Published
articles, lectures, chapters
REGENERATION
Rock
Solid: Men of Truth, pp.40-43 (Good Book Company /
Christian Conventions, 2004)
This is
slightly fuller than the published version.
Regeneration by God the Holy
Spirit
Ten Questions
1.
What's the problem?
Why are things not as they should be in
my life? Very broadly, the answers to
that question fall into two categories.
Many think that things are in such a mess
because of what's "out there".
The environment is the problem, other people are the problem, things
that have happened to me or been done to me are the problem. And, ultimately, that means that the world's
mess is God's fault because he is the one who sets the conditions in which we
operate. Way back, bad old God refused us access to the tree of the knowledge
of good and evil. And whether it is a poor education system, the dreadful
childhood I had, insufficient fluoride in the water, the wrong party in
government, too many additives in my food, my over-busyness or my lack of
money, the real reason why things are not as they should be in my life lies
outside of myself.
Others - and they are certainly in a
minority - believe that the reason that things are not as they should be in
their lives lies within themselves. The
problem, as Jesus puts it, is not what enters the body from the outside but the
corruption of the human heart. I am a
bad tree and an evil treasure and so I produce bad fruit and bring forth
evil. I am hostile to God and so I do
not submit to his law. (See Matthew 15.10-20; 12.33-35; Romans 8.7-8).
2.
What's the solution?
Rather obviously, these two schools of
thought - the "don't blame me: the problem's out there" school and
the "my biggest problem is me" school offer radically different
solutions.
If you locate the problems of the human
race or of the human individual in what's "out there" then you
recommend punitive action against the wicked external forces who
have messed up your life and place your hope in external change. You'll put your trust in princes, political
programmes, new methods of education, economic growth, technological advance,
different diets or one of a million other "saviours" promising a
problem-free and risk-free life while leaving your "heart" untouched.
On the other hand, if the problem of the
human race and the human individual is an inside problem then the solution can
only be found in inward renewal and deep personal change. If we could change
the tree from bad to good, the treasure from evil to righteous and the
individual's attitude from hatred for God to love of God then we'd really be
getting somewhere.
3.
How can this happen?
That's nice then. All we need is to find
a way of acquiring or achieving radical inward renewal which changes the
deepest level of the human person from being a child of Satan with a satanic
nature to being a child of God with a godly nature (John 8.12-59). Just a 180 degree turn
around of core identity and of spiritual orientation. In order to get
rid of sin I merely need to stop being a sinner by nature.
That's all ! But it's obvious, isn't it, that this is
beyond the moral endeavours of already sinful human beings. To ask the sinner to bring about deep inward
moral and spiritual change in himself is to ask a barefoot Sumo wrestler to
pull himself up by his bootstraps, an Everton fan to join the Kop singing,
"You'll never walk alone", or - more biblically - the leopard to
change his spots or the Ethiopian to change the colour of his skin (Jeremiah
13.23).
No, the only way that the corruption of
the sinner's nature will be dealt with is if God the creator-redeemer steps in.
The God who gave life to human beings in the first place by breathing into dust
must breathe a second time by his life-giving Spirit to bring about a new
creation, a new human being (Genesis 2.7, John 20.21-3; Romans 8.9). When it comes to killing germs or refreshing
unreached parts, nothing in all creation compares with the uncreated and
sovereign Spirit of almighty God.
4.
What goes on?
Unsurprisingly, this phenomenon is described
in many different ways in the Bible.
Here are three of the most powerful ways of talking about the deep
inward change of the sinner's nature which God the Holy Spirit sovereignly
brings about:
5.
On what basis?
What these images make abundantly clear
is this simple fact: the inward renewal and new spiritual start which is
regeneration is an act of God's sovereign grace. How could what does not exist bring itself
into existence (new creation)? Whenever did a dead person raise himself or a
child bring about his own birth? The
grace of God is the explanation for the gift of regeneration. And like all the saving grace of God it is
for the sake of and in union with the risen Lord Jesus Christ that it happens.
(I Peter 1.3) As we saw in Ephesians
1-2, it is by bringing us into contact or union with the Life of Jesus that the
Spirit makes us to share in his resurrection. (See also Romans 6.1-11 and
8.9-11)
6.
By what means?
From the creation of the world, God has
been doing his work by Word and Spirit. And so it is that the regenerating act
of God the Holy Spirit, though it is deep, secret, inaccessible, sovereign and
gracious, is done by means of the Word of God.
Just as in the very words "stretch out your hand" Jesus
communicated healing and strengthening power to the man with the withered arm
(Mark 3.5), and just as in the very words "Lazarus, come out" Jesus
communicated life to the dead man in the tomb (John 11.43), so it is by the
life-giving Word of the Gospel breathed into by the Spirit that the spiritually
dead are raised and spiritual rebirth happens. (James 1.18, 1 Peter 1.23).
7.
How does it feel?
How did it feel to be born? How did it feel for creation to be
created? How did it feel to be
reconstructed under anaesthetic after the appalling accident you suffered? We don't know these things. And nor is there an experience with its own
set of feelings which the Bible labels "regeneration". Massive things take place, huge changes are
brought about, a person's whole identity is transformed and yet this is a deep
work of the Spirit rather than a particularly felt experience of the human
subject.
8.
How does it show?
Jesus tells Nicodemus, "The wind blows
where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes
from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit."
(John 3.8). Though the inward renewal
of regeneration is not a felt experience, it certainly leads to a most profound
and visible change. The tree has changed
and so the fruit does too. The heart has
changed and so too does what comes out of it. The orientation has changed and
so too does the direction in which the person is walking.
The first - immediate, inevitable,
inseparable - fruit that a person's whole nature has been renewed is in his
penitent and believing acceptance of the gospel news which God has used to
communicate life to him. It's pointless
trying to separate the moment of regeneration from the moment (if there is a
"moment") of repentance and faith but we should certainly recognise
that only by a sovereign renewal of a sinner's nature will the one who hated
God (Romans 8.7) and could not come to Jesus (John 6.65) actually repent and believe.
But the new-born human now has a whole
new set of attitudes too. His attitude
to Christ is utterly different - Christ is now everything to him. His desires and emotions, his perspectives
and associations, his hopes and fears and ambitions - all have changed. "If anyone is in Christ he is a new
creation. The old has passed away; behold the new has come." (2 Corinthians 5.17)
9.
How long does it take?
The act of regeneration cannot be
timed. The outworking of regeneration
lasts a lifetime. This new creation,
this new-born person must grow up and become increasingly true to his
transformed core identity as a lover of God.
This will involve putting to death the ways and words which belonged to
his dead, old self and yet which are hanging over like the stench left by the
previous occupant of a house. And it
will involve the deliberate cultivation of the fruit of the Spirit, the graces
of the Christian disciple, the evidences that the tree is now good. Sometimes, therefore, Christian writers have
referred to this whole lifelong process of moral and spiritual renewal as
regeneration. Usually, however, it is
the no-help-needed, Spirit-given, deep-down, by-the-Word once-off start of this
process by the recreation and powerful cleansing of the human heart that is referred to as regeneration.
10.
What does it all mean?
It means everything. It's the difference
between being welcomed into the new heavens and new earth (where nothing that
defiles is allowed - Revelation 21.27) and being sent to hell (where the filth
of the universe collects). It's the
difference between being a true and proper human being in union with Jesus
Christ, the one True Man, and being a distortion of, an apology for, the dregs
and shadow of a human being. By God's
work of regeneration, normal service begins to be resumed in the life of a man.
And as for its implications, they tumble over themselves with mind-bending and
life-transforming richness. When we
understand the Bible's teaching on regeneration,
·
we understand what is wrong with the
world and how to put it right - the human heart is what is wrong and a divine
intervention to renew it in union with Jesus Christ is what is needed;
·
we give all praise to God for our
salvation realising that we had as much to do with it as we did with our
birth (1 Peter 1.3)
·
we recognise that God is passionately
opposed to sin in every way and that the free forgiveness which we receive on
the basis of the work of Christ is always accompanied by a deep cleansing of
the corruption of the human heart;
·
we delight in the fact that the people of
God are "saints" which means "those who have been cleaned up so
that they have access to the sanctuary" (Romans 1.7, 1 Corinthians 1.2);
·
we marvel that, as those who have
experienced inward renewal, Christians are fit dwelling-places for God by his
Spirit (1 Corinthians 3.16, 6.19, Ephesians 2.21-22, 5.18);
·
we see the centrality of the Word of God
in the accomplishment of his purposes as the means by which he both gives new life to the dead and shapes
and cultivates that new life in the Christian disciple (John 6.63, 68, Colossians 3.16, 2 Timothy 3.16-17);
·
we recognise that those who look at the
freeness of forgiveness and conclude that God is unconcerned with the state of
our hearts and lives could not be more wrong - the people whom God freely
forgives are always and exactly the same people whom he radically renews by the
Spirit (Romans 6);
·
we acknowledge the Spirit as giver of
life and live with a profound dependence on and gratitude to him (Galatians
5.25);
·
on the basis of what has happened to our
spirit we have hope for the renewal of our bodies and on the basis of what will
happen to our bodies we hope for the regeneration of the universe too (Romans
8.11, 20-25; Matthew 19.28)
Conclusion:
"Regeneration by the Holy
Spirit": out of the sheer grace of God, the Holy Spirit (who is the
personal power of the resurrection of Jesus) intervenes in a sovereign
initiative to raise the spiritually dead, giving them a new birth and making them
a new creation by a radical and profound transformation of the core of their
persons which is altogether his work. United to the Life of Jesus Christ, their
whole orientation is changed, their essential nature moves from that of
God-haters to that of God-lovers and this instant and secret recreation then
bears fruit in lifelong moral and spiritual renewal. The cynic tells us, "Get a life".
The Spirit announces, "And now for something completely different". And we wake up spiritually and cheerfully
announce, "Toto, we're not in
~~~~~~~~~~~~
Bible Study: James 1.1-27
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
To discuss:
a) “the
heart of being a Christian is trying to behave according to the moral teaching
of Jesus”
b) “the
heart of being a Christian is a deep, invisible, spiritual experience –
emphasis on behaviour is just moralism”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Relating this chapter to the chapter on
justification:
The mess that sin has made of the world
goes deep and spreads wide. In particular,
the sinner finds himself with two huge problems.
The first of these has been explored in
the chapter on justification, namely, the sinner's legal status as guilty on
the basis of the almost countless ways in which he has failed to love God with
his whole being and love his neighbour as himself. Blessedly, this problem is dealt with
through the death of Jesus in place of sinners and by the judicial declaration
of God who pardons all who believe in Jesus and announces that he is perfectly
satisfied with them for the sake of Jesus. Their status is changed.
All things considered, however, there's
not much comfort for a condemned criminal in being granted an unexpected and
total pardon by the King if he is also suffering from a vile disease that will
kill him within days and which requires his isolation from all good company in
any case.
And this points to the other massive
problem for the sinner. He not only has
a guilty status, he suffers from a foul and terminal disease, that is, he has a corrupt nature. He not only needs
forgiveness for his transgressions, he also needs inward renewal from his
corruption. The death of Jesus in his place deals with the punishment which was
otherwise coming to the sinner. But the
Holy Spirit, who is the resurrection power of Jesus, deals with the
depravity, the suppression of truth, the misdirected desires, the false
valuations, the impure passions, the ungodly emotions
- in short, the fouled-up nature of the sinner.
The chapter on justification dealt with the
issue of a legal status of guilty. This chapter deals with the issue of a
sinful inward nature which is corrupt.