As a young believer, I was taught that the glory of God was objective, far away in the heavens. I was told that when the Lord Jesus comes, in the twinkling of an eye He will bring us into the heavens to enter into an objective realm of glory. This teaching was based on Hebrews 2:10, which says, "For it was fitting for Him, for whom are all things and through whom are all things, in leading many sons into glory, to make the Author of their salvation perfect through sufferings." According to this teaching, the destination to which Christ is leading us is the objective glory of God in the heavens. This seems to be confirmed by 2 Timothy 2:10, which says, "Therefore I endure all things for the sake of the chosen ones, that they themselves also may obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory." It seems that the eternal glory of God is objective, far away from us, and that we are being led until we reach the destination of glory. However, this teaching is not according to the intrinsic revelation of the Bible.

Adam's fall caused our entire being—spirit, soul, and body—to become fallen. But through Christ's redemption God saves us from this fallen condition. God's salvation begins from our spirit. Our spirit is the innermost part of our being. It is enclosed within our soul, which is within our body. When God came in to save us, He redeemed our spirit by washing away our sins and regenerating our spirit. Regeneration is a matter that took place in our spirit (John 3:6). Before we were saved, we were very active in our soul and very living in our body, but we were dead in our spirit (Eph. 2:1). After forgiving us of our sins (1:7), God came in to touch our spirit and to make us alive in our spirit (2:5). In this way God redeemed our spirit.

God intends to redeem our entire being, including our body, but before He can redeem our body, He must redeem our soul, which is between our spirit and our body. From the time of our regeneration, God has been waiting every day, even every moment, to take every opportunity to spread Himself from our spirit into our soul. We must coordinate with Him by setting our mind on the spirit and not on the flesh (Rom. 8:4b-6). God desires to enter into our mind, emotion, and will, but often He finds the door to the three parts of our soul closed. As a result, God has no way to spread Himself within us. Instead of opening the door of our being to God, we may often try to do good by ourselves. Thus, we must learn to set our mind, the main part of our soul, on the spirit instead of on the flesh. When our mind is set on the flesh, these two work together as "good friends." However, when we turn our mind to our spirit and set our mind on the spirit, our mind will be filled, occupied, and taken over by God. This is the transformation of the soul (Rom. 12:2).

Regeneration and transformation are the redemption of two parts of our being. Our spirit was redeemed when God regenerated our spirit, and our soul is redeemed when our soul is transformed. By regeneration and transformation, we become very spiritual; but our body is still a problem. Sometimes we can sense the lust within our body. Our spirit hates this lust, and our soul abhors the sinfulness of the flesh. Yet there is still something very active in our flesh. This means that although our spirit has been redeemed and our soul is being redeemed, our body has not yet been redeemed. For this reason, we must be strong in our spirit to control our mind, to make our spirit the spirit of our mind (Eph. 4:23), so that we can control our flesh. We will then become a spiritual person and an overcoming saint.