What comes first, Faith or
Regeneration?
By Nick Bibile
What comes first, is it Faith or Regeneration?
Many will say faith comes first then regeneration.
This is theologically
incorrect. It’s not faith but regeneration comes first. This is the historical
biblical position but since lately the church is shifting towards a man
centered gospel. Let us see the scriptural evidence. As we need to go to the
very basics and to the foundation of God’s word. I will highlight certain words
of scripture for clarification purpose.
Ge
When man sinned
against the infinitely holy God, there was not only physical death but
spiritual death. What is spiritual death? It means you are dead to spiritual
things. You may be physically alive but you are separated from God almighty and
dead to spiritual things. When they are spiritually dead, they cannot
understand spiritual things.
1Co
When Adam sinned
against God he did not break his little finger and had a fall. Neither Adam was
spiritually sick. Many pastors and evangelists say man is spiritual sick. There
is not one scripture to support that man is spiritually sick but the scriptures
say man is spiritually dead.
Eph 2:1 And you
hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins.
Eph 2:5 Even when
we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace
ye are saved ;)
The Bible says
salvation is of God. Jonah did not go to a theological school but learned in
humility in the belly of a fish that salvation is of the Lord. (Jonah
2:9) Now how can a physically alive but spiritually dead person hear and
understand the gospel? The first initiative is from God as God is the author of
salvation. God makes the dead person alive. This is regeneration. The word
regeneration means to generate new. It means to be born again. Born again means
to have a spiritual birth.
Who gives the
spiritual birth? Do dead men have faith? No, it is God the Holy Spirit that
makes the dead man alive.
Joh
The fallen man was
dead in sins and now by God’s grace he can have a spiritual birth. How does the
spiritual birth happen? By the word of God alone. The word of God has the power
to bring the spiritually dead person alive. I am going to give two examples.
Ge 1:2 And the earth
was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the
Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.
3
And
God said, Let there be
light: and there was light.
There is power in
God’s word, as he commanded, let there be light and there was light.
Unbelievers who are
spiritually dead are in darkness.
Ac 26:17 Delivering
thee from the people, and from the Gentiles, unto whom now I send thee,
18 To open their eyes, and to turn them
from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God,
2Co 4:6 For God,
who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our
hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of
Jesus Christ.
It is the power of
God’s word can make the unbeliever to be born again. Now let’s see another
example. Remember in John chapter 11 we
see Lazarus was dead for four days. The dead men don’t have any faith. You can
preach the gospel to a dead man but he is still dead. Unless God commands the
dead man to rise from the dead. Jesus commanded the dead man Lazrus to come forth.
John
44 And he that was dead came forth.
My friend, there is
power in the word of God. The same God’s word that commanded light to shine out
of darkness, commanded Lazarus who was dead for four days to come forth. There
is power in the gospel of God. Murderers, thieves, adulterers,
prostitutes, drug addicts, alcoholics, such men doesn’t have faith. Yet
God’s word is mighty powerful to open their hearts for the gospel.
Then how about
repentance?
Once God opens the
heart of the sinner, then the sinner realize how deeply he had offended God and
there is deep sorrow of sin and the sinner is given the faith to repent of his
or her sins. First God gives them a new
heart, and then there is repentance. Repentance is to have sorrow for your sins
and to turn away from your sins. The Bible says repentance is godly sorrow.
2 Corinthians
Ungodly man cannot
repent. First the ungodly man needs to be born again by the Spirit of God; once
you have a new heart there is faith to believe in God and to repent. The
spiritual birth is not of ourselves where we can boast but of God’s grace
alone.
Eph 2:5 Even when
we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by
grace ye are saved;)
Eph 2:8 For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of
yourselves: it is the gift of God.
Then what about
inviting sinners to Jesus? We are responsible to invite all sinners to the
cross. We don’t know who is going to be saved by the spirit of God. But as Christians
we are called to preach the gospel to all the families of the earth and invite
all to the cross. Our job is to preach the gospel and allow God to do the work
of salvation. We are only his instruments. We need to call men, women and
children to repent. We are to tell them to believe in the Lord Jesus and to
repent of their sins. The gospel message
is free for all. We need to preach all to call upon the name of the Lord.
Ro
First God
regenerates the person then whosoever (Jew or Gentile*) will call upon the name
of the Lord and they shall be saved.
* Ro
Further study I
would recommend reading. Price
for a People (Book Review) By Stanford Murrell