Regeneration

I am participating in a 'small group' studying the ordo salutis or, in English, the order of salvation. This week we are looking into regeneration. The doctrine of regeneration was one of the main 'arguments' that convinced me that reformed theology was in fact an accurate representation of the truth; at least more accurate than what I had believed before.

Our group's resources for this study are the mp3s of Scottsdale Bible Church's Christian Essentials class. These are lessons taught by Wayne Grudem in which he systematically, over the course of several years, works through his book entitled Systematic Theology. You can find the lesson on regeneration, delivered February 10th of 2008, at Scottsdale Bible Church's Christian Essentials website.

Early on in the lesson Grudem gives several examples from Scripture that refer to regeneration:

• a new heart - Ezekiel 36:26-27, And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules.
• born of God - John 1:12-13, But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.
• made alive with Christ - Ephesians 2:4-5, ButGod, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved
• brought forth - James 1:18, Of his own will he brought us forth by the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures.
• born again - 1 Peter 1:3, Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! 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,
• born of the Spirit - John 3:5-8, Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’ The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.”