Search
Scripture Reading: Titus 3:5b; Rom. 6:4; 8:2a, 6b, 9-11; 12:2b; Eph. 4:23; 2 Cor. 4:16; 5:17; Gal. 6:15; Rev. 21:2, 9-11
This series of messages concerns the divine economy and the divine dispensing in the accomplishment of God’s full redemption and salvation in Christ. Redemption is different from salvation; it is one aspect of God’s salvation. In Exodus 12 the passover typifies God’s salvation. The passover was based on God’s redemption and carried out His salvation. In 1 Corinthians 5:7 Paul says that the Lord Jesus is our Passover. In the Chinese Union Version of the New Testament, the translators added the word lamb to the word Passover, which causes the verse to read, “Our Passover lamb, Christ, also has been sacrificed.” Actually, the word lamb should not have been added. Christ is not only the Lamb; He is the entire Passover. Of course, the main item of the passover is the lamb. Hence, without the lamb there would be no passover.
The lamb of the passover consisted mainly of two parts: the blood and the meat, or flesh. The Israelites first enjoyed the covering of the blood of the lamb. That covering was their redemption. In the eyes of God, the Israelites were as sinful as the Egyptians. Hence, the firstborn, representing all the families of both the Egyptians and the Israelites, were to be killed by God. On the night of the first passover, God intended to kill all the firstborn throughout all the land of Egypt, and He also intended to rescue His people out of Egypt. In order to deliver His people out of Egypt, God told the Israelites to take a lamb for every household and to put its blood upon the doorposts and the lintel (Exo. 12:3-7). When the death angel went to slaughter all the firstborn throughout the land of Egypt, he saw the sprinkled blood upon the doors of the Israelites and passed over their houses (vv. 12-13, 23). This aspect of the passover typifies redemption. The blood shed by the lamb was the redeeming blood, which redeemed all the firstborn of Israel from the sentence of death. Since the firstborn represented all the Israelites, the redemption of all the firstborn signifies that the whole race of Israel was redeemed by God. This redemption was accomplished by the blood, not the flesh, of the lamb.
God charged the children of Israel to eat the meat, the flesh, of the lamb while they were inside their houses under the sprinkled blood. They were to eat it roasted with fire, and they also were to eat unleavened bread and bitter herbs (v. 8). God prescribed such a healthy diet for them, which included meat (the animal life), bread (the plant life), and herbs (a salad). None of these items was related to redemption, because the children of Israel had already been redeemed by the blood. The meat of the lamb, the unleavened bread, and the bitter herbs were given to them in order to strengthen, satisfy, and fill them so that they would have the energy to flee out of Egypt. Hence, these things were for their salvation.
The salvation experienced by the children of Israel also included all the miracles performed by the Lord. In these miracles God exercised His arm of power to destroy Egypt by smiting Pharaoh, his country, and his army. These miracles were not redemption but were God’s salvation. This salvation also included Christ as the Angel of Jehovah, who led the children of Israel out of Egypt and turned to the rear to protect them from the pursuing Egyptian army (14:10, 19). In addition, it included the pillar of fire by night and the pillar of cloud by day. The meat of the passover lamb, the unleavened bread, the bitter herbs, the miracles, the Angel of Jehovah, the pillar of fire, and the pillar of cloud were the items that constituted God’s salvation for the children of Israel.
God’s salvation as a whole includes redemption. The rescuing of Israel out of Egypt on the day of the passover implies both God’s salvation and God’s redemption. On the one hand, redemption saved them from death under God’s judgment. On the other hand, the miracles performed by God in Egypt, the meat of the lamb, the unleavened bread with the bitter herbs, the Angel of Jehovah, the pillar of fire, and the pillar of cloud saved them from Egyptian slavery. When these are added together, they equal God’s salvation.
Redemption and salvation are often confused by many Christians. Regeneration by the Holy Spirit is salvation, but it is based on redemption. Regeneration must have a base. God is holy, righteous, and pure, but we are dirty, worldly, and unrighteous. God can regenerate such persons only through His redemption. Thus, before God regenerated us, Christ died on the cross and shed His blood to wash and cleanse us from our sins. We were not only washed and cleansed but also forgiven and justified. Through redemption we were right in the eyes of God, so He could come in to regenerate us. Hence, regeneration was accomplished based on God’s redemption. The regeneration of salvation is based on the blood of redemption.
In previous chapters we have covered six items of the divine economy and the divine dispensing in the accomplishment of God’s full redemption and salvation in Christ. These items include the incarnation of Christ (John 1:14), the resurrection of Christ (12:24; 1 Pet. 1:3), the breathing of the essential Spirit into the believers (John 20:22), the outpouring of the economical Spirit upon the believers (Acts 2:17, 33; 10:45; Titus 3:6), the regeneration of the believers (1 Pet. 1:3), and the subjective sanctification of the saints (Rom. 6:19, 22). Of these six items, four are on God’s side, and two are on the believers’ side. On God’s side are Christ’s incarnation, Christ’s resurrection, the breathing of the essential Spirit into the believers, and the outpouring of the economical Spirit upon the believers. On the believers’ side are the regeneration of the believers and the subjective sanctification of the saints.
On the believers’ side, the first step for God’s dispensing is regeneration. God regenerated us because He wanted us to have His life. The way that we could have His life is by God’s dispensing. When we called on the name of the Lord, we believed in the Lord Jesus. Immediately, our sins were washed away, we were forgiven, and we were justified in the eyes of God. At the same time, God as the Spirit came into us to impart His life into our being. To impart is to dispense. God imparted Himself into us by dispensing Himself into us as the divine life. Hence, regeneration is the first experience of God’s dispensing.
After regeneration we all need to be sanctified, not objectively but subjectively, in our disposition. In this dispositional sanctification God dispenses His holy nature as an element into our being. When this element is added into our being, it becomes our holiness. God does not need to work very much on us. He simply puts His nature into our being as the divine element, and this nature works within us. By God’s holy nature being dispensed into us, we are sanctified. This is the second step on the believers’ side in the accomplishment of God’s full redemption and salvation in Christ.
The renewing of the believers by the Holy Spirit (Titus 3:5b) is the third step of the divine economy and the divine dispensing in the accomplishment of God’s full redemption and salvation in Christ on the believers’ side. God created man in a pure way for the purpose of entering into him as His vessel so that man could contain Him. But before God could come into man, Satan came in to damage man with sin. Thus, man became dirty, and immediately he became old. Man’s oldness was not due to his being ancient. Man became old because of the dirtiness of sin.
In Genesis 4 Cain murdered his brother Abel (v. 8). Today murder and robbery are very common. This does not seem strange today because man has been on the earth for several thousand years, and his condition is growing worse and worse. But Cain, being the second generation of mankind, was not old with respect to time. He became old because of sin.
All mothers love their babies, but eventually every lovable infant becomes somewhat unlovable. No mother teaches her child to lie, but after some time, every child lies. He did not learn to lie; rather, he was born that way. Every child is “dirty” from birth. Thus, even a newborn baby is old. To be old is to be sinful. Everyone on this earth is sinful and is therefore old. Thus, we all need to be regenerated to receive another life in order to have a new beginning.
Then, we need to be sanctified. We all are wrapped up with the world. I have discovered through my travels that all young people are the same in loving the world, regardless of their race or nationality. They were never taught to love the world, but spontaneously they know how to love the world. Because of this, all the young people are old. They all need to be subjectively sanctified.
However, sanctification is still inadequate. After being sanctified, we need to be renewed. In the biblical sense, to be renewed is to have a new element added into our being to replace and discharge our old element. This is the process of metabolism. In order to have such a metabolic renewing, another element must be added to our being. In the whole universe only God could be a new element that can be added into our being to replace our old element. Thus, we need to receive God into our being so that we may be renewed.
Every part of our being is old, dirty, and sinful. Because our mind is old, dirty, and sinful, we have many thoughts during the day that we dare not tell others. Every part of our being needs to be renewed. We not only need to be washed; we need to be renewed. Washing only takes away the dirt, but it does not bring a new element into us. Only the renewing carried out by God brings in a new element.
Some of the ethical teachers and philosophers, such as Confucius, taught their followers that they must be renewed. However, the people who received their teaching had to renew themselves by themselves. These people received many teachings concerning renewing, but they did not receive an element that could renew them. The New Testament teaching concerning renewing, however, stresses that the Holy Spirit accomplishes the renewing. This renewing is not carried out by the Holy Spirit’s working on us — this is the natural, human concept. The Holy Spirit renews us by infusion and by dispensing.
In my youth I learned the Chinese ethical teachings. Eventually, I came to the Bible. While studying the Bible, the thoughts of Chinese ethics troubled me. I found out that ethics does not work. Only the Spirit works. Actually, He does not work; He simply adds Himself as an element into our being.
The renewing that is according to the New Testament is accomplished by adding a new element into the believers’ being. Chemistry is mainly a work of combining different elements together in order to obtain a certain compound. Hence, chemistry depends on elements. When two elements are added together, a certain reaction takes place. This is the work of chemistry, and this is also a picture of renewing by the Spirit.
God is wise. He did not do a lot of work; rather, He simply put His divine element as life into our inner being. This divine element is God Himself consummated to be the life-giving, indwelling Spirit. As the Spirit, He gives life to us. This life is a strong divine element. God’s element, the strongest element, is the element of life. For God to put His life into us is not a small thing.
The Bible uses grafting to illustrate the organic process of renewing. When a branch from one tree is grafted to another tree, one life is put into another life. These two lives are two elements. When these two elements are put together, a biochemical reaction takes place. This is something organic; it is not a matter of work.
In John 15 the Lord Jesus said that He is the vine and we are the branches (vv. 1, 5). In Romans 11 Paul says that we, the Gentiles, are not the natural branches of the vine (v. 24), but we were wild olive branches (v. 17). One day God’s mercy reached us and transferred us into Christ, and we were grafted into Christ. Through such a grafting, another element entered into us.
I look to the Lord that in His church we will all learn to teach these things. To teach husbands to love their wives and wives to submit to their husbands does not work. We need to teach others the way to have God as the divine element dispensed into them. When husbands have more of God dispensed into them, they will surely love their wives. They will even love their enemies. This is renewing. Day by day we not only need cleansing, washing, and purging; we also need renewing by the dispensing of the Holy Spirit.
The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of God (Rom. 8:9a). When He comes in, God comes in. The Holy Spirit dispenses God as the very element into us.
The Holy Spirit is also the Spirit of Christ (v. 9b). If Christ were not the Spirit, He could not come into us. According to Romans 8:9, the Spirit of God is the Spirit of Christ. Thus, when the Spirit of Christ comes into us, Christ Himself comes in. When we have Christ, we have God as the element.
The Holy Spirit is also the Spirit of life (v. 2a). God, Christ, and life are one. They are three in one. God is Christ, and Christ is life (John 11:25; 14:6). This life is just the Spirit. Thus, the Spirit is called “the Spirit of life.”
The Holy Spirit is also the indwelling Spirit (Rom. 8:11a). How wonderful this is! Do not say that because you are a bad person, you are unqualified to have the Spirit indwelling you. No one is good (3:12) except God (Matt. 19:17). We all are bad; therefore, we all are qualified to receive God. We need God, we need Christ, and we need life. Now, the Spirit who is God, Christ, and life is indwelling us. He is the indwelling Spirit who gives life. His giving of life is His dispensing of life. I can testify that every day, nearly every moment, the indwelling Spirit is within me dispensing life.
The Holy Spirit as the indwelling Spirit is also the Spirit who gives life.
The indwelling Spirit gives life first to the believers’ spirit (Rom. 8:10). We have three parts: spirit, soul, and body (1 Thes. 5:23). When the Spirit gives life to our spirit, our spirit is regenerated (John 3:6).
The Spirit then gives life to the believers’ mind (Rom. 8:6b). In Romans 8 the mind is mentioned instead of the soul because the major part, the leading part, of the soul is the mind. In the New Testament the mind equals the soul. In the renewing of the believers, the first step is to give life to their spirit, and the second step is to give life to their soul.
Last of all, the Spirit gives life to our body (v. 11b). Paul calls our body a mortal body. This means that our body is dying. The more we live, the closer we are to dying. When we live to the end, we die. Today we all are dying persons. We may be dying, but we have the living One — God, Christ, and the Spirit. We are dying, but He is living. As an elderly man, I have often asked the Lord how long He wants me to live. Thus far, I have not received an answer. But regardless of when I will die, I do have God, Christ, and the Spirit as the living factor within me.
Today we have the bountiful supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ (Phil. 1:19). This bountiful supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ is our salvation, and He is the source of the dispensing that we enjoy every moment. This supplying Spirit within us is the dispensing One. His supplying is His dispensing. He continually dispenses nothing less than God, Christ, and life into us. This dispensing brings the new element into us to replace our old element and to discharge the old element from us. This makes us not only a new man but a new creation (2 Cor. 5:17). By such a dispensing, we will be made altogether new.
The renewing of the believers by the Holy Spirit is mainly in the believers’ mind. Romans 12:2 says, “Do not be fashioned according to this age, but be transformed by the renewing of the mind.” Renewing is for transformation. The renewing begins from our mind. The part of us that needs the most renewing is our mind. Our mind directs us. Whatever we think, we do; whatever we think, we say; whatever we think, we express. Our mind is the director. For this reason God desires to touch our mind. Before touching our mind, He touched our spirit, and we were regenerated; we were made alive in our spirit. But our mind remains a problem, so God continues to touch us in our mind in order to renew it.
The renewing of the believers by the Holy Spirit is also in the spirit of the believers’ mind (Eph. 4:23). One day our mind will become the mind of the spirit. This means that, eventually, our spirit will get into our mind. In Romans 8:6 Paul says, “The mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the spirit is life and peace.” A proper Christian life is one in which we always turn our mind to our spirit.
As human beings, we all have relatives — spouses, children, parents, brothers, and sisters. We also have neighbors, friends, classmates, and so forth. Because we have so many relationships, it is easy to get into trouble and to have friction. We may not like some of our relatives, and our relatives may not love us. This causes trouble, and if we are living together, this trouble may cause us to remain in our mind throughout the day. Our mind might be occupied with thoughts about others the entire day. The more we think about others, the poorer they seem to be in our eyes. If you think about your spouse from morning until evening, you will surely quarrel with your spouse. But if you turn your mind to your spirit, after a few minutes you will say, “Praise the Lord!” Before you turned to your spirit, you might have thought that everyone was wrong and that only you were right. But after turning to your spirit, you consider that everyone is right and only you are wrong.
We must set our mind on the spirit (v. 6). When we set our mind on the flesh, we experience death. Death comprises things such as hatred, darkness, emptiness, weakness, and dissatisfaction. All these are elements of death. To have no peace or to feel dark within is death. These are indications that we have set our mind on the flesh. We must check to see whether we have the feeling of death or the feeling of life. If we sense life, then our mind is set on the spirit. If we sense death, our mind is set on the flesh. If our mind is on the flesh, we will suffer from hatred, dissatisfaction, and a number of other negative things. Hence, we must turn our mind to our spirit.
When we are absent from the spirit, we are absent from the dispensing. When we set our mind on the spirit, our mind and spirit are connected. This is like switching on electricity. Once the electricity is switched on, the current flows. In the same way, when our mind is set on the spirit, the dispensing of the divine element goes on continually. When we remain in our spirit with our mind set on such a spirit, we enjoy the renewing. This renewing will not only keep us clean and purge us but will also renew us to keep us from being old.
The Spirit renews the believers by dispensing the newness of Christ’s resurrection life into the believers’ inward being (6:4). The Spirit’s dispensing imparts the life element of Christ’s resurrection into our being. This is our need every day. The reason that we pray, read the Word, and pray-read the Word is that we need the continuous dispensing of the Spirit with the resurrection life element of Christ into our being. When we have this dispensing, our need is met in every way.
The Spirit dispenses the element of Christ’s resurrection life into the believers’ inward being through the consuming of the believers’ environment (2 Cor. 4:16). Our outer man is decaying, that is, being consumed. The environment around us works to consume us. The husband consumes the wife, the wife consumes the husband, the parents consume the children, and the children consume the parents. The roommates also consume one another. A new pair of shoes, a haircut, or good health also may consume us. Everything in our environment consumes us.
The Lord is sovereign. We do not need to worry. We should simply continue to contact Him and open ourselves to Him. He is within us to dispense God, Christ, life, and the consummated God as the Spirit into us. In this way we are renewed, and we become a new creation. I am glad that I have been under the consuming of my environment for many years. This consuming has caused me to be renewed very much. Through the consuming of our environment, the outer man is decaying, but the inner man is being renewed.
This renewing makes the believers practically God’s new creation (5:17; Gal. 6:15). Second Corinthians 5:17 says, “If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation.” This is a declaration, but it is not very practical until we have been consumed. After being consumed to some extent, we become, at least in part, a new creation. The more we remain in the Lord, the more we will be consumed. This consuming helps to make us a new creation in a practical way.
The renewing of the believers by the Holy Spirit will consummate in the New Jerusalem (Rev. 21:2, 9-11). In the holy city, New Jerusalem, there will be no clay and no dust. The New Jerusalem will be a composition of gold, pearls, and precious stones. These three precious materials are not clay; thus, they do not produce any dust. But today all human beings, including Christians, are still very “dusty.” As long as our body has not been transfigured, we are still dusty. Because we are still clay, the longer we remain with one another, the more dust we produce. But when we enter into the New Jerusalem, we will be pearls and precious stones. This will be the result of the renewing of the consummated Spirit of the Triune God.
Today our God is a consummated God, a processed God, as the very Spirit. This Spirit indwells us to dispense God into our being throughout the day. The element that He dispenses into our being replaces our old element and discharges all the old element. In this way we are not only changed but renewed. We are not simply washed and purged; we are renewed. The old things are carried away, and the new element comes in to replace the old element. This is renewing.
