Justification and Regeneration: Practical Writings on Saving Faith (Witherspoon, John)

Description

Healthy doctrines of justification and regeneration have always been essential to the Christian's faith and knowledge of God. In the context of 18th century Great Britain and its American Colonies, few treatments were as highly regarded as John Witherspoon's An Essay on Justification and A Practical Treatise on Regeneration, both reprinted in this volume.

Providing a careful summary of Witherspoon's life and thought, Kevin DeYoung's introduction and notes are an invaluable guide to these classic works. Justification and Regeneration is both milk and solid food for the Christian–an incisive study of the converted person's standing before God, along with a pastoral exploration of the power of that conversion.

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Endorsements

“John Witherspoon is often portrayed as a patriot, academic, moralist, or churchman. These are all true. But here in these essays on justification and regeneration, carefully edited by Kevin DeYoung, we discover that Witherspoon was preeminently a theologian and gospel preacher. This descendent of John Knox was deeply committed to the imputation of the righteousness of Christ and the necessity of the new birth through the supernatural work of the Holy Spirit. I’m grateful to Dr. DeYoung for pointing readers once again to what the influential college president, patriot, and Presbyterian preacher held to be ‘the doctrine of Christ, the Scripture method of salvation,’ and ‘fundamental truth,’ as well as the ‘substance of religion,’ namely that ‘except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.’ The works reprinted here are wonderful evidence that Witherspoon, the only clergyman who signed the Declaration of Independence, not only believed in the great American cause, but more importantly, believed in the cause of the cross of Christ.”

Peter A. Lillback, Westminster Theological Seminary

Table of Contents

Introduction by Kevin DeYoung . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ix

Preface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xxi

Part I: An Essay on Justification

Letter to the Reverend Mr. James Hervey, etc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

An Essay on Justification . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

Defining the Doctrine . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

Benefit #1: Conviction Regarding the Law’s Obligation

for All . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

Benefit #2: A Strong Sense of the Evil of Sin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14

Benefit #3: A Proper View of the Danger of Sin . . . . . . . . . . . . 18

Benefit #4: A Sense of the Holiness of the Divine Nature . . . . . 21

Benefit #5: Motivation for Obedience . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23

Benefit #6: Supreme Love to God . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27

A Great Encouragement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34

Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44

Part II: A Practical Treatise on Regeneration

Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51

Chapter I . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57

Section I . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58

Section II . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62

Section III . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67

Section IV . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86

Chapter II . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95

Section I . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95

Section II . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99

Section III . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106

Section IV . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118

Chapter III . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133

Section I . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135

Section II . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142

Section III . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149

Section IV . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 158

Section V . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 166

Section VI . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 174

Section VII . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 179

Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 185

Index of Subjects and Names . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 201

Index of Scripture References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 205

Product Details

Title: Justification and Regeneration: Practical Writings on Saving Faith  

Author: Witherspoon, John 

Publisher: Westminster Seminary Press

Pages: 207

Binding: Hardcover

Size: 23.6 x 15.8 x 2.2 cm

ISBN: 9781955859004