Bookmark and Share

CHAPTER SIX
_________________________
Regeneration:
The New Heart

Book

Elwell’s Theological Dictionary states:

Regeneration, or new birth, is an inner re-creating of fallen human nature by the gracious sovereign action of the Holy Spirit (John 3:5-8). The Bible conceives salvation as the redemptive renewal of man on the basis of a restored relationship with God in Christ, and presents it as involving ‘a radical and complete transformation wrought in the soul (Rom. 12:2; Eph. 4:23) by God the Holy Spirit (Titus 3:5; Eph. 4:24), by virtue of which we become ‘new men’ (Eph. 4:24; Col 3:10), no longer conformed to this world (Rom. 12:2; Eph 4:22; Col. 3:9), but in knowledge and holiness of the truth created after the image of God (Eph. 4:24; Col. 3:10; Rom. 12:2)’ (B. B. Warfield, Biblical and Theological Studies, 351). Regeneration is the ‘birth’ by which this work of new creation is begun, as sanctification is the ‘growth’ whereby it continues (1 Pet. 2:2; 2 Pet. 3:18). Regeneration in Christ changes the disposition from lawless, Godless self-seeking (Rom. 3:9-18; Rom. 8:7) which dominates man in Adam into one of trust and love, of repentance for past rebelliousness and unbelief, and loving compliance with God’s law henceforth. It enlightens the blinded mind to discern spiritual realities (1 Cor. 2:14-15; 2 Cor. 4:6; Col. 3:10), and liberates and energizes the enslaved will for free obedience to God (Rom. 6:14, Rom. 6:17-22; Phil. 2:13). The use of the figure of new birth to describe this change emphasizes two facts about it. The first is its decisiveness. The regenerate man has forever ceased to be the man he was; his old life is over and a new life has begun; he is a new creature in Christ, buried with him out of reach of condemnation and raised with him into a new life of righteousness (see Rom. 6:3-11; 2 Cor. 5:17; Col. 3:9-11). The second fact emphasized is the monergism of regeneration. Infants do not induce, or cooperate in, their own procreation and birth; no more can those who are ‘dead in trespasses and sins’ prompt the quickening operation of God’s Spirit within them (see Eph. 2:1-10). Spiritual vivification is a free, and to man mysterious, exercise of divine power (John 3:8), not explicable in terms of the combination or cultivation of existing human resources (John 3:6), not caused or induced by any human efforts (John 1:12-13) or merits (Titus 3:3-7), and not, therefore, to be equated with, or attributed to, any of the experiences, decisions, and acts to which it gives rise and by which it may be known to have taken place...The verb gennao (which means both ‘beget’ and ‘bear’) is used in these passages in the aorist or perfect tense to denote the once-for-all divine work whereby the sinner, who before was only ‘flesh, ’ and as such, whether he knew it or not, utterly incompetent in spiritual matters (John 3:3-7), is made ‘spirit’ (John 3:6), i.e., is enabled and caused to receive and respond to the saving revelation of God in Christ. In the Gospel, Christ assures Nicodemus that there are no spiritual activities, no seeing or entering God’s kingdom, because there is no faith in himself, without regeneration (John 3:1ff.); and John declares in the prologue that only the regenerate receive Christ and enter into the privileges of God’s children (John 1:12-13). Conversely, in the Epistle John insists that there is no regeneration that does not issue in spiritual activities. The regenerate do righteousness (1 John 2:29) and do not live a life of sin (1 John 3:9; 1 John 5:18: the present tense indicates habitual law-keeping, not absolute sinlessness, cf. 1 John 1:8-10); they love Christians (1 John 4:7), believe rightly in Christ, and experience faith’s victory over the world (1Jn 5:4). Any who do otherwise, whatever they claim, are still unregenerate children of the devil. (1)

The unregenerate man’s will is enslaved by sin, but now regenerated, becomes a slave to righteousness. In our fallen state in Adam, the heart being deceitfully wicked, produced in us an attitude of "my will be done." When God’s will is introduced through the law, its purpose is to act as a mirror that we might see ourselves as we truly are in our fallen state; That our will is in direct contrast to His will. No matter the effort on our part, in Adam, it is impossible to do God’s will because the stony heart of the old man seeks after his own way. The old man must be crucified and a new man resurrected. The NICNT’s commentary on Romans, referring to the phrase in Rom. 6:6, "our old man has been crucified" states:

There has been considerable misunderstanding of this phrase, which, with its counterpart ‘the new man, ’ occurs also in Eph. 4:22-24 and Col. 3:9-11 (cf. also Eph. 2:15 and Eph. 4:13). Many popular discussions of Paul’s doctrine of the Christian life argue, or assume, that Paul distinguishes with these phrases between two parts or ‘natures’ of a person. With this interpretation as a premise, it is then debated whether the ‘old nature’ is replaced with a ‘new nature’ at conversion, or rather the ‘new nature’ is added to the ‘old nature.’ But the assumption that the ‘old man’ and the ‘new man’ refer to parts or natures, of a person is incorrect. Rather, they designate the person as a whole, considered in relation to the corporate structure to which he or she belongs. ‘Old man’ and ‘new man’ are not, then, ontological, but rational or positional in orientation. They do not, at least in the first place, speak of a change in nature, but of a change in relationship. ‘Our old man’ is not our Adamic, or sin ‘nature’ that is judged and dethroned on the cross, and to which is added in the believer another ‘nature, ’ ‘the new man.’ Rather, the ‘old man’ is what we were ‘in Adam’ - the ‘man’ of the old age, who lives under the tyranny of sin and death. As J. R. W. Stott puts it, ‘what was crucified with Christ was not a part of me called my old nature, but the whole of me as I was before I was converted.’ (2)

"Behind the contrast between ‘old man’ and ‘new man’ is the contrast between Adam and Christ, the ‘first man’ and the ‘last’ (1 Cor. 15:45; cf. Rom. 5:15, ‘the one man Jesus Christ’). Those, then, who are ‘in Adam’ belong and exist as ‘the old man’; those who are ‘in Christ’ belong to and exists as ‘the new man.’ In other words, these phrases denote the solidarity of people with the ‘heads’ of the two contrasting ages of salvation history. It is only by interpreting ‘old man’ and ‘new man’ in this manner that we are able to integrate two apparently conflicting viewpoints in Paul. On the one hand, this verse and Col. 3:9-11 makes clear that the believer has ceased to be ‘old man’ and has become ‘new man.’ On the other hand, Paul in Eph. 4:22-24 commands Christians to ‘put off the old man’ and ‘put on the new man.’ Attempts to reconcile these have often taken the form either of taking the ‘crucifixion’ of the old man to be only a preliminary judgment or of denying that Paul is giving commands in Eph. 4:22-24. Neither approach is exegetically sound. If, however, these phrases look at the person as one who belongs to the old age or the new age, then this conflict is easily resolved. For Paul makes it clear that the believer has been transferred from the old life of sin and death, to a new man of righteousness and life (Rom. 6:6 and Col. 3:9-11) just as he indicates that the ‘powers’ of the old age continue to influence the believer and must be continually resisted- hence the imperatives of Eph. 4:22-24. At the heart of the contrast between ‘old man’ and ‘new man’ is the eschatological tension between the inauguration of the new age in the life of the believer- he or she belongs to the ‘new creation’ (2 Cor. 5:17)- and the culmination of that new age in ‘glorification with Christ’ (2 Cor. 8:17). What we were ‘in Adam’ is no more; but until heaven, the temptation to live in Adam always remain."(3)

The new man in Christ has this promise, "For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under law but under grace" (Rom. 6:14). The old man is under the law; the new man is led by the Spirit. Scripture tells us that as saints of God:

  • we are no longer unbelievers (Heb. 3:19);

  • we are no longer unregenerate (Titus 3:5);

  • we are no longer dead (Eph. 2:1, 5);

  • we are no longer natural men (1 Cor. 2:14);

  • we are no longer separated from God (2 Cor. 5:18);

  • we are no longer in Adam (1 Cor. 15:22);

  • we are no longer under the law (Rom. 6:14);

  • we no longer walk in the "oldness of the letter" (Rom. 7:6);

  • we are no longer enemies of God (Rom. 5:10, 8:7);

  • we are no longer blind (Acts 26:18);

  • we no longer "walk in darkness" (John 8:12);

  • we are no longer "in the flesh" (Rom. 8:9);

  • we no longer "sow to the flesh" (Gal. 6:8).

  • we no longer "walk according to the flesh" (Rom. 8:13).

  • we no longer "conduct ourselves in the lusts of our flesh" (Eph. 2:3);

  • we no longer practice the works of the flesh (Gal. 5:19-21);

  • we are no longer led by the flesh (Rom. 8:14);

  • we are no longer "carnally minded" (mind set) (Rom. 8:6);

  • we no longer "walk according to the course of this world" (Eph. 2:2);

  • we no longer love this world (1 John 2:15);

  • we are no longer "children of wrath" (Eph. 2:3);

  • we are no longer "children of disobedience" (Eph. 2:2);

  • we are no longer "slaves of sin" (Rom. 6:17, 18);

  • we no longer practice lawlessness and sin (1 John 3:4-10);

  • we are no longer the old man, but a new man (2 Cor. 5:17, Col. 3:9, 10).

    • "...knowing this, that our old man was crucified with {Him, } that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin" (Rom 6:6).

    The Scripture does not say that the old man is in the process of being crucified, but "was crucified." The one who’s occupation it was to serve the flesh in its various lusts and pleasures is dead (Titus 3:3-5), being crucified with Christ. The fact that the "old man" is crucified does not mean that we no longer struggle with sin. It is in actuality at this point that the war with sin begins. The "old man" was a slave to sin. The slave is faithful in submitting to his master’s requests. Or,

    "Do you not know that to whom you present yourselves slaves to obey, you are that one’s slave whom you obey. Whether of sin leading to death, or of obedience leading to righteousness" (Rom. 6:16) (italics added).

    We are either slaves of sin which leads to death, or the slave of sin dies (the old man) and we become slaves of obedience (the new man) leading to righteousness and life. The war against sin begins when we are "set free" from the bondage of the rule of sin. The man under the dominion of sin has no power to resist it, but rather habitually indulges in it. However, the Christian wars against sin, ‘For sin shall not have dominion (exercise lordship) over you..." The new rule begins with a love for righteousness. The believer is now ashamed of that which he once was, that which belonged to the sphere of the "old man" (Rom. 6:21). The new man now hungers and thirsts after a righteousness he cannot find in his own flesh. He finds that he must look beyond his flesh to the Spirit. He must draw near to Christ, his only refuge. The new man is crying out, "As a deer pants for the water brooks, so pants my soul for You, O’ God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God" (Ps. 42:2). The old man was darkness, but now as believers we are no longer darkness (Eph. 5:8) yet we must cast off the "works" of darkness (Rom. 13:12) which is made possible as we "walk in the light" (Eph. 5:13) i.e., in the Spirit. We are no longer the "old man," yet we must cast off and put to death the "deeds of the body," that which characterized the "old man." The old man is crucified with Christ never to be raised up again. "For if you live according to the flesh (the mind-set of the old man) you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live" (Rom. 8:13) (words in parenthesis added). Again, it should be obvious to the reader that this verse is referring to eternal death, for all men will die physically irrespective of the way in which they live. The distinction now between the "old man," and the "new man," is that which rules the heart. It is the lordship of sin (old man) or the lordship of Christ (new man). Indwelling sin is not crucified, for it remains in the believer as long as he lives in the earthly body. However, the new man no longer occupies himself with the serving of it as his master. Scripture states that those that are Christ’s have "crucified the flesh with its passions and desires" (Gal. 5:24). It is not the flesh that is dead, but rather the flesh as it lived according to, and was governed by, its passions and desires. Ezek. 36:26, speaking of the new covenant, says, "I will give you a new heart [a heart for God by faith] and put a new spirit within you [made alive unto God], I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh [the hardened heart of the old man] and give you a heart of flesh [the heart made willing]. I will put My Spirit within you [the Holy Spirit] and cause you to walk in My statutes [Phil. 2:13] and you will keep My judgments and do them" [1 John 3:9] (text in brackets are added).

    In Curtis Crenshaw’s book, "Lordship Salvation, The Only Kind There Is," he states:

    "...the license view (or Keswick view) says that the person has something new added to him, a new nature. The "I" remains unchanged. The believer has the Spirit "provided," and he may or may not give grace to the Christian, depending on whether the believer fulfills some command. The "I" may function by either nature at any given moment. If the "I" decides to "yield" to the Spirit, then the Spirit flows "through" him, living the life of Christ through the Christian. In other words, one must do good to become good, rather than the biblical teaching that one must first become good to do good works. The view that our choices make us what we are rather than reflect what we are is Pelagianism. Substitutionary sanctification is not biblical, for the "I" is never changed, but must get out of the way so the Spirit can work "through" the new nature, and as water flows through a tube leaving it unchanged, so allegedly the Spirit flows through the new nature, leaving the believer unchanged. Exactly what is being conformed to the image of Christ is never clear, For the "I" remains unchanged. Remember, according to this view, the new nature cannot be lessened and the old nature cannot be improved. As Warfield so accurately stated of this, when the person is glorified at glorification, the old self is not the one saved, cleaned up, and purified but a new self added that never needed saving at all...if the person functions through the new nature, the works are perfect, if through the old nature, the works are wholly evil. By contrast reformed theologian John Gerstner says: ‘For the reformed theologian, good works, while the result of divine grace, are genuinely human actions. For the antinomian, good works are divine actions, the direct action of God within the human Spirit’ With Dillow (advocate of a non-lordship theology) and others, we have a Gnostic dualism with the heavenly not able to effect the earthly. There are allegedly two kinds of faith, a faith without works and a faith with works. This leads to a new birth that only inserts something new, which in turn gives rise to two kinds of Christians: the spiritual and the carnal. Then there are two spheres of salvation: the position and the practice. In ‘salvation’ we can have justification without sanctification. In heaven there are two kinds of Christians: those with rewards and those without them. In each case we have two spheres, functioning like parallel railroad tracks, neither sphere influencing the other. In the reformed view, the heavenly is effectual regarding the earthly: the Christian not only has life given to him, but the disposition of the soul has a new orientation — obedience to God. The ‘I’ is indeed changed but he has only one nature — humanity. He has been regenerated, and this regeneration is continued in progressive sanctification...Since the ‘I’ is being changed, there is no substitutionary sanctification. The ‘I’ does not remove itself, for he is being sanctified, and the ‘I’ is producing the good works that are the fruit of grace, which good works are not perfect but are accepted for Christ’s sake. His faith joins him to Christ, from Whom he receives both justification and sanctification. In union with Christ, how could he possibly receive one without the other? There is no formula to obey to receive power, for the Holy Spirit is always sanctifying the believer and the saint cannot stop His work in himself. Justification necessarily brings about sanctification as the heavenly necessarily affects the earthly"(4) (italics added).

    Footnotes

    1. Walter A. Elwell, Evangelical Dictionary of Theology, (The New Bible Library: Ellis Enterprises)

    2. The New International Commentary of the N.T., Douglas J. Moo (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1996), p.373

    3. The New International Commentary of the N.T., Douglas J. Moo (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1996), p.374

    4. Curtis I. Crenshaw, Lordship Salvation: The Only Kind There Is, (Memphis, Tn.: Footstool Publications, 1994),

    Comment Script

    Comments

    Name
    E-mail (Will not appear online)
    Homepage
    Title
    Comment
    To prevent automated Bots form spamming, please enter the text you see in the image below in the appropriate input box. Your comment will only be submitted if the strings match. Please ensure that your browser supports and accepts cookies, or your comment cannot be verified correctly.



    This comment form is powered by GentleSource Comment Script. It can be included in PHP or HTML files and allows visitors to leave comments on the website.

    Site Map | Home | Top of Page

    © 2008 Truth According to Scripture

    Pop-up verses - The Holy Bible, English Standard Version copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

    Quotation information. Purchase an ESV. Comments? webmaster@gnpcb.org. Audio problems? Update Flash or try MP3s. Audio read by Max McLean. Copyright© Fellowship for the Performing Arts.