Regeneration
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Handout
Handout
The New Nature
The New Nature
The Human Heart
5 When the Lord saw that human wickedness was widespread on the earth and that every inclination of the human mind was nothing but evil all the time,
23 Can the Cushite change his skin, or a leopard his spots? If so, you might be able to do what is good, you who are instructed in evil.
The Need for a New Heart
16 Therefore, circumcise your hearts and don’t be stiff-necked any longer.
4 Circumcise yourselves to the Lord; remove the foreskin of your hearts, men of Judah and residents of Jerusalem. Otherwise, my wrath will break out like fire and burn with no one to extinguish it because of your evil deeds.
God’s Promise for a New heart
41 and I acted with hostility toward them and brought them into the land of their enemies—and when their uncircumcised hearts are humbled and they make amends for their iniquity,
16 Therefore, circumcise your hearts and don’t be stiff-necked any longer.
6 The Lord your God will circumcise your heart and the hearts of your descendants, and you will love him with all your heart and all your soul so that you will live.
4 Circumcise yourselves to the Lord; remove the foreskin of your hearts, men of Judah and residents of Jerusalem. Otherwise, my wrath will break out like fire and burn with no one to extinguish it because of your evil deeds.
Mostly bad behavior and warnings until Ch. 29-33 and then mostly bad again.
33 “Instead, this is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after those days”—the Lord’s declaration. “I will put my teaching within them and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people.
Jer 3
19 I will give them integrity of heart and put a new spirit within them; I will remove their heart of stone from their bodies and give them a heart of flesh, 20 so that they will follow my statutes, keep my ordinances, and practice them. They will be my people, and I will be their God.
26 I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will remove your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.
26 with their forty silver bases, two bases under the first support and two bases under each of the following ones;
Eze 36:26
The New Nature
The New Nature
1 And you were dead in the trespasses and sins 2 in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— 3 among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. 4 But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, 5 even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved—
Eph 2:1-
11 He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. 12 But to all who did receive him, he gave them the right to be children of God, to those who believe in his name, 13 who were born, not of natural descent, or of the will of the flesh, or of the will of man, but of God.
Our Prior Condition
Our Prior Condition
3 Jesus replied, “Truly I tell you, unless someone is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.”
It is impossible to understand God’s work of regeneration without first understanding our situation
It is impossible to understand God’s work of regeneration without understanding our situation
What does he mean by we were dead?
17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has passed away, and see, the new has come!
In other words cannot properly appreciate the nature of the cure if we do not understand the nature of the disease.
2 cor 5:17
“If someone told you he found the most amazing doctor that was able to heal him”
Jn 1:11
Would you be inclined to agree that the Dr. is pretty amazing.?
,
;
OR, What would you want to know before you decided how amazing the Dr. is?
You would want to know what the Doctor healed him of!
If he tell tells you my Dr. cured my seasonal allergies are you going to be inclined to agree?
Or that he cured your Athletes foot
What about stage 4 cancer?
What is our condition before God intervenes?
1 And you were dead
We are DEAD, completely dead. Not to be mistaken with mostly dead as in The Princess Bride.
We are DEAD, completely dead. Not to be mistaken with mostly dead as in The Princess Bride.
But What Kind of Dead is it? How can we be dead when our bodies are alive
But What Kind of Dead is it? How can we be dead when our bodies are alive
Lets continue to see how Paul describes our deadness
English Standard Version Chapter 2
2 And you were dead in the trespasses and sins 2 in which you once walked
English Standard Version Chapter 2
2 And you were dead in the trespasses and sins 2 in which you once walked
1 And you were dead in your trespasses and sins
We are dead because we live in opposition and rebellion to the Author of life.
To sin is to violate God’s standard
New American Standard Bible, 1995 Edition: Paragraph Version (La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation, 1995), .
To go against God’s standard is to go against who He is
We are
Can those who are dead in trespass and sin do anything good?
No, they certainly can’t, but How did we die?
We are born dead, spiritual stillborn
Our sinful nature is inherited from Adam
Adam and Eve were not dead in this way prior to their sin in the garden
They were able to do good, to obey God
But they chose to disobey
but we are born unable to obey God
English Standard Version Chapter 2
2 And you were dead in the trespasses and sins 2 in which you once walked, following the course of this world,
The whole world
The course of the world IS open rebellion to God
As we were walking in trespasses and sin we were doing that which the world is captive to.
Dead in Sin is a universal condition, he says it is the course of the world
No one is born exempt
The whole world is in the same desperate condition.
But it gets worse
He continues, not only do we fail to follow God, but the world is
English Standard Version Chapter 2
following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience
English Standard Version Chapter 2
following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience
Not only do we not follow God and do his will. But we follow Satan and do his will.
We are called “children of disobedience”
If we are Children of disobedience then our entire nature is that of disobedience.
But surely people aren't completely bad all the time?
This means that we are unable to do anything in obedience to God
But what if we actually have a nation that has God’s laws?
My Children are at lease capable of obeying me.
maybe…
Are w
But lets think about this for a minute.
So what about when unbelievers do ‘good’ things? When they behave morally. When they give their money to charity. When they say nice things to people? Surely these are not works of disobedience.
Lets consider Paul for a moment in his days as Saul
By all accounts, here is a good man
He knew God’s Law and he strove to follow it to the tiniest detail.
Lets read what he says about himself in ---
4 though I myself have reason for confidence in the flesh also. If anyone else thinks he has reason for confidence in the flesh, I have more: 5 circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee; 6 as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the law, blameless.
What is the result of that deadness?
Saul strove harder than any of his contemporaries to know and do the Law of God.
Yet lets look back at Ephesians to see his appraisal of his own works
He says “We” which includes himself and anyone else who has com to know the Lord
3 among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.
Some people have testimonies just full of the horrible things they did, Crazy lifestyle, drugs, rock n roll, gangs, crime, woman.
And when we read “lived in the passions of our flesh” this is what we think of
Others lived trying to be righteous, trying to do good things, avoiding things that seemed pleasurable. Not doing what they saw others doing.
But Paul himself would have been among the second type..
His own striving after the law he calls carrying out the desires of the body and the mind.
But look what he says
We All.. Regardless of how a person tried to live, Paul says they:
“lived in the Passions of the flesh”
Carrying out the desires of the Body and mind
There is no difference between the deeds of the philanthropist or the party animal, between the ‘moral person’ and the prostitute.
All of them outside of Christ are merely living in the passions of their own flesh.
And because of it they are all “Children of Wrath”
All who are spiritually dead are living for judgement
All their deeds will be punished
According to this
According to this
even the person who starts an organization to help the poor is doing it in The Passions of the Flesh
The man who follows all the rules of his Religion has given in to the Desires of the body and mind
It is the common situation of mankind.
So What Hope is there? if Even our best efforts are regarded as disobedience, and destined for wrath?
So What Hope is there? if Even our best efforts are regarded as disobedience, and destined for wrath?
The situation described by Paul is one of complete hopelessness. We are not merely sick, in need of a cure. We are dead. And the dead don’t cure themselves.
But God,
But God,
We were dead in our sins
BUT GOD
We were following the course of the world
But GOD
We were Son’s of Disobedience
But GOD
We lived in the passions of our flesh
But GOD
But GOD
We were destined for wrath
But GOD, being rich in mercy
Imagine the mercy, there was not one thing we did in which we didn’t need mercy.
Everything we have done prior to salvation deserves punishment
God is very rich in mercy
Lets continue reading
4 But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us,
English Standard Version Chapter 2
4 But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, 5 even when we were dead in our trespasses,
There was nothing appealing about us that made him love us. We were dead.
Have you ever seen roadkill? like a real mangled piece of roadkill that’s all covered in maggots?
You ever look at it and think Awwwwww. Mom, Can i keep him?
Our spiritual ugliness was far worse than any piece of roadkill you have ever seen.
Yet God’s love was so great that he loved us anyways. Not because we were somehow less terrible than the next person. But simply out of his choice.
But What did God do about our problem?
But What did God do about our problem?
The problem is that we are DEAD
So what is the solution. What does God do because of his mercy and love?
What does God do even though we are dead and unable to do anything
BUT GOD… made us alive together with Christ
This is Regeneration - being made spiritually alive
This is Regeneration - being made spiritually alive
It is sometimes referred to as being Born again - John/Peter
The idea of receiving spiritual life in a new birth
In Titus we actually get the Greek word translated Regeneration
In the old testament we see the phrase Circumcision of the heart.
A similar idea of the need of an inward change.
Also in Ezekiel there is the promise that God will give Israel a heart of flesh instead of a heart of stone. - same Idea of the need for an inward transformation performed By God.
in any case, we recognize regeneration as an instantaneous and complete work… mostly
It is complete in what it does
But there is still
what does it do?
Firstly, it gives life
We are able to see, think, and do spiritually
Before regeneration we could not see sin for what it is
we could not see the beauty of Christ for what it was
We could not think or understand spiritual things
13 And we impart this in words not taught by human wisdom but taught by the Spirit, interpreting spiritual truths to those who are spiritual.
We could not do good works when we were dead
10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.
Eph 2:
We have been made alive in the most important way
physical life does us no good if we are spiritually dead
We receive the indwelling Holy Spirit
5 Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. 6 That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.
6 That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.
Jesus equates being born again with being born of the Spirit,
It makes sense that we could not be made spiritually alive, except by the Holy Spirit.
God puts
Regeneration is the moment that we are made alive by God through the Holy spirit in Christ.
However, the ongoing work of the holy Spirit is known as Sanctification
3. We are transferred from the Domain of Darkness to the Domain of Christ
4 But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, 5 even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— 6 and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus,
4 But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, 5 even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— 6 and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, 7 so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. 8 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, 9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast. 10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.
Previously we had followed the course of the world and “the Prince of the power of the air”
Eph 2:4-
But now we are seated with Christ in the heavenly places.
4. Previously we were children of wrath deserving judgement.
Now he reserves for us
eph 2:7
7 so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.
Now we have eternal treasure in His grace
Whereas before we only had judgement awaiting.
For the unbeleiver, life on earth is the closest he will ever get to the Joys of Heaven
For the believer, this life is the closest to hell we will ever get.
5. It produces faith
8 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God,
It is not our faith that leads to Regeneration, or being Born again as we call it.
It is God’s work in us that produces the faith
He says, of faith “is is not your own doing”
How could the spiritually dead have faith?
Dead bones analogy
Dead bones analogy
So imagine you open up your eyes, and find yourself in a coffin. You can smell the stench of death all around you. You feel the old rotten clothes on your body. You feel the horror of your situation as you realize you are trapped and unable to rescue yourself. As you begin to panic you notice a dim glow of light, as you look toward the light you see note. The note says” Press the glowing button and will save you. Love, Jesus” You feel your heart lift as you know the letter must be true. You reach out and press the light and immediately the casket is pulled from the ground and as the door opens you feel gentle hands pull you free, your old clothes are removed and replaced with new clean clothes.
In this story you did respond in faith to the words of Jesus which saved you.
What you wouldn’t have realized immediately, is that before you opened your eyes, YOU WERE DEAD. Not freshly dead, or mostly dead, but dry bones dead. Even a vulture wouldn’t have looked twice. The note was there, and the button was there. But you were unable to discern the note or reach out in faith. First, God had to make you alive.
And that is how it is, the word is out there. The message of salvation and the opportunity to come to Jesus in faith is available. But without God’s work of regeneration to give us spiritual life, we are no more able to respond to the message than a skeleton is able to reach on and press a button.
As Paul says,
8 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, 9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast. 10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.
9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast. 10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.
Which brings us to our sixth point.
6. Regeneration leads to Good Works
Regeneration is the work of God !
If God has done the work, if he has made us new, the results will show.
God does not do a work that fails to produce fruit, if he starts the work he is going to see it through.
No one can ever say “God saved ME, but wasn’t able to change me”
7. We are still waiting for our complete renewal
We are now able to live righteously
We are able to walk in good works instead of the passions of the flesh
Were as before we were unable to do anything good.
But look with me again at
He says we Once “carried out” the desires of the body and the mind
That is, prior to our regeneration we Lived in the passions of our flesh.
In fact, those passions reigned over us, we were subject to them.
What he does not say, is that we once HAD the desires of the body and the mind.
Although we no longer live for those passions
We still have the desires of the body and the mind.
The best way I have heard it described is that those passions once REIGNED
Now they no longer REIGN or Rule over us, but they do REMAIN
The work of putting off the old self with its desires and putting on the new self is the ongoing work of the Holy Spirit in Sanctification
it is not a once and done activity, rather it is a process that is to continue daily for the duration of our time in these bodies.
3 We too all previously lived among them in our fleshly desires, carrying out the inclinations of our flesh and thoughts, and we were by nature children under wrath as the others were also.
Eph
3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Because of his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead
5 He saved us, not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness, but according to His mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit,
Hope of complete renewal
Hope of complete renewal
22 to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, 23 and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, 24 and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.
9 Do not lie to one another, since you have put off the old self with its practices 10 and have put on the new self. You are being renewed in knowledge according to the image of your Creator.
The most difficult part of being reborn is that we know what is good and desire to be like Christ, yet, still battle with the remains of sin in our heart. We want to be fully subjected and conformed to Christs image. We can be comforted to know that this work will be completed and all remaining vestiges of sin will be gone when we recieve are redeemed bodies. And along with that all of creation will also be set free from the corruption caused by sin.
23 Can the Cushite change his skin, or a leopard his spots? If so, you might be able to do what is good, you who are instructed in evil.
Hope of complete renewal
Hope of complete renewal
19 For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. 20 For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope 21 that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. 22 For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. 23 And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.
The indwelling of the Holy Spirit
The indwelling of the Holy Spirit
If we still have bodies and minds with sinful desires, how are we to live as New people?
5 For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit.
Romans 8:
It is the spirit that renews our minds
Without the Spirit we can do nothing but have minds set on the flesh
Although we remain in these bodies of flesh with sinful desires, TO LIVE according to the Spirit is to have minds set on the things of the Spirit
To love what the Spirit of God loves
and do righteous deeds in the spirit
And a mind that hates what the spirit of God hates
A mind that hates the sinful passions of the flesh
A mind that is putting off the sinful desires of our mind and body.
6 For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace. 7 For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God’s law; indeed, it cannot. 8 Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.
Romans 8:6-
As we said earlier, those that have not been Made Alive in Christ cannot please God.
Here we see that without The Spirit, we cannot do anything pleasing to God.
What we can conclude, and what Paul is going to conclude, is that to be made alive in Christ, To be born again or to be Regenerated, is to have the Spirit of God dwelling in you.
Lets read what he says in Vs 9
9 You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him.
Is it possible to be saved by Christ and not have the Holy Spirit?
Is it possible to have the holy Spirit, and not be renewed by the Spirit?
To be convicted of sin
to desire the things from above
To Love What God Loves and Hate what God hates
The answer is no, We cannot be reborn and not live like new people.
Our actions and works do not earn God’s love
Even our faith was a gift from God
And the Good works we do once saved we only do because of the Spirit working in us.
Our flesh accomplishes nothing.
But, we certainly WILL live like new people.
There has been a popular idea that a person can be saved as a carnal christian
The idea goes that they have faith in Christ for salvation, but continue living in the passions of the flesh.
As we have seen this idea is deeply flawed.
It is impossible to be made alive, delivered from the domain of darkness, and filled with God’s Holy Spirit AND NOT BE CHANGED
7 For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God’s law; indeed, it cannot. 8 Those who are in the flesh cannot please God. 9 You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him. 10 But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness. 11 If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you.
As Paul says in Vs 14;
Romans 8:
14 For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God.
If you are still following the course of the world, following the Prince of the power of the air, then you ARE NOT being led by the spirit
And you are not Sons of God.
The body is
What happens when we do Church without a regenerate heart. Without the Spirit?
What happens when we do Church without a regenerate heart. Without the Spirit?
Not Properly, but it happens often.
Worship a God of our own making
We obey parts of God’s word and reject the rest
What is our spiritual condition prior to regeneration?
Does your life have evidence of a new life? Can you remember a time before regeneration? How have your motives and affections changed?
We do it seeking earthly blessings
Can unregenerate people do ‘good’ things ?
do ‘good’ things ?
Am I, like Saul, striving after good works according to my own desires?
How will the Spirit renew our minds? Is it a one time renewal or an ongoing process? How can we see this change in our lives?
spiritually
In opposition to God
Will our glorified bodies, like Adam and Eve, be inherently good yet still able to sin?
Given to corruption
1 There was a man of the hill country of Ephraim, whose name was Micah. 2 And he said to his mother, “The 1,100 pieces of silver that were taken from you, about which you uttered a curse, and also spoke it in my ears, behold, the silver is with me; I took it.” And his mother said, “Blessed be my son by the Lord.” 3 And he restored the 1,100 pieces of silver to his mother. And his mother said, “I dedicate the silver to the Lord from my hand for my son, to make a carved image and a metal image. Now therefore I will restore it to you.” 4 So when he restored the money to his mother, his mother took 200 pieces of silver and gave it to the silversmith, who made it into a carved image and a metal image. And it was in the house of Micah. 5 And the man Micah had a shrine, and he made an ephod and household gods, and ordained one of his sons, who became his priest. 6 In those days there was no king in Israel. Everyone did what was right in his own eyes. 7 Now there was a young man of Bethlehem in Judah, of the family of Judah, who was a Levite, and he sojourned there. 8 And the man departed from the town of Bethlehem in Judah to sojourn where he could find a place. And as he journeyed, he came to the hill country of Ephraim to the house of Micah. 9 And Micah said to him, “Where do you come from?” And he said to him, “I am a Levite of Bethlehem in Judah, and I am going to sojourn where I may find a place.” 10 And Micah said to him, “Stay with me, and be to me a father and a priest, and I will give you ten pieces of silver a year and a suit of clothes and your living.” And the Levite went in. 11 And the Levite was content to dwell with the man, and the young man became to him like one of his sons. 12 And Micah ordained the Levite, and the young man became his priest, and was in the house of Micah. 13 Then Micah said, “Now I know that the Lord will prosper me, because I have a Levite as priest.”
Judges 17:1-
corrupted flesh
unable to do good
unable to obey God
Citizens of darkness
Subject to the Spirit of the World
Bowing the knee to Satan
Subject to Satan
Worshiping the idols of this world
Unable to do good
God Makes us alive by the Holy Spirit
Examples
Who did Micah’s mother consecrate the silver to?
because of His mercy
Worship of the world rather than God
Example - Israel
THE LORD, YaWeH
not our deeds
Under Satan’s domain
Example - Israel
Spiritual
And they made an image or an idol
There is a complete renewal coming
It is universal
FOR Yaweh
They claimed to be worshipping Yaweh, yet they were actually worshipping a god of their own imagination
All of us
As they wanted Yaweh to be
Born that way
Not as Yaweh had revealed himself
It involves consequences
He recognized that the LORD had set the Levites apart for a special purpose of ministering before him.
God will judge
So he took that piece of truth and ran with it.
His wrath is stored up
completely ignoring everything else God’s word had said.
Never mind that only the Son’s of Aaron were to be the priests
Alive in Christ
And that the priests were only to make offerings in the place designated by the LORD
Able to do good
At this time the Tabernacle
Worship the only True God
And never mind that the people were not to have any kind of image or idol
Subject to Christ
But still, Micah knew God’s word had specially set apart the Levites
Based upon His love
and so he clung to that piece of truth and distorted the rest.
He choose us
And why was Micah glad he found a Levite?
He regenerates us
13 Then Micah said, “Now I know that the Lord will prosper me, because I have a Levite as priest.”
It involves eternal blessings
Micah wanted the blessings that come with following the LORD
The abundance of his love
In the mind of Micah, His actions would bring about the LORDS favor
the removal of corruption
He would enjoy good health and prosperity
Pain, death, b
Does this happen in churches today?
Do we exchange the God revealed in scripture for a God of our own imagination
A god that doesn’t judge sin
Or a God that is okay with homosexuality because it is “love”
Do churches and individuals hold strongly to parts of scripture while completely ignoring others?
Do we seek a form of obedience to get rewards in this life. Wealth, health, or the accolades of others?
This is what it looks like when those who are not renewed and do not have the Spirit try to “do church”