In the life aspect of God’s full salvation, after we experience regeneration, the experience that follows immediately is renewing.
1) “Put off...the old man” (Eph. 4:22).
Not long after man was created, he sinned and became fallen. In the fall of man, Satan injected his evil nature of sin into man, poisoning man completely, making man corrupt and evil, and eventually making him an old man mixed with satanic evil (Eph. 4:22). This transmuted and corrupted old man needs to be put off (Col. 3:9). Therefore, in His full salvation, God prepared this item, renewing, for us to experience and enjoy.
1) “He saved us, through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit” (Titus 3:5).
Here it says that God saved us through two things, the washing of regeneration and the renewing of the Holy Spirit. This speaks of the aspect of salvation by life in God’s full salvation, and it differs from the aspect of redemption by the blood. Salvation by life is accomplished through the washing of regeneration and the renewing of the Holy Spirit. On the negative side, the washing of regeneration is a washing that washes away our old man and everything of the old man; on the positive side, the renewing of the Holy Spirit is a renewing that brings to us God’s life as the new element for us to become the new man. Although regeneration is accomplished once for all, the effectiveness of its washing continues along with the renewing of the Holy Spirit. The renewing of the Holy Spirit is constant, beginning with our regeneration and continuing until the transfiguration of our body and our entrance into God’s glory. Therefore, after we are regenerated, we are saved at every time by continuing daily, even hourly, in the ceaseless renewing of the Holy Spirit. This is to be saved in the life of Christ (Rom. 5:10).
1) “We also should walk in newness of life” (Rom. 6:4).
The newness of life proves that this life, the life of God, is a new life. Because of the fall, our created life became an old life. The life of God received in regeneration, which begins the renewing, is a new life. After regeneration, this life of God is the basic means of our continuous renewing. If we walk by this renewing life of God, we will manifest the newness of this life.
1) “A new heart also will I [God] give you, and a new spirit will I [God] put within you” (Ezek. 36:26).
When we are regenerated, God not only imparts to us His life, but He also gives us a new heart and a new spirit. The new heart produces in us a new desire, a new love, and a new inclination toward God. The new spirit renders us a new ability to receive God as the satisfaction of our new man. When we desire God and love God according to this new heart and receive God by this new spirit, we are constantly renewed.
1) “Have put off...the old man...are being renewed in the spirit of your mind...have put on the new man” (Eph. 4:22-24).
At the time of our regeneration, we enter into the fact of the putting off of the old man and the putting on of the new man through the Lord’s death and resurrection. Nevertheless, after being regenerated, we still need the experience of putting off the old man and putting on the new man moment by moment in our living. This is accomplished through the spirit which is in our renewed mind (Rom. 12:2). The spirit of our renewed mind is our regenerated spirit mingled with God’s Spirit, spreading into our mind to do the work of renewing in our mind. It is in this renewing spirit that we put off the old man and put on the new man. Thus, we are renewed, and we become a new man in the new creation in reality. With this new man, old things have passed away, and they have become new (2 Cor. 5:17). Our Christian life is not a matter of religion or self-improvement, but of being a new man of the new creation (Gal. 6:15). The ultimate aggregate of this new man of the new creation is the coming New Jerusalem, which in eternity will show forth in a particular way the renewing aspect of God’s full salvation.