The gracious operation of the Holy Spirit, a member of the Triune God, is of incalculable importance to every believer in the spiritual body of Christ. So important, in fact, that the Apostle Paul makes a startling statement about it in the 8th of Romans, “It is very forthright and unambiguous, said he. If any man have not the spirit of Christ, he is none of His.” With unmistakable clarity, the apostle equates being a Christian with having the Spirit of God dwelling within. The Titus passage reinforces this, in chapter 3, by telling us that to make us “Christian”, the Holy Spirit regenerates and renews us. Anyone not having been regenerated and renewed does not belong to Christ. But you may. How may you? In the same way as those already Christian. In the only way as those already Christian. To be spiritually renewed is much like being regenerated. Both with the prefix “re” speaks of something “over again”. It is, in every sense of the word, a spiritual “redo”. It is upon believing upon the Lord Jesus Christ as one’s personal Savior from sin that the Holy Spirit accomplishes the regeneration and the renewing in the human spirit of the person who comes to Christ.
How does He do that? We have no idea. We are not told how He does it, but we are told that He does. He actually makes us spiritually alive, whereas we were spiritually dead. Paul describes this incredible reality in writing to the Corinthians in chapter 5 of his first letter sent to them. He says, “Therefore, if man be in Christ, he is a new creation; old things are passed away, behold, all things are become new.” What does this mean? How does this work? Isn’t the believing person the same person he was before he believed? Yes, and no. Yes, in that he looks the same, yet, there is something strikingly different about him. Without understanding how, the world looks different than before. One feels different than before. Values and opinions once held as fixed begin to morph into something completely different,sometimes even the opposite of before. What’s the explanation of this? It’s the gracious life-altering change internally, brought about by none other than God, the Holy Spirit. These are changes that cannot be produced on a psychiatric couch. This is not reformation. It’s regeneration, and only the Spirit of God can affect it. Little wonder it’s often referred to a being “born again”. It’s a very apt description, and it is common to all who are in Christ. It is also utterly foreign to all who are not in Christ. “If any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of His.”
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