Being born again involves an inseparable partnership between the Holy Spirit’s work and God’s Word. The Holy Spirit applies Christ’s salvation to an individual’s heart by convicting of sin and producing faith in Christ’s atoning sacrifice.[1] However, this spiritual transformation doesn’t occur in isolation. Faith doesn’t exist in a vacuum but arises through the Word of God, since faith comes from hearing Scripture.[1]
The relationship between these three elements—Spirit, Word, and new birth—forms a unified process. The Holy Spirit both recorded Scripture’s message of salvation and witnesses to its truth, convincing people not merely of Scripture’s general reliability but of its personally transformative power.[1] When God’s Word operates, the Holy Spirit operates; when the Spirit accomplishes His work, He does so through and by means of God’s Word.[2] This explains why Scripture describes rebirth using both formulations: being “born of the Spirit” and being “born again through the living and enduring word of God.”[1]
From God’s perspective, the process is straightforward—the Spirit of God takes the Word of God and creates the child of God, with the Holy Spirit employing the divinely inspired Word as His instrument.[3] The faith that the Spirit produces connects inseparably to God’s promises of grace throughout the Bible.[1] The Spirit and the Word are both essential; the Spirit applies the Word to the heart to bring repentance and faith, resulting in spiritual life.[1] This integration ensures that rebirth is neither a purely mystical experience divorced from Scripture nor merely intellectual assent to biblical truths, but rather the Spirit’s living transformation of the heart through engagement with God’s revealed Word.
[1] John R. Higgins, “God’s Inspired Word,” in Systematic Theology: Revised Edition, ed. Stanley M. Horton (Springfield, MO: Logion Press, 2007), 110–111.
[2] Jonathan Master, You Must Be Born Again (Phillipsburg, NJ: P&R Publishing, 2024), 44.
[3] Billy Graham, The Holy Spirit: Activating God’s Power in Your Life (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, 1988), 58.
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