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I. To open the first section of regeneration:
А. The Spirit of reality came to convict the sinners concerning sin and concerning righteousness and concerning judgment (John 16:8-11), causing them to repent of their fallen condition and enter into the death and burial of Christ (Matt. 3:2, 5-6).
B. At this juncture the Spirit of reality germinates the repentant believers with the resurrection life of Christ to regenerate them, to beget them anew in their spirit — 1 Pet. 1:3; John 3:3, 5.
C. This is “that which is born of the Spirit [of God] is spirit [of man]” — a spirit born of the Spirit — v. 6.
D. Right away the Spirit of God with the spirit of the regenerated believers witnesses that they are the (spiritual) children of God — Rom. 8:16.
II. To open the second section of feeding:
А. The Lord wants the regenerated believers as newborn babes to feed on the (spiritual) milk of the word, which word is spirit and life (John 6:63), that they may grow in His life unto their daily salvation — 1 Pet. 2:2.
B. As they grow up in the divine life, they have to feed on the solid food also, not only on the milk, by exercising their spirit to contact the Spirit of God’s word that they may receive the supply of life — Heb. 5:13-14; Matt. 4:4b.
III. To open the third section of dispositional sanctification:
А. The regenerated and growing believers need to be sanctified by the Holy Spirit (Rom. 15:16) in their disposition with the element of the resurrection life of Christ, which they received through the feeding, so that their crooked, perverted, natural disposition full of peculiarities can be sanctified with the divine holy nature of God (2 Pet. 1:4) that they may be holy unto God (Eph. 1:4).
B. This dispositional sanctification by the Holy Spirit begins from our spirit through our soul unto our body so that our entire being can be wholly sanctified — 1 Thes. 5:23.
IV. To open the fourth section of renewing:
А. Going along with the dispositional sanctification, the Lord renews us by His Spirit — Titus 3:5.
B. The renewing Spirit is mingled with our regenerated spirit as one mingled spirit to spread into our mind to renew our entire being as a member of the new man by putting off our old man, that is, by renouncing and denying our old self (Matt. 16:24), and by putting on the new man, that is, by applying what Christ has accomplished in creating the new man (Eph. 2:15), by living and magnifying Christ through the bountiful supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ (Phil. 1:19-21) — Eph. 4:22-24.
C. The Lord uses the environmental sufferings to consume, to kill, our outer man so that our inner man may be renewed day by day — 2 Cor. 4:16.
D. Since we the believers all will be the consummating part of the New Jerusalem, we have to be renewed to be as new as the New Jerusalem — Rev. 21:2.
V. To open the fifth section of transformation:
А. Transformation is by the renewing of our mind (Rom. 12:2b). It is not any kind of outward correction, adjustment, but an inward metabolism by the addition of the element of the divine life of Christ into our being to be expressed outwardly in the image of Christ. It is then by the Lord Spirit (the pneumatic Christ) to transform us into the image of the glory of Christ — 2 Cor. 3:18.
B. We have to live and walk by the Spirit (Gal. 5:16, 25) and walk according to the mingled spirit (Rom. 8:4b), that the divine life of Christ may regulate us to transform us into the image of the Lord in glory.
VI. To open the sixth section of building:
А. First Corinthians 3:9 and 12 unveil to us that we are God’s building and that we have to build with gold (signifying God the Father’s golden nature), silver (God the Son’s redeeming work), and precious stones (God the Spirit’s transforming work), not with wood (signifying the nature of the natural man), grass (the fallen man, the man of the flesh), and stubble (the work and living that issue from an earthen source). This indicates that the building of God in which we are participating must be by transformed items like gold, silver, and precious stones, not by our nature, our flesh, and things from the earthen source.
B. The building of God as the building of the church, the Body of Christ, being by the transformation of the Spirit is clearly signified by the jasper wall with its foundations of the New Jerusalem (Rev. 21:18-20). Jasper is a transformed precious stone, and the wall of the New Jerusalem looks like one big piece of jasper, indicating that while the stones were under transformation, they were also built together. Hence, both the building and transformation are by the same transforming and building Spirit.
C. Paul’s writings unveil to us that the church, the Body of Christ, as the dwelling place of God is in our spirit indwelt by the Spirit of God — Eph. 2:22; Rom. 8:11.
D. Christ makes (builds) His home in our hearts through the strengthening of the Spirit of God into our inner man (our regenerated spirit) where Christ is (2 Tim. 4:22), unto the fullness (expression) of God — Eph. 3:16-19.
E. Based upon the fact that the Spirit of God dwells within the lover of Christ (John 14:17), God the Father and the Son come to the lover of Christ and make a mutual abode with him (v. 23).
Prayer: Lord, we can never forget what a mercy and what a grace it is that You are the Spirit, even the life-giving Spirit and the sevenfold intensified Spirit. Lord, You have created for us a human spirit, and in Your organic salvation the first thing You do is to regenerate our spirit. Eventually, Lord, You put Yourself as such a Spirit into our spirit and mingled with our spirit to make us one spirit. Oh, he who is joined to the Lord is one spirit! We can never forget all this. We worship You for this. Impress us and always remind us of our being one spirit with You. Do we live in our spirit with Your Spirit? Do we move in our spirit with Your Spirit? Lord, do we fellowship with You in our spirit with Your Spirit? Lord, remind us all the time. Lord, speak to us that we may receive further visions. Amen.
In this chapter we do not want to merely repeat the items of God’s organic salvation. Instead, we want to see that the key of God’s organic salvation is the Spirit Himself with our spirit. We should not forget that there is such a marvelous phrase in the Bible in Romans 8:16. Even after we enter into the New Jerusalem, I would like to see a banner there, saying, “The Spirit Himself with our spirit.” The Spirit Himself with our spirit is doing one thing: witnessing that we are the children of God. Just to say the people of God is not too critical, but to say the children of God is so great.
The Spirit Himself is the witnessing One, and this Spirit is the Spirit of life, the Spirit who gives life, the Spirit who is the Spirit of Christ. This Spirit is also the pneumatic Christ and the indwelling Spirit. Our spirit was created by God but became dead through the fall. But later, it was regenerated by God. Not only so, after regeneration the regenerating Spirit remains in our regenerated spirit and mingles Himself with our spirit to make the two one. First Corinthians 6:17 says, “He who is joined to the Lord is one spirit.”
Not only are we God-men but also we are one with God, one spirit with God. The human spirit and the divine Spirit are not only joined and mingled but are also one spirit. The Spirit is life and the One who gives life. God is the Spirit, and in His marvelous organic salvation He has made us one spirit with Him. This is just a simple word in 1 Corinthians 6:17, but I never saw this truth until after I had studied the Bible for at least thirty years. One day I realized that I am one spirit with God. This is not a small thing. Regretfully, even in the Lord’s recovery, many of the elders and even the co-workers do not know their real status. Our real status is that we are one spirit with God. We have been saved to such a high level. What God is, we are.
When we realize our status, this will affect our living. When I speak with others in a joking way, I am inwardly rebuked for being so loose and light with no gravity. I am reminded about my status, and I have to confess to the Lord. Due to my divine status, I dare not be loose or light. I dare not joke. Even with my grandchildren I dare not speak lightly, because I am not merely their grandfather. I am a grandfather who has the same status as God.
According to 1 Corinthians 6:17, God’s intention in His organic salvation is to join the believer’s spirit with His Spirit as one spirit — a mingled spirit. Eventually, this is not just the mingled spirit but a spirit that is one spirit with God, that is the same as God in His life and nature but not in His Godhead. This is the key to open the eight sections of the organic salvation of God. If we do not have this key, the door is closed. When we have this key, the door is open, and we can see all the things concealed within.
The Spirit of reality came to convict the sinners concerning sin and concerning righteousness and concerning judgment (John 16:8-11). Sin is related to Adam. Adam is the source of sin. Righteousness is related to Christ. Christ is our righteousness. The judgment must be Satan’s judgment. Here are Adam, the source of sin; Christ, the source of righteousness; and Satan, the one who should bear the judgment. In the whole universe God’s blame is not to anyone else but to him. The whole universe today is full of rebellion due to one archangel who is Satan, so judgment has to be his. Sin came from Adam, righteousness is given from Christ, and judgment goes to Satan. The Spirit of reality came to convict us of this, causing us to repent of our fallen condition and enter into the death and burial of Christ (Matt. 3:2, 5-6). This conviction brought us to the death and resurrection of Christ to receive Him and be regenerated.
First, we are convicted that we were born of Adam in sin and that we should take Christ as our righteousness. If we do not, we will bear the judgment with Satan. This conviction brings us into the death and resurrection of Christ. At this juncture the Spirit of reality germinates us, the repentant believers, with the resurrection life of Christ to regenerate us, to beget us anew in our spirit (1 Pet. 1:3; John 3:3, 5). We must take note of the two spirits here. The Spirit germinates our spirit. This is the key for us to understand regeneration.
“That which is born of the Spirit [of God] is spirit [of man]” — a spirit born of the Spirit (v. 6).
Right away the Spirit of God with the spirit of the regenerated believers witnesses that they are the (spiritual) children of God (Rom. 8:16). The children of God are divine and spiritual. We should not say that they are mystical, because it is very clear and evident that they are children of God.
The Lord wants the regenerated believers as newborn babes to feed on the (spiritual) milk of the word, which word is spirit and life (John 6:63), that they may grow in His life unto their daily salvation (1 Pet. 2:2). The first step of God’s organic salvation is regeneration. After regeneration the newborn babes need to feed on the milk of the holy Word. The holy Word is the Spirit, so that milk is the spiritual milk. This feeding is so that they may grow in life unto their daily salvation. Every day we need to be saved. This is because our attitude, the tone of our voice, and our spirit are not so right. Even the way we look at others is not right. We need to be adjusted, to be saved from many things. We need to grow unto such a salvation. The word unto means “resulting in” or “for.” We have to grow for salvation, and we need a growth that results in salvation. If we have no growth, we cannot enjoy the salvation we need.
As they grow up in the divine life, the regenerated believers have to feed on the solid food also, not only on the milk, by exercising their spirit to contact the Spirit of God’s word that they may receive the supply of life (Heb. 5:13-14; Matt. 4:4b). Our receiving the supply of life is for our maturity in life. Even in the section of feeding, both the Spirit and our spirit are involved.
God’s sanctification of us is of three aspects. The first aspect is His seeking sanctification by the Holy Spirit with the enlightening Word initially (1 Pet. 1:2; Luke 15:8); the second aspect is the positional sanctification by the redeeming blood of Christ judicially (Heb. 13:12; 10:29); the third aspect is the dispositional sanctification by the Holy Spirit organically (Rom. 15:16; 6:19, 22). We have covered the first two aspects on other occasions. What is covered in this chapter is the third aspect. Romans 15:16 unveils that the believers in Christ are sanctified in the Holy Spirit to be acceptable to God, especially the Gentile believers, who are more common. All the regenerated and growing believers need to be sanctified in their disposition with the element of the resurrection life of Christ, which they received through the feeding, so that they may be sanctified with the holy nature of God (2 Pet. 1:4) that they may be made holy unto God (Eph. 1:4). The sanctification mentioned in Romans 6:19 and 22 refers to this kind of sanctification. Our fallen nature became a fallen disposition — distorted, crooked, and perverted — and needs to be adjusted and straightened particularly in God’s sanctification with His holy nature.
The dispositional and organic sanctification by the Holy Spirit begins from our spirit through our soul unto our body so that our entire being can be wholly sanctified. First Thessalonians 5:23 says clearly that the Holy Spirit’s sanctifying us begins from our spirit (not from our soul or our body) through our soul unto our body so that our entire being can be wholly unto God.
Going along with the dispositional sanctification, the Lord renews us by His Spirit (Titus 3:5).
The renewing Spirit is mingled with our regenerated spirit as one mingled spirit to spread into our mind (Eph. 4:23) to renew our entire being as a member of the new man by putting off our old man (v. 22), that is, by renouncing and denying our old self (Matt. 16:24), and by putting on the new man (Eph. 4:24), that is, by applying what Christ has accomplished in creating the new man (2:15).
Ephesians 4:23 says that we are to be renewed in the spirit of our mind. To put off the old man and to put on the new man are by being renewed in the spirit of our mind. When the Holy Spirit who dwells in and is mingled with our spirit spreads into our mind, that mingled spirit becomes the spirit in our mind. It is by this mingled spirit that our mind is renewed.
We have been made a new man by Christ on the cross. Ephesians 2:15 says that Christ on the cross created the two, the Jews and the Gentiles, into one new man. He created the new man already, but we have to apply the new man. We have to put off the old man and put on the new man by the renewing Spirit mingling Himself with our spirit to spread into our mind and renew our mind. This is to change our mind.
In Matthew 16:24 the Lord said that if we want to come after Him, we need to deny ourselves and take up our cross. To deny ourselves is to renounce ourselves, to apply the cross to ourselves. This is to put off the old man. To put on the new man is to live and magnify Christ through the bountiful supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ (Phil. 1:19-21). The renewing is altogether wrapped up with the Spirit and our regenerated spirit, which became the one spirit. This one spirit is the renewing spirit in our mind to change our mind.
The Lord uses the environmental sufferings to consume, to kill, our outer man so that our inner man may be renewed day by day. Second Corinthians 4:16 says, “Therefore we do not lose heart; but though our outer man is decaying [is consumed], yet our inner man is being renewed day by day.” The outer man should be consumed, killed, so that the inner man, our regenerated spirit as the person with the renewed soul as its organ, may be renewed day by day. This renewing is by God’s working with every situation in our daily environment. Every day we are troubled from many directions. This trouble could be from our spouse, our children, or our co-workers. This trouble consumes our outer man, our natural man, so that our inner man can be renewed with the supply of the resurrection life.
Since we believers all will be the consummating part of the New Jerusalem, we have to be renewed to be as new as the New Jerusalem (Rev. 21:2). The New Jerusalem is first called the holy city, so we have to be holy. Then it is called the New Jerusalem, so we have to be new. If we are not renewed, we are not qualified to be in the New Jerusalem. We have to be as new as the New Jerusalem.
Transformation is by the renewing of our mind; it is the issue of the renewing. Romans 12:2 says that we are transformed by the renewing of the mind. When your mind is renewed, you are transformed. Transformation is not any kind of outward correction, adjustment, but an inward metabolism by the addition of the element of the divine life of Christ into our being to be expressed outwardly in the image of Christ. Our digestion and assimilation of food are a kind of metabolism to receive a new element and discharge the old element. Because we have Christ’s life element added into our spirit, there is a kind of metabolism to bring forth something to be expressed outwardly in Christ’s image. If a person does not eat for a number of days, his face will become pale. In order to get a healthy color in his face, he needs to be fed properly. Then his face will become healthy and colorful. This is for expression. Today the spiritual transformation is the same. We must have Christ’s life element added into us by eating Him as our spiritual food. Then there will be the metabolism to discharge the old element by adding the new element of Christ’s life. Then this will be expressed outwardly to be the image of Christ. This transformation, this kind of metabolism, is by the Lord Spirit (the pneumatic Christ) to transform us into the image of the glory of Christ (2 Cor. 3:18). The Lord has now become the Spirit, and this Lord Spirit is the transforming Spirit.
We have to live and walk by the Spirit (Gal. 5:16, 25) and walk according to the mingled spirit (Rom. 8:4b), that the divine life of Christ may regulate us to transform us into the image of the Lord in glory. The Spirit not only causes a divine metabolism in us but also regulates us. He regulates our walk, and this also causes transformation in us. From within there is the metabolism; from without there is the regulation.
First Corinthians 3:9 and 12 unveil to us that we are God’s building and that we have to build with gold (signifying God the Father’s golden nature), silver (God the Son’s redeeming work), and precious stones (God the Spirit’s transforming work), not with wood (signifying the nature of the natural man), grass (the fallen man, the man of the flesh), and stubble (the work and living that issue from an earthen source). This indicates that the building of God in which we are participating must be by transformed items like gold, silver, and precious stones, not by our nature, our flesh, and the things from the earthen source.
The building of God as the building of the church, the Body of Christ, being by the transformation of the Spirit is clearly signified by the jasper wall with its foundations of the New Jerusalem (Rev. 21:18-20). Jasper is a transformed precious stone, and the wall of the New Jerusalem looks like one big piece of jasper, indicating that while the stones were under transformation, they were also built together. Hence, both the building and transformation are by the same transforming and building Spirit. The building Spirit is just the transforming Spirit. The two are linked together. Where transformation is, there is building. Today in the church it is the same — no transformation, no building. Coordination is not the building. The building is by the transforming life. When we are transformed, we are built together with others. Let us say that a number of brothers are working together. When the peculiarity of each brother comes out, it will be hard for them to coordinate, needless to say to grow together as a building. These brothers can be built together only by being transformed. Through their transformation they grow together. Transformation produces the growth of life, and this growth builds them together. This is the real building of today’s church. The real building is not just coordination. Our coordination, sooner or later, will be broken if we are not transformed. Perhaps a certain brother feels that he cannot go along with another brother because of that brother’s strong peculiarity. What should this brother do? He must go to the cross to set up an example for the other brother to follow. After a period of time they will both learn how to be crossed out in order to be transformed. Then they will not need to worry about coordination, because they will grow together. The members of our physical body are not merely coordinated. They are growing together by the blood circulation in the body.
Paul’s writings unveil to us that the church, the Body of Christ, as the dwelling place of God is in our spirit indwelt by the Spirit of God (Eph. 2:22; Rom. 8:11). This shows that the building of the church is altogether involved with two spirits, the divine Spirit and our human spirit. The divine Spirit is the Dweller, and our spirit is the dwelling place. Our being built up to be God’s dwelling place is wrapped up with the two spirits.
Christ makes (builds) His home in our hearts through the strengthening of the Spirit of God into our inner man (our regenerated spirit) where Christ is (2 Tim. 4:22), unto the fullness (expression) of God (Eph. 3:16-19). Ephesians 3 tells us that today Christ is making His home in our heart. This making home is the building. This takes place first by our being strengthened with power through the Spirit into our inner man, into our spirit. Then Christ has the way to build His home in our heart so that we may be filled unto, resulting in, the fullness of the Triune God for the expression of the Triune God.
Based upon the fact that the Spirit of God dwells within the lover of Christ (John 14:17), God the Father and the Son come to the lover of Christ and make a mutual abode with him (v. 23). John 14:23 says that if anyone loves the Son, the Father and He will come to make an abode with him. This means to make a mutual dwelling place for the Triune God and the believer. The indwelling Spirit is mentioned in verse 17. Based upon this fact, the Father and the Son come to make a mutual dwelling place with us. This is building. In John 14:2 the Lord said, “In My Father’s house are many abodes.” Verse 23 tells us how these many abodes are built up. It is by the Spirit living in us as a foundation; then the Father and the Son come to us to make a mutual abode with us. All these verses are very mystical.
In God’s organic salvation, first our life is touched; that is, God in regeneration puts Himself into our spirit to be our life. Our life now has an addition. In the past we had only our human life. But through regeneration we began to have another life, which was added into our old life, and this life is God’s life. This is not an exchange but the addition of another life. Then our nature is sanctified with the nature of God, and our mind is changed by having God’s mind in our mind through the mingled spirit. This means that our entire being is transformed.
