17. Regeneration
John 5:2; 1 Peter 1:23 • 1 min. read • grade level: 8
“G. C. R.” asks, “Is it correct to speak of regeneration as being the work of the Holy Spirit?” John 3:88The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit. (John 3:8), contains an explicit answer to our correspondent’s inquiry. “So is every one that is born of the Spirit.” In John 5:2525Verily, verily, I say unto you, The hour is coming, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God: and they that hear shall live. (John 5:25), we find the work of quickening attributed to “the Son of God.” In 1 Peter 1:2323Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever. (1 Peter 1:23), the word is presented as the instrument of quickening, or giving new life. In James 1 “The Father of lights” is presented as the One who begets us by the word of truth. Putting all these passages together, we learn that the Father begets, by the Word, through the power of the Holy Spirit. This makes the matter divinely simple.