The Apostle Paul in Titus iii. 5, R. V., writes, “Not by works done in
righteousness, which we did ourselves, but according to His mercy He saved
us, through the washing of regeneration and _renewing of the Holy Ghost_.”
In these words we are taught that _the Holy Spirit renews men, or makes
men new_, and that through this renewing of the Holy Spirit, we are saved.
Jesus taught the same in John iii. 3-5, “Jesus answered and said unto him,
Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see
the kingdom of God. Nicodemus saith unto Him, How can a man be born when
he is old? Can he enter the second time into his mother’s womb and be
born? Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be
born of water and _of the Spirit_, he cannot enter into the kingdom of
God.”
What is regeneration? _Regeneration is the impartation of life, spiritual
life, to those who are dead, spiritually dead, through their trespasses
and sins_ (Eph. ii. 1, R. V.). It is the Holy Spirit who imparts this
life. It is true that the written Word is the instrument which the Holy
Spirit uses in regeneration. We read in 1 Pet. i. 23, “Being born again,
not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, _by the Word of God_, which
liveth and abideth forever.” We read in James i. 18, “Of His own will
begat He us with _the Word of truth_, that we should be a kind of first
fruits of His creatures.” These passages make it plain that the Word is
the instrument used in regeneration, but it is only as the Holy Spirit
uses the instrument that the new birth results. “It is the Spirit that
giveth life” (John vi. 63, A. R. V.). In 2 Cor. iii. 6, we are told that
“the letter killeth, but the Spirit giveth life.”(1) This is sometimes
interpreted to mean that the literal interpretation of Scripture, the
interpretation that takes it in its strict grammatical sense and makes it
mean what it says, kills; but that some spiritual interpretation, an
interpretation that “gives the spirit of the passage,” by making it mean
something it does not say, gives life; and those who insist upon Scripture
meaning exactly what it says are called “deadly literalists.” This is a
favourite perversion of Scripture with those who do not like to take the
Bible as meaning just what it says and who find themselves driven into a
corner and are looking about for some convenient way of escape. If one
will read the words in their context, he will see that this thought was
utterly foreign to the mind of Paul. Indeed, one who will carefully study
the epistles of Paul will find that he himself was a literalist of the
literalists. If literalism is deadly, then the teachings of Paul are among
the most deadly ever written. Paul will build an argument upon the turn of
a word, upon a number or a tense. What does the passage mean? The way to
find out what any passage means is to study in their context the words
used. Paul is drawing a contrast between the Word of God outside of us,
written with ink upon parchment or graven on tables of stone, and the Word
of God written within us in tables that are hearts of flesh with the
Spirit of the living God (v. 3) and he tells us that if we merely have the
Word of God outside us in a Book or on parchment or on tables of stone,
that it will kill us, that it will only bring condemnation and death, but
that if we have the Word of God made a living thing in our hearts, written
upon our hearts by the Spirit of the living God, that it will bring us
life.(2) No number of Bibles upon our tables or in our libraries will save
us, but the truth of the Bible written by the Spirit of the living God in
our hearts will save us.
To put the matter of regeneration in another way; _regeneration is the
impartation of a new nature, God’s own nature to the one who is born
again_ (2 Pet. i. 4). Every human being is born into this world with a
perverted nature; his whole intellectual, affectional and volitional
nature perverted by sin. No matter how excellent our human ancestry, we
come into this world with a mind that is blind to the truth of God. (“The
natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are
foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are
spiritually discerned.” 1 Cor. ii. 14.) With affections that are alienated
from God, loving the things that we ought to hate and hating the things
that we ought to love. (“Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which
are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry,
witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions,
heresies, envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like.” Gal.
v. 19, 20, 21.) With a will that is perverted, set upon pleasing itself,
rather than pleasing God. (“Because the mind of the flesh is enmity
against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can
it be.” Rom. viii. 7, R. V.) In the new birth a new intellectual,
affectional and volitional nature is imparted to us. We receive the mind
that sees as God sees, thinks God’s thoughts after Him (1 Cor. ii. 12-14);
affections in harmony with the affections of God. (“The fruit of the
Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith,
meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.” Gal. v. 22, 23); a
will that is in harmony with the will of God, that delights to do the
things that please Him. (Like Jesus we say, “My meat is to do the will of
Him that sent Me, and to finish His work.” John iv. 34; cf. John vi. 38;
Gal i. 10.) It is the Holy Spirit who creates in us this new nature, or
imparts this new nature to us. No amount of preaching, no matter how
orthodox it may be, no amount of mere study of the Word will regenerate
unless the Holy Spirit works. It is He and He alone who makes a man a new
creature.
The new birth is compared in the Bible to growth from a seed. The human
heart is the soil, the Word of God is the seed (Luke viii. 11; cf. 1 Pet.
i. 23; Jas. i. 18; 1 Cor. iv. 15), every preacher or teacher of the Word
is a sower, but the Spirit of God is the One who quickens the seed that is
thus sown and the Divine nature springs up as the result. There is
abundant soil everywhere in which to sow the seed, in the human hearts
that are around about us upon every hand. There is abundant seed to be
sown, any of us can find it in the granary of God’s Word; and there are
to-day many sowers: but there may be soil and seed and sowers, but unless
as we sow the seed, the Spirit of God quickens it and the heart of the
hearer closes around it by faith, there will be no harvest. Every sower
needs to see to it that he realizes his dependence upon the Holy Spirit to
quicken the seed he sows and he needs to see to it also that he is in such
relation to God that the Holy Spirit may work through him and quicken the
seed he sows.
The Holy Spirit does regenerate men. He has power to raise the dead. He
has power to impart life to those who are morally both dead and
putrefying. He has power to impart an entirely new nature to those whose
nature now is so corrupt that to men they appear to be beyond hope. How
often I have seen it proven. How often I have seen men and women utterly
lost and ruined and vile come into a meeting scarcely knowing why they
came, and as they have sat there the Word was spoken, the Spirit of God
has quickened the Word thus sown in their hearts and in a moment that man
or woman, by the mighty power of the Holy Spirit, has become a new
creation. I know a man who seemed as completely abandoned and hopeless as
men ever become. He was about forty-five years of age. He had gone off in
evil courses in early boyhood. He had run away from home, had joined the
navy and afterwards the army, and learned all the vices of both. He had
been dishonourably discharged from the army because of his extreme
dissipation and disorderliness. He had found his companionships among the
lowest of the low and the vilest of the vile. When he would go up the
street of a Western town at night, and merchants would hear his yell, they
would close their doors in fear. But this man went one night into a
revival meeting in a country church out of curiosity. He made sport of the
meeting that night with a boon companion who sat by his side, but he went
again the next night. The Spirit of God touched his heart. He went forward
and bowed at the altar. He arose a new creation. He was transformed into
one of the noblest, truest, purest, most unselfish, most gentle and most
Christlike men I have ever known. I am sometimes asked, “Do you believe in
sudden conversion?” I believe in something far more wonderful than sudden
conversion. I believe in sudden regeneration. Conversion is merely an
outward thing, the turning around. Regeneration goes down to the deepest
depths of the inmost soul, transforming thoughts, affections, will, the
whole inward man. I believe in sudden regeneration because the Bible
teaches it and because I have seen it times without number. I believe in
sudden regeneration because I have experienced it. We are sometimes told
that “the religion of the future will not teach sudden miraculous
conversion.” If the religion of the future does not teach sudden
miraculous conversion, if it does not teach something far more meaningful,
sudden, miraculous regeneration by the power of the Holy Spirit, then the
religion of the future will not be in conformity with the facts of
experience and so will not be scientific. It will miss one of the most
certain and most glorious of all truths. Man-devised religions in the past
have often missed the truth and man-devised religions in the future will
doubtless do the same. But the religion God has revealed in His Word and
the religion that God confirms in experience teaches sudden regeneration
by the mighty power of the Holy Spirit. If I did not believe in
regeneration by the power of the Holy Spirit, I would quit preaching. What
would be the use in facing great audiences in which there were multitudes
of men and women hardened and seared, caring for nothing but the things of
the world and the flesh, with no high and holy aspirations, with no
outlook beyond money and fame and power and pleasure, if it were not for
the regenerating power of the Holy Spirit? But with the regenerating power
of the Holy Spirit, there is every use; for the preacher can never tell
where the Spirit of God is going to strike and do His mighty work. There
sits before you a man who is a gambler, or a drunkard, or a libertine.
There does not seem to be much use in preaching to him, but you can never
tell but that very night, the Spirit of God will touch that man’s heart
and transform him into one of the holiest and most useful of men. It has
often occurred in the past and will doubtless often occur in the future.
There sits before you a woman, who is a mere butterfly of fashion. She
seems to have no thought above society and pleasure and adulation. Why
preach to her? Without the regenerating power of the Holy Spirit, it would
be foolishness and a waste of time; but you can never tell, perhaps this
very night the Spirit of God will shine in that darkened heart and open
the eyes of that woman to see the beauty of Jesus Christ and she may
receive Him and then and there the life of God be imparted by the power of
the Holy Spirit to that trifling soul.
The doctrine of the regenerating power of the Holy Spirit is a glorious
doctrine. It sweeps away false hopes. It comes to the one who is trusting
in education and culture and says, “Education and culture are not enough.
You must be born again.” It comes to the one who is trusting in mere
external morality, and says, “External morality is not enough, you must be
born again.” It comes to the one who is trusting in the externalities of
religion, in going to church, reading the Bible, saying prayers, being
confirmed, being baptized, partaking of the Lord’s supper, and says, “The
mere externalities of religion are not enough, you must be born again.” It
comes to the one who is trusting in turning over a new leaf, in outward
reform, in quitting his meanness; it says, “Outward reform, quitting your
meanness is not enough. You must be born again.” But in place of the vague
and shallow hopes that it sweeps away, it brings in a new hope, a good
hope, a blessed hope, a glorious hope. It says, “You may be born again.”
It comes to the one who has no desire higher than the desire for things
animal or selfish or worldly and says, “You may become a partaker of the
Divine nature, and love the things that God loves and hate the things that
God hates. You may become like Jesus Christ. You may be born again.”