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Scripture Reading: Gal. 3:26; 4:4-6; 5:16; John 1:12-13
In the foregoing message we pointed out that the books of Romans and Galatians reveal not only God’s redemption, but also the economy of God’s redemption. It is rather easy for us, the children of God, to know God’s salvation, but not so easy to know the economy of God’s salvation. Although the word economy cannot be found in either Romans or Galatians, God’s economy in His salvation is nonetheless implied. In both its ancient and modern usage, the word economy denotes a plan with a certain arrangement, management, administration, and even dispensation. The economy of God has its arrangement, management, and stewardship related to God’s dispensation of Himself in the Son through the Spirit into His chosen and redeemed people.
Now we must go on to see the goal of God’s economy. God’s goal in His economy is sonship. God’s intention is to produce many sons. If we read the Bible carefully, we shall see that God has a good pleasure, a heart’s desire. The desire of God’s heart is that He be expressed through many sons. The Bible reveals that God is a great Father with a very large family. In New Testament terms, God has a household. Who can say how many sons God has? Since every genuine believer in Christ is a son of God, God’s sons must number in the millions. Because God has so many sons, He truly is a great Father. Even the sisters are counted among the sons of God. Nowhere are we told that Christ, the firstborn Son of God, has sisters. Rather, He has only brothers, and these brothers of Christ are the many sons of God. Thus, it is important for the sisters to realize that they are brothers of Christ and sons of God.
According to the Bible, the function of a son is to express the father. Hence, the Son of God is the expression of God the Father. The Lord Jesus once said, “He who has seen Me has seen the Father” (John 14:9). Furthermore, John 1:18 says, “No one has ever seen God; the only begotten Son, Who is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him.” The New Testament also indicates that as the Son of God Christ is the image of the invisible God (Col. 1:15; 2 Cor. 4:4). An image is an expression of something or someone. For God to have millions of sons means that He, a great Father, needs a vast, universal, and eternal expression. As sons of God, we express our Father, for we have been born of Him. God’s economy, His administration, is to carry out His purpose to have many sons to be His corporate expression.
Ephesians 1:4 and 5 say that God chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world, “having predestinated us unto sonship through Jesus Christ to Himself.” Before anything was created, God chose us and predestinated us, put a mark on us, unto sonship. God has marked us out to be His sons. However, many Christians are not aware of God’s choice and predestination. According to their concept, we are merely fallen sinners in need of God’s salvation. They have never dreamed that God has destined us for sonship.
According to the Bible, sonship involves having the life and nature of the Father to express Him and inherit all that He is, has, and does. To inherit whatever the Father is, has, and does actually is to inherit God the Father Himself. Sonship in the Bible means to have God’s life and nature to express God and to inherit God with all His riches. Furthermore, sonship implies perfection. As sons of God, we must be perfect even as He is (Matt. 5:48). Perfection is synonymous with maturity. A small boy is the genuine son of his father, but this boy does not yet have the full sonship, because he is not mature.
Even if we have the Father’s life and nature and have the maturity, the perfection, to express Him and inherit Him, the sonship will not be full until our body is transfigured. In Romans 8:23 Paul says, “And not only so, but we ourselves also, having the firstfruit of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan in ourselves, eagerly expecting sonship, the redemption of our body.” The redemption of our body refers to the transfiguration of the body. One day our body will be changed, not simply outwardly, but organically and metabolically by having the divine element wrought into it. Today our faces may be rather bright, but they are not yet shining. But when our body has been metabolically and organically transfigured through the supply of the divine life, not only our faces but our whole physical being will shine. That will be the full sonship, for then we shall express God in full. We shall express Him spiritually, psychologically, and even physically. From our faces light will shine to express God. Concerning this 1 John 3:2 says, “Beloved, now are we the children of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is” (lit.). When we see Him, He will be shining with the glory of the Father, and we shall be shining with this glory also. This is full sonship.
Thus, from the New Testament we see that as sons of God we have God’s life and nature to inherit God with all His wealth and to express Him to the uttermost. This sonship is the desire of God’s heart. Our wonderful, eternal Father wants a universal expression of Himself through many sons.
Genesis 1:26 says that God created man in His image and after His likeness. God created man in this way because it is His intention that He be expressed by man. Genesis 1 indicates that every living thing was created according to its kind. Man, however, was made not after his own kind, but after God’s kind. Do you have the boldness to proclaim that, as a human being you are after God’s kind? If we realize that we were made in God’s image and after God’s likeness, we should have the boldness to say that we were created after God’s kind. However, to say that we are after God’s kind does not mean that we are God or that we shall ever become God. But according to Genesis 1:26-28, we human beings are after God’s kind.
Adam in Genesis 1 had the image of God and the likeness of God, but he did not have the life and nature of God. Therefore, according to Genesis 2, God placed man in front of the tree of life. This indicates that Adam needed to partake of God’s life with the divine nature. Even though Adam had been created in God’s image and after His likeness, he still needed to eat of the fruit of the tree of life in order to have eternal life. In the first two chapters of Genesis we thus have a complete record of God’s creation of man.
Adam in Genesis 1 and 2 did not have eternal life. Rather, he simply had the human life as a vessel to contain the divine life. Romans 9 indicates clearly that man is a vessel. Our human life is a vessel to contain the divine life. But before man received the eternal life, he fell. Therefore, God sent His Son to be a man with blood and flesh to accomplish redemption and to bring fallen man back to God’s original purpose. Redemption thus recovers man to God’s purpose. Hallelujah, through the blood of Christ shed on the cross, we, fallen sinners, have been redeemed! Both Romans 3 and Galatians 3 speak of God’s marvelous redemption.
Redemption, however, is not an end in itself. It is a procedure, part of a process, to reach God’s goal of sonship. For this reason, both Romans and Galatians indicate that Christ redeemed us that the divine life could be imparted into us for our regeneration. We had been created by God, but we still needed to be regenerated. Although we were created with the human life, we needed to be regenerated with another life, the divine life. Thus, redemption issues in the impartation of divine life. This is regeneration. By the regeneration of the Spirit, we become sons of God.
Man in Genesis 1 was only a creature of God. He was not yet a son of God. According to Genesis 1:26, God created man in His image and after His likeness, but He did not beget man with the divine life at that time. There in Genesis 1 God was our Creator, and we were His creatures. But after Christ came to accomplish redemption and we believed in Him, His blood made it possible for the divine life to be imparted into us. In this way, we were regenerated, and God became our Father.
In creation God was our Creator, but in regeneration He becomes our Father. Now, having been regenerated, we are not merely creatures of God — we are sons of God. Hallelujah, God is both our Creator and our Father! As the Creator, He created us, and as the Father, He begot us. Now we can declare boldly that we not only have the image and likeness of God outwardly, but that we have the life and nature of God inwardly. We are living sons of God! God’s economy is to impart His very life and nature into us to make us His sons.
Now we must come to a crucial point and ask an important question: Since we are sons of God, should we live as God’s creatures or as God’s sons? In other words, does God want us to live a creature life or a son life? There can be no doubt that God’s desire is that we live as sons, not as creatures. But how can we live as sons of God? First, to live as a son of God, we must become a son of God. The only way to become a son of God is to believe in the Lord Jesus and receive Him. John 1:12 says that those who receive Christ have the authority to become children of God. As children of God, we have been born “not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God” (John 1:13). Hallelujah, we have become sons of God by believing in the Lord Jesus!
Now that we have become sons of God we need to realize that we are more than creatures. As those who are sons and not merely creatures, we should not live a creature life but a son life.
There is a great difference between living the life of God’s creatures and living the life of God’s sons. For example, both the Bible and Confucius teach submission. But Confucius’ teaching concerning submission is merely ethical. The Bible’s teaching about submission is related to our living as sons of God. The teaching regarding submission found in the classical writings of Confucius only helps us to live as creatures of God. It has nothing to do with living as sons of God. No matter to what degree a Chinese person may practice submission according to the teachings of Confucius, he is still living as a creature of God, not as a son of God.
In one of his writings called The Highest Learning, Confucius speaks of developing and cultivating the “bright virtue.” To him, the highest attainment in ethics was to cultivate this bright virtue. Nevertheless, no matter how much we may develop this bright virtue according to the teachings of Confucius, we are still creatures of God.
What Confucius called the bright virtue is actually the conscience. Thus, to develop the bright virtue is to develop the conscience. But even if one develops his conscience to a very high degree, he is still merely a creature of God, because he does not have the life of God. However, we who believe in Christ have the divine life and the divine nature. Now that we are sons of God, it should not be our goal to develop our bright virtue. To do this is simply to improve our living as God’s creatures. Instead of teaching us to improve our living as creatures, the Bible charges us to live as sons of God.
Ethics improves the human virtues of God’s creatures from one angle, and religion develops them from another. Both with religion and ethics the principle is the same. However, in contrast to both ethics and religion, it is not the goal of God’s salvation to develop the virtues of God’s creatures. First, God’s goal in His salvation is to make us sons. Second, His goal is to supply us with the divine life that we may grow. Third, God Himself as the life-giving Spirit dwells in us to live, move, and work in us. The disciples of Confucius may boast in their bright virtue. They may be proud of the fact that they have cultivated and developed this virtue. However, our boast is not in our bright virtue. Our boast is that we have God Himself living in us. Due to the influence of our religious background and environment, we Christians may not realize how wealthy we are. Our wealth is the Triune God, the Father, the Son, and the Spirit.
For many Christians today, the Trinity is simply a matter of theology, not of experience. However, in the Bible the Trinity is not presented as a doctrine. There are verses which teach us concerning justification by faith, but there is not one verse teaching us about the Trinity in a doctrinal way. On the contrary, the Trinity is presented in the Scriptures with the emphasis related to our experience. For example, 2 Corinthians 13:14 says, “The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all” (lit.). What do we have here, the doctrine of the Trinity or the experience of the Trinity? Surely this verse speaks of the experience of the Triune God. Consider another example: “For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father...that He would grant you according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit into the inner man, that Christ may make His home in your hearts...” (Eph. 3:14, 16-17). In these verses Paul refers to the Father, the Spirit, and Christ the Son. According to the context, this reference to the Triune God is altogether related to our experience. The same is true of the Lord’s word in Matthew 28:19: “Go therefore and disciple all the nations, baptizing them into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” Once again, the Trinity is presented not as doctrine, but as an experience. Experientially, the believers are to be baptized into the Triune God. What blindness to say that the Trinity is merely for doctrine and not for experience!
In John 14 we have a deep and profound revelation of the Triune God. In response to Philip’s request to show the disciples the Father, the Lord Jesus said, “He who has seen Me has seen the Father” (v. 9). The Lord went on to ask, “Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father is in Me?” (v. 10). Later in this chapter the Lord said that He would ask the Father to give the disciples another Comforter, the Spirit of reality (vv. 16-17). But as a careful study of verses 17 and 18 discloses, the coming of the Spirit of reality is the coming of the Lord Jesus Himself. Thus, in John 14 we have the Father seen in the Son, and the Son realized as the Spirit. This is for our experience, not for mere doctrine. We may experience the Father by seeing the Son, and we may experience the Son by realizing the Spirit. How marvelous that we have the Triune God within us! As the Lord says in John 14:23, “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word, and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make an abode with him.” To be loved by the Father and to have the Father and the Son make an abode with us is surely a matter of experience, not of doctrine. Therefore, it is absolutely right according to the Scriptures to speak of the Trinity in relation to our spiritual experience.
The followers of Confucius’ teachings may boast in their bright virtue, but we can boast that the Triune God dwells within us. We have the Father, the Son, and Spirit. Instead of trying to develop our bright virtue, we may experience the Triune God growing in us. In the words of Colossians 2:19, we may grow with the growth of God. We grow by the growth of God within us. We do not merely have something bright — we have the Triune God living and growing in us.
The One who is living and growing in us is the Spirit, the ultimate consummation of the Triune God. God is Spirit (John 4:24), and the Lord is the Spirit (2 Cor. 3:17). Now we have the Spirit within us. Although the Triune God indwells us, we do not have the consciousness of three living within us, but of one. Our God is triune; He is three-one. How God can be both three and one is far beyond our understanding. But even though we cannot understand the Trinity, we can enjoy the Triune God living and growing within us. On the one hand, He is the Lord in the heavens, but, on the other hand, He is the Spirit dwelling in us.
In the light of the foregoing, let us now consider Paul’s word, “Walk by the Spirit” (Gal. 5:16). The Spirit by whom we are to walk is the very Triune God. Thus, to walk by the Spirit simply means to walk by the Triune God. It is possible for us to walk by the Triune God because we have been born of Him to be His sons with His life and nature. In fact, we have the Triune God Himself. Unbelievers, including the learned followers of Confucius, cannot walk by the Spirit because they do not have the Spirit within them. They may have a bright virtue to develop, but they do not have the Spirit by whom to walk. In contrast to those who follow the ethical teachings of Confucius, we should not seek to develop our bright virtue, but seek to walk by the Spirit. All those who are still trying to develop their bright virtue, their conscience, must realize that they are living only as God’s creatures, not as His sons. But we who have been regenerated of the Spirit of God are not just creatures of God — we have become sons of God. As God’s sons, we are not developing our bright virtue; we are walking according to our God, according to the Father, the Son, and the Spirit.
Concerning our living as human beings there are three main kinds of teachings. First there are the various ethical teachings. People of every nationality and culture are taught to improve their behavior. They are trained in an ethical way to be nice, kind, gentle, humble, and loving. Certain teachings of this kind even encourage us to pray to God and ask Him for help to live in a proper way.
A second kind of teaching is that in order to live properly we need to be led, inspired, and strengthened by the Holy Spirit. This kind of teaching is popular among Christians today. According to this teaching, through the Holy Spirit we can be humble and loving. Although there is nothing wrong with this teaching in itself, it is possible that it can be used merely to help believers live as God’s creatures with the help of God’s Spirit. It certainly is not wrong to exhort others to trust in the Holy Spirit and to receive help from the Holy Spirit. But everything depends on what ground we have for trusting in the Holy Spirit. If we trust in the Holy Spirit on the ground of being God’s creatures, we are actually usurping the aid of the Spirit. If we would trust in the Spirit, we must stand on the ground that we are sons of God. Then we shall enjoy the Father’s Spirit.
When you trust in the Holy Spirit, on what ground are you standing? Do you stand on the ground that you are God’s creature? Is it simply your desire to be a good person? Because you know that you are weak and that God is merciful, do you ask Him to send the Holy Spirit to strengthen you to live properly as one of His creatures? If so, then you are standing on the ground of the creature to claim the help of the Holy Spirit. It is right to trust in the Spirit, but the ground of a creature is not the proper standing for trusting in Him. The proper ground on which to stand to claim the fullness of the bountiful supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ is the ground that we are sons of God.
According to the third kind of teaching, we have been born of God to be sons of God with the divine life and nature. Because we are God’s sons, He not only gives us the Spirit, but He Himself is now the Spirit within us to make us sons in a full way. He is not simply helping us to be more loving, humble, or powerful. Having passed through incarnation, human living, crucifixion, and resurrection, the Triune God is now in us as the all-inclusive life-giving Spirit to be our life and life supply. His goal is to accomplish the sonship and to make us sons of God in full. In the meantime, we should simply walk according to Him.
Many Christians borrow Galatians 5:16, take it out of context, and use it to charge the believers to walk by the Spirit. They do not consider this verse in the context of the whole book of Galatians. This book reveals that we once were sinners condemned by God according to His righteous law. However, God sent His Son to accomplish redemption for us so that we may become sons of God. Now as God’s true sons, we have God’s life, God’s nature, and even the Triune God Himself as the all-inclusive Spirit dwelling within us, working, moving, acting, and anointing to make us sons of God in full. Because we are God’s sons and because the Triune God is working within us toward the goal of full sonship, we should walk by the Spirit. To understand 5:16 in this way is to understand it according to the context of the entire book of Galatians.
In the Lord’s recovery today, we are not merely exhorting the saints to walk according to the Spirit. Rather, our aim is to help the believers see that they are sons of God indwelt by the all-inclusive Spirit. We should walk according to this Spirit, according to the Triune God who dwells within us. If this is our experience, then we do not live by the first kind of teaching nor by the second kind, but by the third, the teaching according to God’s economy in His salvation.
