Wilhelmus à Brakel: A Word To The Regenerate

From The Christian’s Reasonable Service.

I now wish to address myself to the truly regenerate. You, who earlier in this chapter have perceived with discernment what the nature of regeneration is, as well as what the various ways are in which God brings about regeneration, compare yourself therefore in the presence of an omniscient God, and consider whether you are in truth a recipient of this life (I am not referring here to the measure of life received). Judge in truth, take note, and do not deny it. If you may possess this life, do not belittle it with a show of humility, as if you had accomplished it and are downplaying your own work. For it is not your work, but rather the work of an omnipotent God. It is a much greater sin to deny grace and to belittle grace in us than it is to boast of grace which one does not possess. Draw the following conclusion therefore by saying, “I am convinced that regeneration is such. I am a partaker of it. I observe it in myself, and my conscience bears witness to this before God. It thus follows that I am regenerate.”

Let there not only be such a conclusion, but with the Ethiopian, the jailor, and Lydia, rejoice in this so that you may derive a most certain comfort from it.

(1) Therefore ascend to the fountain from which regeneration has proceeded: the eternal love and election of God. “Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love: therefore with lovingkindness have I drawn thee” (Jer 31:3); “Whom He did predestinate, them He also called” (Rom 8:30). You have thus eternally been loved and chosen by God, for you are regenerate.

(2) You are a child of God at this present moment, for God has of His own will begotten you with the Word of truth (James 1:18). You are born of God and therefore you are a child of God (John 1:12-13). God is thus your Father and will deal with you as a loving Father, and as a child you may request all things from Him and trust in Him.

(3) Your spiritual state is certain and unchangeable. “For the gifts and calling of God are without repentance” (Rom 11:29). Therefore, “He which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ” (Phil 1:6). Therefore rejoice and be not fearful of this good work being rescinded.

(4) By way of your regeneration focus upon eternal felicity as being your certain inheritance, and endeavor to live and rejoice in this expectation and hope. “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to His abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead” (1 Pet 1:3).

If you are regenerate, part fully with all who are dead, that is, with the unconverted, for they stink as badly as rotting corpses. Instead, join yourself to the living, and be “a companion of all them that fear Thee, and of them that keep Thy precepts” (Ps 119:63). Let all your desire be toward “the saints that are in the earth, and to the excellent” (Ps 16:3). Neither isolate nor separate yourself from the church, for otherwise your light will grow dim and your walk will be contrary to the nature of regeneration. “And the Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved” (Acts 2:47).

Be not merely satisfied with being regenerate and a partaker of life, but rather strive for growth and increase, for that is characteristic for whatever possesses life. “As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby” (1 Pet 2:2).

Live as a living soul; manifest your life by way of your deeds by the exercise of all virtues, in order that the difference between the dead and the living may thus be apparent. “Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin: but yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God” (Rom 6:13). AMEN.

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1 The Dutch word for “regeneration” is “wedergeboorte” which literally means “rebirth,” and is a derivative of the verb “to be born again”; hence à Brakel’s reference to human birth.
2 This statement should not be interpreted as if à Brakel were teaching here that the exercise of faith precedes regeneration. This is graphically confirmed by the fact that the chapter about regeneration (chapter 31) precedes the chapter about faith (chapter 32). Furthermore, the immediate context of this chapter, chapter 32 in its entirety, as well as the context of this entire work make it evident that à Brakel is here referring to the essence or habitus of faith, i.e., the propensity to believe, which God grants to the soul immediately upon and simultaneously with regeneration. For further clarification, see Rev. G. H. Kersten, Reformed Dogmatics, (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1980), p. 362.