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Scripture Reading: Gal. 3:2-3, 5, 14; 4:4-6, 29
As believers in Christ, we all have been born of the Spirit to receive the Spirit. Having been regenerated, born of the Spirit, we should daily receive the Spirit.
Although these terms may be rather common, they are of great significance. To be born of the Spirit is a tremendous matter, for it means to be actually born of God. Because we have been created by God, we are God’s creatures, and because we are fallen, we are sinners. Nevertheless, we, creatures and sinners, have been born of God. How marvelous!
Suppose a dog could be born of its master and receive its master’s life and nature. Such an event would surely catch the attention of the news media. Would it not be a great miracle for the life and nature of a human being to be imparted to a dog and to make that dog a man-dog? Such a dog would not simply be washed, decorated, and beautified. It would actually have the life and nature of a human being. As astounding as it may seem, through regeneration we have received the life and nature of God.
This understanding of regeneration shatters the natural concept. Using the illustration of a dog receiving a human life, we see that the natural concept is merely that a dog can be cleansed and beautified. In principle, many Christians are occupied with cleansing people and beautifying them, instead of helping them receive the divine life and nature through regeneration. God’s way is not merely to wash us, beautify us, and decorate us outwardly. His intention in His economy is to regenerate us, to cause us to be sons of God born of Him. This matter is unspeakably great.
There is no doubt that God’s salvation includes cleansing by the redeeming blood of Christ. In a very real sense, we, the saved ones, have been cleansed by God. Being cleansed, however, is not the highlight of God’s salvation. The highlight is that God has regenerated us, that He has actually imparted His life and nature into us to make us His sons. Now we are not God’s sons-in-law — we are the sons of God in life. Certainly there is no greater wonder in the whole universe than that sinful men by being regenerated can become sons of God. Many today are seeking wonders and miracles. But they do not realize that there is no greater miracle than regeneration. By regeneration fallen people become sons of God. In His salvation God has made us, fallen sinners, His divine sons.
Among fundamental Christians today, there is little talk about God as the generating Spirit. When I was regenerated more than fifty years ago, I realized that regeneration was wonderful, and I tried to find a book that could give me an adequate definition of regeneration. Eventually I purchased a book entitled The Genuine Definition of Regeneration, expecting that this book would give me the definition I wanted. But much to my disappointment, that book said nothing about God as the Spirit coming into us to regenerate us. Rather, it merely said that regeneration means that we have a new beginning and that all the old things have passed away. But after years of experience and of studying the Bible and the writings of others, we have come to see that to be regenerated is simply to be born of God. In regeneration, God as the life-giving Spirit comes into our spirit to regenerate us with His life and nature. This is the reason the Lord Jesus said, “That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit” (John 3:6). That which is born of the Spirit of God is our regenerated spirit. At the time of our regeneration, God’s Spirit came into our deadened spirit to enliven it with the divine life and nature and thereby to make us sons of God. What a marvelous fact it is that we are sons of God! We have the assurance that we are truly God’s sons because in our spirit we can sweetly cry, “Abba, Father” (Rom. 8:15; Gal. 4:6).
Although regeneration is a marvelous reality, my burden in this message is not on regeneration itself. My burden is on the Spirit. Only by being the Spirit is God able to regenerate us. If you ask people who God is, some will say that He is the Creator. Others may say that He is also our Redeemer and Savior. Not many will say that God is the Spirit.
As the Spirit, God is not simple, for the Spirit is the all-inclusive life-giving Spirit. This Spirit includes divinity, humanity, human living, crucifixion, and resurrection.
Christians commonly take spiritual matters for granted. Some talk about Christ’s incarnation and human living with little realization of the significance of these things. The One who was born in a manger in Bethlehem and who was raised in a carpenter’s home in Nazareth was the very God Himself in human form. Imagine that the almighty God, the Creator, became a man and was restricted to the home of a carpenter and even worked for years as a carpenter! Jesus was called Emmanuel, God with us. This means that when Jesus lived on earth, God lived on earth. Furthermore, in His living He was patient and hidden. He did not make a display of Himself. For years, He was limited there in Nazareth. When He came forth to carry out His ministry, He did not do so on a large scale, but on a small scale and even in a lowly way. People wondered about Him, asking who He was, for they knew His mother, brothers, and sisters. They knew Him merely as Jesus of Nazareth.
When some Christians say that Jesus of Nazareth is the Son of God, they consider that as the Son of God He is different from God. They do not realize that the Son of God is God Himself. John 1:1 does not say, “In the beginning was the Word...and the Word was the Son of God.” Rather this verse tells us that the Word in the beginning was God. This Word became flesh (John 1:14). For the Word to become flesh means that God Himself became flesh. It was God in the flesh who worked on earth, who washed the feet of the disciples, who was arrested in the garden, who was tried before the high priest and before Pilate and Herod, and who was sentenced to death and crucified. Yes, the One who was crucified was the very God. Some may ask: Is it possible for God to be crucified? The answer is that God was crucified in the humanity of Jesus. Recognizing this, Charles Wesley says in one of his hymns, “Amazing love! How can it be that Thou, my God, shouldst die for me?” (Hymns, #296). The second stanza of the same hymn opens with the line: “’Tis mystery all! The Immortal dies!” The One who died for us was not only Jesus of Nazareth, but God, the very One who created us. Yet, as God was dying on the cross, He cried out to God, saying, “My God, My God...” (Matt. 27:46). Those with a doctrinal mentality may be at a loss to explain this. How can God say to God, “Why have You forsaken Me?” The answer is that God was dying on the cross in the form of a man. Therefore, as a man He could cry, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?” After His crucifixion, He was buried. Then, on the third day, He was resurrected. First Corinthians 15:45 says that as the last Adam He became a life-giving Spirit. Therefore, in 2 Corinthians 3:17 Paul goes on to say, “Now the Lord is the Spirit” (Gk.).
God today is the Spirit including the elements of incarnation, humanity, crucifixion, and resurrection. The effectiveness of Christ’s wonderful death, the power of His resurrection, and the reality of His resurrection life are all in the Spirit. This Spirit is no longer merely the Spirit of God or the Spirit of Jehovah, but the Spirit of Jesus Christ.
As the Spirit of Jesus Christ, the Spirit includes the elements of incarnation, humanity, crucifixion, and resurrection. When we called on the name of the Lord Jesus and were saved, such a Spirit entered into our being to regenerate our deadened spirit and to make us sons of God. The Spirit who came into us at the time of our regeneration is the ultimate consummation of the Triune God, the realization and expression of the Father, Son, and Spirit. This Spirit has come into us to impart into our being the life and nature of God. Because we have been regenerated by this Spirit in our spirit, we have become sons of God.
Not many Christians realize that they are sons of God and that God wants them to live the life of a son of God. After they are saved, most Christians try to improve themselves or to do something to please God. In their efforts to improve the natural man or to do something to please God, the vast majority of the Lord’s people are missing the mark of God’s economy. God’s salvation is for His economy, and His economy is not a matter of ethics. Rather, by His salvation according to His economy, God has regenerated us by the divine life that we may be His sons and live as sons of God. God’s goal is not simply that we improve our behavior and thereby do good instead of evil. It is not God’s purpose merely to have a number of good people. God’s desire is that we live as sons of God. God wants us not simply to be cleansed. He wants us to live as sons of God. If we would do this, we need to receive the Spirit of God. We have been born of the Spirit to receive the Spirit.
Galatians 3:5 says, “He therefore Who is supplying to you the Spirit and doing works of power among you, is it by the works of law or by the hearing of faith?” This verse indicates that God continues to supply us the Spirit. We may use electricity as an illustration. After electricity has been installed in a building, electricity is supplied continually to the building. Likewise, after God regenerated us by His Spirit to make us His sons, He has been continually supplying to us the Spirit. Nothing is more crucial than the constant receiving of the Spirit. The Galatians had been saved and had received the Spirit by the hearing of faith. However, they had been misled and distracted and had turned back to the law. Instead of taking the Spirit as their source, they took the law as their source. Many Christians today have also been distracted from the Spirit. We all need to be brought back to the Spirit as our source. We must come back to God Himself as the all-inclusive life-giving Spirit. Sisters should not be occupied with trying to be a good wife or mother. Instead, they should open themselves to the Spirit as their heavenly source and receive the transmission of the Triune God, the heavenly electrical current, into their being. If they receive such a transmission, they will automatically be good wives and mothers. I encourage you to pray, “Lord Jesus, I open myself to You. I thank You that I have been born of God, born of the all-inclusive Spirit. Lord, this Spirit is still transmitting something of You into my being. I thank You, Lord, for this marvelous transmission.”
There is no need to pray about your weaknesses or your temper. There is no need to ask the Lord to make you patient, or to cause you to be a good wife and mother or husband and father. That kind of prayer is not effective. The Lord is waiting for you to open to Him and to allow Him to permeate, saturate, and possess you. He is waiting for the opportunity to occupy all the ground in your inner being. If you give the Lord this opportunity, receiving the transmission of the Spirit, you will automatically be a good wife or husband. You have been born of the Spirit. Now you need to stay open to the Spirit and receive Him continually. Do not close your being to the Spirit. If you stay open to the Spirit and receive the Spirit constantly, you will be surprised how this will affect your daily living. What you for years have prayed for without receiving will now become your experience.
When you need light at home, you do not pray for light — you simply go to the switch and turn it on. Likewise, if we would receive the supply of heavenly electricity, all we need to do is go to the “switch,” our regenerated spirit, and “switch on.” However, very few of today’s Christians practice this. Instead, many pray to be gentle, patient, humble, or loving. From years of experience I can testify that this kind of prayer does not work. You may pray again and again for the Lord to make you patient or loving, but you may not receive anything of the Spirit. Christians may pray for many things, but they do not “switch on” to receive the divine transmission. Sometimes even after I had learned the secret of switching on, I still prayed in a way that was not effective. I am sure that many of you have had the same kind of experience. Our need is to turn to the Lord, open to Him, and receive His supply of the Spirit.
I repeat, it is not God’s intention to make you a good person. It is to make you His son. Ephesians 1:5 says that God has predestinated us to sonship. God’s intention is to make us sons. In Galatians 4:5 Paul says clearly that Christ has redeemed us that we might receive the sonship. Verse 6 says, “And because you are sons, God sent forth the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, Abba, Father!” The Spirit of God’s Son is the reality of sonship. First, God sent His Son to be our Redeemer. Then God sent forth the Spirit of His Son into our hearts. Now God’s desire is to supply us continually with the Spirit.
According to 3:13 and 14, Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law so that “the blessing of Abraham might come to the nations in Jesus Christ, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.” We have received the Spirit as the blessing of Abraham. God’s unique blessing to us is this all-inclusive Spirit. However, many fundamental Christians are reluctant to even talk about the Spirit. Some are afraid of any mention of the Spirit. This is one extreme. At the other extreme are certain Pentecostal people who emphasize the Spirit, but in a way that is not proper or in line with God’s economy. The Spirit in the book of Galatians is the ultimate expression of the Triune God, that is, the Triune God after He has been processed through incarnation, human living, crucifixion, and resurrection. In Galatians, the Spirit is not associated with strange or unusual things. On the contrary, the Spirit is related to Christ living in us. Hence, the Spirit is full of divine, heavenly reality. What is needed in the Lord’s recovery today is that a number of saints become enlightened and open themselves for the heavenly supply to be transmitted into them.
We all need to realize that we have been born of the Spirit. Because we have been born of the Spirit, we are different from what we were before. Having been born of the Spirit, we need to practice opening to the Lord and receiving His supply. We should pray, “Lord, supply me with Yourself as the life-giving Spirit. I praise You, Lord, that You are real. You are on the throne in heaven, and You are also living in me. Lord, I ask that You keep me open to You all the time.” In order to stay open to the Lord, it is helpful to call on His name, to pray-read, to praise the Lord, and to sing to the Lord. When we do these things, we receive of the Spirit. When we say, “Lord Jesus, I love You and I give myself wholly to You,” we are supplied with the Spirit. Realizing that we have been born of the Spirit, we should now stay open to receive the Spirit moment by moment.
I can surely testify how enjoyable it is to receive the Spirit continually. No joy can surpass this joy. We may receive the Spirit wherever we may be, at home, at work, or at school. Because the Spirit is so available, we may receive Him at any time. How wonderful that we have been born of the Spirit to receive the Spirit! Let us go to the “switch” of our regenerated spirit and “switch on” to receive the heavenly electricity.
