Regeneration — The Spiritual Man

Regeneration (Being Born Again)

God's way of salvation—delivering man from both the punishment due to the flesh and from the power of the flesh—was accomplished through the cross of His Son. He now places this salvation before every person, and whoever is willing to receive it has the possibility of being saved.

God already knows that there is no goodness in man. The flesh cannot please Him. It is entirely corrupt and beyond any possibility of repair. Since the flesh is utterly hopeless, if God does not give man something new outside of the flesh, He can have no expectation that, after believing in His Son, man can do anything pleasing to Him. Therefore, when a person believes that the Lord Jesus died in his place and receives Him as his personal Savior, God gives him a new life—a life that is uncreated and belongs to God Himself. This is what the Bible calls being “born again.” God does not change our flesh but imparts His own life to us. Whether a person is born again or not, his flesh remains just as corrupt. The flesh in a sinner is the same as the flesh in a saint. Though a person may be born again, his flesh is not thereby improved. Being born again does not influence the flesh to become better. The flesh is always the flesh—it will never change. God does not use His life to educate or reform the flesh; rather, He uses the new life He has given to overcome the flesh.

This new birth establishes a real, generative relationship between man and God. In the original Greek, the word for “born” in “born again” denotes generation, implying that we are begotten of God. Just as surely as our fleshly life came from our parents, so our spiritual life comes from God. The meaning of “beget” is to impart life. Therefore, to say we are born of God means that we have received a new life from Him. Just as we received our physical life at birth from our parents, we receive our spiritual life at regeneration from God. This is a real life.

We already understand that man is of the flesh—his spirit is dead, his soul governs the whole person, and he acts according to the desires of the body. There is no goodness within. Therefore, in saving us, God must restore the place of the spirit within us so that we may again have fellowship with Him. Thus, when a person believes in the Lord Jesus, God puts His own life into that person’s spirit, causing the spirit to come alive. That is why the Lord Jesus said, “What is born of the Spirit is spirit” (John 3:6, NRSVue). At that moment, God’s life—referred to here as the Spirit—enters the human spirit and restores it to its rightful position. From then on, the Holy Spirit dwells within man’s spirit, and man is transferred into the realm of the spirit. The spirit is now resurrected and regains its governing authority. The “new spirit” spoken of in Ezekiel 36:26 also refers to this new life that is received at regeneration.

The condition for receiving this new birth is not any special kind of behavior, but faith in the Lord Jesus as Savior. “But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God, who were born, not of blood or of the will of the flesh or of the will of man, but of God” (John 1:12–13, NRSVue). Those who believe in the Lord Jesus as their Savior are born of God and are children of God.

Regeneration is the lowest threshold of the spiritual life. All subsequent spiritual growth is founded upon it. Without regeneration, a person has no spiritual life to speak of. One cannot expect to grow spiritually when he has not yet received spiritual life. Just as people do not build houses in midair, we cannot nurture someone who has not been born again. Teaching an unregenerate person to do good and worship God is like instructing a dead man to act, for he does not yet have life. That is equivalent to attempting to reform the flesh—trying to do what God Himself does not do. Every believer must be absolutely certain whether they have truly been born again—whether they have received a new life that they did not have before. Regeneration is not about reforming the old flesh and turning it into spiritual life. It is about receiving a life that was absolutely nonexistent. Without regeneration, one cannot see the kingdom of God. All the spiritual mysteries and heavenly realities of God’s kingdom are forever hidden from him. No matter how he changes, apart from awaiting death and judgment, there is no other outcome.

How can a person know whether he has been born again? John chapter 1 already tells us that one is born again by believing in the name of the Son of God and receiving Him. The name of the Son of God is “Jesus,” which means, “he will save his people from their sins” (Matthew 1:21, NRSVue). To believe in the name of the Son of God is to believe that He is the Savior from sin, that His death on the cross was for my sin, and that He came to deliver me from the penalty and power of sin. It is to receive Him in this way as my Savior. So, if a person wants to know whether he has been born again, he simply needs to ask: Have I, as a helpless sinner, come to the cross and received the Lord Jesus as my Savior? If yes, then he has been born again. All who believe in the Lord Jesus have been born again.