OK, please consider what the Lord Jesus said here:
"That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit" (Jn.3:6).
So when a person is born of the spirit he has spiritual life.
Do you agree with that?
While I agree with the general thrust of your reasoning, I cannot fully agree without re-working your statement because it becomes the basis on which you build your later argument. Once again you use a phrase that has no real meaning. I don't find the phrase "spiritual life" in scripture so I have no real means of knowing what you mean by it. If you mean, a person born of the spirit reflects the very character/nature of God by that term, then I'm in agreement.
In the following verse the Apostle Paul describes how he was saved by being made alive by the spirit:
"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 Spirit" (Titus 3:5).
Joseph Henry Thayer says that the Greek word translated regeneration
"denotes the restoration of a thing to its pristine state, its renovation" [
emphasis added] (Joseph Henry Thayer,
A Greek - English Lexicon of the New Testament, 474).
The word "regeneration" is translated from the Greek word
paliggenesia, which is the combination of
palin and
genesis.
Palin means
"joined to verbs of all sorts,it denotes renewal or repetition of the action" (
Ibid., 475).
Genesis means
"used of birth, nativity" (
Ibid., 112).
So when we combine the two words the meaning is a repetition of a birth. Therefore, when Paul used the Greek word translated "regeneration" to describe his salvation experience he was speaking of a repetition of a birth.
It is obvious that the reference is not to a "physical" rebirth, or the repetition of one's physical birth. Paul could only be speaking of a repetition of a spiritual birth. And the words that follow make it certain that the "birth" of which Paul is referring to is a "spiritual" birth--
"renewing of the Holy Spirit."
Since the "renewal" of the Holy Spirit is in regard to being made alive spiritually then the previous birth of the Spirit must also be in regard to being made alive spiritually by the Holy Spirit. In other words, since a person is "regenerated" by the Holy Spirit then that means that one must have previously been born of the Holy Spirit. That happens at conception.
So when a person is conceived in the womb he has spiritual life. And when he sins he is separated from God who is the very source of spiritual life. He becomes spiritually dead.
See, that's what happens when you build a case on a false premise, the conclusion doesn't stand up.
Rom 5:6 For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly.
Rom 5:7 For scarcely for a righteous man will one die: yet peradventure for a good man some would even dare to die.
Rom 5:8 But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
Rom 5:9 Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him.
Rom 5:10 For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son,
much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life.
Read above carefully and you should see the problem with your reasoning. You have done a very good job giving us word meanings etc. but missed the point of them because you force them to align with your preconceived notion.
Reconciliation is what what takes us back to Adam. We are reconciled to God by the death of his son.
Isa 59:2 But your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you, that he will not hear.
Rom 3:23 For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;
Rom 3:24 Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus:
Rom 3:25 Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God;
What you roll into one event is a two step process.
When we read in Titus 3:5 "by the washing of regeneration,
and renewing of the Holy Spirit" it is talking about the same process that Rom. 5:10 speaks of, there being
much more beyond reconciliation.
This is the much more:
Joh 14:16 And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever;
Joh 14:17 Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you.
Joh 14:18 I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you.
Joh 6:63 It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.
Gal 2:20 I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.
Col 1:25 Whereof I am made a minister, according to the dispensation of God which is given to me for you, to fulfil the word of God;
Col 1:26 Even the mystery which hath been hid from ages and from generations, but now is made manifest to his saints:
Col 1:27 To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is
Christ in you, the hope of glory:
Col 1:28 Whom we preach, warning every man, and teaching every man in all wisdom; that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus:
The much more is "Christ in you, the hope of glory"!
Now since we know that our hope specifically is Christ in us for the renewing of our minds by the Holy spirit which produces the "new man", it is interesting to note what John wrote:
Joh 7:38 He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.
Joh 7:39 (But this spake he of the Spirit, which they that believe on him should receive: for the Holy Ghost was not yet given; because that Jesus was not yet glorified.)
Geoff.
