Regeneration
Before a person can believe in God, they need to be made spiritually alive. Regeneration is God's act of giving new spiritual life to a person who is spiritually dead in sin. It's like a new birth — you didn't cause your first birth, and you don't cause your new birth either; God does it in you.
Core Concepts
Interpretation Guardrails
- •Regeneration is God's act of imparting spiritual life to those who are spiritually dead in sin.
- •The new birth precedes and enables saving faith rather than being produced by unaided human will.
- •Regeneration is a supernatural work of the Holy Spirit, not merely moral improvement or religious interest.
Misconceptions We Reject
- A person can generate the new birth by personal decision or effort alone.
- Regeneration is simply turning over a new leaf or adopting better behavior.
- Faith arises naturally from fallen human nature without prior divine renewal.
Key Scriptures
What We Reject
(1)Decisional Regeneration (Altar Call Theology)
The Claim
Regeneration occurs when a person makes a free-will decision to accept Christ. The new birth is the result of human choice, not the preceding cause of it.
Scripture consistently teaches that regeneration precedes faith. A spiritually dead person cannot choose life; the new birth is entirely the Spirit's work, not a human decision. We believe because we are born again, not the reverse.
Original Language: The Greek 'gennaō' (G1080) in John 1:13 — 'born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God' — explicitly excludes human will ('thelēmatos andros'). In John 3:8, 'pneuma' (G4151) 'Spirit' and 'pnei' 'blows' parallel the sovereign, uncontrolled nature of regeneration. 1 John 5:1 — 'Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God' — 'gegennētai' is perfect passive: the birth preceded and produced the believing.