In previous messages we have seen that the church is God’s poem, His masterpiece (Eph. 2:10), and that the existence of the church comes through the divine dispensing of the Divine Trinity. The church is produced of God as the source (1 Cor. 1:2a), the church is sanctified in Christ as the sphere and element (1:2b), and the church is sanctified by the Spirit as the application with the divine nature (6:11b). In this message we shall go on to consider the dispensing work of the Divine Trinity with respect to the church.
In 2:7 Paul says, “But we speak God’s wisdom in a mystery, the wisdom which has been hidden, which God predestined before the ages for our glory.” The glory here is Christ, who is the Lord of glory (v. 8). Christ is our life today (Col. 3:4) and will be our glory in the future (Col. 1:27). To this glory God has called us (1 Pet. 5:10), and into it He will bring us (Heb. 2:10). This is the goal of God’s salvation.
Ephesians 1:5 says that God has predestinated us unto sonship. But in 1 Corinthians 2:7 Paul tells us that God has predestinated us unto glory. Sonship begins with regeneration and matures in glorification. We have been regenerated, and now we are in the process of being transformed. Eventually, our body will be transfigured, and our entire being will be glorified. In simple words, the glory in which we shall participate will be the maturity of sonship. For us to be predestinated unto glory means that we are predestinated unto the maturity of sonship.
We all have been regenerated to become sons of God. Now we are growing and are being transformed. When the Lord Jesus comes, we shall be transfigured in our body and reach maturity. That maturity will be our glorification.
We may use the blossoming of a carnation plant as an illustration of glorification. When a carnation plant blossoms, it reaches its maturity. This blossoming of a carnation is its glorification. In a similar way, our maturity as sons will be our spiritual blossoming, our glorification.
Some may have the concept that because God has predestinated us unto glory, He will lift us out of our low condition and transfer us into a realm, a sphere, of glory. God’s way is altogether different. God dispenses Himself into us, and the first step of God’s dispensing is regeneration. Actually, God has regenerated us by dispensing Himself into our spirit. From the time of our regeneration, God has been seeking to dispense more and more of Himself into us. Whenever we are available to Him, He will dispense Himself into us a little more.
When we are not available to God for His dispensing, He is patient, knowing that sooner or later we shall make ourselves available to Him for the divine dispensing. Regarding this matter, God will continue to be patient, even if it is necessary for Him to wait many years until we are available for His dispensing. Whenever our situation affords God the opportunity to dispense Himself into us, He will do this work of dispensing. Through the divine dispensing we are gradually transformed.
Transformation through the divine dispensing involves a long process. But to the Lord a thousand years are as one day (2 Pet. 3:8). He is calm, and His way is slow. Once I heard a certain Bible teacher say that our God never does anything in a hurry. On the contrary, God acts slowly. He sanctifies and transforms us gradually. God’s way is to take many years to complete the work of transformation in us.
In the book of Revelation the Lord Jesus said, “I come quickly” (Rev. 22:7). But nearly two thousand years have passed, and still He has not come. Furthermore, we do not know when the Lord will come. When the Lord says “soon,” He speaks according to His sense of time, not according to our sense of time. The point here is that God is working slowly to dispense Himself into us.
The elders and the leading ones in the churches need to learn that God is patient and longsuffering. Often the elders expect the saints in the local churches to reach maturity in a short period of time. I can testify that whenever I have had such an expectation concerning the saints, it was never fulfilled. For example, in the past I expected that the saints in a certain church would reach maturity after five or ten years. But after ten years had passed, the apparent condition of the church had not improved very much. As a result of experience, I have come to learn that the sanctifying work of the indwelling Spirit is a long, slow process.
Life grows slowly. The higher a particular kind of life is, the more slowly it grows. For example, mushrooms and mosquitoes, being rather low forms of life, grow quickly. But it takes at least twenty-one years for a human being to reach maturity. The principle here is that the higher the life is, the slower it grows. Since the divine life is the highest life, it grows at the slowest rate. If we see this, we shall not expect to grow quickly in the spiritual life. We should never expect mushrooming growth in the church life.
Since the divine life grows slowly in the saints, I would encourage the elders and leading ones in the churches to be patient and longsuffering. If we expect to see growth in the saints, we may be discouraged. However, sometimes when we are very discouraged and feel that the situation is hopeless, we see in the churches some signs of growth. Therefore, I would encourage not only the elders and leading ones but all the saints not to be disappointed with the rate of growth.
Some of the saints who are disappointed with the slowness of their growth may say, “Brother Lee, for years you have been telling us that it takes time to grow and be transformed. I have been in the recovery for many years, and I can’t see any improvement with me. I am utterly discouraged with my condition.” If I try to encourage these saints, they may say, “You don’t know my actual situation. You may think that I am rather good, but the Lord knows how pitiful I am. He knows that in many ways I have become worse.” I would like to say to these saints, “I do not believe that concerning the matter of the divine life you have become worse. No, you have grown at least a little. Since you have grown, there is some improvement with you.”
As long as we are in the “garden” of the local churches, we shall grow. We may grow quite slowly, but we certainly shall grow in the divine life. To be sure, even a little growth is better than no growth at all. It is a fact that many saints have experienced considerable growth in life. If we compare these saints today with what they were many years ago, we would see that with them there has been the definite growth in life.
God has predestinated us not only unto sonship but also unto glory. Because 1 Corinthians reveals that God has predestinated us unto glory, we may say that, in a sense, this book is deeper than the book of Ephesians. We should not be satisfied simply to be sons. Our desire should be to be glorified, to enter into glory.