Regenerating Grace — E.A. Johnston

Edward Studd’s Conversion and the Evidence of New Life

When the evangelist D .O. Moody visited England, churches began to experience revival under his mighty preaching, and many sinners were saved. One such man was Edward Studd, a millionaire who raised horses and had a large mansion in the country as an English gentleman.

Out of curiosity, Edward Studd went to hear Moody preach in London and was gloriously saved. Immediately, Studd sold all his racehorses, turned his huge mansion into a preaching chapel, where subsequently his son, C .T. Studd, would be saved by hearing a minister preach the gospel there.

The society friends of Edward Studd were shocked by his transformation, and one friend asked Studd's chauffeur what had come over the man, to which the chauffeur replied, All I can say is that he is a new man, in the same skin.

My message today, friends, is entitled, Regenerating Grace, and that will sure make a new man, in the same skin. My text can be found in 2 Corinthians and chapter 5. You can turn in your Bibles there now, friends.

Christ’s Death Gives the Believer a New Purpose

We will be in verses 15 through 21. Here now is the word of God, and may the Spirit of the Lord be pleased to attend the reading of his holy word. And that he died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him which died for them and rose again.

Let me pause here, friends. This is our new purpose. Now look at verse 17 and following. Therefore, if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature. Old things are passed away. Behold, all things are become new, and all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given us the ministry of reconciliation, to wit that God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them, and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation.

Reconciliation Through Christ’s Substitutionary Sacrifice

Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did besiege you by us. We pray you, in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God, for he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.

I will pause there. So we see from our text that sin separates us from a holy God, as the heart of a sinner is at enmity with God, and that God is justly offended with the sinner. The good news of the gospel is that this offended majesty in heaven is willing to be reconciled.

Out of mercy he has appointed a mediator of reconciliation, the Lord Jesus Christ, who washes away our sins by his blood, the crucified Savior, who died for sinful man, becoming sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.

Regeneration Creates a New Creature in Christ

Our passage states that to be in Christ is to be a new creature. This is true because a person who has experienced the new birth through the supernatural act of regeneration, which God performs upon the heart, is now in a vital union with the living Lord, and is one who has experienced a thorough change of heart.

He has a new purpose, where he no longer lives unto himself, but unto him. We have a new name, we have a new heart, a new nature, a new purpose. Regenerating grace is the thing that made the difference through the new birth.

The Supernatural Transformation of the Heart

A saved individual is one who is born from above and washed in the blood. Regenerating grace brings a thorough transformation of the individual. This supernatural act which God performs, taking away the heart of stone of being dead and sin, and making it a new heart of flesh, whereby we now see with new eyes, speak with new lips, live with a new purpose, as we have a new disposition of holiness implanted within by the Spirit of God through this new birth.

Listen dear friends, you must be born again, and that means to have a thorough change of heart. It's not merely reformation, but a transformation. Let us pray.