TJieodore W. Jennings, Jr. The Meaning of ... - Quarterly Review

Although there is only scant likelihood that he might have directly
influenced the predecessor bodies that form our United Methodist
Church, Philipp Jakob Spener, the leading seventeenth-century
German Lutheran Pietist, affirmed a position somewhat similar to
Wesley's. Spener (1635-1705) stressed the Wedergeburt (the New
Birth), which was a gift of God and was necessary for salvation. 42
For Spener the three basic elements comprising the New Birth were:
faith is created by the Word of God in the heart; forgiveness,
justification, and adoption are given to the believer; and an entirely
other and new nature is created in the believer. 43
Spener taught that the new birth was given in infant baptism. But
it was almost always lost afterward and needed to be regained if
salvation were to occur. For Spener, God's power permeates
baptism. Infant baptism was the practice in Lutheran Germany.
Spener felt that infants at baptism are regenerated or born again
because they lacked the ability to resist God's grace. Unfortunately,
most people later lose their baptismal regeneration in living
according to the old nature, seeking in this life honors, riches, or
pleasure and refusing to be obedient to God in all areas of life. In
order to be saved, they need to experience the new birth once again
through the Word in true repentance. Following this second rebirth,
the believer must cooperate with the Spirit of God in being daily
renewed, so that the spiritual life begun at New Birth might be
continued for the rest of this life. Renewal is the Holy Spirit working
through the Word and sacraments to impart us power to remain
steadfast in the new nature.
Spener's classic example of this New Birth was King David of
Israel. David was reborn at circumcision. Why else would he taunt
Goliath by calling him "uncircumcised"? Then, in the Bathsheba
affair, in which David committed adultery and murder and persisted
for a long time in his sins, he lost the New Birth and fell from grace.
When David was made aware of his sin, he repented. His Psalm 51
prayer, "Create in me a clean heart, O God, and put a new and
right spirit within me," reflected rebirth by the Word of God, which
came through the prophet Nathan. Renewal followed David's
rebirth.
Spener compared the New Birth to physical
conception—something done out of pure grace and instandy.
Renewal is like the gestation period. It is slow and gradual, and it
52 QUARTERLY REVIEW / SPRING 1993