We have seen that 5:25-27 presents Christ in three stages. In the first stage, the stage of the flesh, Christ gave Himself up for the church. In the second stage, He as the life-giving Spirit is sanctifying, cleansing, nourishing, and cherishing the church. Eventually, in the third stage, He will present a glorious church to Himself as His Bride.
We need to consider how Christ will present the church to Himself as a glorious church. When I was young, I thought that Christ was merely in the heavens and that the church was on earth. My concept was that at His coming back from the heavens to the earth, He would suddenly take up the church and present her to Himself. According to this concept, Christ is far away in the heavens, and we on earth are making ourselves ready to be presented to Him. I realized later, however, that this is a natural concept that makes Christ too objective.
God’s economy is altogether different from the natural concept and from religion. In His economy, God is working Christ into us. Eventually, Christ will present the glorious church to Himself not by coming merely in an objective way, but by expanding within us and then by coming out of us.
Romans 8 indicates that God has not only called us and justified us, but that He will also glorify us. Years ago I was taught that one day the Lord would suddenly descend from the heavens and sweep us up into glory. But this concept of glorification is not according to God’s economy. Christ will glorify us not by descending upon us from the heavens, but by coming forth from within us. The hope of glory is not the Christ in the heavens, but the Christ who is in us (Col. 1:27). If we do not take Christ as our life and our person, we shall have no way to enjoy the glory that is within us. We need to say, “Lord Jesus, I take You as my life and my person. Lord, I offer my heart to You. Take my heart, Lord. Possess it, occupy it, and make Your home in it.” If you practice this, spontaneously you will come to know the glory within you.
Many of us were taught that the light of God shines upon us from outside of us. Our experience of the Lord’s shining, however, is different from this. According to our experience, the light shines not from the outside, but from within us. When you take Christ as your life and your person, do not expect the heavens to open and a great light to shine upon you in an outward way. If your experience is like that of so many, the Lord’s shining will be inward, a shining from within. Such a shining is an expression of the inner glory. Our hope of glory is Christ in us. Hence, when God glorifies us, He will not need to send the glory from above; rather, He will cause Christ to shine forth from within us. This indicates that glorification is a subjective experience of the indwelling Christ.
Contrary to the religious concept, our glorification will not be a sudden event. Rather, it will take place gradually as Christ expands within us and saturates us with Himself. Christ glorifies us as He “eats us up” little by little. We all need to be eaten, devoured, swallowed up, by Christ as the glory within us. Within us we have Christ not only as our life and our person, but also as the very glory of God.
We may use the metamorphosis of an ugly caterpillar into a beautiful butterfly as an illustration of glorification. A caterpillar is not instantaneously transformed into a butterfly by a beauty that suddenly descends upon it and envelops it. No, the beauty of the butterfly is contained within the life of the caterpillar. As the law of this life functions within the caterpillar, the caterpillar is gradually transformed into a butterfly. As this process takes place, the beauty of the butterfly swallows up the ugliness of the caterpillar.
In the same principle, Christ is in us to be our hope of glory. As the indwelling glory, He takes every opportunity to expand within us. The inner glory saturates us and even swallows us up. One day our entire being will be saturated with the divine glory. On that day we shall be brought into glory in a full way.
This is completely different from the religious teaching that tells us we must try to behave ourselves until someday when we hope to be suddenly transported into a realm of glory. According to the religious concept, we must try our best to please the Lord. If we are pleasing to Him, one day He will swoop down from heaven and carry us away to glory. What a contrast between this and God’s economy! God’s economy is to dispense Christ into us. As believers, we have Christ in us as our glory. Our need is not to behave ourselves or to endeavor to please God; it is to take care of Christ as the hope of glory and to allow this glory to be our life and person.