There is Only One Way to Obtain Life

One cannot buy his way into having life. Neither can one work to obtain life. Being made safe from diabolical dysfunction in order to function as God intended never comes on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness (Titus 3:5), but only by spiritual regeneration. There is only one way to receive life.

You have to be born into it.

Birth is the metaphor that Jesus uses to illustrate the need for regeneration. Being born again is not turning over a new leaf of religious dedication and commitment. It is the restoring of the divine Life of Jesus Christ into the spirit of the individual who is receptive by faith.

To be spiritually regenerated is to be brought into being again. Being born again or born from above (John 3:3,7) in new birth implies that the personified Life of the Spirit of Christ comes to dwell in the spirit of an individual, who is thus established as a Christian. In that light, it might be said that birth determines your identity.

When a person is regenerated, a spiritual exchange takes place. The "spirit that works in the sons of disobedience..." (Eph. 2:2), "the spirit of error..." (I John 4:6), "the spirit of this world..." (I Cor. 2:12) is exchanged for the "Spirit of truth" (I John 4:6), the "Spirit of God" (I Cor. 2:11,12), the personified presence of the Spirit of Christ who works in the Christian (Eph. 3:20; Phil. 2:13; Col. 1:29). The living Lord Jesus explained to Paul at the time of his conversion that this spiritual exchange was a turning from darkness to light; from being under the dominion of Satan to being under the dominion of God (Acts 26:18).

Regeneration is an exchange of spiritual personage within an individual. It is the Life of God restored to man that he might be man as God intended man to be. Therefore, the primary objective of Christianity is not how to get a man out of hell and into heaven, but to get Heaven back into man.