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

ut the inner man, where we have put Christ on in baptism, must
also keep Christ on and bear witness to him in our outward life." 45
Wesley's warning was unmistakable:
Lean no more on the staff of that broken reed, that ye were born
again in baptism. Who denies that you were then made children
of God and heirs ofthe Kingdom of heaven? But, notwithstanding
this, ye are now children ofthe devil. Therefore, ye must be
born again.***
Note not only Wesley's admission that his listeners were born
again in baptism but also his clarity that the issue was where they
were now. He implies that they were not in a state of rebirth.
Fourth, baptismal regeneration is not lost by the slightest sin or even
unintentional disobedience against God. Spener maintained that the
Holy Spirit would not dwell in persons who sin maliciously, yield
themselves to sin, and do this unremittingly over a long period.
Wesley stated that the principle of grace infused at infant baptism
"will not be wholly taken away, unless we quench the Holy Spirit of
God by long-continued wickedness." 47
Fifth, both Spener and Wesley preached the Good News that
regeneration, possessed in infant baptism but subsequently lost, can
be recovered through regeneration brought about by the Word of
God. One of Spener's sixty-six sermons on the New Birth is entitled
"Repetition of the New Birth." It is based on Gal. 4:19, where Paul
tells his disciples in Asia Minor that he is in travail "until Christ be
formed again in you." Stressing the word again Spener promises the
recovery of a new birth once lost. 48
At the end of his sermon "The
New Birth," Wesley warns his auditors, whom he accused of having
denied their baptism through sin, and tells them they need to be born
again, whether they are baptized or unbaptized. Then, as if to lead
them to the new birth, he pleads, "Let me be born 'not of
corruptible seed, but incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth
and abideth forever' and then let me daily 'grow in grace and in the
knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ'!" 49
Lastly, Wesley's doctrine of sanctification, implied in the biblical
quotation listed immediately above, seems analogous to Spener's
accent on daily renewal of reborn believers. Emmanuel Hirsch
believed that renewal and sanctification were equivalents in Spener's
thought. 50
Parris read Wesley's commentary on Col. 2:12 to mean
54 QUARTERLY REVIEW / SPRING 1993