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Scripture Reading: Titus 3:5; Rom. 6:19, 22; 2 Cor. 5:17; Gal. 6:15; 2 Cor. 4:16-17; Rom. 12:2b; 2 Cor. 4:10; Rom. 8:18; Eph. 4:23; Col. 3:10
According to the teaching of the New Testament, God’s salvation is altogether hinged on sanctification. We saw in the previous chapter that sanctification is the holding line in the carrying out of the divine economy and that this line begins from the seeking Spirit’s sanctification. The Spirit’s seeking us out is the initial work of the sanctifying Spirit. It is through sanctification that God carries out His economy.
God made an economy according to His desire. After He made this economy, He worked to carry it out. In this economy God purposely chose us to be holy, predestinating us unto sonship (Eph. 1:4-5). God’s choosing is to make us holy unto sonship, to make us holy to be His sons. God wanted man to be sanctified unto His sonship, and He carries this out through His sanctification.
After His choosing, God created the universe with man as the center. But after His creation man became fallen, and God applied His anticipated redemption in the Old Testament. Then in the New Testament time God came to be incarnated as a man, and this man is the God-man. God became a man to be our Shepherd. Luke 15 first tells us that the shepherd came (vv. 1-7). That indicates God’s incarnation. The Shepherd came through the way of God becoming a man, so this Shepherd is the God-man.
God not only became a man to shepherd us. In Luke 15 He is also the seeking woman, the woman who has lost a coin (vv. 8-10). Out of one hundred sheep, one became lost, so the shepherd went out to find it. The lost sheep that the shepherd went out to find was the lost coin that the woman sought. On the one hand, He is a God-man as the Shepherd to die for us on the cross. On the other hand, He is the woman, the Holy Spirit, to find the lost coin in a fine way by lighting a lamp and sweeping the house. This signifies the Spirit enlightening our heart and searching and cleansing our inward parts. Eventually, the lost coin was found by this woman. Christ in His first aspect is the Shepherd. Christ in His second aspect is the Spirit (2 Cor. 3:17). He is a life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45b). In His incarnation He became the Shepherd. In His resurrection He became the Spirit. It is this Spirit who comes to find us.
The salvation of God begins with this finding. This finding is the initial sanctifying work of the Spirit. The sanctifying work of the Spirit continues in us until we are glorified. Thus, sanctification by the Triune God is the holding line of God’s salvation. It is also the holding line of our spiritual experiences. Our first experience in our salvation was the seeking sanctification of the Spirit. The prodigal son in Luke 15 came to himself and repented because the seeking woman, typifying the Spirit, enlightened him and found him (vv. 17-20a). Our repentance came from the finding of the Spirit, and the finding of the Spirit is the Spirit’s sanctification. The finding of the Spirit was the cause, and our repentance was the result. Our final experience of sanctification will be our glorification, the transfiguration and redemption of our vile body. We are redeemed first in our spirit, then in our soul, and finally in our body (Rom. 8:23b). The redemption of our body is the full sonship of God.
After our repentance we believed and were regenerated. Regeneration is the initial step of the Spirit’s dispositional sanctification in the believers. Sanctification follows regeneration and continues through our whole life until we reach the redemption of our body.
This sanctifying Spirit is the sealing Spirit (Eph. 1:13). He seals us unto the redemption of our body. Ephesians 4:30 says that we were “sealed unto the day of redemption.” In my youth I thought the word unto meant “until.” This would mean that the Spirit seals us until our body will be redeemed. This, however is a wrong teaching. Unto does not mean “until.” Unto means “resulting in.” The Spirit’s sealing us results in the redemption of our body. Until refers to the matter of time. Unto, however, is a matter of result. The sealing of the Spirit results in the redemption of our body, which is the full sonship we will enter into with our glorification. Following regeneration is sanctification, and sanctification implies renewing, transformation, conformation, and glorification.
Renewing is a very fine work. Titus 3:5 shows how sanctification continues regeneration. This verse says that God saves us through the washing of regeneration and the renewing of the Holy Spirit. Regeneration is a great washing. We were created as the old man, and the old man became fallen. Even the best part of the old man is dirty and contaminated. It has been contaminated with sin, Satan, the world, and the flesh. So God came in to save us through regeneration, and this regeneration washes away the old creation with sin, Satan, the world, and the flesh.
This washing needs some continuation. Each morning we spend some time to wash ourselves thoroughly, but throughout the day we wash again and again. We wash our hands and face outwardly, and we wash our inward being by drinking water. Washing needs a continuation. Regeneration is a great washing, and our sanctification continues this washing. The first step of this continuation of our being sanctified is the renewing.
Renewing is the going on of the dispositional sanctification within the believers. Romans 6:19 and 22 prove that this sanctifying is going on. Sanctifying is a kind of renewing, and this renewing is going on every day and every moment through our entire Christian life. Verse 19 says that we should present our members “as slaves to righteousness unto sanctification.” This means that we should not let the members of our body do anything unrighteous. When we present the members of our body to righteousness, this results in sanctification. Verse 22 says that this sanctification leads us to eternal life. Righteousness, sanctification, and eternal life are covered in verses 19 and 22. How can we reach eternal life? We have to present our physical body in every way to righteousness, and this results in sanctification. Then sanctification leads us to eternal life.
Early in the morning we need to pray, “Lord, thank You for this day. I present myself as a burnt offering for Your satisfaction. Lord, keep me right the whole day.” Then this will be unto sanctification, and sanctification will lead us to eternal life. Romans 6:19 and 22 show us a continual renewing, a continual sanctification. Sanctification is the general term, and renewing is a specific term. In the sanctifying we have the renewing every day.
Second Corinthians 5:17 says, “So then if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old things have passed away; behold, they have become new.” On the one hand, God created the new creation. In God’s salvation everything is done once for all, but the application and continuation of what has been done are needed. According to 2 Corinthians 5:17, in God’s eyes we are a new creation already. But in our experience we are not yet fully new. In our experience there is a process.
In many things we are still old. The full-time training is to help us not just in knowing things but in being renewed. All the things in our environment should help us to be renewed. Every kind of inward correction is a renewing. Every kind of inward adjustment is a renewing. We need to be corrected and adjusted.
Before leaving the room where we are working, we may not return our chair to its original position under the desk or return the books to their proper place on the shelf from which we took them. Instead, we leave everything in a collapsed situation. This shows that we are short of renewing. When we are corrected again and again, we are renewed again and again. When we leave the room where we have been working, the things there should not be in a collapse but should be headed up in Christ. We need to be renewed in many small things. Every correction is a renewing. This renewing is to consummate God’s intention in making the believers His new creation.
Many of us are too rough; we are not so fine. In 1935 I was staying with a co-worker in Shanghai. Because we did not have modern conveniences where we were staying, we had to go to the kitchen to get some water for washing. When I brought this water from the kitchen to my room, I had to pass by my co-worker’s bed. When I passed by his bed, some drops of water spilled on his bed. That bothered me. I cleaned up the water, but I did not have the peace until I saw him and asked him to forgive me. This happened a number of times when we were staying together. Eventually, he said, “The worst thing is to sin and not confess. The best is not to sin. To make mistakes and apologize is in between the worst and the best.” I was disappointed and told the Lord, “Lord, I can never be the best. At the most I can only make mistakes and confess.” That experience with that brother renewed me. If I had been careless, I could have spilled a little water on the brother’s bed without being bothered. But if we are careless in our behavior, we will not be renewed. I am often corrected by the Lord within and renewed. I hope that we can learn to be so fine. We have to be trained both in truth and in life in this way.
Washing is a fine matter. In order to wash our hands properly, we have to wash them with soap in a fine way. The renewing in our experience is very fine. We must be washed and renewed finely. When we leave our desk, it should not be a mess, in a collapsed situation. We should clear up our desk, and it should be neat when we leave it. If our desk is a mess, that means we are still old; we need to be renewed. A renewed man would not live in such a way.
A number of years ago a brother went with me to the Philippines. One day some sisters cleaned this brother’s room, and they were very troubled. His room was a mess. They saw one of his socks upon a cup on the desk. I talked to this brother and told him, “We are workers for the Lord. If you are such a person, how could you work for the Lord?” If we are careless in our living, we will also be careless and rough in the way that we study the Bible. This brother was not a new man. A new man should be renewed, adjusted, corrected. Every mistake of ours belongs to our oldness. Why are we wrong? Because we are old. A new man is not wrong. A new man is always gentle, fine, and careful, especially in his relationships with others.
Even in our own rooms, we should learn the lesson to put everything in order. In order to experience the proper renewing for our growth in life, we must be very fine. Often after we have a good time with the Lord in prayer, we become a very fine person. Our time with the Lord causes us to be restricted. If we did not pray, we would be loose and rough. But after our prayer we do not have the peace to do certain things. This is according to our experience. How much we have grown in the Lord’s life is seen by how fine we are. If we are too rough and too fast in doing things, that is not the new man’s living.
Second Corinthians 4:16-17 says, “Therefore we do not lose heart; but though our outer man is decaying, yet our inner man is being renewed day by day. For our momentary lightness of affliction works out for us, more and more surpassingly, an eternal weight of glory.” The word decaying means “being consumed.” Our outer man is being consumed, but our inner man is being renewed. God washes and renews our new man by consuming our old man. The more we are consumed, the more we should be renewed.
Regretfully, I have seen a number of saints being consumed without being renewed. I saw some brothers in business make mistakes and lose much money. They suffered very much, but with them there was no growth in life. Actually, every loss should, on the one hand, consume our old man and, on the other hand, help to renew our inner man. We should be washed through our sufferings. To be washed is to be renewed, and to be renewed is to be transformed.
If we suffer because of our roommate, this should consume our outward being so that our inner man can be renewed. You may be a proud person, so God may match you with an unsatisfactory roommate. Every day this roommate becomes an instrument to consume you. God matched you with such a person for your renewing. God also matches a brother with a certain wife to consume him so that his inner man can be renewed. If a brother is being renewed, regardless of how his wife behaves, he will not complain. This is the real growth in life.
Romans 12:2b says that we need to be transformed by the renewing of the mind. This is a daily process, not a once-for-all matter. Our marriage life is part of this process for us to be transformed. Not one husband on this earth is perfect, and not one wife is completely satisfactory. In human terms we need to be adjusted. In spiritual terms we need to be renewed. With a renewed person there is no complaining, because he believes in God’s sovereignty. Things may be wrong, but the Lord will still bless us. As long as we have God’s blessing, everything will turn out for our good, that is, for our transformation and eventual conformation (8:28-29). We all have to learn the lesson to have ourselves daily and hourly processed by being consumed and renewed.
Our being renewed issues in a metabolic transformation. In metabolism some new element replaces and discharges the old element. Our renewing is always a transformation. After a period of time, others should be able to see some renewing in us. This means that there is a new situation in us, in our living and in our behavior. We need to be renewed in all the details of our daily life.
God has a purpose in consuming our sinful body. If we are too comfortable and if everything is satisfactory to us, be assured that we will sin more. Being consumed restricts us from sinning. Our sinful body and its animating soul cooperate to do bad things. The soul is animating our body. Without the soul, the body is dead. The soul actually is the doer to animate the evil body. That is why God raises up circumstances to consume us. He may use our weakness and sickness to consume us.
This consuming is always realized and accepted by us through the killing of the death of Christ. Second Corinthians 4:10 speaks of our “always bearing about in the body the putting to death of Jesus.” The putting to death is the killing. We need the killing of the death of Christ. We have a particular roommate because we need to be killed. A wife gets a particular husband because she needs to be killed. According to God’s ordination, there is no divorce. We must take the putting to death of Jesus, the killing of Jesus. Then we will be renewed and transformed.
The fine work carried out by the transformation of the sanctifying Spirit in us eventually works out our glorification (v. 17; Rom. 8:18). The extent to which we experience the Lord’s glory depends on how much consuming we have gone through, how much we have suffered. Our sufferings mean a lot in God’s purpose. All our sufferings are a help to our being glorified. Glorification is the result that comes out of our being consumed, our suffering. Romans 8:18 indicates that if we are going to be glorified, we have to suffer. To suffer is a condition, a spiritual term, that God made with us. We have to pay the price of suffering for glorification.
This is all involved with the matter of renewing. Among God’s people the suffering ones are new. Those who are always enjoying riches, good health, and a wonderful situation are doing well in a material and physical way, but spiritually they are old. The suffering ones day after day become something else because they are being renewed. We must go through the killing, the putting to death, of Jesus so that we can enter into His resurrection.
The renewing is accomplished in the spirit of our mind (Eph. 4:23). Our spirit is spreading into our mind. Romans 8:6 says that we need to set our mind on our spirit. Eventually, our spirit enters into our mind. Our spirit entering into our mind and our mind being set on the spirit are one thing. This means that our mind and our spirit now are one. It is in such a spirit that we are renewed all day. All day we have to set our mind on the spirit, and we have to have a strong spirit to invade our mind, to enter into our mind, so that our spirit and our mind are one. Then the spirit will take the lead, not the mind.
The renewing of the sanctifying Spirit consummates in the maturity of our new man. Colossians 3:10 says, “Put on the new man, which is being renewed unto full knowledge according to the image of Him who created him.” This is a very rich, all-inclusive word. On the one hand, we put on the new man; on the other hand, the new man is being renewed. This results in full knowledge according to the image of Him who created us. The new man was created in our spirit and is being renewed in our mind unto full knowledge according to the image of Christ. This renewing is according to the image of God, so it shapes us into the form of God. The renewing eventually will result in our conformation, causing us to have God’s appearance.
