John 3:6 says, “That which is born of the Spirit is spirit.” It is evident that in this verse there are two spirits. The first Spirit is capitalized, referring to the divine Spirit. The second spirit has a small letter, referring to the human spirit. That which is born of the divine Spirit is the human spirit. Our human spirit needs to be born of the divine Spirit.
Ezekiel 11:19, 18:31, and 36:26 tell us that God promised to give His people a new spirit. This new spirit, according to Ezekiel 36:26 is not the Holy Spirit, because in Ezekiel 36:27, after the mentioning of the new spirit, it says God will put His own Spirit into us. There are two kinds of spirits. One is the new human spirit and the other is God’s Holy Spirit. God is able to give us a new spirit by regeneration. What God promised in Ezekiel 36 is still being fulfilled in John 3:6. In John 3:6 we are told that our spirit has to be born of the divine Spirit. It is not just to revive it; it is not just to restore it; but it is to regenerate it.
Regeneration and restoration are two different things. Regeneration is not just a restoration. Restoration means to restore, to recover some old things. But regeneration means to put another life into the old thing. It is not to generate, but to regenerate. To generate means it doesn’t exist, but to regenerate means it exists already and now another life is put into it.
In Genesis 1 and 2, man was made in God’s image, but by that time man didn’t have God’s eternal, uncreated life. What man had was just the breath of life, not the eternal life of God. So after the creation of man, God put man before the tree of life. The tree of life signifies the divine life, the eternal life of God. God put man before the tree of life that man would take His life, but before man took the life of God, man fell.
Due to the fall, man needs redemption, but redemption is not God’s goal. Redemption is not God’s aim. Redemption is just God’s procedure of recovery. Redemption brings fallen man back to God’s purpose. Even if you are redeemed, if you haven’t received the life of God, God’s purpose has not been fulfilled with you. Of course, as long as we receive redemption, we get the life of God. God put these two things together. God makes an all-inclusive deal with us. Most Christians just care for redemption and not so much for life. But we have to realize that redemption is just a recovery procedure for the final purpose, which is to have God’s life. God’s final purpose is to put His life into us. This putting of His life into us is regeneration. Strictly speaking, regeneration has nothing to do with our fall. Redemption takes care of our fall; regeneration takes care of God’s purpose.
We can use Coca-Cola bottles as an illustration. The bottles are for containing Coca-Cola, but all the bottles fell into the trash can. First, you need to recover them, to bring them back. But to bring them back is not to fulfill their purpose. If you bring all the fallen bottles back, and you clean them with detergent, they are still empty. This bringing back takes care of the fall. After being brought back, and after being purified and cleansed with detergent, you need a further step-to fill the bottles with Coca-Cola.
We are the bottles, the vessels (Rom. 9:21, 23). Before we were filled with the life of God, we fell into the trash can. Before we were saved, we were in the trash can. Praise the Lord for God’s mercy! One day He came to the trash can and brought us out. That was redemption. Redemption takes care of our fall. At the same time, God put His divine life into us.
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