Regeneration is a great subject in the Scriptures and a very important part of God’s salvation. The aspects of God’s salvation in the previous chapters—forgiveness, cleansing, sanctification, justification, and reconciliation with God—are all related to regeneration. God forgives us, cleanses us, sanctifies us, justifies us, and reconciles us to Himself so that He can regenerate us. Man assumes that he would be free from all problems if he only received the forgiveness of sins and was justified before God. But the salvation that God accomplished for us does not stop with these items. God’s salvation not only grants us an outward position of being accepted by Him but also involves our inward regeneration, through which we receive a life that pleases Him.
1. “Unless one is born anew, he cannot see the kingdom of God”; “You must be born anew” (John 3:3, 7).
The Lord Jesus said that we must be born anew because unless we are born anew, we cannot see the kingdom of God. The kingdom of God is the realm where God rules. In this realm God does His will and manifests all that He is, and everything is spiritual and heavenly. The fleshly and the earthly cannot understand what occurs in this realm. This is the meaning of cannot see. To understand, one must be born anew.
Every kind of life is a sphere, a kingdom with its own realm and boundaries, and the things in it can be apprehended only by those who possess its life. For example, the bird life exists in its own realm, and only those with a bird’s life and nature understand this realm. Those who are outside the sphere of birds cannot understand the things of the bird kingdom because they do not have the life of a bird or the function of a bird’s life. In the same way, the life of God has its own realm. This realm is the kingdom of God, and the things in it can be understood only by those who possess the life of God. Since man is outside the kingdom of God and without the life of God and the function of God’s life, he cannot understand things that belong to the kingdom and sphere of God. In order to see the kingdom of God, he must be regenerated and obtain the life of God.
No one can understand the things of a particular realm apart from the life of that realm. It is also impossible for the life of a lower realm to comprehend things that belong to a higher realm. How high is God’s life compared to man’s life! In order for man, who belongs to a lower realm, to understand the things of God’s higher realm, he must obtain the life of God’s higher realm. To possess this life, he must be regenerated.
Man and God have two fundamentally different lives in two different realms, two different kingdoms. In order for man in the human sphere to enter into the kingdom of God or the sphere of God, he must have the life of God. If a man has the life of God, he will share in the kingdom of God spontaneously. To possess the life of God, one must be born anew.
Many presume that a human being needs to be born anew because he is evil. However, we need to be regenerated whether we are good or evil. We need to be born again because our life is not the life of God, not merely because our life is evil. Even if our life is good, it is still only human. It is not the life of God, it does not have the function of God’s life, and it cannot understand or do the things of God. Therefore, even if our life is faultless, we still need to be born anew, to receive the life of God, so that we can understand the things of God’s realm and participate in the kingdom of God.
2. “Jesus answered,...Truly, truly, I say to you, Unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit” (John 3:5-6).
Our human life is incapable of understanding the things of God’s realm and God’s kingdom, and it is also of the flesh since it was born of the flesh. It does not matter how we feel about our own life; in actuality, our life is of the flesh and comes from the flesh. Whatever is of the flesh and comes from the flesh is flesh. The flesh is “brought forth in iniquity” (Psa. 51:5), originating from sin; it is “sold under sin” (Rom. 7:14) and belongs to sin; in it “nothing good dwells” (v. 18), and there is only evil; it is “weak” and “profits nothing” pertaining to the things of God (8:3; John 6:63); it is “incurable” (Jer. 17:9); it is at “enmity against God,” “not subject to the law of God, for neither can it be,” and it “cannot please God” (Rom. 8:7-8); it is “alienated from the life of God” (Eph. 4:18), having nothing to do with God; and it is unchangeable. Most people think that man can change for the better. This is especially true of the Chinese teachers of ethics who suggest that human beings can be reformed. Yet in the Bible, God uses two unchangeable things, the skin of a Cushite and the spots of a leopard, to illustrate how man cannot be changed. In essence, God is saying that if these two things could be changed, the flesh of man, or the man of flesh, could also be changed (Jer. 13:23).
However, the skin of a Cushite will never turn white. Even if the skin were painted white, it would still be essentially black. We all have considered changing ourselves for the better. In whatever way we might change, however, it would merely be like applying white paint on the outside. Inside we would still be dark. We also think that we can stop sinning. Even if we do not sin outwardly, we would still be sinful inwardly. We may succeed in changing our outward behavior, but we cannot alter our inward nature.
The leopard’s spots also cannot be changed. We may clothe a leopard with a spotless garment, but its spots will be untouched underneath. We may decorate and dress ourselves up on the outside, but inwardly we are still the same. We may change our outward form, but we cannot change our inward essence.
The man of the flesh, or the fleshly man, is unchangeable. No matter the amount of outward adjustment, our inward nature cannot be changed. Regardless of correction, a man of flesh is still the flesh. The flesh is the flesh, and it will never become the spirit. Only spirit can be born of the Spirit, and only what is born of the Spirit is spirit. To be born of the Spirit, there is the need of regeneration.
Since the kingdom of God is of God, it is also spiritual, because God is Spirit. Fleshly man can never have a part in a spiritual kingdom. In order for man to partake of this spiritual kingdom, he must have a spirit that is born of the Spirit. Therefore, he must be regenerated.