Monthly Archives: January 2011

Regeneration Precedes Faith

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Understanding the relationship between the new birth and saving faith is vital to an accurate understanding of our salvation. I believe the Bible teaches us clearly that regeneration (or the new birth) precedes (comes before) faith. In other words, while in a state of spiritual death, God makes His elect people spiritually alive (regenerating them); then they exercise faith, and then they are justified.

Regeneration >>>> Faith >>>> Justification

This is a logical sequence rather than a temporal one in that all this might take place in a split second in time, but logically, one thing has to come before the other. Dead people don’t do anything. God has to resurrect a person before he will ever take actions. That is true both physically and spiritually. Jesus did not ask for or need Lazarus’ cooperation in order to raise him from the dead. If He did, the miracle of resurrection would never have happened. But Jesus acted monergistically (one power working), for without any assistance, He spoke life into Lazarus’ dead physical body. Once brought back from the dead, Lazarus could then do something and took steps to exit the tomb.

Understanding this principle of monergistic (one power working) resurrection allows us to fully appreciate the Divine miracle of our spiritual resurrection. If you are a believer in Christ, God has done this for you.

Paul, writing to the Christians at Ephesus wrote, “You He made alive who were dead in trespasses and sins.” (Eph. 2:1) The word for “dead” here in Greek is necros, meaning “dead like a corpse.” The Christians were once dead, but are now alive. Of course, Paul is refering to spiritual rather than physical death. In this passage there is no mention whatsoever of the Christian’s role in this, for the simple reason that the dead cannot do anything either to cause or to facilitate resurrection. Resurrection is an act of God – something He does by Himself – alone.

Spiritually dead people are not physically, intellectually or emotionally dead, and therefore have an interest in all kinds of (non-spiritual) things. They may or may not have an interest in religion, and may even appear to be seeking after God and truth, while the fact is, they are running as fast as they can away from Him, seeking refuge from Him in false religion or false forms of spirituality, having no interest in a relationship with the One true God. They may want the benefits of what a relationship with God would bring (peace, guilt removed, feelings of belonging, etc.), which is why they appear on the surface to be seeking God. That is because the Christian knows that the only One who can give these benefits, ultimately is God Himself. However, though unregenerate man longs for the benefits of what only a relationship with God can bring, he wants these things in independence of Him.

We do not know this from outward observation but by the revealed truth of God’s word. Romans 3:11 says, “there is no one who seeks for God” – literally, “there is no God seeker.” Seeking is therefore the business of the believer and starts at the moment of regeneration, but not before.

Those who are in the flesh (those without the Spirit) cannot please God, will not submit to the law of God and indeed, are incapable of doing so (Rom. 8:7,8). Jesus made it clear that unless someone is first born again they cannot enter the kingdom of God (John 3).

A verse that spells this out in some detail for us is 1 John 5:1. “Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God.”

In the original Greek, the verb tenses are very revealing. A literal translation reads: “All the ones going on believing (pisteuon, a present tense, continuous action) that Jesus is the Christ has been born (gennesanta, perfect tense – an action already complete with abiding effects) of God.”

The fact that someone is presently going on believing in Christ shows that they have first been born again. Faith is the evidence of regeneration, not the cause of it. Since both repentance and faith are possible only because of the work of God (regeneration), both are called the gift of God in scripture (Eph. 2:8, 9; Phil. 1:29; 2 Tim 2:24-26).

Here are two videos that walk us through the 1 John 5:1 text, the first by Dr. John Piper. Continue reading →

My Journey Into Grace (2)

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As I shared on the blog yesterday, I have not always been reformed in my thinking as a Christian. In coming to embrace the doctrines of grace, certain things impressed me. I was very much impressed that most of the great theologians of the church taught these doctrines of God’s Sovereignty. While they certainly had their differences on some things, when it came to the doctrine of Divine election, they all seemed to be in complete agreement.

None of these men individually, or even all of them collectively, could be in any way classed as infallible, yet because they all saw these issues in the same way, I remember thinking that this fact alone should cause me to pause and reflect a little.

I realized that it would be the height of pride on my part to dismiss everything they have to say without giving them a fair hearing. God had used these men greatly as his champions in church history; entire nations were affected by their ministries, both in their day and on into our own, and humility would teach me to at least become somewhat familiar with their words and works, and not just read what others might say about them with all the bias that usually goes with that.

However, it was not the greats of church history that carried the most weight with me. It was not their writings and commentaries, as good as they were. What convinced me was seeing the doctrines clearly taught in Scripture. Understanding what Paul taught in Romans 8 and 9 as well as Ephesians 1 and 2 (after dispensing with much of my human traditions in the process) had a huge effect on me. Yet what brought me all of the way over into seeing it, and much more than that, embracing it, and delighting in it, was seeing the doctrines taught through the words of the Lord Jesus Himself. Continue reading →

My Journey Into Grace

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I was born and raised in Chester in England. My father was a Baptist Evangelist and yet I never really grew up in Church. That really is a strange scenario and one I now view as in no way biblical. But that was the reality.

My Dad used to travel extensively to preach, and that meant that my mother and I seldom went with him to Church. That was until my Dad became the pastor of a local Church.

I remember being extremely bored with Church as a child and was far more interested in soccer (called football over in England). I wanted to be a pro-soccer player. My favorite part of the Church service was the benediction – I was so glad when it all was over!

I remember seeing my Dad reading and studying his old black leather King James Bible (I was probably around age 9 at the time) and thought to myself, “that looks so boring to me – spending hours with a book that’s hard to read, in language I cannot understand – you’ll never catch me doing that.”

One Sunday night, when I was 14, my father did ask me to go with him to hear an Evangelist preach. His sermon was on the second coming of Christ. I remember him looking at the crowd, but yet it seemed that his gaze was focused on me, as he said “for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.” My first thought was “how does the preacher know of my sin? How does he know I am a sinner?” Like a bolt from the blue I realized my lost condition and that I would be embarrassed with shame if I had to stand before God in that condition.

An appeal was made for salvation and I responded by raising my hand, walking the aisle, signing the card provided… but more than anything I just knew of my need for Christ to be my Savior to hide me from the fierce judgment of God. When I later returned to my seat (after around 15 minutes in a counseling area) my father still had tears streaming down his face. I think it was the first and only time I saw my father cry. Some time later he told me that my parents had been praying earnestly for my salvation for many years.

I then started attending the church on a regular basis, but as I look back, one of the biggest changes in my life was evident in my love for Bible study. I would spend all my allowance money on Bible teaching tapes… I just couldn’t get enough. I would spend 3 – 4 hours every night learning the Scriptures and hearing Bible teaching. That same passionate desire for the Word of God is still present in my life today.

My first 20 years as a Christian were spent as an Arminian. I would never have used such a term to describe myself, but looking back I can see that I held to the doctrines taught by Arminianism. For the most part, I was never really exposed to the doctrines of Grace that I now consider so precious. Oh, certainly, I met many a Reformed man in my time; in fact, many of them were my instructors and professors at the Bible College I attended in England, but no one ever sat down with me to try to explain the Reformed faith. Continue reading →