1 Peter is full of the exultant expression of a rich religious experience. The metaphor of re- generation aiipe.irs several times. It is used to ex- press the utterly new life which belongs to the person who has attained a hope of resurre<-tion and heavenly glory (di'a7ei'^^<ro5, V). Again, Christians are said to be begotten again {ivayeyevfri/iipoi) to a new life of brotherly love, the mor.il quality of the regeneration being very marked (!"■ ^). .^nd, with expansion of the figure, the new-born babe is urged to desire the fitting nourishment for pro- ducing the maturity of salvation (2-). St. Paul's great figure of death and resurrection is emiiloycd to indicate that union with Christ means a death to sin.s and a life unto righteousness (2'-''').
In S Peter the new life is separated from the old by a Kadapur/xds (1'). It is descril>ed as an escape from the corruptions of the world (l''2-°). Chris- tians thus become 'partakers of the divine nature' (H). This is effected through knowledge {iwlyKox^n) of God {V- ') and of Christ (P- a o™ 3'8). But if, in spite of this redemptive knowledge, there should be a return to the defilements of tlie world, salva- tion is lost and ' the last state is become worse with them than the first' {2^). The Epistle is throughout strongly ethical.
6. The Johannine literature. — The purpo.se of the Gospel of John is definitely stated in the con- clusion (20^') to be a demonstration that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, in order that men might believe and have life in His name. Life is the key-word of the Gospel. This is more than a hope of immortality, which of course it includes (6™ 14"). It seems to imply a certain rich and exuberant experience as a result of the indwelling of the Spirit. One becomes, as it were, a perennial spring of spiritual vitality (4" 7^'-). It is an ex- perience of spiritual apprehen.sion (8"), of walking in light and not in darlvness (8'-). The object of salvation is that one shall live to the full, abun- dantly (10'"). It may be doubted whether our modern social interpretations of the abundant life were in the mind of the writer, but he evidently referred to an exultant sense of the glorious worth- fulness of being a child of God, superior to worldly circumstance, possessed of the Sjiirit, with miracu- lous powers, and certain of a glorious future. This new life is so different from ordinary mundane life that very naturally the metaphor (if regeneration is used to explain it. As our human begetting by the will of man bestows upon us common life, so
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REGENERATION
REJECTION
the Divine begetting gives us life eternal (1"). Tlie antithesis is clear : one is either ref;enerate or not (S"). Tlie conversation witli Nicodeniusallords tlie o]>portunity for presenting the doctrine. The Kingdom of God con)es not by natunil heritage even to a Jewish Rabbi, but by supernatural bestownient. It is mysterious as the incalculable winds, hut is inevitable and essential (3"). The condition of this regeneration is a belief that Jesus is the Messiah, Son of God ; for what is delinitely stated in the prologue (!'-• ") is implied in the believing unto eternal life (3"). Regeneration as thus jiresented might seem to be the mere change of status with miraculous charismata in conse- quence of an external act of homage, which the pagan heart would so well understand. But faith IS not an external act in this Gospel. He that doeth the truth cometh to the light (S'") ; he that is willing to do the will of God gains experiential evidence of the truth of the gospel (7"). And the great central teaching of the last discourse of Jesus is fundamentally ethical. The figure changes from regeneration to that of the branch in the vine. Tlie question is not whether the branch is in the vine, but whether it bears fruit, failing which it is cast forth and burned (15^). And the fruit is love (15"). So the test of regeneration is the actual experience of love of the brethren, the actual fulfilment of the commandment of Christ. Belief, then, through which comes regeneration, is not an intellectual assent, but a passionate loyalty, rich in ethical impulse, and a continuous experience. 1 John has the same theme as the Gospel, but the treatment is more homiletic. The conditions are peculiarly favourable to the definition of a doctrine of regeneration, for the letter is evidently written to a Christian community or communities, in which many must belong to the second or third generation of believers, and therefore would not have experienced the decided change involved in a conversion from heathenism. The silence of the NT upon the matter of the regeneration of children is interesting in view of the large place which it has held in subsequent theological discussion. In the NT, however, regeneration is always dependent upon faith. The children would, of course, receive such instruction as would enable them to believe. Both the Jewish and the Greek world were thoroughly familiar with the idea of a coming of age at puberty, and the children probably received the baptism which was the seal of their faith at that time. The figure of regeneration had not been so thoroughly theologized that the question whether or not children were regenerate would arise. The silence of the NT is an assumption that the children of believers were candidates for salvation. But a religion dependent on instruction might easily become merely formal. And it is such a situation that this Epistle presupposes. It is addressed to the Christian community (5'^), to fathers who have long known the truth, to young men who are conquering evil (2'^- "), all of whom have received the gift of the Spirit, which is an abiding enlightenment (2-'). The writer identifies them with himself in the absohiteness of salvation — ' we are of God, and the whole world lieth in the evil one' {5"). And yet the distinctive emphasis of the Epistle is upon regeneration as a moral ex- perience rather than as a religious status. When the author says, ' whosoever believeth is begotten of God' (5M, he is stating the fact which any primitive Christian would have understood. But with equal emphasis he in.sists that ' everj'one that doeth righteousness is begotten of him ' (2-*), and again that ' everyone that loveth is begotten of God ' (4'). He does not say that we know that we have passed from death unto life because we have been baptized, but because we have the Spirit (4'^), and