Chapter 47.
REGENERATION,
CONVERSION & REFORMATION
BY
GEORGE W. LASHER,
Author of
"Theology for Plain People"
In
his "Twice-Born Men," Mr. Harold Begbie gives us a series of
instances wherein
men of the lowest grade, or the most perverse nature, became suddenly
changed in thought, purpose, will and life. Without intentionally ignoring
the word "regeneration," or the fact of regeneration, he emphasises
the act of conversion in which be includes regeneration which, in
our conception, is the origin of conversion and a true reformation as a permanent
fact. A weakness in much of the teaching of modern times is in that
conversion and reformation are thrust to the front, while regeneration is
either ignored, or minimized to nothingness.
Jesus
Christ did not say much about regeneration, using the equivalent word
in the Greek (paliggenesis) only once, and then (Matthew 19:28) having
reference to created things, a new order in the physical universe, rather
than to a new condition of the individual soul. But He taught the great
truth in other words, the needful fact by which He made it evident that
a regeneration is what the human soul needs and must have to fit it for the
In
the other Gospels, Jesus is represented as teaching things which involve a
new birth, without which it is impossible to meet Divine requirements; but
in John’s Gospel it is
distinctly set forth in the very first chapter, and the
idea is carried through to the end. When (in John 1:12,13) it is said that
those who received the Word of God received also "power," or right, to
become God’s children, it is
expressly declared that this power, or right, is not inherent in
human nature, is not found in the natural birth, but involves
a new birth — "who are born
not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of
God." It is this new or second birth which produces children of God. The
declaration of John (John 3:3) puts to confusion the very common claim that God
is the Father of
universal humanity, and makes it absurd to talk of "the
Fatherhood of God,"
"the Heavenly Father," "the Divine Fatherhood," and other
such phrases
with which we are surfeited in these modern days. Nothing is farther
from truth, and nothing is more dangerous and seductive than the claim
that the children of Adam are, by nature, God’s
children. It is the basis of much false reasoning with regard to the
future state and the continuity of future punishment. It is said, in
words, that, though a father may chastise his son, "for his
profit," yet the relation of fatherhood and sonship forbids the
thought that the father can thrust his son into the burning
and keep him there forever. No matter what the offense, it can be expiated
by suffering, the father heart will certainly relent and the prodigal will
turn again and will be received with joy and gladness by the yearning father.
Of
course, the fallacy of the argument is in the assumption that all men are, by
nature, the children of God a thing expressly denied by the Lord Jesus (John
8:42) who declared to certain ones that they were of their father the
devil. The conversation with Nicodemus gives us the condition upon which
once-born men may see the
He
had read in vain the word through Jeremiah (Jeremiah 33:31) relative
to the "new covenant" which involves a new heart. He had failed to discern
between the natural man and the spiritual man. He had no conception
of a changed condition as the basis of genuine reformation. But Nicodemus
was not alone in his misconception. After all these centuries, many
students of the New Testament, accepting the Gospel of John as canonical
and genuine, stumble over the same great truth and. "pervert the right
ways of the Lord." Taking the fifth verse of John 3, they accept the doctrine
of regeneration, but couple it with an external act without which, in
their view, the regeneration is not and cannot be completed. In their rituals
they distinctly declare that water baptism is essential to and is productive
of the regeneration which Jesus declares must be from heaven. They
stumble over, or pervert the words used, and make "born of water" to
be baptism, of which nothing is said in the verse or in the chapter, and which
the whole tenor of Scripture denies.
The
lexicographers, the grammarians and evangelical theologians are all pronounced
against the interpretation put upon the words of Jesus when He
said: "Except a man (anyone) be born of water kai spirit, he cannot enter
into the
PAUL
AS AN INTERPRETER OF JESUS
The
best interpreter of Jesus who ever undertook to represent Him was the man
who was made a "chosen vessel," to bear the Gospel of the kingdom to
the pagan nations of his own time, and to transmit his interpretations to us
of the twentieth century, He could say: "The Gospel which was preached
of me is not after man, neither was I taught it, but by revelation of
Jesus Christ." And Paul speaks of this work wrought in the human soul as
a "new creation" — something that was
not there before. "If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature"
(creation). "Neither circumcision availeth anything, nor
uncircumcision, but a new creature" (creation). Never once, in
all his discussions of the way of salvation, does Paul intimate that the new
creation is effected by a ritual observance. It is always and everywhere regarded
and treated as a spiritual experience wrought by the Spirit of God, the subject
of it knowing only, as the healed man said of himself, "Whereas
I, was blind now I see."
THE
TESTIMONY OF EXPERIENCE
The
prayers of the Bible, especially those of the New Testament, do not indicate
that the suppliant asks for a regeneration —
a new heart. He may have been taught the need of it, and may be
brought face to face with the great and decisive fact; but his thought is not
so much of a new heart as it is of his sins and his condemnation. What he
wants is deliverance from the fact and the consequences of sin. He finds
himself a condemned sinner, under the frown of a God of justice, and he
despairs. But he is told of Jesus and the forgiving grace of God, and he
asks that the gracious provision be applied to his own soul. "Mercy, and
not sacrifice," is the argument, the mercy secured by the work of Him whom God
hath appointed to be the propitiation for our sins. But when the
supplicating and believing sinner awakes to a consciousness that his prayer
has been heard, he finds that he is a new creature. The work has been
wrought without his consciousness of it at the moment. All he knows is that
something has taken place within him a great "change." He is a
new creature. He dares to hope and to believe that he is a son of God; and he
cries in the ecstacy of a new life: "Abba, Father" (Dear Father)!
"The Spirit Himself beareth witness with our spirit that we are
the children of God," and subsequently we learn that we
are heirs of a rich Father — "heirs of God
and joint-heirs with Jesus Christ," with whom we are to both suffer
and reign. Conversion
(which really means only "change"), we have said, is included in
the idea of regeneration; but the words do not mean the same thing.
Regeneration
implies conversion; but there may be conversion without regeneration.
The danger is that the distinction may not be observed and that,
because there is a visible conversion, it may be Supposed that there must
be a prevenient regeneration. Conversion may be a mere mental process;
the understanding convinced, but the heart unchanged. It may be effected
as education and refinement are effected. The schools are constantly
doing it. It is what they are for. Regeneration involves a change of
mind; but conversion may be effected while the moral condition remains unchanged.
Regeneration can occur but once in the experience of the same soul;
but conversion can occur many times. Regeneration implies a new life,
eternal life, Divine life, the life of God in the soul of man, a Divine sonship,
the continuous indwelling of the Holy Spirit. Conversion may be like
that of King Saul, when he took a place among the prophets of Jehovah,
or like that of Simon the sorcerer, who said: "Pray ye the Lord for
me, that none of these things which ye have spoken come upon me."
Conversion
may be the result of a conviction that, after all, a change of life may
be profitable for the life that is to come, as well as for the life that now is;
that in the future world a man gets what he earns in this life. It does not imply
a heart in love with God and the things of God. Men of the world are converted
many times. They change their minds, and often change their mode
of living, for the better; not because they have been regenerated and brought
into sacred relations with God in Christ, being renewed by the power
of the Holy Spirit.
One
of the most imminent dangers of the religious life of today is the putting
of conversion in the place of regeneration, and counting converted men
as Christian men, counting "converts" in revival meetings as regenerated
and saved, because they have mentally, and, for the moment, changed.
Men are converted, politically, from one party to another; from one
set of principles to another. Christians, after regeneration, may change their
religious views and pass from one denomination to another. Few Christians
pass through many years without a need of conversion. They grow
cold of heart, blind to the things of God, and wander from the straight
path to which they once committed themselves; and they need conversion.
Most revivals of religion begin with the conversion of saints.
Rarely
are souls, in considerable numbers, regenerated while regenerated men
and women are unconscious of their high calling and are in need of conversion,
in order to their hearty engagement in efforts for those around them.
First, a converted church, then regenerated and converted souls. Reformation
implies conversion, but it does not imply regeneration.
Regeneration
insures reformation, but reformation does not imply regeneration.
Reformers have been abroad in all ages, and are known to paganism
as well as to Christianity. The Buddha was a reformer. Confucius was
a reformer. Zoroaster was a reformer. Mahomet was a reformer. Kings and
priests have been reformers, while knowing nothing of the life of God in
the human soul. A Christian man is a reformed man, though his reformation
may be far from complete and may need a great many reforming
impulses. The most glaring and fatal mistake in the religious world
today is the effort to reform men and reform society by making the reformation
a substitute for regeneration.
The
social life of today is full of devices and expedients for bettering the physical
condition of individuals, families and communities, while yet the soul-life
is untouched. Human devices are taking the place of the Divine ideal,
and those who cannot reach the inner life are contenting themselves, if
they can reach and better the outer life, the mere incident of being. We have
civic organizations without number, each of which has for its highest object
the betterment not simply of worldly conditions, but of the character of
the brotherhood. An argument for the existence of many of these organizations
is that they may make better men by reason of the confidence and
fraternity secured by the contact effected, by the oaths and vows taken, and
by the cultivation of the social life. A willingness to learn and to receive
instruction is a condition of initiation into the order.
That
reformatory agencies are good and accomplish good is not denied. Each
has its good points and helps to elevate the tone of society in the aggregate.
But a fatal mistake is in the notion that the elevation of society, the
eliminating of its miseries, is conducive to a religious life and promotive of
Christianity. Perhaps the greatest hindrances to the conquest sought by Christianity
today, in civilized and nominally Christian countries, are the various
agencies intended to reform society. They are improving the exterior,
veneering and polishing the outside, while the inside is no better than
before because the heart remains wicked and sinful. "Now do ye Pharisees
make clean the outside of the cup and the platter, but your inward
part is full of ravening and wickedness."
The
Pharisees were the best people of their day; and yet they were the greatest
failures. Against no others did Jesus hurl so fierce denunciations. Why?
Because they put reformation in the place of repentance and faith; because
they were employing human means for accomplishing what only the
Holy Spirit could accomplish. And so, today, every device for the betterment
of society which does not strike at the root of the disease and apply
the remedy to the seat of life, the human soul, is Pharisaical and is doing
a Pharisee’s work. It is
polishing the outside, while indifferent to the inside. The road to
hell from a church door is as short as is that from a hangman’s
noose, or an electric chair. More church members than murderers
have gone to the hell of the unbeliever. "The good is always the enemy
of the best"; and so reformation is always an enemy of the cross of Christ.
Mr.
Begbie’s "twice-born
men" were reformed, and they made proof of it in
their subsequent lives because they were regenerated, twice born; but there
were beside them, a great multitude of "reformed" men, who were no less
heirs of hell than before their "reformation." He tells us of only a
few of
the great multitude of those reformed —
a few of thousands.
Fundamental to the Christian system is a conviction of sin which compels a cry for mercy, responded to by the Holy Spirit, who regenerates the soul, converts it, reforms it and fits it for the blessedness of heaven. By reference to Mr. Begbie’s book, the writer means no criticism, for he is in full accord with the facts and purposes of the book. He uses it only as a striking illustration of the point he wishes to make.