What must a person do to be born again in the spirit — The Spiritual Man

What must a person do to be born again in the spirit

The death of the Lord Jesus was a substitutionary death, taking the punishment in place of sinners. All the sins of the sinner—in spirit, soul, and body—were judged on the cross in the person of the Lord Jesus. In God’s eyes and by His purpose, the death of Christ is counted as the death of mankind. His holy humanity stood in for all sinful humanity and died in their place.

But on man’s side, one thing is still required: to unite oneself—spirit, soul, and body—with Christ by faith. This means to count Christ as oneself, to consider His death as one’s own death, and His resurrection as one’s own resurrection. This is the meaning of John 3:16: “Whoever believes in (original: believes into) Him shall have eternal life.” The sinner must, by faith, believe into Christ and be united with His death in order to also be united with His resurrection—and so hope to obtain eternal life, which is the spiritual life (cf. John 17:3), and receive rebirth.

We must be careful not to separate Christ’s substitutionary death from our co-death with Him. Those who focus on intellectual understanding tend to do this. But in spiritual reality, it is not so. While they are distinct concepts, they must never be divided. If a person believes in Christ’s substitutionary death, then that person has already died with Christ (Rom. 6:2). To believe that Jesus bore my punishment means to believe that I was punished in Him. The punishment for sin is death. The punishment that Christ bore for me was also death. Therefore, I have died in Him. Otherwise, there would be no salvation. His dying for me means I died in Him and have already been judged. (Those who believe in this truth will experience its reality.)

Thus, the sinner’s faith in Christ’s death is faith that brings union with Him. Although many believers may only see the problem of punishment for sin and not the power of sin, union with Christ is the shared portion of every true believer. Without this union, there is no true faith and no relationship with Christ.

This kind of faith into Christ is union with Him. Union with Christ means that all He has passed through, we also pass through. In the earlier verses of John 3 (v.14), the Lord has already shown us what union means—it is union with His crucifixion and death. Every believer, at the very least, is united with Christ in His death in terms of position. But “if we have been united with Him in a death like His, we shall certainly be united with Him in a resurrection like His” (Rom. 6:5). So every believer in Christ’s substitutionary death is, by nature, also united with Him in resurrection—positionally. Even if they have not fully experienced the power of Christ’s resurrection life, just as they may not yet fully understand the meaning of His death, at the moment of faith, God has already made them alive together with Christ. At that moment, they receive new life in Christ’s resurrection life and are born again.

We must be careful not to think that one must have some particular experience of co-death and co-resurrection with Christ to be truly born again. Scripture simply states that those who believe in Jesus are already born again: “To all who received Him, who believed in His name, He gave power to become children of God—who were born…of God” (John 1:12–13).

We should understand that co-resurrection with Christ is not something that comes after being born again. Our rebirth is our co-resurrection with Christ. For His death (that is, our co-death with Him) ends the problem of our sinful life. His resurrection (that is, our co-resurrection with Him) gives us new life and begins our Christian walk. Therefore Scripture says, “He has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead” (1 Pet. 1:3). This means every born-again Christian is one who has already been raised with Christ. Yet in Philippians 3, the apostle Paul teaches that we must still pursue “to know the power of His resurrection” (v.10). Many Christians are born again and united with Christ in resurrection, but they lack the manifestation of resurrection power.

Thus, we must not confuse position with experience. When a person first believes in Jesus, though he may be weak and ignorant, God places him in a position where he is considered to have died, risen, and ascended with Christ—complete in Him. All who are accepted in Christ are accepted just as Christ is accepted—this is positional truth. But not every believer experiences this. Still, the moment one believes, all that Christ experienced becomes his positional reality. At the very least, he has been born again. This rebirth is not based on the extent of one's personal experience of Christ’s death, resurrection, or ascension, but simply on believing in Christ. That position brings the experience of rebirth. Even if the believer does not yet fully know “the power of His resurrection” (Phil. 3:10), he has already been “made alive together with Christ…and raised us up with Him and seated us with Him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus” (Eph. 2:5–6).

“The spirit of man is the lamp of the Lord” (Prov. 20:27). At rebirth, the Holy Spirit comes and enters into man’s spirit like lighting a lamp. This is the “new spirit” spoken of in Ezekiel 36:26. For the old spirit was as if dead; now the Holy Spirit has imparted God’s uncreated life into it, and the spirit becomes living.

Before rebirth, man’s soul ruled over his spirit, his “self” ruled over his soul, and his lusts ruled over his body. The soul became the life of the spirit, the self became the life of the soul, and lusts became the life of the body. After rebirth, the Holy Spirit governs the spirit, enabling the spirit to govern the soul, and the soul to govern the body. The Holy Spirit becomes the life of the spirit, and the spirit becomes the life of the whole person.

At the moment of rebirth, the Holy Spirit revives the human spirit and renews it. In Scripture, “rebirth” refers to the passing from death into life—it is like physical birth, a one-time event that is complete in itself. At rebirth, a person receives God’s life, is born of God, and becomes a child of God. “Renewal,” in the Bible, refers to the continuing work of the Holy Spirit as He fills us with His life and progressively overcomes the life of the flesh. In the born-again person, the proper order of spirit and soul is restored.

Another point to note: rebirth does not merely restore man to Adam’s state before the fall—it goes further. Though Adam had a “spirit,” that spirit was created by God. It was not God’s uncreated life—the life symbolized by the tree of life. Adam had no life-union with God. He was called the son of God (Luke 3:38), but only in the way that angels are—because he was directly created by God. Believers in Jesus, however, are “born of God” (John 1:12–13), and thus we share in His life. A father’s life is the life that the child receives from him. Since we are born of God, we naturally have the life of God (2 Pet. 1:4). Had Adam received the life God offered through the tree of life, he would have had eternal life—that is, God’s uncreated life. His spirit, from God and eternal in nature, would have lived eternally based on his choices. What we Christians receive at rebirth is precisely that divine life which Adam could have had but did not. Rebirth does not merely restore the disorder of the soul and spirit—it imparts God’s extraordinary life.

Man’s dark and fallen spirit is enlivened by the Holy Spirit, who adds God’s life into it—this is rebirth. The basis of the Spirit’s work of regeneration is the cross (see John 3:14–15). The “eternal life” of John 3:16 is the life of God placed into the human spirit by the Holy Spirit. Because this life is God's own life and cannot die, the person who receives it is said to have eternal life. Only if God’s life could die would eternal life cease to exist.

From the moment of rebirth, man enters a reproductive relationship with God. Once a person is born of God, God cannot deny that birth. A person who has once been reborn of God can never lose that relationship or position, no matter how long eternity stretches. This is not based on his post-conversion progress, spirituality, or holiness, but on his faith in Jesus Christ as Savior. What God gives to the reborn person is eternal life. This position and life can never be erased.

To be born again is to have God’s life. This is the starting point of the Christian life—the minimum for every believer. Anyone who has not received this supernatural life through faith in Christ’s death, regardless of their religious zeal, morality, or knowledge, is still, in God’s eyes, spiritually dead. All who lack God’s own life are dead.

Rebirth is the starting point from which the spiritual life can grow. It is the first stage of spiritual life. At this point, the life is perfect in essence, but not mature. The vitality of this life is complete and can reach the highest spiritual heights. But it is still in its infancy. Just as a newly sprouted fruit is perfect in life essence but not yet mature, so it is with the new life in a believer. After rebirth, a vast realm opens for growth in God’s life. From this point on, the Holy Spirit can lead the believer forward until he fully overcomes the body and soul.