Systematic Theology Vol. 3

The subjective change -wrought in the soul by the grace of God, is variously designated in Scripture. It is called a new birth, a resurrection, a new life, a new creature, a renewing of the mind, a dying to sin and living to righteousness, a translation from darkness to light, etc. In theological language, it is called regeneration, renovation, conversion. These terms are often used interchangeably. They are also used sometimes for the whole process of spiritual renovation or restoration of the image of God, and sometimes for a particular stage of that process. Thus Calvin gives the term its widest scope : " Uno verbo poenitentiam interpreter regenerationem, cujus non ahus est scopus nisi ut imago Dei, quse per Adje transgTessionem foedata et tantum non obliterata fuerat, in nobis reformetur Atque li;ec quidem instauratio non uno momento, vel die, vel anno impletur, sed per continues, imo etiam lentos interdum profectus abolet Deus in electis suis carnis corruptelas." ^

With the theologians of the seventeenth century conversion and regeneration were synonymous terms. In the acts of the Synod of Dort, we find such expressions as " Status conversionis aut regenerationis," and "effecta ad conversionem sive regenerationem prasvia." John Owen, in his work on the Holy Spirit, follows the same usage. The fifth chapter of the third book of that work is entitled " The nature of regeneration," and one of the heads under this is, " Conversion not ^vi'ought by moral suasion only." " If the Holy Spirit," he says, " acts no otherwise on men in regeneration or conversion," then so and so follows. Turrettin, as we have seen, distinguishes between what he calls " conversio p. 4habitualis " and " conversio actualis." " Conversio liabitualis sen passiva, fit per habituum supernaturalium infusionem a Spiritu Sancto. Actualis vero sen activa per bonorum istorum exercitium Per illam homo renovatur et convertitvir a Deo. Per istam homo a Deo renovatus et convertus convertit se ad Deum, et actus agit. Ilia melius regeneratio dicitur, quia se habet ad modum novte nativitatis, qua homo reformatur ad imagjjiem Creatoris sui. Ista vero conversio, quia includit hominis ipsius operationem." ^ This is clear and accurate. As these two things are distinct they should be designated by different terms. Great confusion arises from this ambiguity of terms. The questions whether man is active or passive in regeneration and whether regeneration is effected by the mediate or immediate influence of the Spirit must be answered in one way if regeneration includes conversion, and in another if it be taken in its restricted sense. In the Bible, the distinction is generally preserved ; /xcrarota, repentance, change of mind, turning to God, ^'. e., conversion, is what man is called upon to do ; avayiwrja-Ls, regeneration, is the act of God. God regenerates ; the soul is regenerated. In the Romish Church justification is making subjectively just, ^. <?., free from sin and inwardly holy. So is regeneration. So is sanctification. These terms, therefore, in the theology of that church are constantly interchanged.

p. 4Even by the Lutherans, in the " Apology for the Augsburg Confession," regeneration is made to include justification. That is, it is made to include the whole process by which the sinner is transferred from a state of sin and condemnation into a state of salvation. In the " Form of Concord " it is said, " Vocabuliun regenerationis interdum in eo sensu accipitur, ut simul et reniissionem peccatorum (qure duntaxat propter Christum contingit) et subsequentem renovationem complectatur, quam Spiritus Sanctus in illis, qui per fidem justificati sunt, operatur, quandoque etiam solam remissionem peccatorum, et adoptionem m filios Dei significat. Et in hoc posteriore usu srepe multumque id vocabulum in Apologia Confessionis ponitur. Verbi gratia, cum dicitur: Justificatio est regeneratio Quin etiam vivificationis vocabulum interdum ita accipitur, ut remissionem peccatorum notet. Cum enim homo per fidem (quam quidem solus Spiritus Sanctus operatur) justificatur, id ipsum revera est qutedam regeneratio, quia ex filio irro fit filius Dei, et hoc modo e morte in vitam transfertur Deinde etiam regeneratio sa^pe pro sanctificatione p. 5et renovatione (qu^ fidei iiistificationem sequitur) usurpatur. In qua significatione D. Liitherus liac voce, turn in libro de ecclesia et conciKis, turn alibi etiam, multnm usu est." ^

p. 5As this lax use of terms was unavoidably attended with great confusion, the " Form of Concord " itself, and the later Lutheran theologians were more precise. They made especially a sharp distinction between justification and anything signifying a subjective change in the sinner.

In the early Church regeneration often expressed, not any inward moral change, but an external change of state or relation. Among the Jews when a heathen became a proselyte to their religion, he was said to be born again. The change of his status from without to within the theocracy, was called regeneration. This usage in a measure passed over to the Christian Chui-ch. When a man became a member of the Church he was said to be born anew ; and baptism, which was the rite of initiation, was called regeneration. This use of the word has not yet entirely passed away. A distinction is still sometimes made between regeneration and spiritual renovation. The one is extei-nal, the other internal. Some of the advocates of baptismal regeneration make this distinction, and interpret the language of the formulas of the Church of England in accordance with it. The regeneration effected in baptism, in their view, is not any spiritual change in the state of the soul, but simply a birth into the \dsible Church.

By a consent almost universal the word regeneration is now used to designate, not the whole work of sanctification, nor the first stages of that work comprehended in conversion, much less justification or any mere external change of state, but the instantaneous change from spiritual death to spiritual life. Regeneration, therefore, is a spiritual resurrection ; the beginning of a new life. Sometimes the word expresses the act of God. God regenerates. Sometimes it designates the subjective effect of his act. The sinner is regenerated. He becomes a new creature. He is born again. And this is his regeneration. These two applications of the word are so allied as not to produce confusion. The nature of regeneration is not explained in the Bible further than the account therein given of its author, God, in the exercise of the exceeding greatness of his power ; its subject, the whole soul ; and its effects, spiritual hfe, and all consequent holy acta p. 66' PART m. Ch. XV. — regeneration. and states. Its metaphysical nature is left a mystery. It is not the province of either philosophy or theology to solve that mystery. It is, however, the duty of the theologian to examine the various theorics concerning the nature of this saving change, and to reject all such as are inconsistent with the Word of God.