There are many matters related to the inner life. Of these, the first main point is regeneration. We must go back to the beginning to consider regeneration because many of us are still too short in the understanding of life, and we are not able to present these truths to others. First we need to experience the things of life, and then we need to learn how to present them to others in a brief, clear, and impressive way.
What is regeneration, and what do we obtain by regeneration? Regeneration means to be generated again, that is, to be born again. Regeneration is a rebirth. We all have had a birth by our parents. By that birth we received the human life, which is the life for us to exist on this earth. However, that is not the uncreated, divine, eternal life. God’s intention is to put Himself into us as the eternal life, the uncreated life, to fulfill His eternal purpose. Therefore, we need another birth; this means that we need another life. By the birth we have had already, we received a life. Now we need another birth in order to receive another life, which is nothing less than God Himself.
John 1 tells us that Christ as the expression of God was incarnated in order that we may receive God as our life. Verses 12 and 13 say, “But as many as received Him, to them He gave the authority to become children of God, to those who believe into His name, who were begotten not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.” When we receive Christ, we are born of God. This is the second birth, that is, regeneration. To be regenerated is to be reborn, to be born of God. In our birth from our parents we received the human life, but now we are born of God to receive the divine life, which is God Himself.
In regeneration we are born not of the flesh but of the Spirit, of God Himself. John 3:6 says, “That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.” To be born of the flesh is the first birth, but to be born of the Spirit is the second birth. Moreover, this regeneration is something that happens in our spirit. Therefore, regeneration is to be born again of God, to receive God in Christ through the Spirit as a life other than the life we received from our parents. This is the way we should present the truth of regeneration to others. This word is brief, clear, and impressive.
Strictly speaking, whether or not we were fallen, we would still need regeneration. This presents a problem in the theology of today’s Christianity. Today’s theology tells people that because we are fallen, our life has became rotten; therefore, we need a better life. In a sense this is right, but we should realize that even if man had never become fallen, he would still need to be born again. The spirit of man was deadened by the fall through sin. Now through the redemption of the Lord’s blood, the Holy Spirit has gained the ground to come to give life to this deadened spirit, to impart Christ as life into this spirit.
If our spirit had only been made alive, that would simply have been a kind of recovery. What happens, though, is not only a recovering but a regenerating, a life-imparting, because the Holy Spirit brings Christ Himself into us. The Greek word in Ephesians 2:5 translated as quicken in the King James Version means “to give life.” In every language there is a shortage, and in English this word is a problem for translators. In English we can use the noun eye as a verb, as in Hymns, #206, which says, “The Bride eyes not her garment.” In Chinese the word life is both a noun and a verb. If it were possible, in English also we should use the word life as a verb. The Holy Spirit comes to “life” us. Thus, “to put life into us” is the correct meaning of the Greek word in verse 5, which has zoe-the divine, eternal life-as its root, as does the phrase life-giving Spirit in 1 Corinthians 15:45. When the Holy Spirit comes, He comes in as the Spirit of life to life us. When we are “lifed,” we are not only “quickened,” but we also have the Triune God within us as our life. In this way we are regenerated. We are born once more not of flesh but of the divine Spirit, that is, of God Himself. Hence, we are born of God. What is regeneration? Regeneration is to be born again of God, to have God Himself in Christ through the Spirit as the divine life, which has come into us in addition to the life which we received through our parents.
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