Meaning of REGENERATION

(gr. "palingenesis").
Regeneration or new birth is the change of nature produced by the Holy Spirit in man, to whom he communicates new life.

Justification changes man's situation before God: he is declared righteous, and no longer considered a sinner; regeneration transforms his moral and spiritual being.

The first is necessary because of his guilt; the second, because of his corruption. The natural man is dead in his trespasses and sins (Eph. 2:1).

He cannot receive or know the things of the Spirit of God (1 Cor. 2:14). He can neither see the Kingdom of God nor enter it (John 3:3, 5). For this, it is necessary that he be born again, not of the flesh, but of God (John 3: 6-8).

John insists on the fact that “everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God” (1 John 5:1); Furthermore, he is no longer a son of the devil, but of God (1 Jn. 3: 8-10); having passed from death to life, he can love his brothers (1 Jn. 3:14; 4:7).

The Lord creates in him a new man (Eph. 4:22-24; Col. 3:9-10); makes him a new creature (2 Cor. 5:17), communicating to him a new nature. The believer is thus resurrected spiritually with Christ, who lives in Him by the Spirit, allowing him to live for his glory (Rom. 6:4-11; 8:9; Gal. 5:16, 22-25).

The factors of regeneration, as given in the Scriptures, are the following:

(a) The living and permanent Word of God acts in many as a seed of life (1 Pet. 1:23; cf. Rom. 10:17).

(b) The miraculous work of the Holy Spirit resurrects us spiritually (Tit. 3:5; Jn. 3:5-8). This work is instantaneous, like physical birth, even if the conversion (which is its result) is less so (see CONVERSION).

(c) Having received the Word of God and accepted the convicting work of the Holy Spirit, faith is placed from the heart in Jesus Christ. From there, he “has eternal life; and he will not come into condemnation, but he has passed from death to life” (John 5:24).

Baptismal regeneration is the teaching of the Church of Rome and those confessions that participate in its ritualistic-sacramental conception.

According to this teaching, baptism is the effective cause of regeneration in a miraculous way, and children who die without baptism cannot enter Paradise. It is in this way that the passage from Jn is misinterpreted. 3:3-5.

However, everything that has been explained about the role of the Word of God, the Holy Spirit, and faith shows the error of such an interpretation.

In reality it is not the baptism of water that regenerates the one who hears with faith; Water baptism is the symbol and testimony of this reality, and the incorporation into the corporate testimony of the Church in its external aspect.