“The Incomprehensible Way of Regeneration” -- Article Thirteen, The Third and Fourth Main Points of Doctrine, Canons of Dort

Article 13: The Incomprehensible Way of Regeneration

In this life believers cannot fully understand the way this work occurs; meanwhile, they rest content with knowing and experiencing that by this grace of God they do believe with the heart and love their Savior.

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Article Thirteen of the Canons of Dort reminds us of the fact that God does not fully explain the mechanics of the way in which he gives new life (regeneration) to people who are dead in sin. Scripture simply speaks of the fact that God does regenerate sinners, and ties this to the work of the Holy Spirit through divinely appointed means–the preaching of the gospel.

The Canons echo very loudly what our Lord told Nicodemus as recounted in John 3:7-8, “Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’ The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.”

If regeneration is an act of God which occurs at the level of the subconscious, and in which the believer is strictly passive (God acts upon us while we were still dead in sin), then we may not “experience” the new birth at all, even though we may have received it, and cannot enter heaven without it. If we are looking to Jesus Christ alone to deliver us from the guilt of our sin, we are thereby assured of the fact that we are justified by his death and resurrection and that we will spend eternity in heaven because this is the sign that regeneration has already taken place. People who are dead in sin do not trust in Jesus Christ until they have been given the new birth. And once given the new birth they cannot but believe the gospel. What is important here is not that we may have had a “conversion experience,” but that we presently trust in Jesus alone for our salvation and repent of our sins. Therefore, it is not the experience of the new birth which matters, but the fact that it has occurred.

This is why it can be problematic to speak of regeneration as essentially a “born again” experience, as do many of our contemporaries. There will be many people in heaven who do not know the date and hour of their regeneration, but who nevertheless trust the Savior's promise to save them from their sins. Likewise, there will be many folks in hell who have had all kinds of religious experiences (including some who have had what they claim as a "born again" experience), but who know not Jesus Christ, nor trust in his saving work.

Looking to Christ for deliverance will never disappoint us. As Horatius Bonar puts it in the hymn, Not What My Hands Have Done, “not what I feel or do, can give me peace with God.” This why the Canons exhort us not to expect a dramatic experience of something about which we may never be aware—though there are those who do have dramatic experiences at the time of their conversion. Rather, the Canons exhort us to trust in the finished work of Christ, where we will never be disappointed because this is the sure sign regeneration has taken place.