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Scripture Reading: Rom. 15:16; 8:2; 6:19, 22; Eph. 1:4; Rev. 21:2, 10; 22:19; Rom. 12:2a
I. In the dispositional sanctification in the divine nature and in the Spirit’s renewing of the believers’ mind.
II. Dispositional sanctification:
А. Dispositional sanctification being for the believers to be sanctified in their disposition that they may partake of the holy nature of God and be one with Him in this attribute of His — Rom. 15:16.
1. Through the sanctifying work in the believers by the Spirit of life — 8:2.
2. With the element of the life of God as the material.
B. This aspect of sanctification implying transformation — 6:19, 22.
C. This being the fulfillment of God’s purpose in choosing the believers — Eph. 1:4.
D. Both the positional sanctification in the judicial aspect and the dispositional sanctification in the organic aspect of God’s salvation being ultimately manifested in the New Jerusalem for it to become the holy city — Rev. 21:2, 10; 22:19.
III. Renewing:
А. The believers are spontaneously renewed in their spiritual life when they are sanctified dispositionally by the Holy Spirit.
B. Requiring the believers not to be fashioned according to this age but to be transformed by the renewing of their mind — Rom. 12:2a.
C. To be renewed in the mind is to get rid of all the old concepts concerning the things of the human life and be made new again by the teaching of the Holy Scriptures and the enlightening of the Holy Spirit.
D. Such a renewing of the mind issuing in the transformation of the believers in their spiritual life.
In the previous two chapters we referred to the two aspects of God’s complete salvation, the judicial aspect and the organic aspect. We also covered the first two items of the organic aspect: regeneration and shepherding. In this chapter we will go on to another two items: dispositional sanctification and renewing.
First of all, we want to see that the contents of the New Testament are God’s work in both the judicial aspect and the organic aspect. In God’s complete salvation the judicial work was accomplished in only thirty-three and a half years, from the Lord’s incarnation to His becoming the life-giving Spirit in resurrection as the incarnated One. The Gospel of John begins in chapter 1 by saying that in the beginning was the Word and the Word became flesh (vv. 1, 14), and it concludes in chapter 20 (chapter 21 being an appendix) by telling us that the Lord resurrected as the Spirit (20:22). In between, it tells us how the incarnated Jesus passed through all kinds of hardships on earth, lived a life under the shadow of the cross, and eventually went to the cross to die there. Then through His death He entered into resurrection, and in resurrection He became the life-giving Spirit. This is the content of the Gospels. Following this, the book of Acts gives a record of the apostles preaching the judicial work accomplished by the Lord in thirty-three and a half years. People in different places heard and believed in what the apostles preached, issuing in the churches. Then the churches constitute the Body of Christ organically and will ultimately consummate the New Jerusalem. After the book of Acts there are the twenty-two Epistles, from Romans to Revelation, all of which speak concerning the organic aspect of God’s salvation, that is, concerning regeneration, shepherding, dispositional sanctification, renewing, transformation, building up, conformation, and glorification.
In brief, of the twenty-seven books of the New Testament, the first four Gospels unveil the history, speaking in particular concerning the Lord Jesus; the fifth book, Acts, tells us how this Jesus was announced to different places. This announcing was greatly effective, and it brought in the churches, issuing in the Body of Christ and ultimately consummating the New Jerusalem. Following Acts, the twenty-two Epistles cover particularly the church, the Body of Christ, and the New Jerusalem. In what way? By speaking concerning regeneration, shepherding, dispositional sanctification, renewing, transformation, building up, conformation, and glorification. These items, from regeneration to glorification, are for the producing of the church, the Body of Christ, and eventually the consummating of the New Jerusalem. Hence, these eight items are matters in between the church and the New Jerusalem. Therefore, the New Testament covers the work of Christ in two periods. The first period was His thirty-three and a half years on earth, and in this period all of God’s work was judicial and was accomplished by the Lord Jesus. The second period is from the time after His resurrection to the present day through eternity, and in this period all of God’s work is organic and is being carried out by the Spirit. Therefore, Philippians 1:19 refers to “the bountiful supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ.” The Spirit of Jesus Christ, the compound, all-inclusive, life-giving Spirit of the Triune God, has the bountiful supply and even is the bountiful supply. This bountiful supply involves the judicial work of the first section and the organic work of the second section.
The first item of the organic work of God is regeneration, which is to bring the Triune God into man. Regeneration means that Christ is received by man and enters into man. This Christ who enters into those who receive Him is the embodiment of the Father. Therefore, when He comes in, the Father also comes in. Not only so, the realization, the reality, of Christ is the Spirit. Therefore, when Christ comes in, not only both the Father and the Son come in, but the Spirit also comes in. The three — the Father, the Son, and the Spirit — all come in and abide in the regenerated ones, become one spirit with the believers, and are joined with them as one. This is an exceedingly great matter in the universe. Therefore, D. L. Moody, the founder of the Moody Bible Institute and a great evangelist in America in the last century, said that regeneration is the greatest miracle in the universe.
If we do not have the Father, the Son, and the Spirit abiding in us to be constituted with us as an organism, there can be no church and no Body of Christ. Therefore, in Ephesians 4 Paul refers to one Body, one Spirit, one Lord, and one God and Father (vv. 4-6). This one God and Father Himself has an aspect of three — He is over all and through all and in all (v. 6). Not only is the Father here, but also the Son and the Spirit are here. The Father, the Son, and the Spirit and the redeemed, regenerated, shepherded, sanctified, renewed, transformed, built-up, conformed, and glorified people are constituted together to become an organism, that is, the church, the Body of Christ.
However, the view of Christianity today concerning the Bible is too low. The Lutherans do not put much emphasis on the growth in life and transformation. They consider that once a person believes in the Lord, he is justified, but they do not pay much attention to the organic aspect of God’s salvation. Likewise, proponents of Reformed theology do not care for the matters of growth in life and transformation, which they consider too troublesome. Rather, they think that once a person believes in the Lord, he receives a salvation that is eternally secured. God has chosen us once in eternity, and that is sufficient and will never change. Their teaching comes short of the divine revelation in the Holy Scriptures. We cannot say that there is nothing more after God’s choosing. Ephesians 1:4 indeed says that we were chosen. But Ephesians does not have only this one verse. Ephesians 1 has many more verses telling us that there are still many things after God’s choosing. Thus, we simply cannot say that God’s choosing is sufficient. People in the Pentecostal movement also neglect the matters of growth in life and transformation. They consider that it is more important to speak in tongues and that a person cannot be saved without speaking in tongues.
This is the condition of today’s Christianity. They do not know the organic matters in God’s salvation. Not only so, many people in Christianity do not know that the Lord as the Spirit is in our spirit. They even do not know what the Spirit is, nor do they know that there is a spirit in man. They consider the spirit and the soul as one and synonymous. Not only so, they mix up the heart, the soul, and the spirit, considering them synonymous.
This condition of Christianity today is incurable. All we can do is wait for the Lord to come back. According to Revelation 17, when the Lord comes back, the first thing He will do is burn the Catholic Church with fire (v. 16); next, He will command the angels to bind into bundles all the false Christians, the tares, in Christianity and cast them into the lake of fire (Matt. 13:30, 41-42). Third, He will gather all the genuinely saved ones to His judgment seat; there He will judge them to see whose living and work were gold, silver, and precious stones and whose living and work were wood, grass, and stubble (1 Cor. 3:12-15; 4:4-5; 2 Cor. 5:10; Rev. 22:12). If the living and work were wood, grass, and stubble, the Lord will burn these things with fire. As a result, only a small amount of gold, silver, and precious stones will remain. The Lord has shown me these truths after my studying of the Word for seventy years. However, I feel so pained when I look at the condition of today’s Christianity. Without the Lord’s mercy, the Lord’s recovery may have two kinds of conditions. One condition is to be like that of Sardis, that is, living in name but dead in reality (Rev. 3:1). The other condition is to be like that of Laodicea, that is, neither hot nor cold (v. 16). Being living in name and yet dead and being neither hot nor cold were our condition several years ago. That is why in 1984 I went to Taiwan to study the Lord’s new way for His recovery to go on. Today in the Lord’s recovery, generally speaking, we have come out of the conditions of Sardis and Laodicea. But we need to be humble lest some fall into such conditions.
Now we will go on to see the sanctification in the divine nature and the Spirit’s renewing of the believers.
First, we must know the difference between positional sanctification and dispositional sanctification. The former belongs to the judicial aspect of God’s salvation, whereas the latter belongs to the organic aspect of God’s salvation.
Before we were saved, we were altogether in the world. After we were saved and regenerated, the Lord completely separated us to make us holy. This is positional sanctification for the believers to be separated out of the world and made holy unto God (1 Cor. 1:2; Rom. 1:7). As mentioned in Matthew 23, when the gold is placed in the market, it is something common, but when it is placed in the temple, it is sanctified (v. 17). This kind of sanctification does not change at all the inward disposition; it changes only the outward position. Every regenerated person more or less has this kind of experience. Immediately after we were saved, we simply did not want to mingle with those in the world; we had been separated from them. This is positional sanctification, separation. This positional sanctification is through the redeeming blood of Christ (Heb. 10:29; 13:12) for the believers to become God’s peculiar people (1 Pet. 2:9-10 and footnotes, Recovery Version).
However, it is not sufficient to be separated and made holy unto God positionally. After we are sanctified positionally and reconciled to God, as we begin to pursue in life, we will sense something within us that is not our disposition but God’s nature. This nature within us deals thoroughly with our natural disposition, our peculiar disposition, and our temperament so that the divine nature becomes our disposition. This is to sanctify the believers dispositionally that they may partake of God’s holy nature and be one with God in this attribute of His (Rom. 15:16). This kind of sanctification uses the element of God’s life as the material and is carried out through the sanctifying work in the believers by the Spirit of life (8:2).
This is exactly my experience. After I was saved, because I loved the Lord and was growing in life, God’s holy nature continually carried out a sanctifying work in me. When I went to the department stores, I looked at one item, yet I could not wear it; I looked at another item, and I could not use it. When I first changed to wearing Western clothes, buying neckties was a big problem. Some neckties were too wide, others were too narrow, and still others were too fancy. Today my neckties are neither too wide nor too narrow nor too fancy. This is because when I go to buy a necktie, there is a nature within me that wants me to buy this kind of necktie. Brothers, the yardstick for our living and our clothing is the divine nature within us. This divine nature of God within us is the yardstick for our living. Stanza 1 of Hymns, #841 says, “Thou art all my life, Lord, / In me Thou dost live; / With Thee all God’s fulness / Thou to me dost give. / By Thy holy nature / I am sanctified, / By Thy resurrection, / Vict’ry is supplied.” By the Lord’s holy nature we are sanctified. This kind of sanctification is not outward but inward. Therefore, we do not say that this is positional sanctification; rather, we say that it is dispositional sanctification.
The yardstick for our living is not the outward regulations or laws but the inward divine nature. In some parts of Pennsylvania and Ohio there is a Christian sect with many established criteria for not loving the world, mainly concerning the believers’ wearing of clothes or hats. They even limit the women’s clothing to only three colors: white, black, and dark blue. They also specify that the men should wear hats with a broad brim. Some fashionable ones among them did not like hats with a broad brim, so they secretly made their hat with a narrower brim. But their pastor condemned the narrow brim as worldliness. Eventually, some of them kept two kinds of hats in their home, one with a broad brim and another with a narrow brim. When the pastor came, they wore the one with a broad brim, and after the pastor left, they put on the one with a narrow brim.
Brothers and sisters, do we regulate ourselves with outward regulations? Do we live and walk according to the holy nature of God or according to outward regulations? Today we do not need these outward regulations; we need only God’s holy nature, which is able to make us holy. For example, concerning women’s apparel, the Bible gives us only a word saying that women should adorn themselves in proper clothing (1 Tim. 2:9). But what kind of clothing is considered proper? The divine nature within you will tell you. This is dispositional sanctification; this is the organic work that Christ as the Spirit is carrying out in us. It is not something judicial; it is something altogether organic. This aspect of sanctification implies transformation (Rom. 6:19, 22) for the fulfillment of God’s purpose in choosing the believers (Eph. 1:4). Eventually, both the positional sanctification in the judicial aspect and the dispositional sanctification in the organic aspect of God’s complete salvation will ultimately be manifested in the New Jerusalem for it to become the holy city (Rev. 21:2, 10; 22:19).
Now we will go on to see the renewing in the organic aspect of God’s salvation. In the preceding chapter we saw that regeneration is to have God as our life. It is a matter in the life of God. After regeneration we pass through shepherding, and then we have the dispositional sanctification, which is a matter in the nature of God. Not only do we need to be regenerated in life, but we also need to be sanctified in our disposition. No human disposition is good; only the nature of God is holy. When we are saved, the element of God’s holy nature comes into us; this holy nature begins to work in us to sanctify us dispositionally. Ephesians 1:4 says that God chose us before the foundation of the world to be holy. This shows us that to be holy is the purpose of God’s choosing. To be holy is to have God’s nature, whereas to have the sonship, in verse 5, is to have God’s life. Through regeneration we have the life of God, and through sanctification our disposition is changed. When the believers are sanctified dispositionally, they are spontaneously renewed in their spiritual life.
Romans 12:2a says, “Do not be fashioned according to this age, but be transformed by the renewing of the mind.” We should not be fashioned according to this age. This means that we should not be fashionable. Rather, we should be transformed by the renewing of the mind. Some say that this kind of renewing is the so-called teaching by Confucius and Mencius that “the principle of the Great Learning is to develop the bright virtue and to renew the people” and that “if you can renew yourself for one day, then let there be daily renewing.” However, the renewing taught in the Bible is not the same as the renewing taught in the books of Confucius and Mencius. The renewing taught by Confucius and Mencius is merely to improve oneself or adjust oneself daily. In contrast, the renewing taught by the Scriptures is the renewing of the mind; it is altogether a matter related to the mind. The mind is our mentality, our philosophy, our religious concepts, our views concerning people and things, etc. We need to be renewed mainly in our mind.
Ephesians 4:23 says, “Be renewed in the spirit of your mind.” The preceding verse says to put off the old man (v. 22), the succeeding verse says to put on the new man (v. 24), and the verse in the middle says to be renewed in the spirit of our mind. The spirit of our mind is the regenerated spirit mingled with the Spirit of God spreading into our mind to exercise control over it. In this way our mind is renewed. Furthermore, Romans 8:6 says, “The mind set on the spirit is life and peace.” This also shows us the importance of our mind. Our mind can be renewed only by our setting it on the spirit.
Not only so, the New Testament teaches us to have the mind in us which was also in Christ Jesus (Phil. 2:5). This is equivalent to taking the mind of Christ Jesus as our mind. By regeneration we have the life of God, by sanctification we partake of the nature of God, and by renewing we have a change in our mind.
We who have been separated, sanctified, unto God should not be assimilated by the world. Rather, we should care for the transformation by the renewing of our mind, which the Lord Spirit is carrying out by moving and working in us through the divine life and the divine nature. I saw a brother wearing a pair of shoes adorned with tassels, but now I notice that he is wearing another pair of shoes without any adornment. This is because his mind has been renewed; he is no longer fashioned according to this age. I am happy because we are not those who daily speak about living Christ yet who wear shoes with tassels. Likewise, the sisters should not, on the one hand, speak about loving the Lord, and on the other hand, apply lipstick heavily. I do know that if the sisters will say more, “O Lord, I love You,” the lipstick they apply will become daily less and less and will eventually disappear. This is because their mind will be renewed and transformed.
How can our mind be renewed so that our whole being may be renewed? The way of renewing lies in prayer and in reading the Scriptures, because for us to be renewed in our mind is for us to get rid of all our old concepts concerning the things of the human life and be made new again by the teaching of the Holy Scriptures and the enlightening of the Holy Spirit. When you read the Bible and become familiar with it, the Holy Spirit will enlighten you and guide you. When the Holy Spirit comes to enlighten you while you thus pray and read the Word day by day, the mind in you is being changed from the old to the new. Your view is different, and your being is renewed.
Such a renewing of the mind issues in the transformation of the believers in their spiritual life. Titus 3:5 refers to the washing of regeneration and the renewing of the Holy Spirit. The washing of regeneration washes away our old life; following this, the renewing of the Holy Spirit changes our mind. When our mind is renewed, our whole being is transformed. This is to be transformed by the renewing of the mind. The washing of regeneration purges away all the things in the old nature of our old man, whereas the renewing of the Holy Spirit dispenses the new things, the divine essence of the new man, into our being. Through this we turn from the old condition in which we were into a completely new condition, from the state of the old creation into the state of the new creation.
Today our problem is due mostly to our mind. Brother Nee said that some people are afraid of others stealing their wallet from their pocket, so they are always feeling in their pocket for their wallet; he said that this is an indication that they have mentally stolen from others. This is to have a disordered mind. Sometimes when someone has something wrong in his mind, he begins to have wild imaginations. A wife may begin to weep when she indulges in wild imaginations. All these matters are related to the mind. God Himself has become our life, He is changing our disposition, and He is also renewing our mind. Thus, we can have the proper concepts and can pursue Christ in a proper way. Often when some came to me to debate about some biblical questions, I said, “It is impossible for your kind of mind to understand the Bible, and I won’t argue with you. Your mind is a mind that simply cannot understand the Bible.” Our disposition needs to be sanctified so that we may partake of God’s holy nature; our mind also needs to be renewed so that we may be transformed in our spiritual life. This is the saving that God renders to us in the organic aspect of His salvation.
