Regeneration: The Sovereign Prerogative of God

[b]Note:[/b] This was originally written in response to Jesse Morrell’s article [url=https://www.sermonindex.net/modules/newbb/viewtopic.php?viewmode=flat&order=0&topic_id=17806&forum=36&post_id=&refresh=Go]Regeneration: Forced or Voluntary?[/url].
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InTheLight wrote:

I propose that the bible nowhere says that regeneration consist in the reception of a new faculty, (freewill) neither in the healing of a broken faculty, (freewill), but regeneration is synonymous with conversion – cleansing – washing – renewing, which is the proper usage of the already existing freewill, which proper use the Spirit of God brings about, not by force or causation, but by the influence of the truth upon the mind of man, and when the will yields to, submits to, and obeys, the revelation of the Spirit perceived by the mind, then a sinner is regenerated/converted.

I don't believe that conversion is synonomous with regenereation. Conversion involves the opening of men’s eyes so that they may turn from darkness to light. It is man coming to see his utter need. Before God can regenerate a man he has to open his eyes to see his own corrupted heredity and that at the Cross Jesus provided the way for me to partake of His heredity. Then we can begin to understand what Jesus is talking about when He says we must be holy. Conversion is agreement with God's verdict on sin at the Cross.

Regeneration is receiving something from God, a precious gift, and we do need to be conscious of our need for this hence our eyes must be opened. The man who has been born again knows it because he has received a gift from God and not because of his own decision.

I have come to be enamoured with the word "conversion" of late, as it says so much by mere definition. I believe that we are in an era where this word can be reclaimed as never before. Allow me to explain:

Firstly, a dictionary definition:

[b]con·ver·sion[/b]
[i]n.[/i]

The act of converting.
The state of being converted.
A change in which one adopts a new religion, faith, or belief.
Something that is changed from one use, function, or purpose to another.
Law.
The unlawful appropriation of another's property.
The changing of real property to personal property or vice versa.
The exchange of one type of security or currency for another.
Logic. The interchange of the subject and predicate of a proposition.
Football. An extra point or points scored after a touchdown, as by kicking the ball through the uprights or by advancing the ball into the endzone from the three-yard line.
Psychiatry. A psychological defense mechanism by which repressed ideas, conflicts, or impulses are manifested by various bodily symptoms, such as paralysis or sensory deficits, that have no physical cause.
The expression of a quantity in alternative units, as of length or weight.
(Answers.com)

All this can sound quite confusing until we consider the word conversion in a computer age. I can get an image in "gif" format, and rename its suffix as "jpg", but it still remains in "Graphical Interlace Format". Everything about how it is rendered is different. However, I can open up that "gif" file in an image editor, and then [b]convert[/b] it to "jpg", and not only will it have a name change, but it will become a "new creation".

Sadly, for a long time, "conversion" has been used to mean joining a religion. Many have used the word "convert" to refer to a person who an "evangelistic belt notch" represents (of course I go to the extreme with these two statements). But conversion speaks of what happens when someone is born of the Spirit, becoming a new creation. Yesterday I was a sinner, but today I have been [b]converted[/b] into a saint. That is conversion.

Conversion is something which is intuited by our inner man (the Spirit bears witness with our spirit), and is then grasped and comprehended by the intellect. It is the logical result of regeneration, as the Holy Spirit breathes new life (regeneration) into a repentant sinner, conversion occurs.

Make no mistake, this is initiated by the Spirit, led into by the Spirit, and worked by the Spirit. Even after the event of the work, the Spirit leads that converted life from glory to glory, from faith to faith. There is no room for boasting here, for it is all the work of the Spirit of Christ, from start to finish.

Does this do away with our choice? Of course not, but God knows from the beginning what we will choose so, as far as He is concerned, is no choice. This is why [b]inevitability[/b] does not equate to [b]force[/b]. It is as if God had presented us with menu, before the foundation of the world, and we chose to accept or reject God, and He is giving us the life that we chose, whether we thought through the implications or not.

So where does choice come in? Choice is the element that resides in the life of the sinner prior to conversion. It is an illusionary thing, which exists as the result of the indwelling of the "spirit of error", which denies the indwelling existence of Christ, in the flesh (1 John 4:1-6), and tempts its "host" to believe that its decisions, made for them, are their own.

And so we see a multiplicity of "thought, word and deed" options. This is expressed in the variety of lies which are both told and believed, gods worshipped, and illicit relationships entered into. This multiplicity is the basis of sin, and is the product of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, which was contrasted in Eden with the Tree of Life. The former tree demanded obedience to principle, but offered only a law which fuelled our sinfulness. This is the reason why we use the Law in evangelism, so that sinners can see the utter futility in obeying it in their own strength. As much as I hate to use this illustration, the Law serves as a "blue pill", exposing the lies of the world (a.k.a., the spirit of error) and leads the sinner to the means of escaping its bondage. That is Christ crucified. And Judgment Day can be seen as a spiritual "Nuremburg Trial", where the charge of "crimes against humanity" is coupled with one described as similar, "crimes against Divinity" (Matt 22:36-40).

The contrast is the Tree of Life, which reveals the only true reality, that being "if any man [i]be[/i] [u][b]in Christ[/b], [i]he is[/i] a [b]new creature[/b][/u]: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new" (2 Cor 5:15). The fact is, this reality is always true. Think about it for a moment. When you were born again, didn't you suddenly become aware of the fact that you always knew that this was true, even though you disbelieved it before your conversion? Suddenly a flood of knowledge swept into you, as you received the mind of Christ, and you know knew that you knew God. It was not a matter of having just met God, but somehow you always knew Him, even though moments before, you were unaware of the fact. It was as if a veil lifted from off of your life, and everything changed, all reality. Now there was only one prevailing reality, you were Christ's and He was yours. You might not have been able to articulate the theological intricacies of it all, but you knew it.

Before long, professors of vain religion were coming to disprove everything that you read in the Bible, and at time you fell for it, because you didn't know better. There was always the sneaking suspicion that you were right all along, but they had been around this so long, but you were new. Later, when you "learned" that thing that you were talked out of believing in the first place, you realise that God had actually transfused His nature and mind into yours. You were increasingly realising that you were but a mere spectator in this life that you are living "by the faith of the Son of God, who loved you, and gave himself for you" (Gal 2:20).

It was such a struggle to resist temptation by mere will power, but then you realised that all you had to do was "confess (acknowledge) your sin" and He would fulfil His promise, as One who is "faithful and just, to forgive your sins, and cleanse you of all unrighteousness" (1 John 1:9). And suddenly you grasped the sublime simplicity of the faith, and temptation dramatically decreased, as the comprehension of the spirit of error's lie increased.

In fact, temptation became an joke, in increasing measure, as you begun to "count it all joy" as you fell into its various forms, knowing that it was the very means of producing character within you (James 1:2-4). You used to think that Satan (the true identity of the "spirit of error") was someone to be feared, but then you realised that he was merely God's convenient change agent, working on behalf of he who "cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man" (James 1:13). After all, he only tempted you with what you thought you wanted, thereby exposing the stupidity of retaining such a desire.

And then suddenly, you realise that all this journey all began by the Divine prerogative of the One who had "chosen (you) in him before the foundation of the world, that (you) should be holy and without blame before him in love" (Eph 1:4) and is a God who [b]chooses[/b] "one vessel unto honour, and another unto dishonour", posing the question, "What if God, willing to shew his wrath, and to make his power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction: And that he might make known the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy, which he had afore prepared unto glory"? (Rom 9:22-23)

The irony is that He allowed you the luxury of believing that you chose Him, when in reality, He chose you. There is no universalism in all this, as He has prepared some vessels "[b]for[/b] destruction". We need to accept the fact that this is the God that we serve, and that this very rejection of some of those who He died for, is an expression of love, in that He allowed them to fall that we may be spared. Does this remove the need of evangelism? I’ll get to that in a moment...

Part of knowing God, as God, is staring these realities in the face until God illuminates them by His Spirit. It is consistent with knowing and loving a God who judges, but in wrath remembers mercy, and has afforded this mercy to us. A great part of this knowledge is the understanding that it is a "fearful thing to fall into hands of a living God", but once in those hands, we received His "perfect love", which "casts out all fear", and "knowing the terror of the Lord, we persuade men". Any evangelism which ignores this dynamic risks falling into an arrogant demonstration of bravado. Rather than allowing God to use us as His means

To paraphrase Paris Reidhead, "The call to missions is not a call to 'go', but a call to 'come, follow Jesus'. The great Commission would be better worded '[i]as[/i] ye go into all the world, preach gospel'."

Have to end this at some point, and now is as good as any :-)