Sunday, July 28, 2013
The Difference Between Being Born Again and Being Saved (Part two)
Yesterday, we showed that regeneration (also "born again," "born from above,"
"the new birth," or "born of God,") and salvation are not synonymous, but are two
different terms.
Regeneration was defined as the spiritual transformation in a person, brought
about by the Holy Spirit, that brings the individual from being spiritually dead to
becoming a spiritually alive human being (Definition by Theopedia).
"The Bible conceives salvation as the redemptive renewal of man on the basis
of a restored relationship with God in Christ, and presents it as involving a radical
and complete transformation wrought in the soul, by virtue of which we become
new men, no longer conformed to this world, but in knowledge and holiness of
the truth created after the image of God."
J.I. Packer
**********************
Today, we will take a closer look at salvation.
As you can see from the definition above, salvation goes far beyond the conversion
of a sinner into a believer. Salvation does not begin or end with conversion.
In fact, it began "before the creation of the world, from the beginning."
Salvation is a process, and it begins with the unconditional election of God's people
from the beginning of time.
I know Christians have different views on this subject, but I believe the Bible clearly
reveals that God elected a particular people to be His, based on His "good pleasure and will,"
and not because of any good works of any kind by the person chosen.
1. ELECTION - God chose His people for salvation before they were born,
not because of anything they would do, but according to His purpose and sovereign will,
for the praise of His glory.
" ... from the beginning God chose you to be
saved through the sanctifying work of the Spirit
and through belief in the truth."
2 Thessalonians 2:13b
"For He chose us in Him before the creation of the
world to be holy and blameless in His sight. In
love he predestined us to be adopted as His sons
through Jesus Christ, in accordance with His
pleasure and will.
In Him we were also chosen, having been predestined
according to the plan of Him who works out everything
in conformity with the purpose of His will, in order
that we, who were the first to hope in Christ, might be
for the praise of His glory."
Ephesians 1:4-5,11-12
"Yet, before the twins (Jacob and Esau) were born
or had done anything good or bad - in order that
God's purpose in election might stand: not by works
but by Him who calls - she (Rebekah) was told,
'The older will serve the younger.'"
Romans 9:11-13
2. THE EFFECTUAL CALL OF GOD - God draws His people to Jesus
through their hearing the gospel.
"He called you to this (salvation) through our
gospel, that you might share in the glory of
our Lord Jesus Christ."
2 Thessalonians 2:14
"And you also were included in Christ when you
heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation."
Ephesians 1:13a
3. REGENERATION (Born Again) - God grants new life to those He calls
by changing their heart of stone into a heart of flesh, enabling them to come to
Him for salvation.
"I will give them an undivided heart
and put a new spirit in them; I will
remove from them their heart of
stone and give them a heart of flesh.
Then they will follow my decrees
and be careful to keep my laws.
They will be my people, and I will
be their God."
Exodus 11:19-20
"When you were dead in your sins
and in the uncircumcision of your
sinful nature, God made you alive
with Christ."
Colossians 2:13a
4. CONVERSION - God grants His people understanding, faith and repentance,
and they trust in Jesus, and confess and receive Him as Lord and Savior.
"We also know that the Son of God has
come and has given us understanding,
so that we may know Him who is true."
1 John 5:20a
"For it has been granted to you on behalf
of Christ not only to believe on Him,
but also to suffer for Him ..."
Philippians 1:29
" ... God's kindness leads you toward repentance."
Romans 2:4b
"That if you confess with your mouth, 'Jesus is Lord,'
and believe in your heart that God raised Him from
the dead, you will be saved."
Romans 10:9
5. JUSTIFICATION - God forgives His people's sins and declares them
righteous because of our faith in Jesus and His work on the cross.
"God made Him who had no sin
to be sin for us, so that in Him we
might become the righteousness of God."
2 Corinthians 5:21
"But the words 'it was counted to him (Abraham),'
were not written for his sake alone, but for ours
also.
It will be counted to us who believe in Him who
raised from the dead Jesus our Lord, who was
delivered up for our trespassed and raised for
our justification."
Romans 4:23-25
6. ADOPTION - God makes people members of His family through
faith in Jesus.
"In love He predestined us to be adopted as His
sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with
His pleasure and will - to the praise of His glorious
grace, which He has freely given us in the One He
loves."
Ephesians 1:4b-6
7. SANCTIFICATION - In a process that continues throughout life,
God sets His people apart to be more like Christ. The believer takes part in his
own sanctification by seeking to remove actions that are not pleasing to God.
" ... But you were washed, you were sanctified,
you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus
Christ and by the Spirit of our God."
1 Corinthians 6:11b
"Therefore get rid of all moral filth and the evil
that is so prevalent and humbly accept the word
planted in you, which can save you."
James 1:21
8. PRESERVATION OF THE SAINTS - Through God's power
and grace, God's people remain in Christ forever.
"To Him who is able to keep you from falling
and to present you before His glorious presence
without fault and with great joy - to the only
God our Savior be glory, majesty, power,
and authority, through Jesus Christ our Lord,
before all ages, now and forevermore! Amen."
Jude 24-25
" ... He has given us new birth into a living hope
through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the
dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish,
spoil or fade - kept in heaven for you, who through
faith are shielded by God's power until the coming
of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the
last time."
1 Peter 1:3b-5
9. DEATH - Though life on earth will end, everyone who is in Christ,
will live with Him for eternity.
"Just as man is destined to die once,
and after that to face judgment,
so Christ was sacrificed once to take
away the sins of many people; and He
will appear a second time, not to bear
sin, but to bring salvation to those who
are waiting for Him."
Hebrews 9:27-28
10. GLORIFICATION - After they die, believers receive a glorified
body like Christ's.
"But our citizenship is in heaven.
And we eagerly await a Savior
from there, the Lord Jesus Christ,
who, by the power that enables Him
to bring everything under His control,
will transform our lowly bodies so that
they will be like His glorious body."
Philippians 3:20-21
*******************
So we can see that regeneration (being born again) and being saved are not the same
thing, but are both important actions of a sovereign God.
Regeneration is one necessary part of the process of salvation.
Saturday, July 27, 2013
The Difference Between Being Born Again and Being Saved (Part One)
The terms "Born Again," (also known as The New Birth, Born of God,
Born from Above, or Regeneration), and "Salvation" are found in various
places throughout the New Testament.
Some consider them to mean the same thing, but they do not.
REGENERATION is the "spiritual transformation in a person, brought about by
the Holy Spirit, that brings the individual from being dead to become a
spiritually alive human being" (Definition by Theopedia).
"The Bible conceives SALVATION as the redemptive renewal of man on the
basis of a restored relationship with God in Christ, and presents it as involving
a radical and complete transformation wrought in the soul by God the Holy Spirt,
by virtue of which we become new men, no longer conformed to this world, but
in knowledge and holiness of the truth created after the image of God."
J.I. Packer
*************
First, we'll look at the new birth, also known as regeneration.
Tomorrow, we'll take a closer look at salvation.
REGENERATION
The Bible tells us that the new birth is a sovereign act of God, and that man has
nothing to do with it.
"Yet to all who received Him, to those who
believed in His name, He gave the right to
become children of God - children born not
of natural descent, nor of human decision,
or a husband's will, BUT BORN OF GOD."
John 1:12-13
Dan Phillips writes in The World-Tilting Gospel:
"There we have the certain fact that all who are
born again believe in Jesus Christ. But their new
birth is expressly traced - not to anything they had
inherited from their parents, nor to any exercise of
their own will or any decision they made, nor to
any decision any other mortal made, but to the
kingly grace and work of God.
They believed savingly in Jesus because God had
given them new birth before their embrace of Christ."
Jesus said that a person must be born again in order to see the kingdom of God.
[Speaking to Nicodemus]
"Jesus declared, 'I tell you the truth, no one
can see the kingdom of God unless he is
born again."
John 3:3
He also made it clear that the new birth comes from the Holy Spirit, and is
a sovereign act of God, with which man has nothing to do .
He compares regeneration to the wind which man can't control, and blows
where it wills. So it is with the new birth, as the Holy Spirit moves upon
whomever He pleases.
"You (Nicodemus) should not be surprised at my
saying, 'You must be born again.' The wind blows
wherever it pleases.
You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes
from or where it is going. So it is with everyone
born of the Spirit."
John 3:7-8
**************
Why do we need to be "born again" in order to see the kingdom of God?
The answer is that we are "dead in our transgressions and sins," and under God's
wrath, necessitating a new birth that the Bible tells us comes only from Him.
[Paul writing to "the saints in Ephesus, the faithful
in Christ Jesus"]
"As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and
sins, in which you used to live when you followed the
ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of
the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are
disobedient.
All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying
the cravings of our sinful nature and following its
desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature
objects of wrath."
Ephesians 2:1-3
***************
Since we were "dead in our sins," we need to be "born again," and only
God can perform such a miracle for us.
God, in His great love for His chosen people, and His mercy and grace,
made us spiritually alive (when we were spiritually dead) in Jesus Christ.
"But because of His great love for us,
God who is rich in mercy, MADE US
ALIVE WITH CHRIST even when we
were DEAD in transgressions - IT IS BY
GRACE YOU HAVE BEEN SAVED."
FOR IT IS BY GRACE YOU HAVE BEEN
SAVED, THROUGH FAITH - AND THIS
NOT FROM YOURSELVES, IT IS THE
GIFT OF GOD - NOT BY WORKS, so that
no one can boast."
Ephesians 2:4-5,8-9
"WHEN YOU WERE DEAD IN YOUR SINS
and in the uncircumcision of your sinful nature,
GOD MADE YOU ALIVE WITH CHRIST."
Colossians 2:13
God chose to regenerate His people through the proclamation of the gospel.
"He chose to give us birth through the word of
truth ..."
James 1:18a
Because of His great mercy, God CAUSED us to be born again through Jesus Christ,
and everyone who is born again will be saved and preserved by His power.
"According to His great mercy,
HE HAS CAUSED US TO BE
BORN AGAIN TO A LIVING
HOPE THROUGH THE RESURRECTION
OF JESUS CHRIST FROM THE DEAD,
... kept in heaven for you, who BY GOD'S
POWER ARE BEING GUARDED THROUGH
FAITH FOR A SALVATION ready to be
revealed in the last time."
1 Peter 1:3b-4a,5
*************
How does God "make us alive" and "cause us to be born again?"
Because the heart of every person is deceitful above all things (Jeremiah 17:9),
and no one is able to do anything to please Him without having the Holy Spirit
(Romans 8:7-8), God must circumcise our hearts and give us the ability to follow
Him in salvation.
"And the LORD your God will circumcise
your heart and the heart of your offspring,
SO THAT YOU WILL LOVE THE LORD
YOUR GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART,
AND WITH ALL YOUR SOUL, THAT
YOU MAY LIVE."
Deuteronomy 30:6
God replaces our heart of stone that can only respond in rebellion toward God,
with a heart of flesh, that is made willing to follow Him. He saves us from all
our uncleanness with a spiritual cleansing.
"I will sprinkle clean water on you,
and you will be clean; I will cleanse
you from all your impurities and from
all your idols.
I will give you a new heart and put a
new spirit in you; I will remove from
you your heart of stone and give you a
heart of flesh.
And I WILL PUT MY SPIRIT IN YOU
AND MOVE YOU TO FOLLOW MY
DECREES AND BE CAREFUL TO
KEEP MY LAWS.
... YOU WILL BE MY PEOPLE, AND
I WILL BE YOUR GOD. I WILL SAVE
YOU FROM ALL YOUR UNCLEANNESS."
Ezekiel 36:25-29a
***************
1 John 5:1 shows that the new birth (or regeneration) precedes faith, which
leads to salvation.
"Everyone who believes that Jesus
is the Christ HAS BEEN BORN
OF GOD, and everyone who loves
the Father loves whoever has been
born of Him."
Faith does not produce regeneration, but regeneration produces faith.
Man does not "born again" himself, but is regenerated by a sovereign act of God.
Just as man has nothing at all to do with his physical birth, he also plays no
part in his spiritual birth. The Holy Spirit moves first, changing his heart, then
man moves in response to what has happened to him. Man is the recipient of
the life-giving action.
Jesus told the Jews who were listening to Him, but not responding in saving faith,
" ... YOU DO NOT BELIEVE BECAUSE YOU
ARE NOT PART OF MY FLOCK.
My sheep hear my voice, and I know them,
and they follow me. I give them eternal life,
and they will never perish, and no one can
snatch them out of my hand."
John 10:26-28
Being in His flock precedes belief.
****************
Dan Phillips writes in The World-Tilting Gospel:
"Because I see all of Scripture giving God all the glory,
and tracing regeneration to God's action preceding our
faith, it does not shock me to find that the Bible teaches
that regeneration precedes and necessarily provokes
saving faith.
But I would hasten to say that it does so like flicking a
light switch precedes filling the dark room with bright
light. The relationship is causal, and A precedes B -
but not by much.
We are alive through faith. But our very exercise of faith is
a grace-gift from God (Ephesians 2:8-9), breathed into us
through regeneration."
Phillips concludes:
"By a miraculous work of grace, God the Father takes pity on our
dead, lost, God-hating selves.
He breathes His life into us, bringing sight to blind eyes, life to
dead spirits, and the submission of repentant faith (Romans 2:4)
to hard, rebellious hearts.
He causes us to be born again, and as surely as a newborn babe
breaks out in a cry, so our newborn hearts embrace Jesus as Lord,
and His gospel as our hope.
In Christ, we receive new life."
***************
Tomorrow: SALVATION
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)