Soteriology: Regeneration Causes Faith

The Doctrine of Salvation and the Two-Part Study on Faith, Regeneration, and Repentance

If you'll take out your Bibles and turn with me to John 3, that's where we're gonna be starting at tonight. We are in our study of soteriology, which means what? Come on, guys, you can answer. The doctrine of salvation.

Soteriology, the doctrine of salvation. And in our studies so far, we have looked at several key, important foundational teachings on the doctrine of salvation. This is part of our larger study on systematic theology, an overview of Christian theology and doctrine.

And every section that we have had has had a certain amount of headings. We've looked at the doctrine of sin, we've looked at the doctrine of man, we've looked at the doctrine of God and the Holy Spirit and Jesus Christ.

And when we came to the doctrine of salvation, I said we had the most headings in this one that we've had so far. Because under the doctrine of soteriology, under the doctrine of salvation, there is just so much to go through.

Because this includes not only how we are saved, but it includes the methods by which we are saved and the work of God in our salvation and how it is applied. And we've asked the questions, we've said, what are we saved from?

We're saved from the wrath of God. How are we saved? We're saved by the atoning work of Jesus Christ. And what was the extent of that atoning work? Who was the cross for? And we've looked at the subject of grace, we've looked at common grace, we've looked at special grace.

And over the last two weeks, we looked at the doctrine of justification by faith alone. And we focused on that over the last two weeks. Well, tonight we're gonna do the first of another two part. And as I was looking at my notes tonight, I said, before I came in for rehearsal for music, I was studying my notes again, looking at my notes, and I just said, you know what?

Not only is this way too long for one night, but it's also really two lessons. I had written it as one lesson, but as I looked it over, I said, you know what? This is actually two parts, because what we're gonna deal with, and I know you don't have handouts, and I hate that I can't give you something to hold on to, because we just, because of the whole virus thing, we're just not touching and handing things out right now.

We will start doing that soon. But here is the two parts so that we're gonna look at tonight and next week.

And it's all about relationship.

Now, when I say relationship, oftentimes we think about relationship like two people, relationships with one another, but that's not what this is about. We're going to talk about the relationship between first faith and regeneration, and that's gonna be tonight.

And then we're going to look at the relationship of faith and repentance. As I said, when I first wrote it, I wrote this as one long lesson, but really that's two lessons, because we need to be able to define our terms.

We have already talked about faith in the last two lessons, so we've defined what faith is. Faith is the instrumental cause of our salvation in that it is the tool that God uses, and He gives us the gift of faith, the ability to believe in the work of Jesus Christ.

And it's not our faith that saves us, it's the work of Christ that saves us, but our faith is the instrument by which we take hold of the work of Christ. And it is our faith that God uses to have that relationship with us, that we can interact with Him.

We interact with Him not by works, even though our good works are outflowing, but our relationship with God is based not on those works, but it's based on faith. The just shall live by faith. And so we have discussed faith, but tonight we're going to talk about regeneration, and then next week we'll look at the subject of repentance.

Jesus and Nicodemus: The New Birth in John 3

So let us read John chapter three, and we're gonna read verses one to 12. Very familiar passage, I've preached on this several times here at the church. Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews.

This man came to Jesus by night and said to him, "'Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God, "'for no one can do these signs that you do "'unless God is with him.'. "'Jesus answered him, "'Truly, truly I say to you, "'unless one is born again, "'he cannot see the kingdom of God.'.

"'Nicodemus said to him,.

"'How can a man be born when he is old? "'Can he enter a second time into his mother's womb "'and be born?'. "'Jesus answered, "'Truly, truly I say to you, "'unless one is born of water and the spirit, "'he cannot enter the kingdom of God.

"'That which is born of flesh is flesh, "'and that which is born of spirit is spirit. "'Do not marvel that I said to you, "'you must be born again. "'The wind blows where it wishes, "'and you hear it sound, "'but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes, "'so it is with everyone who is born of the spirit.'.

"'Nicodemus said to him, "'How can these things be?'. "'Jesus answered him, "'Are you the teacher of Israel, "'and yet you do not understand these things? "'Truly, truly I say to you, "'we speak of what we know "'and bear witness to what we have seen, "'but you do not receive our testimony.

"'If I had told you of earthly things,.

"'and you do not believe,.

"'how can you believe if I tell you heavenly things?'. Father in heaven, I thank you for your word. I pray now that as I seek to give an understanding of it and an understanding of this subject that you would keep me from error.

Lord, by your grace, let me preach your word in Christ's name.

Amen. All right.

John chapter three, by far the most famous of all Bible passages because it includes that very famous verse that we did not get to, verse 16. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believeth in him will not perish, but will have everlasting life.

Very important verse and one that we should all seek to know and to understand. But John chapter three is more than just verse 16. John chapter three is actually a narrative interaction of Jesus and a man named Nicodemus.

Nicodemus was a teacher in Israel. He was a Pharisee. He was one who knew the word of God. He knew the law and he was one who sought to live his life in light of the law of God. And in this famous passage, Jesus comes to Nicodemus.

Excuse me.

Let me back that up. Nicodemus comes to Jesus and he begins to speak to Jesus as a friend. We know you are one who comes from God. We don't know a lot about Nicodemus except that later in the narrative, we find out that he was a believer and that he became a believer.

And so we don't know much about him, but we do have at least that to go on, that this interaction changed him. We don't know why he came. Some people say he came at night because he wanted to avoid the crowds.

Jesus was always bombarded with crowds of people who wanted to be healed. And Nicodemus wanted a private audience with the master. Could be. Could be that Nicodemus wanted to come at night because he didn't want to be seen.

Perhaps he was embarrassed to go to Jesus because the Pharisees had in mass rejected Christ and his message, but Nicodemus wanted to see for himself. We don't know the reason. And to ascribe a motive is really not our purpose, but it is important to realize that this is a private affair between Jesus and this man called Nicodemus.

And Nicodemus says to Jesus, we know that you are a teacher come from God. And he says, we know that because of what you do. And you would think Jesus would say, well, thank you. It's good that you noticed that.

It's good you recognize that. Good job. It's not what Jesus did. In fact, his response to Nicodemus has perplexed a lot of people because Jesus doesn't really respond at all to what Nicodemus has to say.

Nicodemus says, we know you're a teacher come from God, for no one can do the things that you do unless he be from God. And Jesus said to him, truly, truly, I say unto you, unless a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.

It's a very odd response. I mean, if I had preached a great sermon and Ed, you came to me and said, Pastor Keith, I know that you're a man of God because that was such a wonderful sermon. And I said, truly, truly, I say to you, unless you be born again, you will not see the kingdom of God.

That'd be kind of an odd response. Wouldn't you say, Ed?

Not untrue, but certainly odd. And Jesus's response to Nicodemus should not perplex us because Jesus had a masterful way of cutting through the garbage. Jesus had a masterful way of cutting through people's overtures and simply getting to the heart of the matter.

And the heart of the matter was, you had a man before you who knew God's word,.

But didn't know God.

He had a man in front of him who knew God's law, but didn't know the law giver. He had a man who was so infatuated with Moses that he missed the master. And so that's what Jesus saw. He saw a man who wasn't born again.

And so Jesus, knowing his most desperate need, deals with that at the moment of their first, at least the first interaction that we're aware of. Kind of like when Jesus had the rich young ruler who came to him, good teacher.

And what must I do to inherit eternal life?

Why do you call me good?

There's no one good except God alone. Jesus had a way of just cutting through the garbage, cutting through the overtures and getting right to the heart, right to the issue. And the issue with Nicodemus was the issue of understanding the need for a changed heart.

And what's interesting is Jesus assumes that he should know this. If you read the text clearly, he says, you're a teacher of Israel and you do not know this, which is kind of insulting. It's almost like saying, can't you read?

You're the one who teaches these things. Can't you understand? You're the one who people go to for answers and you don't even know the most basic thing. That unless a man be born again, he will not see the kingdom of God.

What does it mean when Jesus says that we must be born again? Well, the word that I have put on the board tonight, the word regeneration is the fancy theological term.

For being born again.

It's an important word to know because regeneration is just that. It's being generated again or being birthed again or being brought to life again. And so if you think about something that's dead and it's regenerated, that means it's brought back to life.

And so the idea of regeneration is someone who is living but dead. What does the Bible say about us? You were dead in your trespasses and sins in which you once walked according to this world, right? Ephesians chapter two, you were dead in your trespasses and sins.

You say, well, I didn't feel dead. I was walking around. I was breathing. I was eating food.

My heart was pumping. My blood was flowing.

I did not feel dead. But the reality is we all come into this world, D-O-A, you know, the D-O-A, dead on arrival. We come into this world, spiritual corpses.

You say, but wait a minute.

No, no, no.

Babies are inherently sinless.

No, no.

No, please.

Understand the Bible teaches that we are sinners. Because of Adam, we inherit a sin nature. And that sin nature is there from the very moment we are conceived. David says that. He says that in sin did my mother conceive me.

And so we understand that sin is a part of the very nature of our conception, our growth in the womb, our birth. We are born in sin. And so we are spiritually dead until such time as we are regenerated.

Not regenerated physically, but regenerated spiritually. And we call that regeneration being born again. Now, I want to show you something in the text. If you have the ESV Bible, you'll notice in verse three, Jesus answered him, truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again, you'll notice there's a little for next to the word again.

That's a footnote that brings you down to the bottom of the page. And that little superscript for is pointing you to another word, which is the word above. Actually, it is the phrase from above. So to be born again can also be translated born from above.

To be born again can be translated to be born from above. And I want to give you a few examples of this. You don't have to go there with me because there's several in a row I want to give you. But if you want to write them down, it's Matthew 27 and 51.

It says, behold, the curtain of the temple was torn in two from the top to the bottom. That phrase from the top, that's the same word translated over in John three, from above to below. In John 3, 31, he who comes from above is above all.

That's the same from above. John 19, 11, Jesus answered him, you would have no authority over me at last. You would have no authority of me at all unless it had been given to you from above. That's the same phrase.

James 1, 17, every good and perfect gift comes from above, from the father of lights in whom there's no variation or shadow of turning. So you see that phrase translated to us and normally as born again could just as easily be translated born from above.

To be born from above is in line with what Jesus is saying because Jesus is talking about a spiritual rebirth. If you notice, Nicodemus considers Jesus' words very earthly as he says, unless you be born again or born from above, however we want to translate it, you will not see the kingdom of God.

What was Nicodemus' response? Can I crawl back into my mother's womb and be born again? So Nicodemus was taking Jesus' words to be born again, being a second time. But I think Jesus had in mind not that earthly idea.

That's why Jesus responds to him the second time by saying, unless you are born of water and the spirit, you cannot enter the kingdom of God. And so Jesus gets harder and more forceful into the crux of the matter.

I say you're born again, your response is, I would say childish at best.

What does that mean?

I got to go back in my mother's womb? And Jesus says, slow down, unless you're born of water and the spirit. So he changes it. He doesn't say born again. Jesus is actually giving an exposition of his own term.

Jesus is clarifying his own language because he said born again. And the response, well, what does that mean? I got to go back in mama's womb? No, no, listen closely. What I'm saying is unless you are born of water.

And of the spirit.

Now, very quickly, and I want to make this super, I've preached on this so many times and this is not the night for it. Of water and of the spirit is not referring to baptism. A lot of people think that it is.

Roman Catholic official position on that passage is that this refers to baptism, which is why, you remember last week we said the Roman Catholic Church teaches that baptism is the instrumental cause of salvation.

Person has to be baptized. I believe that, some people believe the water here is referencing the water in the womb. You know how when you're birthed, your water breaks. And the reason why they think that is because in just a minute he says that which is born of flesh is flesh, that which is born of spirit is spirit.

So in that sense, it's water and the spirit, right? I don't go that direction. I see how people get there, but that's one way to understand it. My understanding of water here is actually taken from the Old Testament prophets.

Whenever they prophesied or talked about someone who was born of God, it was always accompanied by the washing from heaven or the washing away of their sin, of their inequity, of their guilt. And it was never seen as a physical washing, but always as a spiritual cleansing.

And so I do believe there is a spiritual way to understand Jesus's words with the water here. When you are born again, you are washed. That's why we're baptized. It symbolizes what has happened on the inside.

And so I do believe the water here is a spiritual water, a spiritual birth that we all go through when we are born again. Again, this is not the time to go into the wherefores and the whys on that, but if you wanna take it as physical birth versus spiritual birth, I'm not gonna argue with you about that, but I certainly do not think that it would agree with those who would argue that it's baptism.

The Bible does not say that baptism is the method of salvation. Baptism is what saved people do, not what people do to get saved. Say that again. Baptism is what saved people do, not what people do to get saved.

Make sense?

Okay.

So with this in mind, being born again is being born from above. It is being born by the spirit. We have already been born physically. We came into the earth dead on arrival. We have lived our lives in sin and in accompanying with our sinful flesh, and God comes and he changes our hearts, and this act of the new birth is called regeneration.

We who were spiritually dead have been made spiritually alive. Now, I wanna read to you two definitions of regeneration that will go along with what I've just said, but maybe more fully explain some of what I have said.

Regeneration as a Secret Work of God and the New Birth

The first comes from the abstract of principles. Are you guys familiar with the abstract of principles? I would encourage you to familiarize yourself with it. The abstract of principles is a statement of faith that was written early in the history of the Southern Baptist Convention.

Now, I'm not a Southern Baptist, even though I did graduate from a Southern Baptist seminary. I love the abstract of principles. It is one of the most simple and yet at the same time, robust statements of faith that I think is available today.

It's not a full confession of faith, but it is enough of a statement of faith that it gives enough meat to where, give you an example, you cannot teach at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky.

You cannot teach there unless you agree with the abstract of principles. You have to sign a document saying that you confess and affirm the abstract of principles. And again, it's two pages, it's not very long.

So I would encourage you to its reading, but this is what it says about regeneration. Regeneration is a change of heart wrought by the Holy Spirit who quickeneth the dead in trespasses and sins, enlightening their mind spiritually and savingly to understand the Word of God and renewing their whole nature so that they love and practice holiness.

It is a work of God's free and special grace alone. Sounds a lot like what we've been talking about, right? God's special grace, God's free grace, God's sovereign grace. Another good resource if you don't own it is the systematic theology.

It's more of a modern systematic theology written by Mr. Wayne Grudem. Dr. Wayne Grudem, and this is what he says. Regeneration is a secret act of God in which he imparts new spiritual life to us. In the work of regeneration, we play no active role at all.

It is instead totally a work of God. We see this, for example, when John talks about those to whom Christ gave the power to become children of God. They were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God, John 1 .13.

Here, John specifies that children of God are those who are born of God, and our human will, the will of man, does not bring about that kind of birth. You see, regeneration is not something you do. Regeneration is not something that you cause.

Regeneration is an act of God on your part. On your behalf, he regenerates you, not by your okay, but by his sovereign choice. And I'll show you, if you look back at John 3, notice in verse seven, Jesus says, "'Do not marvel that I said to you, "'you must be born again.'.

"'The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, "'but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. "'So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.'". Notice what he's saying. He is saying that a person who is born again by the Spirit of God, you can't see it happen, but you do see the result.

You don't see the wind, you see the trees moving with the wind. You don't see the wind, you see the leaves blowing with the wind. And the same way, when someone is born again,.

You don't see it happen,.

But you do see the result of it happening. You see the Spirit of God change their life. And the first change that results in regeneration is faith.

Regeneration Causes Faith, Not the Other Way Around

Regeneration causes faith.

I know many of you grew up and throughout your lives listened to Dr. Billy Graham. And I have a great love for Dr. Graham. I've talked about him in many of my sermons. And in many ways, he was a faithful man of God.

But there was one error that I think needs to be at least identified. Often in Dr. Graham's teaching and in a lot of revivalist teaching, the insinuation was you believe to become born again. You make a decision to become born again.

In fact, Billy Graham's magazine was called Decision Magazine. So the concept was your regeneration is really up to you. Your regeneration is the result of something you accomplish. You believe and you are born again.

But beloved, the Bible does not teach that. Now, I'm not saying that if you have thought that or believe that or anyone who does teach that is a damnable heretic or anything. I just told you I love the man.

But this is one area that many revivalists get wrong. They make everything about the decision without explaining or affirming the fact that no one will make the decision without the work of Almighty God on the heart.

The heart of man is opposed to the things of God until such time as God opens his heart to believe. You remember Acts 17 and Lydia and Philippi when Paul went into Philippi and he preached the gospel and the Bible says, and God opened her heart to believe the things that Paul had preached.

Turn with me to John 1. We're here anyway. Just look over at John 1. This is the passage that Dr. Grudem mentioned in his systematic theology. I point this out to people all the time whenever we're talking about the subject of being born again and people asking, well, what argument do you make that faith comes from regeneration?

And I usually take them to John 3 and I show them here it says, you have to be born again to see the kingdom. You have to be born again to enter the kingdom and being born again is an act of the spirit.

The spirit is the one who moves, not you. He's the one who's gonna move and you won't know it until you see the result.

And the result is faith.

But then in John 1, verse 11, we see this. In John 1, verse 11, speaking of Jesus, it says he came to his own and his own people did not receive him. That's the Jews. Jesus came to his own and his own received him not, the King James said.

But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God. And people say, see right there, they believe. And then they become children of God. They believe and then they're born again.

I say, no, no, don't stop there. But wait, there's more. Because verse 13, who were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. You see, the reason they received him was because they were born of God.

The reason why they received him was because they were born of the spirit. And notice what it says, they were born not of blood.

What does that mean?

It means they were not born again because of who their parents were. They were not born again because of their national heritage. No one has ever been saved because of who their parents are. That's one of the issues I take with some of my brethren in some other reformed movements, because some people do believe that by the very nature of the fact that they give birth to children, that those children are elect because they're born into a covenant family.

See, that's one of the things that distinguishes reformed Baptists, is we don't believe that just because someone's born into a believing family, that that automatically makes them one of the elect. We look for evidence of regeneration.

We look for evidence of the new birth. We don't assume they are regenerated. We don't assume they are elect simply because there are children. They're born not of blood, but he says, he goes on, he says, not of the will of the flesh, meaning that it wasn't a decision made by their own desires.

It wasn't the will of the flesh that caused them to become children of God. This is the big issue, right?

This is decision. It's your decision.

No, it's not of the will of the flesh. They weren't born of their parents into the kingdom. They weren't born of their own will into the kingdom. And he goes on to say, and they weren't born of the will of man.

What does that mean?

Why would he distinguish between the will of the flesh and the will of man? One, the will of the flesh is their will and the will of man is someone else. No one else can do it for me either. I can't believe for my children.

I can't believe for you.

I wish I could.

I wish I could make you believe,.

But I don't have the power to do that.

And I don't have the power to do that for my children. And I don't have the power to do that for anyone. And so I know that the only person I can trust with the regeneration of my children, the only person I can trust with the regeneration of my parents, the only person I can trust with the regeneration of my church members, the only person I can trust with the regeneration of my best friends is God.

I've had people say to me, and this is a sincere problem and fear that people have brought to me. And so I want you to understand that by me bringing this up, I am not diminishing this in any way because I have had people sincerely come to me and say, Pastor, if what you're saying is correct, it's all up to God.

I can't handle that because my children are not yet believers and I need to know that I can impact that in some way. I can't. They want to feel like they, they, and I've heard people say it has to be up to my child.

He has to be the one who's able to make the decision. It has to be up to his free will. And my response to that, I remember the person face to face. I know who she was. I was sitting right across from her in my office and I said, who would you rather trust with the salvation of your child, his reprobate soul or our almighty, sovereign and loving God?

Would you rather trust his sinful heart? Or God, and here's the thing. Everybody prays like a Calvinist because I've never heard an Armenian ever say, God, I know you're doing all you can do and I know that you have already done everything that you're going to do.

So I'm not going to ask you to save Johnny. I'm going to go ahead and go talk to Johnny and try to make him make a good decision. No, that's not how they pray. They pray like this. God, open Johnny's heart.

God, please save Johnny.

God, please bring him to the end of himself. God, please break his heart.

God, please save him. You don't want to pray like that.

Because even in the midst of bad theology, they know what's true, it's ultimately God who's going to open his heart. If they are right, God's up there going, I'm doing the best I can. Why do we ask God to change someone's heart if we don't believe he can or if we don't believe he will?

We know he can.

We know he will.

This is why when we go preach, we preach and say, come to Jesus. And you say, but wait a minute, you told me it wasn't about their decision. Remember, and I'm not contradicting myself at all, we proclaim come to Jesus with the understanding that no one will unless God opens their heart.

So we pray God open their heart and we preach come to Jesus. And this is what the Bible says. All the father gives me will come to me. Jesus said that in John 6, 37, all that the father gives me will come to me.

So when someone comes to Jesus, I can look them in the eye and I can say you are a gift from the father to the son. You were given from the king to his son as a bride. I've heard people say I'm no gift.

If you're a believer, you are a gift, you're a gift from the father to the son. Remember the parable Jesus told? He said that there was a king who was throwing a banquet for his child and he sent out invitations and no one came.

That's the natural state of man. No one will come. The invitation has been made and it's a legitimate invitation.

But no one comes.

So what did the king do? He sent out his servants and he says, go out into the highway, into the hedges and compel them to come in that my son's banquet will be filled. That's the work of the Holy Spirit of God.

Who goes out and compels the hearts of men to turn from their sins and to come to the son and be saved. That's regeneration. And it's a work of God alone. And it is the cause, not the result of our faith.

Next Week: Faith and Repentance

Next week, we're going to look at the relationship between faith and repentance. But that's all for tonight. Let's pray. Father, I thank you for this time of study. I pray and hope that it, Lord, has been encouraging to your people.

I pray that the hearts and minds of all of us will be better equipped now to understand what it means to be born again, to be born from above. And Lord, to understand that if we have been born again, it's not because of what we have done.

It's not because we were more spiritually sensitive than the person next to us. It wasn't because we were better than the person that lives on the same street as us. But Lord, it was because of your sovereign mercy that you opened up our hearts.

You drew us to yourself. You made us to love the son. And now that we love the son, we who are in the son are now a truly and completely new people because of his work. We have been born again and we shall see the kingdom of God.

Thank you, Lord. In Jesus name, Amen.