In this message we shall begin to consider the believers’ future. In the foregoing messages we have covered the believers’ past in eternity, where they were foreknown, chosen, and predestinated by God, and also their past in time, where they were created by God and became fallen and dead in offenses and sins. We have seen that the believers’ present comprises both the initial stage and the progressing stage of God’s full salvation. In the initial stage, the stage of regeneration, the believers have been called by God and separated unto Him, they have repented, believed, and been baptized, and they have been joined to the processed Triune God, redeemed, made a new creation, and saved. Finally, in the initial stage, the believers have cleared the past. In the progressing stage of God’s full salvation, the stage of transformation, the believers experience and enjoy the processed Triune God in His triune dispensing, they experience God’s redemption continuously, they enjoy the dispensing of the divine Trinity in the divine transformation for the divine conformation, they experience the dispensing of the divine Trinity corporately, and they experience this dispensing in various other aspects. Eventually, at the end of the second stage the believers are conformed to the image of Christ, the firstborn Son of God, and look to and wait for the Lord Jesus’ coming back to usher them into their future.
The first aspect of the believers’ future is their future in the completing stage of God’s full salvation, the stage of glorification. The initial stage is the stage of regeneration, the progressing stage is the stage of transformation, and the completing stage is the stage of glorification. Here we have three crucial words that we should treasure: regeneration, transformation, and glorification. Many believers have experienced a good deal of transformation and are heading toward the goal of glorification. Glorification is the completing stage of God’s full salvation.
Many believers hold strictly an objective concept of glorification. According to this concept, one day those who have been saved and regenerated will suddenly be glorified. The glorification of the believers, they claim, will take place instantaneously at the coming of the Lord Jesus. Certain verses seem to indicate this. For example, Colossians 3:4 says that when Christ our life is manifested, we shall be manifested with Him in glory. However, although our glorification may appear to be a sudden occurrence, it will actually be the consummation of a process of gradual growth and development in life. Just as the blossoming of a carnation flower is the issue of the gradual growth of a carnation plant, so our glorification will be the issue of our growth in the divine life unto maturity. A carnation does not blossom until it has reached maturity, and, in like manner, the believers will not be glorified until they reach maturity in life.
The seed of the divine life has been sown into our being, and now this seed is growing within us. As the seed grows, it develops gradually until it reaches full growth, the maturity in life. At that time there will be a “blossoming” of the divine seed within us. That will be our glorification.
The believers’ glorification will not be an accident. Rather, their glorification will be the issue of their maturity in life. First, we are regenerated, and then we are organically transformed through the growth of the divine life within us. As the divine life grows in us, it saturates us with the divine element, and this element changes us metabolically. This metabolic change is what the New Testament calls transformation. Actually in our Christian experience transformation is simply the growth in the divine life. For example, as a plant grows it is transformed from one appearance to another. This growth and transformation continues until the plant reaches its maturity. In like manner, our regeneration is followed by transformation, and transformation will issue in glorification. Without regeneration there is no possibility to have transformation. Furthermore, if we are lacking in transformation, there will be no glorification. Glorification is the issue of transformation, and transformation is accomplished by the gradual and continuous growth in life. We praise the Lord that one day we shall reach our maturity, and then we shall be glorified, brought into the full expression of the Triune God.
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