The Holy Spirit And The Believer's Spirit(The Regeneration Of Man)

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Why must a sinner be born anew? Why must he be born from above? Why must there be a regeneration of the spirit? Because man is a fallen spirit. A fallen spirit needs to be reborn that it may become a new one. Just as Satan is a fallen spirit, so is man; only he has a body. Satan’’s fall came before man’’s; we therefore can learn about our fallen state from Satan’’s plunge. Satan was created as a spirit that he might have direct communion with God. But he fell away and became the head of the powers of darkness. He now is separated from God and from every godly virtue. This, however, does not signify that Satan is non-existent. His fall only took away his right relationship with God. Similarly, man in his fall also sank into darkness and separation from God. 

Man’’s spirit still exists but is separated from God, powerless to commune with Him and incapable of ruling. Spiritually speaking, man’’s spirit is dead. Nonetheless, as the spirit of the sinful archangel exists forever so the spirit of sinful man continues too. Because he has a body his fall rendered him a man of the flesh (Gen. 6.3). No religion of this world, no ethics, culture or law can improve this fallen human spirit. Man has degenerated into a fleshly position; nothing from himself can return him to a spiritual state. Wherefore regeneration or regeneration of the spirit is absolutely necessary. The Son of God alone can restore us to God, for He shed His blood to cleanse our sins and give us a new life. 

Immediately the sinner believes in the Lord Jesus he is born anew. God grants him His uncreated life that the sinner’’s spirit may be made alive. The regeneration of a sinner occurs in his spirit. God’’s work begins without exception within the man, from the center to the circumference. How unlike Satan’’s pattern of work! He operates from the outer to the inner. God aims first to renew man’’s darkened spirit by imparting life to it, because it is this spirit which God originally designed to receive His life and to commune with Him. God’’s intent after that is to work out from the spirit to permeate man’’s soul and body. 

This regeneration gives man a new spirit as well as quickens his old one. ““A new spirit I will put within you””——““That which is born of the Spirit is spirit”” (Ezek. 36.26; John 3.6). The ““spirit”” in these passages has God’’s life in view, for it is not what we originally possessed; it is accorded us by God at our regeneration. This new life or spirit belongs to God (2 Peter 1.4) and ““cannot sin”” (1 John 3.9); but our spirit, though quickened, may yet be defiled (2 Cor. 7.1) and in need of being sanctified (1 Thess. 5.23). 

When God’’s life (which can equally be called His Spirit) enters our human spirit, the latter is quickened out of its coma. What was ““alienated from the life of God”” (Eph. 4.18) is now made alive again. Hence ““ although your bodies are dead because of sin, your spirits are alive because of righteousness”” (Rom. 8.10). What we are given in Adam is a spirit made dead; what we receive in Christ at regeneration is both the dead spirit quickened and the new spirit of God’’s life: the latter, something Adam never had. 

In the Bible God’’s life is often labeled ““eternal life.”” ““Life here is zoe in Greek, denoting the higher life or spirit life. This is what every Christian receives at his regeneration. What is the function of that life? ““This is eternal life,”” prayed Jesus to His Father, ““that they know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent”” (John 17.3). Eternal life means more than mere future blessing to be enjoyed by believers; it is equally a kind of spiritual ability. Without it no one can know God nor the Lord Jesus. Such intuitive knowledge of the Lord comes solely upon receiving God’’s life. With the germ of God’’s nature within him, an individual can ultimately grow into a spiritual man. 

God’’s aim in a regenerated man is for that man by his spirit to rid himself of everything belonging to the old creation, because within his regenerated spirit lie all the works of God towards him.

The Holy Spirit And The Believers Spirit 1

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Believers today very much lack knowledge as to the existence and operation of the human spirit. Many are unaware that in addition to their mind, emotion and will they also have a spirit. Even when they have heard of the spirit, many Christians either consider their mind, emotion or will as the spirit or else plainly confess they know not where their spirit is. Such ignorance enormously affects cooperation with God, control over self, and war against Satan, the performance of which in all cases requires the operation of the spirit.

It is imperative that believers recognize a spirit exists within them, something extra to thought, knowledge, and imagination of the mind, something beyond affection, sensation and pleasure of the emotion, something additional to desire, decision and action of the will. This component is far more profound than these faculties. God’’s people not only must know they possess a spirit; they also must understand how this organ operates——its sensitivity, its work, its power, its laws. Only in this way can they walk according to their spirit and not the soul or body of their flesh.

The spirit and soul of the unregenerate have become fused into one; therefore they do not know at all the presence of the deadened spirit; on the other hand, they are very well aware of strong soulical sensation. This foolishness continues even after being saved. That is why believers sometimes walk after the spirit and sometimes after the flesh even though they have received spiritual life and have experienced to some degree victory over the things of the flesh. To be unaware of the demand, movement, supply, sense, and direction of the spirit naturally curtails the life of the spirit and allows the natural life of the soul to go unchallenged as the living principle of one’’s walk. 

The magnitude of this ignorance far exceeds common admission of it among believers. Because of their ignorance concerning the Spirit's operation, those who honestly desire deeper experience upon having overcome sin may all too easily be led astray into seeking so-called ““spiritual”” Bible knowledge with their minds, or a burning sensation of the Lord’’s presence in their physical members, or a life and labor emanating from their willpower. They are deceived into overly esteeming their soul experiences and thus fall into conceiving themselves as ever so spiritual. Their soul life is inordinately nourished. 

They become so subjective as to assess their experience as unquestionably spiritual. Accordingly, they are hindered from making any genuine spiritual progress. For this reason, God’’s children must be very humble before Him and seek to know the teaching of the Bible and the functioning of the spirit through the Holy Spirit in order that they may walk by the spirit.