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Scripture Reading: John 3:5-6; 2 Cor. 3:18; Rom. 12:2a; 8:30c; Heb. 2:10a; Titus 3:5b
I. The complete salvation of God:
А. Sanctification in God’s calling — 1 Pet. 1:2b.
B. The redemption of Christ — Rom. 3:24b.
C. Washing of our sins by the blood of Christ — Rev. 1:5b; 1 Pet. 1:2c; 1 John 1:7.
D. Forgiveness of sins — Acts 2:38.
E. Objective justification by God — Rom. 3:24a.
F. Reconciliation to God — 5:10a.
G. Objective sanctification by the blood of Christ — Heb. 10:29b.
H. Regeneration by the Spirit — Titus 3:5b.
I. Full salvation of God — Acts 16:31.
J. Daily salvation in the life of Christ — Rom. 5:10; 1 Pet. 2:2.
K. Washing by the Spirit — 1 Cor. 6:11a.
L. Anointing of the Spirit — 1 John 2:20, 27.
M. Subjective sanctification in the Spirit — 1 Cor. 6:11b; Rom. 15:16b; 6:19b, 22b.
N. Subjective justification in the Spirit — 1 Cor. 6:11c.
O. God abiding in us — 1 John 3:24; 4:13.
P. Christ making His home in our hearts — Eph. 3:17.
Q. The renewing of the Holy Spirit — Titus 3:5c; Eph. 4:23; Rom. 12:2a.
R. Transformation from the Lord Spirit — 2 Cor. 3:18b; Rom. 12:2b.
S. Conformation to the image of the Lord — 8:29a.
T. Redemption of the body — v. 23b; Eph. 1:14b; 4:30b.
U. Glorification in the glory of God — Rom. 8:30c; Heb. 2:10; 1 Pet. 5:10.
II. The vital importance of transformation in the complete salvation of God:
А. Of the twenty-one aspects listed above, regeneration, transformation, and glorification are the three vital aspects in God’s complete salvation:
1. Regeneration brings the divine life into the believers to germinate and generate their spirit — John 3:5-6.
2. Transformation carries the divine essence into all the components of the believers’ soul — mind, emotion, and will — to transform them metabolically — 2 Cor. 3:18; Rom. 12:2a.
3. Glorification saturates the believers’ body with the glory of God to glorify them by bringing them into God’s glory — 8:30c; Heb. 2:10a.
4. Regeneration transpires in the believers’ spirit at the moment when they receive Christ as their Redeemer, Savior, and life once for all; transformation is taking place in the believers’ soul for their entire Christian life until they will be transfigured and glorified in their body; and glorification will be consummated at the Lord’s rapture once for all when He comes to meet them.
B. All three aspects are organic, and by these three steps the believers’ entire being — spirit, soul, and body — being organically mingled with the processed and consummated Triune God.
III. The significance of transformation:
А. Not merely an outward change.
B. An inward transformation in nature and essence.
C. The move of the divine life in the believers’ inner being.
D. The positive organic reaction of the divine life in the believers’ entire being.
E. The metabolic constitution in the believers’ renewed being.
F. The expression of the divine image’s attributes in the believers’ renewed being to be the virtues of the believers’ new man.
G. The manifestation of the processed and consummated Triune God in the believers’ new man.
H. The masterpiece of the consummated Spirit of the Triune God as the Lord Spirit throughout the believers’ entire being as the new creation by His renewing work — 2 Cor. 3:18b; Titus 3:5b.
I. Accomplished in the believers who, with unveiled face, behold and reflect as a mirror the glory of the Lord — 2 Cor. 3:18a.
J. Issuing in the glorious image of the glorified Lord from one degree of His glory to another until the believers enter into His glory to be glorified by the bright splendor of God’s glory — v. 18b; Heb. 2:10a; Rom. 8:30c.
The first two chapters of this book speak of the constitution of the Body of Christ. The Body of Christ has come into existence through the constitution with the all-inclusive Christ as the life element, but God has an enemy who is not happy to see this. We have seen in Matthew 13 that God’s enemy followed Christ as the Sower. Wherever Christ sows, there Satan is. In the second chapter of this book we saw the constitution of the Body of Christ under the enemy Satan’s frustration, damage, and corruption. In spite of all the negative steps taken by the enemy, Christ as the almighty One, the centrality and universality of God’s economy, still has finished His work for the accomplishment of God’s eternal economy. Now in the whole universe, there is the reality of the Body of Christ. Although the enemy has leavened the church with Catholicism and Protestantism, there is still the Body of Christ in the universe even though the ones who realize this Body are relatively few in number. By His grace and mercy, we are seeking to see this Body be fully constituted with Christ, transformed, and built up.
After our fellowship on the constitution of the Body of Christ, we went on in chapters 3 and 4 to see the building up of the Body of Christ by the growth in life. Without our growing up in Christ, in His life, there is no possibility, no way, that the Body of Christ can be built up. In chapter 3 we saw the believers’ growth in life unveiled in the writings of John. Then in chapter 4 we saw our growth in life unveiled in the writings of Peter and Paul. We saw that the base of our growth in life in Peter’s writings is of the following items: the sanctification of the Spirit, the redemption of Christ, the sprinkling of the blood of Christ, the regeneration through His resurrection, the God-allotted faith, the divine power that gives us all things related to life and godliness, the precious and exceedingly great promises, and the divine nature. The entire New Testament is a book of promises. I covered these great items, but it is difficult to cover these items and all the other items in the outlines in detail. I would encourage you to study all the items of the outlines at the beginning of each chapter of this book. Actually, the six chapters of this book cover the entire New Testament.
Now we come to our burden in the last two chapters. The stress in these chapters is on the building up of the Body of Christ by the transformation in the divine life. We have seen that this divine life has gone through a long process. This life has gone through incarnation, through thirty-three and a half years of human life on the earth, through an all-inclusive death, through a wonderful, marvelous resurrection, and this life has entered into the highest peak of ascension. This divine life today is not as it was before incarnation but as it is after ascension. Before incarnation Christ was only divine, not human. He did not have a human body with flesh and blood. But through incarnation He picked up human flesh and blood. He put on a human body and became one with humanity in incarnation.
While Christ was walking and living on the earth for thirty-three and a half years, He saw and gained a lot. He picked up the poverty of the fallen race (2 Cor. 8:9). No doubt, He picked up a consideration, a pity, and a compassion for the human race. Then He entered into death, into the tomb, and into Hades, where He stayed for three days. He visited and took a tour of Hades, and then He walked out of Hades and entered into resurrection. In resurrection He was born as the firstborn Son of God (Acts 13:33; Rom. 8:29). He always was the only begotten Son of God, but with His humanity He was born in His resurrection to be God’s firstborn Son, to be our model so that we all could be God’s many sons. Also, in resurrection He became the life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45b).
After His resurrection He appeared to His disciples through a period of forty days (Acts 1:3). After these forty days He went to Mount Olivet and ascended into heaven (vv. 9-12a). He ascended to the Father, and in ascension He was made the Lord and Christ (2:36). Today He is God and He is man, having both divinity and humanity. His human living, the effectiveness of His death, the power of His resurrection, and the height of His ascension are now in Him as life. It is in this life that we are now being transformed for the building up of the Body of Christ. The ingredients of this life are unsearchably rich.
In order to see the revelation of the transformation in life for the building up of the Body of Christ, we need to see the items of the complete salvation of God. These twenty-one items are as follows:
Now we need to see the vital importance of transformation in the complete salvation of God.
Of the twenty-one aspects listed above, regeneration, transformation, and glorification are the three vital aspects in God’s complete salvation. Regeneration is the start of our spiritual Christian life and glorification is the consummation, the ending, of our Christian life. In between there is a long period of time, and this period of time is filled up with transformation. Both regeneration and glorification transpire in an instant, but transformation is a process that lasts through our entire Christian life.
Regeneration brings the divine life into the believers to germinate and generate their spirit (John 3:5-6). Through regeneration we were reborn to be God’s children with God’s life (1 John 5:12) and nature (2 Pet. 1:4).
Transformation carries the divine essence into all the components of the believers’ soul — mind, emotion, and will — to transform them metabolically (2 Cor. 3:18; Rom. 12:2a). The essence is the very intrinsic reality of a certain substance. Transformation brings the divine essence into our being. This process of transformation will continue until our bodies are transfigured (Phil. 3:21). In His salvation God first regenerated our spirit, now is transforming our soul, and consummately will transfigure our body, making us the same as Christ in all three parts of our being.
Glorification saturates the believers’ body with the glory of God to glorify them by bringing them into God’s glory (Rom. 8:30c; Heb. 2:10a). We need to remember these three vital items in God’s full salvation: regeneration, transformation, and glorification.
Regeneration transpires in the believers’ spirit at the moment they receive Christ as their Redeemer, Savior, and life once for all; transformation is taking place in the believers’ soul for their entire Christian life until they will be transfigured and glorified in their body; and glorification will be consummated at the Lord’s rapture once for all when He comes to meet them.
All three aspects are organic, and by these three steps the believers’ entire being — spirit, soul, and body — will be organically mingled with the processed and consummated Triune God.
Transformation is not merely an outward change. When I came to the United States in 1962, I began to stress in my messages the truth concerning the human spirit for us to contact God and to enjoy Christ. The second thing I stressed was the all-inclusive Christ with the all-inclusive life-giving Spirit. The third thing I stressed was transformation. In 2 Corinthians 3:18 the King James Version uses the word changed instead of the word transformed. But this is an inadequate translation, because the Greek word here means “transformed.” We need to see that transformation is not a mere outward change.
In order to explain what transformation is, let us consider the example of a healthy person. The healthy color in this person’s face is not from applying cosmetics to his skin. The application of cosmetics is a mere outward change by outward makeup. The way to have a healthy appearance is by eating healthy food. The healthy food metabolically makes us healthy, giving us a healthy appearance outwardly. In order to grow in life and have the transformation in life, we need to eat Christ as our healthy, spiritual food. When we eat, digest, and assimilate Christ as our spiritual food, the essence of this food gets into our being and produces transformation. Many Christians today are weak because they do not eat Jesus. If we eat Jesus every day, we will be spiritually energetic and will be transformed in life.
Transformation is not merely an outward change but an inward transformation in nature and essence. It is an inward, metabolic change. For us to have a metabolic change, we need a new element added into us. Then the new element replaces the discharged old element, and we have an inward, metabolic change in nature and in essence.
Transformation is the issue of the move of the divine life in the believers’ inner being. This is very intrinsic. Every living thing moves. The move of life within us is the result of our eating. Whatever we eat is digested and assimilated into our cells. This digestion and assimilation is what I call the move of the divine life in the believers’ inner being. When we eat and drink Christ, He becomes the new element within us to replace and discharge the old things within us. The divine essence comes into us to replace the fallen human element, causing us to be transformed metabolically and inwardly.
After you have been saved, you have the desire to live a life like Jesus. Thus, when you lose your temper, you are full of regret and ask the Lord to forgive you. Then you may pray, “Lord, You know that I am weak. I have no way to deal with my temper. You must come in to deal with it.” But when your temper rises up again, you do not allow Jesus to deal with it. You try to deal with it yourself, and you are defeated. Instead of trying to deal with your temper, you have to realize that the divine life is in you. This is basic. We all have Jesus’ life within us, and this life is divine, living, moving, organic, and very energetic. While this life moves, lives, and works, it will deal with your temper.
The apostle Paul says, “I am crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me” (Gal. 2:20a). We need to say, “I can do nothing, and I don’t want to do anything. I have been crucified. It is no longer I dealing with or being concerned for my temper, but it is Christ who lives in me.” Do not forget that you have another life, the divine life, and this life is stronger than your first life. When your temper is rising up, just say, “O Lord Jesus.” Do not try to do anything. Just wait, and let Him do it. Whenever He does something, He will cause you to go along with Him. This secret is not known to most Christians, and this secret is very fine. When an occasion comes to cause you to lose your temper, do everything slowly. If your wife is tempting you to lose your temper, it is best not to do anything. Remember that you have been crucified and that it is no longer you, but it is Christ who lives in you. Then He will begin to take care of your temper, not just by Himself but with you. He will cause you to walk with Him so naturally, and your temper will go away.
Another weakness we have is that we like to talk about others. Mostly we like to talk about others in a critical way. We may regret this and confess our sin to the Lord. Then we may say, “Lord, help me never to do this again.” But the Lord does not hear this kind of prayer. We should not try in and by ourselves to overcome our temper and our criticism of others. This is wrong.
Instead, morning by morning and day by day, we should enjoy Christ, realizing that “it is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me.” We have been regenerated, and we have another One living in us and with us. Thus, we do not need to do anything. We do not need to be concerned and anxious for so many things, because everything is in His hand. He is in us, and He takes care of us. We do not need to do anything regarding our temper. Instead, we should just say, “I am crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me.” In great things and in small things, we should always let Him live in us and through us.
On certain occasions we may be angry with someone, and we may want to go to speak to him, but the Lord would say, “If you go, I am not going with you.” We should respond by saying, “Lord, if You don’t go, I will not go.” This is what it means to live Christ. The way to have the victory is to live Christ. In everything, we should not act. Instead, we should allow Him to act, because His living is our victory. Whenever we live Christ, He as the divine life is adding Himself into us. Then we are metabolically renewed with the new element of the divine life, the resurrection life. The new element of the divine life comes in to replace our old and fallen element.
The inward transformation in our nature and essence is the result of the positive organic reaction of the divine life in our entire being. Within us there is the divine life, and with the divine life there is always some positive, organic, and living reaction. We have a living reaction within us because we have the divine life in us. This reaction of the divine life in our entire being preserves us. We must allow the Lord Jesus to occupy our entire being — our mind, emotion, and will — for our transformation in life.
Every day the Lord is renewing us, and His renewing is a kind of metabolism to supply us with His new element to replace our old element. This issues in a metabolic constitution in our renewed being.
In transformation there is the expression of the divine image’s attributes in the believers’ renewed being to be the virtues of the believers’ new man. God is real, living, and present. He has an image, and His image has many attributes. When these attributes are expressed within us, they become our virtues. For this to happen, we should not do anything by ourselves or for ourselves. Instead, we should let Him do everything with us and for us. Then He is the divine life within us, moving, living, and working in every part of our being to make our being a renewed being. Then all the divine attributes will be expressed through our virtues. Actually, His attributes, such as His love, His kindness, His humility, and His gentleness, become our virtues. We then become persons not living by ourselves but by Him as our new element, causing us to become a new man.
Transformation results in the manifestation of the processed and consummated Triune God in the believers’ new man. Through our transformation the Triune God will be expressed in us. This Triune God is the One who has been processed and consummated, the One who has humanity and who knows what human suffering is. He lives in us, making us just like Him. Eventually, we will fully express Him as the God of love, the God of incarnation, and the God with the elements of humanity and human living.
Eventually, we believers become the masterpiece of the consummated Spirit of the Triune God as the Lord Spirit throughout our entire being as the new creation by His renewing work (2 Cor. 3:18b; Titus 3:5b).
Transformation is accomplished in the believers who, with unveiled face, behold and reflect as a mirror the glory of the Lord (2 Cor. 3:18a). We are like mirrors beholding and reflecting Christ. When the mirror looks at Christ, the mirror reflects Christ. Then people see Christ in us because He is expressed in us.
Our beholding and reflecting Christ eventually issues in the glorious image of the glorified Lord, as we are being transformed from one degree of His glory to another until we enter into His glory to be glorified by the bright splendor of God’s glory (v. 18b; Heb. 2:10a; Rom. 8:30c).
Through regeneration, transformation, and glorification, we will be made absolutely the same as He is. The only thing in which we will be different from Him is His Godhead. We can never share in His Godhead. Only He is God. But we can be exactly the same as He is in His life, in His nature, in His image, in His expression, and in His attributes. In everything we will be the same as He is but not in His Godhead. He is the unique God for people’s worship. We are just His duplication, continuation, and multiplication to express Him through transformation.
