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In the initial stage of God’s full salvation, after we have believed and been baptized, we are joined to the processed Triune God. We have believed into the Triune God and have been baptized into the Triune God; therefore, we have advanced one complete step in God’s salvation. Through this one complete step, faith and baptism, we are brought into the Triune God. Based on Matthew 28:19, we who have believed and have been baptized can boldly testify that we have been joined to the processed Triune God.
God the Father is the source of the divine Trinity. John 13:3 clearly reveals that the Son, Christ, came from the Father. Therefore, God the Father is His source. Furthermore, 1 Corinthians 6:19 reveals that the Holy Spirit also came from God, indicating that God the Father is also His source. God the Father, therefore, is the source of the divine Trinity. When the believers are joined to God the Father, they are joined to the source of the divine Trinity.
To be joined to God the Father man must first turn to Him through repentance (Acts 2:38; 26:18). To repent is to have a change of mind. Originally man’s mind was turned toward all the things other than God and was opposed to God. To be joined to God, man must first turn to Him from persons, affairs, and things other than God as well as from the authority of Satan. Unless man first turns to God, man has no way to be joined to God.
To be joined to God the Father man must not only turn to Him through repentance but also be put into Him through baptism (Matt. 28:19b). Man can only be joined to God the Father by being baptized into Him. “Baptized into” indicates union. When we are baptized, we are baptized into God the Father. To baptize people into God the Father is to bring people into a spiritual, mysterious, and organic union with Him. We, therefore, who have turned to Him through repentance and have been baptized into Him have been joined to God the Father.
When we, the believers, repented and believed, we were born of God the Father to become the children of God (John 1:12-13; James 1:18; 1 John 3:1). Because we have been born of God the Father, we have the divine life and nature (John 3:15; 2 Pet. 1:4) and have been united with God the Father in life and nature. This is to be joined to God the Father. Hence, when we turn to Him through repentance, are baptized into Him, and are born of Him, we are joined to God the Father.
The believers are joined not only to God the Father as the source of the divine Trinity but also to God the Son (Matt. 28:19b) as the embodiment of the processed Triune God. Colossians 2:9 says, “For in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily.” Here the Godhead refers to the Triune God— the Father, Son, and Spirit. All the fullness of the Triune God dwells in Christ as One who has a human body. Before His incarnation, the fullness of the Godhead dwelt in Him as the eternal Word, but not bodily. Since He became incarnate, clothed with a human body, the fullness of the Godhead began to dwell in a bodily way. After His death and resurrection, all the fullness of the Godhead dwells even the more in His glorified body (Phil. 3:21) unto eternity. Hence, Christ is the embodiment of the processed Triune God; all that the divine Trinity is, has, and has accomplished dwells in this all-inclusive Christ. When the believers are joined to God the Son, Christ, they are joined to the embodiment of the processed Triune God.
We, the believers, are joined to God the Son because God has first shined Him into our hearts (2 Cor. 4:6). When we heard the gospel, not only did we hear some preaching or teaching, but even more we received a divine illumination. This illumination enables us to know the gospel of the glory of Christ, which illuminates, radiates, and shines in our hearts so that we may know the gospel, receive Christ, and have an organic union with Christ.
When God shines Christ into our heart, He brings Christ into us that we may believe and receive Him as our life and everything (John 1:12; Col. 2:6a). Thus, Christ enters into us, His believers, to be joined to us.
When we heard the gospel, believed, and received Christ, God then revealed His Son, Christ, in us (Gal. 1:16). God’s revealing of His Son to us, the believers, is in us, not outwardly but inwardly; not by an outward vision but by an inward seeing. This is not an objective revelation but a subjective one, that we may know Him, receive Him as our life, and have an organic union with Him.
The believers not only need to believe and receive Him; they also need to be baptized into Him (Gal. 3:27a; Rom. 6:3a). To believe is to believe into Christ, and to be baptized is to be baptized also into Christ. By both faith and baptism the believers have been brought into Christ and immersed into Him, having thus been deeply joined to Him.
As many as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ (Gal. 3:27b). To put on Christ is to clothe ourselves with Christ. On the one hand, when we were baptized, we were baptized into Christ. On the other hand, when we were baptized, we also put on Christ. When we were baptized into Christ, we were baptized into Him as the Spirit. When we were baptized into Christ, spontaneously we put on Christ and were joined to Him as one.
We are joined to Christ because God has put us in Him (1 Cor. 1:30), transferring us from Adam into Christ (2 Cor. 5:17). This was accomplished through Christ’s crucifixion and resurrection (Gal. 2:20) and also through our faith and baptism (John 3:15; Gal. 3:26-28). “In Christ” indicates that the Triune God has passed through the process of incarnation, human living, crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension to accomplish a complete and full salvation that He may bring His redeemed people into an organic union with Himself, thus causing them to share with Him the same life, nature, and daily walk.
Since the believers are persons who are in Christ, they have been identified with Him in His all-inclusive death (Rom. 6:3b, 6a; Gal. 2:20a; Col. 2:20a). In His all-inclusive death Christ has dealt with sin, sins, the flesh, the old man, the old creation, and all the ordinances and customs that cause separations among men. All that He has accomplished through His death on the cross has become the practical, subjective experience of the believers by their having been identified with Him in His death. Now the believers are growing together with Him in the likeness of His death.
The believers have been identified with Christ not only in His death but also in His burial (Rom. 6:4a; Col. 2:12a). In His burial Christ terminated our flesh, self, and everything belonging to the self. When we are identified with Him in His burial, we are delivered from our flesh, self, sin, and the world. Furthermore, we are delivered from everything of the old creation and of Satan as well as from everything outside of God.
The believers not only have been identified with Him in His death and burial, to die and be buried together with Him, but they also have been made alive together with Him (Eph. 2:5; Col. 2:13b). God made the believers alive by imparting His eternal life, which is Christ Himself (Col. 3:4), into their dead spirit through His Spirit of life (Rom. 8:2). Thus He enlivened them that they might be identified with Christ in spirit.
We not only have been made alive together with Christ, but we also have been raised together with Him (Eph. 2:6a; Rom. 6:4b; Col. 2:12; 3:1a). To make us alive together with Christ is the initial step of God’s salvation in life. Following this, God raised us up together with Christ from the position of death. His resurrection was the germination of the new creation, that we who have believed in Him might become the sons of God (1 Pet. 1:3a; Heb. 2:10). His resurrection is proof that He has overcome death, including Satan, Hades, and the grave (Acts 2:24, 31; Heb. 2:14; Rev. 1:18). Since we have been raised together with Him, we triumph in Him.
We were not only raised together with Christ but also seated together with Him in the heavenlies (Eph. 2:6b), in the highest place in the universe. This is the third step of God’s salvation in life. God’s salvation is to save us to a position that is far above all the enemies of God. This is the highest position into which we have been brought in Christ. Hence, we have been identified with Christ in His death, His burial, His being made alive, His resurrection, and His ascension.
In Romans 11:17-24 Paul speaks about God having grafted us as branches from a wild olive tree into Christ as the cultivated olive tree. The believers have been grafted into Christ to be joined to Him. As a result of this grafting, the believers, as branches from the wild olive tree, and Christ, as the cultivated olive tree, grow together organically. Originally they were two trees, each having its own life; but now these trees have been grafted together, and these lives grow organically together and have one issue. The believers’ life is, therefore, a grafted life, a life in which two lives are grafted together to become one life, a life that is joined to Christ and grows organically with Him. Thus, by being grafted into the reality of Christ, the cultivated olive tree, the believers are joined to Christ.
God attaches the believers corporately unto Christ, the anointed One, to share together the anointing of Christ which He has received of God (2 Cor. 1:21; Heb. 1:9b). As God’s appointed One, Christ was anointed by God to accomplish God’s purpose and eternal plan. God has anointed Christ with Himself as the consummated Spirit, and He has attached all the believers unto this anointed One that they may share with Him in this anointing for the fulfillment of God’s eternal plan.
The believers are joined to Christ intimately to become one spirit with Him (1 Cor. 6:17). This indicates that the believers are in Him, and He in them. The believers have been organically mingled with Him and have become one with Him in life. Christ, as the embodiment of the Triune God, has passed through all the processes to become the Spirit (2 Cor. 3:17). Now this pneumatic Christ has entered into the believers and is mingled with their regenerated spirit to become one spirit. Thus, the believers are intimately joined to Christ to become one spirit with Him, never to be separated from Him.
The issue of the believers’ believing into Christ and being joined to Him is their exulting in Him (1 Pet. 1:8). Although they have not seen Him, they love Him; and in the proving of their faith they are able to exult in Him with unspeakable and glorified joy. This glorified joy is joy immersed in glory; hence, it is full of glory, that is, full of the Lord expressed. This is the manifest result of the believers’ being joined to Christ.
After we have believed and been baptized, we are joined to the processed Triune God. God the Father is the source of the divine Trinity, God the Son is the embodiment of the processed Triune God, and God the Spirit is the ultimate consummation of the processed Triune God. We, the believers, are joined to God the Father by turning to Him through repentance, by being baptized into Him, and by being born of Him to possess His divine life and nature; thus, we have an organic union with Him. We are joined to God the Son, Christ, by God the Father’s shining Him into our hearts, by our receiving Him, and by God’s revealing Him in us; thus, we are brought into an organic union with Him. Furthermore, through baptism we have been put into Him and have put Him on; we have been transferred by God into Him to be identified with Him in His death, His burial, His being made alive, His resurrection, and His ascension. We also have been grafted into Him, the cultivated olive tree, to grow together with Him organically; attached corporately unto Him, the anointed One, to share together the anointing which He has received of God; and intimately joined to Him to become one spirit, never to be separated from Him. As a result, we exult in Him with unspeakable and glorified joy that He may be expressed through us.
