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Hoyte Nelson's Poems/ Reflections & Biblical Essays
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Essay Regeneration “But
when the kindness of God our Savior and His
love for mankind appeared, He saved us, not on the basis of deeds which we
have done in righteousness, but according to His mercy, by the washing of
regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out upon us richly
through Jesus Christ our Savior” (Titus 3: 4-6, NASV). [Highlighted for
emphasis] Interestingly,
our text is the only reference to “Regeneration” found in New Testament that
is used relative to man’s salvation. Notice that the Apostle said,
“according to His mercy he saved us by the washing of regeneration, and the
renewing of the Holy Spirit. The “Washing of regeneration” suggests a
cleansing, and the “renewing of the Holy Spirit suggests a continual blessing.
Notice particularly that this blessing has been “poured out upon us through
Jesus Christ.” In other words, when someone is saved by faith in Jesus, these
blessing are God’s gifts to him as a newborn babe in Christ. Remember the
words of Jesus when he said, “For this is
the will of My Father, that everyone who beholds the Son and believes in Him
will have eternal life, and I myself will raise him up on the last day”
(John 6: 40); therefore, He kept on renewing our hearts by the “washing of
regeneration,” and the “renewing of the Holy Spirit” (Titus 3:5b). In
words often repeated: “We are saved, we are being saved, and we shall be
saved. This does not mean that we are partially saved, oh no! It does mean,
however, that when we are given the gift of salvation in Christ that God is not
through with us yet! When
Jesus said to Nicodemus “you must be born again” (John 3: 7b); He also gave
to him the message of salvation when he said to him: “And as Moses lifted up
the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up: that whosoever believes may in Him have eternal Life,” He was then
revealing to Nicodemus the one way to be saved, and that is by faith in the
crucified (Lifted up) Son of God on the cross. [Read John 3:14-18] The
gift of Holy Spirit, the new birth, and regeneration is one and the same
experience as God’s gift to His children, not to make us His children, but
because we are His children by faith in Jesus Christ. This is the same promise
that was given long ago by the prophets concerning the “new heart.” It
should be remembered that those disciples of his were commanded to
wait for the promise of the Father, “which”, He said, “you have heard
of me”(Acts 1: 4; John 14: 16-20,26). Pentecost did not change the Gospel of
Jesus Christ, which was already complete in the Christ
event (His life, death, and resurrection), but what Pentecost did was to
empower the saints for service, etc. Jesus said. “But
you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be
my witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the
remotest part of the earth” (Acts 1: 8). I repeat, the Pentecostal gift
was not for salvation, which was already complete in Christ, but was a special
gift to the saved in the fulfillment of the promise first given to the Old
Testament saints concerning a New Heart. (Jeremiah
24: 7; Ezekiel 11: 19; 18: 22). The Old Testament saints were saved by faith in
the “promise,” but were never individually empowered by the Holy Spirit as
promised by the OT prophets and fulfilled at Pentecost. One
of the simplest presentations of the gospel was that of Lydia, the first convert
in Europe. This is what is written: “A
woman named Lydia, from the city of Thyatira, a seller of purple fabrics, a
worshiper of God, was listening; and the Lord
opened her heart to respond to the things spoken by Paul” (Acts 16:14).
This brings to mind the passage found in Romans 10:14,15 as to the “how” of
our salvation when Paul asked, “How then will they call on Him in whom they
have not believed, and how will they believe in Him whom they have not heard?
And how will they hear without a preacher? How will they preach unless they are sent? Just as it is written, “How
beautiful are the feet of those who
bring good news of good things!” Man’s lost
condition:
“And
you were dead in your trespasses and sins,
in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world,
according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now
working in the sons of disobedience. Among them we too all formerly lived in the
lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were
by nature children of wrath, even as the rest. Ephesians 2:1-3 To be “dead in
trespasses and in sin” is an interesting phrase. It is vital to our
understanding of the condition of a lost man. If one is “dead,” that is without any ability to comprehend the Word of God,
how could he be “born again by the Word
of God?” Or, as it is said, “faith
comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God” (Romans 10:17).
I will give my
understanding about this most important subject. Paul, in Eph.2: 1-3 is speaking
of the Jews in relationship to the Gentiles as sinners. They thought that they
were better than the Gentiles, and Paul set them straight. All are equally
sinful, “dead in trespasses and sins,
and were by nature the children of
wrath...,” He was speaking of
course of the spiritual condition of Adam and Eve and their posterity after they
disobeyed God in the Garden of Eden. It was then that Adam lost his relationship
with God and was separated from Him because of his sin, and so, as the Bibles
says: “Therefore, just as through one
man sin entered into the world, and death by sin, and so death passed on to all
men, for all have sinned” (Romans
5: 12b). Isn’t it true then that sin
is the problem, and death is the
consequence? In other words, we are born with a sinful (Adam) nature, and as a
result of this old nature, we all sin, and when we sin, we are said to be
“dead in trespasses and sin. Our sin
nature is inherited, but our sin is personal. Paul’s said, “I was once alive
apart from the Law, but when the commandment came, sin became alive, and I
died” (Romans 7: 9).
Though we
are born “alive apart from the Law;” it is not long, however, before that
old Adam nature overcomes us; (“for all…sin”); therefore, “in trespasses
and sin” we are forever separated from God; that is, we are lost apart from
the redemption that is in Jesus Christ. Our
redemption does not change the old Adam nature; we are still sinners, but it
does change the heart (the enter man) by the power of the Holy Spirit in what is
called “regeneration;” in which we were given victory over the Devil (Romans
7: 24, 25) There are at
least two points of view that should challenge the students of the Bible on the
subject of man’s lost condition. One view is this: Adam was not only separated
from God when he was cast out of the garden, but that he was also “dead”
spiritually; therefore, all men are born “spiritually dead” as a result of
Adams’ sin. There are two passages of scripture that are often used as proof text to support the view of total depravity.
Jeremiah 17:9 wherein it is said, “The
heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure, and who can understand it?
The secondly passage is Romans 3: 9-19 wherein the question of the Jew as being
better than the Gentile because they had the Law, and Paul is setting the record
straight. (Read passage from Romans chapter 3).
Jeremiah 17: 9 is often used as one proof-text to explain man’s total
depravity: “The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure, and who
can understand it?” (NIV) This
point of view suggests that everyone is born with a wicked, and depraved heart;
therefore must be regenerated (quickened, made alive, born again), before any
biblical truths like faith, or the need for salvation can be understood or
experienced. In other words, the lost are spiritually dead in the sense that
they are like a corpse and must be regenerated “quickened” (made alive)
before they can respond to the gospel. The question
is, who is Jeremiah referencing in Jeremiah 17: 9? Is it man’s lost condition,
or is he speaking of the desperate condition of Judah in her Apostasy. (See:
Jeremiah 17: 1, 4, 9) Therefore, I believe that man is lost in the sense that he
is totally separated from God, and without recourse apart from the intervention
of God through the promise first given to Adam, “by the seed of woman (Gen. 3:
15), and renewed with Abraham (Gen.12:3), and subsequently fulfilled in Jesus
Christ. (Galatians 3: 29) The idea
that regeneration preceding faith in the salvation experience is to satisfy the
passage, "And you hath he quickened,
who were dead…." This, in
Barry’s “interlinear Greek/English Lexicon” which says,
“And you being dead in offenses and sins, in
which you walked” (Ephesians 2: 1). Surely,
“death” is not the reason for which Christ died. The reason Christ died was
“sin,” and the consequence of sin is death. For in Adam all die
(Physically), but in Christ we will all will be resurrected when He comes again.
(1 Corinthians 15:21-24); Therefore, I believe that as a result is of a
sin-nature inherited from Adam, we all sin, and as a result of our own sin, we
all die. Paul said, “Among them we too all
formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and
of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest”
(Ephesians 2:3) Here are
some scriptural examples relative to the subject of Regeneration: Romans 5:
1,2 “Therefore, being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our
Lord Jesus Christ; through him we have been brought by faith
into this grace wherein we stand….” (Grace/unmerited favor) is the
fountain of our salvation, wherein faith is God’s gift in receiving this,
“so great salvation.” 1
John 5: 1 "Whosoever believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God." Eph.
1: 13b "After that you
believed you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of Promise." Gal.
4: 6 “And because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into
our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father.” John 7:
37-39, “...But this He spoke of the Spirit, whom they that believe on Him were to receive; for the Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was
not yet glorified. In past
ages, both the OT and NT saints were saved by trusting in the Promise given to
Abraham; now fulfilled in Jesus Christ. However, not until Pentecost did they
experience the filling of the Holy Spirit as promised by the prophets of old
(Ezekiel, Jeremiah, etc). This is why Jesus said to Nicodemus, “Truly, truly I
say unto you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God” (John
3: 3). One of the
great truths that Jesus gave to Nicodemus to explain to him about New Birth was
the “Serpent of Brass” (Numbers 21:9). This is what He said, “And as Moses
lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted
up; that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life…”
(John 3: 14-16 nkjv). In the above Scripture, Jesus was conveying to Nicodemus
something that he was very familiar concerning the Israelites when they were
still living in the wilderness, and sinned grievously; the result of their sin,
the serpents bit them, and, as a consequence, many people died. It was then that Moses was commanded to make a serpent of
brass and put it upon a pole, and when those that were bitten, looked upon the
serpent of brass, and lived. (Numbers 21) So it is
today; when we look by faith to Christ on the Cross, as God’s remedy for our
sin, we are saved, and, since the day of Pentecost, the gift of the Holy Spirit
is given to us; whereby we are born again. The Apostle John in 1 John 5: 1 says,
“Whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God….” All people of
all ages are saved the same way--- by faith in the promise. Though the Holy
Spirit had not come until Pentecost; yet the Father called to Himself whom He
would through faith in the promise. Jesus
said, “No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I
will raise him up on the last day” (John 6:44). Again,
I repeat, the Holy Spirit is the Father’s gift to His children. (Galatians 4:
6) “Because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into our
hearts, crying, Abba! Father” (Galatians 4: 6). Calvary and Pentecost are two
separate events: Calvary was for our eternal
salvation; whereas, Pentecost was for our sanctification here upon this earth.
Salvation was provided at Calvary; sanctification was provided at Pentecost.
Since the day of Pentecost, the moment we are saved by faith in Jesus, we at
that moment are given the gift of the Holy Spirit. 1
John 5:1 says, “Whoever believes
that Jesus is the Christ is born of God….” (See our test) Although
this is repetitive, it is important to remember that Jesus said to His disciples
just before Pentecost, “wait” for
the coming of the Holy Spirit, for, it is said, “ the Holy Spirit was not yet
given” (John 7: 39); however, the price for our salvation was already complete
in Christ, but the promise of the comforter waits the promise of the Father.
Jesus said, “I will ask the Father,
and He will give you another Helper, that He may be with you forever” (John
14: 16). Therefore, it is the
Father who calls men to salvation through His Son, Jesus Christ. (John 6:44) It
is the Holy Spirit that is God’s subsequent gift to His children, not for
salvation, but for sanctification and power.
I repeat, (Galatians 4: 6), which says, “and because you are sons, God
has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba!
Father.” God the Father is Spirit, and they that worship Him, must worship Him
in Spirit and in truth.” (John 4: 24). God the Son, One with the Father, dwelt
among us, and as John said: “we beheld His glory, the glory as of the begotten
of the Father full of grace and truth (John 1: 14) God
the “Holy Spirit,” came as our “Helper,”
“Comforter,” Teacher,” at Pentecost. This was following the ascension when
Jesus returned back to the right hand of God the Father where He now sits on His
throne in heaven interceding on our behalf. (David Throne: Acts 2: 29-36) One
could go on and on, reveling in the wonders of His grace, but we will wait until
that day…wherein it is said, “… These
will pay the penalty of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord
and from the glory of His power, when
He comes to be glorified in His saints on
that day, and to be marveled at among all who have believed—for our
testimony to you was believed” Amen! (2 Thessalonians 1: 9,10). [See Article:
“On That Day.]” P.S.
Election: “Time”
is said to be an “eternal now” with God; a day is as a thousand years, but
with man, it is an eternity; therefore, God’s choice for us was “in
Christ” in the eternity passed; yet for man, the gift of salvation is an in-time
experience. Yet, our election “in Christ” is in the “eternal now” for
God’s elect “in Christ.” To me, Christ is the object of God’s eternal
choice, and believers are the recipients of that choice. in His saints on
that day, and to be marveled at among all who have believed—for our
testimony to you was believed” Amen! (2 Thessalonians 1: 9,10). [See Article:
“On That Day.]” P.S. Election: “Time” is said to be an “eternal now” with God; a day is as a thousand years, but with man, it is an eternity; therefore, God’s choice for us was “in Christ” in the eternity passed; yet for man, the gift of salvation is an in-time experience. Yet, our election “in Christ” is in the “eternal now” for God’s elect “in Christ.” To me, Christ is the object of God’s eternal choice, and believers are the recipients of that choice. |