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If we desire to seek growth in life, we must understand what regeneration is all about, and we must know what we have gained through regeneration. Regeneration affords us a beginning in life, and that which is gained through regeneration affords us the growth in life. Hence, if we want to seek growth in life, we should have some knowledge concerning regeneration, and we should know that which is gained through regeneration.
That which is gained through regeneration is very closely related to the results of regeneration. The results of regeneration issue from what is gained through regeneration, the former being accomplished because of the latter. The results of regeneration are what regeneration accomplishes upon us, whereas that which is gained through regeneration is what we receive through regeneration. Because regeneration has caused us to gain certain things, it can have certain accomplishments upon us. Regeneration can make us children of God because regeneration causes us to gain the life of God. Regeneration can make us a new creation because it causes us to gain the elements of God. Regeneration can unite us with God because regeneration causes us to gain the Spirit of God. All the accomplishments of regeneration upon us are achieved because of the things we have obtained through regeneration. Not only do such things cause us to have various experiences in the spiritual life at the time of regeneration, but also after regeneration they cause us to grow in life. Hence, if we are seeking to grow in life, we must know the things that we have gained through regeneration.
According to the teaching of the Bible, regeneration causes us to receive at least seven things. These seven things are either divine and great or very important and close to us. Let us look briefly at these seven things one by one.
The first thing we gain through regeneration is the life of God. We have already seen in the previous chapter that regeneration occurs when the Spirit of God puts the life of God into our spirit. In regeneration the primary thing the Spirit of God does is to put the life of God into us. Therefore, the primary thing that regeneration gives us is the life of God.
But what is the life of God? It is the content of God and God Himself. All that is in God and all that God Himself is are in the life of God. All the fullness of the Godhead is hidden in the life of God. The nature of God is also contained in the life of God. Every facet of what God is, is included in the life of God.
With any kind of living thing, all that it is rests within its life. All its capabilities and functions issue out of its life, and all its outward activities and expressions originate from its life. It is that kind of living thing because it has that kind of life. Its being rests in its life. This is an evident principle.
God is the supreme living being, and all that He is, of course (and even more so), is in His life. All that He is — whether truth, holiness, light or love — is derived from His life. All His expressions — whether goodness, righteousness, kindness, or forgiveness — are derived from His life. His life causes Him to have such divine capabilities and functions inwardly and such divine actions and expressions outwardly as well. The reason He is such a God is that He has such a life. Hence, His being God rests in His life.
Because the life of God is the content of God, in it is hidden the fullness of God, and in it is contained the nature of God Himself; therefore, when we receive the life of God, we receive the fullness of God (Col. 2:9-10), and we have the nature of God (2 Pet. 1:3-4). Because all that God has in Himself and all that God Himself is rests in the life of God, when we receive this life, we receive all that God has in Himself and all that God Himself is. Because the life of God causes God to have such divine capabilities and functions within Him, the life of God in us can also cause us to have the same kind of capabilities and functions in us as in God. Because all that God is and does comes from His life, this life in us can also cause us to be what God is and do what God does, which means it can cause us to be like God and to live out God.
Have you ever realized that because the life of God is in us, we have all the capabilities and functions in us that are in God? Have you ever realized that 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. Because the life of God is in us, the same capability of holiness and function of light are in us as in God. Just as God can live out His holiness and shine forth His light from Himself, so also we, because of the life of God within us, can live out His holiness and shine forth His light from us, which means we can be holy as God is holy and shining as God is shining. What God is, is love, and what God does is righteousness. Since we have the life of God in us, we can be what God is and do what God does. Even as God can be love and do righteousness, so also we, because of the life of God in us, can be the love that God is and do the righteousness that God does. This means that we can love as God loves and be righteous as God is righteous. Thus, we can be like God and live out God.
We should further know that the life of God is that 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 that is stronger than death. When the Lord Jesus entered into death, death used all its power to hold the Lord, but the Lord broke through the holding power of death and arose. The Lord can thus arise and not be held by death (Acts 2:24) because there is in Him the powerful life of God. It was the life of God’s great power that enabled Him to break through the mighty holding power of death. The life of God that regeneration gives us is this great powerful life of God! This great powerful life of God is the great power of resurrection in us today that enables us to cast off death and overcome all that belongs to death, just as God overcame them.
The Bible shows that God has two kinds of great power: one is the great power of creation; the other is the great power of resurrection. God’s mighty power of creation calls into being that which does not exist. The 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. God’s great power of resurrection, resting in the life of God and being the life of God, enables man to be delivered from all the dead things that are outside of God, and thus live out God Himself. Oh, the life of God we receive through regeneration is this great resurrection power of God! Through regeneration God has wrought His life into us, which means He has wrought His great resurrection power into us. Oh, may we see that this life of God, which we receive when we are regenerated, is God’s great power of resurrection! This life that is in us today can make us as strong as God is. Just as God is able to overcome death, so we also are able to overcome death because of this life of great power within us. What a life this life of God is, which we obtained through regeneration! To what an extent this life can make us like God! How we should worship and thank God for this life!
Since regeneration gives us the life of God, it also gives us the law of life. Because the life of God entered into us, the law of life that is contained in this life was brought into us too.
Every kind of life has its own innate ability, which is its natural function. And the natural function of every kind of life is its natural law or its law of life. When a certain life gets into a certain creature, it causes that creature to have its natural law or its law of life. Likewise, the life of God has its divine ability, which is its divine natural functions. And the natural functions of God’s life are its natural law or the law of life. When the life of God enters into us, it brings into us the natural law 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 the life of God is something that we have gained through regeneration, the law of life that it brings with it was also gained through regeneration.
We have seen in chapter 1 that in the life of God is contained the nature of God, and in the life of God is hidden the fullness of God; therefore, the law contained in the life of God is compatible with God Himself, with what God is, and with the nature of God; hence, this law is the law of God Himself. When the life of God brings its law into us, this also means that it brings the law of God into us.
The law of life that the life of God brings into us becomes the laws mentioned in Hebrews 8:10, which God put into our mind and wrote on our hearts. These laws are different from the laws of the Old Testament. The laws of the Old Testament are the laws of God that God had written with characters on stone tablets outside of man (Exo. 34:1, 28). The laws of life are the laws of God that God has written with His life on our heart-tablet within us. The laws that were written on the stone tablets are outward laws, 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 inward laws, the laws of life, living laws, and laws with great power; they enable us not only to know God’s heart’s desire and follow His will but also to know God Himself and live out God Himself.
The natural laws contained in any kind of life always cause the creature to know spontaneously how to live and how to act; thus, they become the living laws within that creature. Take for example a hen: how she should live and how she should lay eggs are the natural laws contained in the hen’s life; they make her know spontaneously how to do these things and thus live them out. Man need not give her any law from without. The natural laws contained in the life that is in her are the living laws within her. They spontaneously make her know that she should live in this way, and they enable her to live in this way.
Likewise, the natural laws contained in the life of God in us are its natural abilities; they enable us to know spontaneously how God would want us to act and behave, how to be pleasing to Him, and how we may live Him out. Whether anything agrees with the nature of God or contradicts the nature of God, whether it is something God wants us to do or something He does not want us to do, the natural abilities or the natural laws of the life of God cause us to know this, give us a sense of this. Thus, the natural abilities or the natural laws of the life of God become our inward laws.
Because these laws that are written in us are the natural abilities and natural laws of the life of God, the Bible calls them the “law.” “The law of the Spirit of life” mentioned in Romans 8:2 is this law of life that is in us. Because this law is derived from the life of God, and the life of God rests in the Spirit of God and cannot be separated from the Spirit of God, Romans 8 names this law “the law of the Spirit of life.” The life of God is in the Spirit of God and joined to the Spirit of God; the Spirit of God contains the life of God; it is the Spirit of the life of God. Since this law is derived from the life of God, it is therefore from the Spirit of the life of God. Since it is the law of the life of God, it is also the law of the Spirit of the life of God.
The life of God is powerful; the Spirit of God is also powerful. The law of the Spirit of life, derived from the powerful life of God and the powerful Spirit of God, is also powerful. We may say that 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. Thus, this law in us is especially strong and mighty; not only does it enable us to have divine knowledge, it also enables us to have divine power. Once we are regenerated and have the life of God, God wants us to be His people and live in Him according to this strong and mighty law, this law of great power. After we are saved, God wants us to live in His life and live out His life as well according to this law in us, this law of life, this living law.
Ezekiel 36:26 says that when God cleanses us, saves us, or regenerates us, He gives us a new heart. Thus, according to the teaching of the Bible, regeneration also gives us a new heart.
What is a new heart? A new heart means that the old heart has become new; the new heart comes from the renewing of our old heart. For God to give us a new heart means that God renews our old heart. After Ezekiel 36:26 says that God gives us a new heart, it says that He takes away our heart of stone and gives us a heart of flesh. From this verse it is clear that God gives us a new heart by renewing our old heart.
Originally, our heart opposed God, did not desire God, and was as hard as stone toward God; thus, it became a “heart of stone.” When the Holy Spirit regenerates us, He causes our heart to repent of sin and become soft toward God. Hence, after regeneration our heart of stone becomes a “heart of flesh.” That hard heart of stone is the old heart we had; this 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 toward things; it represents us with regard to our inclination, affection, delight, and desire toward things. All our inclination, affection, delight, and desire are functions of our heart. Before we were regenerated, our heart was inclined toward sin, loved the world, and desired the things of passion; toward God, however, it was cold and hard, without inclination and without affection; toward the things of God and spiritual things it had no delight and was void of any desire. So when God regenerates us, He renews our heart and makes our heart a new heart, with a new inclination, new affection, new delight, and new desire. Thus, once we are regenerated and saved, our heart inclines toward God, loves God, and desires God; toward the things of God, the spiritual things, and the heavenly things, it also has delight and desire. Whenever such things are mentioned, our heart is joyful, responsive, and desirous.
Brothers and sisters, have you seen this? The reason that God renews our heart and gives us a new heart at the time of our regeneration is that He wants us to incline toward Him, adore Him, desire Him, and love Him. Before, we did not love Him, and we could not love Him, because our heart was old and hard. Now He has renewed, softened, and turned our heart; thus, we are both able and willing to love Him. Since our heart by being renewed has become a new heart, it now has a new function. This new function is that it can incline toward God and love God and the things of God.
Since regeneration gives us a new heart, it causes us to have a new inclination and love, a new desire and longing. This new inclination, love, desire, and longing are all toward God and the things of God. This is the function of the new heart; this is also the purpose of God in giving us a new heart.
After Ezekiel 36:26 says that God gives us a new heart, it says that God also puts a new spirit in us. Thus, not only does regeneration cause us to have a new heart; it also causes us to have a new spirit.
What is a new spirit? A new spirit means that our dead old spirit has been renewed and enlivened. Just as the new heart is the old heart made new, so the new spirit is the old spirit made new. The old heart, when it is renewed, is softened; while the old spirit, when it is renewed, is enlivened. This is because the trouble with our old heart is its hardness, whereas the trouble with our old spirit is its deadness. Therefore, when God regenerates us, just as He renews our hard old heart by softening it to become a new heart, so He renews our dead old spirit by enlivening it to become a new spirit.
The created spirit of man originally was the organ for man to contact God. Man had fellowship with God and communed with God through and by his spirit. Later, 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 dead spirit. Because it was dead, it was therefore old. When we are regenerated, because the blood of the Lord Jesus cleanses the defilement that our spirit suffered, the Spirit of God then puts the life of God, which is the element of God, into our spirit and enlivens it (see Col. 2:13). In this way our dead old spirit is renewed and becomes a living new spirit.
Our spirit originally was an old creation; there was no element of God in it. Later, not only did it have no element of God, but it was further defiled by sin; thus, it became old. There are two reasons for anything being a part of the old creation: one is that it was without the element of God during creation; the other is that it is defiled and corrupted by sin and Satan. It is also due to these two reasons that our spirit became an old spirit. Hence, when God regenerates us, in order to renew our old spirit and make it a new spirit, He works from two sides. On one hand, He uses the blood of the Lord Jesus to cleanse away the defilement of our spirit, so that our spirit becomes clean. On the other hand, He uses His Spirit to put His life into our 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.
Since at the time of our regeneration God has already given us a new heart, why does He proceed further and put a new spirit in us? It is because the heart can only desire God and love God; it cannot contact God or touch God. Therefore, it is not sufficient for God to give us only a new heart; He must also put a new spirit in us. If God only gives us a new heart, He can only cause us to desire Him and love Him; He cannot enable us to contact Him. Therefore, He must put a new spirit in us so that we may contact Him 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 Bible says that the heart pants after God, the heart thirsts for God (cf. Psa. 42:1-2). The heart can pant after God and thirst after God, but it cannot contact God or touch God. The heart has only the function of loving God and thirsting for Him; it does not have the ability to contact God or touch God. That which can contact God is not the heart but the spirit. The heart is only good for us to love God, but the spirit is good for us to contact God and to fellowship with God.
For example, suppose I have here a good pen. My heart likes it very much; but my heart cannot contact it or take possession of it, for my heart does not have such ability. Such ability belongs to my hand. The hand illustrates the spirit. Although our heart loves God and thirsts deeply for Him, it can neither contact God nor fellowship with Him. Only our spirit can do that. 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 delight and inclinations, new feelings and interest toward God and the things of God. Our new spirit enables us to have new contact and insight, 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 were not able to contact God or understand the spiritual things of God. But now we have a new heart and a new spirit; therefore, we not only can love God and the things of God, 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 now, 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 strongly able to contact and understand them. Hence, once our heart loves God, our spirit touches Him; once 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.
After Ezekiel 36:26 says that God gives us a new heart and puts within us a new spirit, verse 27 goes on to say that God puts His own Spirit within us. Therefore, among the things that we gain through regeneration, there is also the Spirit of God.
Originally, we did not have the Spirit of God. And not only did we not have the Spirit of God, but our own spirit was dead toward God. When God regenerated us, on one hand, He caused His Spirit to put His life into our spirit, thus enlivening our dead spirit; on the other hand, God also put His Spirit into our spirit, which means that He caused His Spirit to dwell in our enlivened, new spirit. Thus, within us who are regenerated, there is not only an enlivened, new spirit, which has the element of God’s life, but also the Spirit of God dwelling in our new spirit. Romans 8:9 says, “The Spirit of God dwells in you,” and verse 16 says, “The Spirit Himself witnesses with our spirit.” From these two verses we see that the Spirit of God dwelling in us means that He dwells in our spirit; He is with our spirit.
Why does God put His Spirit within us? What is the function of God’s Spirit dwelling in our spirit? According to the Bible, there are at least seven aspects of the main functions of the Spirit of God dwelling within us:
God puts His Spirit in us so that His Spirit may be the indwelling Spirit within us in order that we may know God and experience all that God in Christ has accomplished for us (Rom. 8:9-11). This is the special blessing given by God in the New Testament era; it did not exist in the Old Testament. 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. Only after the Lord’s death and resurrection did God give His Spirit to us and cause His Spirit to dwell in us as the indwelling Spirit (John 14:16-17). Thus, He is able to reveal both God and Christ to us from within so that we in Christ may receive and enjoy the fullness of God (Col. 2:9-10).
The Lord spoke of the Comforter in John 14:16-17. He said that He would ask the Father to give us the Holy Spirit to dwell in us as another Comforter. This word Comforter in the original text is the same as the word Advocate in 1 John 2:1, which when transliterated is “Paraclete,” or “an advocate by the side.” Originally, God gave His Son to be our Comforter, to be our Paraclete. When His Son returned to Him, He then gave His Spirit to us to be another Comforter, another Paraclete. This also means that He sent His Spirit as the embodiment of His Son to be our Comforter. Therefore, the Spirit of God dwelling in us is the very embodiment of Christ within us. He takes care of us from within, being fully responsible for us, just as Christ is for us before God.
In John 14:16-17 the Lord said that the Holy Spirit who comes to dwell in us as the Comforter is “the Spirit of reality.” Hence, the Spirit of God dwelling in us is also the Spirit of reality. Therefore, the Spirit of God, who dwells in us as the Spirit of reality, causes all that God and Christ are to be reality within us. All that God is and all that He in Christ has prepared for us, and all that Christ is and all that He by His death and resurrection has accomplished for us, are revealed and imparted to us as reality by this Spirit of God who dwells in us. Thus, we may touch and experience them so that they become ours.
Romans 8 calls the Holy Spirit who dwells in us the “Spirit of life” (vv. 9, 2). This shows that the Spirit of God who dwells in us is also the Spirit of the life of God. Although the life of God is in Christ (John 1:4), yet it is known and experienced by us through the Holy Spirit who dwells within us. All the matters that relate to life are made known to us by this Holy Spirit who dwells in us. All experiences of life are also made ours by this Holy Spirit who dwells in us.
Ephesians 1:13 and 4:30 show that the Holy Spirit whom we received at regeneration is within us as the seal. When God puts His Spirit in us, it means that He stamps His Spirit upon us as a seal. When a seal is stamped on an article, it not only becomes a sign of ownership on that thing, but it also makes an impression upon that article just as a stamp used for sealing. This is the function of the Spirit of God in us as the seal. The Spirit of God dwelling in us not only serves as a mark, showing that we belong to God and marking us out from amidst the men of the world, but furthermore, as the embodiment of God and Christ, He seals us according to the image of God and Christ so that we become like God, like Christ.
Ephesians 1:14 and 2 Corinthians 1:22 say that the Holy Spirit of God dwells in us as the pledge. A pledge is a guarantee. The Spirit of God dwelling in us is not only a seal, marking us out as belonging to God and sealing us after the image of God; He is also a pledge, guaranteeing that God and all things that are of God are our portion and inheritance to be enjoyed.
First John 2:27 says that within us there is the “anointing” which we have received of the Lord. Anointing in the Bible refers to the Spirit of God (Luke 4:18). Therefore, this verse says that the Spirit of God dwelling in us is the anointing. This anointing in us often anoints us. The anointing is the moving of the Spirit of God within us. The Spirit of God moving in us or anointing us means that He anoints God Himself into us, that the element of God may become our inward element, and that we may know God and His desire and will in everything. A detailed explanation of this point is given in chapter 7 in the book The Experience of Life.
How high and glorious these seven functions are! Not only do they show the functions of the Spirit of God dwelling in us, but they make known to us what a Spirit this Spirit of God is that we have received through regeneration.
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. This reveals that the Spirit of God in us is the embodiment of Christ. Since regeneration causes us to have the Spirit of God within us, it also causes us to have Christ within us.
When we believe, God through His Spirit reveals Christ in us (Gal. 1:16). Therefore, once we receive Christ as our Savior, He as the Spirit dwells in us (2 Cor. 13:5).
What is the purpose of Christ dwelling in us? It is that He may be our life. Although Christ dwells in us to be our all, the central reason for His indwelling is that He might be our life.
God in His salvation has regenerated us so that we might receive His life, have His nature, and thereby be entirely like Him. He puts His life in Christ for us to receive (John 1:4; 1 John 5:11-12). In other words, He wants Christ to be our life (John 14:6; Col. 3:4). Although it is His Spirit who puts His life in us, and although it is His Spirit who enables us to know, experience, and live out His life, yet His life is Christ. Although through His Spirit He causes us to receive, know, and experience His life, yet He makes Christ our life. God through His Spirit revealing Christ in us means that He wants Christ to be our life. Christ dwelling in us means that He lives in us as our life (Gal. 2:20) and wants to live out His life from us (2 Cor. 4:10-11). Thus, He wants us, in His life, to grow into His image and become like Him (3:18). When we, in His life, grow 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 (Col. 1:15).
We have already seen that the life of God is all that God is; therefore, when God puts His life in Christ, He puts all that He 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 (2:9). Therefore, Christ dwelling in us causes us to be filled with all the fullness of God (Eph. 3:17-19).
Christ dwelling in us as our life enables us not only to enjoy all the fullness of God today but also to enter into the glory of God in the future (Rom. 8:17; Heb. 2:10). Therefore, dwelling in us today, He is on one hand our life, and on the other hand, He is our hope of glory (Col. 3:4; 1:27). His dwelling in us as our life today means that, through the life of God in Him, He will cause us to grow and become like God, to grow and be conformed to the image of God, and eventually to grow into the glory of God.
Christ is the embodiment of God. Since regeneration causes us to obtain Christ, it also causes us to have God. Furthermore, Christ is the embodiment of God, and the Holy Spirit is the reality of Christ. God is in Christ, and Christ is the Holy Spirit. Therefore, when regeneration causes us to have the Holy Spirit, it causes us not only to have Christ but also to have God.
Ever since God regenerated us, He in Christ through His Spirit has been dwelling in us. The apostle John says that we know that God abides in us, by the Holy Spirit whom He gave to us (1 John 3:24; 4:13). The Lord Jesus also said that He and God together abide in us (John 14:23). Therefore, whether it is the Holy Spirit or Christ dwelling in us, it is God dwelling in us. 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 is in Christ dwelling in us, and Christ is the Spirit dwelling in us. Therefore, when we have the Spirit dwelling in us, we have Christ and God dwelling in us. The Spirit, Christ, and God — all three — dwell in us as one, which means the Triune God is dwelling in us.
But when the Bible mentions the Holy Spirit dwelling in us, the emphasis is on His anointing in us (1 John 2:27); when it mentions Christ dwelling in us, the emphasis is on His living in us as our life (Gal. 2:20); and when it mentions God dwelling in us, the emphasis is on His working in us (Phil. 2:13; Heb. 13:21; 1 Cor. 12:6). The Bible gives very clear distinctions concerning these three matters. Concerning the Holy Spirit dwelling in us, it speaks of “anointing”; concerning Christ dwelling in us, it speaks of “living”; and concerning God dwelling in us, it speaks of “working.” It never says that Christ or God is anointing us, that the Holy Spirit or God is living in us, or that the Holy Spirit or Christ is working in us. It only says that the Holy Spirit anoints us, Christ lives in us, and God works in us. These three manners of speaking are not interchangeable. “Anointing” is related to the Holy Spirit as the ointment in us; “living” is related to Christ being life in us, and “working” is related to God working in us.
The Holy Spirit dwelling in us is as ointment; therefore, what He does in us is to anoint. Christ dwelling in us is as life; therefore, what He does in us is to live. God dwelling in us is a matter of working; therefore, what He does in us is to work. The Holy 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 working in us, works His will into us that it may be accomplished upon us.
Therefore, we must see that what we obtain through regeneration is too great, too high, too rich, and too glorious. Through regeneration we obtain the life of God and the law of this life. Through regeneration we obtain a new heart and a new spirit. Through regeneration we further obtain the Holy Spirit, Christ, and God Himself. These are truly sufficient for us — sufficient to make us holy and spiritual, sufficient to make us victorious and transcendent, and sufficient to make us grow and mature in life.
