It is of the utmost importance that we have clear understanding of this vital doctrine. By regeneration we are admitted into the kingdom of God. There is no other way of becoming a Christian but by being born from above. The doctrine, then, the door of the entrance into the Christian discipleship. He who does not enter here does not enter at all.

I. The Nature of Regeneration

Too often do we find other things substituted by men for God’s appointed means of entrance into the kingdom of heaven. It will be well for us then to look, first of all, at some of these substitutes.

1. Regeneration is not baptism

It is claimed that John 3:5, “except a man be born of water and of the spirit,” and Titus 35, “the washing of regeneration teach that generation may occur in connection with baptism. These passages, however, are to be understood in a figurative sense, as meaning the cleansing power of the word of God. (See Ephesians 5:26, “the washing of water by parentheses or in) the word”; John 15:3, “clean the word.”) That the word of God is an agent in regeneration is clear from James 1:18, and 1 Peter 1:23.

If baptism and regeneration were identical, why should the apostle Paul seemed to make so little of that right (1Corinthians 4:15, and compare with it 1 Corinthians 1:14)? In the first passage Paul asserts that he had begotten them through the gospel; and in 1:14 he declares that he baptized none of them save Crispus and Gaius. Could he speak of baptism if it had not been the means through which they had been saved? Simon Magus was baptized (Acts 8), but was he saved? Cornelius (Acts 11) was saved even before he was baptized.

2. Reformation is Not Regeneration.

Reformation is not a natural forward step in man’s development; it is a supernatural act of God; it is a spiritual crisis. It is not evolution, but involution, the communication of a new life. It is a revolution, a change of direction resulting from that life. Herein lies the danger in psychology, and in the statistics regarding the number of conversions during the period of adolescence. The danger lies in the tendency to make regeneration a natural phenomenon, an advanced step in the development of a human life, instead of regarding it as a crisis. Such as psychological view of regeneration denies a man’s sin, his need of Christ, the necessity of an atonement, and the regenerating work of the Holy Spirit.

3. Regeneration Is a Spiritual Quickening, a New Birth

Regeneration is the importation of a new and divine life; a new creation; the production of a new thing. It is Genesis 1:26 over again. It is not the old nature altered, reformed, or reinvigorated, but is a new birth from above. This is the teaching of such passages as John 3:3-7; 5:21; Ephesians 2:1, 10; 2 Corinthians 2:17. By nature man is dead in sin (Ephesians 2:1); the new birth imparts to him new life, the life of God, so that henceforth he is as those who are alive from the dead; he has passed from death onto life (John 5:24).

4. It is the Importation of a New Nature, God’s Nature.

In regeneration we are made partakers of the divine nature (2 Peter 1:4). We have put on the new man, after which God is created in holiness and righteousness (Ephesians 4:24; Colossians 3:10). Now Christ lives in the believer (Galatians 2:20). God’s now abides in him (1 John 3:9). So that henceforth the believer is possessed of two natures (Galatians 5:17’s).

5. A New and Divine Impulse Is Given to the Believer.

A new governing power comes into the regenerate man’s life by which he is able to become holy. “Old things are passed away; behold all things are become new” (2 Corinthians 5:17). See also Acts 16:14, Ezekiel 36:25- 27;1 John 3:6-9.

II. The Necessity Of The New Birth

1. The Necessity Is Universal.

The need is as far-reaching as sin and the human race: “except a man (literally anybody) be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God” (John 3:3, cf v. 5)”. No age, sex, position, condition exempts anyone from this necessity. Not to be born again is to be lost. There is no substitute for the new birth: “neither circumcision availeth anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new creature” (Galatians 6:15). The absolute necessity is clearly stated by our Lord: “whatever is born of flesh is flesh,…. must be born again of the spirit” (John 3 3-7).

2. The Sinful Condition of Man Demands It.

“John 3:6 says “that which is born of the flesh is flesh.” It can never, by any human process, become anything else. “Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots? Then may ye also do good that are accustomed to do evil” (Jeremiah 13:23). Romans 8:8 says “they that are in the flesh cannot please God.” Romans 7:18 says: in our “flesh dwellest no good thing. The mind is darkened so that we cannot apprehend spiritual truth; we need “a renewing of the mind” (Romans 12:2). The heart is deceitful, and does not welcome God. In Matthew 5:8 Jesus says: “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.” We need to be pure in heart to see God. There is no thought of God before the eyes of the natural man; we need a change in nature that we may be counted among those “thought up on his name.” No education or culture can bring about such a needed change. Only God alone can do it.

3. The Holiness of God Demands It.

If without holiness no man shall see the Lord (Hebrews 12:14); and if holiness is not to be attained by any natural development or self effort, then the regeneration of our nature is absolutely necessary. This change which enables us to be holy, takes place when we are born again.

Man is conscious that he does not have this holiness by nature; he is conscious, also, that he must have it in order to appear before God (Ezra 9:15). The Scriptures validates this consciousness in man, and still further, state the necessity of a righteousness which to appear before God. In the new birth alone is the beginning of such a life to be found. To live the life of God we must have the nature of God.

III. THE MEANS OF REGENERATION

1. Regeneration is a Divine Work.

John 1:13 says: We are “Born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.” It was “Of his own will he begot us” (James 1:18): Our regeneration is a creative act on the part of God, not a reforming process on the part of man. It is not brought about by natural descent, for all we get from that is “flesh.” It is not by natural choice, for the human will is impotent. Nor is it by self-effort, or any human generative principle. Nor is it by the blood of any ceremonial sacrifices.It is not by pedigree or natural generation. It is altogether and absolutely the work of God. Practically speaking, we have no more to do with our second birth, then we had to do with our first birth.

The Holy Spirit is the Divine Agent in our regeneration. For this reason it is called “Renewing of the Holy Ghost (Titus 3:5). We are “born of the spirit” (John 3:5).

2. And Yet There Is a human Side to the Work.

John 1:12-13 bring together these two thoughts; the divine and the human in regeneration: those who received him (i. e., Christ)…… were born of God. The two great problems connected with regeneration are the efficiency of God in the activity of man.

a) MAN IS REGENERATED BY MEANS OF THE ACCEPTANCE OF THE MESSAGE OF THE GOSPEL.

God begat us by ‘The word of truth” (James 1:18). Peter says in Peter 1:23 We are “Born again,……. of incorruptible seed, by the word of God.” The Apostle Paul says in first Corinthians 4:15: we are “Begotten through the gospel.” The Scriptures teach us that regeneration takes place in the heart of man when he reads or hears the word of God or the gospel message, or both, and because of the Spirit working in the Word as well as in the heart of man, the man opens his heart and received that message as the Word of life to his soul. The truth is illuminated, as is also the mind, by the Spirit; the man yields to the truth, and is born again. Of course, even here, we must remember that it is the Lord who must open our hearts just as he opened the heart of Lydia (Acts 16:14). But the word must be believed and received by man (1 Peter 1:25).

b) MAN IS REGENERATED BY THE PERSONAL ACCEPTANCE OF JESUS CHRIST.

There is clear teaching in the word of God in John 1:12-13 and Galatians 3:26 that we become “children of God by faith in Jesus Christ.” When a man, believing in the claims of Jesus Christ receives him to be all that he claimed to be; that man is born again. “Man is therefore not wholly passive at the time of his regeneration. He is passive only as to the change of his ruling this position. With regard to the exercise of this disposition he is active. A dead man cannot assist in his own resurrection, it is true; but he may and can, like Lazarus obey Christ command, and”come forth!” Psalms 90:16-17 illustrates both the divine and human part; “let that work appear unto thy servants,” and then “the work of our hands establish thou it.” God’s work appears first, then man. Philippians 2:13 says:^“For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.”

By William Evans – Published by The Moody Bible Insitute of Chicago, IL