We are taught by Christ Jesus in John 3:3, 5, that "Unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.... unless one is born of water and the Spirit he cannot enter into the kingdom of God."
In this passage, we learn that conversion - being born again - involves water and the Spirit of God. We learn from the parallel passage, Titus 3:5, that the "water" is a "washing of regeneration" and the "Spirit" is the "renewing of the Holy Spirit." Thus, we can say that unless one receives the "washing of regeneration" and the "renewing of the Holy Spirit" one cannot see nor enter the kingdom of God.
It is obvious that the water, the washing of regeneration, is a reference to baptism. That has been the historical or orthodox interpretation since the First Century. As to the renewing of the Spirit, it has been historically interpreted as being the Spirit’s operation upon the inner man which causes him to surrender to God and His Will in faith and repentance.
How exactly the Spirit operates upon the inner man to bring about conversion, the new birth, the renewal has been a topic of much discussion and controversy.
The predominate belief of most religionists in the late 18th and through much of the 19th Centuries was that the Holy Spirit was required to operate DIRECTLY upon the mind and soul of the sinner to bring about a spiritual awakening, a spiritual quickening, to bring about the conversion of the sinner. It took the PERSONAL PRESENCE, PERSONAL OPERATION, the PERSONAL RECEIVING OF THE HOLY SPIRIT to open the sinner’s eyes and heart to the things of God, to bring about faith and repentance. It was believed and taught by the majority that the Word of God was useless to the sinner until the Spirit had done His work upon and in the sinner’s mind and heart. This viewpoint is still held by many today.
I believe that this is not Scriptural in the least. I do not believe it because the Bible no where teaches it.
Jesus taught, in John 14:17, that those in the world "cannot receive" "the Sprit of truth". The Apostle Paul teaches, in Galatians 4:6, that God "sends forth the Spirit" not into the "hearts" of sinners to make them his children but He sends it forth into the hearts those who are already His children.
Therefore, any explanation of how the Spirit affects the conversion of the sinner must not contradict the teaching of John 14:17 and Galatians 4:6.
How or by what means the Holy Spirit brings about renewal or conversion can be found in Ephesians 5:25-26: "Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for her, so that He might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word."
Here, we see the "Spirit" of John 3:5 and the "renewing of the Holy Spirit" of Titus 3:5 is identified with "the word". Indeed, this is consistent with 1 Peter 1:23 which informs us "you have been born again not of seed which is perishable but imperishable, that is, through the living and enduring word of God."
I DO believe that the Holy Spirit’s role in conversion IS to operate upon the sinner to reveal his condition, convict him of his sin, reveal to him the salvation available in Christ Jesus, to produce faith in that message, and to bring about repentance which leads to his obeying the Gospel. These things the HOLY SPIRIT does, NOT by DIRECT OPERATION nor by PERSONAL INDWELLING but through His WORD.
The Word is referred to, in Ephesians 6:17, as "the Sword of the Spirit." This is so because the Word is the product of and has been delivered to us by the Spirit and it is the primary instrument that He uses to perform His spiritual work in the sinner and saint.
To show that the Word is the product of the Holy Spirit and is delivered by Him, I wish for us to examine a few Scriptures:
2 Peter 1:21 tells us that "no prophecy was ever made by an act of human will, but men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God." In other words, Divine Revelation is not the product of man but of God delivered to man by the Holy Spirit.
This applies to the Old Testament and the New Testament revelations we learn from 1 Peter 1:10-12, "As to this salvation, the prophets who prophesied of the grace that would come to you made careful searches and inquiries, seeking to know what person or time the Spirit of Christ within them was indicating as He predicted the sufferings of Christ and the glories to follow. It was revealed to them that they were not serving themselves, but you, in these things which now have been announced to you through those who preached the gospel to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven--things into which angels long to look."
Paul expresses the same truth in Ephesians 3:2-5, "If indeed you have heard of the stewardship of God’s grace which was given to me, for you, that by revelation there was made known to me the mystery, as I wrote before in brief. By referring to this, when you read you can understand my insight into the mystery of Christ, which in other generations was not made known to the sons of men, as it has now been revealed to His holy apostles and prophets in the Spirit."
Jesus had promised the Apostles that the Holy Spirit would deliver the Gospel Truth to them so that they might teach it to the world - John 14:26, "But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I said to you." 16:12-13, "I have many more things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. But when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth; for He will not speak on His own initiative, but whatever He hears, He will speak; and He will disclose to you what is to come."
Paul explains the inspiration process in 1 Corinthians 2:12-13, "Now we [the Apostles and Prophets] have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may know the things freely given to us by God, which things we also speak, not in words taught by human wisdom, but in those taught by the Spirit, combining spiritual thoughts with spiritual words."
The Holy Spirit’s contribution to the conversion process is the Word - the Message delivered by the Holy Spirit through the preaching and, today, the writings of the Lord’s Apostles and Prophets. It is sufficient, in itself, to convict and bring about repentance and faith in the sinner so that he might submit to the "washing of regeneration".
You will not find one example in the New Testament where a person was converted by the direct operation of the Spirit. It was always, in every case, accomplished by the preaching of the Spirit-inspired Word of the Gospel.
I Corinthians 1:21, "God was well-pleased through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe." Verse 18, "For the word of the cross is to those who are perishing foolishness, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God."
Romans 16:15-16, "I am eager to preach the gospel... For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek."
The sinner does not receive a specially mystical "calling" of God by the Holy Spirit. We are called by God through the Gospel - 2 Thessalonians 2:13-14, "God has chosen you from the beginning for salvation through sanctification by the Spirit and faith in the truth. And it was for this He called you through our gospel, that you may gain the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ."
One may say, ’Wait! It mentions in that verse "salvation through sanctification by the Spirit".
Indeed, this is so. Let us look at 1 Peter 1:1-2, you "who are chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, by the sanctifying work of the Spirit, that you may obey Jesus Christ and be sprinkled with His blood."
I would have you to note that the passage has the "sanctifying work of the Spirit" preceding the sinner’s obedience to Christ and his being cleansed by the Savior’s blood in baptism.
Now we ask how or by what means does the Spirit do His sanctifying work? John 17:17-20, "Sanctify them in the truth; Thy word is truth. As Thou didst send Me into the world, I also have sent them into the world. And for their sakes I sanctify Myself, that they themselves also may be sanctified in truth. I do not ask in behalf of these alone, but for those also who believe in Me through their word."
So, when we look into the means of sanctification, we are led back to the Spirit doing that work through or by "the truth" or inspired Word. One is sanctified by belief in the Gospel of truth and faith in Christ. That is how the Spirit begins to set us apart from the world and unto God.
There are those who claim that it is the direct operation of the Holy Spirit that causes one to be able to have faith in the Word of the Gospel. After all, Ephesians 2:8, "For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God."
Certainly, faith is a gift of God. It is not a spontaneous trait that we can acquire apart from God. However, nowhere in Scripture does it say that God the Holy Spirit grants within the sinner’s heart saving faith apart from the Gospel. On the contrary, we receive the Spirit only after we have faith: Galatians 3:14, "in order that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles, so that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith."
It is the operation of the Word that brings about faith: Romans 10:14, 17, "How then shall they call upon Him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in Him whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher?... So faith [comes] from hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ."
As we begin to close our remarks, let us look at the the circumstances of how the very first sinners became Christians in Acts Chapter 2.
In the opening verses of Acts 2, we find the Apostles being baptized in the Holy Spirit, as was promised by Christ Jesus, that they might be ’guided into all the truth’. Inspired by the Spirit of Truth, in verse 14, we have Peter delivering the first Gospel sermon - "Men of Judea, and all you who live in Jerusalem... give heed to my words." Verse 22, "Men of Israel, listen to these words..." Verse 37-41, "Now when they heard [this], they were pierced to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, ’Brethren, what shall we do?’ And Peter [said] to them, ’Repent, and let each of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is for you and your children, and for all who are far off, as many as the Lord our God shall call to Himself.’ And with many other words he solemnly testified and kept on exhorting them, saying, "Be saved from this perverse generation!" So then, those who had received his word were baptized."
Here, Peter’s preaching brought faith, conviction, submission, repentance, and obedience. The "Sword of the Spirit" "pierced" the sinners’ hearts and its operation brought about marvelous things.
Paul was able to say to those sinners who had, in like manner, become Christians in Thessalonica (1 Thess. 2:13) - "And for this reason we also constantly thank God that when you received from us the word of God’s message, you accepted [it] not [as] the word of men, but [for] what it really is, the word of God, which also performs its work in you who believe."
Since it is the Word which brings about the conversion of sinners rather than the direct operation of the Holy Spirit, the responsibility of making sure that the sinner has the opportunity to be converted falls upon our shoulders. Unless we take the Spirit’s message to them, they shall have no hope of salvation.
We are responsible to carrying-out the Lord’s command - Mark 16:15-16 : "Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation. He who has believed and has been baptized shall be saved; but he who has disbelieved shall be condemned."
We plead with all, as James 1:21, declares, "receive the word implanted, which is able to save your souls."
