Faith Follows Regeneration

David Hegg's review of John Murray's book: "Redemption Accomplished and Applied" "Much confusion has arisen from the fundamental error of assuming that regeneration follows faith; i.e., that the sinner believes, and is consequently rewarded with the new life. Murray ably demonstrates from the biblical text that, in reality, regeneration precedes faith, that new life is imparted sovereignly to the elect, and the immediate consequences are faith and repentance. In my judgment, the unwillingness of so many today to accept the biblical order of regeneration and faith accounts for the widespread compromise of the gospel. If new life is so dependent upon the decision of a sinner's will, then pragmatism makes sense; let's do whatever it takes to get a decision! But if a man is dead - both unwilling and unable to come savingly to Christ or even prepare himself to come - then we dare not mess with the purity of the gospel, for it is the "power of God unto salvation."

R. C. Sproul (1990). "Regeneration precedes faith", Tyndale House

J. I. Packer. "Regeneration", It raises the elect among the spiritually dead to new life in Christ (Eph. 2:1-10). Regeneration is a transition from spiritual death to spiritual life, and conscious, intentional, active faith in Christ is its immediate fruit, not its immediate cause. Regeneration is the work of what Augustine called 'prevenient' grace, the grace that precedes our outgoings of heart toward God.”

John A. Broadus (distinguished professor of New Testament and successor to Boyce at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary): "1. Q. What is meant by the word regeneration? A. Regeneration is God's causing a person to be born again. 9. Q. Does faith come before the new birth? A. No, it is the new heart that truly repents and believes" (taken from Broadus' A Catechism of Bible Teaching, reprinted in A Baptist Treasury, pp. 67-68).

John L. Dagg (first writing Southern Baptist theologian; president of Mercer University in Georgia): "In our natural state we are totally depraved. No inclination to holiness exists in the carnal heart; and no holy act can be performed, or service to God rendered, until the heart is changed. This change, it is the office of the Holy Spirit to effect. . . . But, in his own time and manner, God, the Holy Spirit, makes the word effectual in producing a new affection in the soul: and, when the first movement of love to God exists, the first throb of spiritual life commences" (A Manual of Theology, pp. 277, 279).

B. H. Carroll (founder and first president of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas): "The true scriptural position [concerning regeneration] is this: There is, first of all, a direct influence of the Holy Spirit on the passive spirit of the sinner, quickening him or making him sensitive to the preaching of the Word. In this the sinner is passive. But he is not a subject of the new birth without contrition, repentance and faith. In exercising these he is active. Yet even his contrition is but a response to the Spirit's conviction, and the exercise of his repentance is but a response to the Spirit's conviction, and the exercise of his repentance and faith are but responses to the antecedent spiritual graces of repentance and faith." Carroll goes on to state that "repentance and faith are fruits of regeneration" (An Interpretation of the English Bible, Volume 4, p. 287).

W. T. Conner (professor of Systematic Theology at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary): "This change [i.e., regeneration] is one that is wrought in the moral nature of man by the Spirit of God. Nothing but divine power could produce the change. . . . God's power works this change. . . . The man who experiences regeneration knows as well as he knows daylight from darkness that he himself did not work the change." (The Gospel of Redemption, p. 189)

Tom Schreiner, Professor of New Testament Interpretation at Southern Seminary. "Several texts from 1 John demonstrate that regeneration precedes faith. The texts are as follows: “If you know that he is righteous, you may be sure that everyone who practices righteousness has been born of him” (1 John 2:29). “No one born of God makes a practice of sinning, for God's seed abides in him, and he cannot keep on sinning because he has been born of God” (1 John 3:9). “Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God” (1 John 4:7). “Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God, and everyone who loves the Father loves whomever has been born of him” (1 John 5:1). "

Philip Doddridge, whom some have labelled a "high Calvinist," believed that the new birth was strictly a monergistic event. "In John 3:3, Jesus told Nicodemus, "You must be born again." But how exactly is a person born again, or regenerated? Is it something that man initiates by an act of his own will, or is it something that only God can do in the human heart? Put simply, does regeneration precede or follow faith? "

A. A. Hodge, Outlines of Theology, p. 460. "Conversion follows regeneration and is different from it in the following ways: “Regeneration is God’s act; conversion is ours. Regeneration is the implantation of a gracious principle; conversion is the exercise of that principle. Regeneration is never consciously known by us; conversion is thoroughly a process involving our consciousness. Regeneration is a single act, complete in itself and never repeated; conversion, as the beginning of holy living, is the commencement of a series, constant, endless and progressive”