I do.
Regeneration requires the sole action of God to quicken the dead to life. This new principle of life enables the person to be willing to believe, and he or she will not
not believe. In regeneration the person is
passive. Having been regenerated the man becomes
active. The exercise of faith in receiving the righteousness of Christ for justification is the person's own act. God does not do the believing for anyone. God
grants that faith willingly apprehended by the regenerated person.
It is God who unites us to Christ, calls us, and regenerates us. He gives us a new heart and a new spirit. This causes a real and personal
sanctification (the walk of faith)whereby we grow in the practice of holiness. We are personally sanctified and we personally practice holiness more and more, but it is only because of what God has done and continues to do. The holy disposition born in regeneration is strengthened and its holy exercises are increased. The Holy Spirit brings
us to Christ and
Christ to us so that we are united to Him and enjoy all the blessings and benefits of His merits and mediation. Within this union and life, we work with all our might, by the empowerment and grace of God. Our act of obedience in our walk of faith resulting from the Spirit's work is such that
our liberty and free obedience is preserved. Yet, at the end of the race, we declare ourselves to be unprofitable servants, for nothing we do is merit worthy, making God a debtor to our "good deeds".
According to the
Westminster Shorter Catechism (Q. 35), sanctification is "
the work of God's free grace, whereby we are renewed in the whole man after the image of God, and are enabled more and more to die unto sin, and live unto righteousness." Sanctification is a continuing change worked by God in us, freeing us from sinful habits and forming in us Christlike affections, dispositions, and virtues. It does not mean that sin is instantly eradicated, but it is also more than a counteraction, in which sin is merely restrained or repressed without being progressively destroyed. Sanctification is a real transformation, not just the appearance of one.
From the above,
regeneration is birth;
sanctification is growth.
- In regeneration, God implants desires that were not there before: desire for God, for holiness, and for glorifying God's name in the world; desire to pray and worship; desire to love and bring benefit to others.
- In sanctification, the Holy Spirit "
works in you, both to will and to work" according to God's purpose, enabling His people to fulfill their new, godly desires (Phil. 2:12, 13). Christians become increasingly Christlike, as the moral profile of Jesus (the "
fruit of the Spirit") is progressively formed in them (2 Cor. 3:18; Gal. 4:19; 5:22–25). We work out our sanctification as God works in us (
Phil. 2:12-12).
Accordingly, sanctification is an ongoing process, dependent on God's continuing action in the believer, and consisting of the believer's continuous struggle against sin. God's method of sanctification is neither
activism (self-reliant activity) nor
apathy (God-reliant passivity), but human effort dependent on God (2 Cor. 7:1; Phil. 3:10–14; Heb. 12:14). Knowing that without Christ's enabling we cannot do good works, but also that He is ready to strengthen us for all we have to do (Phil. 4:13), we "
abide" in Christ, asking for His help constantly—and we receive it (Col. 1:11; 1 Tim. 1:12; 2 Tim. 1:7; 2:1).
Clearly, we Calvinists make it clear that no one can answer "
how" God pulls off being wholly sovereign and man wholly responsible (no violence done to the will). The "
how" has not been revealed. Yet God is sovereign and man is responsible has been declared in Scripture to be so and therefore must be the beginning presupposition for all doctrinal matters that may arise.
AMR
