CHRISTIAN FOUNDATIONS

 

Repentance & Regeneration

BY

A.M. Hills

 

This short presentation taken from A.M. Hills’ Scriptural Holiness & Keswick Teaching Compared (pp.17-22) is published as a separate book and offered unabridged hopefully as a useful tool for those Christians seeking the full salvation offered by our Lord and to provide some direction in seeking a place of complete rest in HIM.
 

REPENTANCE

One of our greatest American theologians defines repentance as follows:— "Evangelical repentance is called a repentance toward God,’ because it consists in turning from sin TO HOLINESS, implying a sense and hatred of sin and a love of holiness."

This is a most suggestive and Scriptural definition. The Bible pictures of repentance are very striking. One says: "0 my God, I am ashamed and blush to lift up my face to Thee, my God " (Ezra 9. 6).

Another says : "Wherefore, I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes" (Job 42. 6).

Another wrote: "Then shall ye remember your evil ways, and loathe yourselves." (Ezek, 36.31)

Another exclaimed: "For I acknowledge my transgression, and my sin is ever before me." (Ps. 51.3).

Another commanded: "Repent and turn yourselves from your idols, and turn away your faces from all your abominations."

Another wrote: "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us" (1 John 1.9)

Ex. 32.3: "The thief shall make restitution."

These various passages show what Scrip­tural repentance is. It means such an abhorrence of evil, and such a self-loathing on account of it—yea, such a confession of it and a forsaking of it—as implies a real going out of the sin business. God says: "Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts" (Is. 55. 7). "Repent, and turn yourselves from your idols, and turn away your faces from all your abominations."

It is no easy experience. It means a tre­mendous overhauling of the moral life, and a going out of partnership with Satan and sin. It implies making confession to God and men, a thorough righting of wrongs, and a change of front of the spiritual being. He who con­sented to sin, and pursued after it and revelled in it, now abhors that wicked past from his inmost soul, and turns himself in the opposite direction towards God and holiness.

It is safe to say that a person who has passed through such an experience thoroughly will not again trifle carelessly with sin. Neither will he speak lightly of holiness. Above all, he will not oppose holiness. He will instinctively feel that it would be a help to him. He would welcome it as a God-send, or anything else that would hold him back from the repetition of his wretched sins.

WHAT IS REGENERATION ?

The following definition of regeneration is taken from a Methodist Theology widely used in the United States. It is the belief and teaching of our preachers of holiness :—

　"Regeneration is that moral change in man wrought by the Holy Spirit, by which he is saved from the love of sin, the practice of sin, and the dominion of sin, and is enabled, with full choice of will and the energy of right affections, to love God and to keep His commandments."

It will be seen from the above definition that regeneration is not

(a) The result of water-baptism, nor is it caused by it.

(b) It is not a mere reformation wrought by the human will. It is the work of God.

In regeneration, through the Holy Spirit’s influence, there is the constitution of a new and holy choice which leads to a new charac­ter, loyal to God and duty.

He who is regenerated no longer loves sin, and no longer knowingly commits it. He obeys the known will of God, and keeps pace with the light given to his soul. To refuse to do so would be to forfeit his grace and lose his experience.

"Whosoever is begotten of God doeth no sin, because His seed abideth in him, and he cannot sin (and still keep regenerated) be­cause he is begotten of God "(1 John 3. 9). The literal meaning of the Greek tenses is: "He that hath been born of God, and con­tinues to be so, is not doing sin."

We can explain it in this simple way. A total abstainer cannot get drunk and still be a total abstainer. An honest man cannot con­stantly steal and retain his honesty. A truth­ful man cannot practice lying and retain his truthfulness. And so, says God, a regener­ated person cannot commit sin and retain His grace. The new birth goes entirely against sin. The experience commits a man against practicing sin, and lifts him spiritually above the sin level.

We have to surrender all known sin to get born of God, and it costs the same to keep the experience. When, under the convicting influence of the Spirit of God, we repented and sought regeneration, we gave up expecting to sin. We wanted to be done with all rebel­lion against our Heavenly Father. We did give it up in our purpose, once and for all.

Now, notice that thereafter the whole moral attitude of a true child of God will be changed. He hates what he once loved, and loves what he once hated. When a man becomes converted the on looking world expects a change in him, and it has a right to. As a child advertises his family and resembles his parent, so to be born of God is to resemble God in all that is visible to men—the outward life. When a man who professes to be a Christian wantonly sins, people are both hor­rified and disgusted. It is the instinctive judgment of people that his life is inconsistent with his profession. The cold, critical world expects Christians to live without committing sin, and sneers at them if they do not.

Notice further: "Whosoever abideth in Him sinneth not" (1 John 3. 6). "Whoso­ever is begotten of God doeth no sin, because His seed abideth in him: and he cannot sin, because he is begotten of God" (verse 9).

In other words, while the regeneration seed remains in a soul, his antagonism to sin keeps up. "He cannot sin": it is not a natural "cannot," but a moral "cannot." While the principle of honesty remains in a man he cannot be dishonest; he must first surrender his principle before he can cheat his neigh­bour. So the first wilful sin unjustifies us, and the seed of regeneration is taken away. Before we can consent to the evil deed we must previously surrender our saving grace. When we are below "not committing sin," we are living below a Christian experience.

(1) It follows from the above that there is no such thing as habitually sinning Chris­tians. There is an old catechism that asks: "Is any man able perfectly to keep the commandments of God?" It answers: "No man is able, either of himself or by any grace received in this life, to keep the commandments of God, but doth daily break them in thought, word and deed."

Dr. Adam Clarke remarks upon this mon­strous statement: "The devil cannot sin daily in more ways than that." A friend of mine, one of our holiness evangelists, pertinently asks: "If a Christian can sin daily in thought, word, and deed, and go to heaven, what would one have to do to go to hell ?"

The only answer we need to give to such a creed-statement as that is the oath of God Almighty: "The oath which He sware unto Abraham our father, to grant unto us that we, being delivered out of the hand of our enemies, should serve Him without fear, in holiness and righteousness before Him all our days" (Luke 1. 73-75). Evidently God never planned for a species of "sinning Christians" in His economy of grace. He plainly tells us that while we keep our regenerating grace we will not, cannot sin.

(2) It follows further that a justified and regenerated man is under obligation to live just as well outwardly as a sanctified or holy man. There are no two standards of living. Perfect obedience to all known duty is the standard for every moral being in the universe. God cannot tolerate sinning in anyone. We must each walk in whatever light we have, and obey God. A sanctified man can do no more outwardly, and a justified, regenerated man can do no less, and keep saved.

I may observe in closing that this out­ward obedience to the known will of God is what some teachers hold up as the EXPERI­ENCE OF HOLINESS. The whole drift of their sermons shows that this is their conception of it. But this is not the teaching of Scripture.

Obedience to God in outward conduct is refraining from actual sin, voluntary sin, the first form of sin. But that is not Bible holiness or sanctification. By itself it is only the experience of justification and regeneration.