What does it mean to be “born again”?
In part 20 of our 34-part theology series, we learn about regeneration,
the secret act of God in which he imparts
new spiritual life to us. It is also called being “born again” because
of the way Jesus describes it in John 3:3–8.
Regeneration is the third in a series of actions by which God
applies redemption to those who become part of His kingdom, right after election
and the gospel call. These actions are
the beginning of the process by which we are saved and mature as Christians.
This Doctrine of Regeneration is the subject of lesson 20 of
my 34 lessons in systematic theology. Anyone who reads the Bible on a regular
basis has begun to develop a “theology” of who God is and what he has revealed
of Himself to man down through history. But is it organized to the point where
you can confidently say “this is what the Bible teaches” on a particular topic,
or do you just base your beliefs on random verses that could well be
misunderstood because they are taken out of context?
My confidence in going out to share the Gospel with
strangers comes largely from my study of “Systematic Theology”, which I’ll
define as learning what the whole Bible teaches us about a given topic. I’m
confident that I’m not misrepresenting God as revealed in his Word, and I’m
confident when people make unbiblical claims about God that challenge my own
beliefs. I’m increasingly amazed by the consistency of the Bible, written by so
many human authors but without contradiction, that I can only conclude it was
written by divine inspiration.
I’ve gained so much personally from my systematic study of
theology that I’m teaching a 34-week class on it at church, based on Dr. Wayne
Grudem’s books “Systematic Theology” and “Bible Theology”. I’m excited to dig
deeper personally as I prepare the outlines and lessons, and I want to take as
many people along with me on this journey as possible. So I am recording the
class and posting the videos to my YouTube channel, and making downloadable PDF
chapter outlines and audio recordings available on a Google Drive folder as
well.
Care to join me? Links to my YouTube channel and shared
resources are as follows:
Lesson 20: https://youtu.be/6Mv58gmPLRQ
Video: YouTube.com/c/JeffReiman
Shared Resources folder: https://tinyurl.com/yxy2kb56
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