Regeneration (theology)

Lutheran and Roman Catholic theology holds that "baptism confers cleansing of [original] sin, the infusion of regenerating grace and union with Christ."[10] Official Roman Catholic teaching specifically states that regeneration commences with baptism.[11]

During the period of the Great Awakening, emphasis in Protestant theology began to be placed on regeneration as the starting point of an individual's new life in Christ.[12]

Pelagius believed that people were born pure, with God's spirit already at work, making the need for spiritual regeneration from a previous sinful state irrelevant.[13] Since Pelagius, modernist theology has seen regeneration as more a matter of education than spiritual renewal.[12]

Reformed theology teaches that regeneration precedes faith[14] through the doctrine of Total depravity. Before regeneration a sinner is dead and until the sinner is regenerated and given a new nature, the sinner cannot believe.[15]

Reformed theology characteristically views baptism as an outward sign of God's internal work, as John Calvin stated: “all who are clothed with the righteousness of Christ are at the same time regenerated by the Spirit, and that we have an earnest of this regeneration in baptism.”[16] Regeneration is further described as the "secret operation of the Holy Spirit."[17]

Arminian theology teaches that the first steps are taken by God in the form of prevenient grace.[18] Arminians differ from Calvinists in affirming that God's grace is resistible. "When our wills are freed, we can either accept God’s saving grace in faith or reject it to our own ruin."[19] When someone believes, it is not grace which makes one to differ from another person, but the freed response to exercise faith to accept that grace. According to Classical Arminians if a person is regenerated it is due to that person's response to grace with faith alone; if a person is rejected, it is due to that person's choice alone. Prevenient grace is appropriated or rejected before regeneration; those who do not reject it come into the light by grace in concert with their freed will operating synergistically. After a believer has under the influence of prevenient grace made the faithful decision to follow Christ, God regenerates them spiritually.[20] In contrast to Calvinism, which teaches that regeneration is the decree of God, Arminianism teaches that a sinner must repent and place their faith in Christ as the condition to regeneration and, in this manner, regeneration is by faith, not by decree.

Wesleyan–Arminian theology teaches that the New Birth contains two phases that occur together, justification and regeneration:[3]

Though these two phases of the new birth occur simultaneously, they are, in fact, two separate and distinct acts. Justification is that gracious and judicial act of God whereby a soul is granted complete absolution from all guilt and a full release from the penalty of sin (Romans 3:23-25). This act of divine grace is wrought by faith in the merits of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ (Romans 5:1). Regeneration is the impartation of divine life which is manifested in that radical change in the moral character of man, from the love and life of sin to the love of God and the life of righteousness (2 Corinthians 5:17; 1 Peter 1:23). ―Principles of Faith, Emmanuel Association of Churches[3]

— Guidebook of the Emmanuel Association Churches, pages 7–8

The Central Yearly Meeting of Friends, a Holiness Quaker denomination, teaches that regeneration is the "divine work of initial salvation (Tit. 3:5), or conversion, which involves the accompanying works of justification (Rom. 5:18) and adoption (Rom. 8:15, 16)."[21] In regeneration, which occurs in the New Birth, there is a "transformation in the heart of the believer wherein he finds himself a new creation in Christ (II Cor. 5:17; Col. 1:27)."[21]