Mercy Within: Renewal by God

Neville's Inner Vision

Consider this verse as a description of your inner life rather than a ledger of moral deeds. Not by works of righteousness you have done, but by mercy you are saved—because the I AM within you already loves you and holds you. The 'washing of regeneration' points to a cleansing of old identifications—the sense that you are separate, unworthy, or lacking—replaced by a fresh sense of being born anew in divine life. The 'renewing of the Holy Ghost' is the ongoing renewal of your consciousness, a continual revival of awareness that you are cared for, whole, and now in a state of grace. When you interpret salvation as an inner shift in state, you release the notion that you must perform your way into love; grace becomes the atmosphere you breathe, the I AM presence that renews you from within. Your outward righteousness—your acts—then arise naturally as expressions of this inner birth, not as attempts to secure it. The Spirit renews you because you already are, in truth, God’s beloved creation.