Although regeneration is a marvelous reality, my burden in this message is not on regeneration itself. My burden is on the Spirit. Only by being the Spirit is God able to regenerate us. If you ask people who God is, some will say that He is the Creator. Others may say that He is also our Redeemer and Savior. Not many will say that God is the Spirit.
As the Spirit, God is not simple, for the Spirit is the all-inclusive life-giving Spirit. This Spirit includes divinity, humanity, human living, crucifixion, and resurrection.
Christians commonly take spiritual matters for granted. Some talk about Christ’s incarnation and human living with little realization of the significance of these things. The One who was born in a manger in Bethlehem and who was raised in a carpenter’s home in Nazareth was the very God Himself in human form. Imagine that the almighty God, the Creator, became a man and was restricted to the home of a carpenter and even worked for years as a carpenter! Jesus was called Emmanuel, God with us. This means that when Jesus lived on earth, God lived on earth. Furthermore, in His living He was patient and hidden. He did not make a display of Himself. For years, He was limited there in Nazareth. When He came forth to carry out His ministry, He did not do so on a large scale, but on a small scale and even in a lowly way. People wondered about Him, asking who He was, for they knew His mother, brothers, and sisters. They knew Him merely as Jesus of Nazareth.
When some Christians say that Jesus of Nazareth is the Son of God, they consider that as the Son of God He is different from God. They do not realize that the Son of God is God Himself. John 1:1 does not say, “In the beginning was the Word...and the Word was the Son of God.” Rather this verse tells us that the Word in the beginning was God. This Word became flesh (John 1:14). For the Word to become flesh means that God Himself became flesh. It was God in the flesh who worked on earth, who washed the feet of the disciples, who was arrested in the garden, who was tried before the high priest and before Pilate and Herod, and who was sentenced to death and crucified. Yes, the One who was crucified was the very God. Some may ask: Is it possible for God to be crucified? The answer is that God was crucified in the humanity of Jesus. Recognizing this, Charles Wesley says in one of his hymns, “Amazing love! How can it be that Thou, my God, shouldst die for me?” (Hymns, #296). The second stanza of the same hymn opens with the line: “’Tis mystery all! The Immortal dies!” The One who died for us was not only Jesus of Nazareth, but God, the very One who created us. Yet, as God was dying on the cross, He cried out to God, saying, “My God, My God...” (Matt. 27:46). Those with a doctrinal mentality may be at a loss to explain this. How can God say to God, “Why have You forsaken Me?” The answer is that God was dying on the cross in the form of a man. Therefore, as a man He could cry, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?” After His crucifixion, He was buried. Then, on the third day, He was resurrected. First Corinthians 15:45 says that as the last Adam He became a life-giving Spirit. Therefore, in 2 Corinthians 3:17 Paul goes on to say, “Now the Lord is the Spirit” (Gk.).
God today is the Spirit including the elements of incarnation, humanity, crucifixion, and resurrection. The effectiveness of Christ’s wonderful death, the power of His resurrection, and the reality of His resurrection life are all in the Spirit. This Spirit is no longer merely the Spirit of God or the Spirit of Jehovah, but the Spirit of Jesus Christ.
As the Spirit of Jesus Christ, the Spirit includes the elements of incarnation, humanity, crucifixion, and resurrection. When we called on the name of the Lord Jesus and were saved, such a Spirit entered into our being to regenerate our deadened spirit and to make us sons of God. The Spirit who came into us at the time of our regeneration is the ultimate consummation of the Triune God, the realization and expression of the Father, Son, and Spirit. This Spirit has come into us to impart into our being the life and nature of God. Because we have been regenerated by this Spirit in our spirit, we have become sons of God.
Not many Christians realize that they are sons of God and that God wants them to live the life of a son of God. After they are saved, most Christians try to improve themselves or to do something to please God. In their efforts to improve the natural man or to do something to please God, the vast majority of the Lord’s people are missing the mark of God’s economy. God’s salvation is for His economy, and His economy is not a matter of ethics. Rather, by His salvation according to His economy, God has regenerated us by the divine life that we may be His sons and live as sons of God. God’s goal is not simply that we improve our behavior and thereby do good instead of evil. It is not God’s purpose merely to have a number of good people. God’s desire is that we live as sons of God. God wants us not simply to be cleansed. He wants us to live as sons of God. If we would do this, we need to receive the Spirit of God. We have been born of the Spirit to receive the Spirit.