The believers in Christ have been regenerated to receive the eternal life—the divine life—as the seed of God (John 3:15-16; 1 John 5:11-13; 3:9). Regeneration is a rebirth which brings in a new life, eternal life. Regeneration, therefore, is absolutely a matter of life, not a matter of self-improvement. We received the human life from our parents. In regeneration we received the divine life from God. This means that by regeneration eternal life, the very life of God, was imparted to us. The moment we were regenerated the divine life came into us.
The primary thing we receive through regeneration is the life of God. All of the capabilities, functions, and activities of a living being originate with its life. Even its appearance and outward expression are determined by its life. God has the highest life. All that God is and all that is in God are in the life of God. The nature of God is also contained in the life of God. This life we have received through regeneration.
To be regenerated is to receive another life, eternal life, the life of God. Before we believed in the Lord Jesus, we did not have this divine life. But from the time we believed in Him and called on His name, we have had the life of God. When we were regenerated, the divine life was imparted to us to make us a new being. With our old being we have the natural life, and with the new being we have the divine life. What we were was of the old life, the human life. What we have received through regeneration is a new life, the divine life.
The divine life received through regeneration is the seed of our new being. Speaking of the one who has been begotten of God, 1 John 3:9 says, “His seed abides in him.” The seed here denotes God’s life, which we received of Him when we were begotten of Him. This life as the divine seed abides in every regenerated believer. This seed is actually the Triune God Himself. In regeneration the Triune God was sown into us as the seed of life. The believer has the divine seed in his spirit. It is a marvelous fact that this seed of God now abides in us.
The believers have been regenerated through the living and abiding word of God, the word of the divine reality, as the incorruptible seed. First Peter 1:23 says, “Having been regenerated, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, through the living and abiding word of God.” This verse indicates that we have been regenerated through the living and abiding word of God. We have not been regenerated of corruptible seed. A seed is a container of life. The word of God as the incorruptible seed contains God’s life. Hence, it is living and abiding. Through this word we have been regenerated. It is God’s living and abiding word of life that conveys God’s life into our spirit for our regeneration.
We have been regenerated of the organic, divine seed through the divine word. Actually, the Triune God is the seed. In our experience, however, the Triune God as a seed is conveyed in His word as a seed. Therefore, the word as the seed conveys the Triune God as the seed, and by receiving the word we were reborn.
God is mysterious and abstract, and for this reason it is difficult for us to receive Him. But the abstract, mysterious God is embodied in the word, which has been preached to us. When we heard the word and received it, we received God, who is embodied in the word. The embodiment of God in the word is the very seed of life sown into our being for our regeneration.
James 1:18 tells us that God “brought us forth by the word of truth.” The word of truth is the word of the divine reality, the word of what the Triune God is (John 1:14, 17). This word is the seed of life by which we have been regenerated. When we heard the gospel, we heard the word of God’s reality. When we received this word, we were reborn. Through this divine birth the divine life was imparted into our being.
The believers have been reborn to be the children of God. “As many as received Him, to them He gave authority to become children of God, to those who believe in His name: who were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God” (John 1:12-13). To be regenerated is to be born of God, and to be born of God is to have the life of God, that is, the eternal life. If we have the life of God, we are the children of God, for the life of God gives us the authority, the right, to become the children of God, because by this life we have the nature of God and a life relationship with Him. Since regeneration means to be born of God, it automatically causes us to become the children of God. Now we are God’s children, and He is our Father.
We have been begotten of the Father, the source of life, to be the children of God. It is the greatest wonder in the universe that human beings can be begotten of God and that sinners can be made children of God. Through regeneration, an amazing divine birth, we have received the divine life, the eternal life. This life, obtained from God through regeneration, enables us to be His children. Now the Spirit witnesses with our spirit that we are children of God (Rom. 8:16). Even at times when we are weak or backsliding we still have the deep conviction that we are children of God, for once we have been born of God we are His children forever.
Regeneration involves an eternal birth relationship that cannot be dissolved. No birth can be reversed. No one can become unborn once he is born. Just as this is a fixed principle in physical life, it is even more solid and substantial in the spiritual realm. Once we are born of God, we are eternally His children, regardless of our condition. Though we may turn away from the Lord temporarily, the birth relationship can by no means be terminated. This great fact gives us much confidence and boldness in the face of failure and sin. No failure can terminate the birth relationship we have with God.
James 1:18 says, “Having purposed, He brought us forth by the word of truth, that we should be a certain firstfruit of His creatures.” Here we see that we have been regenerated to be the firstfruit of God’s new creation. God’s new creation is organic, altogether a matter of life, and the regenerated believers are the firstfruit of this new creation. God will renew His entire creation to have a new heaven and new earth with the New Jerusalem as the center (Rev. 21:1-2). He first regenerated us to be the firstfruit of His new creation by imparting the divine life into our being through the implanted word of life. This life will consummate in the New Jerusalem as the living center of God’s eternal new universe.
In 1 Peter 1:3 we are told that we have been regenerated unto a living hope. The Greek word rendered “unto” means issuing in, resulting in, with a view to. God has regenerated us with a view to a living hope. This is not a hope of objective things; it is a hope of life, even eternal life, with all the endless divine blessings.
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.
When we were sprinkled with the blood of Christ (1 Pet. 1:2), immediately the life-giving Spirit came into us to enliven us. Using the word “life” as a verb, we may say that the Spirit came in to “life” us. Formerly we were dead and altogether without hope, but we have been “lifed” through the life-giving Spirit unto a living hope. Now we have the hope that every part of our being will be lifed. This is the living hope.
A living hope is a hope of life. In particular, it is a hope of eternal life. Life is the source of hope. For example, a little child has human life. Because he has life, his parents are full of hope concerning his growth and development. At birth he weighed several pounds, but his mother is expecting him to grow to maturity as a man. Her hope is a hope of life. We could not have such a hope in relation to something that is not living, for hope depends on life. We have been born of the divine life, which is a life full of marvelous hope. We do not know to what extent the divine life within us will develop, but we have a living hope concerning this.