Conversion? by J. Strachan in ERE; George Jackson, The Fact of Conversion, London, 1908; Newton H. Marshall, Conversion; or, the New Birth, London, 1909; J. Herzog, Der Begriff der Bekehrung, Giessen, 1903; P. Feine, Bekehrung im New Testament und in der Gegenwart, Leipzig, 1908; P. Gennrich, Die Lehre yon der Wiedergeburt, Leipzig, 1907. 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.
International Standard Bible Encyclopedia
PRINTER 1915.
Regeneration
(παλιγγενεσία, Tit_3:5, a being born again), that work of the Holy Spirit by. which we experience a change of heart. It is expressed in Scripture by being born anew (Joh_3:7, from above); being quickened (Eph_2:1); by Christ being found in the heart (Gal_4:19); a new creation (2Co_5:17); a renewing of the mind (Rom_12:2); the washing, i.e. the purifing of regeneration (Tit_3:5); a resurrection from the dead (Eph_2:6); a putting off the old man, and a putting on the new man (Eph_4:22-24). And the subjects of this change are represented as begotten of God (Joh_1:13; 1Pe_1:3); begotten of the Spirit (Joh_3:8); begotten of water, even of the Spirit (Joh_3:5); new creatures (Gal_6:15); and partakers of the divine nature (2Pe_1:4). The efficient cause of regeneration is the divine spirit. Man is not the author of the regeneration (Joh_1:12-13; Joh_3:4; Eph_2:8; Eph_2:10); the instrumental cause is the word of God (Jam_1:18; 1Pe_1:23; 1Co_4:15).
The change in regeneration consists in the recovery of the moral image of God upon the heart; that is, so as to love him supremely and serve him ultimately as our highest end. Regeneration consists in the implantation of the .principle of love to God, which obtains the ascendency and habitually prevails over its opposite. Although the inspired writers use various terms and modes of speech to describe this change of mind, styling it conversion, regeneration, a new creation, etc., yet it is all effected by the word of truth or the Gospel of salvation gaining an entrance into the mind through divine teaching, so as to possess the understanding, subdue the will, and reign in the affections. In a word, it is faith working by love that constitutes the new creature or regenerate man (Gal_5:6; 1Jn_5:1-5). Regeneration, then, is the recovery of the moral image of God, and consequently of spiritual life, to a soul previously dead in trespasses and sins. It is the work of the Holy Spirit, opening the eyes of the mind, and enabling the sincere penitent to believe the Gospel and receive Christ as his only Saviour. This gracious work is in accordance both with the character of the Holy Spirit and with the constitution of man; hence, by it no violence is done to any physical, intellectual, or moral law or mode of action in human nature. The change is produced in the will, or heart, that is, in the moral, and not the natural, faculties of the soul. As depravity is wholly in the will and heart, the source and seat of all moral action, the divine operation consists in renewing the heart, and communicating a change of views, with a relish for the things of the Spirit. As justification places us in a new relation to God, so regeneration produces in us a new state of mind. In the case of children dying in infancy, they, of course, need regeneration to fit them for the eternal world. And there can be no difficulty in conceiving that they are regenerated by the Holy Spirit, in virtue of Christ's death, in the same sense in which they are depraved, in consequence of Adam's transgression; the disposition to sin is removed, the disposition to holiness is implanted, and thus their salvation is secured. The evidences of regeneration are conviction of sin, holy sorrow, deep humility, knowledge, faith, repentance, love, and devotedness to God's glory. The properties of it are these:
1. It is a receptive work, and herein it differs from conversion. In regeneration we receive from God; in conversion we are active and turn to him.
2. It is a powerful work of God's grace (Eph_3:8).
3. It is an instantaneous act, for there can be no medium between life and death; and here it differs from sanctification, which is progressive.
4. It is a complete act, and perfect in its kind; a change of the whole man (2Co_5:17).
5. It is a great and important act, both as to its author and effects (Eph_2:4-5).
6. It is an internal act, not consisting in bare, outward forms (Eze_36:26-27).
7. Visible as to its effects (1Jn_3:14).
8. Delightful (1Pe_1:8).
9. Necessary (Joh_3:3). SEE CONVERSION; SEE NEW BIRTH. Our Lord in one instance (Mat_19:28) uses the term regeneration for the resurrection state. Accordingly, Dr. Campbell translates it the renovation, and remarks that the relation is here to the general state of things in the future world, where all things will become new. SEE NEW CREATION; SEE RESTITUTION.
CYCLOPEDIA OF BIBLICAL, THEOLOGICAL AND ECCLESIASTICAL
press 1895.
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