In the initial stage of God’s full salvation the believers experience God’s calling, the Spirit’s sanctification, and their repentance, believing, being baptized, being joined to the Triune God, and being redeemed. In the same stage the believers also experience their being regenerated, receiving the Holy Spirit, obtaining the eternal life, being renewed, being transferred, being freed, and thereby being made a new creation (2 Cor. 5:17). The believers’ being made a new creation is the most crucial part, even the lifeline, of God’s full salvation. The believers are made a new creation first through regeneration. God’s redemption, including the forgiveness of sins, washing, sanctification, justification, and reconciliation to God, is for the regeneration of the believers. The reason God forgives us, washes us, sanctifies us, justifies us, and reconciles us to Himself is that we may be regenerated. Our concept might have been that as long as we could be forgiven of our sins and be justified before God, we would have no problems. However, what God’s salvation has accomplished includes much more than this. Through God’s salvation we not only obtain an outward position that is acceptable to God, but we also are regenerated within to receive a life that is pleasing to God.
Man needs regeneration because man is born of the flesh and is of the flesh (John 3:6). Regardless of how we feel about ourselves, in reality we are from the flesh and of the flesh. That which is from the flesh and of the flesh is flesh. The flesh is born in sin (Psa. 51:5) and is from sin; it is sold under sin (Rom. 7:14) and is of sin. In the flesh there is nothing good (Rom. 7:18); there is only wickedness. The flesh is weak and unprofitable in the things of God (Rom. 8:3; John 6:63), and it is desperately wicked (Jer. 17:9) and incurable. Furthermore, the flesh is enmity against God; it is not and cannot be subject to the law of God, and it cannot please God (Rom. 8:7-8). Being estranged from the life of God (Eph. 4:18), the flesh has nothing to do with God. Moreover, the flesh cannot be changed (Jer. 13:23). Regardless of how much it is changed outwardly, its inward nature cannot be changed at all. No matter how it is changed, it is still the flesh. The flesh is the flesh, and it can never be changed to spirit (John 3:6). Only that which is born of the Spirit is spirit, and only it can receive God’s life and partake of the divine nature, escaping the corruption which is in the world by lust (2 Pet. 1:4). Therefore, man needs to be regenerated, that is, to be born of the Spirit, to be born of God, who is the Spirit.
Many think that man needs to be regenerated because man is evil. The fact is that man, whether good or evil, is from the flesh and of the flesh; hence, man needs to be regenerated. We need to be regenerated not only because our life is evil, but because our life is the life of the flesh, not the life of God. Even if our life were good, it still would be the human life, not the divine life. Regardless of how good and pure the human life might be, it still is not the divine life that God desires. Hence, man needs to be regenerated that he may receive God’s life.