Charles Scribner'.s Sons
REFORM
REGENERATION
485
is a beautiful and i)atlietic example of fruitful reflectiveness (Lk 2i'-'-^i). Without reflectiveness the Holy Spirit's work of illumination and guid- ance could scarcely have its full and due fruit (Jn 142; 1613). Reflectiveness is necessary to grasp the lessons of truth as well as to sift error therefrom.
W. B. FitANKLAND. **REFORM. — There is no mention of this word in the Gospels ; the only use of it in the NT is He 9"' ' until the time of reformation' (Gr. 8i6pdio<ni). It may be well to note in what sense Jesus may be said to have approved of ' reform.' There was much about the State that needed reform. Did He step forward to help it on ? The answer must be in the negative. He made no attempt to reform the political abuses of His time, yet by the general strain and spirit of His teaching He assuredly did much to help on society towards such reformation. In His own conduct, we find Jesus submitting to the civil authorities uuder whom He lived. He refused to be made a King, or a Governor, or a Judge, or to be involved in any way, however remotely, in political revolution. He was ready rather to die than to be engaged in any such work. When asked about the lawfulness of tribute. He said, ' Render unto Ctesar the things that are CiBsar's, and unto God the things that are God's ' (Mt 22-1). Although the words may not be pressed to support a doctrine of passive obedience, nor, on the other hand, taken as an incentive to revolu- tion, He probably meant to remind His country- men that, in return for the benefits of Roman government under which they lived, they might well be expected to share the expense by paying taxes. Again, in Mt IT^'', we find Him providing foe the payment of the Temple-tax for Himself and His disciples. He thus submitted to the ordi- nary ecclesiastical authority, with only a mild protest. Before Pilate, He said, ' Thou wouldest have no authority against me, except it were given thee from above' (Jn 19"). This surely means tliat all human authority is subject to the higher power of God, who regulates all by His Providence ; though it has sometiuies been supposed that Jesus thus acknowledged the legitimacy of Pilate's power.
Jesus cannot be claimed with any justice as a victim on the altar of political reform. Yet it may well be affirmed that His teachings, if carried out by men, would certainly produce a reformed society. His disciples, being good men, would also be good citizens. He gave to the world principles, which have been the fruitful seed of true reform.
As to Christ's relation to the law of Moses, it may be asked, Did He become a Reformer ? While declaring that ' he came not to destroy but to fulfil' (Mt o"), we must believe that, at least. He desired some reform of abuses, which had grown up through the interpretations and applications of the Law, made by scribes and lawyers of the past. Even in regard to the law of divorce. He calls attention to the right spirit of the INIosaic legislfC- tion, ratlier than to the exact letter of the Law (Mt 531-32 i93ff.^ Mk lO^ff). And He treats with in- dignant scorn those evasions of filial duty, as in the case of the Corban, wJiich had so long been sanctioned by the practice of Jewish society (Mt L5'"''-, Mk 7^f). In regard to such traditional abuses, as well as in regard to the State and general social arrangements, we may say that Jesus rather gave an impulse to reform than engaged actively in any attempt to bring the Law, as understood and practised in His day, into accordance with the eternal law of God.
Wlieu asked to consider a question about a dis- puted inheritance. He refused to be drawn into such quarrels, and bade men beware of a covetous spirit, remembering that man's life does not con-
**Cop!/ri(/h/. 1908.6)/
sist in the abundance of the things he possesses (Lk 12i3ff ). He believed tliat by interfering with the Law, even to have justice done. His disciples might do their spiritual life more harm than such action would do good in a temporal aspect. Jesus' disciple ought to be able to renounce the pursuit of his rights, and ought to co-o])erate in forming a nation of brothers, in which justice is done, no longer by the aid of force, but by free obedience to the good, and which is united, not by legal regulations, but by the ministry of love ' (llarnack., What is Christianity ? p. 112). See art. Law.
Literature.— Denney, art. 'Law' in Hastings' DB\ R. Mackintosh, Chj-iat and the Jewish Law ; Lux Mundi, ch. xi. ' Christianity and Politics ' ; Bruce, Galilean GoHpel, ch. xi., Parabolic Teaching, p. 300 ff. ; Dale, Laiiii of Chrintfor Com- mon Life, ch. xii. ; Ea-positor, i. v. [1877] \<\>. 214 ft'., 436 ff.
D. M. W. LAIRD.
**REGENERATION.— Of all theological ideas, regeneration is probably that which has had the most unfortunate history. The figure is an apt and obvious one to express the completeness of the change which takes place when the non-Christian becomes a Christian ; but it is tempting to press it, and it has been pressed in the most inconsiderate fashion. As the beginning of Christian life (it is argued), it must be antecedent to every Christian experience ; faith, justification, conversion are. strictly speaking, its fruits. As a new birth, man can no more contribute to it than to his first birth , and hence must be regarded in it as purely passive, not acting or co-operating with God. As there is no middle state between being dead and being alive, it must be conceived as instantaneous ; and so on. We can see the motives in such a mode of thought, but it is full of delusions. Perhaps they have influ- enced Reformed theology more than Lutheran ; yet, while the Lutherans were more conscious of the figure in regeneration, the Reformed were guided by the justifiable desire to give faith a real basis in the believer, — to lay an act of God, as the only sure foundation, at the basis of the whole experi- ence of salvation.