What is the purpose of this dispositional sanctification? The purpose is that God may produce many sons (Rom. 8:29). John 1:12 tells us that we have become the children of God, that we have been born as children of God. Nevertheless, let me ask you a question: do you believe that you actually look like a son of God? Whose son do you look like? Although some Christians want to argue with me doctrinally, I prefer to inquire into what kind of person they are. Yes, all real Christians have been born as children of God, but they need to grow into sanctification that they may look like the sons of God. So many genuine Christians, after being regenerated to be the children of God, continue to live in a worldly way. They need to be sanctified in the divine life that they may grow into the maturity of the divine sonship.
The Lord has brought us into His recovery, and His recovery is for reality and practicality. May we look to the Lord for His mercy that He may rescue us from vain knowledge. What we need is reality and practicality. In the book of Romans what Paul wrote regards reality and practicality. God has accomplished a great work that we might have His righteousness. Now He is working within us that we may be sanctified, that His holy nature may be fully wrought into our being. We will not only be sanctified outwardly and objectively, but also inwardly and subjectively. Eventually, we will be filled with His holy nature. In these messages I have no intention of giving merely another exposition of the book of Romans. What the Lord is doing among us today is to open our eyes that we may see our need for His sanctifying work. We need His sanctifying life. We need His eternal life to work His holy being into our nature that we might actually and practically be His sons, not in word, but in reality. Although we were born children of God, we do not resemble the sons of God. Thus, we need the subjective sanctification in life.
Sanctification brings in transformation. We need to be transformed from one form into another. However, not only the outward form must be changed, but the inward substance, the inward essence must also be changed. This change of inward substance requires the process of sanctification. Praise the Lord that He is working in us! We have been justified and now we are being sanctified. God is working His holiness into us, and we shall be sanctified in life.
The crucified Christ was for our justification, and the resurrected Christ is for our sanctification. Christ died on the cross primarily for our justification. Christ, as the Redeemer in the flesh, was for our justification, but now, as the life-giving Spirit in our spirit, He lives within us for our sanctification. He was the crucified One; now He is the resurrected One. He was our Redeemer in the flesh; now He is the life-giving Spirit in our spirit. As the life-giving Spirit, He is our life and He is saturating our being with His holy nature until we are thoroughly, dispositionally sanctified. This is the reason that in Romans, unlike other New Testament books, sanctification is not positional by the blood, but dispositional by life, even by the living Lord Himself. The Lord is working within our spirit, spreading Himself from the center of our being throughout every part of us until He reaches the circumference. Then we will be completely saturated with His holy nature. Thus, our whole being will be sanctified by Christ as the life-giving Spirit and by His fourfold life. We have seen that His life is fourfold: it is life in the Divine Spirit, in our human spirit, in our mind, and in our mortal body. Therefore, as the life-giving Spirit, He is sanctifying us with His rich life. He is so rich! He is rich enough to supply even our mortal bodies with life.
Justification is for sanctification, and sanctification is for glorification. In the next message we shall consider the goal of God’s glorification.