Regeneration - an imperfect change

 

"Finally, for all the positive things we can say about the new birth it is right to remind ourselves that, as Boston notes, it is an imperfect change. Just as a newborn baby is not a mature man, so a newborn Christian has plenty of developing to do. It is important that we do not expect too much. Thomas Watson says, ‘The new creature is but begun here; it is not perfected or drawn in all its orient colours till it comes to heaven.’ Calvin warns, ‘There still remains in a regenerate man a fountain of evil, continually producing irregular desires.’ The fight against sin goes on to the end. We should pray with Wesley, 'Finish, then, Thy new creation; Pure and spotless may we be.' It is not ‘Till in heaven we take our place’ that we will know the perfect restoration found in Christ."

From my book What the Bible teaches about being born again, p 43

In regeneration everything changes

 

"Unconverted people who are interested in Christianity will sometimes ask what they have to give up to become Christians. Perhaps the best answer to that question is ‘everything’. When you are born again, everything changes. Nothing is ever quite the same again. As the seed grows, its tendrils reach out into every nook and cranny. No part of life is exempt."

From my book What the Bible teaches about being born again, pp 42,43

Renaissance

 

"We must never think of new birth as something partial. Just as man is totally depraved by nature, meaning that every part is tainted (sin affects every element in man), so, when he is renewed, he is renewed entirely. There is a total renaissance."

From my book What the Bible teaches about being born again, p 40