CONVERSION AND REGENERATION: A TOTAL CHANGE IN AN INDIVIDUAL, PART 2.

Even though New Dictionary of Theology says that with conversion comes repentance and asking for forgiveness, in my personal experience I was not aware that I had to repent of anything or ask forgiveness about anything! It was His great love, and kindness and reality, that made me take the step of faith to say ‘yes’ to Him! Of course, much later , I became aware that I was a sinner saved by grace : “ For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by His grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.” ( Romans 3: 23-24).

According to New Dictionary of Theology, “ ‘regeneration’ or ‘new birth’ describes the inner renewal by the Spirit of God, which takes place when a person becomes a Christian.”1 It is well described in the following Scriptures: “He saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to His own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior.” (Titus 3: 5-6); and “Jesus answered him, ‘Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.” (John 3: 3). I believe that when we are converted , we are baptized with the Holy Spirit and it is the Holy Spirit who gives us ‘new-birth’ or ‘regeneration’, and who renews and restores us little by little. I believe initially a person has a ‘new-birth’ or becomes ‘born-again’ and then the Holy Spirit keeps renewing and restoring them, so that they have complete inner and outer healing, so that they become ‘whole’. And I believe, as I learned from Dr. Hayford, that a believer needs to ask the Holy Spirit at different times to refill them and refresh them, and that this never ends during their lifetime ; and I believe that this might continue to the next-life because believers are always growing to a next step of glory as long as they keep asking the Lord!

NOTES

1Sinclair B. Ferguson, David F. Wright and J.I. Packer, eds., New Dictionary of Theology, (Downers Grove: Inter-Varsity Press, 1988), 574.