I. REGENERATION, REAL, NOT FIGURATIVE. THERE are doubtless those who think that in a discussion of regeneration nothing new can be said that is true, and nothing true that is new. However this may be, it is certain that opinions differ widely, and that much confusion prevails. It is not our purpose to review the variant and widely diverse opinions which are held on this subject. That were a profitless task. We propose to study the subject anew from the standpoint of the Scriptures, and to compare the conclusion reached with the view generally accepted as orthodox. What is that view? A very few years ago a report was made to the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church, U. S. A., by a committee appointed to revise The Confession. In that report the following words were found: "The act of regeneration wherein being quickened and renewed by the Holy Spirit he is enabled to answer God's call and to embrace the grace offered and conveyed in it." Had this been approved, new matter would have been added to The Confession. This report teaches that the act of regeneration enables the subject to believe on Christ. That this is the commonly accepted view a few citations from Doctors R. L. Dabney and A. A. Hodge may be allowed to show. Dr. Dabney in his Syllabus and Notes (Student's Edition, Part II., p. 85) says under the caption "Regeneration properly defined," "we prove that regeneration is not a mere change of human purpose, occurring in view of motive; but a supernatural renovation of the dispositions which determine the moral purpose and of the understanding, in the apprehension of moral and spiritual truth." Says Dr. A. A. Hodge in his Outlines: "In the new creation God recreates the governing disposition of the regenerated man's heart holy. These dispositions are anterior to moral action, and determine the character as to good or evil. . . . When it is said that regeneration consists in giving a new heart. What is meant by the term heart? The term heart signifies that prevailing moral disposition that determines the volitions and actions." (P. 458.) "What relation does sanctification sustain to regeneration? Regeneration is the creative act of the Holy Spirit, implanting a new principle of spiritual life in the soul. Conversion is the first exercise of that new gracious principle in the spontaneous turning of the new-born sinner to God." (P. 521.) Again, "The instant God regenerates a sinner he acts faith in Christ." (P. 522.) And so, according to this view, regeneration is a change of disposition which enables the sinner to believe on Christ. We are in perfect accord with the psychology of the foregoing statements; and also with their scripturalness, except in one important particular. We heartily concur in the view that the Spirit works in us a change of disposition, "whereby convincing us of our sin and misery, enlightening our minds in the knowledge of Christ, and renewing our wills, he doth persuade and enable us to embrace Jesus Christ freely offered to us in the gospel.". But this is defined by the Catechism of the Westminster divines to be "effectua calling'-not regeneration. In entering upon a scriptural study of regeneration the first thing to determine is this: What did the Son of God come on earth to do? He himself has answered the question. "He came to fulfil all righteousness." He was made under the law. According to the law, the soul that doeth these things shall live by them. Jesus said: "Therefore doth my father love me because I do always those things which please him." Says the law: To them who by patient continuance in well doing seek for glory and honor and immortality, eternal life will God award. Of Jesus it is said: He was obedient in all things, wherefore God hath highly exalted him. By the deeds of the law this man earned the reward of righteousness. Only he is called the Holy One and the Just. He finished the work the Father gave him to do. That this man was entitled to glory is plain enough. But while he was successful it is equally plain that all other men are failures. The Scripture is obviously true which says: "By the deeds of the law shall no flesh living be justified, for by the law is the knowledge of sin." If Christ came to save us by example alone, he is, as a Saviour, a manifest failure. The question, then, may be justly raised, What good can come to us because of his success? What good can it do us that he has won the reward of righteousness? We have not. And yet, the possibility of lawfully entering upon another's labors is not unfamiliar. The young lad who has never earned a dollar enters into the possession of his father's estate. We say he is entitled to do so as the next of kin. The close tie of consanguinity makes him his heir. This view of redemption is presented in all those Scriptures which speak of the saved as the sons, and, therefore, the heirs of God, because joint-heirs with Christ. But let us suppose the young man has violated the criminal law of the land, and by a jury of his countrymen has been adjudged guilty and condemned to death. What good will the estate now do him? He cannot come into possession. There is a rope about his neck. And there is a halter about our necks. We, too, are under the condemnation of the law. "The soul that sinneth it shall die." We have not only come short of the glory of God, in consequence of failure to comply with his law, but we have incurred the penalty which it imposes for disobedience. And just here it is to be noticed that this man Jesus not only obeyed all the precepts, but submitted also to the penalty of the broken law. "He was obedient in all things, even unto death. Wherefore God hath highly exalted him." Had he been a sinner he would have continued under the power of death. But God would not suffer his Holy and Just One to see corruption. He rose again from the dead, and is crowned with glory and honor. Had he remained under the power of death, there would have been no salvation for any, "for if Christ be not risen ye are yet in your sins." We are begotten again to a living hope by his resurrection from the dead. Here, then, is a man who has earned eternal life by submission to the penalty of violated law, and if it be possible for any one to share it with him, it is possible even for the sinner with the rope about his neck-under condemnation of the law. But was he unto death obedient? Our death is not an act of obedience. We are no more obedient therein than the criminal, who swings from the gallows. "God taketh away our breath.” We have no option in the matter; we cannot help ourselves. But how was it with Jesus? He used remarkable language. He said: "No man taketh my life from me, I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again.” His death within a few hours of his crucifixion was most remarkable. Pilate marvelled that he was so soon dead. The victims of crucifixion rarely ever died until the third day. Crucifixion did not terminate the lives of the two thieves on either side of Jesus. Because the next day was an holy day, the Jews besought Pilate that their legs might be broken, and that they might be taken away. Neither was crucifixion the immediate cause of the death of Jesus. In process of time death would have ensued, but we read that "Jesusknowing that all things were now accomplished, that the Scripture might be fulfilled, saith, 'I thirst.' When Jesus therefore had received the vinegar, he said, "It is finished," and he bowed his head and gave up the ghost." The plain import of this language is, that when the last prophecy concerning Jesus was fulfilled he dismissed his own Spirit. Certainly his death was due neither to crucifixion nor to the vinegar which he drank. Jesus was active in his death. He was priest as well as sacrifice. As Hugh Martin says: "His dying was his grandest doing." Referring to Prof. Mac Lagan's beautiful "figure of the empty scabbard bound upon the warrior's person, while the unsheathed sword is in his hand," with which Mac Lagan illustrates the fact that in the state of the dead Immanuel's body and his soul remained, each in union with his Godhead, Martin justly asks, "Is there the action of greater power and prowess in the gentle ease with which that warrior, the battle being fought and won, returns the sword to its sheath (the spirit to its body), or in the prior princely, peerless act in which—what shall I say?—in which, having girt thy sword upon thy thigh, O most mighty, thy right hand teach |