Rejoicing in Regeneration and Hope

Apart from God making the dead to live, we have no hope. A person cannot glorify God unless and until God gives new life, aka regeneration. It's solely due to God's free sovereign choice, aka election. Romans 9 tells us so.

It is not due to human willpower or choice. You hear the Gospel telling you of Christ’s once-for-all sacrifice for sin, calling you to turn from your sins and follow Jesus. If you respond in faith and repentance, it results in conversion.

You experience immediate justification, ongoing sanctification, and ultimately promised and assured glorification. You are brought into the family of God, and find you have a newfound hunger for His Word, and the fellowship of His people, and you desire the salvation of the nations.

It is all because of God’s sovereign choice and initiative. None of it can be attributed to humans. We were dead and God made us alive. We responded by faith because God granted us faith to believe.

Sometimes we wrongly focus on what we did so we think we must have determined it (John 15:16). Such is not the case. God determines the eternal destiny of every person. Every person must deal with the truth of the gospel. Everyone will be held accountable for their own sins.

If someone refuses or rejects Christ, they will bear the penalty. Yet, all glory in salvation goes to God alone. All who have new life in Christ because of the resurrection of Christ will praise the glory of God's grace forever.

Our grateful praise while in exile on earth is imperfect. Our eternal praise will be perfect in our heavenly home. This is why I am rejoicing in regeneration right now. And why I have recited Psalm 100 almost every day since 1982.

Because God saved my soul. He is the creator and sustainer of all things. Jesus the sovereign Savior was promised in the garden, the gospel was preached to Abraham, it was restated in the wilderness, it was repeated by the Prophets, it was sung of in the Psalms, it was anticipated in exile, it was seen in the first century, it was proclaimed to the nations at Pentecost, and it marches on today unhindered.

The Bible tells me so. God says. So I rejoice in regeneration and rest today with my soul anchored by this living hope.