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In the progressing stage of God’s full salvation, the stage of transformation, by the dispensing of the Divine Trinity, that is, by the infusing and transfusing of the riches of the processed Triune God, the believers serve and worship God, work and labor for the Lord, do not love the world, overcome Satan the devil, fight the good fight, and run the course of the race. It is possible for us to teach and endeavor to practice these matters without touching the source of the strength, energy, and capability to carry them out. The source is the enjoyment of the dispensing of the processed Triune God into our being. For this reason, we need to contact the Divine Trinity. We need to stay in His presence, fellowship with Him, and even pray with fasting in order to receive more dispensing of the divine essence.
Serving and worshipping God, working and laboring for the Lord, not loving the world, overcoming Satan, fighting the good fight, and running the course of the race all belong to one category of the believers’ experience of the dispensing of the Divine Trinity. In this lesson we come to a second category—being profited by all things in our circumstances and environments. Day by day we encounter many environments and face many persons, matters, and things. According to God’s design and arrangement, all these persons, matters, and things are used by Him for our good. Therefore, we are profited by all things in our circumstances and environments.
Romans 8:28 says, “We know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.” All things refers to all matters, persons, and things. Our Father knows what we need. In His sovereignty He causes all things, all matters, and all persons to work together for good to those who love Him, to those who have been called by Him to the end that He may fulfill His purpose.
The believers have been called by God according to His purpose. God’s purpose is His plan, and His plan is that we be conformed to the image of His Son so that He would be the Firstborn among many brothers (v. 29). God has put us into Christ, who is the prototype, the model, the mold, and the pattern, so that we may be molded into the image of God’s firstborn Son. In this way, we become the mass production of God’s firstborn Son. This is our destiny. However, this destiny cannot be fulfilled without the divine arrangement causing all things to work together for our good. We are not yet fully in the image of the firstborn Son of God. Hence, God the Father is causing all things to work together for our good so that His purpose of having many sons conformed to the image of the firstborn Son may be fulfilled.
In order to be brought into full sonship we need to grow. No doubt, growth comes from inward nourishment, but this nourishment needs the coordination of the outward environment. Hence, there is the need of God’s sovereignty to arrange our environment so that all things may work together for our good according to His purpose. However, we still need to cooperate with Him by loving Him. If we do not love God, all things will not work together for our good, even though we have been called by Him. Whether or not all persons, matters, and things in our environment work to our good depends on whether or not we love God. If we love Him, He will cause all things to work together for our good.
Once God loves us, He loves us forever with an eternal love. Nothing can separate us from the love of God. We are His beloved, and sooner or later we all will be sanctified, transformed, conformed, and glorified. Hence, Paul said, “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation or anguish or persecution or famine or nakedness or peril or sword?...For I am persuaded that neither death nor life nor angels nor principalities nor things present nor things to come nor powers nor height nor depth nor any other creature will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (vv. 35, 38-39). Paul wrote in Christ Jesus our Lord because he knew that there would be a problem if the love of God was separated from Christ Jesus. Apart from Christ Jesus, even a little sin would separate us from the love of God. However, because the love of God is in Christ Jesus, everything is insured; we are assured that nothing can separate us from the love of God.
God’s love is the fountain, the root, and the source. God’s love is the source of His eternal salvation, which includes redemption, justification, reconciliation, sanctification, transformation, conformation, and glorification. Love is the source of all that God does for us. Moreover, the love of God is also the security of our salvation. Our security is not only God’s righteousness, holiness, and glory. Our security is His love. Righteousness is the way of God, holiness is the nature of God, glory is the expression of God, and love is the heart of God and the issue of His heart. Before God exercised His righteousness, holiness, and glory, He loved us. Therefore, in Romans, after speaking of God’s righteousness, holiness, and glory, Paul brings us into God’s heart of love. Today like Paul, we can be persuaded that nothing can separate us from the love of God, for this love is not derived from us nor does it depend on us; this love depends on God and was initiated by God in eternity.
Instead of being defeated by the environment, the believers more than conquer in all things because God loves them (v. 37). Our conquering is altogether a matter of God’s love. Through our loving One we can be conquerors, conquering all negative things, even death.
Paul expected that in nothing he would be put to shame; that is, he would not be defeated by his environment, whether through life or through death, but rather that Christ would be magnified in him (Phil. 1:20). No matter what he faced—to continue living or to be martyred—Paul expected to magnify Christ. Paul magnified Christ in his living; this is to magnify Christ through life. He also magnified Christ as he was expecting to be martyred; this is to magnify Christ through death. Thus, whether through life or through death, Christ was magnified in Paul’s body.
For Christ to be magnified is for Him to be shown or declared great without limitation, for Him to be exalted, and extolled. Therefore, to magnify Christ is to express Christ without limitation, to make known to others that the Christ who lives in us is unlimited. As we express, exhibit, exalt, and extol Christ, we become a living witness of Christ, testifying of His immeasurable ability, power, patience, love, and wisdom. We should all be a magnifying glass of Christ so that others may see Christ magnified through us. Our ability to magnify Christ depends on the experience of the dispensing of the processed Triune God. The dispensing of the Divine Trinity always causes Christ to be magnified in our body.
As believers we are persecuted for the sake of righteousness. Matthew 5:10 says, “Blessed are those who are persecuted for the sake of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of the heavens.” The whole world lies in the evil one and is filled with unrighteousness (1 John 5:19). Every aspect of the world is unrighteous, but the kingdom is absolutely a matter of righteousness. If we do not remain in righteousness, we are outside the kingdom of the heavens; but if we stay in righteousness, we are in the kingdom of the heavens. When we are righteous, we will be condemned, opposed, and persecuted. If we hunger and thirst after righteousness, we need to pay a price, for the righteousness that we seek is the kingdom of the heavens. Suffering for the sake of righteousness is a condition for participating in the kingdom of the heavens. If we seek righteousness at a cost, the kingdom of the heavens becomes ours. We are in the reality of the kingdom of the heavens now, and we will be rewarded with its manifestation in the coming age. In order to be in the kingdom of the heavens, we need surpassing righteousness, the righteousness on the highest plane (Matt. 5:20). Therefore, we need to hunger and thirst after righteousness and to suffer persecution for the sake of righteousness.
When the believers live a life for the kingdom of the heavens, in its spiritual nature and according to its heavenly principles, they will be reproached, persecuted, and evil spoken of, mostly by religious people who hold to their traditional religious concepts. The Jewish religionists did all these things to the apostles in the early days of the kingdom of the heavens (Acts 5:41; 13:45, 50; 2 Cor. 6:8; Rom. 3:8). This is also true today. If we seek Christ and follow Him, many in religion will rise up against us. In Matthew 5:11 the Lord Jesus said, “Blessed are you when they reproach and persecute you, and while speaking lies, say every evil thing against you because of Me.” Verse 12 is an encouraging word to those who are persecuted for His sake: “Rejoice and exult, for your reward is great in the heavens; for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.” Our reward is great, and it is in the heavens. It is a heavenly reward, not an earthly one.
First Peter 4:14 says, “If you are reproached in the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the Spirit of glory and of God rests upon you.” As believers, we have believed into Christ (John 3:15) and have been baptized into His name (Acts 19:5), that is, into Christ (Gal. 3:27). Therefore, we are in Christ (1 Cor. 1:30) and are one with Him (6:17). When we are reproached in His name, we are reproached with Him, sharing His sufferings (1 Pet. 4:13), in the fellowship of His sufferings (Phil. 3:10).
According to Peter’s word we should not think that it is a curse to be reproached in the name of Christ. On the contrary, this is to be blessed because the Spirit of glory, that is, the Spirit of God, will rest upon us. In His resurrection, Christ was glorified through the Spirit of glory (Rom. 1:4). This very Spirit of glory, being the Spirit of God, rests upon the suffering believers in their persecution for the glorification of the resurrected and exalted Christ, who is now in glory. The more we suffer and are persecuted, the more glory there will be upon us. Therefore, we should rejoice when we are reproached in the name of Christ.
When we experience the dispensing of the Divine Trinity, we will rejoice that we are counted worthy to be dishonored on behalf of the name of Jesus. In Acts the apostles were beaten and charged not to speak in the name of Jesus (5:40). But “they went from the presence of the Sanhedrin, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to be dishonored on behalf of the Name” (v. 41). This shows that it is a real honor to be dishonored on behalf of the name of the man-dishonored but God-honored Jesus. Hence, we can rejoice that we are counted worthy of being dishonored on behalf of the name of Jesus.
Through the experience of the divine dispensing of the Triune God, we can also “boast in our tribulations” (Rom. 5:3). Our natural being needs to be sanctified, transformed, and conformed; consequently, God brings in certain tribulations and sufferings for our good (8:28-29). We may appreciate peace, grace, and glory but not tribulation. Tribulation is actually the incarnation of grace with all the riches of Christ. This is similar to the incarnation of God in Jesus. Apparently, He was simply the man Jesus; actually, He was God. Apparently, our environment is tribulation; actually, it is grace. This means that to reject tribulation is to reject grace. Grace—God as our portion for our enjoyment—often visits us in the form of tribulation. If we realize this and experience the dispensing of the processed Triune God, we will boast in our tribulations.
As believers, we are those who have been called by God. God’s calling includes not only enjoyment but also suffering. Our destiny in God’s calling includes both the enjoyment of Christ as the embodiment of the processed Triune God and also the suffering of Christ. First Peter 2:19-21 says, “This is grace, if anyone, because of a consciousness of God, bears sorrows by suffering unjustly. For what glory is it if, while sinning and being buffeted, you endure? But if, while doing good and suffering, you endure, this is grace with God. For to this you were called, because Christ also suffered on your behalf, leaving you a model so that you may follow in His steps.” We have been called to suffer with Christ, to suffer what He suffered, so that in suffering we may have the enjoyment of God as grace and express Him. Whatever the circumstances may be, God is our grace, our inner enjoyment. This enjoyment motivates us and then becomes our outward expression, an expression that is visible to others. Those who observe this grace, which is expressed from within us, will be able to see something attractive on our face, in our attitude, or in the atmosphere around us. Our living will become gracious and acceptable in the sight of both God and man.
As believers, we have been appointed for afflictions. To suffer afflictions is our destiny because this is God’s ordination. In 1 Thessalonians 3:3 Paul encourages the believers not to be “shaken by these afflictions; for you yourselves know that we are appointed for this.” If we are established in the faith, afflictions will do good for us according to God’s purpose in His appointment.
In Matthew 10:28 the Lord Jesus said, “Do not fear those who kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul; but rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in Gehenna.” God is the only One who is able to destroy both the soul and the body in Gehenna. If we are sent by the Lord and fail to endure persecution, we will be disciplined by God. This will take place at the Lord’s return (2 Cor. 5:10; Rev. 22:12). We should not fear man’s persecution. Matthew 10:29-31 says that not one sparrow will fall to the earth without our Father’s permission, but even the hairs of our head are all numbered by our Father; therefore, we should not fear, because we are of more value than many sparrows.
By experiencing the dispensing of the processed Triune God, the believers in affliction enjoy the peace of Christ who has overcome the world. The Lord Jesus said, “These things I have spoken to you that in Me you may have peace. In the world you have affliction, but take courage; I have overcome the world” (John 16:33). In this world there are only trouble and persecution. But the Lord died and resurrected so that we can have peace in Him. No matter how much this world troubles and persecutes us, we do not need to worry, nor do we need to fear, because the Lord has overcome the world. The Lord is the peace that we enjoy in affliction.
Peter says that the suffering we experience will usher us into perfection today and into glory in the future. “The God of all grace, He who has called you into His eternal glory in Christ Jesus, after you have suffered a little while, will Himself perfect, establish, strengthen, and ground you” (1 Pet. 5:10). We like to have perfection and receive glory without suffering. However, God knows how much suffering we need. Therefore, He arranges everything sovereignly so that we may suffer in order to be perfected in this age and glorified in the coming age.
God is the God of all grace. In His economy and according to the many steps of the divine operation on us and within us, He ministers to us the riches of the bountiful supply of the divine life in many aspects. The initial step is to call us, and the consummate step is to glorify us. Between these two steps are God’s loving care while He is disciplining us and His perfecting, establishing, strengthening, and grounding work within us. If we are persecuted, the God of grace will perfect, establish, strengthen, and ground us after we suffer a little while. Therefore, in the persecution we should be encouraged by this fact, because our God is the God of all grace. He has called us into eternal glory, a glory that is unlimited in both space and time. Furthermore, in this verse Peter also says that our sufferings are only for a little while, but God’s glory is eternal. Through suffering persecution, we are perfected, and we will eventually be ushered into glory.
As believers, day by day we encounter many environments and face many persons, matters, and things. According to God’s design and arrangement, all these persons, matters, and things are used by God to work together for good to those who love Him, that is, to those who have been called by Him so that He may fulfill His purpose, which is to conform us to the image of His Son that He may be the Firstborn among many brothers. No person, matter, or thing can separate us from the love of God—the love of Christ. God’s love is the fountain, the root, and the source. Hence, God’s love is the security of our salvation. In all things we more than conquer through Him who loved us. We should not be put to shame in anything; rather, Christ should be magnified in our body, whether through life or through death. When we experience the dispensing of the processed Triune God, Christ will be magnified in our body.
The Lord said that those who are being persecuted for the sake of righteousness are blessed, for theirs is the kingdom of the heavens. Those who are reproached, persecuted, and evil spoken of are blessed because their reward is great in the heavens. If we are reproached in the name of Christ, we are blessed because the Spirit of glory, that is, the Spirit of God, rests upon us. We rejoice that we are counted worthy to be dishonored on behalf of the name of Jesus. It is a real honor to be dishonored on behalf of the name of the man-dishonored but God-honored Jesus. Through the experience of the divine dispensing of the Triune God, we can also boast in tribulations because grace often visits us in the form of tribulation. If because of a consciousness of God we bear sorrows by suffering unjustly, this is grace. If we endure sufferings for doing good, this is grace with God. We were called to suffer because Christ also suffered on our behalf, leaving us a model so that we may follow in His steps. As believers, we have been appointed for afflictions. Therefore, we should not fear those who kill the body but are not able to kill the soul, because we are of more value than many sparrows and our hairs are all numbered by our Father. By experiencing the dispensing of the processed Triune God, we can enjoy the peace of Christ in sufferings because He has overcome the world. Moreover, the sufferings we experience will usher us into perfection today and into glory in the future.
