Church: Reformed Baptist Church of Franconia | Text: 1 Peter 1 | Date: April 24, 2022 | Speaker: Fred Zaspel

But what we will do then is next month I begin again in the morning series on the doctrine of salvation. We will do that this morning as well. 1 Peter chapter 1, and we will—we handled this morning the doctrine of regeneration, but this is part two. You’ll remember last time we looked at that from 2 Corinthians chapter 4.

To put things in perspective, we have looked at redemption planned: God planning this program of redemption, determining whom he would save, and determining how it would happen in setting this program of salvation in order to his glory. And then we looked at not just redemption planned, but we saw redemption accomplished. And there we started with God the Father sending his Son to accomplish the salvation of those people whom he has chosen. And then we spent a good while trying to unpack the significance of Christ’s saving work in his death and resurrection. We followed that through to his ascension to heaven, and the transition is made now with his ascension to the throne of heaven. Sending his Spirit to the earth, the transition is made to now redemption applied.

This salvation that Christ has accomplished for us in fulfillment of God’s eternal plan now is applied to each of us individually in our own experience. We’ve seen that in terms of the coming of the Spirit broadly, and now we’re looking at some of the particulars in that regard. We last time looked at the doctrine of regeneration. We saw it in 2 Corinthians chapter 4 in relation to the metaphor of illumination: God turning the lights on, as it were. The God who caused light to shine out of darkness has shined in our hearts to make us see the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. Illuminating work and enabling us to see Christ as we had not seen him before.

Today now with the Doctrine of Regeneration Part 2, I’d like to unpack that a little further, and we have some particulars regarding the Doctrine of Regeneration in 1 Peter chapter 1. I want to take time to read through the entire chapter. Our focus will be on verses 3 and then 22 and 23, but I’d like to see it in its context here, beginning with verse 1.

Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to those who are elect exiles of the dispersion in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, Bithynia, according to the foreknowledge of God the Father in the sanctification of the Spirit, for obedience to Jesus Christ and for sprinkling with his blood. May grace and peace be multiplied to you.

Blessed be the God and Father of the Lord Jesus Christ. According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who by God’s power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. In this you rejoice, though now for a little while if necessary you have been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of your faith, more precious than gold that perishes, though it is tested by fire, may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.

Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see Him, you believe in Him and rejoice in Him that is inexpressible and filled with glory, obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your soul. Concerning this salvation, the prophets who prophesied about the grace that was to be yours searched and inquired carefully, inquiring what person or time the Spirit of Christ in them was indicating when he predicted the sufferings of Christ and the subsequent glories. It was revealed to them that they were serving not themselves, but you, in the things that have now been announced to you through those who preach the good news to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven, things into which angels long to look.

Therefore, preparing your minds for action and being sober-minded, put your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance, but as he who called you is holy, so also be holy in your conduct. Since it is written, “You shall be holy, for I am holy.”

If you call on him as father who judges impartially according to each one’s deeds, conduct yourselves with fear throughout the time of your exile, knowing that you were ransomed from the futile way inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot. He was foreknown before the foundation of the world—there’s redemption planned—but was made manifest in the last times for your sake. There’s redemption accomplished. Who through him are believers in God, who raised him from the dead and gave him glory so that your faith and hope are in God.

Having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth for a sincere brotherly love, love one another earnestly from a pure heart since you have been born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable through the living and abiding word of God. For all flesh is like grass, and all its glory like the flower of the grass. The grass withers and the flower falls, but the word of the Lord remains forever. And this word is the good news that was preached to you.

Let’s bow for prayer. Our Father, as we look into this marvelous, wonderful subject of regeneration, we pray that you would search the hearts of every one of us as we hear. Help us to see, on the one hand, the great renewal of which this doctrine speaks. And may it, Lord, be the experience of every one of us. If there is anyone here who is lost, does not know this life-changing experience, this renewal by the Holy Spirit, Father, make this the time. Pursue your word, we pray, and encourage the hearts of your people. In Jesus’ name, amen.

The message of First Peter, in large part, is that of an exhortation to faithfulness in suffering. He’s written, as he says in these opening verses, to Christians in exile. He uses the terminology of the dispersion. These are believing Jews who are out in other areas; they have suffered persecution because of the gospel, and Peter writes to encourage them. And as a brief overview here of chapter 1, we have in chapter 1 what is something of foundational to the rest of his letter. It’s an overview as the Apostles often do in their letters. They begin with an overview that surveys the benefits of salvation in Christ. And that’s what Peter does for us largely here in chapter 1.

In verses 1 and 2, he reminds us that we are elect, that we are set apart by the Spirit to Christ and to the benefits of his work. Verses 3 and 4 use the new birth language. We’re born to privilege. That’s his point there. We are born to privilege. We have an inheritance, born to this inheritance that’s imperishable, preserved for us in heaven. Verse 5, we’re preserved in Christ. We’re kept by faith through the power of God. Verses 6 and following then, we have this explained to us as the ground of our sustaining joy, even in suffering and in trials. Verses 10 to 12 is a fascinating passage where he speaks of the prophets foretelling this day that you now enjoy. They searched it diligently, wondering of the details that now you understand in Christ and the full revelation that you have in him.

Verse 13 then is something of a turn in the passage with the “therefore.” And so, verses 13 and following, then he builds on this brief exposition of our benefits in Christ to an exhortation, a call to faithfulness. Be faithful in suffering and in your persecution. Verses 18 and following is a reminder that we belong to Christ by way of redemption. He has bought us with his own blood and we are his. And there’s an encouragement there for us to remember that in our persecution. And then verses 23 and following, again this new birth language is brought up. It’s the ground of exhortation to faithfulness. Because you’ve been born again, love one another, pursue godliness, and so on. And we’ll see that more in a moment.

Well, as often as we find in the New Testament, what Peter’s doing here is he’s seeking to relate the experience of today in light of the big picture: who we are, the privileges we have in Christ, and the blessings that we enjoy, and using that as the foundation of his exhortation that comes. So because we have these great blessings in Christ, then he says, because of that, pursue godliness, pursue faithfulness, even in trial and in persecution. So he’s urging you people, he says, that have been chosen. You’ve been sanctified. You’ve been set apart by the Spirit. You’ve been given new life and renewal by the Spirit of God. You have this great hope of inheritance. You people, of all, should be faithful. Remember these things and pursue godliness and persevere. You’re kept, you’re preserved by the power of God until that day. Be faithful in light of it all.

Well, that’s just a brief thumbnail sketch then of chapter 1. Our topic is the topic of regeneration. It’s mentioned specifically in verses 3 and 4, and then verses 22 and 23. Let’s look at that again. Verse 3: “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who by God’s power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.” So verse 3, we’re born again, caused to be born again to this great hope through the resurrection of Christ, and that according to God’s mercy.

Then in verses 22 and 23: “Having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth for a sincere brotherly love, love one another earnestly from a pure heart, since you have been born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable through the living and abiding word of God.” All right, this then is our doctrine of regeneration in this passage. “Born again” is the word that’s used here in verse 3. Obviously a metaphor. It’s speaking of that radical change of renewal that the Spirit of God works in his people, that deep radical transformation of who we are. It can be likened to being born again: starting over, a new start, a renewal, reshaped as it were. It has to do with the reversal of the effects of sin that we have as a result of the fall of Adam. We talked about that this morning and last Sunday morning in Sunday school: that in Adam we are morally corrupt. There’s this doctrine of original sin, but now in the doctrine of regeneration there is a reversal of that, and God is at work to renew us. And the metaphor that’s used here is that of being born again—a new start. It’s like starting all over again, and the term that’s used here is actually a technical term; it means to cause to be born again. We’ll talk about more of that in a minute.

There are other metaphors that are used for this doctrine of regeneration in the New Testament. We saw one last week, or last time, and that is the metaphor of illumination. God turns the lights on as it were. That’s 2nd Corinthians chapter 4. In other places we have him speaking of being recreated in Christ. In other places he speaks of being raised from the dead in Christ. In other places we find him speaking of a new heart: taking out the stony heart, putting in a new heart. All of these metaphors come together to speak of this grand renewal that God does in our souls, remaking us, as it were, in Christ. It’s the supernatural work of the Spirit of God reversing the debilitating effects of sin in us.

So here we are talking now not of our objective standing before God legally or judicially, being condemned before God. Here it’s speaking in terms of our moral state, our condition in sin, morally corrupt, twisted because of the effects of sin. And that moral corruption here is reversed in the doctrine of regeneration or the experience of regeneration: the renewing work of the Holy Spirit reversing the debilitating effects of sin. It results in a new disposition on our part, a new outlook on our part, new affections on our part, new ambitions, a whole new outlook on life, a new view of Christ as we saw last time, a new view of ourselves. In short, this renewing work or this begetting again, being born again, in this experience, the governing disposition of our soul is radically transformed from that of one that is oriented to sin and rebellion to one that is oriented to God and to Christ and to holiness. It’s like being born all over again. That’s the metaphor.

Now in 1 Peter 1, we have for us in these verses that I’ve mentioned in particular, verses 3 and 4 and verses 22 and 23, four very important statements about the nature of regeneration, and that’ll be the outline for the sermon.

Number One, Regeneration Is According To Divine Mercy

That’s what he says. “According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.” Regeneration then is according to divine mercy. What we have here in this verse is not so much instruction on the doctrine of regeneration, although it is that, but it’s not so much formal instruction as it is a doxology—a praise to God for what he has done for us. “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.” Why should we praise God here? The answer is: he has, according to his mercy, caused us to be born again. That is to say, it’s thoroughly from his side. It is according to his mercy.

Regeneration is a one-sided action. We bear the consequences of it. God does all of the work of regeneration. Regeneration is not our turning over a new leaf. It is not our reforming ourselves. It results in that, but regeneration is something basic to that. It is God’s work of mercy, God taking the initiative, radically transforming us from our souls inside to out. Let’s emphasize actually further in the term that’s used here. It’s not the usual term for “born again” here, but it’s actually a technical term; it means to cause to be born again. It’s the way you have it translated in the ESV that you have in front of you. If you have the NIV, it smooths it out a little bit, says “he’s given us the new birth.” But the point here is that it points to the divine initiative. He’s caused us to be born again. It’s a rather odd way of speaking, but it’s emphasizing the divine initiative in regeneration. This is God’s work in us. It comes from his side. We are born anew, but the point is he caused it to happen. It’s the father’s activity that’s being pointed to here in the producing of children. It’s actually a medical term. And we’re begotten by this by an imperishable seed.

So God’s initiative in giving us spiritual life is the point here. Regeneration is altogether one-sided. It’s not the result of something we do. It’s not the result of a decision we make. It results in a decision that we make endlessly. It’s not the result of anything on our side. It’s a work of God himself, who according to his mercy, he changes us from the inside out. All right, we saw more of that last time, and we saw how that explains for us the surprising nature of our conversion. We’ll look at the doctrine of conversion later. This is what explains the surprising nature of our conversion. God comes, often wholly unexpected. He just comes and works mysteriously in us, and according to his mercy, transforms us from the inside out. So number one: regeneration is according to God’s mercy.

Number Two, Regeneration Is Through The Resurrection Of Christ From The Dead

We see that again in verse three. “He has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.” We have seen before when we looked at redemption accomplished, we examined the resurrection of Christ and its implications for our salvation. That in his resurrection Christ has died for sins and now God raises him from the dead in vindication. And we saw that at some length that our resurrection is tied to Christ. We saw in that as well the importance of the doctrine of union with Christ. Joined to Christ by faith, we participate in all that he accomplished in his saving work. He is raised from the dead. Not only does that mean that we share in his vindication in his resurrection, but we too share in his resurrection and we will be raised bodily from the dead as well because we are joined to Christ.

Now the significant thing here is that when Jesus Christ was raised from the dead, it was not like when Lazarus was raised from the dead or any of the other resuscitations that we find in the scriptures. Christ raised some from the dead. Some of the prophets in the Old Testament raised some from the dead. For each of them, they died again. They were raised to this mortal life. In Jesus’ resurrection, though, he is raised to the age to come. That’s foundational to Paul’s argument in 1 Corinthians chapter 15, that Jesus Christ has been raised to that age to come, that hope of resurrection throughout the Old Testament, anticipating a time when in the day of the Messiah, the righteous would be raised from the dead and they would be vindicated before the world and enjoy life eternal. And that expression, “eternal life,” becomes tied to that resurrection state in the age to come. Jesus was the first to enter that resurrection. He has been raised to the age to come.

And now what he is saying here is that our regeneration is tied to our experience with Christ in his resurrection. In other words, our regeneration is something like a preliminary experience of our bodily resurrection to the age to come. In that day, in the day of resurrection, there will be no sin. The righteous will shine like the stars forever and ever, Daniel tells us. In that day, in the day of resurrection and the age to come, there’ll be no more sin and we’ll be redeemed body and soul. And what he is telling us here is that our regeneration is a preliminary experience of our participation with Christ in his resurrection. We have been—what does he say in verse three?—”He’s caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.”

So Christ then, the pioneer of our faith, as we saw in redemption accomplished, he’s the forerunner, the one who goes before, but he doesn’t just go on his own. All that he does, he takes us with him. And now individually in experience, as we are united to Christ, we participate in all that he accomplished. Now to be sure, the fullness of that experience is yet to come in bodily resurrection. But already he is saying here our regeneration, being born again through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, we are participating with Christ in his resurrection. If you’d like to see it, look over at—keep your hand here, we’ll be back—but look at Ephesians chapter two. Paul uses this metaphor here as well. In the opening verses, you remember, we saw this passage not long ago. In the opening verses, he’s speaking of our condition in Adam: we’re dead in trespasses and sins and living accordingly, following Satan and living like it. And then verses 4 and 5 turn the corner: “But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved—and raised us up with him.” Notice, not just raised us up, but raised us up with him, and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.

So God has raised us already. This is a preliminary experience of resurrection in Christ. Now it’s interesting here because Paul’s outlook here, like Peter’s in 1 Peter chapter 1, is that while we were dead in trespasses and sins—while we were in that state—God made us alive together with Christ. By grace you have been saved. And so he’s pointing back to the historical event of Christ’s resurrection. And this is important to recognize. The historical event of Christ’s resurrection becomes our own experience individually as we are united to Christ. So here, 2,000 years ago, Christ was raised from the dead into the age to come. And now individually, each of us, in experience, as we come into union with Christ, we experience that resurrection with him. Now there’s more to come. There’ll be the bodily resurrection in the end. But already, the inner man, we have encountered the age to come.

Now if that’s the case, that our regeneration—this renewal that we’ve experienced—is in fact our experience of the resurrection of Jesus, being joined to him, if that’s the case, then it has massive implications with regard to the security of the believer. We have already entered that age to come. We have already been raised from the dead in that resurrection of vindication. Jesus speaks like this several times in the Gospel of John, the whole emphasis in the Gospel of John on eternal life has this eschatological significance. Eternal life, that’s the life of the age to come. That’s the life of the resurrection. And Jesus emphasized over and again that, one, in him you have eternal life, and two, in him you have eternal life here and now. That we’ve already passed from death into life when we are in Christ. And so Jesus tells us over and again that joined to him by faith, we have already passed out of that state of death into the life of resurrection and eternal life. John 5:24: “Whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death into life.”

Well, we have a hint of that if you go back to 1 Peter chapter 1. We have a hint of that here as well in verses 3 and 4. “He has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, unfading, kept in heaven for you.” So his point here is that regeneration, and in that regeneration is a participation with Christ in his resurrection, we have already entered in past the goal line. There’s more to come. There’ll be the resurrection of the body and the full experience of this renewal. But already, we are there. All right. Regeneration then is according to mercy. Number two, regeneration is through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. It is a participation with Christ in his resurrection. And now, number three.

Number Three, Regeneration Is Through The Gospel

Now we go to verses 22 and 23. “Having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth for a sincere brotherly love, love one another earnestly from a pure heart, since you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God.” You have been born again through the living and abiding word of God. Regeneration is by means of the gospel.

Now here we look at some multiple causes of resurrection. On the one hand, regeneration is because of God’s mercy. It traces back to that. In its efficient cause, regeneration is the work of the Spirit of God in us. But the instrumental means that he uses in bringing us to life, he says, is the living and abiding Word of God. That is, regeneration comes by means of the gospel. Now if you pardon me for just a minute, I want to emphasize this just for the record, that there are some what I would classify as hyper-Calvinists who deny exactly this point that Peter makes here. There’s a doctrine that the high Calvinists have of what’s called immediate regeneration. And the idea of immediate regeneration is that God regenerates apart from any mediating instrumental means. And that is, God brings regeneration apart from the gospel. So, a regenerate person might be regenerate and not know it. He might not have ever heard the gospel, but he’s regenerate, and someday when he hears the gospel, he’ll be converted. In regeneration, passages like this that speak of the instrumentality of the gospel, the high Calvinist will refer this not to regeneration, but to conversion—our response to the gospel when we hear it. But a person, according to that doctrine of immediate regeneration—I’ve spoken to several—he said, “I think I was born again three, four years before I ever came to Christ.”

Well, there’s several problems with that, and I’m gonna mention two. Number one, that view of immediate regeneration is clearly not in keeping with what is affirmed here in passages like this. We are born again, caused to be born again, through the living and abiding Word of God. I don’t know how it could be stated any more plainly that regeneration comes by means of the gospel. You can see how a doctrine like this would tie into a hyper-Calvinist refusal to witness and so on. Why witness? God does it without the gospel. He affirms for us here that regeneration is through the gospel. We have other passages like this in the New Testament. I could take another half hour examining them with you. One example, 2 Thessalonians 2, verses 13 and 14: “called through the gospel.” We are called through the gospel. James 1, verse 18: “of his own will he brought us forth by the word of truth.” And we find that here in 1 Peter 1:23: “you’ve been born again through the living and abiding Word of God.”

The other problem with that doctrine of immediate regeneration is that there is nothing in the Bible, there is no such thing as spiritual life apart from faith in Christ. There is no spiritual life apart from faith in Christ, which is why then regeneration comes by means of the gospel. You’ve been born again through the living and abiding Word of God. That is, the means of giving life is the gospel that we hear. The Bible knows nothing of a regenerate unbeliever. That would be a monstrosity.

Now, I should point out in relation to that, though, that we Reformed types love to insist that regeneration precedes faith. Now, follow me with this. Regeneration precedes faith. I think we have that here in verses 22 and 23: “Having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth”—that is faith, that’s conversion—”since” or “because you have been born again.” We have responded in faith because we have been caused to be born again. So it’s important to affirm this not only to preserve the Bible’s emphasis on divine initiative in salvation and giving us enablement to believe in faith as a gift of God, repentance as a gift of God, but it’s also important to emphasize with that that there is no—when we say that regeneration precedes faith, we’re not talking about some time gap between them. So he’s been born again, and sometime later he comes to faith.

And I like to illustrate it a couple of different ways. Some of you, like we do, enjoy going to the shooting range, and you send the target downrange. If you’re lazy like us, you go to one where you pay to press the button and it goes down and you’ve got a target in there and you aim up your gun and you shoot and you aim for the bullseye and you press the button and the target comes back to you and you look at the little holes in the target and see how well you’ve done or what kind of group you might have. What comes first, the bullet or the hole? Well, there is certainly a way where you can—a sense in which you have to say the bullet came first. But the fact of the matter is, you can’t have the one without the other, right? And I think that’s something like what happens in regeneration. God comes and gives life, but he does it by means of the Word of God, the gospel, to which we respond in faith. Or if you light a fire, which comes first: the fire, the light, or the heat? They’re all of a piece. And so while we must insist that the regeneration precedes faith in the causative sense, you cannot have one without the other. All right, well, that’s a digression, but I wanted to have that clarified for the record that regeneration is necessary. This is God’s enablement of us to believe, but he does so by means of the gospel. And here is the importance then of Christian witness in proclaiming the gospel. Now then, one more. Regeneration is according to mercy. Number two, regeneration is through the resurrection of Christ from the dead. Number three, regeneration is through the living and abiding word of God. It’s through the gospel. And now number four.

Number Four, Regeneration Results In Life Transformation

Regeneration results in life transformation. Verse 22: “Having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth for a sincere brotherly love, love one another earnestly from a pure heart since” or “because you have been born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable through the living and abiding word of God.” Notice it again, the exhortation at verse 22: “Love one another earnestly, with a pure heart.” Why? Because you have been born again. So the exhortation, the imperative, rests on the reality of what God has done in us. An implicate of regeneration is transformation of life. The consequence of God’s renewing work is that we come to God in faith and we pursue holiness. Here, particularly, he speaks of it in terms of brotherly love. That is to say there are evidences of regeneration.

So the goal or the purpose—that’s what it’s speaking of here in verses 22 and 23—the goal or the purpose of regeneration is transformation of life. “For a sincere brotherly love, having purified your souls for sincere brotherly love.” Then the command: “love one another earnestly from a pure heart.” And then the explanation: “because you’ve been born again.” So he’s speaking of the transforming effects of regeneration. It transforms the heart. It changes us from the inside out.

Some of you might be familiar with the name Henry Clay, the 19th-century statesman. He made a statement one time; I always thought it was just fascinating. He said he’s never experienced what Christians speak of when they speak of being born again. He said, “I’ve never experienced it, but I have witnessed it. I’ve seen Kentucky family feuds of many generations ended by it.” This is what Peter is saying here. This work of renewal that God does within us by the gospel has life-transforming effects. And here he commands us to live up to what we have experienced in grace. God has made pure your hearts in regeneration. Live up to it. And here particularly, love one another with a pure heart, fervently.

Paul deals with this in Romans chapter 6, those early verses of chapter 6, in a fascinating passage. Having just finished in chapter 5, he speaks of our completeness in Christ, our new Adam. He has done for us all that God requires of us, and we’ve more than regained in Christ all that we’ve lost in Adam. Where sin abounded, grace abounds more. And just at that point, your twisted little head is gonna say, “Well, if grace abounds—if more sin is more grace—maybe I should sin more so I can have more grace.” And Paul goes on in chapter six to explain, “No, that just can’t be; that’s just an impossibility because you’ve been raised to life with Christ.” And raised to life in Christ means life transformation. In other words, then, there are consequences, observable evidences of regeneration. It results in new life.

Now all of that then becomes very practical because it answers an important question that many of us have asked: How can I know that I’ve been born again? We’ve seen all of this doctrine. How can I know that I’ve experienced it? There are two answers that come together just quickly out of what we’ve seen here. Number one, I can know I’ve been born again because of faith. I believe in Jesus. I’m trusting him for salvation. That is a result of God’s transforming work in my heart. Faith is the consequence of regeneration, and my very faith ought to be the first evidence that I have been born again. I’m resting in Christ. I’m resting in him to save me. Christ is my only hope. That’s truly my trust. And I cannot explain that from this morally twisted heart, except to say that God has done a work of transforming grace in me. So how can I know that I’ve been born again? Number one, faith in Christ.

Number two, just as obvious as from what we’ve seen, I can know that I’ve been born again because there’s spiritual life. There’s been this radical change of affections, this radical change from the inside of who I am. I love Christ. I love the gospel. I love the things of his word. Don’t you love it when you see someone who is particularly someone new in the faith? They’ve come to faith in Christ and their life’s been transformed, and they just can’t wait to get back in the Bible to find out, “What is this that happened to me?” A sign of spiritual life is that God has been at work. And we’ve all experienced that in Christ.

If we have experienced new life, if God has given us this new birth, well, then we believe, we love Christ, we pursue holiness, we love his children, our other brothers and sisters in Christ. All of this is demonstrable change. And so, in effect, we can just say, consider now your own experience. This is one of those doctrines that can be demonstrated in experience. Consider your experience. Do you look at things differently from the way you used to, from the way of the man of the world? Do you love the gospel? Do you find the things of God thrilling, interesting, or do you find them boring? When we hear the gospel and our hearts leap, we read the scriptures and we see what God has done and our hearts jump, begin to palpitate. You come to church and you’re reminded of these great truths and your hearts begin to leap. We sing songs like we have this morning and we have this sense of joy in what God has done for us in expressing our trust in him. Like this morning, a singing of being in Christ alone and our whole hope resting in Him. And we sing that not just rotely and routinely, but there’s a sense of joy as we do. We look at brothers and sisters in Christ and there’s an affection for them and a concern for them. We have a sense of belonging to them.

Every one of those experiences is an occasion for praise, because you do not experience that as a result of anything on your side. And every time our heart leaps for the gospel, every time our heart jumps when someone’s preaching about Christ and we read about him in his word, and our hearts are engaged in the singing of songs, and our hearts are drawn to the people of Christ on every one of those occasions—it ought to be an occasion of praise that God has done a work in me. This is evidence of the new birth. In fact, it occurs to me that these verses 23 and following really are not so much an exhortation as they are a celebration. Oh, he’s exhorting us, all right. Be what you are. Live in a way that’s consistent with what you become in Christ. In a sense, this is just a celebration of what we have become in Christ, and then a recognition of its entailments and our responsibilities.

So we see all of this. There’s evidence that God has been at work. I’ve been born again. And I know it because of what he’s taught me and what he’s shown me in his word, but I also know it because I’ve experienced it. Things are different. And in fact, the people on the outside, they look in and they say it looks different too. And that’s good. And if on the other hand, you find the word of God dull, you find the singing of praises dull, and you don’t have in your heart an affection for the people of God, you don’t have in your heart an ambition to pursue holiness—you should be very concerned. You ought to cry out for God’s mercy to make in you what you cannot produce yourself. Amen. Let’s pray.