Regeneration According To Romans 8

Where does the Bible teach we are to believe in order to be regenerate? Nowhere.  

The Bible teaches that regeneration precedes saving repentance and saving faith.  People are not able to do anything good accompanying their salvation.  

Romans 8: For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. 6 For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace. 7 For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God's law; indeed, it cannot. 8 Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.

Question: Does exercising saving repentance and faith please God?  Of course it does.  It would be foolish to say otherwise.

Romans 8: You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him. 10 But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness

Exposition:  In the previous paragraph, Paul explicitly stated that those people who are in the flesh are not able to please God. 

Here, Paul writes that people who have the Spirit of God dwelling in them - I personally like to use the term “tabernacling,” with them - are not in the flesh.

Those in the flesh are people who do not have the Spirit dwelling in them.  In addition, they are not able to please God.  Therefore, they are not able to exercise saving repentance and faith, which please God.  In short, they are unable to correctly, from a right motive, obey God’s command to repent and lay down their works righteousness and cling to the LORD and His mercy and promises to save us. 

By way of contrast, Paul uses the language of tabernacling (indwelling) to describe people who are not in the flesh.  People who are not in the flesh are able to please God.  They are people who belong to Christ, and they have the Spirit who is (and who gives) life because of righteousness.  These people are able to obey the Gospel command to repent and believe, and they do so because they have the Spirit in them.

Romans 8 is clear that unregenerate people - people in the flesh - are not able to obey the Gospel call.  Those who are regenerate can do so, because they are not in the flesh.  They have the Spirit of God tabernacling in and with them.  They are able to obey the Gospel call. 

1. To have the Spirit tabernacling with you is to be “no longer in the flesh.”  

2. To be in the flesh is to not have the Spirit of God in you.

3. To be in the flesh is to be unable to submit to God’s law the way God requires.  At best, you can do civil obedience but not salvific obedience.  

4. Ergo, In order to salvifically, not merely civilly, submit to the moral law of God, one must not be in the flesh.  

5. With respect to regeneration, to be unregenerate is not be in the flesh is to be regenerate.  Unregenerate people are, by definition, in the flesh. 

6. The Gospel is delivered to us as a command to lay down our works righteousness and turn to the LORD, who is the one who gives life, for our deliverance from sin’s penalty, power, and presence. 

Complying with this command in a manner that is not merely civil is what God requires of us, and this pleases God.   To morally please God, you must totally & perfectly love God first then all others, then yourself— but those in the flesh reflexive love themselves first, which is why they cannot morally please God. 

7.  In order to comply with the moral law of God, we must have the Spirit of God tabernacling with and in us, in order for our minds to no longer be “in the flesh.” 

8. To be in the Spirit and not in the flesh is to have the Spirit of God dwelling in you and therefore have a mind that is able to salvifically submit to God’s moral law which includes the command to lay down your works righteousness and turn to the LORD.  

9. Therefore, regeneration necessarily precedes the ability to salvifically repent and trust in God’s covenantal mercy.

O LORD, Hear Our Prayer(s)!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Favorite Fallacies & Homosexuality

Thesis - The tradition bound view on homosexuality commits a number of logical, epistemic, & exegetical fallacies.  1-  Is - Ought Fallacy  - Human anatomy is said to provide    a blueprint for sexual ethics.  We examined this in my previous article.  A moral “ought” is derived from a physical “is.”  The disputant makes an illicit leap from what is to what ought to be. A classic example is the way some homosexuals defend their sexual ethics by appealing to their biology/genetics.  2 -  Vicious Circularity   - Human anatomy & physiology are raised to the status due a non-arbitrary epistemic warrant.    A non-arbitrary epistemic warrant must be necessary, reasoned, & principled.  In truth, the body is unnecessary to deduce sexual ethics. By way of contrast, God’s nature is definitionally necessary, insofar as God is a necessary being, &, since God is infinite, eternal, & unchangeable in being, w...
Read more

Romans 1:18 - 32 & Leviticus 18

  Paul is following the basic outline of a suzerain covenant in general     & the outline of Lev. 18 in particular.   Shema & Decalogue (Rom. 1:18 - 20)   God’s Image testifies to His attributes & Law.    God created people. His temple bears His Image & runs according to his Law & Gospel.    This corresponds to Lev. 18 : 1 & 2. A - Rom.    1:18 - 19.  God’s wrath falls on those who suppress His image.   B - Rom 1:20  - For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made so that people are without excuse.  What is the teleological intent of the created order?    To serve as an epistemic warrant on par with God Himself? No!  It’s purpose is to serve as a pointer to God who is Himself the only sufficient epistemic warrant for all faith & practice....
Read more

Covenant Theology In Outline Form (Part 11)

Isaiah 6:1- 13 Shema   In the year that King Uzziah died I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up; and the train of his robe filled the temple. Above him stood the seraphim. Each had six wings: with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. And one called to another and said: “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory!” And the foundations of the thresholds shook at the voice of him who called, and the house was filled with smoke. Historical Prologue   And the foundations of the thresholds shook at the voice of him who called, and the house was filled with smoke. And I said: “Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the  Lord  of hosts!” Then one of the seraphim flew to me, having in his hand a burning coal that he had taken with tongs from the altar. And he touched my mouth and...
Read more