1. Regeneration.
establishment of a new, namely spiritual, life. But that this rebirth consists in the kindling of faith in Christ is stated in 1 John 5:1: Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God (é« tod Ogod yeyévwnta1). Joh. 1:12- 13 says of those who believe in His (Christ's) name: "who are not of the blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but are born of God" (éx Ogod éyevvnPryoav) What Christ in John 3 said about the mysterious regeneration, in which Nicodemus could not find himself, he presents v. 14-15 with the words: "As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in Him may not perish but have eternal life. "So now"—says Luther (VII,
he teaches and writes. Whoever believes in Christ, that he was born, died and was buried for us, and rose again from the dead, is born again or is reborn... It is not because of how you dress, nor whether you are a woman or a man. For that makes you not regenerated, but that I believe in Christ who died for me." So did later dogmatists.!3°8) The rebirth is not only done through baptism (Tit. 3:6: 614 Aovtpob maAtyyeveciac), but also through the word of the gospel (1 Petr. 1:23: &vayeyevvnpévot... dd AOyou C@vtos Feo). Just as in baptism the power that works is not in the water itself, but in the divine promise that promises forgiveness of sins (aweotcg apaptiav, Acts 2:38) through the water bath. For It is not the water indeed that does them, but the word of God which is in and with the water, and faith, which trusts such word of God in the water.