Our Need for Inward Change

Many people have the mistaken notion that in the Old Testament God was primarily concerned with outward forms and not so much with the heart. But this is clearly false. The OT repeatedly highlights the priority of inward renewal and devotion (Psa. 51:10; Hos. 6:6). The OT laws were never an indication God cared only about outward actions; they were signposts to our need for inward change.

Circumcision, for example, was a sign of God’s promise and a reminder of our need to be circumcised in heart. Moses said, “Circumcise therefore the foreskin of your hearts, and be no longer stubborn” (Deut. 10:16). This inward circumcision was ultimately the promise and work of God which enabled true spiritual life. “And the LORD your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your offspring, so that you will love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul, that you may live” (Deut. 30:6). Circumcision was a call to inward repentance and consecration, not a work of merit or basis for ethnic pride. It was a graphic reminder of God’s demand for holiness in even the most intimate area of our lives. It recalled His promise to multiply and bless all nations through the seed of Abraham. And it marked those who belonged to the covenant community, whether they were regenerate or not (Rom. 2:28-29; 9:6).

The blessing of the new birth and a changed heart is not limited to the New Covenant. Believers in the OT required and received the same. David prayed, “Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me” (Psa. 51:10). Those who are dead in sin cannot please God (Rom. 8:8). God worked in OT saints so they could please Him (Exod. 35:29; Deut. 29:4, 30:14; Psa. 40:8). This gift of grace is more fully expressed and enjoyed in the NT, but it is present and essential in the OT too.

Circumcision is no longer important in the New Covenant (Gal. 5:6), but what it signified is. Baptism now represents, physically and visibly, the spiritual and invisible work and promises once signified by circumcision (Col. 2:11-12). We should not take for granted what the covenant signs teach us. They are not merely rites to be performed. They are reminders of our need for God’s work in our lives. -JME

Regeneration & Monergistic Grace

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