Regeneration
What happens when an unbeliever responds to the gospel, trusts in Christ for salvation,and then changes his or her ways? Perhaps we should ask, "Why does this occur?" Jesus gave a simple answer to Nicodemus, "You must be born again" (John 3:3). Titus 3:5 actually renders this term "regeneration" calling it a "washing. . .and renewal of the Holy Spirit" (ESV).
Biblical References
Titus 3:5
2 Cor. 5:17
1 Pet. 1:23
1 John 2:29
Gal. 6:15
what does regeneration do?
In regeneration, God "re-creates" the sinner to newness of life (Reymond, Systematic Theology, 719). He cleanses the sinner's heart and washes away the defilement (though not completely). The sinner then responds in faith to the gospel. God places within the sinner spiritual life, enabling him or her to believe in Jesus, love others, and obey God. He makes us "alive with Christ" (Eph. 2:5), creating us and enabling us to do good works (Eph. 2:10). God plants within the believer a new nature, allowing us to be partakers of the divine nature escaping the corruption that is in the world through lust (2 Pet. 1:4).
When God makes new a sinner, He implants a principle of a new spiritual life in the soul, "effecting an instantaneous change in the whole man, intellectually, emotionally, and morally. . ." (Reymond, 720). The entire person now "moves in a Godward direction" (Louis Berkhof, Systematic Theology, 468). Therefore regenerate people will witness a change in their intellects (Eph. 1:18), their wills (Phil. 2:13), and even their emotions 1 Pet. 1:8). In light of the above stated truths, we have reason to suspect claims of faith in people who witness no change in their lives.
regeneration: a divine work
The individual has virtually no role in regeneration because it is an exclusive work of God. God takes the initiative, not waiting for the sinner to turn to Him, something the sinner is unable to do (see John 6:44-45; 6:65). People turn to Christ not in order to be regenerated, but because they are regenerated. In conversion, man turns to God, a conversion that takes place because God first "makes alive," or regenerates the sinner. As such, he is "purely passive" (Berkhof, 465). This is not to say when sinners hear the gospel they should sit and do nothing. On the contrary, when God calls a sinner to Himself He or she will flee to Christ as the only remedy for sin.
In times past, many Protestant and Reformed theologians have included in regeneration everything from conviction of sin all the way through the sanctification of the believer throughout life. We will use regeneration in the strict sense of imparting new life to the spiritually dead.
regeneration and conversion
Though some unfortunately have combined these two terms into one thought or process, they represent two different operations, though occurring close in time. "Regeneration, accordingly, is an act; conversion is an activity, or a process. Regeneration is the origination of life [the beginning of new life in Christ]; conversion is the evolution [process] and manifestation of life. Regeneration is wholly an act of God; conversion is wholly an activity of man" (Shedd, Dogmatic Theology, II, 494).
So God imparts the divine principle of new life within us, which is regeneration, which allows us to turn to Him in repentance and faith, which is conversion. "Who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God" (John 1:13).