Galatians 6:15 says, "For neither is circumcision anything nor uncircumcision, but a new creation is what matters." The term circumcision refers to being religious, and uncircumcision refers to being unreligious. Neither of these means anything as far as the new creation is concerned. Only the new creation is what matters. God has no intention of gaining a group of circumcised people or a group of uncircumcised people. He desires to gain a group of regenerated people as His new creation created by Him with His divine life embodied in Christ.
We were a part of the old creation, but through regeneration we have become a new creation. Although we are a new creation, we are still old in our mind, emotion, and will. We still love and hate in the old creation. Therefore, we need to be renewed. Our entire being, including our physical body, needs to be renewed. The redemption of our body (1 Cor. 1:30; Rom. 8:23) is the renewing of every part of our body. This will be the consummation of the renewing of our entire being.
We are tripartite men composed of spirit, soul, and body (1 Thes. 5:23). At the time of our regeneration, God entered into our spirit, and immediately our spirit was renewed. Now our soul also needs to be renewed in every part. Titus 3:5 says, "Not out of works in righteousness which we did but according to His mercy He saved us, through the washing of regeneration and the renewing of the Holy Spirit." Through regeneration our spirit was renewed, but our soul was not renewed by regeneration. Thus, after regeneration the Spirit continues to renew us by saturating our soul.
According to Ephesians 1:13, we were sealed with the Holy Spirit as the sealing ink. When a seal that is wet with ink is placed on a piece of paper, the wet ink saturates the paper. In the same way the Holy Spirit as the sealing ink saturates and permeates our soul. To saturate is to fill or soak deeply, and to permeate is to spread throughout a certain thing. Saturation is vertical, and permeation is horizontal. From the day we were regenerated God imparted Himself into us as life embodied in Christ. At the same time, He put His Spirit within us as a living seal. From that day the sealing Spirit has been saturating and permeating. First, the Spirit saturates and permeates our soul, including our mind, emotion, and will. Eventually, this saturating Spirit of life will reach our mortal body that our body may have life (Rom. 8:11). This saturation and permeation will continue within us "unto the redemption of the acquired possession" (Eph. 1:14), that is, until the redemption of our body (Rom. 8:23).
The sealing of the Spirit first enters into us in our spirit. From there it spreads by saturating vertically and permeating horizontally through every part of our soul to reach our body. Then it goes on to saturate and permeate our body until one day our body will be fully saturated and permeated, that is, fully redeemed. Our body will be redeemed not by the blood of Christ but by the indwelling Christ as our life. Hence, Paul said that Christ within us is our life today (Col. 3:4) and our hope of glory in the future (1:27). The redemption of our body is the glorification of our body (Rom. 8:30; Phil. 3:21). When our body is redeemed, we will be wholly, entirely, and completely in glory. At that time we will be thoroughly permeated and saturated with the spreading and permeating Triune God.
The foregoing aspects of regeneration, sanctification, transformation, conformation, and glorification are the totality of the process of renewing. A white cotton ball that becomes saturated with red ink is an example of the process of renewing. If I inject red ink into the center of a cotton ball for a period of time, the entire cotton ball will become red. If the injection is slow, it may take a longer period of time for the ball to become red. But eventually, the cotton ball will be completely red. That is the "glorification" of the cotton ball.
Today we are in the process of being renewed. Through many years of experience I have learned that the things that happen to me are all part of the renewing process. At first I did not understand why certain things happened to me; but after considering these things for some time, my eyes were opened to see that they were all part of the process of renewing. Second Corinthians 4:16 says, "Though our outer man is decaying, yet our inner man is being renewed day by day." An alternate rendering of this verse is, "Though our outer man is being consumed..." Day by day we are being renewed by being consumed. The reason certain things happen to us is that we need to be consumed. When we are consumed, we are renewed. Through the consuming of our environment, we are renewed. Our relatives are a part of this consuming environment. Our being married or being single also is a part of God's environment to consume us.
If we were soft like a cotton ball, we could easily receive the injection of the Spirit. But because we may be hard like marble, the "ink" of the Spirit may be unable to penetrate us. Thus, we need the hammering and grinding of our environment in order to soften us. God may first hammer us and then grind us to powder. Once we have become powder, we can easily receive the injection of the Spirit. Actually, we all are somewhat hard. Some of us are like soft stones, while others are harder than steel. Whether we are hard or soft, the Lord has a way to work on us. He may use hammers, grinding stones, water, or fire to deal with us. The Lord uses different means in our environment to consume us so that we can be renewed. No matter who we are, the Lord has a way to renew us through the consuming of our environment.