Historical Background
John 3 gives the doctrine its name and its abiding image, birth from above by the Spirit like wind. The early church joined the new birth closely to baptism. The Reformers distinguished regeneration from conversion: in Reformed order, regeneration is God's secret, unilateral act that precedes and produces faith; in Wesleyan and revivalist order, the new birth coincides with justifying faith and is witnessed to by the Spirit. Catholic teaching confesses regeneration in baptism, with justification as renewal of the inner person. The Pentecostal movement added a distinct baptism in the Spirit subsequent to the new birth in most of its traditions, an addition the older traditions have not received.
Scripture References
- Ezekiel 36:25-27
- John 3:1-8
- Titus 3:4-7
- 1 Peter 1:3-5
- 1 John 5:1
The Questions
- Does regeneration precede faith, follow it, or coincide with it? Work on this question in the Workshop
- Is baptism the instrument of regeneration, its sign and seal, or its public testimony? Work on this question in the Workshop
- Is the new birth an act completed once, or the beginning of a birth still underway? Work on this question in the Workshop
- How is the new birth known: by its fruits, by the Spirit's witness, or by the church's sacraments? Work on this question in the Workshop
The Positions on This Subject
Classical Arminianism
Since the fall no one can turn to God unaided; prevenient grace goes before every good movement, restoring a measure of freedom so that the gospel call can be answered.
Lutheran
In baptism God himself acts: the washing of regeneration forgives sins, delivers from death and the devil, and gives eternal salvation to all who believe the promise attached to the water.
Baptist and Evangelical
The new birth is God's work in the sinner who repents and believes the gospel; in preaching and in experience it is bound to a definite, personal response to Christ, freely made under grace.
Anabaptist
The new birth is known by its fruits: regeneration produces a visibly changed life in the community, and a baptism without the changed life is water without the Spirit's work.
Charismatic and Pentecostal
The new birth is a definite, datable experience of grace, ordinarily sought and received at the altar in prayer, and known by the believer's own testimony of sins forgiven and life made new.
Objections
Baptismal regeneration is objected to by believers'-baptist traditions on the New Testament pattern of faith preceding baptism and on the many baptized who show no new life. The Reformed order is objected to for placing a divine act before any conscious experience of it, making assurance indirect. Revivalist accounts are objected to for tying the new birth to a datable crisis that many believers cannot produce.
Sources
Primary: Council of Trent, Decree on Justification, Session VI (1547); Westminster Confession of Faith, Chapter X (1646); John Wesley, Sermon 19, 'The Great Privilege of Those That Are Born of God' (1748).
Secondary: Wayne Grudem, Systematic Theology, 2nd ed. (Zondervan Academic, 2020); Karl Barth, Church Dogmatics IV/4, The Doctrine of Reconciliation (German original 1953, published 1969; English 1969).