Whereas regeneration is the base of God’s organic salvation, renewing is the building up of God’s organic salvation in order that we may become His divine, new creation.
Although we have been regenerated with the divine life and nature, we still need to be transformed by the renewing of the mind (Rom. 12:2). When our mind is renewed, our whole being is transformed. Then the Holy Spirit imparts something new, the divine essence of the new man, into our being. Thus, we pass from our old state into a wholly new one, from the old creation into the status of a new creation (Titus 3:5).
Through regeneration we have been created in Christ into one new man (Eph. 2:15; Col. 3:10) as God’s new creation (2 Cor. 5:17; Gal. 6:15). Ephesians 2:15 tells us that Christ died on the cross that He might create us, the regenerated ones, both Jews and Gentiles, in Himself into one new man. Hence, in God’s eyes we are the divine, new creation. Second Corinthians 5:17 says, “So then if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation.” To be in Christ is to be one with Him in life and nature. We, the believers regenerated of God, are a new creation in Christ, having the divine life and nature.
But this new creation is out of God’s old creation, of which so many old elements should be renewed to become new. In order to build up the new creation, the old creation must be torn down. God’s work in us daily is to tear down the old creation and build up the new creation. We should experience this throughout our entire Christian life.
In fact, the creation of the new man has been completed by Christ on the cross (Eph. 2:15); but in practicality, having been made the members of the new man, we should apply to ourselves what Christ has completed by being practically renewed in our living that we may be built up in the divine, new creation.
God renews us that we may be built up in God’s organic salvation. This is to bring us into the practical experience, since God’s organic salvation is altogether subjective and organic.
In God’s organic salvation, regeneration is a washing, and renewing is the continuation of the washing of regeneration (Titus 3:5). We need not only the judicial washing by the Lord’s redeeming blood to cleanse us from every sin (Heb. 1:3; 1 John 1:7), but also the organic washing, the washing of regeneration, which begins with our being born again and continues with the renewing of the Holy Spirit.
We receive an organic washing by daily experiencing God’s organic salvation. The washing of regeneration washes away the old elements, the old nature, and the old things that are within us; the renewing of the Holy Spirit imparts new elements, a new essence, and new things into us. Both the washing of regeneration and the renewing of the Holy Spirit are working in us continually throughout our life until the completion of the new creation so that we may be built up in God’s organic salvation.