The Priority of Regeneration Part 1

Now we were dealing with the first proposition that can be clearly established that there is the priority of the generation, and that is very clearly enunciated in 3.9 because of the two haughty clauses which we find in that passage. Everyone who is begotten of God does not do sin, because with sin you have the next part and he cannot sin again. Because he is begotten of God, again you have the cause of stress.

This is all enunciated, which is the intrusion in his other passage. Now this is, we shall have to apply that very same cause over, but in any case very similar to 3.9. For we read, we know that everyone who is begotten of God does not sin. Practically identical with the first part of 3.9. Then it goes on that he who has been begotten of God keeps himself, and the evil one does not touch him.

He that is begotten of God keeps himself. And that's so not identical, parallel. Now in 5.18, the cause of relation, but nevertheless because it is so parallel, hardly identical with 3.9, we must apply the cause of relation expressly stated in 3.9 to the elements, and consequently infer that the reason why a person does not sin is that he is begotten of God, and the reason why he keeps himself, and the evil one does not touch him, is again that he is begotten of God.

Now since we find that the cause of relationship is expressly stated in 3.9, and by implication necessary applied in 5.18, we are bound to conclude that the same cause of relation, by implication, obtained in all the others. Same cause of relation in all the other factors. And therefore, that in 2.29, the reason why a person does righteousness is that he is begotten of God.

In 4.7, the reason why a person loves God and knows God is that he is begotten of God. In 5.1, the reason why a person believes that Jesus is the Christ is that he is begotten of Christ. And in 5.4, the reason why a person overcomes the world is that he is begotten of God.

Now you can see how comprehensive this catalogue is. That is the catalogue of virtues or the catalogue of graces mentioned in all the passages when they are combined. The catalogue covers the wide range of virtues characterizing those who are called of God and who are members of his kingdom.

And if you begin, for example, with 5.1, everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ is begotten of God. And you begin with 5.1, it's patent, that even faith that Jesus is the Christ is the fruit of regeneration, the fruit of regeneration. So this is very close to the thought of 5.4 that the reason why a person exercises the faith that overcomes the world, the reason why a person exercises the faith that overcomes the world is that he has been begotten of God.

And then you take other virtues, 3.9a and 5.18a, inability to commit a certain... 3.9b, love of God, 4.7, and only the doing of righteousness, 2.29. Are we violating any canon of heaven, you see? Having taken our starting point from line the same to five parallel, extending the very same principle. Otherwise, you see, you would have put abstinence. Clearly stated, there is immunity to the tattoo.

Separate that condition or that state from the virtues by faith that Jesus is the Christ, overcoming the world, the faith that the love of God is very patent, 3.9 and 5.185, or at least coordinate with what John means in 3.9, namely that this person does not do sin. Now, this is all, of course, another way of expressing what John means by the kingdom of God and these various virtues. But what John is saying, he's all the way, he's not alone.

What the Christ is, the invariable concomitance, concomitance, O-N-I-T-A-N-C-E, the invariable concomitance, regeneration, the invariable concomitance. Now, it has sometimes been performed, sir, been interpreted to mean that regeneration at a period of time may be between regeneration. Mr. Christ, have you come across that in your pilgrimage? Do you point? Have you come across it at all? Have you encountered it? Well, you may be very fortunate.

Well, it's that viewpoint. There are few men living on the streets as he used to have. And that is a distortion, because we are so very liable to think in terms of chronological priority, not the causal priority.

Now, it is that position that is very clear by John's teaching expressly, that in 3.9, 5.4, not so expressive, 3.9, 5.4, and 5.18. Well, you need just a wee bit of time. Everyone who is begotten of God does not do sin. Everyone who is antichrist, likewise in 5.4, everyone who is begotten of God overcomes the world by faith.

It is that faith by which he overcomes the world. So surely that is. But he who has been begotten of God, every regenerated person, now it's the world in question, every regenerated person, and surely that is.

The whole catalogue of Greece is invariably such and competent of regeneration. And so we are advised of this all importance, that while God, and He alone, we must never conceive of that action of God in regeneration as separable from the activities of saving grace, which are the necessary and appropriate effect of God's grace, God's regenerating grace. Never conceive the activities of saving grace in the regenerated person.

Well, isn't that what you have in John 3, 6? It's simply an expansion of John 3, 6. That which is born of the Spirit is spirit, therefore indwelling, controlled and directed by the Holy Spirit, drawn in the sum of the earth, indwelling. As John was saying here, an expansion of that which is born of the Spirit does righteousness, overcomes the world, does not do a specific type of sin, believes that Jesus loves God. There it is.

How can we possibly entertain the thought that regeneration is separable, is sometimes separable from the crucifixion of the day that Christ hath crucified Him? So it is just this very simply, that the regenerated person cannot possibly, according to the logic of the divine provision, live in sin and be unconverted. To you all in turn, if any man be in Christ, he is a new creation. New creation.

All things. Don't believe me to lay you in a place under the final outcome. Now I'm going to conclude our study.

John and I, in these passages, three groups, we have not only the biblical words for conceiving of regeneration in the restrictive sense as the initial step. Regeneration in the restrictive sense as the initial step in the process of subjective renewal in which God, by a creative act, by a re-creative act, works directly in the heart of man, re-creating him after his own image, bringing him from death to life by the impartation of what is generated after his own moral likeness. Maybe Warfield has regeneration in the purity of regeneration in the purity.

Now it may be that the terminology of... But in these passages we have the clearest of this concept as the... In that sense, it would not be strictly proper to... as what? Through the instrumentality of the... It's brought through the instrument... The word of the gospel. Because when we use that expression, we are thinking of the word as engaging our consciousness in understanding and faith. The totality of the word is our consciousness in understanding and faith.

For example, by faith. Only. In these terms.

Renovation. Learn in view of that. Learn the... Observe.

In fact. In 118, you read, Of his own will brought he us forth by the word of truth. Nombo palestas.

Of his own will brought he us forth. Brought he us forth by... Now you might say that this has to be proper to... Or related to... And the emphasis... If you have... You must presuppose through the immediacy of the word of truth, say, when he apprehends engaged in what is implied... Why you have the same thing in 1 Peter? Being born again. Not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible... Being in the condition of... Well, in... And that must, I think, in the context, be taken in the sense... And this... And it be allowed... Purely... Generated in the disciples... Roughly... The whole gospel... That... What... What then is the relationship in the regeneration which we find in the...