Scripture Reading: Rom. 3:23-25; Gen. 3:24; Rom. 5:10; 1 Pet. 1:3; Rom. 6:19b, 22b; 12:2; 8:29, 19
I. The redemption by the vicarious death of the processed Triune God — Rom. 3:24:
А. Satisfying the requirements of God’s glory, holiness, and righteousness (symbolized by the cherubim, the flame, and the sword in Genesis 3:24) — Rom. 3:23.
B. Bringing the fallen tripartite man back to the position of receiving God as life — v. 25.
II. The salvation in life of the Triune God who passed through death and resurrection — 5:10:
А. Regenerating the ones whom He justified — 1 Pet. 1:3.
B. Sanctifying the ones whom He regenerated — Rom. 6:19b, 22b.
C. Renewing and transforming the ones whom He sanctifies — 12:2.
D. Conforming the ones whom He transforms to the image of the firstborn Son of God — 8:29:
1. Making them sons of God — v. 19.
2. That His Son may be the Firstborn among His many sons — v. 29.
3. That He may have a corporate expression in His firstborn Son and His many sons, to accomplish His original purpose in creation:
а. That man may have His image.
b. That man may live Him out and express the glory and beauty of His divine attributes in the human virtues.
In the first chapter we saw that the main thing spoken in the Bible is life, living, and being organic. Life refers to God being life within us; living refers to our living by God and living out God. Both of these matters are organic. You can see that I am standing here; all my actions are organic because I am a living person. If there were only a wooden stand here, it would be lifeless and could not move. Such a thing is not organic but organized.
We believers of the Lord, in totality, are the Body of Christ, which is the church. This Body is an organism, not an organization. This organic Body is altogether a matter of God’s being life within us, and of us living by God’s life without, to live out God’s living. This is entirely an organic matter. I have always said that the reason for the difference between the church and human organizations, such as ethnic associations and labor unions, is that those gatherings are merely human congregations; they are without God and without life. On the surface the church is a congregation of a group of people meeting together; actually, there is God as life within this group of people. This life is God, who is Jesus Christ and who is also the Holy Spirit — the all-inclusive, life-giving, compound, and indwelling Spirit.
By this life we love people, walk in the light, walk in holiness, and manifest uprightness in our doings. Moreover, by this life we preach the gospel, nourish newly saved ones, perfect the saints, and meet to speak the Lord’s word. This is our living, not our particular work but our daily life. According to the revelation in the entire twelfth chapter of Romans, our Christian living, work, and service are all mingled together, not separated. All our work and service are a part of our living; they are mingled together with our living. Therefore, to us Christians there is no difference between living, work, and service. As far as we are concerned, living, work, and service are one. Therefore, God is our life, and we live God’s living. This is altogether organic, without organization or arrangement. It is not a lifeless machine but a living organism.
According to the first two chapters of Genesis, we see that God made man according to His own image and breathed the breath of life into him to create for man a spirit able to receive Him. He also put man before the tree of life, implying that He wanted man to receive Him as life. At this juncture Satan came in, embodying himself as a serpent, and seduced the God-created man to fall, injecting his poison, that is the sinful nature, into man. Thus, man became a sinner. We were born in sin, and we knew how to sin from birth. We have a sinful record before God, and we have a sinful nature within ourselves. We have lost the position to receive God as life, no longer being able to contact the holy, righteous, and glorious God. This was the situation of man’s fall.
After four thousand years of waiting, one day the Triune God Himself was embodied as a man called Jesus. This wonderful God-man, Jesus, was the mystery of God. He lived on this earth for thirty-three and a half years. The living that He led was God’s living. His walk, work, and service were God’s testimony, expressing God. Finally, He went to the cross to accomplish an all-inclusive, mysterious death. His death was the death of God in humanity. He was the Lamb taking away all our sins, He was the bronze serpent terminating Satan and the world that belongs to him, He was the last Adam taking care of our old man, and He was the grain of wheat releasing the divine life. Therefore, this One who was crucified on the cross was the processed Triune God. Hence, there was redemption and salvation for us, the fallen tripartite persons. Redemption was accomplished for us by His death; salvation was completed for us by His life.
We now come to see the redemption accomplished by the vicarious death of the processed Triune God (Rom. 3:24). His death satisfied the requirements of God’s glory, holiness, and righteousness (signified by the cherubim, the flame, and the sword in Genesis 3:24) and opened up for us the way to the tree of life. He opened up anew for us a way that we may come before God and draw near to God by the blood of Jesus. Originally, when we were created, we had the position to receive God as life, but we became fallen. Now the death of Christ has brought us fallen people back to the position to receive God as life. This is what was accomplished for us by His vicarious death.
Following this, we come to see the salvation in life of the Triune God who passed through death and resurrection. Romans 5:10 says, “If we, being enemies, were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more we will be saved in His life, having been reconciled.” Christ not only died for us but also resurrected for us. His death redeemed us so that we may be reconciled to God. His resurrection caused Him to become the life-giving Spirit to enter into us to be our life to save us. The Triune God, after passing through incarnation, crucifixion, and resurrection, eventually became a living Spirit to enter into us to be our life. This life today is our salvation.
First, this life regenerates the ones justified by God (1 Pet. 1:3). Through the death of Christ, God justified us; through the resurrection of Christ, God entered into us to be life to regenerate us. Second, after we were regenerated, God came to sanctify us who were regenerated by Him (Rom. 6:19b, 22b). Regeneration has already been accomplished; sanctification is still going on. Third, He renews and transforms us who are being sanctified by Him (12:2). On the one hand, He comes to sanctify us; on the other hand, He renews and transforms us. This renewal and transformation is not outward but inward, in our mind. The Spirit of God with the life of God causes a process of metabolism to take place within us. In other words, the life of God adds into us a new element so that we can have a transformation of life through an organic operation. This is not an outward change, which is artificial and false; it is an inward transformation of life, which is organic and real.
Originally, we were created in the image of God, but at that time the life of God was not within us. It was not until we believed in Jesus, and God entered into us to be our life to regenerate us, that we became persons possessing God, persons not only with humanity but also with divinity. Then this life of God within us gradually sanctifies us and also renews and transforms us so that what we live out outwardly is not merely good behavior but God’s living. Behavior may be a performance, but living is something lived out; it is the element of the new life within us lived out spontaneously in its organic functions.
Fourth, the life of God continuously renews and transforms us so that eventually we who are transformed by Him may be conformed to the image of God’s firstborn Son (8:29). The Lord Jesus originally was God’s only begotten Son; at that time, within Him there was only divinity, with no humanity. It was not until He became the Son of Man, putting on the flesh, that He had humanity. But this part, His humanity, was still not the Son of God. When He was crucified on the cross, His humanity was brought to death, passed through resurrection, and was uplifted to be brought into divinity. Through this, the part that was His humanity also became the Son of God. Now, He is the firstborn Son of God, having both divinity and humanity. Moreover, we who believed in Him and were regenerated became God’s many sons (v. 19). He is the Firstborn, with divinity plus humanity; we are the many sons, with humanity plus divinity. He and we, we and He, both have the divine and human natures.
Before we were saved, we were persons living merely in our humanity. Some people do things by their reasoning, and they are able to suppress themselves in not getting angry or talking loosely; they are proper and ethical people. There are also some whose will is not that strong, who do things foolishly, who always make mistakes and get upset. Regardless of whether we are proper or not, ethical or not, we have only humanity and no divinity. But one day we believed in Jesus; the Son of God as the life-giving Spirit came into us. As soon as He came in, we who believed in Jesus, regardless of whether we were good or evil, had divinity added into our humanity. Therefore, in actuality, we Christians all have a double character. The first character is our original nature, our human nature; the second character is the added nature of God. If we pray and contact the Lord adequately, the divine nature within will increase, and we will be able to live out a superior living.
We all have this experience. Once this Jesus has entered into us, He will by no means go out. You may not want Him, but He still wants you; you may not like Him, but He still likes you. Within us He is full of grace, desiring to work on us in every way in order to sanctify, renew, and transform us step by step so that eventually we will be conformed to the image of the firstborn Son of God, being exactly like Christ. Christ the firstborn Son was simply divinity living in humanity expressing the divine attributes. It is the same with us, with humanity mingled with divinity; it is no longer we who live, but it is Christ who lives in us. Also, we live out this Christ from within us. The living of us the many sons is identical with that of Christ the Firstborn; our humanity lives by divinity so that the divine attributes may be expressed in the human virtues to the extent that we are full of the glory and beauty of divinity. In this way Christ the Son of God can be the Firstborn among God’s many sons so that God may obtain the corporate expression of His firstborn Son with the many sons for the accomplishing of His original purpose of creation.
We were created in His image by the Triune God. Now through the redemption and salvation of the Triune God, every one of us one day will be conformed to the image of God’s firstborn Son. Thus, God’s firstborn Son with the many sons will constitute God’s corporate expression. This also accomplishes God’s original purpose of creation, that is, that man may have God’s image and, by God’s life, live Him out to express Him. Moreover, He desires those who are saved by His life to express the glory and beauty of His divine attributes in their human virtues. When we who died with Christ and live with Him express the glory and beauty of the divine attributes, such as love, light, holiness, righteousness, patience, and humility, in our human virtues, God will obtain an unsurpassing glory through this. In this way we are corporately conformed to the image of the firstborn Son.
