Regeneration: being Born of God by the Spirit through the Word of Life in our Spirit

The center of God’s complete salvation and the commencement of God’s salvation in its organic aspect is regeneration; we have been regenerated by God with His life through His word of life by His Spirit of life to be children of God, sons of God, so that we may experience and enjoy God’s organic salvation. Hallelujah!

The Gospels clearly show the wonderful person of Jesus Christ, God becoming man, with His living and work on the earth.

In His earthly ministry, the Lord Jesus expressed God, lived because of God, magnified God, did the will of God, spoke the word of God, sought the glory of God, and did everything in oneness with God.

He was truly a perfect man, for no guile, sin, uncleanness, or blemish was found in Him.

Everyone around Him tested Him; the Jewish people tested Him, the Jewish leaders tested Him, the Roman leaders tested Him, His own disciples tested Him, and even His own family tested Him.

No one found one fault in Him; He was truly the Lamb of God without spot or blame.

Even though He lived a perfect life and did nothing wrong, He was put to death by the Jewish leaders and the Roman rulers.

He was put on the cross and died on the cross. He died as the Lamb of God to accomplish redemption.

Through His death on the cross, Christ accomplished a wonderful redemption, and through faith in Him with His sacrifice, we are saved.

Whoever reads the story of Jesus and is open to the Lord cannot but react with love and appreciation toward this One.

Faith rises up in us when we read about this wonderful Person.

When we believe into the Lord and therefore receive Him as our life and Savior, there are a few things that take place, many of which we are not aware of but the Bible clearly reveals them to us.

On the objective side, on the side of the spiritual reality, when we repent and believe into the Lord Jesus, our sins are forgiven and washed away, we are justified before God, we are reconciled to God, and we’re sanctified in position to be God’s people, a holy people.

All these take place behind the scenes. On the subjective side, on the side of our experience, we receive the divine life, the eternal life of God.

We may not realize that this has happened to us, but another life comes in when we repent and believe into the Lord Jesus.

Through faith in Christ, we enter into the realm of God’s organic salvation in which He not only operates around us to arrange things for our good but even more He works within us, in our very inner being, for us to be saved in His life and be conformed to His image.

In this article, we want to explore, enjoy, and analyze with our spiritual insight what it means to be regenerated and how important is our regeneration.

Through Regeneration we Receive the Divine Life to be Born of God as Children of God, God-men

We thank and praise the Lord for His wonderful and marvellous redemption as the procedure for us to enter into the enjoyment and participation of His organic salvation.

The first step of God’s organic salvation is our regeneration; regeneration is the centre of God’s complete salvation and the commencement of God’s salvation in its organic aspect.

When we speak of regeneration, which many call “being born again,” not many may understand what it means.

A while ago there was the “born again movement” in the USA, when the believers in Christ realized that they were born again of God by accepting Jesus Christ.

In their understanding, the Holy Spirit came to enliven them and cause something to happen in them so that they would have a new inclination, an inclination toward God and the things of God.

This is better than just being a saved sinner, but it still is not up to the standard of the Bible.

What the Bible reveals concerning regeneration is not only that we have a new start with a new inclination toward the things of God but that we actually receive the life of God into our being to be born of God and be children of God. Wow!

D. L. Moody said that regeneration is the greatest miracle in the universe, and it truly is.

A human being is born of God! If a monkey today would become a man, speaking and doing things like a human being, that would be national and world news, for everyone would love to see that.

But regeneration is much more than that; we as human beings are born of God!

Regeneration is the center of God’s complete salvation and it is the commencement of God’s salvation in its organic aspect.

Without regeneration, without the impartation of God’s life into us, the rest of the processes in God’s organic salvation make no sense. Everything begins at our regeneration.

When we repent and believe into the Lord, the life of God is imparted into us; we are rearranged, and recreated by another life that is added to us besides our human life.

Regeneration is the propagation of the divine life by the imparting of God’s life into us, the believers in Christ, to regenerate us and recreate us in our spirit by the Spirit of God.

John 3:6 says, That which is born of the flesh is flesh, but that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.

By repentance and faith in Christ, we are genuinely born of God.

The day we heard the gospel and called on the name of the Lord, the Spirit of God didn’t just give us another thought or concept for us to adapt to a new set of rules as part of a religion.

Rather, the very life of God actually came into us to cause something to happen in us.

Through the resurrection of Christ, He imparted His life into us as the authority for us to be the children of God, begotten of God as His species (1 Pet. 1:3; John 1:12-13).

On one hand, Christ died for our redemption; on the other hand, He resurrected, and that resurrection is strong proof that God accepted Christ’s death for us on the cross.

Through the resurrection of Christ, we are not only objectively approved by God and clothed with Christ as our righteousness but even more, Christ as the life-giving Spirit came into us to impart the life of God into us.

Everyone who believes into Christ, that is, receives Christ, has the right to be a child of God, one who is begotten not of the will of man or the will of the flesh but of God.

Through being born of God at the time of our regeneration, we are children of God, begotten of God to be God’s species.

We all were regenerated in the resurrection of Christ; His resurrection was a great birth, a massive delivery, for millions of believers were born of God at that time.

Christ Himself was born, in His resurrection, to be God’s firstborn Son, and we as God’s many sons were born at the same time, with Christ as our Elder Brother.

Through regeneration, the believers have the eternal, divine life of God in addition to their natural, human life (John 3:15, 36).

Regeneration doesn’t mean that we now have an adjusted behaviour and our conduct is renewed, for we are turning a new leaf and now we live in a new way.

Regeneration means that we have the life of God, the eternal life, being imparted into our spirit for us to be born of God to be children of God.

We are not only sinners saved by grace or redeemed ones; we are children of God. We are sons of God.

We have the right to be called sons of God! Hallelujah!

And this is true whether we feel it or not; this is what the Bible says, and this is how it is.

Just as when a little baby is born and everyone around him is happy that a new man is here, but the baby is the least aware of what is happening, so we as believers in Christ are happy and exulting when someone is born of God, but the newly saved person may be the least aware of this.

But praise the Lord, through experiencing the process of God’s organic salvation, he becomes more and more aware of God’s life in him growing, developing, spreading, and reigning in him. Hallelujah!

Lord, unveil us to see the true meaning of regeneration according to Your holy word. May we realize that, when we repented and believed into the Lord, we were born of God! Wow, we human beings are now children of God with His life and nature! Praise the Lord, the divine life was propagated and imparted into us to regenerate us and recreate us in our spirit and make us children of God! Amen, Lord, we are now children of God, those who believed into the Lord and therefore received Him, and we have the authority to be called God-men! Hallelujah, through Christ’s resurrection, He imparted His life into us as the authority for us to be children of God. Amen, Lord, thank You for bringing us into such a position both objectively and subjectively, for us to be begotten of God as His species! Hallelujah, we believers in Christ have the eternal, divine life of God in addition to our natural, human life, and we are children of God!

We are Regenerated with the Spirit through the Word of Life in Our Spirit to be Born of God

How does God regenerate us? How are we, human beings, born of God? How does God achieve regeneration?

In John 3 Nicodemus, a respected Jewish leader, came to the Lord at night to talk to Him, thinking he would get some teachings to improve himself.

But the Lord clearly told him that he needs to be born again if he wants to see the kingdom of God.

However, Nicodemus could not understand what it means to be born again: does it mean to enter into his mother’s womb again so that he would be born again?

How can this be? What does it mean to be born again?

John 3:6 clearly says, That which is born of the flesh is flesh, but that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.

To be born again is to be born of God, that is, to be born of the Spirit and by the Spirit.

On one hand, after we repent and believe into the Lord, our sins are forgiven, we are reconciled to God, and we are justified before God.

On the other hand, we are reborn of God, for the God who loves us comes to us in Christ as the life-giving Spirit to regenerate us with the divine life of God.

When we believe into the Lord and call on His name, we are regenerated with the Spirit of God coming into our spirit to revive, vivify, and bring life into our human spirit.

To be born again is to be born of the water (that is, of death) and the Spirit (that is, of life) – see John 3:5.

When we repent, we put ourselves aside, even to death, and when we believe into the Lord, we receive the divine life.

In this way we are born of God, born of the Spirit; this is to be regenerated.

Regeneration takes place through God’s word of life.

1 Pet. 1:23 shows us that we have been regenerated through the word of God.

Very rarely God appears to someone and saves him directly; most of us believers in Christ were saved as a result of the speaking of the gospel to us by a fellow member of the Body of Christ.

The word of God as the seed of life, the “gene” of God, enters into us and operates in us.

The result is that we are regenerated.

We may have been wandering far away from God, and we may have not even sought after Him, but one day the Lord had a way of speaking something to us through His word uttered by a believer in Christ, and that word pierced our heart, touched us, and we had a reaction: we repented and believed.

That simple faith brought the divine life in us, into our spirit, for we were regenerated through God’s word of life.

The way we can be regenerated is to receive the Lord Jesus by believing into Him.

Christ is the Word from God (John 1:1) and the light from God (v. 9), and He comes to us as the word of God.

When we receive Him by believing into Him, we have the authority to become children of God (vv. 12-13).

The authority we receive is the very life of God; the life of God qualifies us to be children of God.

Just as our children humanly have the authority to be called our children, no matter how they behave and what they do, so we as believers in Christ have the authority to be called children of God.

God gives us His life to be our authority so that we may be called children of God. Wow!

Regeneration is truly a great matter, even the greatest miracle in the universe!

However, regeneration is only the beginning, the commencement of our enjoyment of God’s organic salvation.

God Himself as the Spirit comes into our spirit to make us alive to be children of God; this is regeneration.

May we realize that, through regeneration, we believers in Christ have the spiritual life of God in addition to our natural life (John 3:15).

God’s life is divine and eternal (v. 36), and such a divine life is the basis and means for our spiritual life and living.

Now as believers in Christ, we need to live in and by the divine life in our spirit; we now have a new life, and we should live in this life, by this life, and according to this life.

Everything we have and do should come out of the new life, the divine life.

Everything God does with us and in us is also based on the divine life in us.

Lord Jesus, thank You for regenerating us with the divine life to make us children of God, sons of God. Thank You for regenerating us with Your Spirit in our spirit to recreate us, remake us, and make us alive in our spirit with the life of God. Hallelujah, we human beings can be born again to be born of God. Thank You, Lord, for Your word of life reaching us as the gospel to impart the divine life into us. Thank You for coming to us through Your word to impart the life of God into us. Hallelujah, we now have the authority to be called children of God, for the very life of God we received is our authority to be children of God! Praise the Lord, we are regenerated with God’s life to be part of God’s species! Amen, Lord, we want to live based upon the divine life in us so that we may enjoy God’s complete salvation in its organic aspect!

References and Hymns on this Topic

• Inspiration for this article/sharing comes from the Word of God, the enjoyment in the ministry, a sharing by brother James Lee in the message for this week, and portions from, Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1994-1997, vol. 3, “The Organic Aspect of God’s Salvation,” pp. 391-393, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, An Overview of the Central Burden and Present Truth of the Lord’s Recovery Before His Appearing (2023 July Semiannual Training), week 7, entitled, The Two Aspects of God’s Complete Salvation — Judicial Redemption Plus Organic Salvation.
• Similar articles on this topic:
  – Children of God Born of the Spirit of Life, article via, Living to Him.
  – Born Again, a portion from, What is Regeneration?, Chapter 1, by Witness Lee.
  – Creation, satanification, regeneration, deification, part 3: regeneration for deification, regeneration as deification, article by Ron Kangas in, Affirmation and Critique.
  – What Does it Mean to be a Born Again Christian? Read more via, Holding to Truth in Love.
  – Having been regenerated by the Spirit with the life of God as the seed contained in God’s word, a portion from, The Organic Union in God’s Relationship with Man, Chapter 4, by Witness Lee.
  – What Does It Mean to Be Born Again? Read more via, Bibles for Europe blog.
  – Is Your Salvation Regeneration or a Reservation? Read more via, Holding to Truth in Love.
  – Faith, regeneration, and the new creation, article from Witness Lee via, Affirmation and Critique.
• Hymns on this topic:
  – For us Thou on the Cross wast pierced, / And blood and water streamed; / That life divine be giv’n to us, / That we may be redeemed. / Thy precious blood has made us clean, / That we accepted be; / Regenerated by Thy life, / We now are one with Thee. (Hymns #116 stanza 2)
  – We experienced regeneration / When we opened to this living One. / We were born again; another life came in. / Now it floods us till we’re full of Him. / He within us is the living Spirit / In our spirit, flowing out of it / Into all our heart, transforming every part / By the life which He Himself imparts. (Hymns #1193 stanzas 2-3)
  – By Thy death and resurrection, / Thou wast made God’s firstborn Son; / By Thy life to us imparting, / Was Thy duplication done. / We, in Thee regenerated, / Many sons to God became; / Truly as Thy many brethren, / We are as Thyself the same. (Hymns #203 stanza 2)