We need to be impressed with the fact that the work of the Spirit in the believers subjectively is for the divine dispensing. This means that the work of the Holy Spirit in us is for the purpose of dispensing the Triune God into us. Whatever the Spirit does in us is for the dispensing into our being of the Triune God in His life, nature, element, and essence. This is the glad tidings of the divine dispensing. The Triune God, by being consummated into the life-giving Spirit, is dispensing Himself into us. Now this life-giving Spirit is working in many aspects to carry out this dispensing.
In the two previous messages we have covered twelve aspects of the work of the Spirit in the believers for the divine dispensing. These twelve aspects, which begin with enlightening, sanctification, and regeneration, and end with sanctification, are one complete stage of the Spirit’s work. Now we shall begin to consider another stage of the Spirit’s work in us-the inner-life-working stage. The first aspect of this stage is the work of the Spirit in transforming the believers.
Second Corinthians 3:18 says, “We all with unveiled face, beholding and reflecting as a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, even as from the Lord Spirit.” As we behold and reflect the glory of the Lord, He infuses us with the elements of what He is and what He has done. He dispenses these elements into us. The result is that we are being transformed metabolically to have His life shape by His life power with His life essence. We are then transfigured, mainly by the renewing of our mind (Rom. 12:2), into His image. The words “being transformed” indicate that we are in the process of transformation. The “same image” is the image of the resurrected and glorified Christ. We are being conformed to the image of the resurrected and glorified Christ (Rom. 8:29); we are being made the same as He is.
Paul tells us that we are being transformed into the same image “from glory to glory.” This means that we are being transformed from one degree of glory to another degree. This denotes an ongoing process of life in resurrection.
To be transformed is to have Christ added into our being to replace what we are so that Christ may increase and our natural life may decrease. As the process of transformation takes place within us, the old element of our natural being is carried away, and the glory, the resurrected Christ as the life-giving Spirit, is added into us to replace the natural element. As a result, today is different from yesterday, and tomorrow will be different from today, for each day we have less of the natural element and more of Christ.
It is important to know the difference between change and transformation. Transformation involves the process of metabolism. However, something may change in an outward way without any inward metabolic transformation. In the process of metabolism a new element is supplied to an organism. This new element replaces the old element and causes it to be discharged. Therefore, as the process of metabolism takes place within a living organism, something new is created within it to replace the old element, which is carried away. Metabolism, therefore, includes three matters: first, the supplying of a new element; second, the replacing of the old element with this new element; and third, the discharge or the removal of the old element so that something new may be produced.
I wish to emphasize the fact that transformation is a metabolic process, a metabolic change. The Spirit’s work in transforming us involves a change in our whole being-in life, nature, essence, element, form, and appearance. Transformation is not outward change, correction, or adjustment; transformation is altogether an inward, metabolic change of our being. Therefore, we may define transformation as a divine, spiritual metabolism wherein a new element is added to the old to discharge the old and to produce something new.
In order for the Spirit to do His transforming work in us, there is the need for a certain essence to be dispensed into us by the Spirit. Therefore, the Holy Spirit is working in us to transform us in life, nature, essence, element, form, appearance, and every aspect of our being by the dispensing into us of the divine life, nature, element, and essence. This means that the divine life, nature, essence, element, and being are dispensed by the Spirit into our life, nature, essence, element, and being to cause a metabolic change within us. This change is organic, for it is a change in our being by another being, in our life by another life, in our nature by another nature, and in our element and essence by another element and essence. This transformation is by the Lord Spirit. As the Spirit works to transform us by the divine dispensing, He causes a metabolic, organic change to take place in our whole being.
Transformation is related to the Spirit’s work in sanctification. But in nature and function there is a difference between sanctification and transformation. The nature and function of sanctification are to separate us unto God for His use. The purpose of sanctification is to separate us from being common unto God for His purpose that we may fulfill His plan. However, although sanctification involves separation unto God for His purpose, there is still the need for a metabolic change in our being. This comes from transformation.
Transformation is the changing aspect of sanctification, and sanctification is the separating aspect of transformation. Before we were saved, we were in a fallen condition among sinners, and we were buried in worldly things. One day the Holy Spirit came to find us and separate us unto God for His use to fulfill His purpose. However, our life, nature, element, and essence, and even our whole being, remained in the old creation. For this reason, when the Spirit separated us unto God, He also dispensed the divine life, nature, essence, and element-even the divine being-into us so that we may be transformed into the image, the expression, of the Triune God. We may say that this transformation is an aspect of sanctification. Now we have not only been separated unto God, but we are also being transformed into Christ’s image by the dispensing of God’s essence, element, life, and nature into us. Therefore, sanctification and transformation go together: transformation depends on sanctification, and sanctification works for transformation.
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