"He that believeth not shall be damned ..." (Mark 16:16). "... Except ye repent, ye shall likewise perish" (Luke 13:3). The congruency of the two terms (faith and repentance) is glaringly apparent, and their correlation bespeaks invariable accompaniment. Repentance and faith are the sure fruits of hearing and believing the gospel (Mark 1:15), and all who obey the gospel are regenerated or quickened by the Spirit (I Peter 3:18). The Lord said in giving His church the gospel commission, "Repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name among all nations ..." (Luke 24:47), and that great gospel herald, Paul, said: "So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God" (Romans 10:17).

Paul was miraculously called of God to preach to the Gentiles, and he was not disobedient to his heavenly calling, but showed to the Gentiles that they should repent, and turn to God (Acts 26:19-20). But Paul was not the first man to preach the gospel to the Gentiles, for that great honor had been eternally reserved for His impetuous and God-fearing Apostle, Peter. Peter said unto the apostles and elders: "... Men and brethren, ye know how that a good while ago God made choice among us, that the Gentiles by my mouth should hear the word of the gospel, and believe" (Acts 15:6-7). An angel had instructed a Gentile by the name of Cornelius to "Send men to Joppa, and call for Simon, whose surname is Peter; Who shall tell thee words, whereby thou and all thy house shall be saved" (Acts 11:13-14). These words restate the axiom that the gospel must be heard and believed in order to be saved.

All who make regeneration subject to time elements unduly complicate the matter, and make God’s redemptive decree subservient to supposed intervals between repentance, faith, and regeneration. Salvation is not dualistic or a trilateral event divided by time and experience, but is the undivided work of the timeless God of heaven, in Whom there can be no waiting period, for He is the eternal NOW. The unchangeable character of time is that of urgency, and urgency is alien to the nature of God. To contend there is an element of time, be it ever so infinitesimal, between repentance, faith, and regeneration is to bedim the glory of the sovereign Saviour of sinners. Salvation is of the Lord, and He will not share the glory of it with any created thing (Isaiah 48:11).

The entrance of Divine light into the soul is instantaneous, and light and darkness are simultaneously exclusive, since one cannot abide in the presence of the other, for one is contrary to the other and never more so than in the spiritual sense.

When God breathed into the nostril of soulless and lifeless Adam, he "... became a living soul" (Genesis 2:7). The life of Adam did not come to him in installments, but instantly. There was not a time-lapse or gap between God’s inbreathing and Adam’s life, and while Adam’s life was an effect of God’s inbreathing, it was not subsequent to it. Cause and effect are laws of nature, but while God is the Author of the laws of nature, He is not bound by them; for absolute sovereignty cannot be bound. Paul was bound by chains, but he said, "... The word of God is not bound" (Acts 21:33; II Timothy 2:9), for it is the sword of the Spirit whereby and wherewith the innumerable host of God’s elect are regenerated. It is owing to this divine postulate, or axiom, that Paul said to the Corinthian saints "... For in Christ Jesus I have begotten you through the gospel" (I Corinthians 4:15).

The blind man referred to in Mark’s gospel (Mark 10:46-52), whom the Lord healed did not receive his sight by progression of light, but Jesus said unto him, "Go thy way; thy faith hath made thee whole. And immediately he received his sight, and followed Jesus in the way". This man received his natural vision, and that without the least involvement of time. His healing was supernatural and miraculous, and time was in no way a factor in his healing experience. Miracles are humanly incomprehensible; otherwise they would not be miracles. And so it is with regeneration. It also is miraculous and defies human understanding, but being a miracle, no time is involved by the Holy Spirit in effecting it.

"What communion hath light with darkness?" (II Corinthians 6:14). Paul did not ask this question because he did not know the answer, but he asked it to highlight the distinction between sin (darkness), and God-given truth (light). Spiritual light and darkness are antagonistic, and are eternally divided. There can be no degree of mixture between them, much less merger as the ecumenical churches suggest. "Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness" (Isaiah 5:20).

"Is Christ divided?" (I Corinthians 1:13).

Someone may say: "Regeneration is not Christ, and Christ is not regeneration." This statement is true, for one (Christ) is the Author; and the other (regeneration) is the product. But it is through the medium of regeneration that Christ indwells the believer. The Holy Spirit dwells in the believer (I Corinthians 3:16), Christ dwells in the believer, and He is the hope of glory (Colossians 1:27). God dwells in the believer (I John 4:12), and the Holy Trinity dwells in the believer "for truth’s sake, which dwelleth in us, and shall be with us for ever" (II John 1:2). The "truth" is Christ, (John 14:6), and Christ cannot be separated from the regenerated soul. To say that regeneration comes by gradualism, or in successive stages, is to say that Christ was in some degree of time absent from the soul during its regeneration.

There is not, and cannot be a partially-regenerated soul. God is the Giver of life, and life never comes in measures of allotted time, for if so, then time would be sovereign and God would be restricted to its boundaries. Perish the thought, for it is utterly foolish! The "gap" theory of regeneration is a debasing of Him who said: "My sheep hear my voice ... and I give unto them eternal life" (John 10: 27, 28). The gospel is the voice of Christ, and the divine channel through which regeneration comes in its entirety or fullness. Christ said to the legalistic young man who adhered to the Mosaic code with all of his strength: "One thing thou lackest ..." (Mark 10:21). The "one thing" which the young man desperately needed was Holy Spirit regeneration, and Christ referred to it as a single quantity, complete in itself. The disciples of Christ knew that He was referring to regeneration when He said to the young man, "One thing thou lackest", for their immediate and anxious question addressed to Christ was: "Who then can be saved?" (Luke 18:26), for they knew they could not rebirth themselves.

It took zero time for Christ to give physical regeneration to the dead, buried, and decaying body of Lazarus (John 11:43-44). It took zero time for Him to change the water into wine, and it takes the same nonexistent period for the Holy Spirit to give life and light to all that obey the gospel, for they have been chosen of God unto salvation "through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth: Whereunto he called you by our gospel, to the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ" (II Thessalonians 2:13, 14).

The contention that regeneration comes in a division of steps or stages is a cause for confusion and doubt, for there is no way to determine or ascertain the time of any subsequent step. However, there is no second step as some people claim. The supposed interim between the initial step, and all subsequent steps in regeneration, would no doubt cause great anguish of soul, no matter how rapidly they may follow. Christ is the Personified gospel, and cannot be divided (I Corinthians 1:13). The Lord spoke very clearly, saying: "He that believeth on the Son hath life ..." (John 3:36). Not merely a part of life, but life that cannot be diminished, or made subject to death, for it is of God, and is endowed by Him with a nature that cannot sin (I John 3:9). God uses the Holy Spirit anointed gospel to regenerate His people, and with regeneration comes faith in the Christ of the gospel, in Whom they are complete (Colossians 2:10).

In the realm of logic or human reasoning, study and learning is invariably progressive and it precedes believing. But in the domain of theological science, belief in Christ is previous to and necessary to all profitable study and learning of the word of God (I Corinthians 2:14; II Timothy 3:7). In regeneration there is an implantation of a holy nature, and its out-workings are the sure evidence of the new birth, for it manifests the fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22-23).

Repentance and faith are the two parts and gifts of God which constitute regeneration, and they come with absolute cohesion and coherence, for their connection cannot be broken. Repentance and faith are parts of the singular and immediate work of the Holy Spirit in making the gospel of redemptive grace effectual for, and in the family of God’s elect. The gospel is never preached without effect. To some it is a stumbling (Romans 1:16). It is the "savour of life" in them that believe (II Corinthians 2:15-16), and the "savour of death" in them that obey not the gospel of God (I Peter 4:17).

To divide the work of regeneration by an unfolding or developing procedure, demands an indefinite staying of the secondary, and all other parts in the order or series of events leading unto regeneration. If a person is granted repentance, but must wait some degree of time for the gift of faith, is the person who has repented saved during the waiting for faith? We know that "without faith it is impossible to please God" (Hebrews 11:6). So then, whatever the time-lapse be (who is so daring as to venture a guess as to its measure of time), the repentant person would yet be an unbeliever, for he as yet has no faith in God. This deduction is forced upon us from Scripture and logic, and it necessarily follows the premise which calls for a division of faith and repentance in regeneration. However, it is a deduction needlessly drawn, for that (division in regeneration) which forces it upon us has no basis in Scripture.

We do not speak derogatorily of time, for time is the gift of God and the saint is to do his utmost in redeeming it for the honor of God, and for his own esteem at the mercy seat of Christ, for we all must give an account of our earthly pilgrimage unto God (Romans 14:12; Ephesians 5:16).

"Reformation is a tedious and protracted process; regeneration is INSTANTANEOUS (emphasis OBM) and complete. In short, reformation is human; regeneration is Divine". A. W. Pink - The New Birth, Page 6

The new birth or regeneration is not man turning over a new leaf, nor is it by the best of man’s intentions, but it is a miraculous and creative act of the Holy Spirit. "It is the Spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing" (John 6:63). Regeneration does not come by ancestral lineage, as the Jews believed (John 8:39), nor is it a product of the will of man, but it is of God (John 1:13). Christ, in His dialogue with Nicodemus, said: "That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit" (John 3:6). In these words, Christ clearly shows the distinction and eternal demarcation between the works of the flesh and that of the Spirit. Arminianism is grossly blinded to this truth, for that God-debasing system teaches that salvation comes by an integration of the powers of the flesh and the Spirit, and they (decisionists) point to their statistics as proof positive of their cooperation with God in His effort to save mankind.

Arminianism is "another gospel: Which is not another; but there be some that trouble you, and would pervert the gospel of Christ" (Galatians 1:6-7). Satan has taken the false gospel of decisionism, and has by it deceived multitudes of people. He has taken the Spirit and the flesh, which are diametrically opposed and radically different, and produced a counterfeit and soul-damning harmony. The works or freewill gospel is the antithesis of the gospel of grace, and they cannot be mixed; otherwise Christ died for nothing (Galatians 2:21). Paul graphically warns of Satan’s convoluted concoction, saying: "Be not deceived; God is not mocked: (fooled) for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting" (Galatians 6:7-8).

As aggressive and popular as Arminianism is with the religious world, sovereign grace Baptists should not be dismayed by it, nor be reluctant to preach the instrumentality of the gospel of free grace in the regeneration of God’s elect; for we know that God shall "save His people from their sins", and we know that He shall save them by making the gospel call effectual unto them. "Let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not" (Galatians 6:19). The revelation and the effectuation of regeneration is by the omnipresent Spirit, Who is incapable of failure, and His instrument of accomplishment is the glorious gospel of Jesus Christ (John 14:26; Hebrews 4:12).

"So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it" (Isaiah 55:11). The instrumentality and sovereignty of God’s word is not a New Testament innovation, but is equally an Old Testament truth. The Psalmist said: "Salvation is far from the wicked: for they seek not thy statutes" (Psalm 119:155). The gospel of the Old Testament and that of the New Testament are not merely enjoined, but they are one and the same gospel, for God has never had but one way of saving His people, and that is by grace through faith in His living Word and in His spoken word. Thus it is, the Psalmist insuperably declares: "I will never forget thy precepts: for with them thou hast quickened me" (Psalm 119:93).