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Scripture Reading: Gal. 1:16; 4:19; 2 Cor. 3:18; 1 Cor. 15:51-55; Phil. 3:21; 1 John 3:2
God’s eternal purpose is to gain a group of people to be the many brothers of His Son, the Firstborn, so that they may have the life and the image of His Son to express the glory of His Son in all things (Rom. 8:29-30). This is the goal and the ultimate purpose in both God’s creation and His redemption. Although God’s redemption deals with sin, sins, the old creation, and Satan, dealing with these things is not the purpose of His redemption. Rather, these necessary measures are part of the procedure for God to fulfill His purpose. For example, even though dealing with Satan is related to God’s purpose, it fulfills God’s purpose as it relates to negative matters; however, it is not the positive goal of God’s redemption. God’s ultimate purpose in its positive sense is to work His life into us to conform us to the image of His Son, that is, to make us exactly the same as His Son in life and nature.
The ultimate issue of our appropriation of God’s redemption is to be transformed into the image of the Son, Christ (2 Cor. 3:18). When we appropriate God’s redemption, we receive forgiveness of sins, peace, and other blessings. However, these are secondary blessings; they are not the ultimate issue of our appropriation of God’s redemption. The ultimate purpose of God’s redemption is to conform us to the image of His Son; hence, the ultimate issue of our appropriation of God’s redemption is that we are transformed into the image of Christ.
God’s redemption takes the life of God as the center, and it takes the image of Christ as the goal. The central significance of God’s redemption is to appropriate the life of God, and the ultimate issue of our appropriation is to bear the image of the Son. Furthermore, when our living appropriates God’s redemption, the life of God is the source of our living. Such a living issues in our being transformed into the image of Christ. The ultimate issue of our appropriation of God’s redemption is that we are transformed fully into the image of Christ.
When we believe and receive the Lord as our Savior, we begin to appropriate God’s redemption, and God begins to reveal His Son in us. When we believe, God forgives our sins, justifies us, and bestows other blessings on us, but the central work of God in His salvation is to reveal His Son in us (Gal. 1:16). All the items in God’s salvation, whether it is the forgiveness of sins, justification, regeneration, or renewing, are for the purpose of revealing His Son in us. God reveals His Son in us in order for us to be transformed and conformed to the image of Christ.
In the process of our appropriation of God’s redemption, God works in us so that Christ would grow in us gradually. As we appropriate God’s redemption and live in the life of God, the Spirit of life will eliminate the things in us that are contrary to God’s image, thus, giving more ground for the Son to grow in us. Then the Spirit can cause Christ to grow in us. If we are willing to remain in the position of consecration, allowing God to work in us continually through His Spirit and with His life, He will work in us so that His revealed Son is formed in us (4:19). Thus, we will bear the image of Christ.
After we begin to appropriate God’s redemption by faith and receive the Lord, the central purpose of all the work of God in us is for Christ to grow and be formed in us. This process requires our cooperation to allow Him to work in us freely. If we want to continue to appropriate God’s redemption beyond our initial salvation, we must hand ourselves over to God through consecration, allowing Him to work in us and on us as He pleases. With our consecration He will remove little by little the things in us that do not match Christ, and He will work everything of Christ into our being until He is formed in us, and we bear His image in a full way.
In this process God will expose the things in us that do not match Christ and that hinder the growth of Christ in us. If we are faithful and remain in the position of consecration, allowing Him to work in us, He will remove these things one by one so that Christ will gain more ground to grow and be formed in us.
In our appropriation of God’s redemption, God’s focus is on how much we allow Christ to grow and be formed in us. If we see this, we will not mistake improvement in our behavior, better control of our temper, or our good works as being spiritual progress. Spiritual progress is nothing else than the growth of Christ in us, the increase of His element in us. Nothing else should be considered to be spiritual progress. Only the growth of Christ in us, the increase of His element in us, is genuine spiritual progress. Therefore, we must allow God to work in us so that Christ can grow in us.
When we first begin to appropriate God’s redemption, God reveals His Son through the Spirit in our spirit to be our life (1:16; John 3:6). From that point until now, God’s work through the Spirit is focused on working the life of His Son in our spirit into our entire being.
When we were redeemed by God initially, we received Christ in our spirit as life, but Christ as life was not in our soul. Our spirit was constituted with the life and nature of the Son because we were joined to the Lord as one spirit. However, the element of the Son was not present in the parts of our soul—the mind, emotion, and will. As a result, our mind, emotion, and will could not express the image of the Son. When we appropriate God’s redemption, receive the Spirit—the transfiguration of Christ—in our spirit, and consecrate to allow God to continue His work in us, the element of Christ will spread from our spirit into the parts of our soul. In our position of consecration God will continually work the element of Christ from our spirit into the parts of our soul—our mind, emotion, and will—so that the image of Christ can be expressed through the parts of our soul.
After being saved, a brother may be very zealous, but there may be no flavor of the Lord in his mind; that is, his reasonings and thoughts are full of his own element. Thus, without the element of the Lord in his mind, there is no expression of the image of the Lord through his reasonings and thoughts. Likewise, after being saved, a sister’s conduct can be very good, but there may be no flavor of the Lord in her emotion; that is, her desires reflect only her element. Thus, without any element of the Lord in her desires, there is no expression of the image of the Lord through her desires. Still others may have much spiritual pursuit after being saved, but there is no place for the Lord in their will; that is, all their decisions come from themselves instead of from the Lord. Consequently, there is no sense or flavor of the Lord with them. It is possible to receive Christ as the Spirit in our spirit but not allow God to work the element of Christ from our spirit into the parts of our soul—the mind, emotion, and will. Although we have Christ in our spirit, we may not have His element in the parts of our soul. In order to bear the image of Christ so that people sense the flavor of God in our mind, emotion, and will, we must offer ourselves unconditionally to God so that He can work the element of Christ from our spirit into all the parts of our soul through His Spirit. When we are willing to allow God to work in us in such a way, we will not only have the life and nature of Christ in our spirit but also the element and flavor of Christ in our soul. Then we will bear the image of Christ, and people will sense the flavor of Christ in our thoughts, preferences, and decisions.
Our mind, emotion, and will are full of our own element. We live by our mind, emotion, and will, and we express our mind, emotion, and will. These parts are full of our element and express only us. However, God wants our whole being to be filled with His Son to express His Son. His first step is to reveal His Son in our spirit. His second step is to work from our spirit into our soul so that the parts of our soul, which we now live according to, may be filled with the element of His Son and express the image of His Son. Consequently, God must deal with our mind, emotion, and will.
Hence, after we are saved, God renews our mind (Rom. 12:2), delivering our reasonings and thoughts from earthly things in order to mind the things of Christ. He also brings the arrogant and self-exalting thoughts in our mind unto the obedience of Christ (2 Cor. 10:5), renewing our mind from our old thoughts in order to have the mind of Christ (1 Cor. 2:16). God not only purifies our mind but also fills our mind with the element of His Son. Through His renewing, all the activities of our mind, whether thoughts, considerations, or realizations, will express the image of His Son.
After we are saved, God also touches our emotion so that our desire would be inclined toward Christ. Thus, God delivers our emotion out of the realm of earthly things to focus on His Son, and He also deals with our emotion so that its love will match Christ’s love. In this way He causes our emotion to be filled with the element of Christ so that our inclinations, preferences, delight, anger, sorrow, and joy will express the image of Christ.
Furthermore, after we are saved, God also deals with our will, causing our will to not only choose and obey Christ but even to make the choices and decisions of Christ our choices and decisions. In this way God not only breaks, subdues, and purifies our will but also fills our will with the element of Christ. Thus, the actions of our will in our decisions, choices, and judgments will be those of Christ, expressing the image of Christ.
We have Christ as our life in our spirit. Now the primary work of God in us is to work the life of Christ in our spirit into the parts of our soul and eventually to spread to our body.
If we are willing to allow the life and element of Christ to spread from our spirit into our soul, the life of Christ will spread further into our body. Romans 8:10 speaks of Christ being in us and of our spirit being life because of righteousness. Then verse 11 says, “If the Spirit of the One who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who indwells you.” This makes our mortal and weak body living and strong.
Our body is mortal and weak because of the damage of sin. It is especially weak and powerless in the matters of living for the Lord and of doing the Lord’s will. From experience we know that our body is unable to meet our needs in relation to spiritual matters (Matt. 26:41). Sometimes our body is weak and powerless, and sometimes the functions of our body are dull and unresponsive. This is because our body has been damaged by sin and is under the weakness that comes through the operation of death. Sin brings in death, and death causes weakness. When sin entered our body, it brought the element of death into our body, making our body and its members full of weakness. This is our condition.
Now, however, we are joined to the Lord in our spirit through the Spirit, making our spirit alive and even life itself (Eph. 2:5; Rom. 8:10). If we allow the Spirit to work in us continually, the life of Christ in our spirit will spread into every part of our being. The Spirit who indwells us will surely cause the life of Christ, which is the resurrection power of Christ, to spread into our body of death and weakness, making our mortal and weak body living and strong (v. 11). Thus, our body will be able to meet our needs in relation to spiritual matters, and it will be filled with the life of Christ, expressing the resurrection power of Christ and giving people a sense of Christ in us.
It is not uncommon for some brothers and sisters to be unable to hear spiritual things with their ears, to understand and remember spiritual things with their mind, or to have the physical strength to meet a spiritual need. However, when these brothers and sisters consecrate themselves to the Lord and allow the Spirit to work in them, the Lord’s life in their spirit will operate and spread into every part of their being. Their ears and mind will be keen to hear and understand spiritual things, and their physical strength will be adequate to meet the practical needs associated with carrying out spiritual matters. The Spirit causes the Lord’s life to spread from our spirit into our body so that our weak and powerless body can be strong and powerful. Thus, the divine life will not only fill our spirit but also our soul and body. Then our whole being will begin to express the image of Christ to the extent that this life spreads in us.
As we continually appropriate the redemption of God and allow God to work in us, Christ will spread outward from our spirit and be expressed in us, and we will be transformed and conformed to His image (2 Cor. 3:18; Rom. 8:29). When we allow God to work in us through the Spirit, we will be transformed into the image of the Lord from glory to glory.
When we are transformed to this extent, our spirit will be joined as one with the Lord, our soul will bear His image, and our body will glorify Him. In such a condition of maturity, we will be ready to be transfigured. The ultimate manifestation of our appropriation of the redemption of God will be the transfiguration of the body of our humiliation to be conformed to the body of His glory.
Through the work of the Spirit, our spirit and every part of our soul will be transformed into the image of Christ, and our body will be made living, strong, keen, and powerful through its transfiguration. We have not yet put off the old creation completely, because our body and its humiliation are still part of the old creation. Nevertheless, the Lord will carry out this final step when the body of our humiliation is transfigured to be “conformed to the body of His glory, according to His operation by which He is able even to subject all things to Himself” (Phil. 3:21). At that time we will be exactly the same as Christ from center to circumference; that is, our spirit, soul, and body will be full of His element. We will have His life and nature inwardly, and we will express His image outwardly, fulfilling God’s eternal plan.
God’s eternal plan is to gain many people, who have the life of the Firstborn and bear His image, to be the many brothers of the Firstborn. From God’s revealing of His Son in our spirit through faith to the transfiguration of our body in glory, all God’s work in us is directed toward the goal of conforming us to the image of His Son.
When the Lord transfigures our body to be like His body of glory, His goal will be accomplished, and His eternal plan will be fulfilled. At that time Christ will lead many sons into glory, and we will be freed from the slavery of corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of God (Rom. 8:21). As those who have the life and the image of Christ and who have entered into the glory and freedom of Christ, we will be like Him and be manifested together with Him in glory as His glorious partners in whom He is fully expressed.
At that time, just as Christ has the divine life and nature as well as the human life and nature in glory, we also will have the divine life and nature as well as the human life and nature in glory. Just as Christ expresses the glory of His divinity in His humanity, we also will express the glory of His divinity in our humanity. Just as God is expressed in the Son, the Son will also be expressed in us.
The expression of the Son in us is simply the expression of God in His Son in us. At that time we will express Christ in glory. This is the purpose of God’s redemption and the issue of our appropriation of God’s redemption. May we all see this and take this as the goal of our pursuit.
