Understanding Regeneration process

Understanding the process of Regeneration
In order to understand how "Sovereignty & Free will" works, one must understand the process of regeneration. The process of regeneration is effectively described in Ezekiel 36:25-27:

I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you. And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules. (Ezek. 36:25–27)

The monergistic work of God in regeneration is unmistakable in this text. In just these three verses, God uses the phrase “I will” six times, insisting that this spiritual heart transplant is entirely his work.

In regeneration the Spirit opens the blind eyes of the mind (Acts 26:18; 2 Cor. 4:4, 6; Eph. 1:18), replacing, as it were, the mind of the flesh with the mind of the Spirit (Rom. 8:5–9)—indeed, with the mind of Christ himself (1 Cor. 2:16)—so that the regenerate man appraises all the things that he once could not understand (1 Cor. 2:15; cf. 1 John 2:20, 27). The Spirit removes the sinner’s heart of stone and implants in him a heart of flesh capable of perceiving and loving spiritual truth (Ezek. 11:19; 36:26; cf. Deut. 30:6). The affections are thus renewed after the likeness of Christ so that the new man hates sin (Matt. 5:4), loves righteousness (Matt. 5:6; John 3:21), thirsts for the God whom he once abhorred (Pss. 27:4; 42:1–2), and loves and rejoices in the Christ whom he once regarded as foolish (1 Pet. 1:8; cf. 2 Cor. 5:16). With renewed affections, the sinner’s will is finally freed from the bondage of sin unto the liberty of righteousness. He now wants what God wants (Ps. 40:8), for the Spirit of God is at work within him “both to will and to work for his good pleasure” (Phil. 2:13; cf. Ezek. 36:27). Once bound in sin and spiritual death, man’s mind, heart, and will are now renewed unto life. The regenerated sinner is truly a “new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness” (Eph. 4:24).

Read John MacArthur's book 'Biblical Doctrine: A Systematic Summary of Bible Truth'. This answer is from the book. 

Look up all those verses, and also 1 John 5:1.









Comments

Post a Comment