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Scripture Reading: Rom. 12:2; Rom. 8:29; 11:24; Rom. 5:10, 17; 6:4; 8:2, 6, 10, 11; Gen. 1:26; Rom. 7:4; John 16:7; 14:20; 15:4; 3:16; Gal. 2:20
In recent messages we have seen the matter of the dispensation of the Triune God and the matter of the grafted life. In this message we shall consider the function of the grafted life. In order to see this, we need to ask the Lord to remove all the veils that keep us from receiving a true understanding of this book. We may read the book of Romans again and again, but we may not know that we are covered by layer upon layer of veils. Because many readers of this book are veiled, they do not see the dispensation of the life of the Triune God, the grafted life, nor even the tripartite man in Romans 8. Therefore, we need to be unveiled and then come to this book as if we had never read it before.
The grafted life is related to transformation and conformation to Christ. In 12:2 Paul speaks of transformation: “And do not be conformed to this age, but be transformed by the renewing of the mind.” The world, the satanic system, is composed of various ages, each with a certain pattern and style. Satan’s design is to conform us to this present age. Although Paul mentions Satan’s goal of conformation on the negative side, he does not here speak of the object of transformation. He simply exhorts us to be transformed by the renewing of the mind.
The goal of transformation is in Romans 8. Verse 29 says, “Because whom He foreknew, He also predestinated to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He should be the firstborn among many brothers.” As the called and justified ones, our destiny has been determined beforehand by God. Before the foundation of the world God predestinated us to be conformed to the image of His Son. This means that conformation to Christ is our destiny and also our destination. Do you know where we are going? Our destination is the image of the Son of God. Our destiny is not heaven — it is to be conformed to the image of the Son of God.
If we would understand the significance of transformation and conformation, we need to realize that the book of Romans speaks of a particular kind of life — a grafted life. A grafted life is a mingled life, a life which is the product of the mingling together of two lives. In 11:24 Paul speaks of the grafting of two olive trees, not of two entirely different kinds of trees. Hence, the grafting in Romans is that between two trees of the same family. The difference is that one is a cultivated olive tree and that the other is a wild olive tree.
In chapter five of Romans, Paul begins to speak about life. In verse 10 he says that we shall be saved in Christ’s life. Furthermore, according to 5:17, we shall reign in life. In 6:4 Paul speaks of walking in newness of life. In chapter eight he mentions the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus (v. 2). He goes on to say that our spirit is life (v. 10), that the mind set on the spirit is life (v. 6), and that the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from among the dead desires to impart life into our mortal bodies (v. 11). The life spoken of in all these verses is a grafted life.
We have pointed out that a grafted life is a mingled life. This grafting can be effective only if the lives to be grafted are similar. That there is a similarity between the human life and the divine life is proved by the fact that God created man in His image and according to His likeness (Gen. 1:26). He did this purposely so that the human life would be very much like the divine life. Once again we use a glove as an illustration. In form, in likeness, and in function the glove is the same as the hand. Otherwise, the hand could not fit into the glove. We are all gloves made according to the likeness of the divine hand. How we need to worship God for making us in His image and according to His likeness. Praise Him for making us vessels to contain Him! God created us in this way intentionally so that He could put His Son into us.
Because the human life and the divine life are similar, it is possible for them to be put together. This means that the divine life and the human life can be “married.” On the day we were saved we were married to Christ (Rom. 7:4). Hence, to be a Christian is not only a matter of salvation or regeneration, but also of being married to Christ. The life in Romans 8 is a grafted life, a mingling of two different yet similar lives. Transformation and conformation are by such a grafted life. Through my more than fifty years as a Christian, I have learned that the life which is transforming me and conforming me to the image of the Son of God is a grafted life.
From the time God created us in His image and according to His likeness, we were ready to receive Him into us as life. We had a spirit to receive Him and a soul to express Him. Although we were ready, God was not yet ready. He was not yet qualified to come into man. In order to become qualified for this, He had to put on humanity; that is, He had to be incarnated. In Old Testament times, God could come upon the prophets, but He could not come into them. Many Christians today only know how God comes upon people, not how He enters into them. In a very real sense, they are Old Testament believers.
The New Testament reveals that through the incarnation of Christ, God came into humanity. He entered into mankind through a narrow gate, having been born of a virgin in a manger in Bethlehem. For thirty years He lived in the home of a carpenter. One day He came forth to begin His ministry. No one could recognize that this man was God Himself. Contacting some young fishermen in Galilee, He said, “Follow Me,” and they followed Him, although He seemingly had nothing. He had such drawing power that His followers were beside themselves with love for Him. They were drawn to Him because there was something magnetic about Him. They had a marvelous time the three and a half years they were with Him. However, one day He suddenly told His disciples that He was going to leave them by being crucified. This word deeply troubled them, especially Peter. Then the Lord told them that it was profitable for them that He go away. Otherwise, the Spirit of reality could not come to be in them (John 16:7). Up until that time, the Lord had only been among them; He had not yet come into them. After His resurrection, He could be in them, and they could be in Him (John 14:20). Nevertheless, Peter and the other disciples probably preferred to have the Lord remain among them rather than have Him go so that in resurrection He could come into them.
When I was a young Christian, I used to wish that I had been alive when the Lord Jesus was on earth. I wished that I could have seen Him, heard Him, and touched Him in the flesh. I even complained to the Lord about this and asked Him why He had not caused me to be alive during the time He was on earth so that I could have physically been in His presence. I did not yet realize that it is far better to have Christ in me than just to have Him with me. Do you prefer to have the Lord among you physically or in you as the Spirit? With your mouth you may claim that you prefer to have Him in you, but within you, you probably prefer to have Him with you, as He was with the early disciples. If the Lord Jesus would suddenly appear in a physical way, we would be amazed. This proves that we prefer a Christ among us to a Christ in us. However, if Christ were still just among us, His life could not be grafted together with ours, because He would not be in us. He could perform miracles among us, but we would remain the same, without change or transformation. We could embrace Him, but we could not be grafted into Him. Therefore, in order that we may be mingled with Him, Christ prefers to be in us. He wants us to abide in Him so that He may abide in us (John 15:4). This is the mingling that produces the grafted life. It is this life that transforms us and conforms us to the image of Christ.
In order to be qualified to enter into us, Christ had to pass through incarnation, human living, crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension. Furthermore, as the Spirit, He had to descend upon us. Then the only thing remaining is for us to call upon Him in faith. When we say, “O Lord Jesus, I believe in You,” His qualified life enters into our prepared life, and the two lives are joined. In this way our life is grafted into His.
Perhaps you have been a Christian for many years without realizing that the Christian life is a grafted life, a mingling of the divine life with the human life. Both the divine life and the human life are complicated. The divine life is actually Christ Himself. As God, Christ is the Creator of all things. One day, He was incarnated and took on human nature. What a mystery that divinity and humanity could mingle together as one unit! Following incarnation, Christ passed through human living, crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension. All these elements are now included in the divine life. This life has power to kill all negative things; it also has the resurrection power to generate, germinate, transform, and conform. This complicated and qualified life is the very life we received when we believed in the Lord Jesus.
But what about the human life with which such a marvelous divine life is mingled? Our created life has become fallen, corrupted, darkened, worldly, and satanic. It is thus filled with evil, negative, demonic elements.
John 3:16 tells us that God loved the world. For years I could not understand why the Bible does not say that God loved mankind. In the eyes of God, fallen man has become the world. This means that the fallen, corrupted, worldly, and satanic mankind is the system of Satan. Before we were saved, we were part of this system. As evil as this system is, the Bible still declares that God loved the world. The reason God loves the world is that in it there is the life which He created in His image and according to His likeness to contain Himself as life.
Both the divine life and the human life are complicated. The divine life is complicated in a positive sense, whereas the human life is complicated in a negative sense. According to His economy, God desires to graft this human life that is complicated in a negative sense into His life that is complicated in a positive sense. When we believed into the Son of God and called on the name of the Lord, the life that is complicated positively entered into us, and our life that is complicated negatively was grafted into it.
In the foregoing message we pointed out that, according to the principle ordained by God, the lower life cannot subdue the higher life, but the higher life swallows up the negative aspects of the lower life. The divine life is like an all-inclusive dose of medicine. Included in this dose is the killing power of the crucifixion of Christ that puts to death the negative elements of our human life. Furthermore, Christ’s resurrection power resurrects and uplifts all the proper elements in our human life, the elements which God created in His image and after His likeness. God created man with a mind, emotion, and will. However, all these parts of our being became corrupted through the fall. When the divine life enters into us and we are grafted into this life, the killing power it contains terminates the corruption in our mind, emotion, and will. Then it resurrects the elements originally created by God in His image and after His likeness for the fulfillment of His purpose. The divine life does not annul what has been created by God. On the contrary, it resurrects our created life and uplifts it.
Teachers of the Bible may say that as those who have been crucified with Christ, we must reject our soul. However, the more we try to reject the soul, the more it is present with us. For example, after we are saved, we may become very tender in our emotion. According to my experience, the more I denied my soul with its mind, emotion, and will, the more I discovered that my mind had become keener, my emotion more active, and my will stronger. Before I was saved, I was like a jellyfish, but now my will is extremely strong. How can we explain this phenomenon? Have our mind, emotion, and will not been crucified and denied? Yes, they have. Remember, the Bible says not only that we have been crucified with Christ, but also that we have been resurrected with Him. Crucifixion and burial are not the end. Once our soul has been crucified and buried, it is resurrected, for it has been grafted into the divine life. Because the divine life and the human life have been grafted together, the killing power in the divine life crucifies us, and the resurrection power in it uplifts us.
Our crucifixion with Christ, accomplished more than nineteen hundred years ago, is realized and experienced today through the divine life within us. The same is true of resurrection. Both the effectiveness of crucifixion and the power of resurrection are included in the all-inclusive, life-giving Spirit. From the time we believed in the Lord Jesus and were grafted into His all-inclusive life, the various ingredients of this life have been working within us. The more we tell the Lord Jesus that we love Him, the more we offer ourselves to Him to contain Him, and the more time we spend with Him in the Word and in fellowship, the more the ingredients of the divine life work to terminate us and to resurrect us. This causes our mind to become sober, our emotion to become warm, and our will to become strong. The corrupted element of our human life is crucified and buried, but the positive element is uplifted in resurrection. Hence, it is no longer we who live, but Christ who lives in us (Gal. 2:20). Here we see the function of the grafted life. The function of this life is to bring about the transformation which results in conformation to Christ. As we inwardly experience crucifixion, burial, and resurrection, we are transformed and conformed to the image of Christ. Transformation and conformation are the result of the inward working of the grafted life.
