WHAT THE CROSS MEANS TO GOD THE SPIRIT: REGENERATION ---

Hebrews 9:14; John 15:26; 16:13-14

“How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?” Hebrews 9:14

“But when the Comforters is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father, He shall testify of me.” John 15:26

“Howbeit when He, the Spirit of truth, is come, He will guide you into all truth: for He shall not speak of Himself; but whatsoever He shall hear, that shall He speak: and He will shew you things to come. He shall glorify Me: for He shall receive of Mine, and shall shew it unto you.” John 16:13-14

It would be incomplete to do a study of the cross without given our attention to the divine person and vital work of the Holy Spirit.

1. The Ministry of the Spirit with Christ Before the Cross.

The third person of the Godhead, God the Spirit, had a personal and active part in the great work in the life of God the Son. Remember, the Bible tells us that Christ was a “lamb slain before the foundation of the world,” Revelation 13:8.

· While the Father prepared Christ a body, Hebrews 10:5, and the Son took upon Himself flesh and blood, Hebrews 2:14, it was the Holy Spirit that gave life to the virgin womb of Mary, Luke 1:35.

· At the baptism of Jesus by John the Baptist a sign of the God the Spirit’s presence was given in the form of a dove, with the affirming voice of God’s the Father, Matthew 3:16-17.

· It was the God the Spirit who led God the Son into the wilderness of temptation in triumph over the devil, Luke 4:1.

· It was God the Spirit who anointed God the Son to preach and to conduct the ministry of Messiah, Luke 4:18; Acts 10:38.

So, it is not surprising to discover that God the Spirit was also working with and in God’s the Son on the cross.

2. The Ministry of the Spirit with Christ at the Cross.

The Spirit protected Jesus from other potential deaths leading up to the cross. Think of all the ways Jesus might have died:

· Pre-natal, but Mary was overshadowed by the power of the Highest (Luke 1:35)

· The unsanitary conditions of the stable.

· Herod’s slaughter of babies in Bethlehem (Matthew 2:16-18).

· A freak carpenter’s accident in Nazareth, the forty-day fast in the wilderness (Matthew 4:1-12).

· First sermon in Nazareth when they wanted to cast Him down a hill (Luke 4:28-30).

· In a Stormy grave in the Sea of Galilee (Mark 4:35-39).

· By Stoning (John 10:31).

· In Gethsemane’s agony (Matthew 26:38, Luke 22:44).

But the Spirit sustained Jesus in His sufferings before the cross in order that He might die on the cross for our sins.

There is actually only one direct reference to the part the Holy Spirit played in the death of Christ.

“How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?” Hebrews 9:14.

Look at how the Triune God was at work in our behalf. First, this verse says there was the freely giving of “the blood of Christ,” God the Son. Second, the blood of Christ was offered “without spot to God,” that is, to God the Father. Third, this supernatural transaction was carried out “through the eternal Spirit,” that is, through God the Spirit. When God determined to save people, He did not give that work to angels, or to another else, but the eternal God Himself brought about “eternal redemption for us,” Hebrews 9:12.

“It was an act in which the Eternal Trinity participated; the manifestation in time of an eternal fact of the Divine nature,” F. B. Meyer, The Way into the Holiest, Christian Literature Crusade, Fort Washington, PA, 1968, p. 115.

“Behind our author’s thinking lie the portrayal of the Isaiah’s Servant of the Lord, who yields up his life to God as a guilt-offering for many, bearing their sin and procuring their justification. When this Servant is introduced for the first time, God says: ‘I have put my Spirit upon him’ (Isa. 42:1). It is in the power of the Divine Spirit, accordingly, that the Servant accomplishes every phase of his ministry, including the crowning phase in which he accepts death for the transgression of his people, filling the twofold role of priest and victim, as Christ does in this epistle,” F. F. Bruce, The Epistle to the Hebrews, Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co. Grand Rapids, MI, 1964, p. 205

3. The Ministry of the Spirit After the Cross.

“But when the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father, He shall testify of me,” John 15:26.

“Howbeit when He, the Spirit of truth, is come, He will guide you into all truth: for He shall not speak of Himself; but whatsoever He shall hear, that shall He speak: and He will shew you things to come. He shall glorify Me: for He shall receive of mine, and shall shew it unto you,” John 16:13-14.

The ministry of the Holy Spirit is Christ-centered. And, if it is Christ-centered, then it must also be cross-centered.

It was the delight of God the Son to glorify God the Father and it is now the delight of God the Spirit to glorify God the Son.

· The Son glorified the Father on earth.

· The Father glorifies the Son in heaven.

· Now, the Spirit glorifies the Son again on the earth.

There is absolutely no rival in the Godhead.

Jesus promised that the Holy Spirit would more than compensate for His physical absence.

The Holy Spirit brings Conviction to the sinner. “And when He [the Holy Spirit] is come, He will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment,” John 16:18.

Look at the three elements of the Spirit’s conviction: “Sin...righteousness… judgment.” Where could those three realities be more clearly seen than at the cross? That is what the cross is about. It’s about man’s awful sin against a righteous God who brought His Son under judgment for our sins.

Today, professed Christians are grieving and quenching the Holy Spirit by down-playing sin and righteousness and judgment. Some preachers and churches have so modified the message of the cross that they have chosen not to find it.

A man who attended one of the largest seeker-friendly churches was interviewed by a CBS reporter. He said, “I come to this church because I’m comfortable. I’m never made to feel uneasy. I bring my Jewish friends and my business friends, and I know nothing will ever be said that will offend them. The best part of it is, the whole thing only lasts an hour.” (Source: David Wilkerson)

And do you know what the worst sin of which the Holy Spirit convicts? Look at it in John 16:9 “Of Sin, because they believe not on me.” That sin is the sin that is at the root of every sin. When a person will not knowingly and openly and stubbornly reject Jesus they are committing the world’s greatest crime. “Of how much sorer punishment, suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy, who hath trodden under foot the Son of God, and hath counted the blood of the covenant, wherewith he was sanctified, an unholy thing, and hath done despite unto the Spirit of grace?” Hebrews 10:29

“It is not our human logic, eloquence, or psychology that brings people to Jesus. People come because of the convicting work of the Holy Spirit,” Jerry Vines, Spirit Life, Broadman-Holman Publisher, Nashville, TN, 1998, p. 48.

The Holy Spirit points us to Christ. The work of the Holy Spirit through the gospel is to draw you to Christ. Don’t ever doubt it—He is the issue. Its not a person’s past life, nor their abilities, it is Christ and Christ alone. Jesus said of the Holy Spirit, “He will glorify me,” John 16:14a. After Peter had confronted the people on the Day of Pentecost with Jesus’ crucifixion and resurrection, they were brought under the conviction of the Holy Spirit

The Holy Spirit uses Churches. Do you know why unsaved people don’t usually attend a Bible-preaching church at all? Or those who attend, only do so for a while and then quit? Let me show you from the Bible. 1 Corinthians 14:24-25. “But if all prophesy, and there come in one that believeth not, or one unlearned, he is convinced of all, he is judged of all: And thus are the secrets of his heart made manifest; and so falling down on his face he will worship God, and report that God is in you of a truth.” Do you see it? Real “church” should be a powerful, motivating, convicting experience! That’s why everything we do on Sundays should not be purpose-driven or seeker-sensitive or user-friendly, but Spirit-empowered.

The Holy Spirit uses Christians. John 15:27, “And ye also shall bear witness.” Ephesians 5:11-14 commands believers, “And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them. For it is a shame even to speak of those things which are done of them in secret. But all things that are reproved are made manifest by the light: for whatsoever doth made manifest is life. Wherefore, he saith, Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light.” Paul is saying Christian are to let their light shine in their dark world. And God the Spirit will use you and your witness to reprove others. That’s why you have to make a decision when it comes to your friends. Either you are openly Christians before all others all of the time, or you eventually become compromised by your silence.

The Holy Spirit Calls us through the Gospel. The God who calls you through the message of the gospel , 2 Thessalonians 2:14, and divinely enables you to respond to His call. The call of the gospel is “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved,” Acts 16:31.

The Holy Spirit brings about our Conversion, or if you prefer the theological term, “regeneration.”

“Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost,” Titus 3:5.

“Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, be cannot enter into the kingdom of God. That which is born of flesh and flesh; and that which is born of Spirit is spirit. Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again,” John 3:3, 5-7.

Regeneration, “theologically [is] the term [which] means the act of God which imparts eternal life,” Charles R. Ryrie, p. 64.

"Regeneration, or the new birth, is a work of God's grace whereby believers become new creatures in Christ Jesus. It is a change of heart wrought by the Holy Spirit through conviction of sin, to which the sinner responds in repentance toward God and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ."

Faith is not the means of the new birth. Faith is the human response to the message of the cross.

Regeneration is the life-giving work of God the Spirit. Listen carefully, or your theology will get pretty twisted. Faith and regeneration occur simultaneously. Calvinists place regeneration before faith on the presumed grounds that unregenerate people cannot believe. They are both right and wrong. They are right in that of ourselves we cannot be saved. But they are wrong in declaring unsaved people cannot respond to the gospel. The Bible says, “Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God,” Romans 10:17.

There is not a single verse in all the Bible that says regeneration comes before faith. The position of Calvinists comes out of logic, not the Bible.

But even the Word of God alone is not the means of regeneration. Yes, we are “begotten” by the Word, 1 Peter 1:23; James 1:18. Yes, the Word of God is necessary that people can know what to believe. Like, faith, the Word of God is part of a whole process whereby God gives people the new birth.

There may be many things and much time preceding the new birth, but when the new birth occurs it is “instantaneous and of God alone,” Charles R. Ryrie, The Holy Spirit, Moody Press, Chicago, IL, 1965, p. 65.

Let me give you an illustration that may help us understand the gospel, which is the “power of the God unto salvation to every one that believeth,” Romans 1:16. On several different occasions Jesus both invited and commanded people to do the impossible. To one man who had been lame thirty-eight years, Jesus told to “Rise, take up thy bed, and walk,” John 5:8. To another man with a twisted right hand Jesus told to “Stretch forth thy hand,” Luke 6:6-10. Inherent in the command of Jesus was the power to obey His command. While both men had no power of their own, they both by faith obeyed the word of Jesus Christ and were instantly healed. Neither of them thought for a moment they had anything to do with their healing. But, both of them obeyed by faith and were healed.

Inherent in the call that goes out in the power of the Spirit through the gospel is the ability to obey the call. 1 Corinthians 15:1 and 2 says that the gospel is the means whereby people are “saved.”

“One is reborn at a certain point of time, and from then on one is spiritually alive,” J. I. Packer, God’s Words, p. 151. Speaking of Titus 3:5, “Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost,” Paige Patterson comments.

“John 3:5 tells us that this new birth is the work of the Holy Spirit. This is a once and for all happening which occurs whenever a man repents and commits himself to Christ. The Holy Spirit immediately moves into the soul of that man and applies the rich foundation of the blood of Christ. The result is regeneration or a new life hid with Christ in God. But salvation is not finished at this point. The Holy Spirit remains in the regenerate one’s heart for the day-by-day task of renewal...The Spirit of God gives new life every day until Christ comes for his own,” Living in Hope of Eternal Life, p. 48.

At the point of regeneration, the Holy Spirit is “shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Saviour,” Titus 3:6. We are not just barely saved; we are abundantly saved. The very Spirit that convicted you and drew you and regenerated you, now lives in you

Now we can have complete Confidence. Philippians 1:6 assures us, “Being confidence of this very thing, that He which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ.”

An old man got up one morning and read his name in the obituary column of his newspaper. He immediately called the newspaper to protest. He chewed out the person on the phone for several minutes, until the newspaper clerk interrupted. “Cheer up, mister! I’ll put your name in the birth column in the morning edition and give you a brand new start!”

Praise God, that’s what a person can have because of the cross—a brand new start with a brand new Savior with a brand new life headed for a brand new destiny!

Blessed assurance, Jesus is mine.

O, what a foretaste of glory divine.

Heir of salvation, purchase of God.

Born of His Spirit, washed in His blood.

Many of you may be wondering, “What is the work of the Holy Spirit in my heart now as it regards the cross?” Look at it in Acts 1:8. “Ye shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you, and ye shall be witnesses unto me...unto the uttermost part of the earth.” God’s great work of carrying the message of the cross to the ends of the earth can only be done in the power o the Holy Spirit. While it is true that every Christian is a missionary and every unsaved person is a prospect, it is the Holy Spirit that puts the two together to bring about salvation to the believing sinner.