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There are two reasons that man must be regenerated: one reason relates to a higher purpose, and the other to a lower. The lower purpose is that our human life is wicked and corrupt. It cannot be changed or improved; consequently, we need another life. The higher purpose is that even if our human life were good, it still would be related merely to the created life rather than to the uncreated life of God. In order to have the uncreated life of God, we must be born again. Although this may not be considered a profound truth, it is a basic and simple truth.
We must be regenerated because we do not have the life of God; only by regeneration can we have the uncreated, eternal life of God. We must have the eternal life of God because it is God’s intention to make us the same as He is with His image and likeness. In order to make us the same as He is, God must put His life in us. If He did not put His life in us, how could we be like Him? In order to be like Him, we must have His life. In order to have His life, we must be regenerated. This is the higher purpose of regeneration.
Regeneration means to be born again, to be born of God, that is, to obtain the life of God in addition to our human life. When God puts His life in us in addition to our human life, this is called regeneration. Therefore, the meaning of regeneration is to be born again of God; to be regenerated is to obtain the life of God in addition to our original human life. Our apprehension of this spiritual truth must be clear, and when we speak of regeneration, we must make this point.
There are three results of regeneration. First, regeneration causes us to become the children of God; second, it makes us the new creation; and third, it causes us to be in union with God, to be joined to God.
Regeneration also causes us to gain seven things: the life of God, the law of life, a new heart, a new spirit, the Spirit, Christ, and the Triune God. Through regeneration we receive the life of God, and the law of life comes with this life. Then God gives us a new heart and a new spirit. Then the Triune God — the Father, the Son, and the Spirit — is also in us. When we receive the Spirit, we receive Christ and God because God is in Christ, and Christ has become the Spirit.
When we are regenerated, the life of God enters into us. In this life there is a law — the law of life. Moreover, when the life of God enters into us, it adjusts our heart so that it becomes a new heart and adjusts our spirit so that it becomes a new spirit. His Spirit indwells us and causes us to obtain the Spirit. Since the Spirit is the realization of Christ, and God is in Christ, we also obtain Christ and God. This clearly shows what we gain through regeneration.
Regeneration causes us to have the life of God. In regeneration the main thing that the Spirit of God does is to put the life of God into us. The life of God is the content of God, that is, God Himself. All that is in God and all that God is are in the life of God. All the fullness of the Godhead, every facet of God, is included in this life.
The essence of every living thing is contained in its life. All its inward capabilities and functions issue from its life, and all its outward activities and expressions also originate from its life. This shows that there is a capability, a function, with life, and out from this life there is an activity, an expression. A living is a reflection of life. One’s being is determined by its life. This is an evident principle with every living thing.
God has the highest life; everything that He is, is in His life. God is truth, holiness, light, and love; these are not things that He does. Truth, holiness, light, and love are not God’s work but instead are God’s nature. God is truth, holiness, light, and love; these are derived from His life. Furthermore, whatever He does and expresses, whether it is goodness, righteousness, kindness, or forgiveness, is also derived from His life. Truth, holiness, light, and love are what God is in His inward nature; goodness, righteousness, kindness, and forgiveness are what God does in His outward expression.
Truth, holiness, light, and love are divine capabilities and functions and are manifested in divine acts and expressions outwardly, which are goodness, righteousness, kindness, and forgiveness. The reason He is such a God is that He has such a life. Hence, His being God rests in His life. In other words, He is such a God with these capabilities and functions inwardly and these acts and expressions outwardly because He has such a life.
The fullness of the Godhead and the nature of God Himself are contained in the life of God because the life of God is the content of God. Therefore, when we receive the life of God, we receive the fullness of the Godhead (Col. 2:9-10) and the nature of God (2 Pet. 1:3-4). When we receive this life, we receive all that God has and all that God is because all that God has and all that God is are in the life of God. The life of God enables us to have the same divine capabilities and functions in us. God’s life enables us to be what God is and do what God does, which means that we can be like God and live out God because all that God is and does come from His life.
With the life of God in us, we have all the capabilities and functions that are in God’s life. Because we have the life of God in us, we can be what God is and do what God does. In God there is the capability of holiness and the function of light; therefore, we also have the capability of holiness and the function of light in us. Just as God can live out His holiness and shine forth His light, we can live out the holiness of God and shine forth His light because the life of God is in us. God is love, and His ways are righteous; consequently, God’s love and righteous ways can be ours because the life of God is in us. We can love according to God’s love and be righteous according to His righteousness. Thus, we can be like God and live out God.
The life of God is the great power that resurrected the Lord Jesus. When the Lord Jesus was resurrected, He cast off death and overcame death. Death is very strong (S.S. 8:6); in the universe, besides God and the life of God, there is nothing stronger than death. When the Lord Jesus entered into death, all its power tried to hold Him, but He broke through the holding power of death and arose (Acts 2:24). The Lord arose because the powerful life of God was in Him. The great power of God’s life enabled the Lord to break through the mighty holding power of death. Regeneration gives us the great and powerful life of God. Just as God overcame death, this great and powerful life is the power of resurrection that enables us to cast off death and overcome all that belongs to death.
The Bible shows that God has two kinds of power: one is the great power of creation, and the other is the great power of resurrection. God’s great power of creation calls things not being as being, and His great power of resurrection gives life to the dead. This is what Abraham believed (Rom. 4:17). God’s great power of creation, resting in the hand of God, is able to create all things for man, but God’s great power of resurrection rests in the life of God. One involves the hand of creation, and the other involves the resurrection life, which is also the life of God. This great power of resurrection is the life of God, which enables us to be delivered from all the dead things that are outside of God and thus live out God Himself.
The life of God that we receive through regeneration is the great resurrection power of God. Through regeneration God has wrought His life into us, which means that He has wrought His great resurrection power into us. The life that is in us today can make us as strong and transcending as God. Just as God is able to overcome death, we also are able to overcome death because of the great power of this life within us. This life can make us like God to such an extent.
The life of God is not only rich but also powerful. As far as His riches are concerned, all the fullness of the Godhead is in this life. As far as His power is concerned, the great power of this resurrection life can overcome death and surpass every negative thing. This life is as rich and as powerful as God. This is the life that we have obtained; this life is God Himself.
Since regeneration gives us the life of God, it also gives us the law of life. Because the life of God has entered into us, the law of life that is contained in this life has also been brought into us. Every kind of life has its own innate ability, its natural function. The natural function of a life is its natural law. In other words, the natural function of a certain life is its law of life. The life that is in a creature causes it to have a natural law or a law of life.
Likewise, we need to see that the life of God has a divine ability, which is its natural function. The natural function of the life of God is its natural law or its law of life. When the life of God enters into us, it brings the natural law that is contained in it, and this law becomes the law of life within us. Thus, when the life of God enters into us, the law of life contained in it also enters into us. Since we have gained the life of God through regeneration, we have also gained the law of His life through regeneration.
The nature of God is contained in the life of God, and the fullness of the Godhead is hidden in the life of God; therefore, the law contained in the life of God is compatible with God Himself and with the nature of God. Hence, this law is the law of God Himself. In other words, it is God coming to be our law. The laws of life that the life of God brings into us are the laws spoken of in Hebrews 8:10, which have been imparted into our mind and inscribed on our heart. These laws are different from the laws of the Old Testament. The laws of the Old Testament are the laws that God wrote with characters on stone tablets outside of man (Exo. 34:1, 28), but the laws of life are the laws that God has written with His life on our heart within us.
The laws that were written on the stone tablets are outward laws of letter, dead laws, and laws without power; they are laws that are unable to accomplish anything upon man (Rom. 8:3; Heb. 7:18-19). The laws that are written on the tablet of our heart are the inward laws of life, living laws, and laws with great power; they enable us not only to know the heart’s desire of God and to follow His will but also to know God Himself and live out God Himself.
The natural laws contained in any kind of life always enable a creature to spontaneously know how to live and act; thus, they are living laws within a creature. A hen lives and lays eggs according to the natural laws contained in the hen’s life. She spontaneously knows how to do these things and thus lives them out. No man needs to give her any outward law. The natural laws in her life are living laws within her. They spontaneously enable her to know how she should live and even enable her to live in this way. Hence, natural laws, not outward regulations, cause her to live a certain way; this is the inward law of life.
Likewise, the natural laws contained in the life of God are its natural abilities; they enable us to spontaneously know how God desires us to act, how to be pleasing to Him, and how to live Him. The natural abilities, or the natural laws, of the life of God enable us to know whether something agrees with the nature of God or contradicts the nature of God, whether it is something God wants us to do or something God does not want us to do. Thus, the natural abilities, or the natural laws, of the life of God become our inward laws.
Because the laws that are written in us are the natural abilities and natural laws of the life of God, the Bible calls them laws. The law of the Spirit of life, spoken of in Romans 8:2, is the law of life in us. This law is called the law of the Spirit of life because it is derived from the life of God. The life of God is in the Spirit of God, and this life cannot be separated from the Spirit of God.
The life of God is powerful; the Spirit of God is also powerful. Since the law of the Spirit of life is derived from God, the powerful life and the powerful Spirit of God must also be in the law of the Spirit of life. The life of God in us is the source of this law, and the Spirit of God in us is the Executor of this law. This law enables us to have not only divine knowledge but also divine power. Once we are regenerated with the life of God and the law of the Spirit of life is in us, God desires that we be His people and live in Him according to this strong and mighty law, this law of great power.
What is a new heart? To have a new heart means that our old heart has become new. God gives us a new heart by renewing our old heart. Ezekiel 36:26 says that God gives us a new heart and puts a new spirit within us; He takes away the heart of stone out of our flesh and gives us a heart of flesh. Taking away our heart of stone and giving us a heart of flesh means that He gives us a new heart by renewing our old heart. Originally, our old heart opposed God and did not desire God. Our heart was as hard as stone toward God; it was a “heart of stone.” However, when the Holy Spirit regenerates us, He causes our heart to repent of sin and become soft toward God; hence, our heart of stone becomes a “heart of flesh.” Our hard stony heart is our old heart; our soft heart of flesh is the new heart God gives us. This means that when we are regenerated, God renews our old heart and makes it soft.
Our heart is the organ of our inclination and affection; it represents us with regard to our inclination, affection, delight, and desire. All our inclinations, affections, delights, and desires are functions of our heart. Before we were regenerated, our heart was inclined toward sin, loved the world, and desired things of passion. However, it was cold and hard toward God, without any inclination and affection. When God regenerates us, He renews our heart and makes our heart a new heart with new inclinations, new affections, and new delights. Once we are regenerated and saved, our heart inclines toward God, loves God, and desires God; it also delights in and desires spiritual things, heavenly things, and the things of God. Whenever such things are spoken of, our heart is joyful, responsive, and desirous. This is the function of our new heart.
God renews our heart and gives us a new heart through regeneration because He wants us to incline toward Him, adore Him, and desire Him. Previously, we did not love Him and could not love Him because our heart was old and hard. Once He renews, softens, and turns our heart, we are able and willing to love Him. Since our heart is a new heart, it has a new function. This new function is to incline toward God and to love God and the things of God.
What is a new spirit? A new spirit means that our old spirit, which was deadened, has been renewed and made alive. Just as a new heart is an old heart made new, a new spirit is an old spirit made new. When our old heart is renewed, it is softened; when our old spirit is renewed, it is made alive. Whereas the trouble with an old heart is hardness, the trouble with an old spirit is deadness. Therefore, when God regenerates us, He renews our old, hardened heart by softening it to become a new heart, and He renews our old, deadened spirit by enlivening it to become a new spirit.
The created spirit of man was originally the organ for man to contact God. Man had fellowship with God and communed with God through his spirit. Because of man’s fall, his spirit was damaged by the defilement of sin. Thus, the human spirit lost its function toward God and became a deadened spirit. For our spirit to be deadened means that it stopped functioning, and because it was deadened, it became old. When we are regenerated, the blood of the Lord Jesus cleanses the defilement of our spirit. Then the Spirit of God enlivens our spirit by putting the life of God, which is the element of God, into our spirit. In this way our old deadened spirit is renewed and becomes a new living spirit.
The old creation is related to two points. The first point involves the absence of the element of God, and the second point involves the defilement and corruption by Satan and sin. Our spirit is an old spirit because of these two points. Hence, when God regenerates us, He works in two directions in order to renew our old spirit to make it a new spirit. On one hand, He uses the blood of the Lord Jesus to cleanse the defilement of our spirit so that our spirit becomes clean. On the other hand, He puts His life into our spirit through His Spirit so that our spirit may have His element. Thus, He renews our old spirit and makes it a new spirit. His renewing of our old spirit and making it a new spirit means that He puts a new spirit in us. In other words, God makes our old spirit a new spirit by adding His life into our spirit so that it may have the life of God and the element of God.
Even though God gives us a new heart at the time of our regeneration, He puts a new spirit in us because the heart can only desire God and love God; it cannot contact God or touch God. The heart can desire and love God but not contact and touch Him. Therefore, it is not sufficient for God to simply give us a new heart; He must also put a new spirit in us. Only a new spirit can enable us to contact God and fellowship with Him.
We have already mentioned that the heart is the organ of our inclination and love. Therefore, the function of the heart toward God is to incline toward Him and love Him. The heart can pant after God and thirst after Him, but it cannot contact God or touch Him. The heart can function to love God and thirst for God, but it does not have the ability to contact God or touch Him. It is the spirit that can contact God, not the heart. The heart is good only for loving God, but the spirit is good for contacting God and fellowshipping with God. I may have a nice pen and like it very much, but my heart cannot contact or take possession of it because it does not have this ability. Only my hands have such an ability. Therefore, when we are regenerated, God not only gives us a new heart; He also puts a new spirit within us.
With a new heart we can desire God and love God, and with a new spirit we can contact God and touch God. Our new heart enables us to have new delights and inclinations and new feelings and interests toward God and the things of God. Our new spirit, however, enables us to have new contact and insight and new spiritual ability and function toward God and the things of God. Formerly, we neither loved God nor liked the spiritual things of God; moreover, we could not contact God or understand the spiritual things of God. But now we have a new heart and a new spirit; therefore, we can love God and the things of God, and we can also contact God and know God and the things of God. Formerly, we had no feeling toward God and no interest in God; we were weak and without any ability whatsoever toward God and the things of God. But with a new heart and a new spirit we not only have feeling and interest toward God and the things of God, but we also are able to contact God and understand the things of God. When our heart loves God, our spirit touches Him, and when our heart delights in the things of God, our spirit understands them. This is the intention of God in giving us a new spirit in addition to a new heart.
Originally, we did not have the Spirit of God in us, and our spirit was dead toward God. When God regenerated us, He put His life into our spirit through His Spirit, enlivening our deadened spirit. He also put His Spirit into our spirit, causing His Spirit to dwell in our new spirit, which has been made alive. Thus, within those who have been regenerated, there is not only a new enlivened spirit, which has the element of God’s life, but also the indwelling Spirit of God.
According to the Bible, there are at least seven functions of the Spirit of God in us. He is the indwelling Spirit, the Comforter, the Spirit of reality, the Spirit of life, the seal, the pledge, and the anointing.
God puts His Spirit in us so that His Spirit may be the indwelling Spirit in order for us to know God and to experience all that God in Christ has accomplished for us (Rom. 8:9-11). This is the special blessing that God has given to us in the New Testament age, which was not possible in the Old Testament age. In the Old Testament, God only caused His Spirit to come from without to work upon man; He did not cause His Spirit to dwell within man. After the Lord’s death and resurrection, God has given His Spirit to us and caused His Spirit to dwell in us as the indwelling Spirit (John 14:16-17). He is able to reveal both God and Christ to us from within so that in Christ we may enjoy the fullness of the Godhead (Col. 2:9-10).
The Lord said in John 14:16-17 that He would ask the Father to give us the Spirit, who would dwell in us as another Comforter. The Greek word for Comforter is the same as the word Advocate in 1 John 2:1, which means “one alongside who takes care of our case, our affairs.” Originally, God gave His Son to be our Comforter. Following the Son’s ascension, He gave the Spirit as another Comforter; that is, God sent His Son as the Spirit to be our Comforter in another form. The Spirit of God dwelling in us is Christ in another form, taking care of us from within. He is fully responsible for us within, just as He is responsible for us before God.
In John 14:16-17 the Lord said that the Spirit who would come to dwell in us as another Comforter would be “the Spirit of reality.” The Spirit of God dwelling in us is also the Spirit of reality. The Spirit of reality causes everything of God and Christ to be reality within us. All that God is and has prepared for us through Christ’s death and resurrection is revealed and imparted to us as reality by the Spirit of God who dwells in us. Thus, we may touch and experience these realities so that they become ours.
Without the Spirit all that God is and has done and all that Christ is and has done cannot be touched by us. When the Spirit comes, He causes all that God is and has done and all that Christ is and has done to become reality so that we may touch and experience them. Hence, He is the Spirit of reality.
In addition, the Spirit in us is the Spirit of life, the seal, the pledge, and the anointing.
Romans 8:9-10 shows that the Spirit of God dwelling in us is the Spirit of Christ dwelling in us, and the Spirit of Christ dwelling in us is Christ dwelling in us. In other words, the Spirit of God in us is Christ in another form. Since regeneration causes us to receive the Spirit of God, it also causes us to receive Christ. When we believe, God reveals Christ in us through His Spirit. Therefore, once we receive Christ as our Savior, He dwells in us as the Spirit. Christ dwells in us so that He can be our life. Although Christ dwells in us to be our all, the central reason for His indwelling is to be our life.
God in His salvation has regenerated us so that we might receive His life, have His nature, and thereby be like Him entirely. His life in Christ is for us to receive, and He wants Christ to be our life. Although His Spirit puts His life in us and enables us to know, experience, and live out His life, this life is Christ. Christ dwelling in us means that He lives in us as our life and wants to live out from us. Thus, He wants us to grow in His life into His image and be wholly and absolutely like Him. When we grow in His life into His image and become like Him, we grow into the image of God and become like God because He is the image of God.
The life of God is all that God is. The life of God in Christ means that all of God is in Christ. Christ is the incarnation of God, the embodiment of God. All that God is and all the fullness of the Godhead dwell in Christ bodily. Therefore, Christ’s dwelling in us causes us to be filled with all the fullness of the Godhead.
Christ’s dwelling in us as our life enables us not only to enjoy all the fullness of the Godhead today but also to enter into the glory of God in the future. As the One dwelling in us today, He is our life and our hope of glory. His dwelling in us as our life means that He will cause us to grow and become like God and have the image of God through the life of God. We are growing in the life of God into the image of God and eventually into the glory of God.
Since regeneration causes us to gain Christ, it causes us to have God because Christ is the embodiment of God. Ever since we were regenerated, God in Christ has been dwelling in us through His Spirit. The apostle John says that we know God abides in us, by the Spirit whom He gave to us (1 John 3:24; 4:13). The Lord Jesus also says that He and God abide together in us (John 14:23). God is in Christ, and Christ is the Spirit. Therefore, the Spirit dwelling in us is Christ dwelling in us, and Christ dwelling in us is God dwelling in us. God in Christ dwells in us, and Christ as the Spirit dwells in us. Therefore, when we have the Spirit dwelling in us, we have Christ and God dwelling in us. All three — the Spirit, Christ, and God — dwell in us as one; that is, the Triune God dwells in us.
When the Bible speaks of the Spirit dwelling in us, its emphasis is on His anointing in us (1 John 2:27); when it speaks of Christ dwelling in us, its emphasis is on His living in us as our life (Gal. 2:20); and when it speaks of God dwelling in us, its emphasis is on His operating in us to do His work (Phil. 2:13; Heb. 13:21; 1 Cor. 12:6). The Bible makes a clear distinction in regard to these three matters. In regard to the Spirit dwelling in us, it speaks of anointing; in regard to Christ dwelling in us, it speaks of living; and in regard to God dwelling in us, it speaks of operating. These three expressions are not interchangeable, because the anointing is related to the Spirit as the ointment in us; living is related to Christ being life in us; and operating is related to God working in us.
The Spirit, by anointing us, anoints the element of God into us. Christ, by living in us, lives the life of God both in us and out from us. God, by operating in us, works His will into us so that it may be accomplished upon us. The first aspect is related to the element of God, the second aspect is related to the life of God, and the third aspect is related to the will of God. It is the Holy Spirit who anoints us with the element of God, it is Christ who lives the life of God in us, and it is God Himself who operates in us to work out His will.
What we gain through regeneration is so great, so high, so rich, and so glorious. Through regeneration we gain the life of God, the law of life, a new heart, and a new spirit. Through regeneration we further gain the Spirit, Christ, and God Himself. These are sufficient to make us holy and spiritual, sufficient to make us victorious and transcendent, and sufficient to make us grow and mature in life. We have no reason for not growing unto maturity.
