Tuesday, June 21, 2011

The Inward Work of the Holy Spirit


The definition of regeneration
The word occurs twice in the New Testament, once once in Mt. 19:28, ‘at the renewal of all things, when the Son of Man sits on his glorious throne . . .’; and once referring to the individual believer in Tit. 3:5. ‘He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit’…

B.B. Warfield defines it like this:

‘It is a radical and complete transformation wrought in the soul by God the Holy Spirit, by virtue of which we become new men, no longer conformed to this world, but in holiness and knowledge of the truth created after the image of God. (Eph. 4:22-24; Col. 3:10; Rom. 12:2).’

This renewing work goes on throughout a Christian’s life (‘yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day’ – 2 Cor. 4:16) – which is presumably why Calvin spoke of regeneration as a life-long process – but as a continuing process it is normally called sanctification.

To read more, click here.

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