Part II of IV, in a series for counselors on spiritual formation.

Regeneration 

The Holy Spirit is used by the Father, to convict people of their sin, to bring them to faith in Christ. They accept Him, repent of their sin, and are born again by the Spirit, just as Christ instructed Nicodemus.

John 3:3–5 (ESV): 3 Jesus answered him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.” 4 Nicodemus said to him, “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?” 5 Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.

A new birth, and life are required because the wages of sin is death

Ephesians 2:5 speaks of ones who were once dead in the weight of sin, who are now alive in Christ through the working of grace, by which they are saved.

How can a dead man hear or respond to the gospel message? He must be made alive.

How can a heart of stone receive life?

It must be removed, and replaced by a living heart (Ezekiel 36:26). The dead must be made alive. God must do a miraculous work in the dead, sin filled heart, to prepare it for response in faith. This work is a process referred to as regeneration. This is the act where God imparts new spiritual life to us. We play no role in this regeneration; it is completely God.

“He saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit.”

Titus 3:5 ESV

Regeneration is completed according to God’s mercy, by the work of the Holy Spirit.

Upon regeneration there are many immediate implications for the “once-dead-now-alive-in-Christ”.

First, they are made a new creation from the inside out (2 Corin. 5:17). They are reborn under God, and protected from the evil that once oppressed them (1 John 5:18). As a reborn child of God, they have a new identity, free from what use to define them in their old self, from their old desires, to pursue holiness (Eph 4:22-24). They are made able to understand spiritual things with a new mind (1 Corin. 2:14-16), and to have the ability to love God (1 John 4:7). The regenerated person enters into new fellowship with other believers (1 John 1:3). They are made alive to live a new life in and by the Spirit (Romans 8:9-11), with freedom from the captivity of sin (Rom. 6:6).

Regeneration does not mean the individual is made perfect, or no longer sins. Just as an infant born into the physical world needs to grow to maturity; so does the infant in Christ, who needs spiritual milk (1 Peter 2:2). New believers are like infants in their new spiritual life, where the Spirit promises to guide and leads them, not according to their flesh, but according to the Spirit (Romans 8:4). As the Spirit leads, they must follow. He equips them to follow. He teaches them His ways. Spurgeon once said, “God the Holy Spirit takes of the things of Christ, high and sublime as they are, and shows them unto men like these apostles were, men ready to follow where the Lord led them, and to learn what the Lord taught them.” (1904). It is then in the beginning of obedience, that the Holy Spirit empowers the pursuit of Godliness, a process referred to as sanctification.