Regeneration is a word that theologians use to describe how someone becomes a believer in Christ.

I became a believer in Oxford in 1992 during the spring semester, and as I look back at that time,

it might be tempting to wonder, why is it that I reached out for Christ, while it's quite possible that the

person sitting in the pew right next to me did not? Was it because, I don't know, was it because I

listened a bit more closely or read the Bible more attentively somehow? It's embarrassing to talk like this, but was, was it because I was slightly more teachable

or slightly more humble?

Maybe I was just a bit braver or more selfless than the person sitting next to me, more

willing to make sacrifices?

I'm not talking about taking a huge amount of credit here.

Some have said that a person becoming a Christian is like a drowning person reaching out for a life

preserver. You wouldn't exactly say that by doing that, the drowning person was rescuing

themselves. But they do at least have to make some effort to reach out and

grab it. Christ, the life preserver, is clearly doing the heavy lifting in this act of rescue,

but nevertheless, you've got to take hold of him in order to be saved.

Well, is that the biblical picture of salvation?

At the heart of the issue is the question,

what does God actually do when a person comes to faith?

One writer puts the question like this. when the Holy Spirit regenerates a sinner, does he contribute only some power such that the sinner must add some of his own energy or

power to bring about the desired effect? That's the life preserver view of salvation, or is regeneration

a unilateral work of God? To put it yet another way, does God alone change the heart of the

sinner, or does the change of heart rest on the willingness of the sinner to be changed?

This latter view of regeneration is sometimes called synergism,

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