In His work in His resurrection Christ caused His believers to be regenerated by God. God “has regenerated us unto a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from among the dead” (1 Pet. 1:3). Regeneration, like redemption and justification, is an aspect of God’s full salvation. Redemption and justification solve our problem with God and reconcile us to God. Regeneration enlivens us with God’s life and brings us into a relationship of life, an organic union, with God. Hence, regeneration issues and results in a living hope. Such regeneration takes place through the resurrection of Christ from among the dead. When Christ was resurrected, we, His believers, were all included in Him. Thus, we were resurrected with Him (Eph. 2:6). In His resurrection He imparted the divine life into us and made us the same as He is in life and nature. This is the basic factor of our regeneration.
To be regenerated is to receive another life, the divine life, in addition to the human life. We all received the human life from our parents. But because of God’s choosing, the Spirit’s sanctifying, and Christ’s redeeming, God has begotten us, has regenerated us. As a result, we have had a second birth. Through regeneration God the Father imparts the divine life into us. Therefore, the first birth was the birth of our human life, and the second birth, the birth of the divine life. We all have been born of the divine life. This is what it means to be regenerated.
Through Christ’s resurrection we have been regenerated by God unto a living hope. The Greek word translated “unto” also means issuing in, resulting in, with a view to. God the Father has regenerated us with a view to a living hope, the hope that every part of our being and everything related to us will be enlivened. Everything related to an unsaved person is dead. But with one who has been regenerated by God with the divine life there is the hope that everything will be enlivened and thus become living.
In Adam we all died, but through the instrumentality of Christ’s resurrection God has regenerated us, has enlivened us. We were born with Christ in His resurrection. Dean Alford says, “The resurrection of Christ, bringing in life and the gift of the life-giving Spirit, is that which potentiates the new birth into a living hope.” The resurrection of Christ potentiates our regeneration into a living hope. When we were regenerated, the resurrected Christ entered into us. He is not only the living One-He is also the resurrected One. Now He is the life within us that potentiates the new birth and causes every part of our being to become living.
Another aspect of Christ’s work in His resurrection is His rising on the first day of the week to germinate the new creation (2 Cor. 5:17). John 20:1 says, “On the first day of the week, Mary the Magdalene came early to the tomb while it was yet dark, and saw the stone taken away from the tomb.” It is significant that the Lord Jesus was resurrected not on the last day of the week but on the first day of the week. The first day denotes a new beginning. In the Bible the first day of the week is also called the eighth day (John 20:26). After a week of seven days, we have the eighth day, which is the first day of the week. The Lord Jesus died during one week, and He resurrected at the beginning of another week. Therefore, the resurrection of the Lord Jesus was a new start opening the way to a new generation and a new age.
In the old creation there were seven days. God created for six days and rested on the seventh. These seven days were the generation of the old creation. By the resurrection of the Lord Jesus another generation was newly started. In other words, by the resurrection of Christ the old creation has passed away and a new creation has begun. The old generation is over, and the new generation has started. Therefore, the first day of the week signifies the beginning of a new creation, a new generation, and a new age.
The fact that Christ arose on the first day of the week indicates that the entire universe has a new beginning in Christ’s resurrection. His resurrection ushered in a new period, a new age. In the sight of God the entire old creation was crucified with Christ and buried with Him. Then on the first day of the week there was a new beginning with Christ’s resurrection.
Whereas the Lord’s death was the termination of the old creation, His resurrection was the germination of the new creation. For this reason, instead of keeping the Sabbath, the seventh day of the week, we meet on the Lord’s Day, the first day of the week. This means that in resurrection we are in the eighth day, or the first day of the week. Elsewhere, the New Testament calls the first day of the week the Lord’s day (Rev. 1:10), for it was on this day that the Lord Jesus was resurrected to become the living Lord and to usher in a new beginning in resurrection.
When Christ resurrected to germinate a new creation, He left the old creation, signified by the linen cloths and the handkerchief (John 20:5-7), in the tomb. Before the body of Jesus was buried, it was bound in linen (John 19:40). This indicates that He went into the tomb with something of the old creation, signifying that the old creation was brought into the tomb by His burial. All the things which were cast off from the Lord’s resurrected body and left in His tomb signify the old creation. Christ was crucified with the old creation and buried with it. But He resurrected from within it, leaving it in the tomb and becoming the firstfruit of the new creation in resurrection.
The old creation does not have the divine life and nature. But the new creation, which consists of believers born again of God (John 1:13; 3:15; 2 Pet. 1:4), does have the divine life and nature. Therefore, we are a new creation (2 Cor. 5:17; Gal. 6:15), not according to the old nature of flesh but according to the new nature of the divine life.
When the old creation is germinated with the divine life, it becomes the new creation. We, the believers in Christ, who have been germinated through His resurrection, are now the new creation. The old creation does not have God in it, but the new creation begins by God coming into us in the way of germination. This germination is the impartation of the divine life into the believers. Through this impartation of the divine life we were regenerated. Therefore, germination is the impartation of the divine life into the believers for their regeneration to make them a new creation.
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