Regeneration (theology)

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Christian regeneration can be thought of as a spiritual analogue of this regrowth after a bushfire in Australia in 2003

Regeneration, while sometimes perceived to be a step in the Ordo salutis ('order of salvation'), is generally understood in Christian theology to be the objective work of God in a believer's life. Spiritually, it means that God brings Christians to new life from a previous state of subjection to the decay of death (Ephesians 2:4).[1] While the exact Greek noun palingensia ("rebirth" or "regeneration") appears just twice in the New Testament (Matthew 19:28 and Titus 3:5), regeneration represents a wider theme of re-creation and spiritual re-birth.[2] Furthermore there is the sense in which regeneration includes the concept "being born again" (John 3:3-8 and 1 Peter 1:3).[3]

Historical interpretations

Baptismal regeneration

Main article: Baptismal regeneration

Lutheran and Roman Catholic theology holds that "baptism confers cleansing of [original] sin, the infusion of regenerating grace and union with Christ."[4] Official Roman Catholic teaching specifically states that regeneration commences with baptism.[5]

General evangelicalism

During the period of the Great Awakening, emphasis in Protestant theology began to be placed on regeneration as the starting point of an individual's new life in Christ.[6]

Pelagianism

Main article: Pelagianism

Pelagius believed that people were born pure, with God's spirit already at work, making the need for spiritual regeneration from a previous sinful state irrelevant.[7] Since Pelagius, modernist theology has seen regeneration as more a matter of education than spiritual renewal.[8]

Semi-Pelagianism

Semipelagianism in its original form was developed as a compromise between Pelagianism and the teaching of Church Fathers such as Augustine, who taught that man cannot come to God without the grace of God.

In Semipelagian thought a distinction is made between the beginning of faith and the increase of faith. Semi-Pelegianism holds that man must initiate of his own free will to receive grace. The first steps towards the Christian life are thus understood as acts of the human will with grace supervening afterward.

Calvinism and Reformed theology

Though Reformed theology characteristically views baptism as an outward sign of God's internal work, John Calvin personally taught baptismal regeneration: “In baptism God regenerating us engrafts us, engrafts us into the society of his church and makes us his own by adoption.”[9] Regeneration is further described as the "secret operation of the Holy Spirit." [10]

Arminianism

In contrast to Semi-Pelagianism, Arminian theology teaches that the first steps are taken by God in the form of prevenient grace.[11]. Arminians differ from Calvinists in affirming that God's grace is always resistible. When someone believes, it is not grace which makes one to differ from another person, but faith which is produced by grace in those who do not reject it. According to Classical Arminians if a person is saved this is due to the grace of God alone; if a person is rejected, this is due to that person alone. Prevenient grace is appropriated or rejected before regeneration; those who do not reject it come into the light (Jn 3:19-21) by grace in consort with their freed will operating synergistically. After a believer has under the influence of prevenient grace made the faithful decision to follow Christ, God regenerates them spiritually.[12]

Comparison among Protestants

This table summarizes the classical views of three different Protestant beliefs.[13]

Topic Lutheranism Calvinism Arminianism
Justification Justification of all of his people completed at Christ's death Justification is limited to those predestined to salvation, completed at Christ's death Justification made possible for all through Christ's death, but only completed upon placing faith in Jesus

See also

References

  1. ^ Bruce Demarest, The Cross and Salvation: The Doctrine of Salvation (Wheaton: Crossway, 1997): 292.
  2. ^ Demarest, The Cross and Salvation, 293-294.
  3. ^ Wayne Grudem, Systematic Theology: An Introduction to Biblical Theology (Nottingham: IVP, 1994): 699.
  4. ^ Demarest, The Cross and Salvation, 281.
  5. ^ Demarest, The Cross and Salvation, 285.
  6. ^ H. Burkhardt 'Regeneration' New Dictionary of Theology (Downers Grove: IVP Academic, 1988): 574.
  7. ^ Demarest, The Cross and Salvation, 279.
  8. ^ Burkhardt 'Regeneration', 574.
  9. ^ ]ohn Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion 4.17.1).
  10. ^ John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion (III.1.1).
  11. ^ Roger Olson, Arminian Theology: Myths and Realities.
  12. ^ Demarest, The Cross and Salvation, 288.
  13. ^ Table drawn from, though not copied, from Lange, Lyle W. God So Loved the World: A Study of Christian Doctrine. Milwaukee: Northwestern Publishing House, 2006. p. 448.

External links

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