Card of Circumcised Hearts Always the Trump Card

Within the household of God, circumcised foreskins never trump circumcised hearts. If a grazed woodlot is neither good woodlot nor good grazing, the halfway covenant is neither good covenant nor good halfway. The Lutheran priest who promises his baptism or Lord's Supper actually does something, and that something is eternal salvation, is lying through his teeth. Wise souls will run for their lives! (BaylyBlog)

Salvation: Soul Renewal

"By salvation I mean, not barely, according to the vulgar notion, deliverance from hell, or going to heaven; but a present deliverance from sin, a restoration of the soul to its primitive health, its original purity; a recovery of the divine nature; the renewal of our souls after the image of God, in righteousness and true holiness, in justice, mercy and truth" (The Works of John Wesley, Vol. 8, p. 4, as quoted in George G. Hunter III, To Spread the Power: Church Growth in the Wesleyan Spirit, 40-41).

Douglas Wilson: Regeneration

Pastor Douglas Wilson here: "Loving your sin while loving Jesus is an exercise that the Bible calls kidding yourself."

John Piper: Regeneration, Again - "Thrilled and Empowered"

“The new birth enables you to hear Scripture and use Scripture helpfully, redemptively. The new birth doesn’t use the promise “We have an Advocate” to justify an attitude of cavalier indifference to sin. The new birth doesn’t use the warning “No one born of God makes a practice of sinning” to pour gasoline on the fires of despair. The new birth brings a spiritual discernment that senses how to use John’s teachings: The new birth is chastened and sobered by the warnings, and the new birth is thrilled and empowered by the promise of an Advocate and a Propitiation” (John Piper, Finally Alive, 151).

Piper: Regeneration, Again

“The internal call is God’s sovereign, creative, unstoppable voice. It creates what it commands. God speaks not just to the ear and the mind, but he speaks to the heart. His internal heart-call opens the eyes of the blind heart, and opens the ears of the deaf heart, and causes Christ to appear as the supremely valuable person that he really is. So the heart freely and eagerly embraces Christ as the Treasure that he is. That’s what God does when he calls us through the gospel (see 1 Pet. 2:9; 5:10)” (John Piper, Finally Alive, 84).

Piper: Regeneration, Again

Following the heading, “Never Separate the New Birth and Faith in Jesus,” John Piper goes on to say:

The life given in the new birth is the life of faith. The two are never separate. . . . Therefore, when answering the question What happens in the new birth? never separate these two sayings of Jesus in John 3: “Unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God” (v. 3), and, “Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life” (v. 36). What happens in the new birth is the creation of life in union with Christ. And part of how God does that is by the creation of faith, which is how we experience our union with Christ” (John Piper, Finally Alive, 33)

Piper: Regeneration

Some of John Piper’s thoughts on regeneration from Finally Alive:

“The new birth, as you will see, is not a work of man. No human makes the new birth happen. . . . When you are truly born again and grow in the grace and knowledge of what the Lord has done for you, your fellowship with God will be sweet, and your assurance that he is your Father will be deep. I want that for you” (18).

“What is the new brith? That is, what actually happens? What is it like? What changes? What comes into being that wasn’t there before” (19)?

“What happens in the new birth is not getting new religion but getting new life” (28).

“[W]hat happens in the new birth is not merely affirming the supernatural in Jesus but experiencing the supernatural in yourself” (30). . . . He [Holy Spirit] blows where he wills. We don’t control him. He is free and sovereign. He is the immediate cause of the new birth” (31).

“Jesus himself is the life that the Holy Spirit gives. Or we could say: The spiritual life that he gives, he only gives in connection with Jesus. Union with Jesus is where we experience supernatural, spiritual life” (32). See John 14:6.

“So there is no spiritual life—no eternal life—apart from connection with Jesus and belief in Jesus. We will have lots more to say about the relationship between the new birth and faith in Jesus. But we can put it this way for now: In the new birth, the Holy Spirit unites us to Christ in a living union. Christ is life. Christ the vine where life flows. We are the branches (John 15:1-17). What happens in the new birth is the supernatural creation of new spiritual life, and it is created through union with Jesus Christ. The Holy Spirit brings us into vital connection with Christ who is the way, the truth, and the life. That is the objective reality of what happens in the new birth” (32).