Concomitance

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.