Regeneration

Born from above

Jesus told Nicodemus, a teacher of Israel, that "no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again" (John 3:3), and he made plain that this birth comes from God, not from human effort:

Truly, truly, I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit. Flesh is born of flesh, but spirit is born of the Spirit.

John 3:5-6

Paul says that God saved us "through the washing of new birth and renewal by the Holy Spirit" (Titus 3:5). The word there, palingenesia (παλιγγενεσία), is the one Jesus used for "the renewal of all things" (Matthew 19:28): one person's new birth is a firstfruit of the new creation. Scripture pictures it as a new heart in place of a heart of stone (Ezekiel 36:26), as being made "alive with Christ even when we were dead in our trespasses" (Ephesians 2:5), and as birth "through the living and enduring word of God" (1 Peter 1:23).

Regeneration is God's doing, not ours. From Jesus' words to Nicodemus John Wesley drew "that an entire change of heart as well as of life was necessary for that purpose: that this could only be wrought in man by the almighty power of God" Wesley. Matthew Henry wrote that in it "a new principle of grace and holiness is wrought, which sways, and governs, and makes the man a new creature" Matthew Henry. The newborn call God Father (adoption), are indwelt by the Spirit (indwelling), and begin the life of repentance and faith the church calls conversion.

How the church came to say it

The early church spoke of the new birth together with baptism. Around the middle of the second century Justin Martyr wrote that those who believed the Christian teaching were brought to water and born again in the same way the Christians themselves had been Justin Martyr, First Apology. At the Reformation John Calvin used ‘regeneration’ broadly, for the whole lifelong repentance by which God restores his image in us Calvin, Institutes 3.3. Later Reformed confessions used the word mostly for the moment new life begins. The Canons of Dort say:

And this is the regeneration so highly celebrated in Scripture and denominated a new creation: a resurrection from the dead, a making alive, which God works in us without our aid.

Canons of Dort, III/IV.12

The same article adds that the will thus renewed becomes itself active, so that a person is rightly said to believe and repent by the grace received.

Where the traditions differ

All the churches confess regeneration as the Spirit's work. They differ first over how it is joined to baptism. Catholic, Orthodox and Lutheran churches confess that God gives new birth through baptism, and read being "born of water and the Spirit" (John 3:5) and "the washing of new birth" (Titus 3:5) of the sacrament; Anglicans have read their own formularies on this more strongly or more cautiously. Reformed and Presbyterian churches see baptism as the sign and seal of regeneration, its effect not tied to the moment it is given. Baptists and many other evangelicals hold that new birth comes with conversion, and that baptism follows as the confession of faith.

They differ, second, over its order with faith. Reformed theology teaches that the spiritually dead cannot believe until the Spirit gives life, so regeneration comes first. Wesleyans and Arminians teach that prevenient grace makes faith possible, and that God justifies and gives new birth in the very moment a person believes Wesley, The Scripture Way of Salvation. Both appeal to the words "Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God" (1 John 5:1): the Reformed as showing that faith flows from new birth, Wesleyans as showing that the two come together. Pentecostals confess that the Spirit indwells every believer from the new birth, and teach a baptism in the Spirit, distinct from it and usually after it, that gives power for service Assemblies of God, Statement of Fundamental Truths. All agree that the new birth is God's gift, not our achievement. See the lesson New birth and the indwelling Spirit.