How are Believers made Believers? The Biblical Doctrine of Regeneration.

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The Biblical Doctrine of Regeneration Edited by John Hendryx.

Sec. #1.) The Necessity of Spirit Working the Grace of Regeneration.

Sec. #2.) The Nature and Efficiency of Regeneration.

Sec. #3.) Word and Spirit. (The Necessity of the Spirit
to Give Effect to the Preaching of the Gospel.
The External and Internal Call, etc.)

Preface:

Monergistic Regeneration (the new birth as the work of God alone
and not a cooperation of man and God ) is a redemptive blessing purchased by Christ
and applied by the Spirit to those the Father has given the Son
(1 Pet 1:3, John 6:37, 39; John 17:9).

This grace works independently of any human cooperation
and conveys that power into the fallen soul whereby the person who is to be saved
is effectually enabled to respond to the outward gospel call
(Acts 2:39, 1 Cor 1:2, 9, 24, Rom 8:30 John 1:13, Acts 13:48).

It is that supernatural power of God alone whereby we are granted the spiritual ability
and desire to comply with the conditions of the covenant of grace;
that is, to apprehend the Redeemer by a living faith, to come up to the terms of salvation,
to repent of idols and to love God and the Mediator supremely.

The Holy Spirit, in quickening the soul, mercifully capacitates
and inclines God's elect to the spiritual exercise of faith in Jesus Christ
(John 6:44, 1 John 5:1).

This instantaneous and intensely personal work of God
is the means by which the Spirit brings us into living union with Him.
Since faith is infinitely beyond all the power of our unregenerated human nature,
it is only God who can give the spiritual ears to hear
and eyes to see the beauty of Christ in the gospel.

God alone disarms the hostility of the sinner turning his heart of stone to a heart of flesh
(2 Cor 4:4-6).

It is God, the Holy Spirit, alone who gives illumination and understanding of His word
that we might believe; It is God who raises us from the death of sin,
who circumcises the heart; unplugs our ears;

It is God alone who can give us a new sense,
a spiritual capacity to behold the beauty and unsurpassed excellency of Jesus Christ.

The apostle John recorded Jesus saying to Nicodemus that we naturally love darkness,
hate the light and WILL NOT come into the light (John 3:19, 20).

And since our hardened resistance to God is thus seated in our affections,
only God, by His grace, can lovingly change, overcome, and pacify our rebellious disposition.

The natural man, apart from the quickening work of the Holy Spirit,
will not come to Christ on his own since he is at enmity with God
and cannot understand spiritual things (1 Cor 2:14).

Shining a light into a blind man's eyes will not enable him to see,
because eyesight first requires a set of healthy eyes.

Likewise,
reading or hearing the word of God alone cannot elicit saving faith in the reader
(1 Thess 1:4, 5) unless God plows up the fallow ground of our hearts
and the Spirit "germinates" the seed of the word,
opening our eyes to see Christ's true beauty and excellence
and uniting us to Him through a Spiritwrought faith.

So the problem of conversion is not with the Word or God's Law
but with a man's prideful heart.

The humility required to submit to the gospel is, therefore,
not prompted by man's will but by God's mercy (Rom 9:16)
since no one can believe the gospel unless God grants it (John 6:63, 65).

As an example of how the Spirit uses the means of the spoken word
to disarm closed hearts, the Book of Acts records the work of the Holy Spirit
during the preaching of the apostles and, in one instance,
states that "the Lord opened her [Lydia's] heart
to respond to the things spoken by Paul," (Acts 16:14).

The Spirit must likewise give all His people spiritual life and understanding
if their hearts are to be opened and thus respond to Christ in faith.

Jesus Christ is fount of every blessing,
even the blessing of giving us a new heart to believe (Deut 30:6).

For those who are concerned about spending too much time talking to each other
about all things theological, my response is that
we are to preach the whole counsel of Scripture.

Jesus talks about this doctrine with unbelievers EXTENSIVELY.

Consider John 6 alone "All that the Father gives to Me WILL come to Me (v 37)
The Spirit gives Life the flesh counts for ...nothing...
no one can come to Me unless God grants it (v 63 &.65).

If Jesus thinks this is appropriate then so should we.

Monergistic regeneration (grace alone) strips man of all possible hope in himself.

Yes, indeed we call all people to believe the gospel.

But as Jesus said to Peter when he answered correctly about who he was,
"flesh and blood has not revealed this to you but My Father in heaven"
--- The examples are endless.

Both need to be preached from the pulpit or we are picking and choosing.

The following are carefully selected essays
and sermons from the history of Christianity
which demonstrates that this is the silver thread of orthodoxy
which God has revealed in His Scriptures to His faithful throughout the centuries.

May God be glorified and the saints be edified in the reading of them.

 

Believers in Christ come to be by the sanctifying work of the Spirit in regeneration, then they're persuaded of the Truth 2 Thess 2:13

13 But we are bound to give thanks alway to God for you, brethren beloved of the Lord, because God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth:

The Spirit applies the saving merits of Christs death, and Gospel obedience springs from that.

 

Believers are the Spiritual Seed of Abraham and of Christ, so its a sure thing they will believe because Abraham was their Spiritual Father even before they believed Rom 4:11-17

11 And he received the sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness of the faith which he had yet being uncircumcised: that he might be the father of all them that believe, though they be not circumcised; that righteousness might be imputed unto them also:

12 And the father of circumcision to them who are not of the circumcision only, but who also walk in the steps of that faith of our father Abraham, which he had being yet uncircumcised.

13 For the promise, that he should be the heir of the world, was not to Abraham, or to his seed, through the law, but through the righteousness of faith.

14 For if they which are of the law be heirs, faith is made void, and the promise made of none effect:

15 Because the law worketh wrath: for where no law is, there is no transgression.

16 Therefore it is of faith, that it might be by grace; to the end the promise might be sure to all the seed; not to that only which is of the law, but to that also which is of the faith of Abraham; who is the father of us all,

17 (As it is written, I have made thee a father of many nations,) before him whom he believed, even God, who quickeneth the dead, and calleth those things which be not as though they were.

 

Another scripture that shows that Faith/obedience is the result of the work of the Spirit 1 Pet 1:2

2 Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ: Grace unto you, and peace, be multiplied.

Obedience here is that obedience to the Gospel or the obedience of Faith

Like Acts 6:7

And the word of God increased; and the number of the disciples multiplied in Jerusalem greatly; and a great company of the priests were obedient to the faith.

Its the same as what Paul wrote in 2 Thess 2:13 where " belief of the Truth" goes with Election and the same sanctifying work of the Spirit


13 But we are bound to give thanks alway to God for you, brethren beloved of the Lord, because God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth: