Jym Shorts

Jym Shorts - September 3, 2015

by Jym Gregory on September 03, 2015

“He saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us richly in Jesus Christ our Savior…”
-Titus 3:4-6

I’ve been slowly making my way through a series of books entitled “On the Christian Life.” Each book examines a particular saint and addresses his/her approach to the Christian walk. So far I’ve examined Jonathan Edwards, Martin Luther, and John Calvin in the books dedicated to them. I am now finishing up the life of John Wesley.

What has struck me in each of these men’s walks with the Lord is their heavy emphasis on the importance of justification by faith and the regeneration that either precedes or follows that moment in time (depending on the views of the particular person). It struck me while reading last night that, in all likelihood, many believers have very little knowledge about these events that have taken place in their own lives.

Although I disagree with Wesley (imagine that, little Jym Gregory disagreeing with the man who may have shaped the history of religious thought in Great Britain more than anyone in history – but there you have it) on when and how regeneration and justification actually occur in the believer, I think he may explain the differences between the two better than anyone else. In Wesley’s sermon entitled “The New Birth” (an incredible sermon, look it up online and read it), he rightly says: “If any doctrines within the whole compass of Christianity may be properly termed fundamental, they are doubtless these two; the doctrine of justification, and that of the new birth” (i.e. regeneration). He goes on to teach, again rightly in my mind, that justification and regeneration must be distinguished from one another for the very reason that they are held so closely together. Justification, he teaches, relates to the great work of God that he does for us, in forgiving our sins, while regeneration relates to “the great work which God does in us, in renewing our fallen nature.”

The two ideas are conjoined. In other words, if you have been regenerated by God (if he has changed your nature by the work of the Holy Spirit), then you have also been justified (declared not guilty by God) as well. One “restores to us the favor of God (justification), the other the image of God” (regeneration). Simply put, justification takes away our guilt and sin; regeneration takes away the power of sin over our lives. While I teach and believe that biblically it works like this – God regenerates us, he gives us faith to believe, we repent of our sins, he declares us justified and without guilt, and then begins the process of sanctification in us; Wesley taught that we act upon prevenient grace by our own faith, leading to repentance, then in response God regenerates us and justifies us in one great act of grace. I think I’m right and Wesley is wrong, but no matter, we both believe that salvation is a work of God’s grace in those he has called, and we both see that without God declaring us guiltless of sin because of Christ’s redeeming act on the cross and changing our natures through regeneration freely by his grace, we are “without hope and without God in the world” (Eph. 2:12). This is, in a nutshell, the doctrine of salvation by grace through faith, the great rallying cry of the Reformation.

John Wesley was a great and godly man. I’ve learned much in this little book on his Christian life. He lived out his faith. He taught that if a person were truly born again, they would know it. They would have communion with God and would live out that faith, observably. He was surely right (see Romans 8:16-17).

I leave you this week with his words: “Is the love of God shed abroad in your heart? Can you cry out, ‘My God and my all?’ Do you desire nothing but him? Are you happy in God? Is he your glory, your delight, your crown of rejoicing? Believest thou the Lamb of God hath taken away thy sins? Then doth his Spirit bear witness with thy spirit, ye have redemption through his blood, and thou art a child of God.”

Grace and peace,

Pastor Jym

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