REGENERATION
REGENERATION
217
in Ro S""". Thore creation is represented as awaiting 'the revealing of the sons of God ' \' the Regeneration,' in the collective sense of Mt 19-'), who, as already having 'the tirst-fruits of tlie Spirit,' may themselves be styled God's lirst-fruits (cf. Rev 14* 'Jl'). Thus spiritual Israel, now in pro- cess of rallying to Messiah Jesus, seemed to St. James ' the lirst-fruits' of God's final rei^n. As for ' the word of truth ' to which this Israel owed its being, it was the revealed will of God active in conscience ( = 'the inbred word,' P', or simply ' the word, 1—'= God's 'law,' known as spirit and not as letter, 'perfect law, that of liberty,' 'royal law,' 1^ 2*-'" 4"=' the truth,' in an ethico-religious sense, S" 5", cf. Jn 8^"- 17"). It was the sort of ' word ' that meets us in the Sermon on the Mount, the final practical is.sue of OT revelation for the conscience icf. 'the word of trutli ' in Ps 110"; also v."** 'the sum of tbj' word is truth'). Yet it is not to be conlined to the spucilically Christian gospel : it denotes, rather, the element common to that and the law as it lived in the unsophisticated consciences of Jews like those who meet us in Lk 1-2.
St. James has in mind, then, not individual regeneration, but rather the collective being of a People devoted to the Divine Will, and of which believers on Jesus Messiah were the typical members — a People which thus could be styled 'lirst-fruits, as it were, of God's creatures.'* His argument is that God cannot stultify Himself by temjiting to evil. He is the author of good, and cliangeth not. And since it was with full intention that He brought forth t or constituted the godly community gathering to the name of Jesus Messiah, lie must not be thought of as the author of seductive temptations. The emphasis ■till falls, as in pre-Christian references to regene- ration, on the collective quickening traceable to the Divine initiative, rather than on the individual — though this latter is implied in the exhortation to ' receive the inborn word (IfiipvToy Xlryov, cf. Wis 12"' tn<f)VTOt i) Kaxla aiViii-), J which is able to save your souls.' Accordingly, such rudiments of our doctrine as occur in James, represent a stage mid- way between typical OT and typical NT statements on the subject.
iii. St. Peter. — The Petrine doctrine stands be- tween that of St. James on the one hand, and that of St. Paul on the other. The O T associa- tions of collective ble.ssing (cf. his reference to 'seasons of recovery' or 'restoration,' dvdxpv^it, iroKaTdaraais, in Ac 3'°' "• **) are still prominent in the language chosen (1 P '2") ; while yet the idea of ' regeneration,' and that of individuals, by the Divine 'seed' or 'word of God,' is firmly Kras])ed (l^cf. °, cf. parable of the Sower). The uLsciple seems possessed by his Master's teaching as to the child-spirit and the Divine fatlierhood (2^ 1"). The Divine parentage involved in the new life is appealed to as a reason for love of the brethren (f^-): being regarded as a congenital law of their new being — an idea which recurs in 2 P 1*, where renewed human nature is set forth as 'in a true sense not God-like merely, but derivatively Divine' (Hort, cf. 1 Jn 3").
'The word' by wMch this comes about is clearly that of the gospel (1 P l'^) ; and, answering to this,
* Jer 2> ' InracI (is) holiness unto the Lono, the Drat-frults of bit Inrreaae' — t^fx^-i yttr,^Ttir «i«u, whii-h j>.irallel8 urxpxytv npcr^* K'>rou KTt^ixaTain ; and for the (>erw()nal sense of mrifuMTK, of. Sir SO>i>f', wliere i K»if rtu \b descnlxKl in the next line oa r*
t The Idea occurs elsewhere, e.g. Sir 38" (derived from Dt f^^'^.V.x i'^)'\trp%*xi* vptrrvyiim muJt'^riti. In Ja I't^ the verb kwtH,^,tK is used to marlt an aiititliesis to the llioujrlit of !•», Wiierc tills metaphor was em]>lo>ed of Bin as parent of death.
I Cf. itam. I. 2, tCritt tfjL-vrtf rrtt 2«/}|a( r>luu«ri«nt X«^PI*
•uii^Ti, and Ix. 9, •!>» i rVii i^t^mr )«/iik« njr itmBrimt mUti
the definite act of confession in baptism is thought of as objectively sealing the salvation thus wrought (see Bai'TIsm in vol. i. p. '244"). Water, says ne, doth now, in antitj'po to Noah's preservation, play its part in .salvation, as Christian baptism — ' not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the appeal toward God of a good conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ,' man's surety at God's right hand ( 1 P 3-'). The sense of this passage, and particularly the meaning here given to the word iirfpumifw., seems lixed by Ko lO'-"-, Ho 10'^-. ' For with tlie heart man trustfullj' believeth unto (the attaining of) Righteousness (i.e. Justilication = Sal- vation in (iod's sight, impliciti) ; but with the mouth man maketh confession unto ( the attaining of) Salvation ' (i.e. formal possession of salvation, explic.iti). ' Salvation,' in this context (Ho lU"'-), refers to objective menibc^rsliip of the Messianic Community or Church, the proper unit or subject of I he New Covenant. Into this Body of the Christ, St. Paul says elsewhere (1 Co 12"), Chris- tiiins are through baptism incorporated ' by one Sjiirit.' 'The Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father,' seals, often by objective manifes- tations, tlie sincerity of the believer's confession. Similarly He 10-^ ' Let us draw near (as favoured worshippers) with a true heart, ixi full asauranci of faith, having our hearts sprinkled (by blood, 9'''-) fruin an eeil conscience, and the bodi/ ivashcd with pure water.' Thus every obscure element in 1 P 318. 21 ia elucidated. Christ, though ' i)ut to death in (the sphere of) flesh,' was ' quickened in (the sphere of) spirit ' — and so became for others ' a quickening spirit' {jrviufxa fuoTroioOv, 1 Co 15'''). Baptism, then, as the consummation of the be- liever's appropriation of Christ, means no mere bodily cleansing (like Levitical ablutions), but the ajipeal of a cleimsod conscience (see 1* with 3'*; cf. He 9"'-), directed in 'full assurance of faith' to God (cf. Eph 3'^ irpoaaforyT]v iv Trciroi9i)ff«)- It corresponds to tlie 'living hope' due to Christ's resurrection, spoken of in 1' (cf. Col 2'-). 'The promise of the eternal inheritance' (Ho 9"), for which wor.shipful appeal is made to God's covenant fidelity in the Mediator, was conceived to be re- ceived 'in earnest' in the manifestation of Holy Spirit power (Ac S"*)— 'anoinlin^' or 'sealing' the believer unto the d.iy of perfected redenH)tion (2 Co l-"-,Ki)h 1"'- 4**). Thus 'baptism.' as a livin" experi- ence, could be alluded to in Tit 3° as a formal 'wash- ing of regeneration and renovation (in virtue) of Holy Sjiirit,' 'poured forth richly' at the solemn crisis of confession, where ' Salvation,' as an objec- tive state, took full ellect [taanev ^/xas 5ii XourpoO 7raXif7Cfe(r/as Ka.1 dvaKaivuff^ixiS ttv. d7ioi'). Baptism was a rite for the Church or saered community as such, and for the individual in relaticin to it ana its privileges; 'by the washing of water' were its members, as 'cleansed' 'by means of the word' (cf. Jn 15"), formally admitted to the sphere of consecrated life resting on Christ's sacrihce (Eph 5'^, Ko 10«').