Quickening

 •  1 min. read  •  grade level: 9
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This word means “to be brought to life.” It can be applied to the soul (John 5:21; 6:6321For as the Father raiseth up the dead, and quickeneth them; even so the Son quickeneth whom he will. (John 5:21)
63It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life. (John 6:63); Eph. 2:1, 51And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins; (Ephesians 2:1)
5Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;) (Ephesians 2:5); Col. 2:1313And you, being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath he quickened together with him, having forgiven you all trespasses; (Colossians 2:13)) and also to the human body (Rom. 4:17; 8:1117(As it is written, I have made thee a father of many nations,) before him whom he believed, even God, who quickeneth the dead, and calleth those things which be not as though they were. (Romans 4:17)
11But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you. (Romans 8:11); 1 Tim. 6:1313I give thee charge in the sight of God, who quickeneth all things, and before Christ Jesus, who before Pontius Pilate witnessed a good confession; (1 Timothy 6:13))—even to the Lord’s body (1 Peter 3:1818For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit: (1 Peter 3:18)).
As to the soul, God works upon the elect in sovereign power to bring spiritually dead persons to life by imparting a divine life to them (Eph. 2:11And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins; (Ephesians 2:1), 5a). As a result, when a person is thus awakened, he is given spiritual faculties whereby he is able to hear and understand spiritual communications from God—i.e. the gospel. Upon believing the gospel and resting in faith on the finished work of Christ, the “quickened” soul is “saved” (Eph. 2:5b, 8). Thus, quickening refers to the same action of the Spirit as being “born again,” but viewed from a different perspective:
New birth views man’s condition as having a corrupted nature, and therefore, in need of a new life and nature, which God imparts by His sovereign power.
Quickening views man’s condition from the perspective of being dead, and thus needing new life from God, which quickening conveys.
Without God sovereignly working in this way in souls, no one would believe the gospel, because prior to quickening, men are spiritually unconscious (being dead), and thus have no capability of hearing and responding to the call of God. (See Born Again and Freewill.)