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Monthly Archives: November 2018
Spiritus Recreator
This is an excerpt from the outstanding book “The Holy Spirit” by Sinclair B. Ferguson (G. Bray, Ed.) (pp. 115–138). Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press. 1996
The union with Christ into which the Spirit brings us is multi-dimensional in character. To be ‘in Christ’, says Paul, is to enter a ‘new creation’ (2 Cor. 5:17); the old order of sin and death, the age dominated by the flesh and the devil, have given way to a new order of reality in the resurrecton of Christ. Thus the mutual bonding between Christ and his people in the Spirit is the fulfilment of all that was adumbrated in the old covenant bond between Yahweh and his people in the Exodus and entrance into the land of rest; grounded in the work of the Messiah, it is forged through the ongoing work of the Spirit creating a new humanity.
Because it is multi-dimensional, life in union with Christ is necessarily viewed from various perspectives in the New Testament. It involves identification with him in his death, resurrection and ascension; but it also involves a correlation of the action of God with the action of man. As we have seen, Scripture stresses its monergistic roots (God is its author); it is bilateral in nature, with faith as its other polarity. The threads of regeneration and faith are inextricably intertwined. In both dimensions of activity the Spirit is active. These strands are capable of separate analysis (indeed, they ought not to be regarded as identical), but they cannot be existentially separated from each other. They belong together in such a way that we cannot mark a join where the monergistic action of God ends and the activity of the believer begins. It is significant in this context that both regeneration and the elements of conversion are regarded in the New Testament as gifts of God.
Regeneration
Union to Christ is inaugurated by the renewing work of the Spirit in which he begins the transformation into the image of Christ which will be completed at the eschaton. The ancient promise is thus fulfilled that God would give his people new hearts and spirits through the indwelling of his Spirit, resulting in a new lifestyle (Ezk. 36:24–27).
This transition was marked in the New Testament by the rite of baptism. By the time of Justin Martyr and Irenaeus in the late second century AD, regeneration already seems to have become so closely associated with its symbol of baptism that the two were thought of as coincident. This link became so refined that the sign and the thing signified were related in a sine qua non fashion, and a sacramentalist view of regeneration came to dominate the theology of the church. Even for Augustine, to whom the Reformers looked as the great theologian of grace, the idea of regeneration apart from water baptism was unthinkable. The doctrine of the limbus infantum for those who died in infancy unbaptized thus became virtually a dogmatic necessity for the medieval church.
While the mainstream Reformation thinkers continued to emphasize the role and necessity of baptism as the sign of regeneration, they argued that any identification of the two must be seen as sacramental and not mechanical; the sign and the thing signified must not be confused, as though the grace indicated by the sign were contained within it.
Particularly in the teaching of Calvin the term ‘regeneration’ was used to denote the renewal which the Spirit effects throughout the whole course of the Christian life. For him it describes the same reality denoted by ‘conversion’ and ‘repentance’ but viewed from a different perspective. Later, in many seventeenth-century writers, effectual calling and regeneration tended to be treated as synonyms. Only in the continuing development of evangelical theology did the term come to be used in the more limited and particular sense of the inauguration of new life by the sovereign and secret activity of God. While this served to focus attention on the power of God in giving new life, when detached from its proper theological context it was capable of being subjectivized and psychologized to such an extent that the term ‘born again’ became dislocated from its biblical roots.
But what does the New Testament itself mean when it speaks about ‘regeneration’? In the structure of evangelical soteriology, regeneration has occupied such a central role that ‘second birth’ has been regarded as the definitive element of genuine Christian experience. Yet the New Testament term for regeneration, palingenesia (from palin, ‘again’, and genesis, ‘beginning’) occurs only twice in the New Testament. In Matthew 19:28, it refers to the ‘renewal of all things’, the final rebirth of the universe, a meaning that stands in marked contrast with its use in Stoic thought as the periodic restoration of the world.
Palingenesia here is the final resurrection, the realized adoption of God’s sons, the redemption of their bodies and of the entire groaning creation (Rom. 8:19ff.), and the establishment of the new heavens and the new earth, the home of righteousness (2 Pet. 3:13). It is cosmic in its effects.
The only other occurrence of palingenesia is in Titus 3:5, where Paul speaks of the ‘washing of rebirth [palingenesia] and renewal by the Holy Spirit’. It is difficult to be dogmatic about the meaning of this phrase. Does the washing consist in rebirth, effect rebirth, or symbolize new birth (through baptism)? Does the statement refer to two actions (washing and renewal), or is it a hendiadys (in which a single idea is denoted by two expressions)?
This latter interpretation seems likely and, if valid, suggests a striking connection between the regeneration of the individual and the dawning of the new age, since Paul’s only other use of ‘renewal’ (anakainōsis, Rom. 12:2) serves the function of emphasizing the contrast between the present world order and that of the age to come. Furthermore, as H. N. Ridderbos has pointed out, the outpouring of the Spirit to which Paul refers in this context is ‘typical eschatological terminology’. It underlines the fact that Paul sees regeneration within a broader context as a share in the renewal-resurrection which has been inaugurated by the Spirit in Christ. The renewal which is effected in regeneration (and symbolized in baptism) is, therefore, not merely an inner change; it is the incursion of a new order into the present order of reality. Thus regeneration (palingenesia) and the cognates (anagennaō; gennēthēnai anōthen) denoted not merely the phenomenon of spiritual change from within, from below as it were, but transformation from without and from above, caused by participation in the power of the new age and more specifically by fellowship through the Spirit with the resurrected Christ as the second man, its firstfruits, the eschatological Adam (ho eschatos Adam, 1 Cor. 15:45). This is the note which became muted in the teaching of the postapostolic church but which must be recovered.
New creation—new life
While the term ‘regeneration’ is not strictly associated with the work of the Holy Spirit in the New Testament, the idea of inauguration into the kingdom of God as a Spirit-wrought new birth is widespread and is in fact foundational in Johannine theology: ‘To all who received him [Christ], to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God—children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God’ (Jn. 1:12–13). That this birth is the work of the Spirit is later underlined by Jesus’ words to Nicodemus: ‘No-one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit … the Spirit gives birth to Spirit … So it is with everyone born of the Spirit’ (Jn. 3:5–8). Being ‘born of God’ (i.e. through the Spirit) becomes as characteristic a description of being a Christian in Johannine theology as is the expression ‘in Christ’ in the Pauline corpus (cf. 1 Jn. 2:29; 3:9; 4:7; 5:1, 4, 18).
Elsewhere in the New Testament similar language is used of the renewing work of God. While reference to the Spirit is less direct, his sovereign action is nevertheless implied (e.g. in Jas. 1:18; 1 Pet. 1:3, 23). Paul views Christians as being like Isaac, children of the promise ‘born by the power of the Spirit’ (Gal. 4:29). Continue reading
What Have You Been Reading?
A long time Christian once came to me to confide that his spiritual life was as good as dead; it was so lack luster that he had abandoned all attempts to get alone with God, to read the Bible or to pray.
He said, “I feel like I am walking alone in a desert, with no sight of water. I am fairly desperate.”
This was a young man who to all outward appearances had it all together. He was active in ministry and showed great enthusiasm in the things of God. Yet I could see in his eyes that he was earnest about his true spiritual condition.
As he was talking to me I was silently asking God for wisdom as to what to say to him. After listening to him for a few minutes, a question popped up in my mind.
I then asked him, “May I ask, what is the last Christian book you ever read?”
I could tell the young man was more than a little surprised by my question. He answered that he once enjoyed reading, but now did not read much Christian material at all.
I pressed him further and he told me the title of the last Christian book he had read. I won’t mention the title here, for that is not really the issue. It could have been one of any number of books. I was familiar with the book he mentioned, and then asked him, “If I ask you to read something, would you do it?”
In desperation he said, “If you think it would help me Pastor, then yes, of course.”
I then said, “I have a book” and reached behind me to the shelf in my bookcase and pulled one down. “For the next month or so, please just take 10-15 minutes each day, and read this.”
He took the book and his face took on a very puzzled expression. It was not really a book about Christian devotion, per se. It was not a book about how to climb out of a spiritual rut.
The more he gazed at the book now in his hands, the more confused he became.
He asked, “What has this book got to do with my present struggle?”
I said, “Well, it does not address the issue you have directly, but I want you to trust me. Just commit to read it for 10-15 minutes each day until you get through it.”
He paused for a moment before saying, “ok, Pastor, I trust you, and I promise, I will do it.”
We talked a little more, but within a few minutes he left my office. I remember praying that God would restore this young man’s spiritual fire and zeal… and that seemed to be that.
Less than three weeks later, I encountered this young man after a Church service. He looked very happy and asked, “Do you have a minute?”
“Of course,” I said.
He then proceeded to tell me that his spiritual life was back on track and that his best time of the day – the time he most looked forward to – was his alone time with God and his Bible.
I asked, “What happened?”
He said, “I’ve been reading the book you gave me. It has opened up to me treasures I have never seen before. I read something and then for the rest of the day, my mind is captivated by what I have read, and I find I am thanking God for the insight, and… well, I just feel so close to God just now. I am a different man from the one you saw in your office a few weeks ago. But Pastor…?”
“Yes,” I said.
“Can you explain to me what has happened?”
I said, “Well, God has been very gracious to you to draw You closer to Himself.”
“Yes, I know that, but can you tell me what happened to me?”
I said, “Well, I think so.”
I then went on to explain that when he told me what he had been reading previously, I would have to categorize the book like a spiritual meal without any vitamins. It was a book that had very little content – a lot of fluff – and although popular, was merely like a pep talk rather than something of substance.
I said, “Can you imagine a 21 year old coming home from a full day of work and being excited to sit down and watch Sesame Street?”
“No,” he said.
“Well,” I said, “the book you were reading (and many like them before) were, spiritually speaking, like watching Sesame Street. Like the TV show, it’s great for kids, but there’s something wrong if an adult finds all he needs in that show. There comes a time when someone needs to move on – a time to enjoy more than “C is for Cookie.” Don’t get me wrong, I am a fan of the Cookie Monster. I think every child should get to know the Cookie Monster, Big Bird, Bert and Ernie and the Count. But there comes a time when you put away childish things and reach for the things of adulthood.”
I went on, “The book I gave you was an introduction to an adult form of Christianity. In reading it, I knew it would challenge both your heart and your mind. It would show you things you had never seen before. It was easy to read, and not the arduous thing you might have imagined.”
“Wow, I can see that now. Thank you so much Pastor. Would you write down maybe 4 or 5 book titles that I can read over the next few months?”
“I would be glad to… Come to my office and I will write a few titles down for you.”
As Christians, we are called upon to love the Lord with all our heart, soul, mind and strength. Of these, very little attention is given to the mind. Yet we love the Lord with our mind by thinking right thoughts about Him, learning and discovering treasures in His word, allowing our thoughts to go from the A, B, C’s of childhood, to the more weighty and meaty things of God.
“When I was a child, I used to speak like a child, think like a child, reason like a child; when I became a man, I did away with childish things.” 1 Cor. 13:11