“That which is Born of the Spirit”

“That Which is Born of the Spirit” is a five-message study of the nature and purpose of the new creation in Christ. T. Austin-Sparks does not stop with the fact of new birth. His concern is what a life born of the Spirit is meant to become: heavenly in source and character, conformed to Jesus Christ, liberated from the limitations of the old creation, governed by Christ as Head, and expressed corporately in the Church as the one new man.

The first message establishes Christ in glory as God’s pattern for redeemed humanity. Philippians 3, Romans 8:29, 1 John 3:2, and Galatians 4:19 frame salvation as the beginning of a larger purpose—conformity to the image of God’s Son. Sparks distinguishes receiving Christ for salvation from gaining Christ in the fuller sense of spiritual formation and maturity. The Holy Spirit works inwardly so that what is true in the glorified Christ increasingly becomes characteristic of believers. Even the promised transformation of the body in Philippians 3:21 belongs to this movement toward final conformity.

The second message develops the essential heavenliness of the new creation from John 3:6 and 2 Corinthians 5:17. That which is born of the Spirit has a source, life, resources, values, and government that are not derived from the old natural order. Sparks contrasts spirit with merely natural or soulish life and insists that Christian living cannot be governed ultimately by earthly necessity, human reasoning, natural will, or self-sufficiency. The earthly life of Jesus from Jordan onward becomes the representative pattern: He refused to act out from Himself and lived under the will and government of God. The practical question is therefore not simply whether something appears reasonable, but whether it proceeds from the Spirit.

The third message addresses the universality of the new creation. The Cross removes the old basis of human distinction and self-importance, while resurrection introduces a new humanity in which Christ is all and in all. Nationality, social status, inherited advantage, and other features of the old creation cannot define the new man. The new creation is universal because its life is Christ Himself, not a combination of improved natural identities.

The fourth message centers on the headship and sovereignty of Jesus Christ. Acts, Philippians, Hebrews, Ephesians, Colossians, and 1 Corinthians are used to show that the new creation is constituted under the absolute Headship of the risen and exalted Lord. Christ’s authority is not merely a doctrine to affirm; it is a governing reality that reaches decisions, service, relationships, and spiritual order. The Holy Spirit brings believers practically under that Head and supplies the spiritual power by which the new creation functions. Sparks also connects Christ’s headship with deliverance from the authority of darkness and with the Church’s spiritual relation to hostile powers; the answer is not earthly influence, but the sovereignty of the risen Head operating through a heavenly people.

The final message makes the corporate nature of the new creation explicit. Ephesians 4, Colossians 3, Romans 6 and 12, and 1 Corinthians 12 show the Church as the Body of Christ and the one new man. Believers are not independent spiritual units. Their suffering, blessing, ministry, growth, and relationships belong to a corporate life in which each member is related to the whole. Union with Christ therefore has both personal and corporate consequences.

The Cross and resurrection run beneath all five messages. What belongs to the old creation cannot be educated into the new; it must be set aside in the death of Christ, while resurrection life supplies the new basis. The book answers questions such as: What does it mean to be born of the Spirit? What is the new creation? How does the Spirit form Christ in believers? Why must Christian life be heavenly rather than merely natural? What does Christ’s headship mean in practice? Why is the Church essential to God’s new humanity? And how do the Cross and resurrection move believers from the old creation into fuller conformity to Christ?