Regeneration

1. Irenaeus (c. 180) — “Through the Spirit we are made new, that we may live in God.”

   Regeneration as the Spirit’s recreating work.

   
   

2. Tertullian (c. 200) — “We little fishes, after the example of our great Fish, Jesus Christ, are born in water.”

   Emphasizes new birth imagery tied to spiritual renewal.

   
   

3. Origen (c. 230) — “The soul is renewed by the Spirit unto a new life.”

   Regeneration as inner transformation.

   
   

4. Athanasius (c. 318) — “He became what we are, that He might make us what He is.”

   Union with Christ as the basis of regeneration.

   
   

5. Augustine (c. 412) — “God gives what He commands; He renews the will from evil to good.”

   Regeneration as God’s sovereign renewal of the will.

   
   

6. Anselm (c. 1098) — “The soul is restored when it is turned again to God.”

   Regeneration as restoration of Godward orientation.

   
   

7. Martin Luther (1520) — “The new man is created by the Spirit, not by our works.”

   Regeneration as monergistic.

   
   

8. John Calvin (1559) — “Regeneration is the renewal of the man by the Spirit of God.”

   Clear doctrinal definition of new birth.

   
   

9. Heinrich Bullinger (1566) — “The Spirit regenerates us, making us new creatures in Christ.”

   New creation language.

   
   

10. John Owen (1657) — “Regeneration is a universal change of the whole man.”

    Total transformation, not partial improvement.

    
    

11. Thomas Watson (1668) — “Regeneration is God’s planting the seeds of holiness in the heart.”

    Implanting of new spiritual life.

    
    

12. Jonathan Edwards (1734) — “The new birth is a change of nature, not merely of practice.”

    Distinguishes regeneration from moral reform.

    
    

13. George Whitefield (1740) — “You must be born again; nothing else will do.”

    Urgency and necessity of regeneration.

    
    

14. John Wesley (1765) — “By the new birth, the heart is renewed in the image of God.”

    Restoration of the imago Dei.

    
    

15. Charles Spurgeon (1860) — “If you are renewed by grace, you will be anxious to leave your old self behind.”

    Regeneration produces a new disposition.

    
    

16. J. C. Ryle (1877) — “No salvation without regeneration—no spiritual life without a new birth.”

    The absolute necessity of regeneration.

    
    

17. Abraham Kuyper (1898) — “Regeneration is the divine act by which God implants new life in the soul.”

    Emphasizes divine initiative.

    
    

18. A. W. Pink (1930) — “Regeneration is a spiritual resurrection, a raising from the dead.”

    New birth as spiritual resurrection.

    
    

19. J. I. Packer (1993) — “Regeneration is a momentary monergistic act of quickening the spiritually dead.”

    Precise theological articulation of monergism.

    
    

20. Sinclair Ferguson (2000s) — “Regeneration is a divine activity in us, in which we are not the actors but the recipients.”

    Reinforces God’s sole agency in new birth.