One of the
issues debated in the Reformation and in the centuries since has been human
action in regeneration. Regeneration, i.e. the new birth, occurs when God replaces
a sinner’s stony heart with a heart of flesh (Ezek. 36:26), a heart sensitive
to God’s will (John 10:26-27), receptive to God’s law (1Cor. 2:14), and capable
of doing what pleases God (Rom. 8:8). No human being can enter the kingdom of
God without the new birth (John 3:3-5). He cannot properly understand and will
not accept God’s word (1Cor. 2:14). He is in bondage to sin (Rom. 3:9) and dead
in transgressions (Eph. 2:1-3). The unregenerate man is unable to do anything
that pleases God (Rom. 8:8). Unless we are born again, we remain under God’s
wrath (John 3:18, 36) and will never do or desire what pleases Him.
Many Christians
think the new birth happens when a person believes in Jesus. But if an
unregenerate person is unable to understand, accept, or do what pleases God,
how can that person believe (Rom. 14:23; Heb. 11:6)? Does believing in Jesus
please the Father? Certainly it does. Then no one who is in the flesh and has
not experienced the new birth is able to believe (Rom. 8:8).
This is why we
understand the grace of regeneration to be monergistic rather than synergistic.
Synergism involves two or more parties working in cooperation. God does His
part, I do my part, and together we accomplish what neither could alone.
Monergism, on the other hand, involves a single actor. God acts in choosing me
and regenerating my sinful heart, thus enabling me to believe in His Son and be
saved. I could not regenerate my own heart, but God changed my heart so that I
could and would believe in Jesus.
There are two reasons
people reject this view of regeneration. First, they do not believe the human
condition is as bad as described above. They think sinners are disabled, but
not dead. But the Bible clearly says otherwise. Second, they think this view
removes human responsibility to believe, but it does not. I still choose to
believe, but God’s grace enables me to make that choice. Soli Deo Gloria! -JME
