Notes of Faith June 7, 2026
Pastor’s Pen Pulpit Series: The Holy Spirit in Today’s World
September 14, 2003
THE WORK OF THE HOLY SPIRIT AT THE TIME OF SALVATION
OR THE SECURING WORK OF THE HOLY SPIRIT
We came to salvation in Jesus Christ as a result of the Holy Spirit convicting us of our sin and our need of a Savior. Once we have received Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord, we are secure in Him, also because of the Holy Spirit’s work in our lives. He does this through regeneration (a big word for change) and this regeneration places the believer IN Christ. As such his position in Christ is as secure as Christ is in the Father! The believer can never be unregenerated any more than a child born into this world can become unborn. Let’s look then at the relation of regeneration to the security of the believer.
Regeneration (a work of God the Holy Spirit) is the act by which He imparts eternal life to an individual. Regeneration is the instantaneous change from a state of spiritual death to a state of spiritual life (Titus 3:5, Matthew 19:28). Other words used to express regeneration are found in I Peter 1:3, 23; James 1:18; and John 3:3, 7. The essence of meaning contained in these various words is “new beginning, to give birth, born from above,”
Terms used to express regeneration:
• New Birth - John 1:3; James 1:18. This portrays the intimate relation of the child of God to his heavenly father. It also declares the kind of life the believer receives
• Spiritual Resurrection – Romans 6:13; Ephesians 2:5. The believer is completely identified with Jesus Christ, not only in His death, but also in His resurrection. We have His life – Amen?!
• New Creation – Ephesians 2:10; 4:24; II Corinthians 5:17. Regeneration is creative in its nature and results in a fundamental change in the individual. It speaks of a new nature being added with its new capacities.
The work of regeneration:
• The author is God – John 1:12,13; I Corinthians 3:6,7; I Peter 1:3. Man does not possess the ability to communicate life to himself, because men are dead. Only God can give life – any kind of life.
• The agents are the Holy Spirit, the One who facilitates the new birth – John 3:5-8 and the Holy Scriptures, the foundation for the new birth –I Peter 1:23-25; James 1:18 ,21.
The relationship of the trinity to regeneration:
• God the Son paid the penalty for our sins – Romans 5:6
• God the Holy Spirit regenerates and renews – Titus 3:5.
• God the Father becomes the Father of the believer - James 1:17,18.
The results of regeneration:
• A new nature – The new birth brings to the believer a new nature (II Corinthians 5:17). It does not eradicate the old nature nor split the personality. Natures are capacities. The unregenerate person has only one capacity, the capacity to serve sin. The new nature brings with it the capacity to serve righteousness (Romans 6:17-18).
• A new life – The new capacity will bear fruit in the new life (I John 2:29; 3:9; 4:7; 5:1,4,18). The abiding results of regeneration are doing righteousness and not committing sin.
Has the Holy Spirit convicted you of your sin of unbelief? If so, has He communicated new life to you? I trust that He has. He got hold of me in August of 1963 – praise His name. God bless,
Love to you all,
Pastor Charles Covington
1 Cor 2:14
The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned.
1 Peter 2:2
…like newborn babies, long for the pure milk of the word, so that by it you may grow in respect to salvation…
We not only come to faith in Jesus through the power and conviction of the Holy Spirit, but continue to grow in God’s grace and wisdom through the same Holy Spirit.
I was blessed to be brought to the throne of grace to receive mercy and help through the conviction of the Holy Spirit in early 1966. The Holy Spirit has continued to lead, guide and direct my life according to God’s will (of course with the many and varied unholy failings on my part) for all these many years. I am praying for more…to be more intimate with my Lord and Savior, to be used more powerfully for God’s glory while I yet live, and this will all happen through the Holy Spirit.
May you truly know what it means to walk in the power of the Holy Spirit!
Pastor Dale