Regeneration
Regeneration (Greek: ἀναγεννάω anagennao, παλιγγενεσία palingenesia) is the saving act through which the believer is “born again” by the Spirit of God—as beginning of new life in Christ. Various traditions emphasize it as endpoint or beginning; for Nee/Lee it is emphatically beginning, not end.
Watchman Nee & Witness Lee (KOL)
Nee/Lee define regeneration as the arising of new life through God’s Spirit; not moral improvement, but God’s tender intervention where divine life is implanted in human spirit.
Two reasons for necessity:
Nee/Lee distinguish two dimensions why regeneration is necessary:
First, from the lower aspect, regeneration is necessary because our life has become corrupt and evil (Jer. 17:9; Rom. 7:18). But deeper still: even if our life were not corrupt, we would still need to be born again, because our human life is only created life, not God’s uncreated life.
The second reason shows Nee/Lee’s depth: redemption is not moral restoration, but God’s tender intention—it is God’s plan that humans partake of God’s uncreated life.
How regeneration happens:
When a person hears the Gospel or reads God’s Word, God’s Spirit works in him and causes him to feel that he has sinned and become corrupt … As soon as he receives the Lord as his Savior, God’s Spirit enters his spirit and plants God’s life in it, whereby he is born again.
This is cooperative work of God and human: God works through Spirit; human responds through repentance and faith.
Three fruits of regeneration:
Regeneration makes people into children of God … Regeneration makes people into a new creation … Regeneration makes people one spirit with God (1 Corinthians 6:17).
These three are constitutive for what Christianity means in Nee/Lee-sense: relationship (sonship), nature (new creation), unity (one spirit with God).
Regeneration of the spirit specifically:
Nee/Lee emphasize the human spirit:
Originally our spirit was dead, but at the moment we believed, God’s Spirit touched our spirit; thus our spirit gained God’s life and was made alive.
This distinguishes their teaching: regeneration happens not in soul (intellect, emotion, will) but in spirit—in the deepest, most contact-able part with God. Soul transforms afterward, but regeneration itself is matter of spirit.
Source: Watchman Nee & Witness Lee, The Knowledge of Life (Living Stream Ministry, 1973), chapters 3–4.