The Triune God is also wrought into His redeemed by the renewing of the Spirit (Titus 3:5; Eph. 4:23). We all need the practical knowledge and experience of the renewing of the Spirit. The lampstand as the embodiment of the Triune God is altogether a doctrine if we do not have the adequate experiential knowledge. This is why we need the fellowship in this chapter in order to get into the experiential knowledge. The renewing of the Spirit is the Spirit applying all the divine things, of which we have been born, into our being in our practical life. You have been born of a certain set of parents and you have your disposition, your view, your thinking, and your likes and dislikes. Now, however, you have been born of God and God has been born into you to be your everything. How could this God who is everything be applied to you? The Spirit is here to apply all the divine things into your being in your daily life—this is the renewing of the Spirit. To renew simply means to replace. The Spirit replaces our old being with the divine being. We were born of our parents as the old being and we have been born of God as the new divine being. Now the Spirit is replacing our old being every day with His new being, and this is the renewing of the Spirit.
God is wrought into our being first by being born into us and second by Himself as the Spirit working in us to replace our old being with Himself as the new being, which is the renewing of the Spirit. Our birth is once for all but the renewing is lifelong. After God begot us, He came into us to dwell in us as the life-giving Spirit to replace our old being with Himself as the new being. This is not merely a matter of renewing our mind, but a matter of God replacing our entire being with Himself. The renewing of the Spirit is God Himself indwelling us as the Spirit to replace us with God Himself.
In Titus 3:5 Paul tells us that God saved us through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit. We all need to be saved from our old being into God Himself as the new being. This kind of saving is the renewing of the Spirit, through which God works Himself into our being. This renewing is carried out by the indwelling Spirit. We need this kind of teaching. We do not need the kind of teaching that tells us how to be humble or kind. This is like the teaching of Confucius and this is not Christ. We have to see that all the divine things have been born into us and now we need God Himself in us as the indwelling Spirit to apply all the divine things into our being to replace our old being with God Himself as the new being. This is the renewing of the Spirit.
Furthermore, the Triune God is wrought into us by the transformation with the divine life (2 Cor. 3:18; Rom. 12:2). The renewing of the Spirit and the transformation with the divine life are very close. Transformation is not merely change but a kind of metabolic change. The Greek word for transformation is the source of the English word metamorphosis. The literal meaning of the Greek word is “a change in form.” In the metabolic process some new element is brought in to replace the old element and to discharge it. The resultant metabolic change that takes place is transformation. The new element comes in, the old element is replaced and discharged, and the new element becomes prevailing. One of the best illustrations of this is the process of petrification. A current of water brings in the new element of minerals into the wood and deposits them there; this current also carries away the old element of the wood until the very cell structure of the wood is entirely replaced with stone. This piece of wood becomes a piece of precious stone, and this is transformation.
The Greek word for transformed is used in Romans 12:2 where we are told that we need to be transformed by the renewing of the mind. It is also used in 2 Corinthians 3:18 which tells us that as we behold and reflect the glory of the Lord we are being transformed into the same image. Philippians 3:21 also tells us that the Lord Jesus will transfigure or transform our body. Romans 12:2 and 2 Corinthians 3:18 refer to the transformation of our soul, our inner being, and Philippians 3:21 refers to the transformation of our body, our outward being. The word for transformation conveys the thought that the divine element is being brought into our being by the current of the Spirit to replace our old element, to discharge it, and to make the divine element so prevailing in our life and in our living. Transformation takes place first in our soul and last in our body at His coming back. By this way God is wrought into our being. He is wrought into us not merely by birth, but also by the renewing of the Spirit and by the transformation with the divine life.
Suppose that a person’s face is very pale. The cosmetic way to change his appearance is for him to put some makeup on his face. This is like the work of the morticians in the mortuary. The work of the mortician is to make the appearance of a corpse look as pleasant as possible. This, of course, has nothing to do with the metabolic change of transformation. If a person eats healthy food and sleeps well, his complexion will look very healthy. When the nourishing, healthy food is digested and assimilated by us, the issue is transformation. God has begotten us with Himself and He Himself has been born into our being. He now indwells us as the Spirit to apply all that He has put into us to replace our old being with Himself as the new being. This is the renewing of the Spirit. While He is doing this kind of renewing, He transforms us metabolically with the divine life as the element to make us “pieces of petrified wood.” We are all now under God’s divine petrification. A piece of petrified wood is a compound of the deposit of the mineral elements which all have been wrought into the wood. We are like the pieces of wood and God Himself is the heavenly mineral elements. Through the years and day by day the heavenly minerals have been deposited into our being to make us pieces of precious stone. This is transformation and this is the way God works Himself into our being. Then we become the lampstand in reality.
Our becoming the golden lampstand is also by the conformation to the image of the firstborn Son of God (Rom. 8:29; Phil. 3:21). Conformation refers to the image, the shape. Every life has its own essence, its own power, its own shape, and its own expression. For example, the apple life has its essence, its life power to grow, and its shape. An apple spontaneously grows into the appropriate shape. It is the same way with a peach or a banana. Life grows into its own shape and life has its own expression. The life of an apple or a banana has its own particular expression as the issue of its growth. We also have the divine life which is the life of God’s firstborn Son, and this life has its essence, power, and shape. This life grows into its own shape. As we grow we are being conformed, shaped, into the image of the firstborn Son of God. We are not imitating Christ, but we are being conformed to His image by growing. Washington apples are conformed to their particular form by their full growth. They are not imitators but they are growers. They grow in the apple life unto the conformity of a Washington apple. In like manner, we are not imitating Christ, but we are growing by Christ as our life and eventually we grow unto the conformity of Christ. Then at His coming back He will transform our body of humiliation metabolically by His great power and with His divine element, conforming it to the body of His glory. By that time we will be fully and thoroughly wrought with all the attributes of God. We have not reached that point yet, but today we are in the process, and today we can be the golden lampstand.
By the new birth, the renewing, the transformation, and the conformation, God has been gradually working Himself into us and by this we all become part of the golden lampstand. This is the church. This is more than holy, more than righteous, and more than mere learning. This is something divine and golden. This is the mingling of divinity with humanity for the fulfillment of God’s divine economy.