Doctrine Of Regeneration
The understanding of the biblical doctrine of regeneration has been lost by many Christians today. This failure to fully understand regeneration starts with a failure to understand that regeneration is entirely a work of God. The problem of presenting a coherent argument for God being active and man as passive in regeneration has sometimes been a tough one for me, especially when faced with a brief meeting between friends. In the book, Studies in the Atonement, by Dr. Robert Morey, we have a presentation of scripture (Chapter 11), showing us how the Bible compares regeneration to creation, birth and resurrection. The verses are as follows:
- Creation – “Therefore, if any man is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come” (2 Cor. 5:17) and “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them” (Eph. 2:10).
- Birth – “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God” (John 3:3).
- Resurrection – “Even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus” (Eph. 2:5-6)
I’ve found that the presentation of these verses doesn’t take but a few minutes. We can use these verses to bring the Word of God to our synergistic-leaning friends and trust God to change their position of regeneration by cooperative efforts. After presenting these four short verses, we can ask our friends what part mankind plays in creation, birth or resurrection. If they’re not feeling difficult, they will respond that mankind has absolutely nothing to do with all three. We can show them that making a decision to follow Jesus Christ as Lord prior to regeneration would mean that mankind contributes to the process of regeneration. A biblical understanding of regeneration may lead people to abandon ideas of easy-believism that plague many churches in America.
I understand that Dr. Morey’s book, Studies in the Atonement, will be re-released shortly through the ministry of Faith Defenders. My summary here only serves as a way that I have used a portion of the book in my personal life. Dr. Morey presents far more discussion on regeneration in Chapter 11 than I have stated here. If you don’t have this book yet, I would highly recommend it. Biblical Thought will let everyone know when the new version of the book will be available, but it will be soon. I have seen the newly re-designed cover and it looks great!
4 Comments, Comment or Ping
Hebba
Amen!
Great post.
There are many people I need to share these particular verses with. I better get on that!
I can’t wait for the release of Studies in the Atonement!!!!
Nov 28th, 2007
Reformed Mama
I appreciate the way you have laid out the pattern of Creation, Birth and Resurrection with the Scriptures!
Nov 28th, 2007
Stephen
Drew, I can’t say how excited I am about the reissued “Studies in the Atonement.” My old one is literraly torn into three or four smaller books due to the worn-out binding. What an awesome time that God chose to make the book available, in the middle of a revolution right before a Reformation!
Nov 29th, 2007
E.Speedy Camez
This will help tremendously in sharing the Gospel with my “synergistic-leaning friends & family”. I hate to say but there are ALOT of them out there, that I know, who believe they can chose God when they’re ready, or they can say a prayer at a crusade and be saved no matter how they live.
Good post brother.
Nov 29th, 2007
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