I have stated it many, many times. Hardshellism, boiled down, is a dividing
asunder of what God has joined together.
It is taking of those things which God has declared as necessary
in the outworking of salvation, and making them unnecessary. It is taking of that which is certain
to the Lord’s elect, and making them uncertain. Nothing could be more profitable, therefore,
than for a powerful reminder of what the scriptures claim actually happen to
souls upon their regeneration. The
following quote by the learned John Murray reminds me so much of an article that
my colleague and friend Stephen once wrote which emphasized that when sinners
are born again, they are…born unto something.
They are born unto something real that is tangible! They really do begin to experience something
spiritual! They are not born unto a vacuus state of nothingness, possibly living
as spiritual vegetables until the day of the resurrection.
I know it must be hard to accept that some
could be so unlearned as to espouse that regeneration does not produce an
absolute, guaranteed effect, but this is Hardshellism for you. Its sole concern
is to populate heaven so that God wins the numbers game. The “God” it portrays
has little to no interest in rearing up a people in this life who actually
become Christians. Very sad.
Murray rightly records:
"It was the apostle John who recorded for us our Lord's
discourse to Nicodemus. John had learned its lesson well and particularly
the lesson that regeneration is the act of God and of God alone, that men are
born again 'not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man,
but of God' (John 1:13). He has inscribed this teaching indelibly upon
his first epistle, also. Explicit reference to regeneration appears in
that epistle on several occasions (1 John 2:29; 3:9; 4:7; 5:1,4,19). The
leading emphasis in these passages is upon the fact that there is an
invariable concomitance or co-ordination of regeneration and other fruits of
grace. In 2:29 it is the concomitance (togetherness) of the divine
begetting and doing righteousness; in 3:9 of the divine begetting,
on the one hand, and not doing sin and incapacity of sin, on the other; in
4:7 of the divine begetting and love; in 5:1 of the divine
begetting and believing that Jesus is the Christ; in 5:4 of the divine
begetting and overcoming the world; in 5:18 of divine begetting and
not sinning and immunity to the touch of the evil one. As we shall
see later, this is a very significant emphasis and warns us against any
view of regeneration which abstracts it from the other elements of the application
of redemption" (John
Murray, "Redemption Accomplished and Applied").
He continues:
"The priority of
regeneration might create the impression that a person could be regenerated and
yet not converted. These passages in 1 John should correct any such
misapprehension. We need to remember again that the leading emphasis in
these passages is the invariable concomitance of regeneration and the other
graces mentioned. 'Everyone who is begotten of God does not do sin, for
his seed remains in him; and he cannot sin, because he is begotten of God'
(3:9). 'Everyone who is begotten of God overcomes the world; and this is
the victory which has overcome the world, even our faith' (5:4).
'Everyone who is begotten of God does not sin, but he who has been begotten of
God keeps himself, and the wicked one does not touch him' (5:18). When
we put these texts together they expressly state that every regenerate person
has been delivered from the power of sin, overcomes the world by the faith of
Christ, and exercises that self-control by which he is no longer the slave of
sin and of the evil one. That means, when reduced to its simplest terms,
that the regenerate person is converted and exercises faith and repentance. We
must not think of regeneration as something which can be astracted from the
saving exercises which are its effects. Hence we shall have
to conclude that in the other passages (2:29; 4:7; 5:1) the fruits mentioned -
doing righteousness, the love and knowledge of God, believing that Jesus is the
Christ - are just as necessarily the accompaniments of regeneration as are the
fruits mentioned in 3:9, 5:4, 8. This simply means that all of the graces
mentioned in these passages are the consequences of regeneration and not only
consequences which sooner or later follow upon regeneration, but fruits which
are inseparable from regeneration. We
are warned and advised, therefore, that while regeneration is the action of God
and of God alone we must never conceive of his action as separable from the
activities of saving grace on our part which are the necessary and appropriate
effects of God's grace in us."
Much like the Apostle Paul once marveled (Gal. 1:6) I likewise
marvel that a professed Christian could deny this. In short, all that Murray is saying here is
that the cause produces the intended effect. Regeneration does in fact usher in
all the godly habits which characterize a new creature in Christ; and that, for
all the Lord’s chosen! Once one sees
this, which is admittedly an elementary point to most Christians, he begins to
see the error of Hardshellism.
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