Regeneration

Stephen Charnock (1685-1752)

It differs from sanctification. Habitual sanctification indeed is the same thing with this new creature; as habitual rectitude with the spiritual life of Adam: but actual sanctification, and the gradual progress of it, grows from this principle as from a root. Faith purifies the heart, “Purifying their hearts by faith.” Acts xv. 9. And is the cause of this gradual sanctification; but faith is part of this new creature, and that which is a part cannot be the cause of the whole, for then it would be the cause of itself. We are not regenerated by faith, though we are sanctified by faith; but we are new created by the Spirit of God infusing faith into us. Faith produceth the acts of grace, but not the habit of grace, because it is of itself a part of this habit; for all graces are but one in the habit or new creature; charity, and likewise every other grace is but the bubbling up of a pure heart and good conscience. Regeneration seems to be the life of this gradual sanctification, the health and liveliness of the soul.

Regeneration is not a removal or taking away of the old substance or faculties of the soul. Some thought that the substance of Adam’s soul was corrupted when he sinned, therefore suppose the substance of his soul to be altered when he is renewed. Sin took not away the essence, but the rectitude; the new creation therefore gives not a new faculty, but a new quality. The cure of the leprosy is not a destroying of the fabric of the body, but the disease; yet in regard of the greatness of man’s corruption, the soul is so much changed by these new habits, that it is, as it were, a new soul, a new understanding, a new will. It is not the destroying the metal, but the old stamp upon it, to imprint a new: human nature is preserved, but the corruption in it expelled.

(From: “The Doctrine of Regeneration”)

It consists in a real change from nature to grace, as well as by grace. The term of creation is real: the form introduced in the new creature, is a real as the form introduced by creation, into any being, Scripture terms manifest it so. A divine nature, the image of God, a law put into the heart, they are not nominal and notional. It is a reality the soul partakes of; it gives a real denomination, a new man, a new heart, a new spirit, a new creature, something of a real existence; it is called a resurrection. “The hour is coming, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God, and they that hear shall the voice of the Son of God, and they that hear shall live.” John v. 25. If Christ had said only, that the hour shall come, it had been meant of the last resurrection; but saying, that it was already come, it must be meant of a resurrection in this life. There is as real a resurrection of the soul, by the trumpet of the gospel, accompanied with the vigorous efficacy of the Holy Ghost, as there shall be of bodies by the voice of the Son of God, at the sound of the trumpet of the archangel. All real operations suppose some real form whence they flow; as vision supposeth a power whereby a man sees, and also a nature wherein that power is rooted. The operations of a new creature are real; and therefore suppose a real power to act, and a real habit as the spring of them. It is such a being that enables them to produce real spiritual actions; for the spirit of power is conveyed to them; whereby as when they were out of Christ, they were able to do nothing, so now being in him, they are able to do all things.

It is a change common to all the children of God. If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: every man in Christ is so. It is peculiar to them, and common to all of them. The new creation gives being to all Christians. It is a new being settled in them, a new impress and signature set upon them, whereby they are distinguished from all men, barely considered in their naturals. As all of the same species have the same nature; as all men have the nature of men, all lions the nature of lions; so all saints agree in one nature: the life of God is communicated to all, whose names are written in the book of life. All believers, those in Africa, as well as those in Europe; those in heaven, as well as those on earth, have the same essential nature and change. As they are all of one family, all actuated by one spirit, the heart of one answers to the heart of another, as face to face in a glass. What is a spirit of adoption in them below, is a spirit of glory in them above; what in the renewed man below, is a spirit crying Abba, Father; that is n them above, a spirit rejoicing in Abba, Father; the impress and change are essentially the same, though not the same in degree.

It is a change quite contrary to the former frame. What more contrary to light than darkness? Such a change it is; instead of a black darkness, there is a bright light. As contrary as flesh and spirit; “that which is born of the flesh, is flesh; that which is born of the Spirit, is spirit.” John iii. 6. Where both are put in the abstract, one is the composition of flesh, the other of spirit: as contrary as east to west; as the seed of the woman to the seed of the serpent; as the spirit of the world, and the Spirit of God. The frame of the heart before the new creation, and the frame of the heart after, bear as great a distance from one another as heaven from earth. As God and sin are the most contrary to one another; so an affection to God, and an affection to sin, are the most contrary affections. It is quite another bent of heart, as if a man turn from north to south. It is a position quite contrary to what it was; the heart touched by grace, stands full to God, as before to sin; it is stripped of its perverse inclinations to sin, clothed with holy affections to God: he abhors what before he loved, and loves what before he abhorred: he was alienated from the life of God, but now alienated from the life of his lusts: nothing would before serve him but God’s departure from him; nothing will now please him, but God’s rays upon him. He was before tired with God’s service, now tired with his own. Before, crucifying the motions of the Spirit, now crucifying the affections and lusts. That which was before, his life and happiness, is now his death and misery; he dislikes his foolish pastimes and sinful pleasures, as much as man does the follies of his childhood; and is as cheerful in loathing them, as before he was jolly in committing them. It is a translation “from the power of darkness, into the kingdom of his dear Son.” Colos. i. 13. A word taken from the transplanting of colonies: they are in a contrary soul and climate, they have other works, other laws, other privileges, other natures: as Christ’s resurrection was a state quite contrary to the former; at the time of his death he was in a state of guilt by reason of our sin; at his resurrection he is freed from it; he was before made under the law, he is then freed from the curse of it; he was before in a state of death, after his resurrection in a state of life, and lives for ever. God pulls out the heart of stone, that inflexibleness to him and his service; and plants a heart of flesh in the room, a pliableness to him and his will. It is as great a change, as when a wolf is made a lamb, the nature of the wolf is lost, and the lamb-like nature introduced. By corruption man was carnal and brutish; by the new creation he is spiritual and divine; by corruption he hath the image of the devil; by this he is restored to the image of God; by that he had the seeds of all villainies; by this the roots of all graces: that made us fly from God, this makes us return to him; that made us enemies to his authority; this subjects us to his government; that made us contemn his law; this makes us prize and obey it. “Instead of the thorn, there shall come up the fir-tree; instead of the briar, shall come up the myrtle-tree,” Isa. lv. 14; and God will preserve it from being cut off, speaking of the time of redemption.

It is a universal change of the whole man. It is a new creature, not only a new power, or new faculty: this, as well as creation, extends to every part, understanding, will, conscience, affections, all were corrupted by sin, all are renewed by grace. Grace sets up its ensigns in all parts of the soul, surveys every corner, and triumphs over every lurking enemy; it is as large in renewing, as sin was in defacing. The whole soul shall be glorified in heaven; therefore the whole soul shall be beautified by grace. The beauty of the church is described in every part, Can. iv. 1, 2, 3, 4, &c.

This new creation bears resemblance to creation and generation. God in creation creates all parts of the creature entire. When nature forms a child in the womb, it doth not only fashion one part, leaving the other imperfect; but labours about all, to form an entire man: the Spirit is busy about every part in the formation of the new creature. Generation gives the whole shape to the child, unless it be monstrous. God doth not produce monsters in grace; there is the whole shape of the new man. You mistake much, if you rest in a reformation of one part only; God will say, such a work was none of my creation. He doth not do things by halves.

(From: “The Doctrine of Regeneration”)

John Flavel (1762-1848)

Having seen the nature and properties of the spiritual life, we are concerned, in the next place, to inquire HOW IT IS WROUGHT by the Spirit.

1. And here we must say, first of all, that the work is wrought in the soul very mysteriously; so Christ tells Nicodemus, “The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, or whither it goeth; so is every one that is born of the Spirit.” John 3:8. There are many opinions among philosophers about the origin of the wind, but we have no certain knowledge of it; we describe it by its effects and properties, but know little of its origin: and if the works of God in nature are so abstruse and unsearchable, how much more are these sublime and supernatural works of the Spirit? We are not able to solve the phenomena of nature, we can give no account of our own formation in the womb. Eccl. 11:5. Who can exactly describe how the parts of the body are formed and the soul infused? It is curiously wrought in the lower parts of the earth, as the Psalmist speaks, Psalm 139:15; but how, we know not. Basil saith divers questions may be moved about a fly, which may puzzle the greatest philosopher: we know little of the forms and essences of natural things, much less of the profound and abstruse spiritual things.

2. But though we cannot pry into these secrets by the eye of reason, God hath revealed to us in his word, that it is wrought by his own almighty power. Eph. 1:19. The apostle ascribes this work to the exceeding greatness of the power of God; and this must needs by, if we consider how the Spirit of God expresses it in Scripture by a new creation–a giving being to something out of nothing. Eph. 2:10. In this it differs from all the effects of human power, for man always works upon some preexistent matter, but here is no such matter. Nothing is found in man to contribute towards this work; this supernatural life is not, nor can it be educed out of natural principles; this wholly transcends the sphere of all natural power: but of this more anon.

3. This also we may affirm, that the whole soul and spirit is the recipient of this divine life, and thus it is called a new creature, a new man, having an integral perfection and fulness of all its parts and members: it becomes light in the mind, John 17:3; obedience in the will, 1 Peter 1:2; in the affections a heavenly temper and tenderness, Col. 3:1, 2. And here, we must observe, lies one main difference between a regenerate soul and a hypocrite: the one is all of a piece, as I may say, the principle of spiritual life runs into all and every faculty and affection, and sanctifies or renews the whole man; whereas the change upon the hypocrite is but partial and particular: he may have new light, but no new love; a new tongue, but not a new heart; this or that vice may be reformed, but the whole course of his life is not altered.

4. This imparting of spiritual life is done instantaneously, as all creation work is; hence it is resembled to that plastic power which, in a moment, made the light to shine out of darkness. So God shines into our hearts. 2 Cor. 4:6. It is true, a soul may be a long time under the preparatory work of the Spirit, under convictions and humiliations, purposes and resolutions; he may be attending means and ordinances, but when the Spirit comes to quicken the soul it is done in a moment, and O what a blessed moment is this, upon which the whole weight of our eternal happiness depends; for it is Christ in us, Christ formed in us the hope of glory. Col. 1:27. And our Lord expressly tells us, that except we be regenerate and born again, we cannot see the kingdom of God.

(From: “The Method of Grace”)

John Kennedy (1674-1712)

All who are in Christ are born again, are “justified freely by grace,” and are “the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus.” There are thus three lines along which we must trace their relation to God.

I. They are “born again.” Once they were “dead in trespasses and sins”; their souls being then of spiritual life as void as is of soul that body which lies putrid in the grave (Eph. 2:4,5). But in the right of Christ, their federal Head, who, with His blood did seal the covenant of grace, and is therefore entitled to apply its provision to His redeemed, the Holy Spirit quickened them. In doing so He expressed His own divine and sovereign love (John 15:26); but, according to the scheme of redemption, He came from the Father as the representative of the Godhead, to fulfil His purpose, and from Christ, who, as exalted Mediator, hath power to send Him, that He may see his promised seed (John 16:7).

The life which the Spirit communicated is distinct, though inseparable, from Himself (Ezek. 36:26,27). It is the life of God–a principle kindred to what God is in His moral character; a holy thing which cannot sin; a seed which cannot die. This principle of spiritual life is in the soul as one essence. The soul thus quickened has a new tendency in all its faculties, and a new power to be developed in all its modes of action. Regeneration has introduced a germ of all holiness–a “new man,” complete in all his members. All the graces of the Spirit are seminally in this principle, though there is an order in their development, and though each phase of the spiritual life has its own distinctive character. “Faith” must be its first development in the soul of an adult; “hope and charity” are inseparable from it, but in its train; and though it is one principle that is developed in these, faith is not hope, nor is hope charity. They differ as modes of action, though they express the same principle.

This regeneration results in a new birth–the former being the work of the Spirit, the latter, the change through which the subject of that work passes (John 3:3). This new birth is the soul’s entrance, through union to Christ, within the bonds of the covenant of grace. Christ, who magnified the law as a covenant of works, and thus redeemed His people from its curse and yoke, has a right to come to them by His Spirit, as they lie under it, to bring them living out of bondage. Their union to the Adam, in whom they sinned and died, is lawfully and actually dissolved, and they are now in the Second Adam, in whom they are righteous and shall live for ever. In the case of an adult it cannot be said that the new birth is complete without faith. There can be union to Christ without it, for an infant can be born again; but no unbelieving adult can enter the Kingdom of God (John 3:36; 1:12,13). Regeneration precedes and produces faith; but the exercise of that faith is necessary in order to the change implied in the new birth of an adult.

In the person thus quickened and in Christ, the Holy Spirit dwells (1 Cor. 6:19; 2 Cor. 6:16). The “body”–the whole person–is the tabernacle of His presence, but the new heart is the special place of His rest. And “he who is joined to the Lord is one spirit with Him”; for the Spirit who, in all His fulness, dwells in Christ the Head, dwells also in him the member, in order to preserve from destroyers the holy place of His gracious presence, and to sanctify the whole temple unto God.

The regenerated are therefore subjects of the work, and temples of the presence, of the Holy Ghost; they are the seed and the members of Christ the Son; and they are of, and in, God the Father.

(From: “Man’s Relations to God”)

Martin Luther (1803-1828)

Now, a new creature, whereby the image of God is renewed, is not made by any colour or counterfeiting of good works (“for in Christ Jesu neither circumcision availeth any thing, nor uncircumcision”), but by Christ, by whom it was created after the image of God in righteousness and true holiness. When works are done, they bring indeed a new show and outward appearance wherewith the world and the flesh are delighted, but now a new creature; for the heart remaineth wicked as it was before, full of the contempt of God and infidelity. Therefore a new creature is the work of the Holy Ghost, which cleanseth our heart by faith (Acts xv. 9), and worketh the fear of God, love, chastity, and other Christian virtues, and giveth power to bridle the flesh, and to reject the righteousness of the world. Here is no colouring or new outward show, but a thing done indeed. Here is created another sense and another judgment, that is to say, altogether spiritual, which abhorreth those things that before it greatly esteemed. The monkish life and order did so bewitch us in time past, that we thought there was no other way to salvation. But now we judge of it far otherwise. We are now ashamed of those things which we adored as most heavenly and holy, before we were regenerated into this new creature.

Wherefore the changing of garments and other outward things, is not a new creature, as the monks dream, but it is the renewing of the mind by the Holy Ghost, after the which followeth a change of the members and senses of the whole body. For when the heart hath conceived a new light, a new judgment, and new motions, through the Gospel, it cometh to pass that the inward senses are also renewed, for the ears desire to hear the word of God, and not the traditions and dreams of men. The mouth and tongue do not vaunt of their own works, righteousness, and rules, but they set forth the mercy of God only, offered to us in Christ. These changes consist not in words, but are effectual and bring a new spirit, a new will, new senses, and new operations of the flesh; so that the eyes, ears, mouth, and tongue do not only see, hear, and speak, otherwise than they did before, but the mind also approveth, loveth, and followeth another thing than it did before. For before, being blinded with popish errors and darkness, it imagined God to be a merchant, who would sell unto us his grace for our works and merits. But now, in the light of the Gospel, it assureth us that we are counted righteous by faith only in Christ. Therefore it now rejecteth all will-works, and accomplisheth the works of charity and of our vocation commanded by God. It praiseth and magnifieth God; it rejoiceth and glorieth in the only trust and confidence of God’s mercy through Jesus Christ. If it must suffer any trouble or affliction, it endureth the same cheerfully and gladly, although the flesh repine and grudge thereat. This Paul calleth a new creature.

(From: “A Commentary on Saint Paul’s Epistle to the Galatians”)

John Owen (1616-1683)

2 Cor. v. 17, “If any man be in Christ he is a new creature.” This new creature is that which is intended, that which was before described, which being born of the Spirit is spirit. This is produced in the souls of men by a creating act of the power of God, or it is not a creature. And it is superinduced into the essential faculties of our souls, or it is not a new creature; for whatever is in the soul of power, disposition, ability, or inclination unto God, or for any moral actions, by nature, it belongs unto the old creation, it is no new creature. And it must be somewhat that hath a being and subsistence of its own in the soul, or it can be neither new nor a creature. And by our apostle it is opposed to all outward privileges, Gal. v. 6, vi. 15. That the production of it also is by a creating act of almighty power the Scripture testifieth, Ps. li. 10; Eph. ii. 10; and this can denote nothing but a new spiritual principle or nature wrought in us by the Spirit of God. “No,” say some; “a new creature is no more but a changed man.” It is true; but then this change is internal also. “Yes, in the purposes, designs, and inclinations of the mind.” But is it by a real infusion of a new principle of spiritual life and holiness? “No; it denotes no more but a new course of conversation, only the expression is metaphorical. A new creature is a moral man that hath changed his course and way; for if he were always a moral man, that he was never in any vicious way or course, as it was with him, Matt. xix. 16-22, then he was always a new creature.” This is good gospel, at once overthrowing original sin and the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ! This doctrine, I am sure, was not learned from the fathers, whereof some used to boast; nay, it is much more fulsome than any thing ever taught by Pelagius himself, who, indeed, ascribed more unto grace than these men do, although he denied this creation of a new principle of grace in us antecedent unto acts of obedience. And this turning all Scripture expressions of spiritual things into metaphors is but a way to turn the whole into a fable, or at least to render the gospel the most obscure and improper way of teaching the truth of things that ever was made use of in the world.

This new creature, therefore, doth not consist in a new course of actions, but in renewed faculties, with new dispositions, power, or ability to them and for them. Hence it is called the “divine nature:” 2 Pet. i. 4. “He hath given unto us exceeding great and precious promises, that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature.” This theia fusiv, this “divine nature,” is not the nature of God, whereof in our own persons we are not subjectively partakers; and yet a nature it is which is a principle of operation, and that divine or spiritual,–namely, an habitual holy principle, wrought in us by God, and bearing his image. By the “promises,” therefore, we are made partakers of a divine, supernatural principle of spiritual actions and operations; which is what we contend for. So the whole of what we intend is declared, Eph. iv. 22-24. “Put off concerning the former conversation the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts; and be renewed in the spirit of your mind; and put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness.” It is the work of regeneration, with respect both to its foundation and progress, that is here described. 1. The foundation of the whole is laid in our being “renewed in the spirit of our mind;’ which the same apostle elsewhere calls being “transformed in the renovation of our minds,” Rom. xii. 2. That this consists in the participation of a new, saving, supernatural light, to enable the mind unto spiritual actings, and to guide it therein, shall be afterward declared. Herein consists our “renovation in knowledge, after the image of him who created us,” Col. iii. 10. And, 2. The principle itself infused into us, created in us, is called the “new man,” Eph. iv. 24,–that is , the new creature before mentioned; and it is called the “new man,” because it consists in the universal change of the whole soul, as it is the principle of all spiritual and moral action. And, (1.) It is opposed unto the “old man,” Put off the old man, and put on the new man,” verses 22, 24. Now, this “old man” is the corruption of our nature, as that nature is the principle of all religious, spiritual, and moral actions, as is evident, Rom. vi. 6. It is not a corrupt conversation, but the principle and root of it; for it is distinguished both from the conversation of men, and those corrupt lusts which are exercised therein, as to that exercise. And, (2.) It is called the “new man,” because it is the effect and product of God’s creating power, and that in a way of “a new creation,” see Eph. i. 19; Col. ii. 12, 13; 2 Thess. i. 11; and it is here said to be “created after God,” Eph. iv. 24. Now, the object of a creating act is an instantaneous production. Whatever preparations there may be for it and dispositions unto it, the bringing forth of a new form and being be creation is in an instant. This, therefore, cannot consist in a mere reformation of life. So are we said herein to be the “workmanship of God, created in Christ Jesus unto good works,” chap. ii. 10. There is a work of God in us preceding all our good works towards him; for before we can work any of them, in order of nature, we must by the workmanship of God, created unto them, or enabled spiritually for the performance of them.

(From: “Works”)