Regeneration is the work of God the Holy Spirit as He supernaturally and immediately changes the disposition of the soul from spiritual death to spiritual life.
Conversion is a result of regeneration. When we are converted, we’re turned around and we move in a different direction. Sproul.
Conversion according to scripture involves a change of mind, a change in the evaluation of things. After conversion a man fosters different views concerning God and Christ and sin and salvation than he did before his conversion.
1 Corinthians 2:
12 Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might understand the things freely given us by God. 13 And we impart this in words not taught by human wisdom but taught by the Spirit, interpreting spiritual truths to those who are spiritual.
14 The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned. 15 The spiritual person judges all things, but is himself to be judged by no one.
Regeneration is first in the order of salvation.
Maybe Bob was correct
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Regeneration is conversion. Conversion from what to what? From death to life.
Chronologically speaking, the first time we read of "regeneration in the New Testament is Matthew 19 and it is eschatological, not soteriological.
Matthew 19:28
And Jesus said to them, "Truly I say to you, that you who have followed me, in the regeneration when the Son of Man will sit on His glorious throne, you also shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.
Or I suppose we could say it is an overlap of eschatology and soteriology, but for our purposes it speaks of a future regeneration of the already regenerate. Thankfully, the unregenerate won't be judging the tribes of Israel. The Greek word here is "
palingenesia," and some English translations translate the term as "
renewal," which is curious because of the next text worth citing. Soteriologically speaking, the recently much debated in CARM text from Titus 3:5-7 states.
Titus 3:5-7
He saved us, not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness, but according to His mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out upon us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that being justified by His grace we would be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life.
Here in Titus we have both regeneration (
palingenesia) and renewal (
anakainōseōs). Some translations translate this "
palingenesia" as "
rebirth." This Titus regeneration is a regeneration of "
washing." God saved us.... by the washing of regeneration. What is being washed? Well, the answer to that question might take several posts because the scriptures speak a great deal about washing but for now I'll suggest the chief washing is that of the washing away of sins and limit my post accordingly. Soteriologically speaking regeneration is the washing away of sins. We normally refer to washing in terms of sanctification, or being purified and made holy (separated for sacred purpose), so we see there is an overlap between regeneration and sanctification.
As to the "
rebirth," that's how we typically connect
palingenesia to John 3:3's "
born again" or "
born anew from above" (
gennethe anothen). As far as the Greek goes these are not the same words. Shall I split more hairs? Jesus later informs his "
born again" comment by saying, "
you must be born again... born of the Spirit" (vss. 7-8). So, the rebirth or new birth of John 3:3 is a birth of the Spirit. Is it correct exegesis to connect this to the regeneration and renewal mentioned in Titus 3, after all that renewing is by the Holy Spirit. According to 1 Peter 1:2 the Holy Spirit is also what does the sanctifying but there are probably at least a half dozen ways the scriptures speak of our sanctification (Jesus said his followers were sanctified in truth by his sanctification
).
Lastly, and I post this at the risk of provoking old, tiresome well-worn debates but Jesus said, "
Truly, truly, I say to you, the one who hears My word, and believes Him who sent Me, has eternal life, and does not come into judgment, but has passed out of death into life" (Jn. 5:24). The Arminian and the other soteriological synergists read this to imply a sequence between hearing, believing, and
then having eternal life, even though the word "then" is absent and there's no explicit report of sequence. They also read into the text some causations. A person doesn't believe unless they have heard, and they do not have eternal life unless they have believed. The Calvinist and those of the other monergist povs, on the other hand, see a simple statement of overlapping or co-occurring conditions. The one who hears (already) has eternal life. The one who believes (already) has eternal life. The one who has eternal life hears, the one who has eternal life believes. The synergist inserts a "then," and the monergist inserts an "already."
Off to work. There's more to be said but this is all I can post now. Have at it
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