In this chapter we need to touch another crucial point in Romans, which is basically related to the Body of Christ. I do not know how much you have really entered into this book. Many Christians do have some understanding of the book of Romans. Even we ourselves had the life-study training on Romans, and over the years we have put out sixty-five messages on this book. In this Perfecting Training I consider that all of you have read through those sixty-five messages. Based upon this understanding, I want to ask a question: Besides the organic union, which is very much implied in this book concerning the Body of Christ, what is another vital item in Romans that has so much to do not only with the Body of Christ but also with the organic union? Actually, the organic union, strictly speaking, does not bring us into the Body of Christ so directly. The organic union first brings us into something prior to the Body of Christ. Romans does not tell us in such a direct way that we are the Body of Christ. The Body of Christ is not mentioned or touched or revealed before chapter 12. In the preceding eleven chapters there are many basic items. No doubt the first basic item is justification by faith, including reconciliation with God. Then after justification by faith there is the matter of the organic union, because there is such a phrase as unto justification of life (5:18). The organic union is a kind of issue from justification. Justification is not for justification itself; justification is unto life, for life. This is in chapter 5.
In chapter 8 there is a big and vital item that has been neglected by nearly all the Christians. This is the matter of sonship. In at least one of the messages on Romans, we pointed out strongly that the focal point of this book is not justification by faith or sanctification but to make sinners into the sons of God. The focal point of Romans is to produce sonship for the Body. In reading the Bible you may first touch the surface, but then you need to dive into that part and get to the bottom. In every chapter of the Bible there are these two aspects: the aspect of the surface and the aspect of the depth. Many Christians have touched the surface of Romans 8, but they have not seen something that is deeper.
Every Christian realizes that they need the Spirit. So, when they come to the Bible and read any chapter that has this term, the Spirit, it is easy for them to see. This is because the matter of the Spirit is already in their Christian realization. But one thing is very strange and very foreign to the Christian realization. In a sense it is absent. This is the matter of sonship. For many years I read the book of Romans, and I especially paid much attention to 8:23 concerning the redemption of our body. That term I picked up easily. But I never picked up the thought of sonship. Let us read verse 23: “Not only so, but we ourselves also, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan in ourselves, eagerly awaiting sonship, the redemption of our body.” In this verse the redemption of our body is in apposition to the matter of sonship. Although I had picked up the matter of the redemption of the body, I never saw the matter of sonship. Some translations of the Bible even use the word adoption rather than sonship. The word adoption confuses the concept. Actually, sonship means to be a son of God. Yes, chapter 8 is a chapter on the Spirit, but there is some progress. It goes from the Spirit to sonship. Verse 2 first speaks of the Spirit of life. According to verse 10, the Spirit of life is first in our spirit. Then verse 6 points out that the life of the Spirit spreads into our mind, and in verse 11 it even saturates our mortal body. From verses 14, 15, and 16 we can see that the Spirit of life is the spirit of sonship because our regenerated human spirit has been mingled with the Spirit. The spirit of sonship makes us sons of God. The Spirit of life produces sons of God. So the Spirit of life is eventually the spirit of sonship making us sons of God.
Romans 8 also reveals to us what kind of reaction we should have toward such a spirit. First, we should walk according to the spirit. We should walk according to the Spirit of life in our spirit, which is the spirit of sonship. Second, we should be led by Him. To walk according to the spirit is from our side. For Him to lead us is from His side. On our side we walk after Him and walk according to Him. On His side He is leading us. There is quite a difference between these two aspects. To walk according to the spirit is much easier than to be led by the Spirit. For me to walk according to you is somewhat easy, but for me to be led by you is not so easy. “As many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God” (v. 14). Verse 16 says, “The Spirit Himself witnesses with our spirit that we are children of God.” The Spirit within us witnesses with our spirit not that we are sons of God but that we are children of God. In verse 16 we are children; in verse 14 we are sons; in verse 17 we become heirs. There are these three words: children, sons, and heirs. No doubt children are very young and childish. Sons are ones who have grown up. Heirs are ones who have matured. First, we are children, then we are sons, and eventually we are heirs. The Spirit witnesses within us that we are born of God, that we are children of God. But when we are being led by the Spirit, we are sons of God. This means that we are stronger. We are growing up; we are sons of God. Eventually, we will mature to be heirs.
Our reaction to the Spirit must be that we first walk according to the spirit. Then we must be led by Him all the time. Although we are practicing to walk according to the spirit, we may not be led by the Spirit. If you check with your own experience, you will see that there is a little discrepancy here. You are walking according to spirit, yet you discover while you are walking according to the spirit that you would not be led by Him. For example, for the whole day you have been walking according to the spirit, and even you come to the meeting still acting according to the spirit. Yet in the meeting, when the Spirit leads you to function, you would not function. And all the while that you would not be led by the Spirit to function in the meeting, you still think that you are walking according to the spirit. If I could take away this veil from you, you could see that many times while you are walking according to the spirit, you would not be led by Him.
The Spirit is the most gentle and meek person. The Spirit who dwells in us is not like us. We are easily offended, but the indwelling Spirit is not. Although we have offended Him many times, He is still here. For example, while we were walking according to Him, He led us to talk to a certain person, but we would not. While we were walking according to Him, He led us to call upon the name of the Lord, but we would not call. While we were walking according to the spirit, He led us to function in the meeting, but we would not. Once the meeting was over, we repented and regretted because we offended Him. Even though we offended Him so many times, He is still here.
Do you really walk according to the spirit? Are you led by Him all the time? Too many times while we are walking according to Him, we would not be led by Him. We walk according to Him, but we just would not take His leading. To walk according to the spirit is easier than to be led by Him, to take His leading. You may consider that if you do not take His leading, then you are not walking according to Him. Doctrinally you may say this, but experientially you may walk according to Him and still not take His leading. Do not consider that this is a matter of “splitting hairs.” If you do not have such a splitting, I do not believe that you can enter into the realization of the Body of Christ. You could never get through the matter of sonship. The Body of Christ comes after the sonship. If you only walk according to the spirit, yet you would not take the leading of the Spirit and be led by Him, you are short of the proper reaction to Him.
For example, a baby first learns how to crawl. To walk according to the spirit may be likened to crawling. But to take the leading of the Spirit, to be led by Him, is to stand up and walk. Many of us can crawl, but we cannot stand up and take some steps. If you are still only able to walk according to the spirit, you are still a child; you are not growing up into a son. Those who are led by the Spirit are not children but sons of God. To walk according to the spirit is just spiritual crawling. But to take the leading of the Spirit and to be led by Him is a kind of spiritual walking. If He leads you to pray, regardless of the situation you would stop your doing and pray. Too many times every day while we are walking according to the spirit, He asks us to pray, but we would not. He leads us to pray just for two minutes, but we would not. Yet all the while we are trying to walk according to Him. We must learn to react to the Spirit in these aspects: to walk according to Him and to be led by Him.
After this, Paul goes on in the same chapter to show us that in our reaction to the spirit of sonship, there must be a kind of eager expectation. We must be eagerly expecting sonship. This means that while you are walking according to the spirit and you are taking His leading to be led by Him, you realize that in your being you do not live like a son of God. So, deep within you there is a kind of eager expectation, eagerly expecting the sonship. Within you there is a longing that you could live a life absolutely like the Son of God. According to the context of this verse, it is mainly due to this kind of eagerness that God comes in to arrange your circumstances. He uses all things working together for you to transform you and to change you from a son of Adam to a son of God. He would change you from a son of man to a son of God. This is not only a work of transformation; in fact, this chapter does not use the word transformation, but there is the word conformed. Verses 28 and 29 read, “We know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose. Because those whom He foreknew, He also predestinated to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the Firstborn among many brothers.” This is not only transformation but also conformation to make you exactly in the same image of His Son. This is to make you a son in full.
By this you can see that on the surface chapter 8 is on the Spirit. But under the surface, in the depth, it is a chapter on sonship, which is being carried out by the Spirit of life. Eventually, this Spirit in our spirit is the spirit of sonship. We have to see that sonship is vital and basic to the Body of Christ. I would say that the matter of the organic union is just the initiation. The organic union is the start, whereas the sonship is something that is built upon the organic union. We cannot be members of Christ if we are not sons of God. Our membership in the Body of Christ depends upon our sonship. In the house of God sonship is crucial and vital to our membership. I am sorry to say, this word membership has been altogether dirtied, defiled, spoiled, and corrupted, not only by the secular use but also by its use in Christianity. Some simply get enrolled and sprinkled with a few drops of water, and they become members. That is too cheap! We all are members of the Body of Christ; this membership depends upon the sonship.
In Matthew 16 the Lord asked Peter who He was, and Peter answered that the Lord was the Christ, the Son of the living God. Christ as the Son of the living God is for the building up of Christ. The Son of God builds up Christ, and everyone who is built into Christ must be a son of God. The Head of this Christ is the firstborn Son of God, and all the members of the Body of Christ are the many sons of God. Christ, individually and corporately, is just a collection, a composition, of sons of God. The Head of this corporate Christ is the firstborn Son of God, and the Body of this corporate Christ is the composition of so many sons of God. The sons of God are a matter of life, and the members of Christ are a matter of function. Many Christians today do not pay much attention to the Body of Christ. Even those who talk about the Body of Christ do not see that the Body of Christ comes out of the sonship.
Several years ago in Elden hall I stressed in some messages that Romans 12 is a direct continuation of Romans 8. We may consider chapters 9 through 11 as parenthetical. This means that if you have not passed through chapter 8, you can never be in chapter 12. Nearly all the Christians have stopped in chapter 4. They have not stepped into chapter 5 yet. A small number are in chapter 7 struggling. Very few are in Romans 8. Fewer still have passed from chapter 8 into chapter 12. For their entire life they may linger in chapter 8. Very few have entered into chapter 12.
You have to realize that to be a son of God you first need to be regenerated. We were not born sons of God; we were born sons of man, descendants of Adam. We were born sons of man; we were constituted sons of man; we were educated sons of man. Then suddenly we were reborn to be sons of God. As sons of God, we had a new start, our regeneration. Following regeneration we need reconstitution. We need both regeneration and reconstitution. You may have been regenerated, but have you been reconstituted? To be transformed and conformed is to be reconstituted. You were a son of man, and you have been regenerated to be a son of God. But today you do not live like a son of God. You still live like a son of man. You have been reborn, yet you have not been reconstituted. This reconstitution will continue to take place even to the time of the redemption of our body. Although some have not experienced the redemption of their body, they have been reconstituted to a certain extent. Because they have been reconstituted, they can control and subdue the unredeemed body. Even now we are very much under the influence of our body. Our body exercises a big role in our daily life, our family life, and, unfortunately, even in our church life. But when we have been reconstituted to a certain extent, our body will be fully under the control of the reconstitution. This means that the body will not play that much of a role in our daily life, and our fleshly body will not exercise too much influence over our Christian walk. This is why the opening words of Romans 12 indicate that we need to offer our body. In chapter 12 we can see consecration on the surface. That is somewhat superficial. It is not just a matter of consecration; it is a matter of the full control and the full subduing of your body. Most Christians misinterpret the offering of the body in chapter 12. In certain meetings people may be encouraged to offer their body to be a missionary. But Romans 12 says that we offer our body not to be a missionary but to be a sacrifice. Everyone may like to be a missionary; nobody likes to be a sacrifice. To offer your body as a missionary does not need any subduing, any control, of the body. Your body, because it is still not yet redeemed, is rebellious. Unless your entire being has been reconstituted, you cannot control your rebellious body.
Now we are going deeper and deeper to touch some part of the depths of Romans. Why could we not enter into the practical Body life? Because our body is still so rebellious. Our unredeemed body is still not under any kind of bridle; we cannot manage it. Why? Because we are still short of reconstitution. We have been regenerated, and now we are being reconstituted. Our reconstitution has not reached that standard where we are able to control this unredeemed body.
We all have to see that to enter into chapter 12 of Romans, we must pass through chapter 8. If we are going to enter into the Body life, we must pass through the sonship. The sonship is just the building up of the organic union. We have been regenerated. We secured the organic union in our regeneration. But after securing the organic union we need to build it up. The building up is the sonship. When we are living practically as the sons of God, we are the members of Christ. The Head of this Body is the firstborn Son of God, and all the members of this Body are the many sons of God. They are the many brothers of the firstborn Son of God.
You have to see what the Body of Christ is. It is just a composition of the sons of God. The Body of Christ is totally just a composition of the divine life. The sons of God are just the expression of the divine life. The Son of God is the expression of the Father, the divine life, and we are the many sons; so we also are the expression of the divine life.
