Part 1
Being led by the Spirit starts with Regeneration
The word “regeneration" means a new birth, a new beginning, a new order (of things).
The word “regeneration” appears only twice in the English Bible. Both appearances are in the New Testament. It was used once by our Lord in Matthew 19:28 and once by the Apostle Paul in Titus 3:5.
When the Lord used the word, He said to His disciples, “Verily I say unto you, that you who have followed me, in the regeneration when the Son of man sits on the throne of His glory, you also will sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel”.
Here the Lord used the word in a wider sense when referring to His coming kingdom on earth. It is the time of the earth’s regeneration, the new order about which the prophets wrote, when Jehovah will set His King upon His holy hill of Zion (Psalm 2:6),
Isaiah 2:4 “And He shall judge among the nations, and shall rebuke many people; and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more”.
The kingdom of Christ on earth will be a time of world-wide subjection to the authority of Christ, when sin, sorrow, sickness, suffering and strife will not touch earth’s inhabitants. In that day God will renew His creation.
Isaiah 11:6,9 “The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; and a little child shall lead them” , and “the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the LORD, as the waters cover the sea”.
“the regeneration of the earth, is that time when Christ shall rule on the throne of David (II Samuel 7; Luke 1:32, 33; 2:11), Satan will be incarcerated (Revelation 20:2), Israel will be spiritually re-born (Isaiah 66:8; Ezekiel 37; Matthew 24:8; Romans 11:1, 2, 26), peace, prosperity, social justice and equality will prevail (Isaiah 42:1-4; Micah 4:1-7). This is the golden age, the utopia for which man has sought in vain. It is God’s coming great society, the Theocracy in the earth. Where all things in the earth will be made new!
When the Apostle Paul used the word “regeneration,” he wrote, “Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost” (Titus 3:5).
Paul uses the word referring to the regeneration of the individual man, his being born again into God’s new order.
This new order, by the way, is the Church, the Body of Christ (Ephesians 1:22, 23).
And No effort on man’s part can bring a person into God’s order, for it is “not by works of righteousness which we have done” (Paul says in Titus 3:5), and again in Ephesians 2:9 he says: “Not of works, lest any man should boast".
Regeneration then, may be defined as an act of God whereby He bestows upon the believing sinner new life.
note: this new life that is imparted is God’s own life, it is the imparting of His own divine nature.
Beloved, God Himself is the Source and Bestower of This life, so that the bible says that believers are “partakers of the Divine nature” (II Peter 1:4), that we have been “created in Christ Jesus” (Ephesians 2:10), that we are “born of God” (John 1:13), we are “born again” (John 3:3, 7), we have become “a new creation” (II Corinthians 5:17).
1 John 3:14 refers to it as a passing from death to life;
Ephesians 2:1, 5 talks about a being quickened.
Eph. 2:6 says its a resurrection from the dead;
How does this happen? Well, It's not through ritual, it's not through reformation, it's not through anything in this natural realm. What do I mean?
Not through ritual.... Specifically, I’m referring to water baptism....when water baptised.
There are some that teach that this new life is received when a person is water baptised. And so they baptise babies. If water baptism gave people the very life of God then we should all rush out to the sea and to pools and dump people...
No, water baptism cannot impart this life. Water baptism is merely a symbol of this new life.
In Acts 8 we read of a man: Simon Magus. He was baptized, but he was not regenerated. The Scripture actually says that “Simon himself believed” (Acts 8:13);
however, there is a belief which is leads to regeneration, and there is a belief which might not lead to regeneration. James says: “The (demons) also believe, and tremble” (James 2:19), but such mere belief cannot save one.
A person can have an intellectual concept and give mental assent to a truth or doctrine, yet never become born again.
When great numbers of Samaritans heard Philip and believed and were baptized, Simon also accepted the facts and came forward to be baptized. But was he ever truly saved? It appears from Acts 8:18, 19 that Simon never entered experientially into the truth of the Gospel. He lacked the real power of God, so he thought to purchase it with money.
“But Peter said unto him, Your money perish with thee, because you thought that the gift of God may be purchased with money. You have neither part nor lot in this matter: for your heart is not right in the sight of God. Repent therefore of your wickedness, and pray to God, if perhaps the thought of your heart may be forgiven you. For I perceive that you are in the gall of bitterness, and in the bond of iniquity” (Acts 8:21-23).
This man's heart was not changed. Even though he believed and was baptised.
Another example of this type of belief is found in John 8:31-47..
Regeneration is not ritual, and it’s Not reformation
Human reformation is superficial. Man’s nature is depraved, so much so that God Himself makes no attempt to improve it to make it fit for His holy presence.
Most of us have at one time sought to improve ourselves by “turning over a new leaf” and attempting to throw off bad habits. But no matter how far one is able to proceed in the reformation of the old life, no amount of improving the fallen nature can serve as a substitute for the Divine Nature which is given us of God when we are born from above.
Someone once said, “Every creature born into this world has a nature after its kind. You can’t train a bird to crawl, for the same reason you can’t train a snake to fly. True to his nature, a caterpillar crawls, and when we see him fly we don’t say, ‘What an accomplished caterpillar!’ But we say the creature has been changed, it has a new nature, it has been born again; it is now a butterfly. The same thing is true of the natural and spiritual man.”
It was not to a social outcast, criminal or drunkard, but to a religious, law-abiding man that Christ addressed the command, “Ye must be born again.”
Some persons who possess a certain moral goodness and are therefore self-righteous, do not realize any need of regeneration. They feel that only drunkards, thieves, murderers, harlots, drug addicts, and the like need to be born again.
A woman, whose parents were missionaries to India, said she did not need to be born again because she was born right the first time and simply needed to continue being good. This is far from the truth.
The necessity of regeneration for all men grew out of the depravity of man’s nature. The natural man is “dead in trespasses and sins . . . alienated from the life of God” (Ephesians 2:1; 4:18) because his iniquities have separated him from God (Isaiah 59:2).
The need for being regenerated is universal. “There is none righteous, no, not one . . . For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:10, 23).
The best thing God can do for man is to bring him to a knowledge of his sin so that he will realize his need of being regenerated. In our series on the beatitudes we said that the first beatitude is where salvation starts: blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven...
Blessed are those who recognise they are poor before God, spiritually bankrupt, and that in them dwells no good thing.
Therefore Our Lord Jesus left no doubt as to the indispensable necessity of the new birth as a pre-requisite to entrance into the Kingdom of God.
Regeneration does not come through anything in the natural realm:
In his first reference to the new birth, the Apostle John refers to those “which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God” (John 1:13)
Not of blood: in Greek its plural, bloods. Regeneration... Cannot be obtained through the blood of godly parents, nor from the bloodline of Abraham, nor from the 12 tribes, nor of the blood of circumcision, nor of the blood of bulls and goats. it can't be passed down from generation to generation.
Nor the will of flesh: it can't be generated by the human body, the flesh is contrary to the Spirit, they are enemies. “That which is born of the flesh is flesh” (John 3:6), and “they that are in the flesh cannot please God” (Romans 8:8), because in the flesh “dwelleth no good thing” (Romans 7:18). Man’s sinfulness and God’s holiness are opposed to each other so that regeneration is an absolute necessity.
Therefore the Lord said: “Ye must be born again,”
Nor the will of man: even adoption by good people, or political legislation that says all people must love each other...
So how does regeneration take place. When does it take place?
Regeneration happens when a person is born of God. When they are born again. Of water and of the Spirit.
Remember, Regeneration is the implantation of a new life. This new life can only come from one person: God.
The opening statement in the Bible says, “In the beginning God created . . .” (Genesis 1:1).
God is the Source and Cause of all things. Life begins with God. Neither the universe nor anything in it is self-originated. God stands at the commencement of all life. God is life. Man in his original state was the perfect work of God. But man has fallen. His willful sin brought death, both physical and spiritual, so that in his fallen, sinful state he is “alienated from the life of God” (Ephesians 4:18).
God is the Source of the new life which is communicated to the believing sinner. Man is unable to impart Divine life, therefore he has no part in the New Birth. All Christian parents would bestow eternal life on their children if they could, but they cannot. A man is born again., “not of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God” (John 1:13).
Since only God possesses creative power, He alone can impart life where there is no life.
The Lord said to Nicodemus, “Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God” (John 3:5).
The “water” in this verse does not refer to water baptism.
Water can be used as a symbol of the Holy Spirit, as in John 7. And in this case refers to drinking.
Water is also used in the Bible as an emblem of the Word of God, and in such uses it is associated with cleansing or washing.
That's why Jesus said: “Now you are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you” (in John 15:3).
The Apostle Peter wrote something that helps to clarify what Jesus meant, “Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which lives and abides for ever” (I Peter 1:23).
The Word of God is the means by which the Holy Spirit accomplishes the New Birth.
This is understood more clearly when we realise that the Word of God is both living and life-producing.
Hebrews 4:12 says: “For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart”.
The living word came from the living God, and it has power to impart life to all who believe it. Romans 10:17 says: “So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God”.
And how the Word of God brings faith? By imparting knowledge. Knowledge precedes faith, because faith always has an object.
The Word of God presents to us the fact of our sin and condemnation, that without Christ we are without a Saviour and with no hope.
The Word of God shows us that the Son of God came into the world to bear the sinner’s judgment through His substitutionary death for the sinner (Matthew 20:28; Luke 19:10; I Corinthians 15:3, 4).
The Word of God assures us that all one needs in order to pass from death to life is to believe the facts and receive the Saviour.
Jesus Himself said, “Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that hears my word, and believes on Him that sent Me, has everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation, but is passed from death unto life” (John 5:24).
Therefore, without the Word of God a man cannot be regenerated, or born again. This is why people are not being born again in churches where the Word of God is not preached and taught. This is why people cannot be born again unless we preach and teach the Word to them!
The Holy Scriptures are both living and life-producing. James attributes the sovereign work of God in regeneration to the living Word of God. He writes, “Of His own will begat He us with the Word of truth” (James 1:18).
Our Lord Jesus said, “The words that I speak unto you . . . they are life” (John 6:63).
In John 15:3: Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you”.
The Psalmist wrote, “Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way? By taking heed thereto according the Thy Word” (Psalm 119:9).
Paul wrote about how Christ sanctifies and cleanses His church “with the washing of water by the word” (Ephesians 5:26).
God the Father is the Author of regeneration and His Word the means. However, our Lord said to Nicodemus, “Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God” (John 3:5).
The Holy Spirit is the active Agent in regeneration. Just as there must be the human agent in a human birth, so there must be the Divine Agent in the new birth from above.
When we came into the world by means of our physical birth, we were born of corruptible (or perishable, dying) seed, because two human parents can beget a child only in their own likeness. Through natural birth they pass on to their offspring their own nature and likeness. “That which is born of the flesh is flesh” (John 3:6).
But on the other hand, “that which is born of the Spirit is spirit” (John 3:6). When we are born again, the Holy Spirit begets new life, Divine life, so that we are said to become “partakers of the divine nature” (II Peter 1:4). The New Birth is brought to pass through “incorruptible seed, by the Word of God, which liveth and abideth forever” (I Peter 1:23), but the Holy Spirit is the Agent who accomplishes the miracle of regeneration.
As I said before: The Holy Spirit was active in the generation of the physical universe.
The Holy Spirit was the active Agent in the creation of man. “And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul” (Genesis 2:7). In Job 33 Elihu Says to Job: “The Spirit of God hath made me, and the breath of the Almighty hath given me life”
The Holy Spirit was the active Agent in the conception and birth of Jesus Christ.
It is clear, then, that the act of imparting life has been the Holy Spirit’s work from the beginning.
To be “born of water and of the Spirit” is to be regenerated by means of the Word of God and by the active Agency of the Spirit of God. It is not by the Word of God alone that a man is regenerated, but by the Word and the Holy Spirit, “by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost” (Titus 3:5).
THE MANIFESTATIONS OF REGENERATION
The New Birth produces some glorious effects in the believer’s life. These must be carefully considered because the new life needs to develop. Where life begins it should mature.
The effects of Regeneration are nothing short of miraculous because there is no power within man that can produce them. They are the spiritual birthmarks of the born again ones.
Regeneration or THE NEW BIRTH RESULTS IN A NEW LIFE.
“Therefore if any man be in Christ he is a new creature; old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new” (II Corinthians 5:17).
The regenerated person can testify that things are different now. With our New Birth we received a new power and pattern for living. The regenerated man is a “new creation,” the “new” meaning a difference in kind.
He now possesses a different kind of life. A complete change has come about.
The source of the old creation was Adam, and from him we inherited sin and death.
The Fountainhead of the new creation is Christ, so that a profound and radical change has taken place in the believer. The New Birth brought with it new life, and the new life has brought an entirely new set of desires, appetites, ideals and goals.
Now the New Birth does not eradicate the old nature, but it does give new life to control it. Romans 8: the law of the spirit of life...
He gives us new desires... We have to walk in the Spirit means to walk in those new desires...or to follow those new desires!
THE NEW BIRTH RESULTS IN A NEW FELLOWSHIP.
“We know that we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren” (I John 3:14).
When one is born again he instinctively is drawn to those people of the same precious faith. All regenerated people are one in Christ, and love is their badge.
Christ said, “By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another” (John 13:35).
All those born again have God as their Father; therefore they are one in Christ, sharing a mutual love. No person who hates has Christ’s new life in him. “Whosoever hates his brother is a murderer; and ye know that no murderer hath eternal life abiding in him” (I John 3:15).
It is not possible to love God if we do not love our fellow-man. “If a man say, I love God, and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he that loves not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen?” (I John 4:20).
The fellowship of those born again is the most satisfying and productive among all fellowships. And again, this fellowship is a spiritual one, having its roots in Jesus Christ (I John 1:3).
“Whosoever believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God; and every one that loves Him that gave birth to them also loves those who have been born of Him” (I John 5:1).
He gives us a new love. This, in order to walk in the Spirit, We have to walk in this love.
THE NEW BIRTH RESULTS IN A NEW STANDARD OF RIGHTEOUSNESS.
“. . . Ye know that every one who practices righteousness is born of Him” (I John 2:29).
Righteousness is that character or quality of being right in the sight of God.
Men have varying standards of righteousness, and they are sometimes sincerely zealous, “but not according to knowledge. For they being ignorant of God’s righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God” (Romans 10:2, 3).
They refuse to believe that “all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags” (Isaiah 64:6), and until we are born again, “there is none righteous, no, not one” (Romans 3:12). But after we are born again, Christ becomes our righteousness (I Corinthians 1:30).
This righteousness is imputed to the believer by God ...on the faith principle apart from human works (Romans 4:5, 6). It is God’s gift to every regenerated man (Romans 5:17).
Having become partakers of the Divine Nature we now see sin as God sees it. Our standards of what is right and just we now find in God’s Word.
Because we have been born from above, we are to “seek those things which are above, where Christ is seated on the right hand of God. Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth” (Colossians 3:1, 2).
Lets conclude: the regenerated person has been given new life, a new nature, new desires, new love.
He has the power to obey God and to grow in grace.
The act of regeneration itself is instantaneous.
Spiritually speaking, you are either born or unborn. If you have not experienced the new birth, trust Christ now, and the Holy Spirit will give you new life.
