In verse 4 we see that God has chosen us to be holy. However, to be holy is the procedure, not the goal. The goal is sonship. We have been predestinated unto sonship. In other words, God has chosen us to be holy so that we might be His sons. Thus, to be holy is the process, the procedure, whereas to be sons of God is the goal. God does not merely want a group of holy people; He desires many sons. It may seem to us that it is adequate for God to choose us to be holy. We may be fully satisfied with this. Nevertheless, God has chosen us to be holy for a purpose, and this purpose is that we might be the sons of God.
Let us take baking a cake as an example. When a sister bakes a cake, she firstly prepares the dough by mixing various ingredients together with flour. As the ingredients are mixed in with the dough, we may say that the dough is a picture of sanctification. First the dough is separated; then it is sanctified through having various ingredients added to it. After the sister mixes the dough, she shapes it into a certain form. Likewise, God first separates us, and then puts Himself, the Father, the Son, and the Spirit, into us. Then follows the process of mixing. To say that God mixes us means that He disturbs us. We may like to have a tranquil church life, but often God intervenes to turn things upside down. Nevertheless, this is the normal Christian church life.
To be holy is to be mingled with God. God sanctifies us by putting Himself into us and then mingling us with His nature. This is a matter of nature, of having our nature transformed with His. We were born human, natural, but God wants us to be divine. The only way this can take place is through having the divine nature put into our being and mingled with it. In this way, God makes us holy. Thus, sanctification is a procedure to transform our nature. This, however, is not the goal. The goal is related to being formed or shaped. This is the reason that along with God’s choosing us to be holy, there is the need of His predestinating us to be sons. To be holy is a matter of nature, but to be sons is a matter of being formed. God’s sons are people conformed to a particular form or shape.
The golden lampstand in Revelation 1 illustrates this. In nature, the lampstand is golden, but in form it is a lampstand. In order for a golden lampstand to be produced, the material must first be pure gold. This refers to the procedure. But the goal of this procedure is the producing of the lampstand with a definite form. In like manner, to be made holy is the procedure for us to become sons of God.
When I saw that holiness was for sonship, I said to myself, “How could you ever have been satisfied with holiness as an end in itself? You can only be satisfied with being a son of God.” Thus, we are not only holy, but also the sons of God. We have not only God’s holy nature, but also the Person of His Son. Therefore, we are not merely holy lumps, but also sons of God.
All Christians know that the genuine believers in Christ are the church. But the church is not merely a group of saved ones. The church is a collective people who have been made holy in nature to be the sons of God. This collective people must be sanctified, saturated, and mingled with God’s nature. Then they will be the sons of God. Such a people is the church.
The situation of today’s Christianity is far removed from this. In Christianity we see groups of people who are saved, but who are still common and worldly, not having any holiness whatever. Furthermore, they do not live like sons of God. Rather, many of them live like sons of sinners. Although so many believe in the Lord Jesus, have been washed in the blood, and have been regenerated by the Spirit, they are still worldly and common, with no mark of holiness in their living. They are absolutely the same as their neighbors, friends, and relatives. Nevertheless, they talk about being the church. What a shame to God, and what a shame to the church! The church is constituted as a collective people who have been separated unto God and who are saturated with the nature of God and fully sanctified to live like sons of God. The church certainly should not be a group of worldly Christians living like the sons of sinners. It is a shame to say that such a group is the church.
If we claim to be the church, we must ask whether we are a separated and sanctified people. Are we separated unto God and saturated with God? Are we sanctified both positionally and dispositionally with God’s nature to live like the sons of God? Oh, may our eyes be opened to see what the church is! The church is not a group of Christians who are zealous, yet who are common and worldly without any separation or saturation. The church is constituted with those who have been sanctified by God to live like sons of God.
Remember, the book of Ephesians is concerned with the church. In the opening word of this book, we are told that the church is a people under God’s well-speaking (1:3). The first item of God’s well-speaking is that we have been chosen to be holy. This is God’s blessing, His well-speaking, concerning us. However, many Christians reject this blessing. God says that He has chosen us to be holy, but they say that they do not want to be different from others. Some say, “We don’t want to be holy. We like to be common.” God says, “You have been chosen to be different.” But they say, “We don’t want to be different. We want to be the same as others.” This rejection of God’s well-speaking is rebellion. Oh, may the Lord have mercy on us! How we need His mercy because today’s situation is so pitiful! We need to see that we have been chosen to be holy so that we may live the life of the sons of God.