The Departure of Jehovah's Glory (5): A Gracious Heart Transplant (Ezekiel 11:14-25) by Rev. Angus Stewart
I. What It Is
II. What It Effects
III. What It Realizes
Regeneration by Herman Hoeksema (Standard Bearer 38:3)
… I will try to define the subject of regeneration. And I do this as follows. Regeneration, in the deepest and narrowest sense of the word is that saving act of the Triune God whereby He takes hold of the elect, who is in himself dead in sins and trespasses, through the Spirit of Christ, translates him in the very depth of his existence, and infuses into him the principle of the new life which is in Christ Jesus, thus translating him in principle out of death into life and placing him in abiding communion with the body of Christ. That, therefore, would be my definition of the important doctrine of regeneration. It consists in the granting and infusing of new spiritual qualities. It is the circumcision of the heart. It takes place not in the consciousness of the sinner as such, but in the very depth of his heart, in the center of his spiritual, ethical life, from which are the issues of life. We may also say that regeneration in the narrowest sense of the word is the implanting of the seed of the new life as it is not yet sprouted into the consciousness of the sinner. We may even say, on the basis of Scripture, that regeneration is a wholly new creation, through which in principle the sinner becomes a wholly new man in Christ Jesus, so that principally old things have passed away and all things have become new. The Holy Scriptures speak of regeneration in this sense when they refer to an incorruptible seed, out of which regeneration develops, through the Word of God in the consciousness of the sinner. From the point of view of this new principle of life, in regeneration the new man is principally entirely delivered from sin. He cannot sin, according to the apostle John in I John 3:9. He cannot sin, according to the apostle in this verse, “because his seed remaineth in him.” Of this regeneration the Saviour also speaks to Nicodemus in the well-known words: “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.” And when Nicodemus approaches the Lord with the question, “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 again speaks of the new birth as follows: “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” (John 3:3-5). Now then, explaining the definition I just made, we can find the following elements in the grace of regeneration. 1) First of all, regeneration is exclusively a work of the Triune God, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, through the Spirit of Christ. Man, therefore, is in deepest principle wholly passive in the work of regeneration. In it God only acts; man does not. 2) Regeneration, in that narrowest sense of the word, takes place in the depth of man’s existence, or, if you wish, in the depth of a man’s heart. It is a new birth, a being born from the very beginning. It is a new creation, and a regenerated man is a new creature. 3) It precedes all mediate works of God in us. For without this work of regeneration, according to the words of Jesus just quoted, one cannot even see the kingdom of God. It is an immediate work of God, an act of the Spirit in our hearts, without us, in which, therefore, we are entirely inactive. 4) This new creation, however, does not mean that man through regeneration is essentially changed. In regeneration he does not receive another soul in the essential sense of the word. Regeneration has a spiritual, ethical character. Through that work of God the sinner is translated from death into life. 5) Finally, regeneration consists of an infusing, or implanting, of the seed of a new life, of the principle of the life of God as it exists first in the exalted Christ, and from Him flows through the Spirit of Christ into the church and into the heart of the sinner. It is implanted out of Christ into the heart of the sinner, into the center of his existence from a spiritual, ethical point of view.
From all this it ought to be evident that regeneration is exclusively a work of God, wherein man is strictly passive, in the sense that he does not and cannot cooperate in his own rebirth. In the deepest sense regeneration is not even as such a matter of his own experience, seeing that it does not take place within, but below the threshold of his consciousness. It is therefore independent of age, and it can take place in the smallest infant. We may even take for granted that in the sphere of the covenant of God He usually regenerates His elect children from infancy.
… the rebirth; or regeneration cannot by any means be established as the work of man. This impossibility is already implied in the term “rebirth” or “regeneration” ...