Regeneration is one thing;
conversion is another. S. Paul was converted when he spoke the words, ‘What
shall I do, Lord?’ He was regenerated when, three days later, he was baptized.
The Philippian gaoler was converted when he asked what he must do that he might
be saved. He was regenerated when, a little afterwards, he received Baptism (Acts
xxii 10; ix. 18; xvi. 30, 33). Conversion is the act whereby, in response to
and by the power of divine grace, the soul turns to God in the desire to accept
and do His will. Regeneration is the gift which God bestows on the soul by
producing in its nature such a change as imparts to it the forgiveness of original
sin and makes it to be accepted by God instead of under His wrath. To have kept
clear a distinction which the facts and teaching contained in the New Testament
undoubtedly express might have saved many from confusion of thought which have
led to complete misunderstanding of the doctrine of Holy Baptism.
Regeneration, further, does not
necessarily imply perseverance in goodness or ultimate salvation. Simon of
Samaria—if, indeed in his case, bad faith had not at the first deprived him of
benefits which, in ordinary cases, Baptism conveyed—could, after Baptism, so
far fall from grace as to merit S. Peter’s rebuke, ‘Thy heart is not right before
God. Repent therefore of this thy wickedness, and pray the Lord, if perhaps the
thought of thy heart shall be forgiven thee. For I see that thou art in the
gall of bitterness, and in the bond of iniquity.’ S. Paul repeatedly addressed
those who were evidently baptized in terms which implied that eternal life
might be forfeited by them. ‘Know ye not that ye are a temple of God, and that
the Spirit of God dwelleth in you If any man destroyed the temple of God, him
shall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are.’ ‘I
verily, being absent in body but present in spirit, have already, as though I
were present, judged him that hath so wrought this thing, in the Name of our
Lord Jesus, ye being gathered together, and my spirit, with the power of our
Lord Jesus, to deliver such a one unto Satan for the destruction for the flesh,
that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesu.’ ‘If ye receive
circumcision, Christ will profit you nothing.’ ‘Ye are severed from Christ, ye
who would be justified by the law: ye are fallen away from grace.’ ‘The works
of the flesh are manifest . . . of the which I forewarn you, even as I did
forewarn you, that they which practise such things shall not inherit the
kingdom of God.’ He contemplated the abstract possibility that he himself might
be lost. ‘I therefore so run, as not uncertainly; so fight I, as not beating
the air: but I buffet my body, and bring it into bondage: lest by any means,
after that I have preached to others, I myself should be rejected.’ He spoke of
the possession of baptismal privileges as a reason for real and energetic struggle
to do what is right. ‘But ye were washed, but ye were sanctified, but ye were
justified in the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ, and in the Spirit of our God. .
. . Know ye not that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take away
the members of Christ, and make them members of a harlot? God forbid. . . Know
ye not that your body is a temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye
have from God? and ye are not your own, for ye were bought with a price:
glorify God therefore in your body’ (Acts viii. 13, 21-3; 1 Corinthians iii.
16, 17, v. 3-5; Galatians v. 2, 4, 19-21; 1 Corinthians ix. 26, 27, vi. 11-20)
The fact of the reception of grace is altogether distinct form any question of
continuance in grace.
Here, again, confusions of thought
have been numerous and harmful. It has been supposed by many that, if
regeneration is bestowed in Baptism, there cannot subsequently be any departure
from holiness or the grace of God. Such an idea has caused thoughtful persons
to fail to grasp the Scriptural teaching that the baptized are regenerate,
because they are convinced that many of the baptized commit sins of the most
grievous kind. The fact was certainly not unknown to or ignored by the writers
of the New Testament; but they viewed it in its proper light as not
contradictory of but parallel to the truth that Baptism is the means of
regeneration. Indeed, a moment’s consideration should be sufficient to show any
one that a person may receive a gift and may yet fail to answer the responsibilities
or use the powers which the gift confers. One who has been freed from original sin
may yet commit actual sin; a nature which has been made holy may yet by sin
become unholy; the child of God may, by the wrong use of the divinely given
power of free-will, act as though he were still the child of wrath. The facts
of life are to be explained, not by the rejection of the Scriptural doctrine of
regeneration in Baptism, but by viewing it in connection with other truths
which are no less Scriptural.
Christian Baptism, then, according
to the teachings of Holy Scripture, by making the baptized person a member of
Christ and a child of God and imparting to him the gift of the Holy Spirit,
causes him to partake of the merits of Christ’s life and death and the power of
His resurrection. It thereby enables him to live a Christian life and attain to
eternal glory. Yet he may subsequently depart from grace and fall into sin by
the act of his will choosing evil, and, if evil be finally chosen, he may be
involved in eternal sin (S. Mark iii. 29. The reading ‘eternal sin [αιωνιου αμαρτηματος], adopted by the revisers and by
Westcott and Hort, is found in the Sinaitic and Vatican MSS. and other authorities),
and consequently in eternal loss. Baptism confers a position of high privilege
and great responsibility. The free-will of the baptised person has to determine
to what use this position is to be put. Holy Baptism affords the beginning of
the possibility of the highest holiness; it supplies also the measure of the terrible
character of sins committed by the baptized. (Darwell Stone, Holy Baptism [London:
Longmans, Green, and Co., 1899], 35-39)