The Surprising God

Christ on the Cross by Carl Heinrich Bloch Public domain via Wikimedia Commons (updated 1/2/2023) In discussing our inclusion in the triune life of God in and through Jesus, a question pertaining to the related issues of regeneration and evangelism often emerges. It goes something like this: Given our inclusion in Christ through his incarnation, life, suffering, death, resurrection and ascension; how are we to understand what happens to us when we are "born again" (regenerated) at the moment we turn to God in faith? The key issue in answering this question is understanding that Jesus (who is fully God and fully human) is the beginning point and the focus of all such questions. As I've wrestled with this topic, I've been aided by Thomas Torrance in his books The Mediation of Christ  and The Christian Doctrine of God.  Perhaps an excerpt concerning regeneration and evangelism from The Mediation of Christ  will contribute to our understanding: It is significant

This post continues a series in  The Shape of Practical Theology  by Trinitarian theologian Ray S. Anderson. For other posts in the series, click on a number:  1 ,  2 ,  3 ,  4 ,  5 ,  6 ,  7 ,  8 ,  9 , 10 ,  12 , 13 ,  14 ,  15 . Anderson notes that Jesus' mission "was not entirely completed in his death and resurrection" (p. 189). He understands that Jesus' missional activity continues as he sends the Spirit to form and gift the church to participate with him in his ongoing  paracletic ministry on earth. He Who is Without Sin by Liz Lemon Swindle (used with permission) Back to the future According to Anderson, Jesus' ongoing ministry has a decidedly "eschatological nature" in that it brings into the present, bit-by-bit and through the church, the future fullness of the kingdom. That is why Paul refers to the church as God's "new creation"---the out-working (or one might say the in-breaking) of what God has done to reconcile