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Scripture Reading: 1 Pet. 1:3; Titus 3:5; John 3:16; 2 Pet. 1:4b; 2 Cor. 5:17; Rom. 5:10; John 1:12-13; 1 Cor. 15:22; Rom. 12:5; 2 Cor. 4:16b; Rom. 12:2a; 8:2, 4-6
I. Through regeneration — 1 Pet. 1:3; Titus 3:5b:
А. God the Father dispenses His divine life and holy nature into the believers — John 3:16; 2 Pet. 1:4b.
B. This is the beginning of the divine dispensing.
C. That the fallen old creation in Adam may become the new creation in Christ — 2 Cor. 5:17.
D. That sinners as God’s enemies may become children of God — Rom. 5:10; John 1:12-13.
E. That the dead in Adam may become the organic Body of Christ — 1 Cor. 15:22; Rom. 12:5.
II. Through renewing:
А. Following the dispensing in regeneration to dispense God’s life element continuously into the believers’ spirit by the Holy Spirit — Titus 3:5c; 2 Cor. 4:16b.
B. That the believers’ inward parts, beginning from their mind, may be renewed metabolically — Rom. 12:2a.
C. The believers need to have their inward parts joined to the Spirit in order to absorb the divine element distributed by the Spirit — 8:5-6.
D. The believers also need to walk according to the spirit that their inward parts may be renewed by being saturated with the Spirit until their entire being becomes a new creation that is fully organic — v. 4.
E. The issue — the entire being of the believers is filled and saturated with the Spirit of life to be God’s spiritual new creation — v. 2.
In this conference we definitely have a burden to focus on the unique, highest, deepest, most mysterious, and most glorious subject in the Holy Scriptures, that is, God’s highest purpose concerning man. God has a purpose concerning man, which is clearly revealed in the Bible. The Bible is a book concerning God, especially concerning God’s relationship with man. In God’s relationship with man we can see that God has a heart’s desire and a purpose; that is, God wants to make Himself man and to make man God so that the two — God and man — may become altogether the same. God is God, yet He made Himself a man and lived a human life exactly the same as man in the human nature and the human life. On the other hand, man is man, yet God wants to make man the same as He is, of the same kind and the same likeness as He is in life and in nature, except that we human beings have no share in His person. Thus, His attributes become our human virtues, and His glorious image is expressed and lived out through us. Eventually, God and man become a matching pair in the universe. This couple look like man, yet actually, they are God. This is truly mysterious to the uttermost. This is God’s highest and ultimate purpose in man.
In order to accomplish His purpose, God already did three great things. The first thing is that God created man. He created man in His image and according to His likeness (Gen. 1:26). God created man not in the image of the birds or in the image of the beasts but in the image of God. What God created was man, but what came out was God. Today we are not only man; we are also God. We are man yet God. Likewise, today God is not only God; He is also man. He is God yet man. As a result, both God and man, both man and God, are completely alike and become a matching couple. How wonderful this is!
When God created man, He also created man with a spirit so that man may contact Him. Since God is Spirit, those who worship Him must use their spirit (John 4:24). God created man outwardly in His image, and He created man inwardly with a spirit (Gen. 2:7; Zech. 12:1) so that man might contact Him. After He created man, God put man in front of the tree of life and charged man not to eat of the other tree. If man ate of the other tree, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, the result would be death (Gen. 2:16-17). This means that God’s intention was for man to eat of the tree of life and receive God as life. Man was created in the image of God and with a spirit to receive God and contact God as man’s life. However, instead of contacting God, man took in the tree of knowledge and thus became fallen.
The second thing that God did for man is that He Himself became a man. This took place four thousand years after He created man. How did He come? He entered into and was conceived in the womb of a virgin, and then He was born as a child. The Bible says that the child who was born in the manger was the mighty God (Isa. 9:6). He came to the earth, and in His life of more than thirty years He accomplished His mission and expressed God. Then He went to die on the cross. Through His death He accomplished an eternal, perfect, and all-inclusive redemption to solve all the problems and release Himself as the Spirit of life for man to receive.
The third great thing that God did is that through His resurrection He became the life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45). As God, He became a man to accomplish redemption. In resurrection He further became the life-giving Spirit. This One, God who became man and man who became the Spirit of God, is our Savior, our God, our Christ. Today He is the life-giving Spirit waiting to be received by us. Once we receive Him, He immediately begins His dispensing of Himself into us.
Therefore, first, God created man in such a way that man had His image outwardly and had a spirit inwardly to contact and receive God. Second, God became a man and accomplished redemption to solve all the problems between God and man and release the divine life. Third, He became the life-giving Spirit. This is the Triune God in whom we believe today. When He enters into those who believe in Him, He dispenses Himself into them. How does He give Himself to us? When He as the life-giving Spirit comes into us, He is begotten in us. When He is born in us, we are regenerated to become another person, no longer the original person. Such a person is born of God and has the authority to be a child of God (John 1:12-13). Now we not only are created by God and have His image; we also are born of God. He Himself is born into us to be our life, our person, and our everything. He and we become one entity — God yet man, man yet God.
Unfortunately, many believers are not clear concerning regeneration. They consider regeneration “the turning over of a new leaf,” the changing of the past to make it something new. Actually, it is not so. Regeneration is God’s dispensing of Himself into us, His being born into us. After we have been saved, we have another One, another person, within us. We not only have another life, but we have another One, another person. This One is God yet man, and He is the Spirit, life, and everything. From the time of our regeneration God has been adding Himself gradually into us. When we were first saved and regenerated, God came in a little bit. Since then, whenever He has an opportunity, He adds Himself a bit more, and then another bit more, into us.
We can confirm this by our experience in our daily life. Before we were saved, we had our disposition and personality. Everything we did was according to our preference, disposition, and personality. However, after we are saved, we have another One within us. When we conduct ourselves according to our former manner, this One within disagrees. He says, “You had better give up! Don’t be a husband anymore, don’t be a wife anymore, don’t be a father or mother anymore, and don’t be a son or daughter anymore. Let Me do it in you and with you. Not only do you not know how to do it, but even if you knew, you could not do it well. And even if you could do it well, I would not be pleased with it. Whatever you do, I do not want. I just want to be in you to do everything with you.”
I believe we all have this kind of experience. When we were newly saved, we were not so willing to allow God to do everything with us. However, over a long period of time, we become used to it. Today when we live, it is “no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me” (Gal. 2:20). Thus, more of God is added into us, and we become one who is God yet man, not only a new man but a God-man. This is regeneration.
After our regeneration He as the life-giving Spirit goes on to renew us within. Renewing does not mean that we have lived to be too old and therefore need to be renewed. Rather, renewing means this: Originally, we were the created old man. Although the old man had the image of God outwardly and had a spirit to contact God and receive God as life inwardly, he did not have any element of God within. Therefore, God became man to accomplish redemption and become a life-giving Spirit. This life-giving Spirit is now waiting for us to receive Him. When we believe in Him, He comes into us and is born in us. Thus, we become another person, a God-man.
Not only so, we still need to be renewed. With us, the most difficult thing to renew is our habits. Our habits are based mainly on our thinking. This is why the Bible tells us that when God comes to renew us, He first renews our thinking (Rom. 12:2a). Because we are occupied by our thoughts, the Lord does not have much ground in us. As we regularly draw near to the Lord and fellowship with Him, we have the sense that He is somewhat unreasonable in us in that He always wants to occupy more room. But usually we are willing to receive Him only as a guest and do not want Him to interfere too much in us. I was also like this. I was saved when I was young. At that time I felt that I really loved the Lord, but I did not want Him to interfere with some of my affairs. I felt that the Lord was too meddlesome, that He should allow me to take care of some things myself. But the Lord said no. The Lord desires to continuously dispense the element of His life into our spirit through the Holy Spirit so that all our inward parts, beginning from our spirit, may be renewed metabolically.
Romans 12 says clearly that we need to be renewed in our mind, and then our whole being will be transformed. This renewing is not merely a renewing, but it adds more of the Lord Jesus, more of the Triune God, into us. What is the significance of being a Christian? To be a Christian simply means that our old man is regenerated by God to become a God-man of the new creation. From that day on, God continues to increase in us. Whatever we do, we need to remember that whereas formerly we lived by ourselves, now we no longer live alone, but God lives together with us. When we get married, we can no longer be alone. Likewise, now we have a Companion, who is the Lord — our Husband. The Lord should be our Husband; we should not be the husband. We should let Him increase in us day by day. When He increases, we are renewed; when He increases, we are transformed; when He increases, the result will be that we are completely transformed to become Him. He and we become one entity — God yet man and man yet God. Thus our old man is completely exterminated, and the world is also put aside by God. God changes our old man into a new man, and He also changes us into Himself.
It is in this way that God dispenses Himself into us. Brothers and sisters, it does not matter whether you are old or young or whether you are a first-time hearer of my speaking. You should know that God has been dispensed into you. You have another person in you; you are no longer by yourself. Never forget this: Now God is in you, and He wants to increase in you and renew you day by day. Second Corinthians 4:16b says, “Though our outer man is decaying, yet our inner man is being renewed day by day.” God is carrying out His renewing work in us daily. We are being renewed day by day. In other words, God is increasing in us daily. Although this time you have come to attend this conference for only two days, I hope that you will gain God unlimitedly so that when you return to your home what you will show people is not what messages you have heard but a definite growth of Christ in you and an increase of God in you.
In this conference we have a new hymn with four stanzas (using the tune of Hymns, #499), expressing God’s highest purpose concerning man. I hope that every one of you will sing this new hymn until it gets into your being.
Hallelujah, this is God’s highest purpose concerning man!
