Argument

"Regeneration is the saving act of our Triune God where he takes hold of the elect yet dead sinner and through the spirit of Christ and infuses him with new life on account of Jesus death and resurrection.... This takes place in the heart" 1 Peter 1:23, "since you have been born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through (dia) the living and abiding word of God;" Thus God plants this seed of rebirth into his elect and through the power of God, calling out to man through his word the man responds.^[1]

1. Regeneration is the work of God through Christ. It makes alive the dead nature of man.
2. Regeneration takes place in mans most inward existence his heart
3. Regeneration precedes any mediate work of God, we are entirely passive. Because without regeneration no one can even see the Kingdom of God
4. Regeneration is then also about implanting new life, that imperishable seed.
5. Therefore: Regeneration is the sprouting forth of the seed in consciousness of the sinner. And this part of regeneration is through (dia) the word of God.
   1. In other words God regenerates the soul of his chosen elect: conception
   2. Through Christ's spirit working through the word a person is further regenerated: from conception to a child.
      1. James 1:18, "Of his own will he brought us forth by the word of truth, that we should be a kind of first fruits of his creatures."

Terms

• Election - before creation God elects his chosen people to be saved in Christ
• Regeneration - The work of God through Christ. It makes alive the dead nature of man.
  • God implants this imperishable seed in his elect.
    • Through God's call - regeneration sprouts, rebirth of mans consciousness
    • Under this view Regeneration becomes broader, similar to how calling becomes broader with its general and effectual.
• Calling - Effectual calling is the outworking of God’s choosing (election) by which the gospel is brought to an individual who then responds in faith.

Confessions

Belgic Confession (BC 24)

• Regeneration in 24 has a broader sense to include sanctification
• hearing (word/call) comes before regeneration
  Canons of Dort CoD 3&4.11, CoD 3&4.12
• In these articles the words “regeneration” and “conversion” are used interchangeably
• Has a 'calling before regeneration' vibe.
  BUT
  BC 14 "Therefore we reject all teaching contrary to this concerning the free will of man, since man is a slave to sin (Jn 8:34) and a person cannot receive even one thing unless it is given him from heaven (Jn 3:27)."
• COD 3/4 art 13, In this life believers cannot fully understand the way in which God does this work. Meanwhile, however, it is enough for them to know and experience that by this grace of God they believe with the heart and love their Savior.
  Perhaps, it is better then to stay broad, as our confessions do, rather than being too rigid in our understanding.

Scripture

• While many scripture do follow the typical call, regeneration formula, there are passages that do not fit as neatly into the typical ordo salutis:

• In this we can see that the opening of heart precedes the call of Paul's message - Berk.
• Greek- we see that the opening from 'o kurios' comes before the spoken word.

Ephesians 2, Peter at the end of ch.1 makes a connection between Christ's death and resurrection to our spiritual resurrection.

• The focus maybe then should be on God's power through Christ in redeeming us, rather than a strict salvific framework, with this passage in mind we could see a more living schema that can shift at time in the heart of God's elect. -
  • Support for this idea: Karl Barth, Sinclair Ferguson, Berkouwer

Response

Hi Reese, thank you for this thesis that helped us dig a bit more into the relation of calling and regeneration and how they fit into the ordo salutis. As such your thesis and defence were clear. I'm thankful that you are feeling increasingly comfortable dealing with these deeper theological topics.

One main weakness in your thesis appears to be a blurring of logical and chronological categories. I say "appears" because at times your comments seemed to keep a proper distinction between the two and at other times it seemed to slip off the radar screen. To be more concrete, the word "preceding" in your thesis is ambiguous. Is that chronologically preceding, or logically preceding? Since ordo salutis presents us with logical connections, that is what we would expect your meaning to be, but by the time you come to your first practical application it sounds much more chronological ("before coming to a church").

This distinction between logical and chronological helps to unravel the problem. Logically speaking,) calling precedes regeneration. The imperishable seed of the Word is what the Spirit of Christ uses to bring forth new life in a sinner (1 Peter 1#22-25; Romans 10#17).

(Chronologically speaking),things are murkier from our human perspective. As you say, perhaps someone who has not yet heard gospel preaching, but based on same event or friendship is "warmer" to the Christian faith than he was one year previous. But is that "warmer" real regeneration or not? Deuteronomy 29#29, that is for God to know, not us.
So, you do well to point out that the ordo salutis does not always work out the same, chronologically and biographically speaking. But in order to explain things clearly, you needed to work with that important distinction all the way through.