What’s New?
By Jerry Batson, Th.D.
Special to The Alabama Baptist
A new covenant, a new memorial meal, a new commandment, a new day of worship and a new name for believers are among the things that are new with God and that Theology 101 has considered in previous weeks. The One who sits on the throne and declares “behold, I make all things new” also makes possible a new birth for repentant sinners (Rev. 21:5).
We commonly refer to the doctrine of regeneration as truth about a new spiritual birth God works in believers by His Holy Spirit. The well-known passage in John 3 is basic to this truth. In that passage Jesus spoke to Nicodemus about the necessity of being “born again” in order to “see the kingdom of God” (v. 3). In His explanation to Nicodemus, Jesus distinguished between physical birth and spiritual birth with the reminder that physical birth results in physical life, while the spiritual birth results in new spiritual life (v. 6).
In elaborating on this new birth, Jesus spoke of it as being “born of the Spirit,” which He compared to the invisible and humanly uncontrolled action of wind blowing where the wind wishes (v. 8). Thus, we might think of the new birth as a gracious and sovereign action of the Holy Spirit in which the inner being of a person is reborn within a new relationship with God the Father through faith in God the Son.
‘A new creation’
The idea of a new, spiritual birth is given a variety of expressions in the New Testament. In addition to “born again” and “born of the Spirit” in John 3, we read such expressions as “born … of God” (John 1:13), “a new creation” (2 Cor. 5:17), “created in Christ Jesus” (Eph. 2:10), being “made alive together with Christ” (Eph. 2:5), being “renewed in the spirit of your minds” and putting “on the new self” (Eph. 4:23–24), all of which are elaborations on the prophetic word of Ezekiel 36:26: “I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you.”
It is helpful to think of regeneration or new birth alongside justification. Justification speaks of a change in the repentant sinner’s relationship to God, in which the condemnation resulting from sin is replaced with acquittal by God (Rom. 8:1).
New birth, on the other hand, speaks of a change in the sinner’s heart or inner nature. Justification is the gospel’s answer to the reality of guilt, while regeneration is the gospel’s answer to the depravity caused by sin. It also is helpful to distinguish between regeneration and sanctification. The regeneration of new birth points to the beginning point of the new life in Christ, whereas sanctification addresses the lifelong process by which a sinner’s inner moral nature is being transformed progressively into Christlikeness.
Using God’s Word
It also is helpful to think of new birth as occurring through the personal agency of the Holy Spirit using the means or instrumentality of God’s Word. Thus the Bible speaks both of being born of the Spirit (John 3:6, 8) and being begotten or brought forth by the word of truth (James 1:18). It was in this latter sense that new birth was referenced in connection with Corinthian Christians when the Apostle Paul wrote, “In Christ Jesus, I have begotten you through the gospel” (1 Cor. 4:15). In light of the importance and necessity of the new birth we understand the old adage that holds being born is an eternal calamity unless a person also is born again.
EDITOR’S NOTE — Jerry Batson is a retired Alabama Baptist pastor who also has served as associate dean of Beeson Divinity School at Samford University and professor of several schools of religion during his career.
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