The Spirit and Regeneration

THE PUBLISHED CHAPTER

The Holy Spirit gives life.

That is the heart of regeneration. A sinner does not need mere improvement. He does not need religious decoration placed upon an unchanged heart. He does not need outward reform while remaining dead toward God. He needs life. The Lord Jesus said plainly, “Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God” (John 3:3). Then He explained, “Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God” (John 3:5).

Regeneration is the new birth. It is the giving of spiritual life by the Spirit of God. It is not the same as conviction, though conviction may precede it. It is not the same as baptism, though baptism bears witness to cleansing and new life. It is not the same as moral reformation, though true regeneration produces a changed life. It is not the same as religious instruction, though the Word of God is the instrument by which God brings men to faith. It is not the same as church membership, family heritage, emotional experience, or human decision considered by itself. Regeneration is the work of God by His Spirit, giving life where there was death.

This doctrine humbles man. The dead cannot raise themselves. Flesh cannot produce spirit. A corrupt tree cannot make itself good. A sinner may be religious, informed, convicted, fearful, moral, zealous, or outwardly respectable, and still need to be born again. Nicodemus was not a pagan rebel in the streets. He was a ruler of the Jews, a teacher in Israel, and yet Jesus told him he must be born again.

Regeneration also magnifies grace. God does not merely command dead sinners to live and then leave them to their own strength. He gives life. The Spirit moves where man cannot command Him. He brings sinners into the life of God through Christ. He makes them new creatures. He gives them a new heart, a new nature, and a new relation to God.

Jesus’ words to Nicodemus are direct: “Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God” (John 3:3). The necessity is universal. “Except a man” leaves no class exempt. Religious privilege does not remove the need. Natural birth into Israel did not remove it. Education did not remove it. Moral seriousness did not remove it. No man sees the kingdom of God unless he is born again.

Nicodemus did not understand. He asked how a man could be born when he is old. He thought in earthly terms. Jesus answered by speaking of birth by water and the Spirit, then drew the distinction sharply: “That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit” (John 3:6).

This distinction is foundational. Flesh produces flesh. Natural descent produces natural life. Human effort may produce human religion, human morality, human discipline, and human culture, but it cannot produce spiritual life. That which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Spiritual birth requires the Spirit.

This corrects every doctrine that makes regeneration a human achievement. Man may choose, strive, learn, reform, join, promise, and perform outward duties, but none of these can create spiritual life. The flesh cannot give birth to spirit. The sinner must be born from above.

Jesus does not present the new birth as optional improvement for unusually sinful men. He presents it as the necessary entrance into the kingdom of God. Without it, a man cannot see. Without it, he cannot enter.

Jesus says, “Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God” (John 3:5). These words have been much discussed, but they should be read in light of the Old Testament promises and the conversation with Nicodemus, a teacher in Israel.

God had promised cleansing and the Spirit. Through Ezekiel, He said, “Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean” (Ezekiel 36:25). Then He promised a new heart and a new spirit, and added, “And I will put my spirit within you” (Ezekiel 36:27). Cleansing and inward renewal by the Spirit belong together.

Jesus’ words therefore fit the prophetic hope. Entrance into the kingdom requires cleansing and the Spirit’s life-giving work. Man needs more than outward law. He needs inward renewal. He needs to be washed and made alive.

This does not make water a mechanical power that produces regeneration by itself. Scripture will not allow the new birth to be reduced to outward ritual. Jesus’ emphasis falls immediately on the Spirit: “That which is born of the Spirit is spirit” (John 3:6). The wind blows where it listeth. The Spirit’s work cannot be controlled by man.

At the same time, the language of water should not be emptied of cleansing. The sinner needs purification. Regeneration is not God ignoring uncleanness. The Spirit’s work is joined to cleansing, and that cleansing rests ultimately upon Christ’s saving work.

The new birth is therefore both cleansing and life, both washing and renewal, both deliverance from defilement and the giving of a new inward principle by the Spirit of God.

Jesus continues, “The wind bloweth where it listeth” (John 3:8). Man hears the sound, but cannot tell whence it cometh and whither it goeth. Then Jesus says, “so is every one that is born of the Spirit” (John 3:8).

The Spirit’s work is sovereign and mysterious. This does not mean irrational or disconnected from truth. Jesus is speaking to Nicodemus. He is teaching him. Later in the same conversation, He speaks of the Son of man being lifted up, and of believing in Him. The Spirit’s sovereign work does not eliminate the proclamation of Christ or the call to faith.

But the verse does mean the Spirit is not under human control. The new birth cannot be scheduled, manufactured, or forced by man. Preachers may preach. Parents may teach. Churches may baptize. Friends may plead. Sinners may be urged to believe. But the Spirit gives life according to the will of God.

This humbles all ministry. No preacher can regenerate. No emotional method can guarantee the new birth. No ritual can command the Spirit. No family can pass spiritual life by bloodline. The wind blows where it listeth.

Yet this also gives hope. If regeneration depended upon man’s ability, the dead would remain dead. But the Spirit is able to give life where man sees only impossibility. He can awaken the hardened, cleanse the defiled, open the blind, and make the dead live.

The mystery of the Spirit’s work should not make the church passive. It should make the church prayerful, faithful, and dependent. The church speaks the Word and trusts the Spirit who alone gives life.

John speaks of those who receive Christ and believe on His name. They are given power to become the sons of God. Then he says they are born, “not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God” (John 1:13).

This verse protects regeneration from several false foundations. “Not of blood” means natural descent does not produce spiritual birth. A man is not born again because of family line, religious heritage, national identity, or covenant privilege considered outwardly. Nicodemus needed this truth. So does every religious descendant who assumes that another person’s faith or heritage gives him life.

“Nor of the will of the flesh” means regeneration does not arise from fallen human nature. Flesh cannot give birth to spirit. Fallen man’s desires, resolutions, and energies cannot produce the life of God. He may become religious in the flesh, but fleshly religion remains flesh.

“Nor of the will of man” means regeneration is not created by human decision or human authority. One man cannot will another into the kingdom. A preacher cannot will a congregation alive. Parents cannot will their children into new birth. Even the sinner’s own willing, considered as an independent power, cannot generate spiritual life.

The verse concludes, “but of God.” Regeneration is of God. This does not remove the call to believe. John has just spoken of receiving Christ and believing on His name. But the birth behind the reception is of God. Faith is not the product of dead flesh making itself alive. The life of God is given by God.

The new birth therefore destroys boasting. The believer is born of God.

Paul writes, “Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us” (Titus 3:5). He then speaks of “the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost” (Titus 3:5). Regeneration is joined to mercy, washing, renewal, and the Holy Ghost.

This passage clearly denies salvation by works of righteousness. Even the best works man can present are not the cause of regeneration. God saves according to His mercy. The washing of regeneration is not earned. The renewing of the Holy Ghost is not a wage. It is mercy.

The phrase “washing of regeneration” speaks of cleansing connected to new birth. “Renewing of the Holy Ghost” speaks of the Spirit’s renewing work. The sinner is not merely forgiven while left unchanged. He is renewed by the Holy Ghost. Salvation includes a real inward work of God.

Paul continues, “Which he shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Saviour” (Titus 3:6). The Spirit’s renewing work comes through Jesus Christ. Regeneration is not separated from Christ’s saving work. The Spirit gives life through the Savior who died, rose, and is exalted.

This keeps the doctrine balanced. Regeneration is by the Spirit, according to mercy, through Jesus Christ. It is not moralism. It is not sacramental mechanism. It is not human self-improvement. It is not Spirit-talk detached from Christ. It is the merciful saving work of God, washing and renewing by the Holy Ghost through Jesus Christ our Savior.

The result is that believers are justified by His grace and made heirs according to the hope of eternal life. Regeneration belongs within the whole saving mercy of God.

Ephesians describes sinners as dead in trespasses and sins. They walk according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air. They live in the lusts of the flesh and are by nature children of wrath. Then the great words come: “But God” (Ephesians 2:4).

Paul says God, who is rich in mercy, for His great love wherewith He loved us, “even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ” (Ephesians 2:5). To quicken is to make alive. This is the reality regeneration describes. The dead are made alive with Christ.

Deadness must not be weakened. Scripture does not say sinners are merely sick, confused, underdeveloped, or morally neutral. They are dead in sins. This does not mean they are physically dead, intellectually inactive, emotionally empty, or incapable of outward religion. It means they lack spiritual life toward God. They are alienated, guilty, enslaved, and unable to bring themselves into life.

The answer is not self-improvement. Dead men need resurrection. God quickens. The language is resurrection-shaped. Regeneration is the giving of life in union with Christ, who was raised from the dead.

Ephesians 2 also says salvation is by grace through faith, not of works, lest any man should boast. Regeneration and grace belong together. If God made the dead alive, boasting is excluded. The believer does not stand over the unbeliever as though he made himself differ. He was dead, but God made him alive.

The Spirit’s life-giving work is the answer to spiritual death.

The Old Testament promised inward renewal. God said through Ezekiel, “A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you” (Ezekiel 36:26). He continued, “and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh” (Ezekiel 36:26). Then He said, “And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes” (Ezekiel 36:27).

This promise shows that the problem is inward. The heart is stony. Man does not merely need external instruction. He needs a new heart. He needs God to remove hardness and give responsiveness. He needs the Spirit within.

Regeneration is therefore not a superficial change. It reaches the heart. It changes the inner man. It does not merely add religious behavior to a hard heart. It gives a new heart from which obedience begins to flow.

The promise also joins the Spirit’s indwelling with obedience. God says He will put His Spirit within His people and cause them to walk in His statutes. The new birth is not lawlessness. It is the beginning of Spirit-wrought obedience. The regenerated man does not obey perfectly in this life, but a new principle has been placed within him. He is no longer what he was.

This guards against an empty profession of new birth. A man who claims to be born of the Spirit while remaining at peace with sin misunderstands the Spirit’s work. The Spirit gives life, and that life moves toward God. The new heart is not sinless perfection, but it is no longer a stone.

God gives a heart that can hear, repent, believe, love, and obey.

James writes, “Of his own will begat he us with the word of truth” (James 1:18). Peter says believers are born again, “not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God” (1 Peter 1:23). These passages show the relation between regeneration and the Word.

The Spirit gives life, and He does so through the Word of God. The new birth is not separated from truth. God begets by the Word of truth. The incorruptible seed is the Word of God which liveth and abideth for ever.

This guards against mystical ideas of regeneration detached from the gospel. The Spirit does not give life by leading men away from the Word. He uses the Word He inspired. The gospel is preached. Christ is set forth. The sinner hears. God gives life.

This also guards against treating the Word as a bare instrument in human hands. A man may hear the outward Word and remain unchanged if the Spirit does not give life. The same sun that softens wax hardens clay. The Word must come not in word only, but in power, and in the Holy Ghost.

Therefore, preaching matters. Evangelism matters. Scripture matters. Parents teaching children matters. The written and preached Word is not weak. God begets by the Word of truth. But because God begets, the church must use the Word with prayerful dependence upon the Spirit.

Regeneration is Word-shaped and Spirit-wrought. The Spirit gives life through the truth concerning Christ.

Regeneration is closely connected to faith, but the two should be distinguished. Regeneration is the giving of life by the Spirit. Faith is the sinner’s believing reception of Christ. The one born of God believes; the one who believes shows that God has worked in him. Scripture joins these realities without making faith a work by which man earns life.

John says those who believe on Christ’s name are born of God. He also says, “Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God” (1 John 5:1). Faith is the mark of the new birth. The regenerated heart does not remain indifferent to Christ. It believes.

This faith is not mere agreement with facts. It receives Christ. It trusts Him. It comes to Him. It rests in Him. The Spirit does not regenerate a man into Christless spirituality. He brings the sinner to the Son.

At the same time, faith is not the flesh producing spiritual life by its own power. If man is dead in sins, then saving faith is not the autonomous achievement of the dead. It is the response of a heart made alive by God’s grace. The Spirit opens the eyes, changes the heart, and brings the sinner to Christ.

The doctrine should not be handled in a way that discourages sinners from believing. Scripture commands sinners to repent and believe the gospel. It holds them responsible for unbelief. The right response to hearing of the new birth is not passivity, but coming to Christ. The wind blows where it listeth, and the Son of man has been lifted up, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have eternal life.

The Spirit gives life, and the living soul believes on Christ.

Paul says, “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature” (2 Corinthians 5:17). Old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new. Regeneration belongs to this new creation reality. The believer is not merely improved old Adam. He is made new in Christ.

This new creation is not yet the final resurrection glory. The believer still battles the flesh. He still groans. He still needs sanctification, correction, confession, and growth. But a real change has occurred. He has passed from death unto life. He has been born of God. He belongs to Christ.

New creation language also connects regeneration to the larger purposes of God. The Spirit who moved in the beginning now gives life in the new creation. The God who said, “Let there be light,” shines in hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. Salvation is not small. It is the beginning of God’s renewing work in a people who will finally share in resurrection glory and the restored creation.

This guards against reducing the new birth to a private emotional moment. Regeneration is personal, but it is part of God’s cosmic renewal in Christ. The Spirit gives life now as the pledge and beginning of the life that will be fully manifested in the age to come.

The regenerated believer is a sign that God makes dead things live.

First John speaks often of those who are born of God. The marks are not given so believers may boast, but so truth and false profession may be distinguished. The one born of God believes that Jesus is the Christ. He practices righteousness. He does not live in peace with sin. He loves the brethren. He overcomes the world. He keeps himself from idols.

These marks must be handled pastorally and honestly. They do not teach sinless perfection. John himself says, “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves” (1 John 1:8). But they do teach real transformation. The born-again person cannot be defined by unchanged rebellion.

This is necessary because many claim new birth while showing no spiritual life. They may have prayed a prayer, joined a church, felt conviction, been baptized, learned doctrine, or grown up in a Christian home. Those things may be connected to genuine faith, but they are not substitutes for life. The question remains: has the Spirit given life?

Where there is life, there will be signs of life. Faith in Christ. Conviction of sin. Love for the brethren. Desire for God’s Word. War against sin. Confession when fallen. Hunger for righteousness. Endurance in faith. These are not causes of regeneration; they are fruits of it.

The church must preach the new birth in a way that neither crushes weak believers nor comforts false professors. Weak life is still life, but deadness should not be called life.

Regeneration begins the life that sanctification develops. The new birth is not the whole Christian life, but it is the beginning without which there is no Christian life. The Spirit who gives life continues to work holiness in the one made alive.

This distinction matters. Regeneration is not progressive in the same way sanctification is. A man is born. He then grows. Likewise, the believer is born of the Spirit and then grows in grace. He may be immature, weak, and in need of much correction, but if he is born of God, there is life.

Sanctification flows from regeneration because the new nature desires God. The flesh still wars against the Spirit, but the believer is no longer merely flesh. He has been born of the Spirit. The Spirit indwells him. A new principle of life is present.

This is why moral exhortation in Scripture is addressed to believers as those who have been made alive. They are told to put off the old man and put on the new. They are told to walk in the Spirit. They are told to mortify the deeds of the body. These commands do not create life; they call the living to walk according to the life God has given.

Regeneration therefore guards holiness from legalism and from lawlessness. Holiness is not the flesh trying to earn life. Nor is grace permission to remain dead in sin. Holiness is the life of God working in those born of the Spirit.

The necessity of regeneration must be preached plainly. Jesus said, “Ye must be born again” (John 3:7). The word “must” cannot be softened. No man enters the kingdom without the new birth.

This necessity applies to the openly immoral and the outwardly religious. The drunkard must be born again. The adulterer must be born again. The liar must be born again. The proud moralist must be born again. The churchgoer must be born again. The theologian must be born again. The child raised in a Christian home must be born again. Nicodemus must be born again.

This preaching will offend human pride. Men prefer to think they need adjustment, encouragement, education, or opportunity. Jesus says they need birth from above. The gospel does not begin by flattering man’s potential. It announces God’s mercy to the dead.

Yet the necessity of the new birth is also hope. If God commands what man lacks, He also gives what man cannot produce. The Spirit gives life. The Son of man has been lifted up. Whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life.

The church must therefore preach the new birth with urgency and hope. Urgency, because without it no man will see the kingdom. Hope, because the Spirit still gives life through the gospel of Christ.

The doctrine of regeneration brings the sinner to the end of himself and the beginning of life in God.

Flesh gives birth to flesh.

The Spirit gives birth to spirit.

Natural descent cannot produce the new birth.

Human will cannot manufacture it.

Works of righteousness cannot earn it.

Religious position cannot replace it.

Conviction cannot be confused with it.

Baptism cannot be treated as a mechanical substitute for it.

Moral reform cannot imitate it successfully before God.

The sinner must be born again.

And the Spirit gives that life.

He washes. He renews. He quickens. He gives a new heart. He begets by the Word of truth. He brings the sinner to Christ. He makes the believer a new creature. He begins the life that will grow in holiness and end in resurrection glory.

This should humble every believer. No Christian made himself alive. No saint can boast over the dead as though he raised himself. Salvation is of the Lord.

It should also make the church dependent. Evangelism must rely on the Spirit. Preaching must rely on the Spirit. Parenting must rely on the Spirit. Teaching must rely on the Spirit. No human hand can open the grave of the soul.

It should make sinners serious. The question is not whether they are religious, moral, emotional, informed, convicted, or near the kingdom. The question is whether they have been born of the Spirit.

Christ’s word remains final: “Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again” (John 3:7).