Regenerate Or Degenerate?

“What good is it, my brothers, if a man claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such a faith save Him?” -- James 2:14

This New Testament passage has become a cliché because of its repeated use. The common interpretation for this verse is that genuine faith will always lead to good works. But there is more to this passage than we can ever think of. It pertains to the Holy Spirit’s work of regeneration.

When a person gets saved by grace through faith upon hearing the Gospel, he is forgiven of his trespasses by God. In addition, God, by His Holy Spirit, regenerates the man in lieu of His new covenant (Heb 10:15-18). Regeneration is synonymous to sanctification and it is the theological term used to define the supernatural transformation brought about by the Holy Spirit in the life of a believer. This inward transformation brings about outward manifestations such as repentance, hatred for sin, separation from the world, passion for God, obedience, conformity to the Scriptures, devotion, perseverance and so on. Regeneration is a process of change and it explains the journey of a former sinner into a blameless saint.

Man is granted a new nature the moment he repents, accepts his hopeless case before the living God and believes in Christ, the one True Lord and Savior. This new God-given nature is completely different from the old and sinful one. It is because of such Spirit-driven nature that man is said to be “born again” or “born of the Spirit” (John 3). The Holy Spirit’s work testifies on behalf of the convert. A new believer begins to change and see the world in a different way. He starts to hate the sin he once craved and pursue the things of God with a fiery passion. He seeks God desperately and his lifestyle is that of godliness in conformity with the truth that is in Christ Jesus. He does all these by the continual work of the Spirit.

Click on the chart to enlarge. Although the chart looks like a cycle, regeneration is not a cycle. It is a one-way finished work. The only way the chart points back to a pure heart is because mankind used to have a pure heart (before the fall of Adam and Even) and also because the end of regeneration is a pure heart (our pre-fall state). Follow the chart by its numbering and observe its stage. It is the simplified work of God bringing sinful man back to His image and likeness.

Make no mistake, a regenerate Christian is not perfect. In fact, a practical indication of regeneration is continual battle with sin. However, in the believer's struggle, there is an overcoming of sin. In other words, a regenerate believer can still sin but he cannot remain in sin.

If the work of regeneration is not a reality in a person's life, then that person isn’t really saved from the wrath of God that is to come. Salvation is not a flu-shot. It is not a one-time act where you repent and believe. The evidence that you repented and believed when you heard the Gospel is that you are still repenting and believing until this very day. The bottom line of James 2:14-26 is that it is impossible to be saved and yet live like the rest of the world. He is not suggesting that faith is not enough to save you. We are saved by faith alone by the grace of God (Ephesians 2:8-9). However, genuine faith will always bring good fruits. A faith that brings no fruits is unreal.

Regeneration takes place to those who have been saved so that the fullness of God’s glory might be revealed as he plucks out our stubbornly wicked hearts and gives us new, sin-hating and God-loving hearts. We can placidly hold on to this truth for God is faithful and He will finish the work that He began in us (1 Corinthians 1:8-9). The completion of God's regenerative work will be on the day that we stand before the throne of God in heaven.

To have a new relationship with God also means to have a new relationship with sin. As Paul Washer, American Pastor and founder/director of Heart Cry Missions, always asks:

"Has God done such a work in your life that the sin you once loved, you now hate? And the God that you once rebelled against, you now love?"

For those who say yes, I urge you to continually seek the Truth and conform yourselves to it. For those who say no or are not sure of what to say, its time for you to get saved and make regeneration a flourishing certainty in your lives.

One does not pour new wine into old wineskins. Old wineskins must be made new first because they will burst when they come in contact with new wine. It’s the same thing for our hearts. We have to be saved and changed by grace through faith before we can truly belong to God. If no transformation has occurred in our lives, we still do not have the wine of salvation. To be unregenerate means we are still drunk with the inequities of the world.

In closing, salvation and regeneration come hand in hand, there’s no separating the two. It is impossible to be saved and not be inwardly changed. To belong to God means to live a transformed life in accordance to His Word. Let us be divorced with the world and be married with Christ.