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When speaking with the non-Calvinist, the use of regeneration often leads to confusion as they are accustomed to the phrase "born again". What follows teases out the proper distinctions in hopes that we avoid talking past one another.
When I speak of regeneration I often follow it with a parenthetical, "born-again" as this is what the typical non-Calvinist uses. Unfortunately, the use of born-again is confusing as it—to us Reformed—generally refers to the entire corpus of salvation, the Golden Chain of redemption: foreknowledge, predestination, calling, regeneration, faith, repentance, justification, union to Christ, adoption, sanctification, and glorification. In other words, we are saved, yet are being saved, in the now and not yet parlance of Scripture.
“Now, but not yet” describes the tension between the benefits of redemption already experienced in this life and those benefits which await us at the consummation. Christians enjoy the “alreadyness” of the Atonement—remission of sins, adoption as children, the indwelling Holy Spirit, etc. However, there is a sense in which we will not see these realities in totality until the last day (1 John 3:2), and so they always remain objects of faith. For instance, the believer already has eternal life (John 5:24), but he is not yet physically resurrected. Likewise, the church is a fellowship of persons who are both new creatures in Christ (2 Corinthians 5:17) and still imperfect sinners. We await our glorification and the destruction of our sinful natures in the last day.
To be as plain as I can be, the unbeliever must first be given some spark of spiritual life, regenerated, before that person is now in possession of the moral ability to believe. As I have noted in previous posts that you seem to overlook, before this instantaneous temporal event of regeneration, the unbeliever is not able to believe given their state of moral inability (Jer. 17:9; Mark 7:21-23; Eph. 2:2; Eph. 2:4-5; Titus 3:5; John 3:19; Rom. 3:10-12; 5:6; 6:16-20; Eph. 2:1,3;1 Cor. 2:14). The unbeliever's moral inability is as a result of the fall of Adam, whose sin has been imputed (judicially declared) by God to all of Adam's progeny. We are born sinners and sin because we are sinners. We are not born morally neutral and become sinners by sinning.
Now this spark of regeneration, if you will, comes from the efficacious grace of God the Holy Spirit. When does the spark of regeneration ordinarily take place? By the word of God or through the word of truth as stated in the First Peter and James citations you noted above (and many more elsewhere Scripture). In other words it is ordinarily by the hearing of the Good News that those chosen by God are made able and are brought into the kingdom. This hearing of the Good News is but one of the means that God uses to temporally achieve His eternally decreed ends. This is the proper way of viewing the passage you have cited. It is not faith that causes re-birth, rather it is re-birth (regeneration) that yields firstfruits: faith. Faith is evidence you are saved, it is not the cause of your salvation, for God alone is the cause.
To claim we Calvinists or Reformed folk have it backwards is to misunderstand exactly what is going on soteriologically. The non-Calvinists assumes that something within himself, some minute seed of righteousness remains within their corrupted images of God, even after the Fall of Adam. This seed of so-called prevenient grace thereby enables the person to eventually believe when hearing the Good News. Yet, if this is the case, one wonders why not all believe given that all are given the same measure of this prevenient grace. Either they do not each get the same measure, and therefore God is favoring some over others (making a sort of non-Calvinist form of election), or the person who believes can boldly claim to be more discerning, more wise, etc., than his non-believing neighbor, hence having reason to boast based upon merit.
Unfortunately, this sort of view ultimately results in what Spurgeon observed many years ago:
Of course Mr. Spurgeon was speaking hyperbolically, but the essential truth contained therein accurately describes the view that holds man can believe his way into the Kingdom of God. This evidence for this is seen in statements such as this (emphasis mine):
Clearly, the discerning reader will have their hearts pricked by such a view, and rightly so.
On the other hand, we Reformed or Calvinist's take Scripture's high view of the sovereignty of God (Daniel 4:35; Jeremiah 32:17; Matthew 28:18; Ephesians 1:22; Ephesians 1:11; Isaiah 14:24, 27; Isaiah 46:9, 10, 11; Genesis 18:14; Job 42:2; Psalm 135:6; Isaiah 55:11; Romans 9:20, 21) and accordingly give God all the credit for our salvation (the entire Golden Chain).
We also, I believe, rightly understand the teachings of Scripture about the full effects of the Fall of Adam, recognizing that unless God does something to the fallen man, none would ever choose the righteousness of God. We give thanks to God for His mercy in choosing some out of the entire fallen lump of humanity in Adam to be redeemed, not because God saw something good in the chosen by peeking down the corridors of time, but simply because of His own good counsel to set His preferences upon (God's love) another. Hence, those not so chosen are left in their state of sin and ongoing sinning, never to be the subject of any of God's saving graces.
AMR
Jerry,
When I speak of regeneration I often follow it with a parenthetical, "born-again" as this is what the typical non-Calvinist uses. Unfortunately, the use of born-again is confusing as it—to us Reformed—generally refers to the entire corpus of salvation, the Golden Chain of redemption: foreknowledge, predestination, calling, regeneration, faith, repentance, justification, union to Christ, adoption, sanctification, and glorification. In other words, we are saved, yet are being saved, in the now and not yet parlance of Scripture.
“Now, but not yet” describes the tension between the benefits of redemption already experienced in this life and those benefits which await us at the consummation. Christians enjoy the “alreadyness” of the Atonement—remission of sins, adoption as children, the indwelling Holy Spirit, etc. However, there is a sense in which we will not see these realities in totality until the last day (1 John 3:2), and so they always remain objects of faith. For instance, the believer already has eternal life (John 5:24), but he is not yet physically resurrected. Likewise, the church is a fellowship of persons who are both new creatures in Christ (2 Corinthians 5:17) and still imperfect sinners. We await our glorification and the destruction of our sinful natures in the last day.
To be as plain as I can be, the unbeliever must first be given some spark of spiritual life, regenerated, before that person is now in possession of the moral ability to believe. As I have noted in previous posts that you seem to overlook, before this instantaneous temporal event of regeneration, the unbeliever is not able to believe given their state of moral inability (Jer. 17:9; Mark 7:21-23; Eph. 2:2; Eph. 2:4-5; Titus 3:5; John 3:19; Rom. 3:10-12; 5:6; 6:16-20; Eph. 2:1,3;1 Cor. 2:14). The unbeliever's moral inability is as a result of the fall of Adam, whose sin has been imputed (judicially declared) by God to all of Adam's progeny. We are born sinners and sin because we are sinners. We are not born morally neutral and become sinners by sinning.
Now this spark of regeneration, if you will, comes from the efficacious grace of God the Holy Spirit. When does the spark of regeneration ordinarily take place? By the word of God or through the word of truth as stated in the First Peter and James citations you noted above (and many more elsewhere Scripture). In other words it is ordinarily by the hearing of the Good News that those chosen by God are made able and are brought into the kingdom. This hearing of the Good News is but one of the means that God uses to temporally achieve His eternally decreed ends. This is the proper way of viewing the passage you have cited. It is not faith that causes re-birth, rather it is re-birth (regeneration) that yields firstfruits: faith. Faith is evidence you are saved, it is not the cause of your salvation, for God alone is the cause.
To claim we Calvinists or Reformed folk have it backwards is to misunderstand exactly what is going on soteriologically. The non-Calvinists assumes that something within himself, some minute seed of righteousness remains within their corrupted images of God, even after the Fall of Adam. This seed of so-called prevenient grace thereby enables the person to eventually believe when hearing the Good News. Yet, if this is the case, one wonders why not all believe given that all are given the same measure of this prevenient grace. Either they do not each get the same measure, and therefore God is favoring some over others (making a sort of non-Calvinist form of election), or the person who believes can boldly claim to be more discerning, more wise, etc., than his non-believing neighbor, hence having reason to boast based upon merit.
Unfortunately, this sort of view ultimately results in what Spurgeon observed many years ago:
“Lord, I thank thee that I am not like these poor, presumptuous Calvinists. Lord, I was born with a glorious free will; I was born with a power by which I can turn to thee of myself; I have improved my grace. If everybody had done the same with their grace as I have, they might all have been saved. Lord, I know that thou dost not make us willing if we are not willing ourselves… it was not thy grace that made us differ… I made use of what was given me, and others did not—that is the difference between me and them.”
Src: Spurgeon, Sermon on John 5:40 “Free Will a Slave” The New Park Street Pulpit, 1855- 1856, Volumes I & II (Pilgrim 1975), 395-402.
Src: Spurgeon, Sermon on John 5:40 “Free Will a Slave” The New Park Street Pulpit, 1855- 1856, Volumes I & II (Pilgrim 1975), 395-402.
Of course Mr. Spurgeon was speaking hyperbolically, but the essential truth contained therein accurately describes the view that holds man can believe his way into the Kingdom of God. This evidence for this is seen in statements such as this (emphasis mine):
Clearly, the discerning reader will have their hearts pricked by such a view, and rightly so.
On the other hand, we Reformed or Calvinist's take Scripture's high view of the sovereignty of God (Daniel 4:35; Jeremiah 32:17; Matthew 28:18; Ephesians 1:22; Ephesians 1:11; Isaiah 14:24, 27; Isaiah 46:9, 10, 11; Genesis 18:14; Job 42:2; Psalm 135:6; Isaiah 55:11; Romans 9:20, 21) and accordingly give God all the credit for our salvation (the entire Golden Chain).
We also, I believe, rightly understand the teachings of Scripture about the full effects of the Fall of Adam, recognizing that unless God does something to the fallen man, none would ever choose the righteousness of God. We give thanks to God for His mercy in choosing some out of the entire fallen lump of humanity in Adam to be redeemed, not because God saw something good in the chosen by peeking down the corridors of time, but simply because of His own good counsel to set His preferences upon (God's love) another. Hence, those not so chosen are left in their state of sin and ongoing sinning, never to be the subject of any of God's saving graces.
AMR