Putting the lie to regeneration myths (sequel to “An open letter to pastors & adoptive parents”)

Pastors and adoptive parents share another experience and learned wisdom which didn’t easily lend itself to the exhortations I gave both groups in “An open letter to pastors & adoptive parents.” They both understand the popular myth attendant on regeneration is precisely that: a myth.

By that, I don’t mean regeneration is a myth. Jesus said we must be born again (John 3:16), and Paul taught that Christians are new creations in Christ (2 Corinthians 5:16-17). This is a work of the Holy Spirit, a new birth by which we obtain the faculty to repent and believe on the Cross of Christ for salvation. Unfortunately, many wrongly deduce from this Biblical truth the faulty conclusion that regeneration fixes people. This is as wrong as an Alaskan summer day is long.

Saved people are sinners. Hooo boy are they sinners. Ask your pastor. You got your socially acceptable sins and your socially unacceptable sins, but everybody’s got a raft of them. Sermons help, and sometimes dramatic pastoral interventions help. But as I like to say, the work of the Christian ministry is the long, slow, tedious task of helping the average Christian to not go to hell over the course of their average 70 to 80-year lifespan. Put them in the grave with the hope of the resurrection, and you’ve done well.

Likewise parenting, and especially adoptive parenting. Kids don’t get fixed. There’s no therapy or intervention or dramatic confrontation that does the trick. It’s more or less the same thing, day in, day out, with little noticeable change or improvement. Lord willing, you wake up one morning and, sometime after the coffee has kicked in, you might notice that the kid isn’t quite as twitchy or annoying as you’d gotten used to him being. But there is always, always, much room for improvement.

The regenerational myth is hardwired into American culture. We believe in the quick fix as an article of religious faith, a creed which is recited by every happily-ending romantic comedy. But it’s not true, and it’s okay to say that. In fact, we need to say that so we can accept the callings God has placed on pastors and parents alike to imitate our Lord’s long-suffering grace and mercy to us.