The glorification of the church that began at Pentecost has not yet reached its consummation. On the contrary, the process of glorification is still taking place. According to the condition of the church, there may be more glory at certain times than at others. How much glory is manifested in the church depends upon our degree of sanctification. The spectators at the basketball game may be very enthusiastic. However, with them there is no glory; there is only excitement, because there is no sanctification. The more we are sanctified through Christ’s saturating our being with His holy nature, the more we shall express God when we come together as the church.
Sanctification is primarily an individual matter, whereas glorification is mainly a corporate matter. Suppose I lose my temper with my wife during the day. This damages my personal sanctification. Although I confess to the Lord and receive His cleansing, I may have no sense of the glory in the meeting that night, even though everyone else is conscious of it. Because I am short of sanctification, I cannot sense the glory which others can sense. I do not have the sanctification in my personal life to give me a sense of glory in the meeting. However, suppose I stay in fellowship with the Lord all day, even when my wife gives me a difficult time. Everything that happens during the day only helps the process of sanctification. Therefore, in the meetings, I will be able to sense the glory. This illustrates the fact that the more sanctification we experience, the more we shall participate in the glorification.
Glory, the expression of God in the church, is God’s goal in His dispensation. However, sanctification is the process, and righteousness is the supporting ground. Therefore, the dispensation of the Triune God is according to His righteousness, through His holiness, and unto the goal of His glory.
Now we come to the very precious matter of the life of the Triune God dispensed into the tripartite man. How marvelous that God is triune and that we are tripartite!
Romans 8:2 speaks of the life of the Triune God. Verse 10 reveals that this life has been dispensed into our spirit and has caused our spirit to become life. Furthermore, according to verse 6, this life can be dispensed into our mind and can cause our mind to be life also. Ultimately, as verse 11 discloses, the divine life can even be imparted into our mortal bodies. In these verses we see the three parts of man: the spirit, the soul (represented by the mind), and the body. The spirit is the center, the body is the circumference, and the mind is in between. From the center through the middle to the circumference, the life of the Triune God is being dispensed into our entire being.
The life that is to be dispensed into the three parts of man is the life of the Triune God. In 8:2 Paul speaks of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus. In this phrase the Triune God is implied. The Spirit and Christ, the Son, are mentioned explicitly, whereas God the Father is implied by the fact that the Spirit is the Spirit of God. Hence, here we have God, Christ, and the Spirit. However, the main point is not the Triune God, but life. To speak of the Spirit of life is actually to say that the Spirit is life. The life here is the very life of the Triune God.
When we were regenerated, we received another life, a life in addition to our natural life. There are various kinds of life: plant life, animal life, human life, and divine life. As humans, we all have a physical life and a psychological life. The physical life and the psychological life are indicated by the Greek words bios and psuche respectively. When Paul speaks of life in Romans 8, however, he uses still another Greek word, the word zoe. In the Bible zoe denotes God’s life, the divine, infinite, uncreated, eternal life. This is the life we receive by believing in the Lord Jesus. As John 3:36 says, “He who believes in the Son has eternal life.” In verses 2, 6, 10, and 11 of Romans 8, Paul uses this Greek word for life to indicate that the dispensation of God is to dispense zoe into our being. In other words, God desires to dispense Himself as zoe into all three parts of man’s being.
The dispensation of the divine zoe into us began when we were regenerated. According to 8:2, this life is the Spirit and it is in Christ Jesus. But now, through God’s dispensation, it also has something to do with us. Without this life, we are doomed to perish. Praise the Lord that when we were regenerated, zoe was dispensed into our spirit!