Regeneration (Jonathan Dickinson) | The Whole Counsel

Welcome to the Whole Council Podcast. I'm Jon Snyder and with me is Chuck Baggett. And we are returning again to the book, Salvation in Full Color, 20 Sermons by Great Awakening Preachers. Now, not only are these sermons by men that were used in an extraordinary manner in the 18th century, but it's all on the same theme, the doctrine of salvation, and they're laid out in a particular order.

And we've been talking about this each week. So I hope that you've had a chance to look at some of the other podcasts that we've done. So you're up to speed with this. Today, we're looking at the sermon, The Nature and Necessity of Regeneration or the Doctrine of the New Birth, preached by a man named Jonathan Dickinson.

Now, I think that right off, I want to say that I agree with Mr. Richard Roberts, who edited this book when he said years ago that the doctrine of regeneration is probably the most significant doctrine for the American evangelical church to rethink.

I was in my last year of seminary when I heard him say that. Chuck and I were in seminary together. And I remember the last term I had to do an independent study to get some extra hours so I could graduate on time.

And so I was going to pick, it was in the class of soteriology, the doctrine of salvation. So I was going to pick repentance because that just seemed to me, you know, something I would prefer to write about.

And then I remembered Robert saying this about regeneration. And I thought that was kind of strange because I thought everybody understood that you have to believe in Jesus Christ and repent and then you will be born again.

You know, kind of a classic, you know, I guess we could say kind of a Billy Graham approach. You know, he being the most famous evangelist of the last century. So when Robert said that, it kind of piqued my interest.

What's so wrong with our view of regeneration? Why is that so significant? It's a no brainer. So I remember asking if I could do a paper on that. And when I got permission, I went and found some books on regeneration.

And one of them I found was by a man named Stephen Sharnock, Puritan. And so he had about a 400 page book on the doctrine of the new birth. It was, for me, the most revolutionary doctrine. The doctrine of election or predestination, that's pretty revolutionary for most of us.

But when it comes to regeneration, it seems to me that's where all the practical issues of the sovereignty of God and the responsibility of man, it's like that's where they all meet the road. So I found that to be really a true statement.

I needed to rethink everything about regeneration.

Later, when the church began and we began working through those doctrines, it was there that that was probably the most significant hurdle for many people also, wasn't it?

Yeah, I think it was probably maybe the second month of the church. And, you know, we were just looking at some of the great works of God in saving us. And when we talked about regeneration, I mentioned that regeneration was the cause of our faith and repentance and obedience.

And the co-pastor at that time, there was only one, this was before you came. He was a very godly, sincere fellow, but he'd never heard anything like that. And so he told me that he would never believe that.

And I would never show him that from the scripture, that he had read the scripture and that was not in the scripture. So another man in the church who did believe the old ways about regeneration said, just hang on, John will get to it.

And so he hung on. And after about three more weeks of looking at regeneration throughout the scripture, he came to me and said, I was wrong or saying he was wrong. He agreed with me now and he wanted to write a book on regeneration.

And I said, well, why don't you wait a little bit since you just now quit calling me a heretic. So significant doctrine. Jonathan Dickinson, who was this guy? Jonathan Dickinson was a pastor in the early 1700s in New England, like Jonathan Edwards.

In fact, Dickinson is usually considered the second most significant evangelical theologian in the colonies, second only to Jonathan Edwards. He was actually named as the first president of Princeton Seminary or what they called the College of New Jersey back then.

So Princeton University. But right after he accepts the position, he died as happened with many of the early presidents. Dickinson was really noted in particular for being a strong advocate for the great awakening, that it was a real work of the Lord, but also a very biblically critical advocate.

He did point out areas where in some of the youthful exuberance of the revivalists, there were some errors and he pointed out where those were and how they could correct them. So really a very distinguishing kind of preacher, the kind of guy that kind of got behind your armor and exposed errors.

The New Birth in John 3:3

Chuck, you want to give us an overview of the sermon?

Sure. The sermon is based off of John 3, 3. Jesus answered and said to him, Truly, truly I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. There are four main points. They are, what are we to understand by the kingdom of God, which no unregenerate man can ever see?

What are we to understand by being born again, without which we cannot see the kingdom of God? Third, why this change of which our Savior here speaks is called a new birth? And fourth, why is it that the unregenerate cannot see God?

And then there are some applications. And of course, under each of those four points, there are numerous sub points. And I think we'll be spending most of our time really with the second one. What are we to understand by being born again, without which we cannot see the kingdom of God?

He gives his opening definition of the nature of the new birth in that second point. And in this definition, all of his sub points are really kind of summed up. So, let me just read that. Regeneration is a new spiritual and supernatural principle wrought by the Spirit of God in all the faculties of the soul, inclining and enabling unto the exercise of a life of faith in Christ and new obedience to God.

So, all of his main points really are in that. So, let's just jump in and look at them one at a time.

Sure.

The first sub point, regeneration is a new principle in the life. And we've been talking a little bit before the podcast about what does he mean exactly by principle? Because I don't think he necessarily uses it in the way that we would typically use it today.

And it is principle, P-R-I-N-C-I-P-L-E, not P-R-I-N-C-I-P-A-L.

Right.

The principle. And so, as a kind of starting point, here is a dictionary definition of principle. It is a fundamental truth or proposition that serves as the foundation for a system of belief or behavior or for a chain of reasoning.

So, there's a fundamental principle in regeneration. Regeneration is a new principle. There's a new fundamental way of thinking that comes about by way of regeneration. But we're also saying that it's not just that we think differently.

We do that. But contained within that idea also is an energy. There's life that's brought to us in regeneration, a new birth. So, a new way of thinking, but it's not just that we've caught hold of a new idea.

But that idea is contained within this principle. And this principle both causes this new life and it directs the new life. And it helps us to set the pattern for what's to come.

Yeah.

Two biblical metaphors that help us with that. One is the issue of a seed. A spiritual seed has been planted in the soul. So, we talked about, you know, even a plant has DNA. And we had to double check this because we're not really very good scientists.

So, plant DNA. Within the seed, there is a DNA. So, not only does the seed contain within itself, in a sense, the seed of life, the energy, the cause of a new plant. But the type of seed determines the type of plant.

So, a new seed produces a new plant. And that is caused by the seed and guided by the code within that seed. Or think of a new nature. When we think of a spiritual nature, it's the same thing. God has placed within us a new nature by His Spirit.

And this nature is the cause of all the changes that flow in the Christian life. We'll be talking about that. So, it's the cause of life. But it's also the guide. So, it's not just the source of the stream.

In a sense, it also includes, you know, the course with it. God has done something within us to make us alive. And this is the principle, the source, the cause of a completely new life. And it is the guide of that new life.

Another way of looking at it too, you mentioned a stream. What flows from this life is determined by this new principle, like in a stream. So, if you go back to the fountainhead or to the source of the spring.

If the spring is polluted there, the water that flows from it all the way down is polluted. But if you can clean up that fountainhead, then what flows after that is also clean.

So, it is true on both sides. A sinful nature. The old principle of action. The old engine within us, fuel. And the guiding principle was self. And so, everything that comes out of that, even things that look noble and sacrificial, ultimately are polluted at the source.

It's the same for the Christian. There is a new nature. And from this new nature flows new desires and activity. And when we look at the Christian's life, even when we're very imperfect, still the source of the actions is this new life, you know.

So, there is something different. In other words, we can still go back and sin, sadly. But that doesn't mean we're the men we once were. Because God has planted something that is growing and spreading.

And there is an order here. We talk about order a lot. But there is an order here. This new principle is a root from which the fruit of a new life and holiness comes. And so, we're not trying to produce holiness from the outside in and buckle things down and, you know, just force everything to be correct, thinking that's going to change the inside.

But rather, the new birth creates a new principle, a new nature. And from that new nature, we've been made new creatures. All things are made new. All things have passed away.

Yeah, totally new lifestyle. That brings us to the second point. And that is that this principle is a supernatural principle. That is, it's from above. So, when we talk about the new birth, we're talking about a birth from above.

Paul uses this language when he talks about the same work that raised Christ from the dead. That divine energy is at work within the believer, raising us from the dead, making us new men. James talks about God making us alive, planting this seed, this word within us, the gospel.

And John 1 is perhaps the clearest when John says in verse 12, As many as received Him, Christ, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name. Now, that's the external description.

A Christian is a believer. But then you ask, well, how did they come to that place? And you have this internal description. Who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.

That is, this new principle of life is divinely given. Now, we want to mention that historically there have been four basic views of regeneration. And there are, you know, kind of adjustments on each of these.

But these are the four basic categories. Baptismal, reformational, decisional, and spiritual. When we think of baptismal regeneration, generally we think of Roman Catholicism or the Church of Christ denomination, or even some forms of Anglicanism.

Strangely, Anglican theological documents, the 39 articles, do not teach a baptismal regeneration. But the liturgy has the priest praying after the baptism of the infant, the christening, thanking the Spirit for joining the waters and making this child alive, a child of God.

So, George Whitfield and those men during this time were very upset with that and disregarded it. But those would be groups that believed in baptismal regeneration. What about reformational or educational?

This seems to, in my mind, this contains the idea of if we have the right information or if we can instruct our children in the right way. With the right information, that regeneration takes place. So, it's just a matter, not so much of being born from above, as much as it is having the right information and clinging to that.

Yeah, almost like maturation. Like, okay, so God has given us a child and we're a Christian family. And in the context, in the atmosphere of this Christian family, my child will grow and kind of just morph into a Christian.

You know, would just be kind of slowly matured into a Christian. And the idea of being dead in your sin one day and being alive in Christ the next tends to be neglected in that.

Yes.

Another one is decisional regeneration. And we want to talk about that separately because that certainly is the most popular today. And then there is spiritual regeneration. And that's what the sermon is about.

That it is God himself that wakes us up, that makes us alive. And from that flows everything. Chuck, of those four, certainly decisional regeneration is the most popular view today. I'm sure it's the view that we both grew up with.

Yes.

And just assumed that it was biblical. Because there are some things about it that are biblical. But there's much about it that is not biblical and so fundamentally detrimental to the American church.

So, you know, what would you say is wrong and maybe some right and wrong responses to that?

Yeah.

Well, decisional regeneration has a number of things wrong with it. But one is that it does ignore what we're talking about, about having an old sinful nature or principle within us. And it assumes that a person is willing to choose Christ.

And we're going to talk, I think, in a few minutes about how that is not the case. There's something that has to happen to make us willing. But it assumes that that's there. It assumes that if you can be persuaded to make a decision, then that's enough.

And making that decision, you're now a new believer, a new creature.

Nah.

You are now a new believer, a new creation in Christ. And so in that sense, it kind of neglects the work of the Holy Spirit. And it takes things out of order. It assumes that repentance and faith come first.

And they then are kind of a cause of the new birth. I can do these things, repentance and faith, and that will produce a new birth. Instead of seeing the new birth is necessary to making me willing to repent and believe.

So in those ways, it is a misunderstanding of regeneration. And there are a lot of people starting to rethink this. And I think a lot of people, I probably did this myself to some degree way back when.

But you start rethinking this, and it's easy to swing on the pendulum and go too far to the point where you would even say, there are people who would say, you don't even have a decision in this process.

God saves, which is true. You have no part in it. It just happens. Almost a hyper-Calvinistic kind of viewpoint. It's fatalistic. It's just going to happen. But that's wrong. It's wrong thinking because the Scripture does command us to respond.

And there is a choice. The problem is not that we don't have a choice. The problem is we do have a choice. And we are so polluted and so foul that we will not choose what we should choose. And something has to happen in us that would make us willing to turn to God.

Probably the most popular proponent of this was Charles Finney. Finney in the early 19th century was fabulously popular. He was able to make boasts of hundreds and thousands being converted under his ministry.

And though that might seem kind of normal to us today, in his day he was really one of the first to do that, to claim that he knew that people had actually been born again under his preaching. One reason he was one of the first to claim that is because he felt that the new birth was by making a decision or what he called the prayer of faith, what we call the sinner's prayer.

And he guaranteed parents that within 15 minutes, they could know that their children were Christians, were born again, if he could get them to lead their children through the prayer of faith. Obviously Finney didn't feel that hypocrisy was okay.

You know, you needed to be sincere. But that's not the problem. It's not sincerity versus a lack of sincerity. It's the idea that I can make up my mind to change my nature. And we simply don't have what it takes to do that.

Finney took the phrase from the Old Testament, make yourself a new heart, took it out of context and said, God commanded you to do this because you have the power to do it. I think that a healthier verse is taken from Acts 2, verse 40, where Peter's preaching and he says this, it says, and with many other words, he solemnly testified and kept on exhorting them saying, now listen to this command, be saved from this perverse generation.

Literally in the original language, in the Greek, it is a verb that, sorry, literally in the original Greek, it is an aorist passive imperative. Now, you know, if you haven't been tortured with grammar in a long time, what that means is this.

It is a thing that is a definite decision. It's something that must be done. Be saved. It is a thing that is an imperative. It's a command. You must obey this command. But the strange thing is that it's an imperative in the passive.

You must obey a command, but the only way that you can obey this command is by getting someone else to act upon you, a passive verb. You know, so I received something, not I gave something. And what a wonderful nutshell of the Christian life.

You are commanded to be rescued, but you can't rescue yourself. So the only way to obey that command is to go to the one person that can rescue you. And that would be a terrifying command if it weren't for the fact that the one person that can rescue us is not only able, but willing.

It's Jesus Christ. All those wrong ideas of regeneration have one thing in common. We do the great work. We fix ourselves. We use religion to either get ourselves started on the right track or to kind of scrub ourselves up.

But I think that that's probably rooted in a wrong idea.

Yeah, the depth of our ruin, our depravity, is a great biblical doctrine. And again, you see the importance of order here. If you don't see that, if you don't think that your sin is that awful, if you just need a little bit of help, then why couldn't you make a reformation?

Why couldn't you make a decision? But if you are so foul that you will not choose God unless He works upon you, then a decision or reformation isn't enough. And it's one of the reasons why as we've gone through these sermons, we're in what week?

One, two, three, four, five, six. We're in week eight, and we're just now talking about regeneration because there's that groundwork that's come before it to make us feel something of the weight of our sinfulness and the need for God to perform this great rescue.

Dickinson has a great quote on page 139. Do you want me to read the entire paragraph or cut out those questions?

Just whatever you want.

He points to a number of scriptures, and he asks the question, Are we not by nature spiritually dead? Can a dead man by the force of any persuasion be prevailed upon to reassume his life and vital actions?

Are we not naturally without strength? And can the force of persuasion prevail with an enfeebled cripple or an inervated? I'm going to skip that one. A paralytic. Can the force of persuasion prevail with an enfeebled cripple or a paralytic to arise and walk?

Are we not naturally blind? And can the power of persuasion enable a blind man to open his eyes and see? Are not our minds not only enemies but enmity itself unto God? And can mere persuasion change all the powers, faculties, and dispositions of the mind from enmity to friendship, from hatred to love, and from an habitual opposition to godliness unto a delight in the ways of God?

Are we not naturally polluted and guilty creatures? And can any method of mere persuasion bring a clean thing out of an unclean or bring a guilty rebel into an estate of innocence or into peace and favor with God?

Yeah.

If we think of it this way, if all we had was the good news of Jesus Christ and His finished work for sinners and then the command to turn your back on everything that you can touch and feel and see that you think is so necessary for life and then to leave it all, even your own righteousness, and embrace Christ, if that's all you have in Christianity, you're without any hope because none of us would do it.

There is in between that command and that response that infinite might of God in the person of the Spirit making you able and willing to turn your back on the lies and to believe Christ. One of the beautiful pictures is found in Psalm 110 where it says in verse 3 that in the day of Christ's power His people are made willing.

Such a simple picture. Think of an army and the king is gathering an army. It's not a press game. It's the old way of drafting where basically you would just show up and you say to a guy, you don't look like you have a job.

Well, now you do. You're in the army. Which happened. It happened to John Newton. But it's not that. It's that the king works in the heart in such a wonderful way that now you volunteer in the day of His power, in the day of that powerful working in the soul, you gladly count Him worth more than all the world.

So, really sweet picture. One thing I think, one reason why we don't understand the doctrine of regeneration as clearly as we should and we tend to think that we do this instead of God doing this part is found in Christ's statement to the Pharisees of His day in Mark 12, verse 24.

He's correcting their mistaken views of the resurrection and he says this, Is this not the reason you are mistaken that you do not understand the scriptures or the power of God? So, when you think of an average evangelical church and its practical definition of a Christian, what it really expects, when a person says, I'm a Christian, when you see the low, low standard we have accepted, and I don't mean to be legalistic about that, but when we see a person, as Tozer said, that there's no mighty jarring to the old life when they embrace Christ.

One of the reasons we're okay with the wrong definition is because we don't understand the scriptures and we have such a small view of the power of God.

One of the evidences of that is seen when we receive people into membership, especially if you have a view that expects a regenerate church membership, that they have been actually born again. Well, when they come and want to be made a church member, what do you expect?

What do you ask? What do you look for as evidences of that? Or do you look for evidences at all? Or are you just, okay, just add a number to the row?

Yeah, and so we fill churches with men and women who are operating under the old nature's influence or the old principle of self. And then, you know, as Congregationalist churches, we have votes, you know, you think of the average Baptist church, we have votes and you have all these people with an equal influence on the church decisions, but these are people who may be spiritually dead.

No love for Christ. And their life is not under a new energy and a new guiding principle. It's under the old. So it's impossible to imagine a church like that, you know, really following the Lord Jesus Christ.

A third thing he says is that the Spirit of God is the immediate agent of this spiritual principle. And we don't want to go too long in our podcast. So that just means this, the one who acts upon us and does this work is the Spirit of God.

The instrument, the tool in his hand is the gospel or the Word of God. Again, James 1 verse 18, in the exercise of his will, he brought us forth by the word of truth so that we would be a kind of first fruits among his creatures.

So wonderful picture there, God bringing us to life by the word of truth, the Spirit using the gospel to wake us up, to make us alive.

A fourth, fourth what?

A fourth point.

Yeah, point, there you go. Sub point, point, point, point, point. A fourth point that Dickinson makes here is that regeneration is a new and supernatural principle worked by the Spirit in all our faculties.

But it is not a matter of him working this principle from the faculties in to the core, but it is that this principle now exists in the core, in the very soul of a man, and it is working itself out progressively through the various faculties of the person.

Yeah, so that's why the old writers would say this is a universal change. It's not complete yet.

Right, or immediate in all the aspects.

Right, right.

So it's a progression. Sanctification is what we call the progression. So regeneration is the beginning of this life, but like the beginning of a human life, that's just the start, that's not the end.

Then there is the growth and the maturation and the progress. A seed being planted is beautiful, but that's not the end. The end is through a long process of growth. So regeneration is the beginning. Sanctification is the process.

Glorification is the end when we are made completely like Christ. When we talk about this being a universal work, as you mentioned, the faculties of the soul, we are guaranteed that when God begins to work in the soul, the mind will be affected.

We will think differently. John says we will believe differently. The heart is affected. We will desire and love differently. And the will is affected. We will choose differently. And so, in a sense, this answers the question like, you know, the question of the Lordship.

In a sense, this answers a lot of questions that people come up with. One question would be, does Christ have to be Lord to be Savior? Well, if you approach that from like a legalistic point of view, how much do you have to obey to be able to call yourself a Christian?

Then you're on the wrong track. It's just a swamp. But if you approach it from the right point of view, from regeneration, a man who is now alive in Christ, his mind, heart, and will have all been influenced or are all now being influenced by a new energy, a new principle.

And with this new nature, his mind will believe and the heart will desire and the will will choose Christ. And so, there will be Lordship. There will be a relationship with this Lord. When we think of good works, we can say that good works must be in the Christian life because faith works.

But another way we can argue for that is because of a new nature. Ephesians chapter 2, it opens with, you were dead in trespasses and sins. Then it talks about receiving the grace through faith. And then it says that you are created for good works.

The new life becomes active. And the activity that we see is obedience.

This is one of the reasons also why fruit is an evidence of salvation. Why we would look for fruit. Whether we're talking about as pastors looking at others or even examining ourselves. What's the basis of assurance?

What is the basis of assurance? Or having a hope that this has happened to me. It is that there's fruit because a new principle is going to produce a fruitfulness. One of the errors that we can make there though is thinking that the fruit that we're looking for is always mature fruit.

That it is, you know, the fruit it's extreme, ready to pick and eat, if you could say it that way, you know. And it's not necessarily that. It's not always that, certainly. But do we see evidences of that kind of fruit in bloom or being produced in a very green form?

Yeah, and that's one of the warnings really that he gives in the sermon. That is, don't misapply this. Regeneration is a wonderful work and it's essential. I remember reading George Whitefield in his biography.

He was talking to his older brother that was not a believer and at supper. And the brother said to him something along the lines, George, I'm not born again. And Whitefield said, that's wonderful news.

And his brother said, well, why would you say that? He said, because you must be born again and you need to know that. You know, as an Anglican, he would have perhaps thought that, well, I was already baptized into Christ as a child and so I don't need that.

I've already got it. So it's good to know what you need, but don't misapply. As you just said, Chuck, the plant won't always be in that harvest picture. You know, think of an apple tree. It won't always be loaded with apples.

There are seasons in the life where it doesn't, you know, it's hard to find any evidence it's an apple tree, but it is an apple tree. And in time, it will demonstrate itself by obedience, by love, by faith.

And, or if you think of planting the seed, the seed may only have just broken the surface with the little plant growing up and you look at it and you think, but it's so small. But is it really there? If it's really there, then there's hope.

What God has begun will spread. And I want to cultivate that and not stop paralyzed with despair. The other two points he gives here and we'll just mention them is, because I think we've kind of already mentioned it, is that it is regeneration that enables the soul and inclines it to faith.

Faith is an act of obedience like any other act. And so it is the product of God's gracious work in us. I don't obey God in order to get him to love me, but because he has loved me and saved me, I obey him.

So I think we're right in saying that the first act of the newborn, of the new creation, is faith and repentance, is conversion. And we'll be talking about that in later chapters. I am alive to God. My eyes are open.

My heart is thawed. My will is freed from the old nature. And with a new energy within and a new guiding principle wrought in me by the Spirit, I turn to my Savior in a repentant faith. And then the last point of the sermon is it just continues to flow in the life of heartfelt obedience.

Not perfect, but real.

I want to conclude with a final warning that he gives, that we do not deceive ourselves, that we do not claim to have a salvation that we actually do not have. On page 143, Dickinson writes,. Let no man therefore delude his soul with airy dreams of a safe state until he has had some experience of this change in every particular instance.

What a pity it is that any of you should feed upon ashes, entertain a deluded hope, and at last be found with a lie in your right hands. Well, this is another great sermon and we've only been able to really hit one of the four major points.

So we do want to encourage you to read the text and to wrestle with it yourself. The full text of the sermon is available in the show notes at MediaGratia .org or you can click the link in the description of this episode and that will take you right to it.

If you want to get a copy of the book, Salvation in Full Color, you can purchase that at RORBooks .com and the link to that is also in the show notes at the website. Thanks for listening. We'll see you again next week.