Regeneration is altogether a matter of life. Receiving the life of God through regeneration therefore results in an organic relationship with God (a relationship in life) that is both eternal and indissoluble. Sadly, in many of today’s presentations of regeneration this truth is unclear, underemphasized or, in many cases, entirely neglected. To be able to adequately understand both regeneration and the organic relationship which it produces, we must first clarify what it is to “receive the life of God.

What It Means to Receive the Life of God

To say that we “receive the life of God” as a result of our regeneration is to say that we receive a particular kind of life— zoe (zoe) life,“ life as God has it” (Vine’s Dictionary). It is important to see that the New Testament employs three distinct Greek words, all of which are simply translated “life” in English. The first, bios, is used in reference to the duration of life (Luke 8:14), the morals and conduct of life (1 Tim. 2:2), and the means of life (Mark 12:44; Luke 8:43). The second word used is psuche, which refers to the heart, mind, and soul—the natural life, or personality (Matt. 2:20; Luke 12:22; 9:4). The third and most frequently used word for “life” is zoe. Zoe refers to“ life in the absolute sense, life as God has it, the life which the Father has in Himself and gave to the Son, John 5:26” (367-368).

The following is a simple outline to present, from the Bible, the “flow” of zoe, from God to man:

  • The Father is the source of zoe (John 5:26).
  • The Son is the embodiment of zoe and desires that man have zoe (1:4; 5:26; 10:10).
  • The Spirit is zoe and gives zoe (Rom. 8:2; John 6:63; 1 Cor. 15:45).
  • We receive zoe by receiving the Son, Christ and thus become partakers of the divine nature (John 3:15-16, 36; 1 John 5:11-12; Rom. 8:10; Gal. 2:20; Col. 3:4; 2 Peter 1:4).

For more on the Father, Son, and Spirit, Click here.

The Bible uses the phrase "children of God" to refer to our relationship with God, not as a metaphor, but as a literal description of this organic relationship with Him.

 

An Organic Relationship With God

With this understanding of what it means to receive the life of God, it is not difficult to see that through regeneration we are brought into an organic relationship with God (a relationship in life). Accordingly, the Bible uses the phrase “children of God” to refer to our relationship with God, not as a metaphor, but as a literal description of this organic relationship with Him. “Behold what manner of love the Father has given unto us, that we should be called children of God; and we are….Beloved, now we are children of God” (1 John 3:1-2). Paul Billheimer explains further in his book Destined for the Throne:


From all eternity God purposed to have a family circle of His very own, not only created but also generated by His own life, incorporating His own seed, “sperma,” “genes,” or heredity. “Long ago, even before He made the world, God chose us to be his very own [in a genetic sense], through what Christ would do for us” (Eph. 1:4; also 5:25-27, 32 LB). In order to obtain this personal, organic family relationship, God conceived the infinitely vast and infinitely wise plan of creation plus redemption through the new birth, in order to bring “many sons into glory” (Heb. 2:10)….In John 1:12-13 we learn that the plan of redemption was inaugurated to set up a unique and original generative method by which these “many sons” would be born and progressively disciplined by a sanctifying process in order to bring them to glory. (36-37)

Regeneration is therefore much more profound then the traditional religious concept of adoption, which holds that God the Father merely adopted His believers, granting them the position of sons, yet sharing with them no relationship in life. Nowhere in his Gospel does John suggest an adoptive relationship. Instead, he likens regeneration to the birth of a child. In his study on the Greek word Tekuou (“children”), as used in John 1:12, Marvin R. Vincent points out, “Tekuou, child, denotes a relation based on community of nature, while uioV, Son, may indicate only adoption and heirship…John never uses uioV to describe the relation of Christians to God, since he regards their position not as a result of adoption but of new life” (Word Studies, 49). (See also 1 John 2:297 in the Recovery Version of the New Testament.)

Could Christians but remember that the life they receive at regeneration is Uncreated Life....they would cease to permit their fluctuating emotions to determine their standing before God.

 

Eternal and Indissoluble

As an organic member of God’s family, a believer’s regeneration is as permanent, as eternal as God’s own life. God’s life is both eternal and indissoluble. Therefore, “having been regenerated, not of corruptible seed but of incorruptible” (1 Peter 1:23), we enjoy a relationship with God which is equally eternal and indissoluble. In the material realm, no matter how naughty or unwilling a child may be, he is still his parents’ child. No decision either by the parents or the child could ever dissolve the relationship which they share, for a relationship in life supersedes any based on conduct or will. If this is true of the human life, how much more secure is the birth relationship between the eternal God and His beloved children.

This truth cannot be overemphasized. If we understand regeneration to be merely a spiritual conversion or a moral revival, the security of our salvation as well as the enjoyment of our Christian life will fluctuate and be easily shaken. Instead, thankfully, our regeneration is based on and secured by God’s eternal life within us. Mary E. McDonough underscores the importance of this revelation:

Unless…[we] see the meaning of this birth relationship with God, progress in the Christian life will be slow and uncertain. Many persons seem to think that they remain Christians while they are not consciously disobeying God’s commands, but should they do something that they consider wrong, they think that they have fallen from grace and have lost Eternal Life. Could Christians but remember that the life they receive at regeneration is Uncreated Life—God’s Life that can never change, and that He calls them His own children, they would cease to permit their fluctuating emotions to determine their standing before God. When a sinner is willing to admit his sinful, lost condition and definitely turns to God from sin—appropriating the Life of God in Christ Jesus—that very instant he becomes a child of God, and through all Eternity will be a Child of God; for he is put within the sphere of Eternal Life; therefore he now possesses in his spirit a Life that will remain there as long as God lives. (See John 1:12; Romans 8:16-17.) That is what regeneration means. (God’s Plan, 67)