Regeneration

Hi,

I have a question regarding receiving the Holy Spirit or regeneration (I believe this is when God's grace falls upon someone so that they are able to believe and receive the Holy Spirit. In scripture, there are implications in multiple passages that it is God who initiates the "rebirth" such as in John 1:12-13 - But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, 13 who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.

Now here is where I get confused. In my personal instance, I grew up going to church as a kid, got baptized, and even did communion BUT I was a kid and didn't understand much. I knew there was a higher power (GOD) and Jesus but that was about it. In my teen/early adult life, I lived life as normal (sinning and not thinking twice about it) and only called out to GOD when I was in trouble or needed something.

Fast forward to the middle of this year and I get hit with guilt like I've never experienced before.....out of nowhere. How can this be? You need to have the Holy Spirit to even be convicted of sin right? How did I get the Holy Spirit if I hadn't took the Christian life seriously my entire life? I have said the sinners prayer before, read a few pamphlets and said I accepted Jesus at one point in my early adult life but still continued on in sin.

I'm puzzled because I thought you had to read the gospels, confess your sins and put your trust in Jesus. My experience wasn't really like this. It was after the conviction (of a particular sin which led to coming clean with other sins) that I repented, asked for forgiveness and decided to learn more about Jesus so that I can put my trust in him and be genuine in my faith. Any thoughts?

Hi,

I have a question regarding receiving the Holy Spirit or regeneration (I believe this is when God's grace falls upon someone so that they are able to believe and receive the Holy Spirit. In scripture, there are implications in multiple passages that it is God who initiates the "rebirth" such as in John 1:12-13 - But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, 13 who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.

Now here is where I get confused. In my personal instance, I grew up going to church as a kid, got baptized, and even did communion BUT I was a kid and didn't understand much. I knew there was a higher power (GOD) and Jesus but that was about it. In my teen/early adult life, I lived life as normal (sinning and not thinking twice about it) and only called out to GOD when I was in trouble or needed something.

Fast forward to the middle of this year and I get hit with guilt like I've never experienced before.....out of nowhere. How can this be? You need to have the Holy Spirit to even be convicted of sin right? How did I get the Holy Spirit if I hadn't took the Christian life seriously my entire life? I have said the sinners prayer before, read a few pamphlets and said I accepted Jesus at one point in my early adult life but still continued on in sin.

I'm puzzled because I thought you had to read the gospels, confess your sins and put your trust in Jesus. My experience wasn't really like this. It was after the conviction (of a particular sin which led to coming clean with other sins) that I repented, asked for forgiveness and decided to learn more about Jesus so that I can put my trust in him and be genuine in my faith. Any thoughts?

Hi,

I have a question regarding receiving the Holy Spirit or regeneration (I believe this is when God's grace falls upon someone so that they are able to believe and receive the Holy Spirit. In scripture, there are implications in multiple passages that it is God who initiates the "rebirth" such as in John 1:12-13 - But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, 13 who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.

Now here is where I get confused. In my personal instance, I grew up going to church as a kid, got baptized, and even did communion BUT I was a kid and didn't understand much. I knew there was a higher power (GOD) and Jesus but that was about it. In my teen/early adult life, I lived life as normal (sinning and not thinking twice about it) and only called out to GOD when I was in trouble or needed something.

Fast forward to the middle of this year and I get hit with guilt like I've never experienced before.....out of nowhere. How can this be? You need to have the Holy Spirit to even be convicted of sin right? How did I get the Holy Spirit if I hadn't took the Christian life seriously my entire life? I have said the sinners prayer before, read a few pamphlets and said I accepted Jesus at one point in my early adult life but still continued on in sin.

I'm puzzled because I thought you had to read the gospels, confess your sins and put your trust in Jesus. My experience wasn't really like this. It was after the conviction (of a particular sin which led to coming clean with other sins) that I repented, asked for forgiveness and decided to learn more about Jesus so that I can put my trust in him and be genuine in my faith. Any thoughts?

As the Lord Jesus said in John 3:3, you must be born again to even see the Kingdom of God (much less enter into it) so, it seems to me anyway, that being born again or quickened/regenerated must occur prior to coming to saving faith (even if it all happens pretty much at the same time), because into what, exactly, would an unbeliever or "natural" man/women be putting their faith in if God had not already quickened them

Hello @Chosen7Saint, mine is a similar story to yours actually. I was baptized as an infant and raised in the church (so to speak). I went to Sunday School through 7th grade, sung in the children's choir, was confirmed, went on some retreats (where I remember being led in a sinner's prayer of sorts), and attended regularly through high school, you know, the whole 9 yards. I enjoyed church, but there was no moment during any of those years when I truly admitted to being a lost sinner and turned my life over to God.

In college (and for the balance of my 20's) I turned away from my upbringing in church and began to live a very fun, fast but progressively more sinful life. Nevertheless, I always believed myself a Christian (why wouldn't I have considering my church background), until the day that I finally became one, that is, 2 months after my 30th birthday. That's when EVERYTHING changed (over 37 years ago now, PTL ).

I had a couple of "dark nights of the soul" along the way, one on my 25th birthday, and the second (far more profound) one, just prior to surrendering my life to the Lord Jesus and finally becoming a believer (over Halloween weekend in 1986).

Like you, I believe that we receive the indwelling of the Holy Spirit when God quickens us/causes us to be born again, and justifies/saves us, which I believe all happens pretty much at the same time typically .. except in the case of a blockhead like myself, that is. In my case, I believe that the Father's drawing of us (John 6:44) is Him quickening us/making us alive (spiritually) so that we can see our sins/sinful lives for what they really are, prior to our coming to saving faith/prior to our receiving the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. See Ezekiel 36:26-27, John 3:3, 5; Ephesians 2:1-5 (especially v4-5).

So, I understand the terms "quicken", "regenerate" and "born again" to mean basically the same thing, as God bringing us from spiritual death to spiritual life for the very first time in our lives, thus giving us the ability to finally understand and receive the (spiritual) truth about our spiritual condition from God (which we could not do as "natural" men/women .. 1 Corinthians 2:14 .. see below).

As the Lord Jesus said in John 3:3, you must be born again to even see the Kingdom of God (much less enter into it) so, it seems to me anyway, that being born again or quickened/regenerated must occur prior to coming to saving faith (even if it all happens pretty much at the same time), because into what, exactly, would an unbeliever or "natural" man/women be putting their faith in if God had not already quickened them

That is my 2 cents anyway.

God bless you!!

~Deuteronomy (David)
p.s. - below you can see the differences between believers (who have been made by God into "spiritual" men/women), and the unsaved (who are "natural" men/women).

Fast forward to the middle of this year and I get hit with guilt like I've never experienced before.....out of nowhere. How can this be? You need to have the Holy Spirit to even be convicted of sin right?

When we are born again, we receive the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, which brings us spiritual faith as one of the Holy Spirit's fruits. The old testament saints were born again with the indwelling of the Holy Spirit in the same manner that the new testament saints are (Isaiah 63:11).

Hello again @Chosen7Saint, part of what I meant to say (in paragraph #4 of my post above) was that I believe that God was at work in my heart years before I finally came to Him in saving faith and believed (IOW, in my case, there may have been a period of time between His quickening of me and my finally trusting Him with my life and coming to saving faith in Him .. though all of this is, of course, conjecture on my part).

So again, like your experience with coming to faith, I was convicted by/felt the nearly unbearable weight of my sins ~prior~ to being indwelt by the Holy Spirit and saved. It was, in fact, my sins (and not knowing what to do about them) that finally drove me to the Savior to find a remedy for them (after hearing the Gospel again from a colleague of mine on Halloween weekend 37 years ago) .. Galatians 3:24.

--David

Hi,

I have a question regarding receiving the Holy Spirit or regeneration (I believe this is when God's grace falls upon someone so that they are able to believe and receive the Holy Spirit. In scripture, there are implications in multiple passages that it is God who initiates the "rebirth" such as in John 1:12-13 - But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, 13 who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.

Now here is where I get confused. In my personal instance, I grew up going to church as a kid, got baptized, and even did communion BUT I was a kid and didn't understand much. I knew there was a higher power (GOD) and Jesus but that was about it. In my teen/early adult life, I lived life as normal (sinning and not thinking twice about it) and only called out to GOD when I was in trouble or needed something.

Fast forward to the middle of this year and I get hit with guilt like I've never experienced before.....out of nowhere. How can this be? You need to have the Holy Spirit to even be convicted of sin right? How did I get the Holy Spirit if I hadn't took the Christian life seriously my entire life? I have said the sinners prayer before, read a few pamphlets and said I accepted Jesus at one point in my early adult life but still continued on in sin.

I'm puzzled because I thought you had to read the gospels, confess your sins and put your trust in Jesus. My experience wasn't really like this. It was after the conviction (of a particular sin which led to coming clean with other sins) that I repented, asked for forgiveness and decided to learn more about Jesus so that I can put my trust in him and be genuine in my faith. Any thoughts?

I am in agreement with your post, but could you explain to me what you mean by "saving grace"?

When we are born again, we receive the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, which brings us spiritual faith as one of the Holy Spirit's fruits. The old testament saints were born again with the indwelling of the Holy Spirit in the same manner that the new testament saints are (Isaiah 63:11).

Whose faith is " the saving faith"? In referencing Gal 3, could it be Jesus's faith, and not our faith?

Nice to see you again, FGC!


Christmas 2023

Hello ForestGreenCook, I don't believe that I mentioned "saving grace" in either one of my posts in this thread (I often refer to "saving faith", as I did here, but only to "saving grace" when I'm talking about the different kinds of grace). Perhaps you meant to ask someone else that particular question?

If you meant it for me, did you want my answer to be in context with something in this thread, or did you simply want my definition or general understanding of the term?

Thanks!

God bless you!!

~Deuteronomy (David)
p.s. - HAPPY NEW YEAR

Hello again ForestGreenCook, no, I believe that when we are talking about "saving faith", we are talking about a particular kind of faith/trust that we come to both possess and then express personally towards the Lord. I believe that this kind of faith is, first and foremost, a "gift" from God .. e.g. Ephesians 2:8, one that we use or exercise when we choose to believe, especially unto salvation (we choose to believe, and it is us doing the believing, just FYI, though such belief would, of course, not be possible apart from the mighty works that the Lord does in us to make it possible .. e.g. Ezekiel 36:26-27; John 3:3; Ephesians 2:1-5 (esp. v4-5).

God bless you!!

--David

Hi,

I have a question regarding receiving the Holy Spirit or regeneration (I believe this is when God's grace falls upon someone so that they are able to believe and receive the Holy Spirit. In scripture, there are implications in multiple passages that it is God who initiates the "rebirth" such as in John 1:12-13 - But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, 13 who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.

Now here is where I get confused. In my personal instance, I grew up going to church as a kid, got baptized, and even did communion BUT I was a kid and didn't understand much. I knew there was a higher power (GOD) and Jesus but that was about it. In my teen/early adult life, I lived life as normal (sinning and not thinking twice about it) and only called out to GOD when I was in trouble or needed something.

Fast forward to the middle of this year and I get hit with guilt like I've never experienced before.....out of nowhere. How can this be? You need to have the Holy Spirit to even be convicted of sin right? How did I get the Holy Spirit if I hadn't took the Christian life seriously my entire life? I have said the sinners prayer before, read a few pamphlets and said I accepted Jesus at one point in my early adult life but still continued on in sin.

I'm puzzled because I thought you had to read the gospels, confess your sins and put your trust in Jesus. My experience wasn't really like this. It was after the conviction (of a particular sin which led to coming clean with other sins) that I repented, asked for forgiveness and decided to learn more about Jesus so that I can put my trust in him and be genuine in my faith. Any thoughts?

Hi,

I have a question regarding receiving the Holy Spirit or regeneration (I believe this is when God's grace falls upon someone so that they are able to believe and receive the Holy Spirit. In scripture, there are implications in multiple passages that it is God who initiates the "rebirth" such as in John 1:12-13 - But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, 13 who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.

Now here is where I get confused. In my personal instance, I grew up going to church as a kid, got baptized, and even did communion BUT I was a kid and didn't understand much. I knew there was a higher power (GOD) and Jesus but that was about it. In my teen/early adult life, I lived life as normal (sinning and not thinking twice about it) and only called out to GOD when I was in trouble or needed something.

Fast forward to the middle of this year and I get hit with guilt like I've never experienced before.....out of nowhere. How can this be? You need to have the Holy Spirit to even be convicted of sin right? How did I get the Holy Spirit if I hadn't took the Christian life seriously my entire life? I have said the sinners prayer before, read a few pamphlets and said I accepted Jesus at one point in my early adult life but still continued on in sin.

I'm puzzled because I thought you had to read the gospels, confess your sins and put your trust in Jesus. My experience wasn't really like this. It was after the conviction (of a particular sin which led to coming clean with other sins) that I repented, asked for forgiveness and decided to learn more about Jesus so that I can put my trust in him and be genuine in my faith. Any thoughts?