A Question about Regeneration and Indwelling

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Here's your host, Pastor Keith Foskey.

Welcome back to Coffee with a Calvinist.

My name is Keith Foskey and I am a Calvinist.

Today on the program, I want to follow up on what we talked about yesterday.

As yesterday, I played a clip from my sermon from last week and in that sermon, I talked about the fact that Noah was declared righteous because of his faith.

And a question came in from a listener about the relationship between regeneration and faith and the indwelling of the spirit.

And so today I want to talk about that in relation to the question and in relation to the covenants.

Because I do think that how we answer this question depends on whether we're talking about the old covenant saints or those of us who are part of the new covenant.

So let's begin first by defining some terms.

When we talk about regeneration, we're talking about the act by which the Holy Spirit takes our dead spirit and makes it alive.

And this is something that Jesus says is necessary for someone to be able to see and enter the kingdom of God.

According to John chapter 3, unless a person is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.

Unless he is born of water and of the spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.

And so we are reminded by Jesus that regeneration is necessary for salvation because that's what being born again means.

Jesus tells us, he's asked by Nicodemus in John 3, can I enter into my mother's womb and be born again? And Jesus says that's, well, Jesus's answer is essentially just to repeat, unless you're born of water and of the spirit.

And by that he means to be born supernaturally.

Every one of us has been born naturally as a natural birth.

And we are born into this world D-O-A.

We are born dead on arrival spiritually.

We're all alive physically, and we're all alive in the sense of we have the ability to think, the ability to emote, the ability to relate to one another.

But in regard to the spirit, we are dead.

The Bible says because we have been born with a nature of sin, we are dead in those trespasses and sins.

According to Ephesians chapter 2, we are dead in our trespasses and sins.

So what do we understand about regeneration? Regeneration is the act whereby God takes a dead soul and makes it alive.

God takes a dead spirit and gives that person life.

And here's where the Calvinistic versus non-Calvinistic interpretation becomes very important.

Because some would say that regeneration is the result of faith.

You believe and then you're born again.

But Calvinists say, no, that is mixing the order.

The order of salvation from the biblical perspective, we would say Calvinistic, but we'd also say this is biblical, is that you are born again and then you believe.

That faith is a product of being born again.

That without being born again, you cannot believe.

And this is based on several texts, but I like to point to Romans chapter 8, where we are told that a person who is in the flesh cannot please God.

A person has to be in the spirit to please God.

And therefore, if a person is in the flesh, he can't believe because faith pleases God.

In fact, the Bible says without faith, it's impossible to please God.

So, when we talk about regeneration preceding faith, that's one of the arguments that we make.

We say you have to be born again before you can believe.

And again, this goes back to John 6, that wonderful passage where Jesus tells us that no one can come to him unless the Father grants it to him.

And what is the granting? Well, we believe the granting of the Father is that work of regeneration.

And we also, we refer to this, sometimes we talk about the concept of calling or effectual calling.

We say there's a universal call that goes out, the gospel call, but then there's that effectual call that goes to where God opens the hearts of people to believe and they come.

And we see this in the life of Lydia.

The Bible says Lydia heard Paul preaching and he opened up her heart to believe.

And so that had to happen with Noah.

God had to open up his heart to believe.

And that's, I believe that that is stated implicitly when it says Noah found grace in the eyes of God.

Grace is the reason God chooses to save.

Not because we deserve it, not because of anything meritorious in and of us, but God is gracious in and of himself and he chooses to save and he chooses whom he will save.

We see this, of course, in Romans 9 when it says God will have mercy on whom he has mercy and he will show compassion to whom he has compassion.

And so it is God who chooses to open the heart.

But that's really not the question that that just sets up the stage for the question today because the question that the listener has provided is, well, if regeneration is necessary for a person to have faith, and we believe that it is, then does that mean that the Old Testament saints are indwelled with the spirit of God? If they've been regenerated by the spirit, are they not also indwelled by the spirit? And this is where things change a little bit.

And I'll say that this is not universally held among all Calvinists.

I have friends who are more Presbyterian.

Well, I have friends that are Presbyterian.

I would consider myself more in line with the historic Reformed Baptists, not Presbyterians.

But the Presbyterians that I have spoken to would say that, yes, the Old Testament saints were filled with the spirit in the same way that the New Testament saints are filled with the spirit.

At least at least one conversation I had with the Presbyterian minister, he said yes.

And this makes sense because within Presbyterian covenant theology, there is somewhat of a flattening out of the Old and New Covenant, whereby the Old and New Covenant are simply two administrations of one covenant of grace.

So the idea that the Old the New Testament saints would have some specifically different experience with salvation than the Old Testament saints would sort of go against their paradigm.

And it made sense to me when he said, yes, I believe the Old Testament saints were indwelled with the spirit the same way the New Testament saints are.

However, I would disagree with that.

I would say that the Old Testament saints did not experience the same indwelling as the New Testament saints.

And I base this on the reality that the New Testament, the New Covenant rather, is one of the promises of the New Covenant is the personal indwelling of the Holy Spirit of God.

When we look at the Old Covenant scriptures, the presence of God among the people of God was within the temple and starting out first in the tabernacle and then in the temple.

And the presence of God was seen as that was that was where God abided.

And the promise of the New Testament, of course, is that now the temple is is not a place, but is a people and the Holy Spirit indwells, not the place, but the people of God.

And we see this when Jesus was on the cross, it says that when he died on the cross, the veil of the temple, which was intended to separate the holy place from the most holy place, it was intended to it was intended to, in essence, separate the presence of God from the people so as to express his holiness.

When Jesus dies on the cross, that veil is torn top to bottom.

Why top to bottom? To demonstrate that it was, in fact, God who did it.

And when that veil is torn top to bottom, it demonstrates access to the Holy of Holies for all believers.

The presence of God now is no longer in the temple exclusively, but now the presence of God, the dwelling of the Lord, is inside the heart of every believer.

And I do think we see a transition point in Acts whereby we see this transition happening, because there are times in the book of Acts where people will believe and then later they will receive the Holy Spirit, the indwelling of the Spirit.

And I think that's an example of moving from the Old Covenant to the New Covenant, because under the Old Covenant, a person could be regenerated and be a believer, but not necessarily indwelled with the Spirit.

But under the New Covenant, all believers receive the indwelling of the Spirit.

But in Acts, and remember this, always remember this when you're interpreting Acts, Acts is a transitional time period in the history of the church where we're transitioning between the Old Covenant and the New Covenant.

We see times where people believe, which means they're regenerated, but not yet filled with the Spirit.

The apostles have to lay hands on them and then they're filled with the Spirit.

And so there is a transitional time.

But later on, when Paul writes the book of Romans, he says, if you do not have the Spirit of Christ, you do not belong to him.

And I do believe that that statement, which is in Romans chapter eight, that that statement is a reminder to us that within the New Covenant, if you do not possess the Holy Spirit, if you are not indwelled by the Holy Spirit, then you have not been regenerated.

So I do believe that now, currently, the current administration of the Spirit is such that when a person is born again, they are filled with the Spirit of God and that it is an immediate filling and indwelling.

This is part of the promise Jesus made.

He says, if I go, the Spirit will come and he will be the comforter.

He will be with you forever.

He will abide with you forever.

That's the promise of the New Covenant.

That's the promise of what Jesus gives us in the new administration, under the New Covenant, with the Holy Spirit of God as the one who indwells us.

Now, here's where I think we can see this another way.

If we go back into the Old Covenant, we do see the Holy Spirit coming upon men for purpose.

We see the Holy Spirit coming upon the judges.

We see the Holy Spirit coming upon the kings for a purpose.

We see the Holy Spirit coming upon the prophets for a purpose.

But what we also see in the Old Covenant is the Holy Spirit leaving certain individuals.

One most notably is Saul.

Saul, it says, was given the Spirit and then later the Spirit left him.

I think that's a tremendous example of how the Old Covenant differs from the New Covenant, because I would argue that under the New Covenant administration, when a person is regenerated and through that receives the gift of the Holy Spirit, that the Holy Spirit has now made his permanent abode in the heart of that person.

The Bible says that you are sealed by the Holy Spirit for the day of redemption, that that sealing of the Spirit is permanent.

And therefore, what we have now is not the Spirit simply coming on us for a purpose, such as leading a nation or defeating an enemy, but the Spirit comes upon us for the purpose of essentially empowering us to live the Christian life.

And that's where I want to end today, because here's the real where the rubber really meets the road with this particular doctrine, is if what I'm saying is correct, and I believe it is, obviously, what this means is that the New Covenant believer has more power to live a victorious life than did the saints under the Old Covenant administration.

The Old Covenant saints had the gift of regeneration, but I do not believe they had the same indwelling, and I don't believe they had the same gifts as were given in the New Covenant administration.

And under the New Covenant, we now have a new empowerment, a new ability for victory over sin, and therefore, I don't think it's always appropriate.

And I hear people do this all the time.

They compare the New Covenant saints with Old Covenant saints and say, well, you know, well, we're in the same situation.

I don't think we are.

I think that we have an even greater experience with the Spirit and ability to live a victorious life.

Does that mean sinless? No.

Does that mean we never have any struggles with sin? No.

Does that mean the flesh doesn't sometimes win in the battle of the flesh and the Spirit? No.

The Bible says that ultimately our flesh is strong.

Well, it says the flesh is weak, but what I mean is the flesh is strong in overcoming our abilities to withstand temptation.

But again, I digress.

Going back, considering the fact that we all who are believers are possessors of the Holy Spirit, we have certain benefits.

One of the benefits is the power within us, the empowering Spirit of God within us to live a victorious Christian life.

I don't think Christians can be possessed by demons because we are possessed, as it were, by the Holy Spirit of God.

These are just some of the benefits that we have as being part of the New Covenant.

Of course, the greatest benefit, having been born again into the family of God, we now receive the adoption of sons and we're part of the family of God, indwelled by His Spirit, saved by His Son, called by Him as sons of God.

So I hope this has been helpful in clarifying some of what I said yesterday and hopefully answering questions regarding the distinction between regeneration and the indwelling of the Spirit.

Thank you for listening today to Coffee with a Calvinist.

My name is Keith Foskey and I've been your Calvinist.

May God bless you.

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As you go about your day, remember this.

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May God be with you.