In God’s organic salvation, God first regenerates us that we may have His divine life. We have said that regeneration is the center of God’s entire salvation and the commencement of God’s salvation in its organic aspect. Today we see further that regeneration is the base of God’s organic salvation. This base is of two aspects: first, it is the base for us to grow in the divine life; second, it is the base for us to be built up in the divine life. Regeneration is the base both for our growth and for our building up.
In regeneration the Spirit of God regenerates us in our spirit with the divine life. Regeneration is not an outward matter. It is not “to mend one’s ways and turn over a new leaf” as people generally say; nor is it, as the Chinese say, that “everything in the past died yesterday and everything henceforth is born today.” That is the common Chinese saying, not the biblical revelation. The reality of regeneration is related to the two spirits. One is the divine Spirit of God, the life-giving Spirit, the pneumatic Christ; the other is our created human spirit. On the day we received the Lord with repentance by believing into His name, He as the divine Spirit came into our spirit to enliven it; thus, we were regenerated in our created spirit. This is the real meaning of regeneration. That which is born of the Spirit is spirit (John 3:6). The Spirit begetting the spirit is the reality of regeneration. Our spirit has been regenerated and made alive; hence, we are a group of regenerated ones.
Regeneration is our being born of God as God’s species (John 1:13), that is, that we may be of the same kind as God. Such a concept is exceedingly great, high, and profound. In the beginning, we human beings were created according to the image of God and were of God’s kind. Yet we did not have God’s life or His divine nature. However, when our spirit was made alive by His Spirit through regeneration, we were born to be children of God. John 1:12 says, “But as many as received Him, to them He gave the authority to become children of God, to those who believe into His name.” God’s children are God’s species. Goats beget goats, cows beget cows, and humans beget humans; likewise, God begets gods. We who have been born of God are God’s species. We do not share in the divine Godhead, but we have God’s life and nature. The heart’s desire and good pleasure of God are to have a group of people who are exactly like Him, having His nature and His life to be His expression. This is why we need regeneration. We need to be regenerated not because we have sins but because God’s desire is that we have His life and be exactly like Him.
Furthermore, regeneration means that, in addition to our natural life, we have the divine, eternal life of God (John 3:16, 36a) as the basis and means of our spiritual life and living. Regeneration is not that we may improve our behavior, that we may have religious zeal and live a devout life, or that we may pay attention to ethics and morality. Rather, regeneration is for us to have God’s eternal life in addition to our natural life; this is to have the uncreated life, which is God Himself, in addition to our original, created life. This divine, eternal life becomes the basis and means of our living. What God desires today is for all of our living to be based on this life and by this life.