Ezekiel 36:26 also says that God puts a new spirit in us. This does not refer to the Holy Spirit, but to our human spirit. What is a new spirit? Just as the new heart is the old heart made new, so the new spirit is the old spirit made new. The old spirit, when it is renewed, is made alive. “Even when we were dead in offenses, made us alive together with Christ” (Eph. 2:5). The problem with our old heart is its hardness; the problem with our old spirit is its deadness. But praise the Lord! After regeneration our heart is soft toward God, and our spirit is alive toward God.
The spirit of man was originally created to be the organ for man to contact God. In Genesis 1 and 2, man had fellowship with God and communed with God through and by his human spirit. “The spirit of man is the lamp of Jehovah, / Searching all the innermost parts of the inner being” (Prov. 20:27). “God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truthfulness” (John 4:24). “For God is my witness, whom I serve in my spirit in the gospel of His Son” (Rom. 1:9). Philippians 2:1 says, “if any fellowship of spirit.” In Genesis 3, because of man’s fall, his spirit was damaged by the defilement of sin, and having lost its function toward God, became a dead spirit. When man’s spirit became dead, God considered the whole man as dead (Eph. 2:5).
When we are regenerated, the blood of the Lord Jesus cleanses the defilement which our spirit suffered. The Spirit of God then puts the life of God into our spirit and enlivens it (Col. 2:13). By this, our dead, old spirit is renewed and becomes a living, new spirit. When God regenerated us, He worked from two sides. On one hand He used the blood of the Lord Jesus to cleanse away the defilement of our spirit so that our spirit became clean. On the other hand by His Spirit He put His life into our spirit so that our spirit could have His divine element. He thus renews our old spirit making it a new spirit.
Since at the time of our regeneration God had already given us a new heart, why does He proceed further to put a new spirit in us? It is because our heart can only desire and love God; it cannot contact God or touch Him. He must put a new spirit in us so that we may contact Him and fellowship with Him.
Ezekiel 36:27 goes on to say that God puts His own Spirit within us. When God regenerated us, He put His life into our spirit, enlivening our dead spirit, and He also put His Spirit into our spirit. Romans 8:9 says, “The Spirit of God dwells in you,” and verse 16 says, “The Spirit Himself witnesses with our spirit.” These two verses show that the Spirit of God dwelling in us dwells in our spirit. Once the Spirit comes into our spirit, we are one spirit with the Lord. First Corinthians 6:17 says, “He who is joined to the Lord is one spirit.”
“But you are not in the flesh, but in the spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. Yet if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not of Him. But if Christ is in you, though the body is dead because of sin, the spirit is life because of righteousness” (Rom. 8:9-10). These two verses show us that the Spirit of God dwelling in us is the Spirit of Christ dwelling in us and the Spirit of Christ dwelling in us is Christ Himself dwelling in us. The Spirit of God in us is the very embodiment of Christ. When we believe, God through His Spirit reveals Christ in us (Gal. 1:16). Once we receive Christ as Savior, He as the Spirit dwells in us (2 Cor. 3:17; 13:5). Christ is the incarnation of God, the embodiment of God. All that God is and all the fullness of the Godhead dwell in Christ bodily (Col. 2:9). Therefore, Christ dwelling in us causes us to be filled unto all the fullness of God (Eph. 3:17-19).
Since Christ is the embodiment of God, and since regeneration causes us to receive Christ, it also causes us to have God. Furthermore, the Spirit is the reality of Christ. God is in Christ, and Christ is the Spirit. We know that God dwells in us by the Spirit which He has given us (1 John 3:24; 4:13). The Lord Jesus also told us that He and God together abide in us (John 14:23). When we have the Spirit dwelling in us, we have Christ and God dwelling in us. The Spirit, Christ, and God dwell in us as one.
When the Bible mentions the Holy Spirit dwelling in us, the emphasis is on His anointing us (1 John 2:27). When it mentions Christ dwelling in us, the emphasis is on His living in us as our life (Gal. 2:20), and when it mentions God dwelling in us, the emphasis is on His working in us (Phil. 2:13; Heb. 13:21; 1 Cor. 12:6). The Spirit, by anointing us, anoints the element of God into us. Christ, by living in us, lives the life of God both in us and out from us. God, by working in us, works His will into us that it may be accomplished upon us.
How wonderful are the items we receive through regeneration! We obtain the life of God and the law of this life, a new heart and a new spirit, the Holy Spirit, Christ, and God Himself. This is surely all we need! These are sufficient to make us victorious and transcendent above our problems and to cause us to grow and mature in life.
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