Furthermore, this divine element anointed into us has a sanctifying capacity; it sanctifies us. Hymns, #841 says:

Thou art all my life, Lord,
In me Thou dost live;
With Thee all God’s fulness
Thou to me dost give.
By Thy holy nature
I am sanctified,
By Thy resurrection,
Vict’ry is supplied.

Only the sanctifying nature within God’s life-element can sanctify us. This is different from the experiences of the sages in Confucianism, who were products of human cultivation. Our sanctification, however, is a product of the sanctifying work of the life of God.

According to the New Testament, the sanctifying work of the Spirit of life is in three steps. First, at the time we repented and believed, He had sought us out and had separated us from other sinners, convicting us concerning sin (1 Pet. 1:2; John 16:8). Second, at the time of our salvation, He sanctified us positionally (1 Cor. 6:11). Third, while we are seeking to grow in life, He sanctifies us dispositionally (Rom. 6:19, 22). This kind of sanctification is not only positional, separating us from a common and worldly position to one that is of God and for God; it is also a dispositional transformation that saturates our whole being with God’s sanctifying nature through Christ as the life-giving Spirit transforming our natural element into the spiritual element.

Now, we need to see in detail how this law of the Spirit of life sanctifies us. First, it renews our mind. The meaning of renewing is to have a new essence added into us, so that we have a metabolic change. After the Spirit of life anoints into us the new element of God, this new element replaces and discharges the old and natural element within us. From our youth when we began to understand things, and throughout the years in which we have worked in society, certain concepts and views have been developed within us. After we were saved, the law of the Spirit of life began to anoint us. This anointing produces an effect, which is to replace our old essence, so that we pick up God’s concepts and thoughts, and our view concerning our human life, concerning the world, humanity, and our future destiny is completely changed from man’s tradition to God’s revelation. This is the renewing of the mind.

In addition, Romans 12:2 says that we should be transformed by the renewing. Not only should our mind be renewed, but our soul must be transformed also. The mind is the main part of the soul. When the mind is renewed, the soul will spontaneously be transformed. Transformation is the inward, metabolic process of God’s work. This process spreads God’s life and nature into our entire being, especially into our soul, including the emotion, will, judgment, joy, anger, sorrow, and pleasure. God’s life and nature then become our new, divine element, which gradually replaces our old, natural element. As a result, we are gradually transformed into His image.

Both the renewing and the transformation are the result of the operation of the Triune God as the law of the Spirit of life in us. If we wait before the Lord all the time, fellowship with Him, cooperate with Him, subject ourselves to Him in everything, and give Him the absolute ground in us, He will anoint us and operate in us daily, adding into us His divine element bit by bit. In this way, we will be sanctified, our minds will be renewed, and our souls will be transformed. Moreover, He will continually transform us until we see the Lord and are changed in image to be perfectly like Christ, that is, conformed to the image of the firstborn Son of God.

What is it to be conformed to the image of God’s firstborn Son? It is to pass through death and resurrection and to live out Christ. Hymns, #499 says:

Oh, what a life! Oh, what a peace!
The Christ who’s all within me lives.
With Him I have been crucified;
This glorious fact to me He gives.
Now it’s no longer I that live,
But Christ the Lord within me lives.

This is what it means to be conformed to the image of God’s firstborn Son. If we live under the law of the Spirit of life, spontaneously we will live a life of being “no longer I but Christ,” a life that passes through death and resurrection and will gradually be conformed to the image of the firstborn Son of God.

In this way, under the anointing of the Spirit of life, we can wait for the day of the redemption of our body. Although we have the divine life in our spirit and are being renewed and transformed in our soul, our body is not fully saturated by God’s life yet. Our body is still the flesh. It is still joined to the old creation and is still the body of sin and death. Hence, we have to wait earnestly for Christ the Son of God to come down from heaven. By that time, our body of humiliation will be transfigured and will be conformed to the body of His glory (Phil 3:21). The more we love the Lord and live under the law of the Spirit of life, the more we will be redeemed. Not only will our minds be renewed and our souls transformed, but we will also be conformed to the image of the firstborn Son of God. In the end, our whole being will be saturated with the divine glory. Death will be swallowed up by life, corruption will be swallowed up by incorruption, and our body will be fully redeemed. When Christ appears, we shall appear with Him in glory (Col. 3:4). This is the climax of God’s full salvation. It is also the highest result of the dispensing of the law of the Spirit of life in us. Today, we are in this process of sanctification, renewing, transformation, conformation, and glorification.

(A message given by Brother Witness Lee in Sib, Malaysia on October 28, 1990)
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