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Scripture Reading: John 3:3-8, 36; 1:12-13; 1 Pet. 1:3, 23; James 1:18; 1 Cor. 4:15; 1 John 1:2; 2 Pet. 1:4
I. The definition of regeneration — John 1:13.
II. The way:
А. To realize our need of the life of God — 3:3.
B. To realize that our natural being needs to be buried in the water of baptism — v. 5.
C. To be born of the Spirit of God in our spirit — vv. 5, 6b.
1. By believing into the Son of God — v. 36a.
2. Through the word of God in the gospel — 1 Pet. 1:23; James 1:18; 1 Cor. 4:15.
III. The issue:
А. Resurrected with Christ — 1 Pet. 1:3b; Eph. 2:5a.
B. Having the eternal and uncreated life — 1 John 1:2.
C. Becoming a child of God — John 1:12.
D. Partaking of the divine nature — 2 Pet. 1:4.
E. Born into the kingdom of God — John 3:5.
Focus: To be regenerated is to have the life of God so that we may be His children living in His kingdom according to the divine nature.
In the previous lessons, a foundation concerning life has been laid. Now we can get into the experiences of life, and the first experience of life is regeneration.
First, we need to see the definition of regeneration. To be regenerated is to be born of God so that we may have the divine life, a life other than our human life. We have to impress all the saints with this clear definition of regeneration. This definition has not been made clear to most Christians. When I was young, I read a book on the real definition of regeneration, but the definition it presented was wrong. This book said that regeneration is the new beginning we have when we repent and all our sins are forgiven and considered as something in the past. Regeneration, however, is not merely a new beginning. This thought somewhat matches the teaching of Confucius, who said that whenever you repent, you can consider that everything is new from that day.
One day I read a book by Brother T. Austin-Sparks, which said that to be born again is to receive another life, the eternal and uncreated life of God, in addition to our human life. He gave a brief yet very clear definition of regeneration, which deeply impressed me. We may take this definition for granted, yet we have to realize that such a definition is profound. It is difficult to find such a word in any other Christian writings. We need to be impressed that through regeneration, we receive the divine life in addition to our natural, human life.
Regeneration is to have another birth, to be born of God. This is clearly revealed in John 1:13, which says that those who receive Christ are “begotten not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.” Whoever is regenerated is born of God. Regeneration is not a matter of considering that all things in the past are dead and that everything is new today. Regeneration is not a consideration but a real birth. Regeneration is to be born of God in order that we may have the divine life in addition to our human life.
I feel strongly that we need to impress the brothers and sisters that to be born again means to be born of God so that we may have a second life, a life in addition to our natural life. Our natural life is a created life and a temporary life. It is not an eternal life and an uncreated life. In regeneration we receive another life, which is the eternal life, the uncreated life, the divine life, that is, the life of God. We must point this out clearly.
Some Christian teachers would say that to be born again is just to have a new beginning, a new day in your human life. This is not the truth of regeneration revealed in the Bible. Regeneration is a matter of birth, a matter of life. It is not a birth of the natural life, of the human life; it is the birth of the divine life, of the eternal life, the life of God. To be born again is to experience an extra birth of the life of God — the eternal, uncreated, divine life.
Now we want to see the way of regeneration.
First, we need to realize our need of the life of God. This is related to God’s eternal purpose. God’s eternal purpose is to have a corporate people who can express Him. For these people to express God, they surely need the life and the nature of God. If we only have the human life, we can only express our human being. We cannot express God, the Divine Being. The particular life that something has issues in an expression. Dogs express the dog life, and cats express the cat life. An apple tree cannot express the life and nature of a peach tree, because it does not have the peach life and nature. For us human beings to express God, we need God’s life. Genesis 1 shows us God’s purpose for man to express Him, and in Genesis 2 we see the need for man to partake of the tree of life, the life of God. We have to realize that we need the life of God in order to express God.
A number of Bible teachers say that we need to be regenerated because we are fallen and sinful. This is a wrong concept. We have to tell people that even if man had never become fallen, he would still need regeneration. Even before man fell, he still needed the divine life. The very man whom God put in front of the tree of life was not fallen. He was pure, he was good, he was perfect, and he was sinless, but he was only human, not divine. Thus, Genesis 2 indicates clearly that this sinless man, perfect man, good man, and pure man, still needed the life of God. We need to be purged from the wrong, traditional concept that regeneration is because of man’s fall. According to this concept, if man never fell, he would not have the need of regeneration. But the Bible reveals that regeneration is needed by man even if man never fell.
In order for one to be regenerated, he first has to realize his need of the divine life. In John 3:3 the Lord said, “Truly, truly, I say to you, Unless one is born anew, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” In spiritual things to see is to enter into (v. 5). If you have not been born of God, you cannot enter into, or see, anything in the realm of God’s kingdom. If you do not have the bird life, you cannot enter into the kingdom of the birds. If you do not have the animal life, you cannot enter into the kingdom of the animals. In order to enter into any kind of kingdom, you need that kind of life. If you do not have that kind of life, you can never get into that kingdom, that realm, or really understand what is within that realm.
If we did not have the human life, we could not be in the human kingdom, the kingdom of man. We have been born with the human life into the kingdom of man. Today we need to be born with the divine life into the kingdom of God. If we were only born of man, we could only be in man’s kingdom. We could never be in the kingdom of God. To be in the kingdom of God, we need to be born of God, to be born again. John 3:3 shows the need of the life of God.
In order to be regenerated, we need to realize that our natural being needs to be buried in the water of baptism. In John 3:5 the Lord Jesus said, “Truly, truly, I say to you, Unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.” When the Lord Jesus told Nicodemus that he needed to be born again, Nicodemus asked, “How can a man be born when he is old? He cannot enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born, can he?” (v. 4). Then the Lord explained to him that to be born again is to be born of water and of the Spirit.
John 3:5 has been altogether misinterpreted through the centuries by many teachers. One of the strangest teachings is that the water in this verse refers to the water of the mother’s womb. But this is not the way to interpret the Bible. We need to interpret the Bible with and by the Bible. Nicodemus was a Pharisee. Before he came to the Lord, the Pharisees heard John the Baptist tell them, “I baptize you in water unto repentance, but He...will baptize you in the Holy Spirit” (Matt. 3:11). John told them that he came to baptize in water and that one after him would come to baptize in the Spirit. When the Lord was speaking to Nicodemus, He used the words of water and the Spirit. These words should have been familiar and plain to Nicodemus, without any need of explanation, since John the Baptist had spoken the same words to the Pharisees.
Water and Spirit actually refer to two ministries. Water refers to the water of baptism, the central concept of the ministry of John the Baptist, the ministry of repentance. John’s ministry of repentance was to put people into the water, to bury people, to terminate people of the old creation. John baptized in water whoever came to him with repentance to terminate them for the purpose of their receiving Christ as the coming One who would put them into the Spirit of life. Thus, water refers to John’s ministry, and Spirit refers to the Lord Jesus’ ministry. Through these two ministries man is regenerated.
We not only need to realize that we need the life of God, but we also need to realize that our natural being should be terminated. In the New Testament usage, the word repentance means to realize that you are good only for being buried. You have been away from God, and now you have to have a turn to come back to Him. When you come back, when you have a turn, you have to be terminated, to be buried, to be put under the water. Following this burial comes resurrection, and this is of the Spirit. Water is for burial, for termination, and the Spirit is for being raised up from death, for germination. These two main concepts together constitute the concept of regeneration.
Regeneration is the termination of people of the old creation with their deeds and the germination of people in the new creation with the divine life. To be born of water is to be buried, to be terminated, and to be born of the Spirit is to be raised up from death to be resurrected, to be germinated. This is what it means to be born of God. Real regeneration is to be born of water and the Spirit, that is, to be terminated and buried in the water and to be germinated and resurrected with the Spirit to have another life.
To be regenerated is to be born of the Spirit of God in our spirit (John 3:5, 6b). We are reborn not of earthly parents but of the Spirit of God, not in our body or in our soul but in our spirit. John 3:6b says, “That which is born of the Spirit is spirit.” In other words, that which is born of the Spirit of God is our spirit. This indicates that regeneration is the rebirth of the Spirit, which transpires in our spirit. Regeneration is accomplished in the human spirit by the Holy Spirit with God’s life — the uncreated, eternal life. It is altogether a matter of the divine Spirit in our human spirit.
We need to make these things clear to all the saints. I do not have much confidence that even those who have been with us for years are clear about these things. We need a basic training so that we can be saturated with this basic knowledge. We need to realize that we have been born again of the Spirit of God in our spirit. This is the very basic and foundational truth concerning regeneration.
We are born of the Spirit of God in our spirit by believing into the Son of God. John 3:36a says, “He who believes into the Son has eternal life.”
Our being born of the Spirit of God in our spirit is through the word of God in the gospel. We have to receive the word of the gospel. When we believe in the Lord Jesus, it is through the word of God in the gospel that we are regenerated. First Peter 1:23 says that we were regenerated through the living and abiding word of God. James 1:18 says that He brought us forth by the word of truth. Finally, in 1 Corinthians 4:15 Paul says, “I have begotten you through the gospel.” Thus, the word of God in the gospel is the seed of our rebirth.
Now that we have seen the way to be regenerated, we want to see the issue of regeneration.
The first issue of regeneration is that we are resurrected with Christ. First Peter 1:3b says that we were regenerated through the resurrection of Christ. Ephesians 2:5a says that God made us alive together with Christ. When Christ was resurrected, we were also resurrected with Him. From God’s viewpoint we were resurrected together with Christ and regenerated through His resurrection. But this is realized by us experientially and applied to us when we are regenerated in time. Thus, the result of our regeneration is that we are resurrected with Christ.
When we were regenerated, God put His eternal and uncreated life into our being (1 John 1:2).
Since God has put His life into us, we have become children of God. John 1:12 says that we have the authority to be the children of God. This authority is the life that God put into us. The very life that God put into us is our right, our authority, for us to be children of God.
Regeneration results in the partaking of God’s divine nature. Because we are born of God, surely as His children we have not only His life but also His nature. Second Peter 1:4 says that we are partakers of the divine nature.
Since we are born of God, spontaneously we are born into the realm of God, into the sphere of God, that is, into the kingdom of God (John 3:5). This is the result, the issue, of our regeneration.
We need to emphasize the focus of this lesson, which is expressed in the following statement: to be regenerated is to have the life of God so that we may be His children living in His kingdom according to His divine nature.
