Cap 16 - STUDIES

REGENERATION AND CONVERSION

SECTION III

THE MEANS OF REGENERATION

Our present study will concern the means which is employed in the bringing to pass of the renewed state in the spiritual nature of man. This is important, for to mistake the means of regeneration is to rob God of His glory in every case, and in many cases to doom man to an everlasting torment because he is made to trust in himself, his own works or the works of another than Christ. It is of very great importance, therefore, that one have the proper view of the divinely appointed means of regeneration for it will be for his loss, either temporal or eternal, if he does not. The means of regeneration involves a mystery, as is intimated by John 3:8: "The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit." A. W. Pink remarks of this verse:

A comparison is here drawn between the wind and the Spirit. The comparison is a double one: first, both are sovereign in their actions, and second, both are mysterious in their operations. The comparison is pointed out is the word "so." The first point of analogy is seen in the words "where it listeth" or "pleaseth;" the second is found in the words "canst not tell." —The Sovereignty of God, p. 87. Baker Book House, Grand Rapids, 1965.There has been a great deal of false theology set forth in regard to the means of regeneration, much of it being of a sacramental nature, as though regeneration could be poured into an individual through the liquid element of the Lord’s Supper, or taken in a solid form in the solid element of the Lord’s Supper, or else infused in some mysterious way by the outward application of the baptismal waters. All of these, it will be noted, emphasize humanism, either in the person of the recipients or else from the ministerial side. This is to make regeneration solely a human work, or, at best, a mixture of human and divine works, and is nothing more than the ancient "way of Cain" (Jude 11), of offering up the works of one’s own hands; and these works shall just as surely be rejected as were the works of Cain. The worship of depraved man is always egocentric and geocentric; it requires divine grace for man’s worship ever to attain to a heavenly level. In studying the Means of Regeneration, the following things must be taken into consideration:

I. THE EFFICIENT MEANS OF REGENERATION.

The teaching of the Scriptures are very clear on this matter, but because these teachings are so diametrically opposed to the carnal way and will of man, they are for the most part ignored or contradicted. There are a number of places where man’s regeneration is referred to one or the other of the persons of the Godhead.

Who accomplishes this work? It is effected by divine agency. The phrase "born of God" is of frequent occurrence in the New Testament. We have also the expression "born of the Spirit." No language could more clearly indicate the agency employed in regeneration. The Spirit of God alone can renew the soul. It is his prerogative to quicken, to give life. All is death in the moral world without his influence. What air or breath is to animal life, that his operation is to spiritual life. "It is the Spirit that quickeneth" (John 6:63). —J.M. Pendleton, Christian Doctrines, p. 261. American Baptist Publication Society, Philadelphia, 1878.The bare perusal of a number of passages reveal the truth that the new birth is the produce of God, and this truth is especially prominent in the writings of John, whose purpose is to reveal the divine glory of Christ. Thus do we read: "...Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God" (John 1:13); "...everyone that doeth righteousness is born of him" (1 John 2:29); "...born of God" (1 John 3:9 [twice]; 4:7; 5:4; 5:18); "...begotten of God, (5:18); "Of his own will begat he us with the word of truth" (Jam. 1:18); "(He) hath begotten us again" (1 Pet. 1:3). And there are many other like Scriptures which set forth this fact that God alone is the efficient means of the new birth. It is a fact which is obvious to all except prejudiced eyes.

This subject has already been touched upon to some extent in the last section, and the reader is referred back there for the Scripture proofs of the fact that all three persons of the Godhead are active, both in the regeneration of the spiritual nature of man, as well as in the physical nature of man (the resurrection).

In 1 Peter 1:3, R.V., it is the Father who is seen as the author of man’s regeneration: "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to his great mercy begat us again unto a living hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead." In 1 Timothy 6:13, Paul also makes reference to God’s quickening: "I give thee charge in the sight of God, who quickeneth all things," and the context shows that "God" is there used in distinction to the Lord Jesus. God, who originally possessed the power to give life, and who actually did impart life to all beings, still retains that attribute, and could not continue to be God if He did not possess it. Even the heathen poets recognized this truth, as shown by Paul’s quotation in Acts 17:28.

Jesus claimed the power to regenerate for both Himself and His Father when He said, "For as the Father raiseth up the dead, and quickeneth them; even so the Son quickeneth whom he will" (John 5:21). He again claimed to have the power to give spiritual life when He said, "For the bread of God is he which cometh down from heaven, and giveth life unto the world" (John 6:33). And when He added in verse 53: "Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you," He showed that in Himself alone as the incarnate God did this life reside. Christ is also represented as begetting men in 1 John 2:29 where it is said: "If ye know that he is righteous, ye know that every one that doeth righteousness is born of him." The context shows that it is Christ who is the One under discussion here. The fact that Christ is called "the resurrection and the life" (John 11:25), also indicates the same thing. Jesus clearly claims the ability to regenerate men, the same as the Father, when He says: "Verily, verily, I say unto you, The hour is coming, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God: and they that hear shall live. For as the Father hath life in himself; so hath he given to the Son to have life in himself" (John 5:25-26).

But the Scriptures also represent the Holy Spirit as the active agent in man’s regeneration; this is necessarily so, for Christ no longer walks the earth except in the person of the Comforter—the Holy Spirit, who is His alter ego. Since the Spirit is left upon earth as the "other Comforter" in the absence of Christ, then He must necessarily perform the work of Christ while taking His place in the churches. This representation of the whole Trinity being the agents in regeneration may seem at first contradictory, but it is not, as E. H. Johnson well says:

That man does not regenerate himself is proved...by the ascription of regeneration to God (Eph. 2:4,5), to the Father and the Son co-acting (John 5: 21), to Christ alone (Matthew 11:27-30), and to the Holy Spirit (John 3:5,6; Titus 3:5). These representations are not contradictory. Regeneration proceeds from the will of the Father, is procured through the mediation of the Son, and wrought by the operation of the Holy Spirit. It may with special propriety be referred, as it usually is, to the Holy Spirit as the agent directly engaged. —Outline of Systematic Theology, pp. 268, 269. American Baptist Publication Society, Philadelphia, 1903.Thus, because the Spirit is in the more immediate foreground in regeneration, He is most often referred to as the primary agent, and for this reason we will consider regeneration as primarily the work of the Holy Spirit.

In John 3, which is one of the foremost proof-texts of regeneration, it is called a birth of water and Spirit (v. 5), while it is twice referred to simply as being "born of the Spirit" (vv. 6, 8). This shows the Spirit’s agency in the matter, as being, as it were, the midwife of one’s spiritual nature. A careless reading of John 3:5 has led many persons to an erroneous conclusion about regeneration, for whatever may be the meaning of water in verse 5, it must be recognized that the same thing is referred to as a being "born of the Spirit", in verses 6 and 8. There can be no disharmony here. But many have erroneously concluded that there is a water bath—baptism—as well as the birth of the Spirit in this verse, thus making two distinct births. This writer once thought that the water referred to the natural birth, and "born of the Spirit" to the new birth. However, grammatically, one cannot separate between water and Spirit in this verse: whatever "water" refers to, it is part and parcel with the birth of the Spirit, for there is but one birth here. B. H. Carroll well explains this when he says:

The phrase, "born of water and Spirit," cannot mean two births, one of water and one of Spirit, because there is no article in the original before the words. Whatever it means, it is one birth. It must be either baptism or Spirit, and both terms express only one birth...The phrase "born of water and Spirit," is but an expansion of the previous phrase, "born from above." It interprets and develops the first phrase, bringing out the two elements in regeneration, namely, cleansing and renewing. It is only when we lose sight of the cleansing element in regeneration that we are liable to go astray in interpreting the phrase "born of water." The matter is clearly set forth in Ezekiel 36:25-26. —An Interpretation Of The English Bible, Vol. 10, pp. 290, 291. Broadman Press, Nashville, Tennessee, 1947.The Spirit is the agent in the regeneration of man, and He accomplishes this great wonder by cleansing, renewing and enlivening. The first two elements are set forth by Paul in Titus 3:4.-5: "But after that the kindness and love of God our Saviour toward man appeared, not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost." The third element, that of enlivening man’s dead spirit, is declared in such passages as: "It is the Spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing" (John 6:63); "The letter killeth, but the Spirit giveth life" (2 Cor. 3:6). In Romans 8:2, the same thing is intimated when the Spirit is called "The Spirit of life."

Perhaps we should take the phrase "quickened" as the over-all term to describe regeneration, and recognize the cleansing and renewing as but parts of the act of quickening; if this be so, then it would explain why it is more common to find the words "quickened," "born again," "born of God," etc., than these other words. In any case, the Scriptures set forth the fact that God accomplishes the regeneration of man Himself, and that the Spirit of God is the most prominent Person of the Trinity in this great transaction.

All of this shows the fact of the divine quickening or regenerating of man, but it does not answer the question of why God does this, and therefore it will be well to consider—

II. THE IMPULSIVE MEANS OF REGENERATION.

By this is meant the motivation for God’s regeneration of man; was God impelled to regenerate man because of some human merit? Or did He foresee that man, though wicked and depraved and undeserving in his natural condition, would, after he was regenerated, come to merit the mercy shown to him? The answer to these questions is a resounding "NO!" Indeed a ten-fold negative is declared in Romans 3:9-12: "What then? are we better than they? No, in no wise: for we have before proved both Jews and Gentiles, that they are all under sin; as it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one: there is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God. They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one."

Man may seek from now until the wheel of eternity rolls backward, but he will never find the least indication that any merit, either real or foreseen, in man ever impelled God to regenerate a single soul; only the pride and conceit of man would ever think such a thing. The fact of the matter is, that if man were treated according to his merits, every last son of Adam would this day be in the bottom-most pit of hell, and the fact that any of us are not is a matter of mercy, and not of merit, for the prophet declares: "It is of the Lord’s mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not. They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness" (Lam. 3:22-23). Every day of a man’s life he enjoys fresh mercies from the God of heaven, so let us no more talk of man’s merits, for they are non-existent.

But if God is not moved to regenerate man by some sparkling jewel of worth in him, what then? Fortunately, we are not left to wonder about this matter, but the Scripture speaks with no uncertain sound. First, in this, as in all other matters, God operates sovereignly; that is to say, "He hath done whatsoever he hath pleased" (Ps. 115:3). God cannot be brought under any obligation to any man to do anything, but He operates "according to his will in the army of heaven, and among the inhabitants of the earth: and none can stay his hand, or say unto him, What doest thou?" (Dan. 4:35). Whatever He does, He does solely from His own will and pleasure, yet, who can complain or find fault, for all of God’s dealings with mankind are directed toward man’s ultimate best interests.

The Scriptures declare God’s absolute sovereignty in the matter of man’s regeneration: "For he saith to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion. So then it is not of him that runneth, but of God that sheweth mercy" (Rom. 9:15-16). "For as the Father raiseth up the dead, and quickeneth them; even so the Son quickeneth whom he will" (John 5:21). The sovereign will of Christ is the sole determining factor here, and this also holds true in James 1:18, where we read: "Of his own will begat he us with the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures." Of human merit or worth we read nothing here, nor is there a hint of "foreseen" merit, neither "foreseen" faith, but the regeneration of wicked and ungodly man is based upon the sovereign will of God alone.

However, there 3.s another side of the matter which must not be overlooked, for while God is sovereign in His dealing with mankind, the out-workings of these dealings are manifestations, not of arbitrary will, but of rich mercy and grace, for it is written: "But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved:)" (Eph. 2:4-5). None of these three things—mercy, love, grace—are based upon any merit whatsoever; in fact, introduce merit into a relationship with these, and immediately these things are cast out, or else they lose their distinctive character. Grace and mercy both operate only where there is positive demerit, and love is debased and prostituted where any kind of mercenary or meritorious elements enter.

God’s mercy is set forth as the motivation for His regeneration of man in 1 Peter 1:3, R.V.: "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to his great mercy begat us again unto a living hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead." And throughout the New Testament, grace is seen as the preeminent quality which characterizes all of God’s dealings with man. Redemption, of which regeneration is one aspect, is a result of the abundant grace of God, as it is written, "In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace" (Eph. 1:7). Indeed this first chapter of Ephesians again and again emphasizes that all of God’s dealings with man are characterized alone by His sovereign "good pleasure," (vv. 5, 9), His own purposes—"the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will" (v. 11; see also v. 9f ), and His grace (vv. 6, 7).

God cannot be impelled or moved by anything outside Himself, and though it sometimes may appear that He is swayed by man, in actuality His purposes are never changed; man is often changed so as to be brought into harmony with God’s secret will, and this sometimes makes it appear that God changes from His original purpose.

The fact that God is impelled in regenerating man by nothing outside of Himself may humble the proud heart of man, but it lays the basis for praise of the Lord’s marvelous condescension in extending mercy and grace to unworthy men in regenerating them. But if God is sovereign in regeneration, are we then to understand that He does not make use of anything outside of Himself? Not at all, for while the motivation for regeneration is alone from God Himself, yet He does make use of means in the accomplishment of this. Therefore we consider—

III. THE INSTRUMENTAL MEANS OF REGENERATION.

While the Holy Spirit is the agent in regeneration, He also uses the Word of God to accomplish this spiritual rebirth; this is why the Bible is called "The sword of the Spirit" (Eph. 6:17). Some people have mistakenly assumed that the Holy Spirit regenerates apart from any means whatsoever; others have gone to the opposite extreme and declared that the effect of the Word upon the intellectual faculties of man was the sole cause of regeneration. Both of these views are wide of the truth; the Holy Spirit always uses the Word to regenerate fallen and depraved men, and the Word without the effectual workings of the Spirit accomplishes nothing toward man’s regeneration. This truth is declared in 2 Corinthians 3:6: "Who also hath made us able ministers of the new testament; not of the letter, but of the spirit: for the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life." R. A. Torrey comments as follows:

But the Gospel is a ministration of the Spirit and of life only when the Gospel is preached "not in persuasive words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power" (1 Cor. 2:4); or as Paul puts it in another place (1 Thess. 1:5) when the Gospel comes "not in word only, but also in power and in the Holy Ghost." The mere letter of the Gospel will merely condemn and kill unless accompanied by the Spirit’s power. The ministry of many an orthodox preacher and teacher is a ministry of death. It is true the word of the Gospel is the instrument God uses in regeneration (Compare Jam. 1:18; 1 Pet. 1:23; 1 Cor. 4:15), but it is not the bare word, but the word made a living thing in the heart by the power of the Holy Spirit. No amount of preaching, no matter how orthodox it may be, no amount of mere study of the Word, will regenerate unless the Holy Spirit works. It is He and He alone that makes a man a new creature. —What The Bible Teaches, p. 249. Fleming H. Revell Company, New York, 1933.We have already quoted James 1:18 in proof of God’s sovereignty in regeneration, but we did not note at that time that this verse also teaches the instrumentality of the Word in regeneration; this verse declares: "Of his own will beget he us with the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures." The same truth is also set forth by Peter when he says: "Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever" (1 Pet. 1:23).

Clearly therefore the Word of God is the instrument which the Spirit of God uses to accomplish the new birth; it is not to be questioned that God could have regenerated men without the use of means had He so desired, but the divine revelation has shown that it suited His sovereign pleasure to use means, and that should be the end of the matter for us. We may not understand either why or how He does so, but that in no way affects the fact that He does.

God uses means in the natural world, and why should he act on a different principle in the moral world? He does not. The gift of the Bible and the institution of Christian churches with a gospel ministry prove that he does not. I suppose that the Spirit of God, in regenerating the heart, makes use of scriptural truth previously lodged in the understanding. But if I am asked how truth can influence and instrumentally change a heart that does not love it, I answer I do not know. If asked how the Spirit operates on the heart so as to change it, either with or without the word of truth, I must still say I do not know. I can give no other answer while I remember what Jesus said to Nicodemus: "The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit" (John 3:8). Spiritual birth is a blessed reality, but the processes of this birth are among "the secret things" that "belong unto the Lord our God" (Deut. 29:29). We must remember, however, that its importance justifies the startling words, "To be born is an everlasting calamity unless we are born again." —J.M. Pendleton, Christian Doctrines, p. 263. American Baptist Publication Society, Philadelphia, 1878.Recognizing then that the Word of God is the instrument whereby the Holy Spirit regenerates men, we must not carelessly think that the simple recitation of any portion of the Bible will be used to this end, for the Scriptures are careful to emphasize that it is by the preaching of the gospel that men are born anew. Thus, Peter, after making reference to be being born again by the Word of God (1 Pet. 1: 23), immediately afterward says: "But the word of the Lord endureth for ever. And this is the word which by the gospel is preached unto you" (1 Pet. 1:25). It is the preaching of the evangelical portions of the Word that the Spirit uses to regenerate men; many professional preachers, who have not themselves experienced the new birth, preach regularly from the Bible, yet the Spirit of God does not use their preaching to the regeneration of men for the simple reason that they make a point of ignoring the evangelical portions of the Word because of their own dislike of the doctrine.

That the gospel portions of the Word are the parts used in regeneration is made clear in 1 Peter 1:3: "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who according to his great mercy begat us again unto a living hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead," R.V. It is evident from this that the resurrection is the procuring cause of man’s regeneration, and the doctrine of the resurrection being the very heart of the gospel, we understand why more commonly regeneration is simply spoken of as being by the means of the gospel.

Paul, who seldom uses the term "born" in connection with regeneration, does connect salvation with the preaching of the gospel, for he says, "For after that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe" (1 Cor. 1:21). What the nature of this preaching was, he explained in verse 23 when he said, "But we preach Christ crucified." And equally as specific is his statement to the Romans: "For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek" (Rom. 1:16).

Paul not only taught that only through the gospel could one have eternal life, but it had to be the same gospel as he taught; Paul was no "hail fellow well met," but was, in the language of modern day Christendom, a "bigoted sectarian," for he said: "But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed" (Gal. 1:8). For this reason then let no one deceive himself into thinking that God will honor just any sort of preaching with regenerating power; the Spirit of God uses the gospel of the Son of God to beget men into the family of God, and nothing else will be used, for the gospel is the means or channel through which the new birth is accomplished. In one of the few places where Paul uses the word "born" in the sense of regeneration, he says: "For though ye have ten thousand instructors in Christ, yet have ye not many fathers: for in Christ Jesus I have begotten you through the gospel" (1 Cor. 4:15).

This latter Scripture brings up one other thing which ought to be considered in connection with the means of regeneration, and this is—

IV. THE HUMAN MEANS EMPLOYED IN REGENERATION.

John Gill has well said of man’s power so far as the new birth is concerned that:

The Nature of the work clearly shews that it is not in the power of men to do it; it is represented as a creation; it is called a new creature, the workmanship of God created in Christ, the new man after God, created in righteousness. Now creation is a work of almighty Power; a creature cannot create the least thing, not a fly, as soon might he create a world; and as soon may a man create a world out of nothing, as create a clean heart, and renew a right spirit within him. —Body of Divinity, p. 532. Turner Lassetter, Atlanta, Georgia, 1950.It is true that many ministers in the modern world candidly claim to have the power to regenerate fallen human beings, and this often without even a consciousness on their part, for one has but to examine the baptismal rituals of different denominations to see this claim set forth. For example, the Episcopal baptismal service reads in part: Seeing now, dearly beloved brethren, that this child is regenerate, and grafted into the body of Christ’s church; let us give thanks unto Almighty God for these benefits, and with one accord make our prayers unto him, that this child may lead the rest of his life according to this beginning.

We yield thee hearty thanks, most merciful Father, that it hath pleased thee to regenerate this infant with thy Holy Spirit, to receive him for thine own child by adoption, and to incorporate him into thy holy church.

The words themselves are not so wrong, and would not be objectionable, were they not united to the sacramental act by the priest, which intimates that it was in the baptismal act that the child was regenerated. The Presbyterian Confession of Faith, though not so clearly teaching regeneration by baptism as the Episcopalian Church, is nonetheless so worded as to be susceptible of this interpretation, which is often put upon it. But if a minister, by the application of a few drops of water upon an unconscious infant produces regeneration, then it is obvious that the power of regeneration lies in the ministry. The Presbyterian Confession reads: Baptism is a sacrament of the New Testament, ordained by Jesus Christ, not only for the solemn admission of the party baptized into the visible church, but also to be unto him a sign and seal of the covenant of grace, his engrafting into Christ, of regeneration, of remission of sins, and of his giving up unto God, through Jesus Christ, to walk in newness of life.If baptism "seals" these things to an individual, then it is evident that baptism is a regenerating ordinance, and the minister who administers it is possessed with the power of regeneration. The baptismal service of the Methodist Episcopal Church also has language which is susceptible of this same interpretation, for it says: Dearly beloved, forasmuch as all men are conceived and born in sin, and that our Saviour Christ saith, None can enter into the kingdom of God, except he be regenerate and born anew of water and of the Holy Ghost; I beseech you to call upon God the Father, through our Lord Jesus Christ, that of his bounteous mercy he will grant to this child that thing which by nature he cannot have; that he may be baptized in the Holy Ghost, and received into Christ’s holy church, and be made a lively member of the same.Beginning with the postulate that all men are sinners by nature, the Methodist Episcopal Church assumes that baptism grants to children "that thing which by nature he cannot have;" if this is not teaching baptismal regeneration at the hands of the minister, it is very close to it. The followers of Alexander Campbell also boldly affirm their belief in baptismal regeneration for adults by saying: In and by the act of immersion, as soon as our bodies are put under the water, at that very instant our former or old sins are washed away...Immersion and regeneration are Bible names for the same act...It is not our faith in God’s promise of remission, but our going down into the water, that obtains the remission of sins. —Alexander Campbell, Christianity Restored, p. 138.On the basis of these statements, can any doubt that a large portion of Christendom looks upon regeneration as a purely human accomplishment, some sort of a magical ministerial act which changes men from children of the devil to children of God? Can anyone deny the great corruption which has been brought in to the ranks of Christendom when these human beliefs are compared to the divine record of regeneration?

And yet, there is some sense in which men are used instrumentally in regeneration, for Paul said, "I have begotten you through the gospel" (1 Cor. 4:15). He bears a similar testimony to Philemon concerning Onesimus: "I beseech thee for my son Onesimus, whom I have begotten in may bonds" (Philemon 10). It is certain from Paul’s other writings, and from his whole Christian life, that he was not trying to rob God of any of His glory in making these statements. Neither did Paul think that it was in any man’s power to regenerate any one, for he claimed that his preaching was done in the power of the Spirit, and not in the power of the flesh. "For I determined not to know any thing among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified. And I was with you in weakness, and in fear, and in much trembling. And my speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man’s wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power," (1 Cor. 2:2-4).

Obviously then when Paul speaks of begetting men through the gospel, he considers himself simply as one of the instruments which God is pleased to use for His own purposes and glory, but which have no intrinsic power to regenerate men. God has ordained that through the preaching of the gospel He will save men, and therefore the preacher is but an humble instrument in God’s hands, and the gospel is, in man’s hands, a "treasure in earthen vessels." "For we preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord; and ourselves your servants for Jesus’ sake...But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us" (2 Cor. 4:5).

In 2 Corinthians 3:3-6, Paul further defines the relationship between ministers and regeneration when he says: "Forasmuch as ye are manifestly declared to be the epistle of Christ ministered by us, written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God; not in tables of stone, but in fleshy tables of the heart. And such trust have we through Christ to God-ward: Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think any thing as of ourselves; but our sufficiency is of God: who also hath made us able ministers of the new testament; not of the letter, but of the spirit: for the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life." Ministers are but weak and worthless instruments, insufficient of themselves, and unable to accomplish any thing; yet, under the power of the Spirit of God they can be used to proclaim the gospel whereby men are regenerated.

In ascribing to the Holy Spirit the authorship of regeneration, we do not affirm that the divine Spirit accomplishes his work without any accompanying instrumentality. We simply assert that the power which regenerates is the power of God, and that although conjoined with the use of means, there is a direct operation of this power upon the sinner’s heart which changes its moral character. —A. H. Strong, Systematic Theology, p. 818. Fleming H. Revell Company, 1954.God has never surrendered the means of regeneration to any man, nor to any group of men; He has reserved this prerogative to Himself alone, for "That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit" (John 3:6). God alone is sufficient in power to regenerate, but He is all-sufficient, and in this lies man’s hope.

 

By Davis W. Huckabee, Pastor,
Heritage Baptist Church,
Salem, Ohio, 44460
Source: www.obreiroaprovado.com

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