The Nature of Regeneration

When it pleased God . . . to reveal His Son in me . . . —Galatians 1:15-16

If Jesus Christ is going to regenerate me, what is the problem He faces? It is simply this— I have a heredity in which I had no say or decision; I am not holy, nor am I likely to be; and if all Jesus Christ can do is tell me that I must be holy, His teaching only causes me to despair. But if Jesus Christ is truly a regenerator, someone who can put His own heredity of holiness into me, then I can begin to see what He means when He says that I have to be holy. Redemption means that Jesus Christ can put into anyone the hereditary nature that was in Himself, and all the standards He gives us are based on that nature— His teaching is meant to be applied to the life which He puts within us. The proper action on my part is simply to agree with God’s verdict on sin as judged on the Cross of Christ.

The New Testament teaching about regeneration is that when a person is hit by his own sense of need, God will put the Holy Spirit into his spirit, and his personal spirit will be energized by the Spirit of the Son of God— “. . . until Christ is formed in you” (Galatians 4:19). The moral miracle of redemption is that God can put a new nature into me through which I can live a totally new life. When I finally reach the edge of my need and know my own limitations, then Jesus says, “Blessed are you . . .” (Matthew 5:11). But I must get to that point. God cannot put into me, the responsible moral person that I am, the nature that was in Jesus Christ unless I am aware of my need for it.

Just as the nature of sin entered into the human race through one man, the Holy Spirit entered into the human race through another Man (see Romans 5:12-19). And redemption means that I can be delivered from the heredity of sin, and that through Jesus Christ I can receive a pure and spotless heredity, namely, the Holy Spirit.

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再造的改變

神……樂意將他兒子啟示在我心裡。 （加一15-16）

主耶穌若要把我重生過來，要面對什麼困難呢？我承襲的罪性，是我無能為力的；我並不聖潔，自己也不可能聖潔。若主耶穌所能作的，只是告訴我要聖潔，他的教訓只會帶來絕望；但主耶穌若是生命的再造者，能把自己聖潔的遺傳放進人裡面，我便可以明白要聖潔是什麼意思。救贖就是主耶穌把自己的性情傳襲到任何人身上，而他所設的標準，就是根據他的教訓，為放進去的生命而設的。我在道德方面能作的，就是承認神在十字架上對罪的判定。

新約對重生的教訓，就是當人深深感到屬靈的需要，神就把聖靈放進他的靈裡去，他的靈就被神兒子的靈所感動－－[真等到基督成形在你們心裡]。救贖的道德神蹟，就是神把一個新性情放在我裡面，以致我能活出全新的生命來。當我來到自己欠缺的極限，知道自己的有限時，耶穌說：[你有福了。 ]但要到達那境地，除非我先意識到自己的需要，否則，神不能把耶穌基督的性情放在我裡面。正如罪性是因一人進入人類，同樣，聖潔也藉另一個人進入。救贖就是透過主耶穌，把我從罪的傳襲中救出來，領受一個無玷污的遺傳，就是聖靈。

祈禱◆主啊，我的靈性－－或更準確地說，是我的思想領域－－仍是何等愚鈍和模糊，以致瑣碎的事情佔據了龐大的範圍，卻將生命中那些重要的問題擠掉。求你拯救的大能釋放我。