In this blog I've grazed the surface of what regeneration or being born again [really] means and attempted to help you, the reader, to 1) examine yourself to see that you are in the faith[2 Cor.13:5], and subsequently 2) make your calling and election sure[2 Peter 1:10]. I didnt set out with the intention of it being this long. After 3 days of intermittent reading and writing all between the hours of 12 and 3am, i have decided to cut it short. there may be a pt. 2, however I hope that you will read this blog in it's entirety and take the pearl from the clam.grace and peace,
steve
Many of you have seen me wearing this t-shirt from time to time and some of you have even asked... "What is regeneration"? Regeneration is another word for rebirth or being born again. But the term born again is desecrated when used the way the Barna Research Group, and others, use it(details below).
My concern and motivation for writing is that the vast majority of the professing church today are not really born again. Some of them are church attenders and church members, even church leaders. But they are not born again. They are cultural Christians. Religion is a formal, external thing, but there has been no true inner awakening from spiritual death to spiritual life. You may even be one of them.
I want to serve those people by showing them what must happen to them. In John 3 Jesus said:
"I tell you the truth, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit. Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit. You should not be surprised at my saying, 'You must be born again.'
I know it may be hard for those of you who've been "Christian your whole lives" but, according to Jesus - everyone must be regenerated. Noone escapes being born into sin. Everyone born is steeped in iniquity because of the fall. There are no people born Christian, everyone has to experience re-birth...according to Jesus. If you dont have a conversion story and cant define when you were born again/grabbed a hold of/snatched up/etc., theres a great chance that you have not been. And by the word and the prayers of believers, and mainly the Spirit of God, I pray that the Lord might use this blog as an aid that carries you to re-birth or a tool of reference for those of you who already are but don't truly understand it.
I feel it necessary to note that being born again or regenerated is Monergistic. Monergism describes that God through the Holy Spirit works to bring about the salvation of individuals through spiritual regeneration without cooperation from the individual. For example [biblically]:
· God’s effectual calling (“Those whom He called He justified,” Rom. 8:30),
· the new creation (“If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation,” 2 Cor. 5:17),
· God’s drawing us to Christ (“No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him,” John 6:44),
· God’s giving people to his Son (“All that the Father gives me will come to me,” John 6:37),
· God’s opening our hearts (“The Lord opened her heart to pay attention to what was said by Paul,” Acts 16:14),
· God’s illumining our hearts (“God…has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ,” 2 Cor. 4:6),
· God’s taking the heart of stone out and giving us a heart of flesh (“I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh,” Ezek. 36:26),
· God’s making us alive (“even when we were dead in our tres- passes, [God] made us alive together with Christ,” Eph. 2:5),
· God’s adopting us into his family (“You have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, ‘Abba! Father!’” Rom. 8:15).
The list could go on. I just figured it'd be best to note this since there exists a doctrine that is diametrically opposed to Monergism. Synergism states that the human will cooperates with God's grace in order to be regenerated. To the synergist, faith may arise from unregenerated human nature. Salvation is not complete until the individual performs some action(s). Scripturally however, faith in Christ only springs from a heart first renewed by God. [1 Cor 12:3].
Misuse of the term born again.
The Barna Research Group documents that 45% of Americans claim to be "born again".
In a report titled “Born Again Christians Just as Likely to Divorce as Are Non-Christians,” among other things Barna goes on to list:
· Of 12,000 teenagers who took the pledge to wait for marriage, 80 percent had sex outside marriage in the next seven years.
· Twenty-six percent of traditional evangelicals do not think premarital sex is wrong.
· Among married born again Christians, 35% have experienced a divorce. That figure is identical to the outcome among married adults who are not born again: 35%.
· Although Bible scholars and teachers point out that Jesus taught that divorce was a sin unless adultery was involved 52% of born again Christians disagree with this statement.
Here's how The Barna Group defines born again:
“Born again Christians” were defined in these surveys as
people who said they have made “a personal commitment
to Jesus Christ that is still important in their life today”
and who also indicated they believe that when they die
they will go to Heaven because they had confessed their
sins and had accepted Jesus Christ as their savior. Respon-
dents were not asked to describe themselves as “born again.”
In other words, in this research the term born again refers to people who say things. They say, “I have a personal commitment to Jesus Christ. It’s important to me.” They say, “I believe that I will go to Heaven when I die. I have confessed my sins and accepted Jesus Christ as my Savior.” Then the Barna Group takes them at their word, ascribes to them the infinitely important reality of the new birth, and then slanders that precious biblical reality by saying that regenerate hearts have no more victory over sin than unregenerate hearts.
One thing I won't say is that their research is wrong. In fact is seems to be exactly correct. It would be unwise to state that the church is not as worldly as it is. I will say that the writers of the New Testament think in exactly the opposite direction about being born again. Instead of moving from a profession of faith, to the label born again, to the worldliness of these so-called born again people, to the conclusion that the new birth does not radically change people, the New Testament moves in the other direction.
Properly Handled
The New Testament moves from the absolute certainty that the new birth radically changes people, to the observation that many professing Christians are indeed (as the Barna Group says) not radically changed, to the conclusion that they are not born again. The New Testament, unlike the Barna Group, does not defile the new birth with the worldliness of unregenerate, professing Christians. For example, one of the main points of the First Epistle of John is to drive home this very truth:
· 1 John 2:29: “If you know that he is righteous, you may be sure that everyone who practices righteousness has been born of him.”
· 1 John 3:9: “No one born of God makes a practice of sinning, for God’s seed abides in him, and he cannot keep on sinning because he has been born of God.”· 1 John 4:7: “Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God.”
· 1 John 5:4: “Everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith.”
· 1 John 5:18: “We know that everyone who has been born of God does not keep on sinning, but he who was born of God protects him, and the evil one does not touch him.”
These statements appear to be written with the very claims of the Barna Group in mind. The Bible is profoundly aware of such people in the church. That is one reason why 1 John was written. But instead of following the Barna Group, the Bible says that the research is not finding that born again people are permeated with worldliness; the research is finding that the church is permeated by people who are not born again.
My Testimony-The difference between one and the other (abridged).
From the time I can remember, I was always in a congregation. "Raised in church". By the time I was a pre-teen I was participating in all of the churches services, leading songs in the choir, and serving as the treasurer and secretary of the Jr. Laymen. Aside from this, somewhat as a character trait but largely due to boundaries set by my mothers strict discipline, I was thought by many(almost everyone) to be a morally good person. I didn't use foul language, I was respectful to adults, I never got into trouble with the law, at most I'd tried to be a "hang-banger" but wasn't into gangs. My life, from the outside looking in- and compared to my peers, was A OK.
Even after almost flunking High School, "only" smoking marijuana, and forsaking sexual purity in my latter teen years,... rather than someone telling me that God had a standard of righteousness and that because I was living in clear violation of it, this indicated that I did not know God the Father, had not(yet) been granted repentance and/nor faith in His Son, and was not indwelled with His Spirit, I was assured that being baptized at 7 and going to church meant I was a Christian. And oh yeah, nobody's perfect and we all fall short were carved deep into my heart of stone. What a tragedy. I say all the time that I was headed for hell on a grease poll, but was as religious as they come.
I grew even further into this state as an adult. Having corrected my only outward/socially recognizable sin by getting married to my girlfriend[now wife of 8 years] who was soon to give birth to our daughter, I was now praised by everyone for being "so mature". All I had to do was go before her dad's[pk] church congregation and announce "we're getting married". While there is some virtue in man'ing up, this meant absolutely nothing for the state of my soul. Shortly after this, unbenounced to me, I was taken before the church and announced as the youth leader.... soon to follow was the announcement that I was to be Timothy and her dad --- Paul [I was to take over the ministry]. Understanding that my ficade had lots of people fooled and fearing that if I was to accept these offers I'd soon be unmasked -after all I couldnt find John 3:16 in the bible-, I swiftly made an exit out of that church.
Still walking on cloud 9 and soaking in the glory men gave me I went on to become a semi-successful Loan Officer, making (and spending) money hand over fist. Purchased a 5 bedroom house at 22 years old.I guess you can say I had it made. I even started taking church more serious when I joined a local mega church of 17,000 members. It was spiritual disneyland. Praise and Worship was like unto a rock and roll concert every service - lights off, smoke and strobe lights flashing etc. I was in a service 3x a week at the bare minimum. No life change, just a whole lot of church attendance. I had walked down the aisle for altar call a couple of times and recited the sinners prayer ---- once while hungover from partying the night before. Although my lifestyle was identical to the average unbeliever in terms of sinful acts and the absense of conviction thereof, I was frequently mailed "Thank You" and "God Bless You" cards from the pastor and wife for tithing up to $4,000.00 at a time.
Without going in to much more detail, I'm sure you can see how these cards are stacking. There was an on going affirmation I received from "the church" despite my wickedness, which resulted in me becoming more and more comfortable in sin.
One day I was handed 14 or 15 DVDs. The Way of The Master Television Series Seasons 1 & 2. The first DVD I watched was "Hell's Best Kept Secret". In short "the secret" is convincing the church to remove the law from the gospel, so that people no longer feel guilty of sin and thus no longer see their need to repent. This is the reason why the church attendance, spiritual practices, etc. were always ineffectual. Without first being diagnosed (presented with the law) I could never appropriate the cure (the good news that although I was guilty my debt had been paid). Remember Paul said that the law was our school master or tudor to Christ. It's what's drives the sinner to the cross. Another result of this fallacy has been the implementation of the altar call. Pastors telling people that all they have to do get to heaven is recite the sinners prayer and invite Jesus into their hearts and He will definitely come in. Now I know what you may be thinking "what's wrong with that"?! Everything is! You don't find a sinners prayer, altar call, or the idea of inviting Jesus into your heart in scripture at all.
After watching this episode my eyes were opened. For the first time in my life I understood the Gospel. I was spiritually resurrected from death to life as God open my heart to believe His good news. All along I thought Jesus died for my sins, therefore I just prayed and asked for forgiveness and kept on sinning. Sure I'd believed in Jesus, there wasnt a time in my life when I'd say I did not. However, James says "even the demons believe [and tremble]". The demons believe in Jesus and tremble at the thought of Him --- but theyre not born again. To believe the way God commmands is to allow this new belief, imparted to you by grace through faith in Christ, to "put off the old man", "become a new creation" who by way of default is a "slave to righteousness". Believing with no evidence of a life change is nothing more than a mental ascent. A way that seemeth right unto man but the end thereof is death!
Since that day I have been called everything from "just more spiritual", to "very religious", none of which I am, nevertheless - - everyone around me has been able to see the change. That's what the verse means when it says in 2 Corinthians 5:17: Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new. Behold indicates that you can "see" all the new things.
This is the story of every true believer. My version only differs in the events approaching my new birth, from there it's one and the same with every disciple of Jesus Christ. Decreased patterns of sin, hatred of sin, love for God, love for His Word, answered prayer, the witness of the Spirit, rejection and persecution because of our faith etc. all hang as glorious fruit from us branches.... so long as we abide in the vine. If you can testify to these things - then Praise the Lord. For those of you who don't know and/or know you cannot, I could want nothing more for you.
Father,
it is in the Name of your blessed Son, Jesus the messiah, that i pray. i beseech you Lord on the behalf of those who do not know you intimitely. may the things written bring glory to your Name not mine. If you see fit, use these words as a flint knife slicing through the stone hearts of sinners and imparting them with a new, heart of flesh. For those who know you, Lord comfort and encourage them with your Word and by your Spirit empower them to live holy as your are holy- as You've commanded us to do. Thank you Father.
Amen.
