Humanly speaking, there is no doctrine of greater importance than that of regeneration, yet this word appears only twice in the English Bible, and only one of these is in reference to individual regeneration; (see Matthew 19:28; Titus 3:5). However, though the English word "regeneration" only appears twice, the doctrine of regeneration itself is very prominent in both the Old and New Testaments, for it appears under a number of figurative names which give insight into the character of it. E. H. Johnson has well said that:
As proper understanding always begins with proper definition, perhaps the following definitions will help our understanding of this great doctrine, and give us a proper view of it.
Regeneration, or the new birth, is the divine side of that change of heart which, viewed from the human side, we call conversion. It is God’s turning the soul to himself, —conversion being the soul’s turning itself to God, of which God’s turning it is both the accompaniment and cause. —A. H. Strong, Systematic Theology, p. 809. Fleming H. Revell Company, 1954.
We may here define Regeneration as that act of God upon us by which, through the Gospel as a means, the governing disposition of the soul is made holy. It includes, or brings about, an entire change of character, and gives a holy meetness for heaven. —E. G. Taylor, In Baptist Doctrines, edited by C. A. Jenkins, p. 525. C. R. Barns Publishing Company, St. Louis, 1890.
It is evident that the Scriptures refer to a great change in all who become Christians—a change denoted by such forms of expression as the following: "Born again" (John 3:3); "Born of the Spirit" (John 3:5); "Born of God" (John 1:13); "Created in Christ Jesus" (Eph. 2:10); "Quickened together with Christ" (Eph. 2:5); "A new creature" (2 Cor. 5:17); "Renewed after the image of him that created him" (Col. 3:10); "Dead unto sin....alive unto God" (Rom. 6:11). This change is, in theological writings, usually called Regeneration, and it is inseparable from "repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ" (Acts 20:21). —J.M. Pendleton, Christian Doctrines, p. 256. American Baptist Publication Society, Philadelphia, 1878.
Regeneration is the Holy Spirit’s gracious, sovereign quickening act, in which the divine life and nature is imparted to the soul of man, causing a reversal of his attitude toward God and sin, —the expression of which, in repentance and faith, is secured through the instrumentality of the Word of God. —E.H. Bancroft, Elemental Theology, p. 196. Zondervan Publishing House, Grand Rapids, Michigan, 1948.
Regeneration may be defined as the change wrought by the Spirit of God, by the use of truth as a means, in which the moral disposition of the soul is renewed in the image of Christ. All definitions come short of the reality. But the above contains the essential points. —E.Y. Mullins, The Christian Religion In Its Doctrinal Expression, p. 378. The Judson Press, Philadelphia, 1932.
Regeneration, therefore, may be defined as the gracious work of God in the human soul by which the heart is enabled to love God, the mind is enabled to understand the gospel of Christ, and the will is brought to choose Christ as both Lord and Saviour...Regeneration is not the eradication of the sinful nature, but the impartation of a new nature—a sinless nature. The saved man has been born two times, and has a twofold disposition or nature. This creates a conflict between the fleshly and spiritual natures (Gal. 5:17). —C.D. Cole, Definitions of Doctrine, Vol. II, pp. 55, 56. Bryan Station Baptist Church, Lexington, Kentucky, 1968.
Regeneration is God’s act; conversion is ours. Regeneration is the implantation of a gracious principle; conversion is the exercise of that principle. Regeneration is never a matter of direct consciousness to the subject of it; conversion always is such to the agent of it. Regeneration is a single act, complete in itself, and never repeated; conversion, as the beginning of holy living, is the commencement of a series, constant, endless, and progressive. —A.A. Hodge, Outlines of Theology, p. 354. T. Nelson and Sons, London, 1872.
At the outset of a discussion of these two subjects we are met by the question, whether they are not one and the same thing. They are unquestionably so intimately associated that it is difficult to separate them and point out the distinctions between them. The Scriptures connect the two under the one idea of the new birth, and teach that not only is regeneration an absolute essential in each conversion, but that in every intelligent responsible soul conversion invariably accompanies regeneration. It is not strange, therefore, that they are often confounded. Yet, after all, the Scriptures also teach that regeneration is the work of God, changing the heart of man by his sovereign will, while conversion is the act of man turning towards God with the new inclination thus given to his heart. —J.P. Boyce, Abstract of Systematic Theology, pp. 373-374. American Baptist Publication Society, Philadelphia, 1887.
Regeneration being the particular work of the Holy Spirit, it is therefore highly presumptive for proud and wicked man to claim to be able to regenerate or to help regenerate himself. Life does not come from works, but it only comes from antecedent life, but the natural man is represented in the Scriptures as "dead in trespasses and sins" (Eph. 2:1). If these definitions considered above be true, and we believe that they are, then to hold to a contrary view is to rob God of the glory that is His, and to exalt man to the presumptuous height of being his own savior. This can never be.
There is nothing that more clearly manifests man’s need for regeneration than Jesus’ words to Nicodemus in John 3:3-6: "Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God, Nicodemus saith unto him, How can a man be born when he is old? can he enter the second time into his mother’s womb, and be born? Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit."
Here, "born again," "born from above," (as it may also be rendered), and "born of the Spirit" are all equivalents to regeneration, for our English word regeneration means "to be born or begotten again", If ever there had been any individual who could have entered heaven without being born again, surely it would have been such a good man as Nicodemus. E.G. Taylor has well said of this that:
Man’s natural condition is the bolt that bars the door to the enjoyment of spiritual things—yea, more, it bars him from the very presence of God Himself. Jesus’ statement in John 3:5 leaves no uncertainty, about the matter: without the new birth, one cannot enter the kingdom of God; but in John 3:3, it is restricted even more: "Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God."
To be shut out of the kingdom is to be shut out of heaven; not that the kingdom of God necessarily means heaven, for God’s kingdom ruleth "over all" (Ps. 103:19), but no one will ever enter heaven who has not first entered the kingdom by being born again; thus, when a person is debarred from the kingdom of God, he is also by the same token, debarred from heaven.
The subjects of the kingdom of God are of such a radically different kind from the subjects of all the kingdoms of this world that nothing short of a complete rebirth will fit a man to be of the kingdom of God. Nicodemus voiced the question: "How can a man be born when he is old? can he enter the second time into his mother’s womb, and be born?" The answer lies in the fact that regeneration is not a rebirth of the flesh—of the old nature—for that would not correct the primary defect; "that which is born of the flesh is flesh." Regeneration deals with the spiritual nature of man; in regeneration, a man is born of the Spirit, and so becomes a living spiritual being. This same truth, looked at from a different angle, is expressed in Matthew 18:3 when Jesus said: "verily I say unto you, Except ye be converted, and become as little children: ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven."
God’s kingdom, in its most extensive form, takes in all that God has created, and over which He reigns; but in its narrowest form, it takes in only those who are the willing subjects of God’s reign, and these alone will enjoy the beauty and blessedness of the kingdom of God in its final form. Thus, in the parable of the marriage feast in Matthew 22, the calling of the invited ones to the marriage feast represents the gospel dispensation (vv. 2-6), while the destruction of the scorners takes place at the Revelation of Jesus Christ (v. 7; Rev. 19:11-21). The feast is prepared in verse 8 (Rev. 19:6-9), but the number of the guests is deficient, and so there is a further gathering of guests (vv. 9-10); this is fulfilled in the millennial kingdom, which shall be peopled with both lost and saved persons, natural and glorified; but many of these, though yielding a feigned submission to the King and His Son (Ps. 18:44-45—margin), will yet refuse the robe of imputed righteousness (vv. 11-12), and so will ultimately be cast out (v. 13; Rev. 20:12-15). Only after this final purgation of the Kingdom of Christ will the kingdom be delivered up to the Father in all its purity and blessedness (1 Cor. 15:24-28).
The religious world is full of people who are teaching that man can work his way into the kingdom of God, but this is based on several fatal misconceptions, such as: (1) The idea that man’s shortcomings before God are only faulty in degree, not in kind, and that he has but to correct the degree of error in them. (2) That there is already sufficient life in every man to gain the kingdom if he will but fan the spark into a roaring flame; this misconception is based upon the idea that all men by nature have a "spark of divinity" in them. (3) That all men are already the sons of God, and so naturally entitled to an inheritance in the kingdom. But this is daringly propounded contrary to the clear teachings of Scripture that all men are by nature the children of the devil, and so children of wrath. (4) That the corrupt works of man could ever have any value in Gods sight, or could be acceptable coin for bartering with Him. A. J. Gordon has well answered these things by saying:
This is a doctrine which cuts at right angles across most of the weak, watered-down theology of our day, for the world has been brain-washed into thinking in terms of "The Fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man;" but this is directly contrary to the teaching of the Scriptures. Jesus indicted the claim of the Jews, the most spiritually enlightened nation on the earth, that they were the children of God through their Abrahamic lineage, when He said: "I speak that which I have seen with my Father: and ye do that which ye have seen with your father...If ye were Abraham’s children, ye would do the works of Abraham...Ye do the deeds of your father ...If God were your Father, ye would love me...Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it" (John 8:38,39,41,42,44).
Paul also revealed that man is not naturally a child of God, but rather must be born into that relationship when he said, "Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others" (Eph. 2:3). If the generality of the world, religious though they may be, are "by nature children of wrath," if God’s wrath is indeed hanging over every person who has not been regenerated, then it is obvious that they are not the children of God. Equally obvious is the fact that in order to become a child of God, such individuals must experience such a radical change as to actually be born again, or born from above. Anything less than this will be inadequate.
That man cannot, through any natural process, become a child of God is certain from what is said in John 1:12-13: "As many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name: which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God." Here, divine sonship is first shown to be a privilege given, and not a natural condition; then it is shown to be the result of a birth, yet that not a birth of blood—i.e., not a physical birth, nor yet a birth originating in the flesh and its desires, nor even a birth originating in the highest desires of the best man from the ranks of natural men, but a birth which originates alone with God. This is, in effect, a ruling out of any ability upon the part of man to regenerate himself; as such, it cleaves to the analogy of the physical birth, where the baby does not borne itself, but is completely passive in the matter.
The statement that all men are children of the devil apart from the new birth may grate on the sensitivities of the natural man, but the Scriptures teach it, and for a very good reason. Until a man sees himself in his true condition—spiritually dead, totally depraved, alienated from God, bound in chains of spiritual darkness by the prince of darkness—he will have no desire to experience this new birth. He needs to be jarred into a realization of what his true condition is before God, and of the wrath that overhangs him so long as he is unregenerate. This truth, Satan has endeavored to gloss over by the teaching of the natural goodness and divinity of all men, and all too many preachers have lent their support and influence to this teaching out of a desire to escape the odiousness associated with the Scriptural teaching.
This doctrine of the diabolical sonship of the natural man is proven by the doctrine of original sin; if, through the machination of Satan, the federal head of the human race sinned and thereby became a fallen and depraved creature like Satan, and if Adam passed on this condition to his posterity, it naturally follows that all of the descendents of Adam are "children of disobedience," "children of wrath," and so "children of the devil." Universal death proves the fall to have touched all men, and so that all men are the children of the devil until they are born again. "By one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned" (Rom. 5:12).
What the majority of the world does not realize, is that nature cannot be changed by the change of habits or practices; for unregenerate man to try to improve his life and habits without his nature being changed is like picking the leaves off dandelions or other obnoxious weeds; it hurts the root little if any, and may give more vitality to it by the very act of pruning it, and the root will continue to put out more leaves. So, for unregenerate man to try to reform his life is for him to only deceive himself into thinking he is what he is not. It is regeneration that man needs, not reformation.
It is noteworthy in connection with this passage, that it was not after man had begun to seek after God, nor after man had done certain human works, nor yet while man’s desire was beginning to incline to God that the quickening took place, but it was while man was yet dead spiritually, and so incapable of any spiritual acts or inclinations that God moved upon him. This same thought is set forth also in Colossians 2:13.
Again, as if to emphasize the spiritual incapability of the natural man, the apostle delineates the condition of the natural man in Ephesians 4:17-19 where he describes the unregenerate as: (1) "walking in the vanity of their minds" (v. 17f). (2) "Having the understanding darkened" (v. 18a). (3) "Being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them" (v. 18b). (4) Blind or hardened in their hearts (v. 18f). (5) "Past feeling" (v. 19a). (6) Completely given over unto lasciviousness (v. 19). After reading such a description of unregenerate man, how can any one hold to any spiritual good or ability apart from divine grace? Let the reader also peruse Romans 3:9-18 and he will see a like description of unregenerate man wherein is depicted his total depravity, and consequently his inability to do any spiritual good. The phrase "total depravity" throws some people off, for they assume it means that a person is as bad as he can be; but this is not the meaning of this phrase at all. It simply means that all of his faculties are inclined to evils and that there is nothing spiritually acceptable to God in him naturally. See the quotation by W.D. Nowlin in the introduction to chapter four on Original Sin.
This state of human inability—spiritual deadness—was taught by Jesus when He said: "No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him" (John 6:44), and again, "It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life" (John 6:63). It is to be noted that this is not a matter of desire, but of ability; He says not, "No man will come to me," but, "No man can come to me." Man’s fleshly nature profits nothing in spiritual matters, for the flesh is contrary to the spirit (Gal. 5:17); there must first be a quickening—an enlivening or regenerating—of man’s spiritual nature before he is able to do anything of a spiritual nature. There must first be life before there can be the activities of life. This is why man so desperately needs regeneration—only by being born again can he have spiritual life, and so fulfill the appointed destiny of man upon the earth, which is to glorify God. But looked at from the personal standpoint, man needs to be born again, for heaven is certainly denied to all who do not experience the new birth. Everything considered, man is in a hopeless condition without the new birth, and nothing ought to take precedence in his mind over the importance of this.
By Davis W. Huckabee, Pastor,