Puritans and Revival VII: Pattern of Regeneration

We continue our series on the influence of the Puritans on the Great Awakening (US) and the Evangelical Revival (UK). This week, we’re looking at the pattern of regeneration.

The single most school of thought that contributed to the Evangelical Revival and Great Awakening was Puritanism. Our cultural Christianity is, in many ways, similar to the 18th century church. Most people were church-goers, but didn’t necessarily have a living relationship with God.

How did the Puritans teach regeneration and apply it in their day? How was this reflected nearly 100 years later in the men involved in these revivals?

“If my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land” (2 Chronicles 7:14).

“Regeneration is God’s calling a man out of that state of sin and death, in which they are by nature, to grace and salvation by Jesus Christ. The manner of doing this is described further as enlightening their minds spiritually and savingly to understand the things of God; taking away their hearts of stone and giving unto them a heart of flesh; renewing their wills and, by His almighty power, determining them to that which is good; and effectually drawing them to Jesus Christ” (Westminster Confession of Faith).

Regeneration is being brought from spiritual death to spiritual life in Christ. Richard Baxter writes, “Regeneration is to have a new heart or disposition and a new conversation (lifestyle).” Ezekiel Hopkins says that regeneration is “a change of the whole man in every part and faculty thereof from a state of sinful nature to a state of supernatural grace.”

When we are born again, we know longer fight against the truths of Scripture, but rather, we find them to be irresistible.

The Anglican Church viewed baptism as part of regeneration; that the water itself brought about new life. This twisted view of regeneration is what the Puritans were fighting against in their teaching and preaching.

In regeneration, the agent is the Holy Spirit and the means is the preaching of the Word. The Puritans spent a lot of time examining what regeneration looks like in the soul, the observable process of the new birth.

You cannot make yourself a Christians by being a better person or working harder or reading more. God takes the first step in all of this--God only can awaken you and make you alive. Regeneration is a free gift from God alone.

Our Father in heaven, we come to You as children to a Father, able and ready to help us.

We beseech You, let Your name be sanctified; enable us and others to glorify You.

Let Your kingdom come; let Satan’s kingdom be destroyed, and let the kingdom of Your grace be advanced; let us and others be brought into it, and kept in it, and let the kingdom of Your glory be hastened.

Give us this day our daily bread; of Your free gift let us receive a competent portion of the good things of this life, and let us enjoy Your blessing with them. Amen.

Prayer by Matthew Henry is taken from A Guide to Family Worship.

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