fralo4truth
Puritan Board Freshman
One of the most frustrating things that I find in studying regeneration is what does it actually refer to? Some men tend to view the whole saving process as kind of a step-by-step model, where there is an initial quickening of God's Spirit followed, either logically or in order of time, by a deliverance component. Others seem to glob the whole thing together and refer to the saving process as an instantaneous event. When I read certain writers and I hear them thus say that regeneration is through means and then others say that regeneration is not through means, they could both be correct, depending on how they define the term. And this confuses me.
If one means the initial quickening of the Spirit then I kind of lean toward the belief that it is not through means. But the deliverance aspect of it is through means which I think is taught by James 1:18. There the expression is 'begat' presupposing a 'conception' component having already logically occurred.
Do any of you struggle with this like I do?
Consider Pink's words. He expresses it better than me.
"We shall now confine ourselves to the initial operation of the Spirit within the elect of God. Different writers have employed the term "regeneration" with varying latitude: some restricting it unto a single act, others including the whole process by which one becomes a conscious child of God. This has hindered close accuracy of thought, and has introduced considerable confusion through the confounding of things which, though intimately related, are quite distinct. Not only has confusion of thought resulted from a loose use of terms, but serious divisions among professing saints have issued therefrom. We believe that much, if not all, of this would have been avoided had theologians discriminated more sharply and clearly between the principle of grace (spiritual life) which the Spirit first imparts unto the soul, and His consequent stirrings of that principle into exercise."
He then will go on to say:
"James 1:18, 1 Peter 1:23, and parallel passages, refer not to the original communication of spiritual life to the soul, but rather to our being enabled to act from that life and induced to love and obey God by means of the Word of Truth�which presupposes a principle of grace already planted in the heart. In His work of illumination, conviction, conversion, and sanctification, the Spirit uses the Word as the means thereto, but in His initial work of "quickening" He employs no means, operating immediately or directly upon the soul. First there is a "new creation" (2 Cor. 5:17; Eph. 2:10), and then the "new creature" is stirred into exercise. Faith and all other graces are wrought in us by the Spirit through the instrumentality of the Word, but not so with the principle of life and grace from which these graces proceed.
I would love to hear your thoughts on the matter. If you know of any works which might help me on this issue, I would love to know of them.
God Bless friends.
If one means the initial quickening of the Spirit then I kind of lean toward the belief that it is not through means. But the deliverance aspect of it is through means which I think is taught by James 1:18. There the expression is 'begat' presupposing a 'conception' component having already logically occurred.
Do any of you struggle with this like I do?
Consider Pink's words. He expresses it better than me.
"We shall now confine ourselves to the initial operation of the Spirit within the elect of God. Different writers have employed the term "regeneration" with varying latitude: some restricting it unto a single act, others including the whole process by which one becomes a conscious child of God. This has hindered close accuracy of thought, and has introduced considerable confusion through the confounding of things which, though intimately related, are quite distinct. Not only has confusion of thought resulted from a loose use of terms, but serious divisions among professing saints have issued therefrom. We believe that much, if not all, of this would have been avoided had theologians discriminated more sharply and clearly between the principle of grace (spiritual life) which the Spirit first imparts unto the soul, and His consequent stirrings of that principle into exercise."
He then will go on to say:
"James 1:18, 1 Peter 1:23, and parallel passages, refer not to the original communication of spiritual life to the soul, but rather to our being enabled to act from that life and induced to love and obey God by means of the Word of Truth�which presupposes a principle of grace already planted in the heart. In His work of illumination, conviction, conversion, and sanctification, the Spirit uses the Word as the means thereto, but in His initial work of "quickening" He employs no means, operating immediately or directly upon the soul. First there is a "new creation" (2 Cor. 5:17; Eph. 2:10), and then the "new creature" is stirred into exercise. Faith and all other graces are wrought in us by the Spirit through the instrumentality of the Word, but not so with the principle of life and grace from which these graces proceed.
I would love to hear your thoughts on the matter. If you know of any works which might help me on this issue, I would love to know of them.
God Bless friends.
