Dogmatic Theology Vol 2 - Shedd - XXIX - Chapter 3 Regeneration concluded

Required reading  

Dogmatic Theology Vol 2 by William G.T. Shedd (Available from Amazon or here) - Conclude Chapter 3 'Regeneration'.

My summary  

Firstly, today, Shedd notices several particulars in connection with the doctrine that God is the sole author of regeneration:

(i) the reason for expecting the regeneration of men is found in God's promise to bestow regeneration, not in man's power to produce it;

(ii) a second ground of hope and expectation that sinners will be regenerated is the fact that under the gospel dispensation God's regenerating grace is being continually exerted;

(iii) a third reason for the expectation that sinners will be regenerated, is the fact that God has promised to pour out the regenerating Spirit in answer to the prayers of the church.

Then Shedd teaches us that man's relation to regeneration is not regeneration itself, but in the work of conviction. Man is to perform the following duties in order to be convicted of sin:

(i) reading and hearing the divine word;

(ii) serious application of the mind and examination of the truth in order to understand and feel its force;

(iii) prayer for the gift of the Holy Spirit.

The rest of the chapter answers objections to Shedd's teaching the unregenerate to pray.

What grabbed me

I enjoyed the encouragement for unbelievers to pray: 

''It is not until he [the unregenerate man] has discovered that legal conviction, legal illumination, resolutions to reform, external reformation reading and bearing the word, and prayer itself cannot change the heart, that he leaves all these behind him, and begs God immediately and instantaneously to do this needed work in his soul. The prayer for regenerating grace is, in truth, the most energetic and pressing act that the sinner can perform. It is the farthest removed of any from procrastination. It is an immediate act on the part of the sinner, and it entreats God to do an instantaneous work within him.'

Next week's reading    

Read Chapter IV 'Conversion'.

Now it's your turn

Please post your own notes and thoughts in the comments section below.