After we are cleansed, we are sanctified, that is, separated. First Corinthians 6:11 shows us the proper order: “And these things were some of you; but you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God.” According to certain theological teachings, sanctification comes after justification, but this verse says differently. If we are not separated, if we are still in the heap of sinful people, we cannot be justified. We are forgiven, cleansed, and sanctified, and then justified.
First Corinthians 1:2 and Romans 1:7 both say that we are called saints. Saints means “sanctified persons.” After we receive the Lord Jesus and are sprinkled with the blood, we are sanctified, that is, separated from all the people of the world. We are no longer the same as they are. We are different, separated by the blood.
After we are sanctified, we are justified. As we have seen, 1 Corinthians 6:11 speaks of justification. To this we may add Romans 5:1. Justification is based on our being sprinkled, redeemed, forgiven, cleansed, and separated. When we have these items, we are qualified to be justified. We are sprinkled with the blood, and by this blood we are redeemed, bought back. Based on this blood we are forgiven, and by this blood we are cleansed and even separated, that is, sanctified. Now further, by this blood we are justified, and we have no problem with God.
After justification we have reconciliation. We are reconciled with God and have peace. This is mentioned in Romans 5:10 and 11, which say, “For if we, being enemies, were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more we will be saved in His life, having been reconciled, and not only so, but also boasting in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received the reconciliation.” (Reconciliation in verse 11 is not atonement, as it says in the King James Version; atonement is an Old Testament word.) To be reconciled to God means that we have nothing contradictory to God. We are at peace with God in a full way.
To be sprinkled, redeemed, forgiven, cleansed, separated, justified, and reconciled is wonderful. Apparently, these items are good enough. However, these seven items are not the central item. They are all subsidiary items. Do not think that I despise the Lord’s redemption. I do not. However, all these items are simply the preparation for regeneration. Therefore, the eighth item of God’s salvation is regeneration. Here we come back to the very beginning of God’s eternal purpose. God’s eternal purpose is to work Himself into us as life. We must remember well the first two chapters of the Scriptures. God made man a vessel to contain God Himself (Gen. 2:7). Therefore, after God created man, He put him in front of the tree of life with the intention that man would receive the life signified by that tree, which is the divine life of God Himself (v. 9). Before man received God into him as life, however, Satan came in. Man became fallen, dirty, and condemned by God, so he needed to be sprinkled, redeemed, forgiven, cleansed, sanctified, justified, and reconciled. This shows us that all these items of God’s salvation are the procedure to recover fallen man, to bring him to the genuine, proper standing for God to fulfill His purpose to put Himself into man as his life.
The foregoing seven items are not the central and main items. They are the preparation for the main item, which is that man would be reborn. Regardless of whether we are bad or good, we need to be reborn. Many in Christianity have the wrong concept that we need to be reborn because we are sinful, but even if we were not sinful, we would still need to be reborn. If we are not reborn, we cannot have the divine life; we can have only the human life. How can we have the divine life from only our human birth?
Even if Adam had never fallen and had remained in the garden of Eden in a good condition, he still would need to be regenerated. Otherwise, even though he would be a good man, he would have only the created, human life, not the uncreated, divine, eternal life. Therefore, we must be clear that all the subsidiary items of God’s salvation are not the central and main items. Regeneration is the central item of God’s salvation, and these others are the preparation for regeneration.
First Peter 1:3 and 23 and John 3:3 and 5 speak of regeneration. Regeneration is nothing other than receiving Christ, the very embodiment of God, as the Holy Spirit. It is to receive Christ into our spirit. When we believe in Him and receive Him, He comes into our spirit. By this we have the second life, the divine, eternal life of God, and this life causes us to have the second birth. We had our first birth from our parents, and now we have the second birth by Christ as life as the Holy Spirit coming into our spirit, according to John 3:6b, which says, “That which is born of the Spirit is spirit.” In this way, regeneration is the very item that fulfills God’s eternal purpose, which is to work Himself in Christ through the Spirit into us that He may be our life in our spirit. That is why we say that the foregoing items of God’s salvation are subsidiary, while only the last item-regeneration-is the main and central item.
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