The first experience of the first stage is regeneration.
From the point of view of knowing life, regeneration means that in addition to his original life man obtains the life of God. But from the standpoint of experience, what, actually, is regeneration, and what are the conditions of regeneration?
The story of how we were saved is the story of how we experienced God’s salvation. God’s salvation is exceedingly full and complete. It includes forgiveness of sins, cleansing, sanctification, justification, freedom from bondage, regeneration, etc.-all these are parts of God’s salvation. Of all these parts, only regeneration is the part of life. The forgiveness of our sins is not a matter of life; neither are the cleansing of our sins, our being sanctified, and our being justified matters of life. Even our being set free from bondage cannot absolutely be a matter of life, since part of this experience has to do with release from the law and another part with freedom from the bondage of sin, and these parts are not entirely of life. All these are only what God has done upon us. Only regeneration is the part of life in God’s salvation. Therefore, when we experience God’s salvation, only regeneration is the experience of that part which is of life.
Since regeneration is the part which is of life in the experience of salvation, it is then the center of the experience of salvation, because the central purpose of God in saving us is that we may have His life. It is for this that He has forgiven our sins; it is for this that He has cleansed us; it is for this that He has sanctified us; it is for this that He has justified us; and it is for this that He has set us free. He has done all these for one purpose-regeneration. Regeneration, therefore, is the central part of God’s salvation, and it is also the central part of our experience of God’s salvation.
The first experience of life is regeneration. Without regeneration we have not yet begun our experience of life. When we are regenerated, we then begin to experience life. Therefore, from the standpoint of experience, regeneration is the beginning of the experience of life.
Since regeneration is the obtaining of God’s life in addition to our original life, the moment we are regenerated is the very moment God’s life enters into us. Regeneration, therefore, is the entering into us of God’s life.
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