Regeneration is the lodgement by the Holy Spirit of the new principle of life. This is love to God, which is the ruling motive of every genuine Christian. There is a radical and an essential difference between those who are born again and the best of those who lay claim to only natural goodness, a beautiful moral character revolving around self as a center.
But the great transition from spiritual death to spiritual
life does not make the child of God at once complete in holiness. The
Holy Spirit in sanctification does not work magically, nor mechanically
like a washing machine, but by the influence of grace, in accordance
with the essential constitution of man, and in the way of a vital
process, only by degrees completely renewing the soul.
