Let me say a little more here. When I was young, I observed that in July the northern Chinese would make a kind of dessert called “ch’iao-kuo.” They used a board which had seven designs carved out on it in the shapes of a fish, a chicken, a bird, a tiger, a lion, a leopard, and a child respectively. These seven carvings were seven molds with which this dessert was made. People kneaded the dough and filled each mold with dough. After being baked, when the molds were emptied, the dough came out in the shapes of a small fish, a small chicken, a small bird, a small tiger, a small lion, a small leopard, and a small child. This is conformation. The original dough was just a lump without a nose or eyes; it had no definite shape. Then after it had passed through molding and baking, it was no longer only a lump of dough; it became seven pieces of dough baked in different shapes. After this process, they became delicious desserts. But this kind of mold is only an outward mold.

Fruit trees produce fruit, such as apples, peaches, apricots, bananas, and papayas. These different fruit trees do not need the gardener to provide molds for them to produce different kinds of fruit. Apple trees produce fruit in the shape of apples, and for thousands of years the shape of apples has remained unchanged. Likewise, peach trees produce peaches. Fruit trees do not need our worrying, nor do they need our instructions, nor do they need molds. The shape of the fruit is in the life element of the tree. The life element of the peach tree is peach; as a result, the peach tree spontaneously bears peaches.

Consider the matter of human conception. When a fetus is conceived in the mother’s womb, it does not have a mold. Yet when it grows in the womb, it develops ears, eyes, nose, and other parts of the body until it grows into a boy or a girl. Although there is no outward mold, it grows into a proper shape. The shapes of the living things are not determined by any outward mold but are derived from their genes. What are the genes? We may say that the genes are the inward “mold” of life which God gave us in His marvelous creation. This mold of life is not outward and does not come by imitation. Rather, it is contained in the life element. Different fruit trees bear different fruit according to their intrinsic life element.

Today we who believe in Christ have both the human life and the divine life; the divine life can transform our human life. This may be compared to a caterpillar being transformed into a butterfly. The caterpillar grows and grows until finally it becomes a butterfly, and what is left of the original caterpillar is just an empty cocoon. We are sinners within and transgressors without; that is, we are just like caterpillars. However, after a period of time we will be transformed into butterflies. Today we are all like caterpillars, but we all have the life of God within us. Since the day God entered into us, He has been transforming us daily. God’s work of transformation within us is very deep and very fine. Hence, it cannot be as fast as the transforming of a caterpillar into a butterfly.

This One who is transforming us from within is not only God but the God-man. This God-man is God Himself who was incarnated, died on the cross, terminated the old creation, and entered into resurrection. In resurrection He became the life-giving Spirit. This was God passing through various processes. If He did not pass through all these processes, He would not be able to come into us. Now He has passed through all these processes. Therefore, like the air, it is easy for Him to enter into us. After He comes into us, He does the work of transformation in us. He is not adjusting us. Often we have the old concept of morality and think that the Holy Spirit in us is adjusting us. If we have a bad temper, we will think that we need the Holy Spirit to adjust us so that we would not have a bad temper. This is our concept. Although this concept is not heretical, it is a wrong teaching. This is the influence of the teachings of Confucius. This is the concept of the Chinese philosophers and Confucius’ disciples, but this is not what the Bible teaches. The Bible tells us that men became sinners and transgressors due to the fall. One day God, who is holiness, righteousness, love, and light, passed through the processes of incarnation, death, and resurrection to become the life-giving Spirit. Thus, He was able to come into us. When He came in, He brought with Him some factors and elements with which to transform us in our inward being day by day. Therefore, the apostle Paul said in Philippians 1:19, “This will turn out to salvation through...the bountiful supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ.”

The Lord Jesus is the Triune God who was incarnated to put on human nature. Originally He was merely God, but now by putting on human nature through His incarnation, He has become a God-man. In His wisdom and by His sovereignty God planned and prepared the cross, and on this cross Jesus, the God-man, was crucified. As God, He is without sin and is also holy, and through His death on the cross He released His life. But He is also a man, and through His death on the cross all the negative things in the universe that were hanging on Him, such as sins, trespasses, Satan, the flesh, passions, lusts, and the world, were crucified with Him. Then Christ came out of death and entered into resurrection. In resurrection He became the life-giving Spirit. The Triune God passed through these processes, and now in this life-giving Spirit there is God, there is man, there is the all-inclusive death, and there is the effectiveness of death. In this death sin was dealt with, the world and Satan were judged, the flesh and lusts were eliminated. Furthermore, in this Spirit there is the power of resurrection that releases the divine life, the eternal life, the uncreated life.

This Spirit is the all-inclusive, life-giving Spirit. We may use this example: I like to drink lemon juice with some honey and a little salt. First I have a glass of plain water, then I add lemon, and then I add some honey and a small amount of salt. Eventually, in this glass there are water, lemon, honey, and salt. When I drink this glass of liquid, I get the water, the lemon, the honey, and the salt. Originally the Spirit of God was like the plain water. When God was incarnated, humanity was added to divinity. Then He was crucified, and by this the death on the cross was also added to the Spirit of God; the effectiveness of death was also included in this Spirit. He then entered into resurrection, so the power of resurrection was also in this Spirit. Now the Spirit who regenerates us is this Spirit. When He regenerates us, He comes to live in us. This all-inclusive Spirit contains the processed Triune God with His complete and full divinity and His perfect humanity. In addition, this Spirit has His death with its effectiveness and His resurrection with its power. This all-inclusive Spirit is Christ, and Christ is God. God was incarnated to be Christ, Christ was transfigured to become the Spirit, and the Spirit comes into us with all these elements.

Whenever we rise up in the morning and fellowship with the Lord who is in us, calling on His name, He, as the Spirit of reality, supplies us within. God is Christ, the Lord, the Spirit, and He is in us. When we receive His supply, we are satisfied and uplifted. We will sense an operation within us that is killing the negative things within us, such as our bad temper and our quick disposition, and it is also supplying us with the abundant life. This is metabolic transformation. The result of such a transformation is that we are conformed to the image of the Lord Jesus. The Lord Jesus was both God and man, and He passed through death and resurrection. Likewise, we also are both God and man, and we also passed through death and resurrection. We are those who are the union of the Triune God and the tripartite man; we died and now are living.

We are being conformed to the image of the God-man, the firstborn Son of God. He is the firstborn Son, and we are the many sons. Thus, we enjoy all the riches of God.
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