Our Footsteps: Regeneration

Thursday, February 26, 2009

Regeneration

I usually don't post blogs in the middle of the night, but tonight I couldn't sleep. We have some guests converging on our house this weekend for a special family event and so we set up a bed in our unfinished basement for me and my wife to sleep in. Sleeping in an unfinished basement is fine with me - I can sleep anywhere. The problem tonight is that our water softener decided it was time to go into its 'regen' mode, which it does on a regular schedule every nine days (or nights).

What is 'regen'? It means 'regeneration'. The system must go through a process of cleaning and rinsing to make the tanks and water lines pristine and like new again. It's quite an impressive setup and it cost me a lot of money. But while I laid there thinking I was never going to get my beauty sleep for tonight, it made me think of the real 'regeneration' that had happened in my own life. Wayne Grudem's Systematic Theology book consisely defines this theological term as "a secret act of God in which he imparts new spiritual life to us. This is sometimes called being 'born again' (using language from John 3:3-8)".

First Corinthians 6:9-11 brings it home: "do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived; neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor homosexuals, nor thieves, nor the covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers, will inherit the kingdom of God. Such were some of you; but you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God." Paul says we were 'washed'. If we're truly Christians, we are 'washed'. Cleaned. Rinsed. The stains removed. Like new. Pristine. Regenerated!

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I Believe...

1). I believe that there is one God. I believe God consists of three persons, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
2). I believe that God is holy, righteous, loving, and just.
3). I believe that mankind is separated from God by sin; that sin entered the world through Adam and death through sin.
4). I believe that, because of sin, man is condemned. Because of God’s utter hatred for sin, there is an eternal conscious punishment in hell for all those who do not come to God on His terms, dealing with their sin.
5). I believe that confessing our sins and confessing Jesus Christ as Lord is the only way to properly deal with the sin that has infected everyone. Jesus Christ paid our sin debt on the cross; reconciliation by substitution. There is nothing we can do to add to the finished work of Christ.
6). I believe in the security of the believer, that once he is truly born-again, there is nothing that would cause him to lose his salvation.
7). I believe that upon the death of a true believer in Christ, that he is ushered immediately into the presence of the Lord, where he will live in everlasting joy in Heaven, experiencing eternal fellowship with God.
8). I believe in believer’s baptism by immersion. I don’t believe baptism is necessary for salvation, but it is a beautiful outward profession of an inward possession.
9). I believe in a literal 6-day creation where God created the heavens and the earth and then rested on the seventh day.
10). I believe that the words written in the Bible are truth. I believe that the Bible is inerrant in its parts and in its whole. I believe that the 66 books that make up the canon of scripture make the Bible complete and that God inspired the words written therein. The things that were written down in the Bible are sufficient for every need we have. Not only is God’s Word sufficient, but it is far superior to any other method of handling the problems that man faces, since He has given us all things pertaining to life and godliness.