Systematic Theology -- Salvation

Regeneration

Professor: Dr. R.J. Rushdoony

Subject: Systematic Theology

Lesson: Government

Genre: Speech

Track: 11

Dictation Name: 11 Regeneration

Year: 1970’s

{?} to understand the things that are of thee. Enable us to grow in thy word to the end that we may be faithful soldiers of Jesus Christ. Give us hearing ears that we may hear, believe, and obey. In Jesus name. Amen.

During the first period, our subject this evening will be Regeneration, and our scripture will be John 3:1-13. “There was a man of the Pharisees, named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews: the same came to Jesus by night, and said unto him, Rabbi, we know that thou art a teacher come from God: for no man can do these miracles that thou doest, except God be with him. Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. Nicodemus saith unto him, How can a man be born when he is old? can he enter the second time into his mother's womb, and be born? Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again. The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit. Nicodemus answered and said unto him, How can these things be? Jesus answered and said unto him, Art thou a master of Israel, and knowest not these things? Verily, verily, I say unto thee, We speak that we do know, and testify that we have seen; and ye receive not our witness. If I have told you earthly things, and ye believe not, how shall ye believe, if I tell you of heavenly things? And no man hath ascended up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven, even the Son of man which is in heaven.”

Our subjects this evening in the first hour will be Regeneration, in the second period, Conversion. One of the very serious problems in the Christian church today is that too often, these two are confused, and when regeneration and conversion are confused, the consequences are very bad, theologically, for the life of the church.

Now, as we look at the world and ourselves, and our faith, one of the things we need to recognize is that life is both discontinuity and continuity, at one and the same time. Consider, for example, conception and birth. Both at the time of conception and of birth there’s something new that takes place. There’s a discontinuity, but those new events take place in the context of the continuity of life, so that they are part of a continuity and cannot be separated from it. Life involved both.

Thus, while theological analysis is needed to understand and clarify the steps in life’s continuity and discontinuity, in generation and regeneration, we must remember that they involve not only discontinuity, but continuity. The meaning of that continuity and that discontinuity rest in God’s eternal decree. Regeneration is central to our faith. Our Lord said, “Except a man be born of water and spirit he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. Ye must be born again.”

Now, the word “regeneration,” or the Greek word for it, appears in the New Testament in Matthew 19:28, where it refers to the regeneration of all things, and in Titus 3:5, where it refers to the re-creation of God’s elect in Christ, but although the word itself occurs in the Greek in those two cases, the doctrine is basic to all scripture. With various other words and phrases, it is set forth.

Moreover, the doctrine of regeneration is a part of the doctrine of the two Adams. The first Adam was the miraculous creation of God. He sinned and fell. The last Adam, Jesus Christ, is also the miraculous creation of God, but he is sinless and righteous. The first Adam was created a mature man in a mature creation, one without sin or death, but both were potentially present. The last Adam was born a babe, born in a sinful, fallen world, ruled by sin and death. Now, only the conception of the last Adam was miraculous. The creation of the first Adam was, in a sense, the greater miracle.

Moreover, and the miraculous, of course, was the conception by the Holy Ghost, apart from that miraculous conception, natural processes prevailed in the birth of our Lord. There was continuity. Through his mother, he was a part of the humanity that existed. Through his conception by the Holy Ghost, there was a radical discontinuity. He was the last Adam, created from above to become the fountainhead of a new world and a new humanity. He was born and he lived to the end without sin. In all points tempted like as we are, yet, as Hebrews tells us, without sin. Jesus Christ was thus the beginning of a new creation so we are told in 2 Corinthians 5:17, the beginning of a new creation.

Now, regeneration is a miraculous act of God. We are, in our first birth, when we are born of our mother, passive. We are also passive in our rebirth, in our regeneration. If, in the natural process we are passive, how much more so in the supernatural? None of us had a hand in our first birth, in our conception. We didn’t make any choice with regard to it. In our regeneration, we are even more passive. It is entirely of God. Now, what is regeneration? In what sense are we a new creature or a new creation?

Nicodemus is usually given a bad time for his remarks. To a degree, this is justified, but also Nicodemus was real concerned with the heart of the Father{?}. How can a man, who is a bundle of habits, of dispositions, a past history of guilt, dispossess himself of his fallen nature? Is he going to return to his mother’s womb and be born again? In other words, Nicodemus was saying, “Master, it’s going to take a miracle like that.” How else will he {?}? and of course, he was, in effect, saying that’s an impossible miracle, but our Lord told him “that unless a man be born again he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.” He must become a new creation.

Now, again and again, when the scripture speaks of us as a new creation in Christ, it uses the word kainos, which does not mean new in the sense of newly made, but new in nature, new in quality, new in moral disposition. So that when we are made a new creation, it does not mean that the bald spot we were worrying about has disappeared, or that our very poor singing voice has suddenly turned angelic. There is no change of being, no metaphysical change in our new creation. There is a moral change. We, who by nature, were given over to sin and born to die are now given over to righteousness in Jesus Christ, and have everlasting life. This is why our Lord says, “Ye that believeth in me shall never die,” because life is now a property of our being. So that death and its sting are taken away.

The difference thus, is moral. Regeneration is a begetting again. It is moreover, in scripture, compared to the miracle of the Virgin birth. Now remember, I said earlier the Virgin birth is an event of continuity and discontinuity. Here in this old humanity is a young virgin, Mary. To her occurs the most dramatic event in history, conception by the Holy Ghost. Discontinuity, and here are we, born into the humanity of the old Adam, and by God’s miracle, we are changed. We are made a new creation.

John, in the first chapter of his Gospel, verses 12-13, says, “But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name: which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.” Do you see what John is doing there? People say he doesn’t ever refer to the Virgin birth. Well, the early church knew he was talking about the Virgin birth in these verses, and was saying it is a similar miracle, a supernatural miracle from God which makes us a new creation. It is not of blood, not by generation, nor is it of the will of the flesh. We don’t decide it. Nor of the will of man, to make it more general. No man has willed us into being born again, so nobody can say, “I’m responsible for his regeneration.” No, it is of God.

Thus, when Nicodemus asks, “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time in his mother’s womb and be born?” our Lord makes clear the children of God must be born of God by supernatural birth, by water. Just as water is a cleansing agent, and just as water signified baptism, with the public witness that baptism involves, so our regeneration is something that is by water. There’s a public evidence of it. When a baby is born you know it. You hear its cry. The parents send out the announcement. “We’ve got a baby!” When we are born again, when we are regenerated, the waters of baptism give a witness and our lives give a witness. Something has happened. It is of the Spirit, because what is visible outwardly is due to something that the Holy Spirit has done to us inwardly. Here again, we have continuity and discontinuity.

Now, Matthew 19:28, when it speaks of regeneration, speaks of the totality of the new creation. This is often stressed in scripture, culminating in Revelation 21:5 when we are told that, “All things are made new (morally new).” The whole of creation which is fallen is transformed above and beyond anything we can imagine and made new.

Thus, the goal of a {?} generation is first, to create a new humanity, a humanity which, in Jesus Christ, the last Adam, is sent out to conquer all things in Christ, and to put all enemies under his feet who then shall destroy the last enemy, death. But second, regeneration extends beyond man. It is the re-creation of the whole creation, heaven and earth, and we are regenerated to work towards Christ’s universal dominion.

Now, regeneration, effectual calling, and conversion are inseparable. It is impossible for a man to be born again into lawlessness and impotence. Those who believe in the doctrine of the carnal Christian are somehow saying that regeneration, effectual calling, and conversion do not necessary all occur, but how can God regenerate a man and he remain carnal? It’s impossible, because the heart of the new life is God’s miracle, which God himself totally performs. Conversion is, as we shall see soon, the human outworking of what God has done. Now, how can God perform so great a miracle in the life of man, one which is compared to the Virgin birth, without consequence? It destroys the unity of scripture and the integrity of Christian doctrine, to affirm the doctrine of the carnal Christian and the supposed isolation of the one from the others.

Regeneration, thus is, first of all, God’s work, man is passive. Second, God’s creative work produces a new life in Christ, and man shares Christ’s life and calling to good works, Ephesians 2:10, and third, this new life manifests itself in action. Are there any questions now? Yes?

[Audience] It’s interesting that those who have affirmed the doctrine of the carnal Christian, right along with that, put a belief in discipleship that one becomes a believer and then, at a later time, decides whether he or she is going to become a disciple, and then they also split up Christ’s offices as Savior and Lord, discipleship and Lordship are separate from that. They also look at faith as being pontiliar{?}, rather than {?} .

[Rushdoony] And it leads to the destruction of all doctrine, because nothing hangs together then, and the result is an impotent Christian which, as I’ve often said, is a contradiction in terms, because we are told that “As many as are redeemed by him (are made new by him) are given power to become the sons of God.” Power to become the sons of God. Well, that’s power to become like our Lord, a conqueror. Now, that’s not impotence. Yes?

[Audience] What do you mean by creation of Adam being the greater miracle than Christ?

[Rushdoony] Because Adam was created a mature man, a radical discontinuity, but our Lord, the miracle was only in its conception, and he was born a baby.

[Audience] And you see that as being greater?

[Rushdoony] Yes, because the one, the totality of his being was a miracle, but only the conception of our Lord was a miracle. Everything else was natural, his conception to his birth, natural processes, grew up as a baby, natural processes. So, only the conception was miraculous. As Adam was created a mature being, totally a miracle. Yes?

[Audience] You stressed that regeneration of the individual as being passive. How passive are we in the regeneration of the creation?

[Rushdoony] In the regeneration of the whole creation?

[Audience] Of the whole creation.

[Rushdoony] Yes, a very good question. How passive are we in the regeneration of the whole creation? We are totally passive in that it is God’s doing, it’s his miracle. We are not passive in the exercise of dominion over all things, you see. So that we, as a new creation, are commanded to go out and exercise dominion in all areas, and what does God say he will do? He says if we are obedient, he’ll change the weather. If we are obedient, he’s going to change our lifespan. If we are obedient, he’s going to make all things around us, the earth below and the heavens above, bless us, and that’s the first stage towards the re-creation of all things, and he’s going to do it. So, I can say, “Okay, Lord, I’m going to keep every one of these commandments.” “Now, ye have kept six. Now, there should be a six percent improvement in the weather, and in the fertility.” No, it doesn’t work that way, you see. It’s his blessing. It’s his miracle. So, we are commanded to exercise dominion, but the Lord, by his grace and his miraculous power, brings about the renewal of all things culminating in the totality of the new creation with his coming again. Any other questions? Well, if not, we’ll take a break for about ten or fifteen minutes.

End of tape