In order that we may enjoy the jubilee, our spirit has been regenerated. God has regenerated our spirit as the beginning of our participation in the enjoyment of the jubilee. This means that we began to enter into the enjoyment of the jubilee when our spirit was regenerated. When we called on the name of the Lord for salvation and experienced the forgiveness of sins, our spirit was regenerated. Even though we did not have the knowledge of what had taken place, within us there was rejoicing. The joy within us was a sign of the beginning of our participation in the enjoyment of the jubilee. A proper conversion and experience of salvation always bring in such an enjoyment.
Many believers, after being regenerated, have been misled into caring for doctrine merely in a mental way. As a result, they have lost their enjoyment of the jubilee. However, we in the Lord’s recovery have been brought back from theology and from mere doctrinal, mental understanding to our regenerated spirit. The more the Lord spreads from our spirit into our soul, saturating our mind, will, and emotion, the more we participate in the enjoyment of the jubilee. As we experience 2 Corinthians 3:18 and Romans 12:2, that is, as we are being transformed in our soul, we enjoy the jubilee.
Have you seen what the jubilee is? The jubilee is a release from bondage and the entering into the enjoyment of the Triune God. We began to experience this jubilee when we were regenerated. Through regeneration we were released from bondage and entered into the enjoyment of the Triune God. But soon after we were regenerated, many of us were misled by blind teachers, and we lost the enjoyment of the jubilee. Now in the Lord’s recovery we have come back to our regenerated spirit, and we have begun to experience transformation in our soul.
According to Paul’s word in 2 Corinthians 3:18, we are being transformed into the same image, the image of the Lord, from one degree of glory to another. As we go on from one degree of glory to another degree, we are excited because as we progress we participate more in the release from bondage and enter more fully into the enjoyment of the Triune God. This is transformation for the enjoyment of the jubilee. This transformation is depicted by the transfiguration of the Lord Jesus on Mount Hermon.
In 9:23 and 24 the Lord says, “If anyone wants to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me. For whoever wants to save his soul life will lose it, but whoever loses his soul life for My sake, this one shall save it.” To bear our cross to follow the Lord and to deny our soul life is to identify ourselves with His death. The Lord’s death crosses off the natural life and the old creation so that we may enter into the new creation, into a transfigured condition. Here, in a transfigured state, we participate in the enjoyment of the jubilee. Hence, for the enjoyment of the jubilee there is the need of transfiguration.
After speaking to His disciples about being identified with His death, the Lord went on to say, “But I tell you truly, there are some of those standing here who shall by no means taste death until they see the kingdom of God” (9:27). This was fulfilled by the Lord’s transfiguration on the mountain. This means that His transfiguration was the coming of the kingdom of God.
Luke 9:28 and 29 say, “And about eight days after these words, it came about that He took with Him Peter and John and James, and went up into the mountain to pray. And it came about that as He prayed the appearance of His face became different, and His garment dazzling white.” Literally, the Greek words rendered “dazzling white” mean flashing like lightning. Unlike Matthew 17 and Mark 9, these verses do not use the word “transfigured.” Nevertheless, in these verses we certainly can see the Lord’s transfiguration. His transfiguration was the coming, the appearing, of the kingdom of God.
We have emphasized the fact that the kingdom of God is the Savior (17:21) as the seed of life, sown into His believers, God’s chosen people (Mark 4:3,26), and developing into a realm which God may rule as His kingdom in His divine life. The Man-Savior’s transfiguration actually was the appearing of this kingdom. When Peter, John, and James were in the atmosphere of the Lord’s transfiguration, they were in the kingdom of God. This was the reason Peter said to the Lord, “Master, it is good for us to be here” (Luke 9:33). At that juncture, Peter, John, and James certainly participated in the enjoyment of the jubilee. They were released and were in the enjoyment of the Triune God.