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In the previous three volumes we covered thirty topics concerning the matters between God and us, and between us and God. In this fourth volume, we still need to have an overall view of God’s full salvation. We will first look into the way to enjoy God’s full salvation; then we will consider the different aspects of God’s full salvation. According to the divine revelation in the Bible, there are clearly three steps which constitute the way to enjoy God’s full salvation.
1) “According to the foreknowledge of God the Father, in sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ” (1 Pet. 1:2).
The word here shows us how the Triune God causes His salvation to reach us: God the Father chose us according to His foreknowledge, and God the Spirit sanctifies us that we may receive God the Son’s redemption, denoted here by the blood of Christ. According to our experience of God’s full salvation, the sanctification of God the Spirit is the first step in our enjoyment of God’s full salvation. God the Father chose us in eternity past according to His foreknowledge. Then, after we were born, God the Spirit came to sanctify us from the world, according to the Father’s selection, that we might enjoy the redemption of God the Son. Therefore, the sanctification of God the Spirit becomes the first step in our enjoyment of God’s full salvation. This step, however, is not taken by us. It is the work of God the Spirit.
The sanctification of God the Spirit separates us from the world that we may belong to God and enjoy God’s full salvation. This sanctification in us is divided into three stages. The first is for our repentance, the second is for our justification, and the third is for our transformation. Hence, God the Spirit’s coming to separate us unto repentance according to God the Father’s selection in eternity is the first stage of His complete sanctification in us. In this first stage of sanctification He enlightens us, causing us to be convicted concerning sin (John 16:8), to come to ourselves (Luke 15:17), and to repent and turn to God (Acts 26:20).
1) “Repent and believe in the gospel” (Mark 1:15).
This word tells us that in order to enjoy God’s full salvation, we must repent and believe in the gospel; that is, we must receive God’s salvation. Therefore, our repentance is the second step in our enjoyment of God’s full salvation.
2) “Light a lamp, and sweep the house, and seek carefully...one sinner repenting...he came to himself” (Luke 15:8, 10, 17).
In these verses, lighting a lamp, sweeping the house, and seeking carefully signify that, at the time that we hear the gospel, God the Spirit (the Holy Spirit, who sanctifies us) enlightens us from within and searches out our sins one by one, that we may know our sins and repent. Hence, this portion of the Bible shows us that it is because of such enlightening and searching of the Holy Spirit in us that we the sinners come to ourselves and repent. The Holy Spirit enlightens and searches us inwardly to sanctify us from the world and to cause us to turn to the Lord and receive God’s full salvation. Thus, the sanctification of the Holy Spirit is the first step in our receiving salvation, and our repentance is the second step.
3) “Repent and turn to God” (Acts 26:20).
Repentance literally means a change in mind which produces regret and a consequent change in goal. We repent and believe in the Lord because, after we hear the gospel, our mind is sanctified by the Holy Spirit to become regretful and to have a change, a turn to God to take Him as our goal in everything.
4) “Preaching...repentance...Prepare the way of the Lord; make His paths straight. Every ravine shall be filled up, and every mountain and hill shall be brought low; and the crooked places shall become straight, and the rough places smooth roads;...shall see the salvation of God” (Luke 3:3-6).
It is through much straightening and smoothing in our hearts that we see (that is, possess) the repentance in God’s salvation. The ravine, the mountain, the crooked places, and the rough places are figures of speech describing the conditions of men’s hearts toward God and toward each other and the relationships among men. When we repent and believe in the Lord, our repentance straightens all the crooked places and fills up all the rough places in our hearts, making our entire being straight and smooth for God to come in to carry out His full salvation.
1) “Repent and believe in the gospel” (Mark 1:15).
This word shows us that in order to enjoy God’s salvation, we must repent and also believe. On the negative side, when we repent, we regret and confess our sins to clear up and straighten our condition, which is fallen and away from God. On the positive side, when we believe, we believe into Christ and receive God into us, that we may obtain Him and His eternal life.
2) “That everyone who believes in Him should... have eternal life” (John 3:16).
When we believe in the Lord, we believe into the Lord that we may be joined to Him in God’s eternal life to enjoy the full salvation which is prepared by God in Him. Therefore, the fact that “to believe” is “to believe into” strongly conveys a sense of being joined and united.
3) “But as many as received Him, to them He gave authority to become children of God, to those who believe in His name” (John 1:12).
To believe is not only to believe into but also to receive. To believe into equals to be joined to, referring to our being joined to Christ, into whom we have believed; to receive means to receive the Christ into whom we believe and who has come into us to be joined to us. Our believing into Christ makes us those who are in Christ; our receiving Christ causes Him to be the One who is in us. “In Christ” is the beginning of our union with Him, which affords us the position and sphere to enjoy God’s full salvation; “Christ in us” is the progress of this union, which further gives us the experience and the elements of the enjoyment of God’s full salvation. If we allow our experience of these two — our being in Christ and Christ’s being in us — to continue without hindrance or distraction, we will richly and unceasingly enjoy God’s full salvation in Christ.
4) “Those who have been allotted like precious faith with us in the righteousness of our God and Savior, Jesus Christ” (2 Pet. 1:1).
The faith through which we believe into Christ and receive Christ, and by which we are saved (Eph. 2:8), is the like precious faith allotted to us. “Allotted” indicates that we do not have this faith in ourselves; rather, it is obtained by us from God. Moreover, this faith is “like,” that is, it is of the same one whole. “Like faith” indicates that the faith possessed by us, who have believed into Christ and have received Christ, is of the same one whole, out of which we all have been given an allotment. It is like the whole of the good land of Canaan, which was allotted to the Israelites in the Old Testament (Josh. 14:1-5). The good land of Canaan in the Old Testament typifies the all-inclusive Christ in the New Testament. In the New Testament, God gives this rich Christ as an allotted inheritance to all those who were chosen by Him. This inheritance is included in the faith, and through this faith we were allotted and have received the inheritance. Hence, this faith of ours is the inheritance which we have received from God. It is also the faith through which we were allotted and have received this inheritance from God. Therefore, the inheritance allotted by God and the faith through which we were allotted and have received God’s inheritance are one and the same, that is, Christ Himself given to us by God. On the one hand, the Christ given to us by God is our inheritance from God; on the other hand, He is also the faith through which we were allotted and have received God’s inheritance. Both are Christ. When we hear and believe in the gospel, the Holy Spirit who sanctifies us and causes us to repent brings Christ into us, on the one hand, to be our inheritance from God and, on the other hand, to be the faith through which we are allotted and receive God’s inheritance. Both are the portion which God gives to us, that is, the portion of the saints from God (Col. 1:12). Furthermore, the Holy Spirit, who brings Christ into us, is the ultimate expression of the Triune God reaching us and entering into us to bring Christ into us as our eternal portion from God. Thus, the Triune God enters into His chosen people to be their faith, causing them to enter into Him to be joined to Him as one in His divine life. This is the ultimate significance of the very faith by which we enter into Christ.
1) “He who believes and is baptized shall be saved” (Mark 16:16).
This simple and definite word further reveals to us that in order to enjoy God’s full salvation, we must not only believe but also be baptized. To believe and be baptized are not two steps; they are one step that requires both feet. Both are needed to complete one step. To believe is the inward reality of our entering into Christ, and to be baptized is the outward confession, testimony, sign, and declaration of our entering into Christ.
2) “For as many as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ” (Gal. 3:27).
Just as our inward believing is our entering into Christ, so also is our outward baptism. Only when these two are combined is there a complete and substantial entering. Through faith and baptism we enter into Christ completely and substantially, putting on Christ as the righteousness that we obtain by believing into Him. Thus we become heirs of God (Luke 15:21-23) to inherit the Christ of God as our inheritance (Gal. 3:29).
3) “As many as have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death” (Rom. 6:3); “...buried together with Him [Christ] in baptism, in whom also you were raised together” (Col. 2:12).
When we are baptized into Christ, we are also baptized into His death. By being immersed into Him, we have a union with Him, and whatever He experienced becomes our experience. Since He experienced death and resurrection, by being baptized into Him to be joined to Him, we participate in the death and resurrection which He experienced. We died with Him in His death and were thus delivered from everything of the old creation. We were also resurrected with Him in His resurrection to enter into everything of the new creation.
4) “Which figure [of the water] also now saves you, baptism, not a putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the appeal of a good conscience unto God, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ” (1 Pet. 3:21).
As the flood rescued Noah’s family from that corrupted generation (Gen. 6:11, 17), baptism rescues us from the corrupted world. This baptism is not the putting away of the filth of the flesh but the appeal of a good conscience toward God. It is an appeal to God for a good conscience towards Him by those who are being baptized, that they may be able to testify before men that all their problems with God have been solved, that there is no more accusation in their conscience, that instead they are full of peace and faith, and that they have been baptized into the Triune God (Matt. 28:19). Furthermore, through the resurrection of Christ, that is, through Christ becoming the Spirit of life in resurrection, they are organically united with Him.
The sanctification of the Holy Spirit, our repentance, our believing and being baptized, which we have now seen, are the three necessary steps for us to enjoy God’s full salvation in Christ. Moreover, in us who are experiencing God’s full salvation, the experience of the reality of these three steps should be repeated as a cycle again and again.
