Atonement Series: Regeneration

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=spYedWq74ck

Up to this point we learned about God’s original intention for his creation, the fall, and sin.

Last week we learned about grace as God’s divine assistance. Not just unmerited favor but, some type of action done by God to assist us with moving from one place to another or to accomplish something. We have learned about these things in the scope of Jesus’ redemptive work and the process of atonement. Lazarus of Bethany has been a great help in revealing these truths to us, and was we will continue to see, has more to offer.

So, today we are going to get into regeneration. A phrase that we don’t hear often, but is never-the-less, important for us to understand. If you want the short version here it is, regeneration is being born again. That’s the plain English version. It is being born of the Spirit, a renewal or a spiritual rebirth. Now this we have heard before. We have even asked it in question form. “Are you born-again?” But do we understand what we are saying here? When you say or hear “born-again” what comes to mind? You see, this part of language is important. The linguistic cognitive part. It is one thing to say something, but it is another thing to think something of what is being said.

Let’s look at some scriptures that talk about regeneration.

Titus 3:5 (ESV) says, “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.”

John 1: 12-13 (ESV) But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.

Ezekiel 36:26-27 (ESV) And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules.

John 3:5 (ESV) Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.

2 Corinthians 5:17 (ESV) Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.

Charles Spurgeon puts it this way, “Regeneration is a work of the Spirit of God, and it is a great miracle. It is a divine act, whereby a new principle of life is imparted to the soul, making it a new creature in Christ Jesus. The soul, which was dead in trespasses and sins, is quickened to new life, and new affections, new principles, and new inclinations are given to it. The regenerate person is no longer the same as before; he is a new creation, created in Christ Jesus unto good works. It is a transformation as radical as it is divine, changing the entire nature and inclinations of the person.” (The New Park Street Pulpit, Volume 1, Sermon 16)

Okay, so regeneration is God giving you new inwards parts. He performs surgery on you by removing the old inward and replaces it with a new inward. So let this expand our thinking of the term “born again” or regeneration. God is giving us new parts. Just as a child is born or water and forms vital parts in it mother’s womb, we are formed in the water of the Spirit forming our vital parts. One of those parts being our heart.

Now why? Why does he do this?

For the answer to that question let us turn to Lazarus once again.

John 11:38-44

Then Jesus, deeply moved again, came to the tomb. It was a cave, and a stone lay against it. Jesus said, “Take away the stone.” Martha, the sister of the dead man, said to him, “Lord, by this time there will be an odor, for he has been dead four days.” Jesus said to her, “Did I not tell you that if you believed you would see the glory of God?” So they took away the stone. And Jesus lifted up his eyes and said, “Father, I thank you that you have heard me. I knew that you always hear me, but I said this on account of the people standing around, that they may believe that you sent me.”  When he had said these things, he cried out with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out.” The man who had died came out, his hands and feet bound with linen strips, and his face wrapped with a cloth. Jesus said to them, “Unbind him, and let him go.”

So here we see Jesus calling out to Lazarus and Lazarus responding. Lazarus, who is supposed to be a dead man for 4 days! How is this possible? The human body starts decomposing immediately after death.

Now before we dissect this passage, here is some of what happens to your body immediately after death:

Rigor mortis: Muscles stiffen within three hours of death. 

Internal organ decomposition: Internal organs begin to decompose 24–72 hours after death. 

Bloating: The body starts to bloat 3–5 days after death. 

Blood-containing foam: Blood-containing foam leaks from the mouth and nose 3–5 days after death. 

Greenish color: The skin turns a greenish color 3–5 days after death.

This absolutely sounds like a situation where there needs to be regeneration! One of the very first proofs of regeneration was that Lazarus heard Jesus. Lazarus would have been incapable of hearing or responding to Jesus’ call if it were not for Jesus first regenerating Lazarus’ ability to hear and respond. Lazarus walked out of the tomb on legs that had cellular regeneration, muscle regeneration, and Lazarus had nothing to do with any of this.

But Jesus loved Lazarus and wanted to restore fellowship with him, so he divinely assisted (remember that was what we learned last teaching) and regenerated his body so he can respond to the call of “come out.” And he called him by name.

So regeneration is not solely being born-again. It’s more. Regeneration is the act of God renewing your mind, heart, will, and spirit which were all dead, allowing you to now hear, respond, and align to his calling. This is the regeneration of the entire person!

We even see parallels between Ezekiel 36:26-27 and John 11:38-44. In Ezekiel, God tells us that he will remove our heart of stone and give us a heart of flesh causing us to walk in His statutes and being careful to obey His rules. Then in John we see the stone to Lazarus’ tomb being removed. This stone could represent the old heart that was dead and unresponsive to the Gospel.

In Lazarus’ account Martha warns Jesus before removing the stone, “Lord, by this time there will be an odor, for he has been dead four days.” This represents the putrid smell of sin the erodes every dead thing, and in the case of Lazarus it has been 4 days! For those of us in sin, how long has it been? How much has sin eroded you and your life? However, I love Jesus’ response to this situation. He isn’t afraid of the smell. The stone isn’t an obstacle for him. Jesus calls Lazarus out! Just as we read in Ezekiel that after giving us a new heart, he will cause us to walk in His ways!

Renewal of the Heart:

Ezekiel 36:26: “And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.”

This verse signifies the transformation of the heart, moving from a state of resistance and unresponsiveness to one of responsiveness to God. The heart controls emotions, desires and affections, your moral compass, and your relational connections. All of these components become responsive to God.

Renewal of the Mind:

Romans 12:2: “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.”

This is the renewal of one’s cognitions and aligning them with God’s will. This is an important one because the mind or cognition involves acquiring, processing, storing, and using information. The mind is also responsible for perception, attention, memory, learning, problem-solving, decision-making, language, reasoning and logic, executive function, metacognition. Just imagine all of this submitted to God!

Renewal of the Will:

Philippians 2:13: “For it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.”

This verse shows how God influences our will, enabling us to desire and act according to His purposes. It is a call back to the tree of knowledge of good and evil, that when Adam ate of it, it perverted his will, causes his inclinations to be self-focused instead of God-focused. The will involves decision-making, determination, self-control, agency. An unsubmitted will results in self-assignment of identity, self-directed purpose, and self-help approaches which sounds good on the surface. However, because the self is inherently sinful, deficient, but above all limited in sufficiency and scop, the self cannot adequately resolve distress. Its innate inclinations will always be flawed. This is why the regeneration of the will alleviates all of man’s distresses. He moves from self-focused to God-focused.

Renewal of the Spirit:

John 3:5: “Jesus answered, ‘Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.’”

This emphasizes the role of the Holy Spirit in giving new spiritual life, making the spirit alive to God. Your spirit involves your connection with God, spiritual discernment, inner transformation, conscience, worship and fellowship, empowerment for service, eternal life. These are all important aspects of your life here as a spirit-being in a physical body. Perhaps we’ll do a teaching on this very subject because there is so much to these areas.

I’ll briefly mention a few examples of why renewal of your spirit is important and how your spirit connects you to this physical world, and this is true even for those who claim not believe in the spirit. For them, they called it something else. Sort of like Athenians making a statue to the unknown God.

So, we all have a connection with God and the spirit world whether we acknowledge it or not. This typically shows up when we experience a sense of awe or reverence when witnessing something magnificent in nature, feeling drawn to something greater than oneself, often interpreted as a deep connection with life or with the universe. It also shows when we experience a deep inner sense, feeling of intuition, or gut instincts when decision making. That inner voice or moral compass that prompts feelings of guilt or feelings of responsibility when a wrong action is taken, that too is a spiritual pull. Having a sense of legacy or desire for life to have meaning beyond death, philanthropy, mentoring, purpose, finding meaning and community in common causes, meditation or mindfulness practices are all proofs for the spiritual essence of mankind. These areas that I mentioned, while they include mental and emotional aspects, these experiences go beyond psychological, and into a realm identified as spiritual.

So, regeneration! It’s the act of God renewing your mind, your heart, your will, and your spirit which were all dead, allowing you to now hear, to respond, and to align with His calling. Without this work we could not respond. In this way God receives all the glory, recognition, and all the credit, so that no one can boast. And quite frankly, not only for glory’s sake, but because we were literally unable to, as we have seen by Lazarus’ example.