Regeneration is accomplished according to the purpose and mercy of God the Father (James 1:18; 1 Pet. 1:3). The Epistle of James tells us that God brought us forth according to His purpose, that we should be a certain firstfruit of His creatures. This is our divine birth, our regeneration. First Peter 1:3 also tells us that God the Father has regenerated us according to His great mercy. Mercy goes farther than grace. Grace is applied only to a worthy situation, but mercy reaches farther than grace, extending even to the unworthy ones. According to man’s condition, no one deserves God’s grace. Man is in distress and in a pitiful condition; hence, mercy is needed to bridge the gap between God and man. Therefore, as the fallen and undeserving ones, we have been regenerated according to the purpose and mercy of God the Father.
Regeneration is accomplished through the resurrection of Christ from among the dead (1 Pet. 1:3). On the one hand, the death of Christ redeemed us from our sins, and on the other hand, it released His life (John 12:24). Through the resurrection of Christ, His life entered into us to regenerate us. When He was resurrected, we, His believers, were all included in Him. Thus, we were resurrected with Him (Eph. 2:6). In this resurrection, He imparted the divine life into us and enlivened us with the divine life, bringing us into a relationship of life, an organic union, with God, and making us the same as He is in the divine life and nature. This is regeneration. Hence, God the Father has regenerated us through the resurrection of Christ from among the dead.
Regeneration is accomplished through the work of the Holy Spirit (John 3:5, 8). Through His resurrection from among the dead, the Lord Jesus accomplished only the objective fact of our regeneration. Not until the Holy Spirit comes to operate in us and applies the objective fact to us do we have the subjective experience of regeneration. When the Holy Spirit comes, He first convicts us concerning sin, concerning righteousness, and concerning judgment (John 16:8). He causes us to see that we are sinful, that the Lord bore our sins for us that we might be justified, and that unless we believe in Him we shall be judged. Therefore, He convicts us of these things and causes us to repent. Immediately following this, He causes us to believe in the gospel and to receive the Lord Jesus and what He has accomplished for us. Thus we are regenerated, having received the life released by Christ through His death and resurrection.
Regeneration is accomplished through the word of God. First Peter 1:23 says, “Having been regenerated, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, through the living and abiding word of God.” Here we are told that we have been regenerated of incorruptible seed. A seed is a container of life. The word of God as the incorruptible seed contains God’s life. Just as God’s life is living and abiding, so the word of God is also living and abiding. Through His living and abiding word of life, God conveys His life into our spirit for our regeneration.
After the accomplishment of the fact of regeneration by the Lord Jesus through His resurrection from among the dead, and after the operating work of the Holy Spirit, there is still the need of man’s believing (John 1:12-13; 3:15) that regeneration may actually take place. Although the Lord has accomplished the fact of regeneration and the Holy Spirit is also moving and working, unless a person believes, he cannot be regenerated. In order to be regenerated, a person needs to believe, and he needs only to believe and not to do anything else. When a person believes into the name of the Lord and receives the Lord as his Savior, he is regenerated, that is, he is born of God and receives God’s life with the authority to be a child of God.
The first result of our being regenerated is that we receive the life of God (John 3:15-16; 1 John 5:11-13). Since regeneration is the impartation of God’s eternal life into our spirit by the divine Spirit, the first and primary thing we receive through regeneration is, of course, the eternal life of God.
The eternal life of God is the contents of God, even God Himself. All that God is and all that is in God are in the life of God. God’s nature and all of the divine capabilities and functions in God are contained within this life. Therefore, when we receive God’s eternal life, we receive all that God is in Himself and all that is in God, and we have God’s nature and the capabilities and function in God Himself. Hence, we can be as God is and do what God does, that is, we can be like God and live God out.