Very few Christians today understand what are the main items of God's full salvation in Christ. God's full salvation does not save us only from eternal perdition. Of course, salvation from eternal perdition is included in God's full salvation. We need to be impressed that God's full salvation in Christ includes six definite items: first, regeneration, that is, to be reborn; second, sanctification, that is, to be sanctified subjectively in our disposition, not just objectively in our position; third, renewing, that is, to be renewed; fourth, transformation, that is, to be transformed; fifth, conformation, that is, to be conformed to the image of the firstborn Son of God; and sixth, glorification, that is, to be glorified.
We need to realize that each of these six items needs God's dispensing. Without God's imparting of Himself into our being as life, we could never be regenerated. In regeneration the main thing is that God gives us an injection to impart, or to dispense, Himself as life into our being to regenerate us, to cause us to be born again. Regeneration is the issue of God's impartation, of God's dispensing. Then, God continues to dispense Himself into us. After regeneration, He sanctifies us by dispensing Himself as the holy nature into our being. Such a dispensing adds a new element into us, just as an element is added into a chemical compound. First, the element of God as life was imparted into our being, causing us to be reborn. After this, God continues to impart Himself into us as the holy nature. In the whole universe only God is holy. God makes us holy by imparting Himself, that is, by dispensing Himself, as the holy element, the holy nature, into our being. This results in a "compound" in which there is an element that is holy.
God also desires to have a new creation. However, we are old, so God has to renew us. The renewing in God's salvation is not like the renewing of a house by putting a coat of paint on it. In God's salvation, we are renewed not by outward "painting" but by an inward renewing through the adding of a further element from God into our being.
The Body of Christ is the mingling of the Triune God with the tripartite man. It is the Triune God mingled with the believers. This simple definition is the conclusion of my study of Paul's writings in his fourteen Epistles. God's new creation work is nothing but to dispense Himself into us, His chosen people, to mingle Himself in His divine element with our human element, making divinity and humanity one. He lived on this earth for thirty-three and a half years as the model, the example, of the divine mingling. The man Jesus was the mingling of God with man. He was God, and He was also man; He was a God-man. Even the term God-man does not express the notion of mingling adequately. While Jesus was working and walking on this earth, He was the mingling of the Triune God with the tripartite man. That was Christ; and this Christ today has been enlarged, has been increased. This increase is the church. The church is the mingling of the Triune God with us, the tripartite man. Such a mingling is carried out by dispensing—not a once for all "injection" but a continuous dispensing day by day. Every day God dispenses Himself into us little by little. The issue of this divine dispensing is sanctification.
Because God wants us to be a new creation, He must dispense Himself as the newness into our being to renew us. In the sixty-six books of the Bible, only one verse tells us that God is always new, like an evergreen. In Hosea 14:8 our God is likened to an evergreen tree, a green fir tree. Because He is evergreen, He Himself becomes the evergreen element. Now He is dispensing Himself into our being as such an element to renew us. I do have the sense that every day I am newer. I am not older; I am newer. I am not old, because I am being renewed. Something of God as the "evergreen tree" is being dispensed into my being.
The next step in God's salvation is transformation. God's salvation not only renews us but also transforms us from one form to another form. Even to transform us from one form to another form is not adequate. We need to be transformed to another definite form. Thus, there is the need of conformation to conform us to the image of the firstborn Son of God.
The last item in God's full salvation is glorification. To be glorified is to be completely conformed to the image of the firstborn Son of God.