Wednesday March 8, 2017
“Regeneration is God-given”
6 That which is born of the flesh is flesh,
and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. 7 Do not marvel that I said to
you, ‘You must be born again.’ 8 The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear
the sound of it, but cannot tell where it comes from and where it goes. So is
everyone who is born of the Spirit.”
– John 3:6-8
Born Again – The Doctrine of Regeneration
The
character of regeneration
1.
Heavenly birth
2.
God-given life
Regeneration
is, secondly, sovereignly bestowed. Our Lord means nothing less than this by
his words: “the wind blows where it
wishes, and you hear it sound, but you do not know where he comes from or where
it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit” (John 3:8). It
is not surprising that Nicodemus, schooled in the religion of doing rather
than receiving, replied in total bewilderment: “How can these things be?” (John
3:9). This is the perennial reaction of the mind which sees the way to God as the way of human effort and what
the New Testament calls “works of the law” (Galatians 2:16; 3:2, 5, 10). But
for the first disciples of Jesus, schooled in the way of God’s free grace, the
enjoyment of salvation begins with something God does. We have
already seen this in John; it is taught also by Peter: “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. According to
his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope” (1
Peter 1:3). James says this is so, “that
we should be a kind of first fruits of his creatures” (James 1:18). We find
the same in Paul: “God… Made us alive
together with Christ… And raised us up with him… For by grace you have been
saved through faith. And this is not your own doing, it is to gift of God… For
we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God
prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them” (Ephesians 2:6 – 10).
It may be
objected that to place so much initiative in the hands of God is to remove all
possibility from the shoulders of man. But this is to misunderstand. To say
that regeneration takes place by divine initiative does not deny that men
must repent and believe in Christ. Jesus taught that regeneration is a
sovereign, divine act. But when one inquirer raised mental objections to such
evangelical doctrine by asking: “Lord, will those who are saved a few?”,
Jesus replied was: “strive to enter through the narrow door” (Luke 13:24). In a
word: do not confuse things that differ. Your duty is to make sure you
have followed in the way of salvation yourself.
Challenge:
God’s work
does Not negate our responsibility to believe! We rejoice in God’s work, but we
do our part in striving to believe and seeking after His heart on a daily
basis.
This Day in Christian History:
March 8, 1874 – Charles Spurgeon, the Prince of Preachers, read voraciously through
the week, but not until Saturday night did he determine and develop his message
for the following morning. Only on Sunday afternoon did he prepare his evening
address. But it worked. For 30 years, he kept London’s retro politician
Tabernacle packed. On a Saturday night, on this day, Spurgeon preached from 1
Corinthians 6:20: “God paid a great price
for you. So use your body to honor God.”
Memory Verse:
13 ‘a ‘ene
‘Afio na‘a ne hamusi kitautolu mei he pule ‘a Po‘uli, mo ne hiki kitautolu ki
he pule‘anga ‘o hono ‘Alo ‘Ofa‘anga: 14 pea ‘i he‘etau tu‘u ‘iate ia kuo tau
ma‘u ‘a e huhu‘i, ko e fakamolemole ‘etau ngaahi angahala; – Kolose 1:13-14
13 He has
delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the
Son of His love, 14 in whom we have redemption through His blood, the
forgiveness of sins. – Colossians 1:13-14
Bible Reading Plan: (52 weeks; 5 days a week)
Week
10 – Numbers 19-21; Colossians 4
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