The Great Doctrines of the Bible Part 23

Prayer also is an instrument in the development of faith. Luke is called the _human_ Gospel because it makes so much of prayer, especially in connection with faith: 22:32--"But I have prayed for thee that thy faith fail not." 17:5--"And the apostles said unto the Lord, Increase our faith." See also Mark 9:24; Matt. 17:19-21.

Our faith grows by the use of the faith we already have. Luke 17:5, 6; Matt. 25:39.

IV. SOME RESULTS OF FAITH.

1. WE ARE SAVED BY FAITH.

We, of course, recall that the saving power of faith resides not in itself, but in the Almighty Saviour on whom it rests; so that, properly speaking, it is not so much faith, as it is faith in Christ that saves.

The whole of our salvation--past, present, and future, is dependent upon faith. Our acceptance of Christ (John 1:12); our justification (Rom. 5:1); our adoption (Gal. 3:26); our sanctification (Acts 26:18); our keeping (1 Pet. 1:5), indeed our whole salvation from start to finish is dependent upon faith.

2. REST, PEACE, a.s.sURANCE, JOY.

Isa. 26:3; Phil. 4:6; Rom. 5:1; Heb. 4:1-3; John 14:1; 1 Pet. 1:8.

Fact, faith, feeling--this is G.o.d's order. Satan would reverse this order and put feeling before faith, and thus confuse the child of G.o.d. We should march in accord with G.o.d's order: Fact leads, Faith with its eye on Fact, following, and Feeling with the eye on Faith bringing up the rear. All goes well as long as this order is observed. But the moment Faith turns his back on Fact, and looks at Feeling, the procession wabbles. Steam is of main importance, not for sounding the whistle, but for moving the wheels; and if there is a lack of steam we shall not remedy it by attempting by our own effort to move the piston or blow the whistle, but by more water in the boiler, and more fire under it. Feed Faith with Facts, not with Feeling.--_A. T. Pierson_.

3. DO EXPLOITS THROUGH FAITH.

Heb. 11:32-34; Matt. 21:21; John 14:12. Note the wonderful things done by the men of faith as recorded in the eleventh chapter of Hebrews. Read vv. 32-40. Jesus attributes a kind of omnipotence to faith. The disciple, by faith, will be able to do greater things than his Master. Here is a mighty Niagara of power for the believer.

The great question for the Christian to answer is not "What can I do?" but "How much can I believe?" for "all things are possible to him that believeth."

C. REGENERATION, OR THE NEW BIRTH.

I. ITS NATURE.

1. NOT BAPTISM.

2. NOT REFORMATION.

3. A SPIRITUAL QUICKENING.

4. AN IMPARTATION OF A DIVINE NATURE.

5. A NEW AND DIVINE IMPULSE.

II. ITS NECESSITY.

1. UNIVERSAL.

2. THE SINFUL CONDITION OF MAN DEMANDS IT.

3. THE HOLINESS OF G.o.d DEMANDS IT.

III. THE MEANS.

1. THE DIVINE SIDE.

2. THE HUMAN SIDE.

3. THE MEANS USED.

C. REGENERATION, OR THE NEW BIRTH.

It is of the utmost importance that we have a clear understanding of this vital doctrine. By Regeneration we are admitted into the kingdom of G.o.d. There is no other way of becoming a Christian but by being born from above. This doctrine, then, is the door of entrance into Christian discipleship. He who does not enter here, does not enter at all.

I. THE NATURE OF REGENERATION.

Too often do we find other things subst.i.tuted by man for G.o.d's appointed means of entrance into the kingdom of heaven. It will be well for us then to look, first of all, at some of these subst.i.tutes.

1. REGENERATION IS NOT BAPTISM.

It is claimed that John 3:5--"Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit," and t.i.tus 3:5--"The washing of regeneration," teach that regeneration may occur in connection with baptism. These pa.s.sages, however, are to be understood in a figurative sense, as meaning the cleansing power of the Word of G.o.d. See also Eph. 5:26--"With the washing of water by (or in) the word"; John 15:3--"Clean through the word." That the Word of G.o.d is an agent in regeneration is clear from James 1:18, and 1 Pet. 1:23.

If baptism and regeneration were identical, why should the Apostle Paul seem to make so little of that rite (1 Cor. 4:15, and compare with it 1 Cor. 1:14)? In the first pa.s.sage Paul a.s.serts that he had _begotten_ them through the Gospel; and in 1:14 he declares that he _baptized none of them_ save Crispus and Gaius. Could he thus speak of baptism if it had been the means through which they had been begotten again? Simon Magus was baptized (Acts 8), but was he saved? Cornelius (Acts 11) was saved even before he was baptized.

2. REFORMATION IS NOT REGENERATION.

Regeneration is not a natural forward step in man's development; it is a supernatural act of G.o.d; it is a spiritual crisis. It is not evolution, but involution--the communication of a new life. It is a revolution--a change of direction resulting from that life.

Herein lies the danger in psychology, and in the statistics regarding the number of conversions during the period of adolescence. The danger lies in the tendency to make regeneration a natural phenomenon, an advanced step in the development of a human life, instead of regarding it as a crisis. Such a psychological view of regeneration denies man's sin, his need of Christ, the necessity of an atonement, and the regenerating work of the Holy Spirit.

3. REGENERATION IS A SPIRITUAL QUICKENING, A NEW BIRTH.

Regeneration is the impartation of a new and divine life; a new creation; the production of a new thing. It is Gen. 1:26 over again.

It is not the old nature altered, reformed, or re-invigorated, but a new birth from above. This is the teaching of such pa.s.sages as John 3:3-7; 5:21; Eph. 2:1, 10; 2 Cor. 5:17.

By nature man is dead in sin (Eph. 2:1); the new birth imparts to him new life--the life of G.o.d, so that henceforth he is as those that are alive from the dead; he has pa.s.sed out of death into life (John 5:24).

4. IT IS THE IMPARTATION OF A NEW NATURE--G.o.d'S NATURE.

In regeneration we are made partakers of the divine nature (2 Pet. 1:4). We have put on the new man, which after G.o.d is created in holiness and righteousness (Eph. 4:11; Col. 3:10). Christ now lives in the believer (Gal. 2:20). G.o.d's seed now abides in him (1 John 3:9). So that henceforth the believer is possessed of two natures (Gal. 5:17).

5. A NEW AND DIVINE IMPULSE IS GIVEN TO THE BELIEVER.

Thus regeneration is a crisis with a view to a process. A new governing power comes into the regenerate man's life by which he is enabled to become holy in experience: "Old things are pa.s.sed away; behold all things are become new" (2 Cor. 5:17). See also Acts 16:14, and Ezek. 36:25-27, 1 John 3:6-9.

II. THE IMPERATIVE NECESSITY OF THE NEW BIRTH.

1. THE NECESSITY IS UNIVERSAL.

The need is as far reaching as sin and the human race: "Except a man (lit. anybody) be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of G.o.d" (John 3:3, cf. v. 5). No age, s.e.x, position, condition exempts anyone from this necessity. Not to be born again is to be lost.

There is no subst.i.tute for the new birth: "Neither circ.u.mcision availeth anything, nor uncirc.u.mcision, but a new creature" (Gal.

6:15). The absolute necessity is clearly stated by our Lord: whatever is born of the flesh, must be born again of the Spirit (John 3:3-7).

2. THE SINFUL CONDITION OF MAN DEMANDS IT.

John 3:6--"That which is born of the flesh is flesh"--and it can never, by any human process, become anything else. "Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots? then may ye also do good that are accustomed to do evil" (Jer. 13:23). "They that are in the flesh cannot please G.o.d" (Rom. 8:8); in our "flesh dwelleth no good thing" (Rom. 7:18). The mind is darkened so that we cannot apprehend spiritual truth; we need a renewing of the mind (Rom. 12:2). The heart is deceitful, and does not welcome G.o.d; we need to be pure in heart to see G.o.d. There is no thought of G.o.d before the eyes of the natural man; we need a change in nature that we may be counted among those "who thought upon His name."

No education or culture can bring about such a needed change. G.o.d alone can do it.

3. THE HOLINESS OF G.o.d DEMANDS IT.

If without holiness no man shall see the Lord (Heb. 12:14); and if holiness is not to be attained by any natural development or self-effort, then the regeneration of our nature is absolutely necessary. This change, which enables us to be holy, takes place when we are born again.

Man is conscious that he does not have this holiness by nature; he is conscious, too, that he must have it in order to appear before G.o.d (Ezra 9:15). The Scriptures corroborate this consciousness in man, and, still further, state the necessity of such a righteousness with which to appear before G.o.d. In the new birth alone is the beginning of such a life to be found. To live the life of G.o.d we must have the nature of G.o.d.

III. THE MEANS OF REGENERATION.

1. REGENERATION IS A DIVINE WORK.