Man needs to be regenerated that he may enter into the kingdom of God. The Lord Jesus said that man must be born anew (John 3:7), for unless a man is born anew, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God (John 3:3, 5). This word reveals that regeneration is the unique entrance into the kingdom of God.
A kingdom is always related to life. The vegetable kingdom is constituted of the vegetable life, and the animal kingdom, of the animal life. If you intend to share in a certain kind of kingdom, you first need the life of that kingdom. Man and God have two entirely different lives and are in two different realms, in two different kingdoms. In order to enter into the kingdom of God, man must have the life of God, and if he has the life of God, spontaneously he can participate in the kingdom of God. However, in order to have the life of God, man needs to be regenerated. Therefore, man must be regenerated that he may have the divine life and enter into the divine kingdom. Because man’s life does not correspond to God’s nature, it cannot qualify man to enter into God’s kingdom. Even if man had not been corrupted, man still would need to be regenerated that he may have God’s life and correspond to God’s nature. Only then can he enter into the kingdom that matches God’s nature, which is the kingdom of God.
To be regenerated means to be born anew. This is why Nicodemus thought that a man needed to enter the second time into his mother’s womb and be born (John 3:4). He understood correctly the literal sense of the words “born anew,” but he appreciated incorrectly the significance of rebirth, or regeneration. To be regenerated is to be born anew, but it does not mean to enter into the mother’s womb and be born a second time.
To be regenerated is to be born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God (John 1:12-13). Whoever is born of the flesh receives the human life, which is of the flesh; whoever is born of God obtains the divine life, which is of the Spirit. Hence, as the regenerated ones, we have received the divine life in addition to our human life.
To be regenerated is to be born from above. John 3:3 says, “Unless a man is born anew, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” Here the word “anew” in Greek is the same word as “from above” in John 3:31. Hence, to be born anew also means to be born from above. When we were born the first time of our parents, we were born of the earth, from below, and the human life of the flesh which we received was out of the earth and of the earth. But when we are born the second time of God, that is, when we are born again, we are born from above, from heaven, and the divine life of the Spirit which we receive is from heaven and of heaven. Hence, to be regenerated is to be born from above to receive the heavenly life.
To be born anew is to be born of water and the Spirit. In John 3:5 the Lord Jesus said to Nicodemus, “Unless a man is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.” The Lord’s word here concerning being born of water and the Spirit refers to the birth through the water of baptism preached by John the Baptist and through the Holy Spirit given by the Lord.
Water here signifies death and burial for the termination of the repentant people; the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of life and resurrection for the germination of the terminated ones. This water denotes and signifies the all-inclusive death of Christ. The believers have been baptized into this death (Rom. 6:3), burying not only their old man but also their sins, the world, and their past life and history; they have also been separated from the God-rejecting world and from its corruption. The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of Christ, who is also the Spirit of God (Rom. 8:9). To be baptized into the Holy Spirit is to be baptized into the Spirit of Christ, into Christ Himself (Gal. 3:27; Rom. 6:3), into the Triune God (Matt. 28:19), and even into the Body of Christ (1 Cor. 12:13), which is joined to Christ in one spirit (1 Cor. 6:17). Through baptism in water and in the Spirit, the believers in Christ have been regenerated, leaving all the old things of man and entering into the kingdom of God, into the realm of the divine life and the divine ruling (John 3:3), that they may live by God’s eternal life in God’s eternal kingdom.
To be born anew is to be born of the Spirit in our spirit. That is, the Holy Spirit regenerates our human spirit with God’s divine life. John 3:6 says, “That which is born of the Spirit is spirit.” In this verse, the first Spirit is the divine Spirit, the Holy Spirit of God; the second spirit is the human spirit, the regenerated spirit of man. Regeneration is accomplished in the human spirit by the Holy Spirit of God with the divine life, the eternal, uncreated life of God. Hence, when we are regenerated, the divine Spirit dispenses the divine life, the divine element, into our spirit, enlivening it (Col. 2:13) and making it a new spirit (Ezek. 36:26-27a). This new spirit is our regenerated spirit, our spirit which is born of the divine Spirit. Regeneration, therefore, is the Spirit begetting spirit.