Renewing by the Holy Spirit
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| HOLY SPIRIT - FOIX (Photo credit: Wikipedia) |
The Holy Spirit’s eternal impacts on our lives (regeneration and renewal) are brought together in this text in a rather unique way. To begin with, the Greek words are unusual—“regeneration” being used only twice in the New Testament and “renewal” only five times in various forms. They come together only in this passage.
“Regeneration” (paliggenesia) means to “birth again” where God gives up the ability or faith to believe the gospel message. Saved is from sōzō, which, although it is sometimes used in the New Testament of physical, temporal deliverance (see, e.g., Matt. 8:25; John 12:27), is most often used of spiritual salvation. Those words have always been cherished by those who have been saved. Our salvation is the most important and precious thing about us, to which nothing else can begin to compare. Biblical Christianity is a saving religion, and salvation has always been the central theme of Christian songs and hymns.
In the negative sense, salvation relates to our deliverance from the penalty of sin, that is, from divine wrath, spiritual death, and hell. Still again, we are pointed to that beloved text in the gospel of John. “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son,” the Son Himself declared, “that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life. For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world should be saved [sōzō] through Him” (John 3:16–17).
In the positive sense, salvation grants us the privilege “to come to the knowledge of the truth” (1 Tim. 2:4), to be made “alive together with Christ” (Eph. 2:5), to be delivered “from the domain of darkness, and transferred … to the kingdom of His beloved Son” (Col. 1:13), and to have “the hope of eternal life” (Titus 1:2).
After Pentecost, “the Lord was adding to their number day by day those who were being saved” (Acts 2:47). In words that may have been part of an early church creed, Paul wrote, “It is a trustworthy statement, deserving full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners” (1 Tim. 1:15).
The purpose of the incarnation was to accomplish the sacrifice that would save lost sinners, among whom we all were once numbered (Eph. 2:5).
The Savior did not redeem us because of anything that we were, or could ever be, in ourselves. Ephesians 2:8–9 makes it clear: “For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, that no one should boast” (Eph. 2:8–9). No deeds, even those done in relative righteousness,
Then the connection to our salvation is well established by the “renewal” (anakainosis) in its variations is a bit more difficult to describe—especially since there is the possible linguistic connection to the “washing” (bath) of regeneration. That is, the section could be translated “the Holy Spirit’s bath of regeneration and renewing”—thus equating the two terms. Most translations, however, treat the terms as separate actions or conditions for which the Holy Spirit is responsible. This fits best with the rest of the biblical data.
Perhaps the most well-known passage focusing on renewal is Romans 12:1-2. In this precious reference, we are commanded to present (yield) our bodies as holy and acceptable living sacrifices, and to refuse to be conformed to the world, but to be transformed (metamorphoo = “permanent change”) by the renewing of our mind. The instrument by which the transformation comes about is the new mind (intellect)—a grace-gift imputed at salvation by the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 2:16;Hebrews 10:16). This renewal takes place in the “inward man” (2 Corinthians 4:16) which “is renewed in knowledge” (Colossians 3:10) according to the image of the Creator. Thus, the renewal comes about intellectually, through the ministrations of the Holy Spirit, as we seek, study, store, and obey the magnificent Word of God.
