RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA
Regale Regeneration
iii. 26-27). In this new state of life there are to be distinguished two aspects: justification, which delivers man from the guilt and the condemnation of sin (Rom. v. 18-19; Gal. ii. 16), and the endowment with the Spirit of God (Gal. iii. 5, iv. 6; Rom. viii. 2) ; although Paul did not strictly discriminate between the two. Objectively the new creation consists in the mission and work of Christ; subjectively in the faith called forth by it. The demarkation of the new creation from the subsequent unfolding of the new life is made difficult in that sanctification appears now as, with justification, a newly implanted life tendency (I Cor. vi. 11), and again as a continuous task (Rom. vi. 19-22), and in that the new life is even represented as ever undergoing a retransformation (Rom. xii. 2, xiii. 14; Eph. iv. 22 sqq.). I Peter connects the new creation with the resurrection of Christ (i. 3). The means of this renewal of life consists of the Word of God (i. 23) ; this serves also the growth and strengthening of the newly born babes (ii. 2 sqq.). In the Johannine writings birth is represented from God (John i. 12 sqq.), or the birth from above is a frequent designation of the state of the Christian. This divine generation of the new man produces the state of the children of God, which is here restoration of a relation with the being of God. The possibility of such a state is produced by the incarnation of the Logos (John i. 12); its realization is the work of the Spirit (iii. 6, 8). To the Word is ascribed mediation in so far as it is the medium of the Spirit (vi. 63). As a further medium of the spiritual new birth is mentioned the water of baptism (iii. 5); but it is merely a step preparatory for the renovation by the Spirit. Regeneration must be experienced by faith (John i. 12; I John v. 1). In some passages of the Johannine writings the life from God appears as a possession which excludes not only apostasy, but also the sinning of the new man (I John iii. 6, 9). According to other passages not only may Christians sin (I John i. 8 sqq., ii. 1), they may sin even unto death (v. 16). With John, therefore, regeneration is represented as the transposition into a new stage of life which is essentially relationship with God ; but also with him the transition takes place through faith, and the new state of life is conditioned by the moral preservation of the endowed character.
The conception of regeneration has no definite place in the terminology of the doctrine of salvation in the early and medieval Church, and no connected history; because in the post-apostolic 3. In the time there reigned a moralistic con- Early and ception of salvation. It indeed offered Medieval room for the acts of human self-activ- Churches. ity which introduce and accompany the new life, such as repentance, recognition of the truth, fulfilment of the law, with but slight connection of these with the divine operation and the mediator of salvation; but this jejune conception was supplemented by a faith in the magic and supernatural effect of baptism and the Lord's Supper. The Eastern Church recognized the universal regeneration of humanity in the incarnation of the Logos, but it knew little of the renewal of life in the individual. Augustine traced regeneration en-
tirely to the effect of grace; but he associated this with the mediation of the Church, and as he saw in the new life not so much a possession of faith as the activity of love, he confounded the conceptions of regeneration and sanctification. Scholasticism resolved the cultivation of the new life into a number of the Church's impartations of grace and the corresponding efforts of will, which scarcely admitted of a unified conception of regeneration. Thomas Aquinas preferred the most impersonal expression which the New Testament offers for the idea of regeneration, " participation in the divine nature " (Summa, ii. 110). For the Council of Trent regeneration was only another name for justification (Sessio, vi. 3), which found its consummation in the " infusion of love." For the mystics who have a special preference for the picture of regeneration, it meant essentially union with God afforded to the soul that was emptied of the world and selfhood. But this individual experience of the pious absolved itself in the moment of subjective feeling, and was not sobered by a firm hold upon the historical divine will of grace.
The Reformation restored to regeneration its firm connection with God's act of salvation in Christ. In the forgiveness of sin man finds the basis of a new existence. The faith that receives this blessing is the immediate reality of a new life. Faith itself
is, according to Luther, the new birth.
4. In the In faith we are both justified and sanc-
Reforma- tified. This view was not affected by
tion. Luther's association of regeneration
and baptism. He assumed even the difficulty of the idea of faith in infants in order to maintain the same saving operation in children and adults. The same intimate connection of justification and new life is found in Melanchthon's Loci of 1521 and in the Apology. The latter does not limit the term " justification " to the conception of a mere declaration of being just, but unhesitatingly denotes " justification " as " regeneration " and faith as the " Tightness of heart " demanded by God as " obedience toward the Gospel." Justification included moral renewal and the endowment of the Spirit. This merging was due to the apprehension of justification not as a transcendent act of God but as a human experience; but in the commentary on Romans (1532) Melanchthon began to connect more strictly the judgment of God declaring man as just with Christ's work of atonement and to exclude from it every reference to the transformation of man that begins with faith. Calvin conceived regeneration as " penitence " and restricted it to the moral act of the mortification of the old man and the generation of the new. The Formula of Concord (q.v.) left the conception of regeneration vague, while it, on the other hand, clearly defined justification, thus exposing the relation of faith to morals, now excluded from justification, to neglect. The period of the Reformation left to later theology a number of unsolved questions regarding regeneration, such as the relation of the Spirit to the individual. The Augsburg Confession (q.v.) states that the Spirit effects faith (Art. 5) and that faith conditions the possession of the Spirit (Art. 20). These statements are not con-
Regeneration Reg-en sburg-