Regeneration precedes faith
Discussion
18 comments
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Regeneration is a sub-category of salvation, which, as the Bible teaches, comes after faith.
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Faith. Romans 10:15-17
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To say regeneration precedes faith, is to place in the mind that they don’t happen at once. Regeneration neither precedes nor proceeds faith; but are the simultaneous work of God at the moment the power of the Gospel penetrates the hearer by way of the work of the Holy Spirit. The dead are made alive by the work of God.
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When Jesus called Lazarus from the dead could he have heard him if he was still dead? He had to be made alive first before he can respond. Ephesians 2:1 says we are spiritually dead because of sin. So how can a dead spirit respond to the gospel? The spirit must be born again the he can respond to the gospel.
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Eph 4 – the mind of the natural man must be renewed.
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Regeneration must proceed Faith, since Faith is a gift from God and our nature of sin prevents us from having the ability to accept Christ. Therefore, before we “accept Christ” our hearts have been regenerated from hearts of spiritual stone into hearts spiritually alive. This is a basic theological principle known as the Ordo Salutis, or the Order of Salvation.
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Regeneration precedes faith; but yes, it is simultaneous. This is called the logical priority as oppose to a temporal priority.
Temporal priority would mean that there’s a gap in time, which would suggest that there are non-born-again believers or born-again non-believers, which can’t be true. But a logical priority would mean that the Spirit’s work must logically precede faith from which without, there can’t be any. Just like turning on a switch. The electricity must be flowing so when we flick the switch, the light comes on simultaneously and we immediately see its effect.
This has always been the reformed view.
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NO.
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I deleted the poll option for “irrelevant, preach the gospel” because this issue has major implications for evangelism. I think the four we have now are reasonable. Thanks!
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Regeneration and faith are the same what precedes is sanctification followed by glorification
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Faith comes by hearing yes? by hearing the word of God? So first you have to hear the word of God and then faith comes for the word of God is Gods spiritual seed that must be sown into the heart of man for it is with the heart that man beleives unto righteousness and with the confession of his mouth he is saved. For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. 1 Peter 1:23 states that we are born again by the word of God which is his incorruptible seed. Yes the Holy Spirit is the one who regenerates our spirit but the word must be sown into a mans heart first for the faith to believe. The Calvinist makes the mistake of assuming that regeneration must come first in order for a person to be able to believe but scripture clearly states that the word must come first because it is the word creates the faith to believe. Scripture clearly states that faith comes by hearing the word of God and never that faith comes by regeneration??? This is why the Gospel has to be preached for it is the power of God unto salvation, the Gospel is the power of God for in its words are the power that creates faith. To acquire faith you must have something to believe in first, you cannot have faith if you have nothing to have faith in. The Gospel is the message about Jesus the good news of what he has done for sinners to save them, we are first convicted of our sin the Holy Spirit being present as the Gospel is preached to bring conviction. When the heart of a man is in the right condition “is good ground” it recognises its sinful state before the truth of God word and is convicted of its sin, this is the first thing that occurs leading up to salvation. The next is wanting to be saved from your sinful condition wanting to live a righteous life and your called to repent to change you mind about the way you have been living and you say yes to this I want to change Jesus save me. The gospel message says that belief or faith in Jesus is the answer to your sin issue and so you say yes to Jesus. Yes I believe that he went to the cross because of my sin and there he sacrificed himself for it and died so that even though I am a sinner and have committed sin I might be saved from it by the payment he made for sin on mankind’s behalf. You see how faith is being created here for the message given meets the desperate need of mans fallen condition. it answers it, it has the remedy for it, Jesus is the remedy. Jesus is therefore accepted in the heart of a man as the remedy for his fallen condition, faith has been created by the word of God the good news about Jesus the saviour of mankind. And what has been created in the heart of man “faith in Jesus”comes out of his mouth which is that Jesus is Lord, your Lord my Lord and all who confess Jesus as Lord before men, Jesus will confess before his Father in heaven. And all who come to him this way Jesus promises he will in way cast them out. The Father uses the Gospel message to draw men unto his Son, nobody comes unto the Son unless he has heard the Gospel message about the Fathers Son. And we are instructed to preach the Gospel to every creature for if they hear it not how shall they believe and if a preacher is not sent how shall they hear???
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Hands down. Regeneration before faith. That is why it’s called regeneration. It generates something, it’s the primary source.
A spiritually dead person cannot understand anything of the Gospel or anything that relates to God. Which is the status quo or default of humans. That is why people rarely ever say that God, Jesus etc. makes logical sense to them and there’s many unbelievers out there despite the tons of apologetics and proof from natural revelation let alone the ultimate revelation of Jesus Christ out there to convince them. If they can’t understand all the arguments that tries to persuade them to Christ, then even the Gospel in its most basic form is even more so is nonsense to them. The Holy Spirit must work to regenerate a person for a person to understand and respond to anything spiritual.
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You are not saved before believing. You are saved when you believe and repent of sin. Therefore, regeneration happens after belief.
For those interested, Chosen but Free would be a good book to read. It addresses this question. Strong Calvinists (those like Sproul), Moderate Calvinists (like me), and Arminians alike should read it.
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Regeneration in the Bible refers to being born again. It’s false. You are not saved before believing. Otherwise there was no point for Jesus to die.
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True faith is a personal experience and your faith will be tested and tested again and again. There is no free lunch on the spiritual path. Personal experience leaves words in the shadows.
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If regeneration is being used as a synonymn for “being born again” then it is true. We are born again in order to believe, we do not believe in order to be born again. We are dead in our trespasses and sins; dead people can do nothing of spiritual good. We must be made alive by the Spirit, i.e. we must be born again, in order to repent and believe the Gospel. This is why Jesus said “You must be born again”. No re-birth, no faith and repentance; no faith and repentance, no salvation.
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Indeed it does since the spirit birth provides the gift of saving faith.
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