Post 87 - Dilemma Solved

Which came first: the chicken or the egg?

If you are a Christian who believes in the Creator-God, the answer to that age-old question should be clear. Yet that dilemma has been posed for centuries as a true mystery.

Another dilemma that has been posed for centuries but should be quite clear to every Bible-reading Christian is this: Which comes first: faith or regeneration?

Before you say, "Who cares?", let me point out that the reason this is of significant personal consequence to all Christians is because if we get this wrong, we start down a path that leads to an unbiblical god and a hopeless corruption of the Gospel. This is important!

Salvation

For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is God's gift. (Eph 2:8)

All Christians will agree that regeneration and faith are two components of the salvation process, yet in Ephesians 2:8, perhaps the most well-known biblical exposition of salvation, regeneration is not even mentioned. Why not?

Let's look at what the Bible says about regeneration.

Regeneration

All Bible-believing Christians agree that regeneration is biblical. Scripture is clear that regeneration--that is, the "born-again" experience--is a sovereign act of God, through the Holy Spirit, without which, no one is saved.

Jesus answered him, "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God." (John 3:3)

Indeed, every verse that speaks of a person's heart being opened, or being "born of God" or being "brought forth", or becoming a "new creation", or being given a new heart, is a reference to the wonderful, sovereign act of God in regeneration.

However, regeneration has no power. Regeneration is the result of divine power, not the source.

[Jesus] saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal (regeneration) by the Holy Spirit, (Tit 3:5 NIV)

Regeneration, then, is simply a state of spiritual renewal brought about through the power of the Holy Spirit.

By contrast, let's look at what the Bible says about faith.

Faith

Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. (Heb 11:1)

By that definition, everyone has been given the gift of faith--that is, simply the ability to be assured, convicted, confident, to trust in something and/or someone, even when unseen. Gravity comes to mind.

Furthermore, it seems that faith is a wonderful gift that God "gives away"--that is, entrusts to us to invest in the things and/or the people we choose. It is our faith to do with what we will.

We can nurture and invest our faith wisely in the things recommended by God, or we can foolishly misappropriate and "shipwreck" our faith. Either way, it is our faith. Thus, when Jesus laments, "O you of little faith", it is not a critique of the quality or quantity of the divine gift, but of the person's misapplication of it.

This is why, throughout the New Testament, those who have experienced the blessings of trusting in the promises of God, exhort us to invest our God-given gift of faith wisely in Jesus. When we do so, generic faith becomes salvific faith--that is, a faith with the power to save.

... "Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved..." (Acts 16:31)

Faith and Power

Throughout the Bible is an unmistakable pattern of faith followed by divine power.

"By faith, Sarah received power to conceive" (Heb 11:11)

"By faith Enoch was taken up so that he should not see death... " (Hebrews 11:5)

"By faith the walls of Jericho fell down... " (Heb 11:30)

Notice the power of faith when Jesus is in view:

• There is spiritual and physical healing: "Take heart, daughter; your faith has made you well." (Matthew 9:22)

• There is justification: God will justify... through faith. (Rom 3:30)

• There is adoption into God's family: for in Christ Jesus you are all children of God, through faith (Galatians 3:26)

And finally,

• There is regeneration: God... cleansed their hearts by faith. (Acts 15:8-9)

Note that in the above verse, regeneration (the cleansing of the heart) was the result of faith, not the other way around.

Dilemma Solved

So, let's connect the dots.

Saving faith is a gift kindled by the word of God/the gospel (Rom 10:17). Faith gives us access to the power of God (Rom 5:2). We receive the Holy Spirit through faith in Jesus (Gal 3:14). The Holy Spirit is the agent of regeneration (Titus 3:5).

This is why we're told, "the outcome of your faith [is the] the salvation of your souls" (1Peter 1:9), and "Your faith has saved you" (Luke 7:50). We're never told, "salvation is the outcome of regeneration", or "regeneration has saved you."

This order of salvation is beautifully expressed in Paul's letter to the Ephesian church.

In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, (Eph 1:13)

Faith precedes regeneration. Always. For everyone.

Why is this important?

Here's how getting the order of salvation wrong leads to a horror and corruption of biblical truth and a sinister defilement of the God of the Bible.

If regeneration produces faith, as some sadly teach, God becomes the reason for unbelief. Every person who dies in unbelief is condemned not because of a misapplication of their faith, but because they were never enabled by God to believe. Simply put, this means that most people were hopelessly doomed by God himself from before they were born. Their very birth is a curse of hopelessness.

Fortunately, the Bible is clear. Faith in Jesus precedes regeneration. If a person dies in unbelief, it's because they simply "refused to love the truth and so be saved" (2 Thes 2:10). That is, they actively rejected the grace provided to them by the God who "wants all to be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth" (1 Tim 2:4).

Final Thoughts

There are no verses in Scripture that tell us that the new birth occurs prior to faith. No one in the Bible is said to have been born of the Spirit/regenerated prior to putting their faith in Jesus.

Regeneration has no power to save. Regeneration does not result in faith; regeneration is a beautiful result of faith.

Faith precedes regeneration. Always. For everyone.

Oh, by the way, about the chicken-and-egg thing? The chicken came first.

Next Post: TBD.