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Scripture Reading: Rom. 5:10; 8:2, 4, 6; 12:2a; 6:19b, 22b; 12:2b; Col. 3:4; Rom. 12:1, 3-5; 8:29b, 11, 30c; Phil. 3:21; Rom. 8:23; 5:17; 16:20
To be saved in the divine life of Christ is something that is progressive. Many times fundamental Christians will ask people, “Have you been saved?” When I was asked this question more than fifty-five years ago, I would respond very emphatically by saying, “Yes, I certainly have been saved.” But if you ask me this same question today, I may say, “Well, it is hard to say. Yes, I have been saved in some areas, but there are still too many areas where I have not been saved.” We have been eternally saved from eternal perdition, eternal judgment, and eternal death in the lake of fire. But in terms of being released from the law of sin, we still have not been fully saved.
In Romans 7:15, 17, and 20, Paul says, “What I work out, I do not acknowledge; for what I will, this I do not practice; but what I hate, this I do...Now then it is no longer I that work it out but sin that dwells in me...But if what I do not will, this I do, it is no longer I that work it out but sin that dwells in me.” These verses indicate that the evil Paul practiced was due to the indwelling sin. Romans 7 is a matter of the indwelling sin, and Romans 8 is a matter of the indwelling Christ. Sin is the embodiment of Satan, and Christ is the embodiment of God. These two embodiments are within us. Christ as the embodiment of God is in our spirit, and sin as the embodiment of Satan is in our flesh.
Our loss of temper is an indication that we have not been released from the law of sin. We may seem to be very holy one moment, but after only a few minutes, we may lose our temper. When we lose our temper, the law of sin is operating within the members of our body. Thus, we have not been completely saved from the bondage, the slavery, of sin, the law of sin. On some occasions we experience being saved from the bondage of sin. But at other times we are defeated by the law of sin. At such times we, like Paul, may say, “Wretched man that I am!” (v. 24). When we have a more thorough knowledge of ourselves and the Lord’s way of saving us, we cannot boldly say that we are saved in everything. We can only say that we have been saved in some things. There are still many other things in which we have not yet been saved. Thus, the Christian life is a life of being saved continually.
Romans is a particular book because it contains many particular terms and subjects that are not covered in the other books of the New Testament. Justification, sanctification in life, transformation, and conformation are subjects that are unique to Paul’s Epistles. These subjects are stressed very much in the book of Romans. Phrases such as present your bodies (12:1), present your members as weapons (6:13), and crush Satan under your feet (16:20) are also unique and are used only in the book of Romans. It is very useful in studying Romans to collect all these particular terms, subjects, and phrases and to study them.
We, as God’s redeemed people, are saved in the divine life of Christ by the release of the law of the consummated Spirit from the bondage, the slavery, of sin, the law of sin (8:2). The law of the consummated Spirit is the means for the release from the bondage of sin. The release from the bondage, the slavery, of sin, the law of sin, is the goal of the law of the consummated Spirit. But in order for the law of the consummated Spirit to operate, there is the need of our cooperation by setting our mind on the mingled spirit (v. 6b) and by walking according to the mingled spirit (v. 4).
We also need to be saved in the divine life of Christ by the sanctification of the consummated Spirit from the present age of the world (12:2a; 6:19b, 22b). This consummated Spirit is the consummation of the processed Triune God. Through the steps of incarnation, human living, death, and resurrection, the Triune God was processed and consummated. Through the final step of resurrection, the process was completed, and the Spirit was consummated. This consummated Spirit can bring the divine life into us to regenerate us. Before incarnation the Spirit of God had no qualification or position to impart God’s life into us because our sins had not yet been dealt with according to God’s righteous requirements. This dealing was accomplished by Christ’s redemption. Before incarnation humanity had never been joined or mingled with divinity. Through incarnation, death, and resurrection, the Spirit of God became equipped and qualified to impart life to man and to save man in the divine life.
We need to be sanctified by the consummated Spirit, not by our strong will or mind, from the present age of this world. I may read the newspaper in order to realize something concerning the world situation. But when many of the sisters read the newspaper, they may immediately try to find information about the sales in the department stores. These sales are something of the age of this world. We need to be saved from the present age of this world. To be occupied with different department store sales annuls our being holy and promotes our being common, worldly, and modern according to the style of this world. We need to be saved from the style of this world by a holy separation.
To be sanctified is to be made holy by being separated from the present age of the world. To love the world is to love to be modern. All the department stores display the modern articles of this age. We may think that we are holy, but we must ask whether or not the way we comb our hair or the way we dress ourselves is modern.
In order to be saved, we need to be separated unto God by being sanctified by the consummated Spirit through our cooperation by not being conformed to this age (12:2a). All of us have a tendency to be modern. Therefore, we must cooperate with the Lord by not being conformed to this age. God has prepared and accomplished everything for us, but He still needs our cooperation. A hungry little child must cooperate with its mother at feeding time by opening up its mouth to receive the food. In order for us to be sanctified, we must cooperate by not being conformed to this age. We must hate any conformation to the modern age of this world.
Many times we do not have time for the things of the Lord because we give too much time to being modern. We may spend half an hour to comb our hair, when we could comb our hair in two minutes. In Shanghai some years ago, I told the sisters that they needed to spend time in the morning to study the Bible. Many replied that they were too busy and that they did not have enough time. But I discovered that many of the sisters spent much time in front of the mirror combing their hair. Having made this discovery, I asked them to reduce their time in front of the mirror to five minutes and to give more time to the study of the Bible in morning watch.
We must be sanctified from the present age of this world. I say this not because I want to remain ignorant of the world situation. Although I know the world situation and world history, I do not want to be modern or to be conformed to the modern age. Rather, I want to be transformed by the Spirit.
We are saved in the divine life by the sanctification of the consummated Spirit through our cooperation by presenting ourselves as slaves to God and our members as slaves to righteousness (6:22b, 19b). To offer our bodies in a general way is not adequate. We have to offer our members particularly. We must offer our hands, eyes, feet, even every one of our members, as weapons to righteousness (v. 13).
We are saved in the divine life of Christ from our natural being by the transformation of the life-giving Spirit (12:2b). Transformation is not merely a change in outward appearance. Transformation is an inward, metabolic change, which involves something organic. Suppose I am pale in my facial color. I can put different colors on my face in order to change the color of my face. That would be a change, not a transformation, of the color of my face.
Transformation is an entirely different thing. Transformation is a metabolic change. This metabolic change includes the introduction of something organic into a living entity, thereby causing an inward change. Such a metabolic change is the addition into our being of a new substance that, on the one hand, nourishes our being with new elements and, on the other hand, discharges the old things from our being. The old things are discharged, and the new elements are mingled with our being. This causes a metabolic change. Paul uses the word transform in order to stress the need of an organic change. This organic change is brought about by the divine element being added into our being to discharge the elements of our old nature and to supply us with new elements. We are transformed by the life-giving Spirit from our natural being. You may be a person who is very nice, mild, and kind by birth. Everyone may like you. But you have to realize that this is your natural being, and it must be transformed.
Transformation is by the renewing of our mind (v. 2b). Formerly, our mind was set on the flesh. Now, we must change the position of our mind by setting it on the spirit. The mind set on the spirit is life and peace (8:6). Changing the position of our mind will transform our mind.
We are transformed by the metabolism in the element of the divine life (Col. 3:4). Christ is our life. In any kind of organic life there is an organic element. Christ is the organic element that grows within us and transforms us.
We are saved in the divine life of Christ from individualism by being built in the Body of Christ (Rom. 12:5). Today on the earth there are very few Christians who have been built into the Body of Christ. All of us are still on the way of being built in the Body of Christ. We are still too individualistic. There is a certain percentage of individualism that still remains in us.
We are built in the Body of Christ and saved from individualism by presenting our bodies a living sacrifice (v. 1) and by not thinking more highly of ourselves than what we are (v. 3). This is not so easy. Most of the troubles in the church life mainly come from thinking more highly of ourselves than what we are.
We are saved in the divine life of Christ from self-likeness by the conformation of the life-imparting Spirit (8:29b). This is another aspect of the Spirit. Whether we are bad or good, nice or rough, we still bear our self-likeness. Therefore, we need conformation through transformation into the very image of the Son of God. This conformation is for the maturity in the divine life.
The issue of our being saved in the divine life of Christ is transfiguration, in the virtue of the divine life, from our body of humiliation (v. 30c; Phil. 3:21; Rom. 8:11). The transfiguration of our body is the redemption of our body through the indwelling Spirit. When the indwelling Spirit saturates us thoroughly, our body will be redeemed. The saturation of our body with the Spirit will be the transfiguration of our body. A white cotton ball being saturated with red ink is a good illustration of this. When red ink is injected into the center of the ball, the ink will saturate the entire ball from within. As more ink is injected into the center of the ball, the entire ball will eventually be saturated. At that time the cotton ball will be “transfigured.” The white ball of cotton will have become a red ball of cotton. In the same way our body will be transfigured and redeemed by the saturating Spirit.
The transfiguration from our body of humiliation is by the redeeming of our body through the indwelling Spirit as the firstfruits, the foretaste (v. 23). Actually, the Spirit as the firstfruits is the Spirit as the foretaste. We have the Spirit indwelling us as the foretaste of God, but this indwelling Spirit is not the full taste of God; He is just the foretaste of what God is to us. God is our portion, but in this age we can have only a foretaste. The Spirit as the firstfruits is the Spirit as our foretaste of God as our portion.
Transfiguration is not only by the redeeming of our body through the indwelling Spirit but also by the saturation of our body of humiliation with the glory, the expression of the divine splendor, of the divine life. The transfiguration of our body will not be an accident. It will be the issue of maturity, the completion of the full saturation of the indwelling Spirit.
The seed of a carnation flower has the life of a carnation within it. But if it remains on top of the soil, the life within the seed is concealed. The life is there, but the glory of its life has not been manifested. When the seed is sown into the earth, it grows and grows until blossoms appear. The blossoms are the glory of the carnation seed. That glory is the expression of the splendor of that carnation seed. The glory is the transfiguration of the carnation seed.
When He was on the earth, Christ was the seed of life. The divine life was concealed within Him. Through death and resurrection He was glorified. The splendor of the divine life came out to be expressed. With the resurrected Christ there was the expression of the divine splendor, the expression of the divine life. That expression is the glory.
When we are saved in the divine life by being released, sanctified, transformed, conformed, and transfigured, we can reign in the divine life (5:17). The more we live and are saved in the divine life, the more we exercise the kingship and reign in the divine life. The divine life is kingly and royal. The overcomers will be co-kings with Christ in the millennium (Rev. 20:4, 6) because they will be saturated and swallowed up by the divine life. Because they are full of life, they become the embodiment of life, and they will also have the kingship in full. They reign because they are full of life. The matter of reigning in the divine life is referred to by John (vv. 4, 6) and is also one of the particular items stressed in Paul’s writings (Rom. 5:17; 2 Tim. 2:12).
For the accomplishing of the building up of the organic Body of Christ to fulfill the New Testament economy of God, we rule as kings over sin, the world, Satan, the natural man, the self, and individualism by the receiving of the abundance of grace through Christ. As one who has been laboring for the Lord for many years, I have discovered that the hardest thing to do is to build up the Body of Christ. In order to build up the Body, we must overcome sin, the world, Satan, our natural man, the self, and individualism by the divine life. When we are such persons, the Lord will then have a way through us to build up His organic Body. This building will fulfill the New Testament economy of God.
By receiving the abundance of grace, we reign in life (Rom. 5:17). Grace is the divine life for our experience and enjoyment. The abundance of grace is just the abundance of the riches of the divine life.
The result of all the items by which we are saved in the divine life is the victory over Satan (16:20). Satan will be crushed under our feet. Satan is crushed, and we have God as our peace and Christ as our grace. We have such a life in which we enjoy the peace of God, which is God Himself, and the grace of the Lord, which is the Lord Himself.
