The Gospel according to John represents Jesus the Christ to us in terms of His deity. That is to say that Jesus is demonstrated to the reader as the incarnate Son of God. The title “Son of God” is very significant, because Jesus was conceived without the participation of a man. His mother, Mary, a fifteen-year-old virgin, is reported to have conceived Him by the power of the Holy Spirit. This means that Mary is the mother of Jesus’ humanity, but as far as His divinity is concerned, He is God. This is a very important observation, because this means that Jesus had a human spirit. However, it must be understood that Jesus was sinless, because sin is not inherited from the mother, but rather, from the father. (Exodus 20:4-6). God the Father is holy, and as a result of God’s personal holiness, Jesus was born holy, that is to say, without sin. Hence, Gabriel’s declaration to Mary: “therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God.” (Luke 1:35).

In Luke’s version of the Gospel Jesus is presented as the Son of Man. This appellation is not a contradiction of His identity as the Son of God, but rather, is an acknowledgement of His lineage from His mother, which Luke is able to trace all the way back to Adam and God through Heli, Mary’s father. (Luke 3:23 –38 cf Matthew 1:1 –16). Suffice to say that Jesus was born with a human spirit that was sinless, because although He descended from Adam in His humanity through his mother Mary, He did not inherit the Adamic nature, because His Father is God.

In a very real sense this also describes the person who has repented of his/her sins and received Jesus as Savior and Lord. This experience is known as the “New Birth”. When one has been “born again” he or she is born again without sin. This means that although our first birth was biological from which we inherited the sinful Adamic nature, the “New Birth” has afforded us an opportunity to be reconciled back to God and to each other. How does this happen or, as Nicodemus lamented, “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter the second time into his mother’s womb and be born?” John 3:4. The New Birth involves certain criterion that absolutely must be met before one can experience salvation.

First, a person must be given an invitation to be “Born Again”. This is accomplished through the proclamation of the “Good News” in that person’s hearing. (John 6:44; Romans 10:8 -17; 2nd Thess. 2:13 –14). Second, after a person has been invited to be Born Again, they must receive the invitation. This is accomplished through what is known as repentance. Repentance is literally a revolution in our mind, will, and emotions as regards the principle of sin in our lives. It is the experience of “godly sorrow.”(2nd Cor. 7: 10). That is to say that, by the grace of God, one is granted the ability to see or to understand that he/she is wrong concerning their attitude about sin and God. (Acts 11:18). The word “revolution” connotes a radical change. This is what repentance is; a radical change of ones mind, will, and emotions concerning how he/she feels in regard to their relationship to God and sin.

Once the above criterion has been met one has been “Born Again”. This means that our human spirit has been “regenerated”. This experience signifies the very beginning of the healing process of our human spirit. The word “regeneration” appears in the New Testament twice (Matt. 19:28; Titus 3:5,) and according to The New Strong’s Complete Dictionary of Biblical Words, means spiritual rebirth (the state or the act of) i.e. (fig.) spiritual renovation; spec. Messianic restoration: -- regeneration. This word is also closely associated with the word “genesis” which means beginning: the time or circumstances of something coming into being. Hence, the New Birth is an experience that gives the human spirit a new beginning. In other words, God brings the human spirit into being all over again. One has been “born again.”

In the Gospel according to John, chapter 3, verses 5 – 8, Jesus defines the Born Again experience as a spiritual rebirth, which is produced by the Holy Spirit. This means that everyone who experiences the New Birth is essentially born without sin. However, the principle of sin is still very much alive in the ungodly human nature, known in the Bible as the “flesh”. Hence, if the Believer capitulates to their flesh, he/she will commit sin, and takes the risk of putting their newly regenerated human spirit in harms way. This is why it is of paramount importance that the Believer knows and understands the function of the human spirit.

The Believer must know and understand that the first function of the human spirit is to worship God. The Bible teaches that God is Spirit, and that those who worship Him must do so in spirit and in truth. Jn. 4:24. What this simply means is that individual and corporate worship of God must originate from the human spirit. This means that true worship is a heartfelt experience. Through the Born Again experience we are empowered by the Holy Spirit to worship God, and obey His truth, which is His written Word, in and from our human spirits. It is through our human spirits enabled through the power (Grk. Dunamis - ability, efficiency, and might) of the Holy Spirit that gives us both the ability and the inclination to worship God through our human spirits. Acts 1:8.

In the book of Luke, Mary visits her cousin Elizabeth, and as they greet one another, Elizabeth is filled with the Holy Ghost, and speaks out in a loud voice, Mary suddenly cries out saying; “My soul doth magnify the Lord, and my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Savior.” (Luke 1: 39-47). It must be understood that Mary’s soul (mind, will, and emotions) was able to magnify God only because her spirit had rejoiced in the God of her salvation. This is because we become conscious of God in our human spirit. Hence, it becomes imperative that our spirits experience the New Birth before we can become sensitive to the move of the Spirit of God. Without being rightly related to God the human spirit experiences a debilitating distortion of its faculties. First of all, there is an insatiable thirst that is interpreted as a need for someone or something tangible to satisfy it. (Jn. 4: 1-15). As a result people who are not rightly related to God experience an aimless meandering and blind stupor known biblically as spiritual darkness. (Job 5:14; 12:25). This darkness is a relentless and an all-pervasive condition that affects every area of the human experience.

There are three basic components of which the human spirit is comprised. They are conscience, intuition, and communion. Human conscience is the discerning organ of the human spirit. It enables one to distinguish the difference between right and wrong. (Rom. 2:15) However, this ability is in no way influenced by any knowledge stored up in our minds, but rather, is an action of independent and direct judgment. Human intuition is the sensing organ of the human spirit. It enables one to know something outside of external influences, such as sensory perception. Through the function of intuition one really knows something beyond the influence of their five senses.