At its heart, the Christian gospel message is that if a person has
faith in Jesus Christ, their sins will be forgiven and they will be reconciled
to God.
Another important part of this message is that if a person has
faith in Christ, God responds by causing that person to be regenerated, which
is also known as being born again. Regeneration involves receiving a Holy
Spirit-empowered, supernatural form of life.
Receiving forgiveness and being regenerated, then, are two aspects
of what is involved in becoming a Christian, and they both follow on from a
person coming to saving faith.
Those who claim that regeneration
leads to faith
You will often hear Calvinist Christians claiming, however, that faith
does not lead to regeneration, but that it is actually regeneration that leads
to faith. Most Calvinists believe that God causes some people to receive the
Spirit in regeneration, and that this leads to their coming to faith in Christ.
It is true that not all Calvinists take this view. Some side with
the majority Christian position that faith leads to regeneration. But most
Calvinists claim that regeneration leads to faith.
This idea fits very
poorly with the Bible
This idea that regeneration leads to faith actually fits very
poorly with the teaching of the Bible.
There are one or two passages which might at first sight seem to
teach this. However, they can easily be interpreted in a different way.
Just as importantly, there are numerous passages which strongly
support the position that faith leads to regeneration. These include John 1:11-13;
3:14-16; 5:40; 6:40; 20:31; Acts 2:38; 8:5-17; 9:10-17; 11:17; 19:1-7; Galatians
3:2; Ephesians 1:13.
For a defence of the majority Christian position that faith leads
to regeneration, see my article, “Does
Faith Lead to Regeneration or Vice Versa?”
Why do so many
Calvinists say that regeneration leads to faith?
Since the Bible teaches that faith leads to regeneration, why is
it, then, that so many Calvinists claim that regeneration leads to faith? What
motivates them to say this?
There seem to be two reasons.
First, many Calvinists wrongly think that a person can only have
saving faith if they have first been regenerated.
And second, many Calvinists seem to wrongly think that the
Calvinist doctrine of unconditional election requires that regeneration leads
to faith.
Let’s think about each of these points in turn.
Saving faith does not
require prior regeneration
Firstly, then, many Calvinists think it is impossible for a human
being to have saving faith without first being regenerated.
Those who take this view often point to biblical texts that refer
to God’s work in people’s lives before they have faith.
For example, in John 6:44 Jesus states:
“No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him.” (English Standard Version)
Calvinists often argue that this verse implies that a person must
be regenerated in order to have faith. Jesus is saying, so the argument goes,
that no one can come to Him in faith unless the Father first draws that person
by regenerating them.
It is right to say that the coming to Jesus in this text is a
coming in faith. However, it is unwarranted to assume that the drawing by the
Father must include regeneration. That is to read something into the text that simply
isn’t there.
It is true that this verse is teaching that God always works in
people’s lives before they come to saving faith. No one can come to faith
without His awakening and enabling. All Christians agree on this.
However, it is wrong to just assume that the activity of God in a
person’s life leading up to the point when they first have faith has to include
regeneration. In fact, all God needs to do is to awaken and enliven the person
enough for them to have faith. And there is no good reason to think that this
enlivening must go as far as regeneration.
It is a mistake, then, to think that people need to be regenerated
in order to have faith.
Regeneration leading
to faith is not necessary for unconditional election
There also seems to be a second reason why many Calvinists think
that regeneration must lead to faith. Many seem to believe that the doctrine of
unconditional election is dependent on regeneration leading to faith.
Unconditional election is a key doctrine of Calvinism. It is the
belief that God alone chooses who is saved, and that human beings have no real
say in the matter. All Calvinists believe that those who become Christians
could not possibly have chosen to reject Christ, and that those who do not
become Christians could not possibly have chosen to accept Him.
In Calvinist theology, God sees to it that His chosen ones become
Christians, and that those He has not chosen do not. So Calvinists believe that
when a person comes to faith in Christ, God has fully caused that person to
have faith.
Most Christians do not take this view, but believe that God gives
people a genuine ability to choose or reject Christ. Personally, I prefer the
view that people usually have genuine ability to choose or reject Him, although
this is something that I have not yet been able to reach a clear conclusion on.
It seems that many Calvinists think that in order for God to cause
people to come to faith, He must regenerate them prior to their having faith.
However, the issue of whether or not God causes people to come to
faith in Christ should not be confused with the issue of the relationship of
faith to regeneration.
Even if we were to say, with Calvinists, that God fully causes
people to come to saving faith, there is no need to assume that people have to
be regenerated before having faith. The following series of steps would fit
just as well with Calvinism:
(1) God awakens those He has chosen for salvation, so that they
are capable of having saving faith.
(2) He causes these people to come to faith.
(3) He responds to that faith by regenerating (and forgiving).
In fact, a minority of Calvinist theologians accept that God works
according to these steps. They rightly understand that unconditional election
can easily fit with faith leading to regeneration.
A pointless idea
We have seen, then, that faith does not depend on prior
regeneration. And we have seen too that the doctrine of unconditional election
does not depend on regeneration leading to faith.
Not only, therefore, is the idea that regeneration leads to faith
a wrong one. It is also a pointless one. It is not necessary for Christian
beliefs generally. And it is not even necessary for Calvinist beliefs.
When Christians come up with a wrong idea because that idea is
necessary for holding some other (wrong) belief, that is frustrating enough. But
when Christians come up with a wrong idea that is not even necessary for
anything else, that is even more frustrating.
And this seems to be what has happened here. Calvinists have come
up with the unbiblical idea that regeneration leads to faith, because they
think that the Christian faith and the Calvinist theological system depend on
this idea.
But these things don’t depend on this idea at all. If we accept,
as we should do, that faith leads to regeneration, this in no way has to
conflict with the Christian faith or with Calvinist theology. And even some Calvinists
accept this.
Causing problems
The idea that regeneration leads to faith is not just pointless
and unnecessary. It causes problems too, not least in the way that it distorts
the gospel message.
Part of this message is that coming to Jesus in faith leads to a
person being born into new life. See John 1:12-13; 3:14 -16; 5:40 ; 6:40 ; 20:31 . We need to keep this part of the Christian message
intact. And this can only happen if we insist that faith leads to regeneration.
I would therefore encourage any Calvinists who are reading this to
firmly reject the unbiblical idea that regeneration leads to faith. But this
can be done without rejecting Calvinism.
See also: