We are “gloves” in the likeness of the divine hand. This means that we do not have the thumb, but the form of the thumb; not the fingers, but the likeness of the fingers. For example, our gentleness is a container for God’s gentleness. Our gentleness is only the form, whereas God’s gentleness is the substance, the reality. Because we were created according to the likeness of God, we have the capacity to be godly, that is, to be like God. Animals can never be godly, for they are not in the likeness of God and cannot contain Him. But in our love, kindness, and gentleness we can show forth godliness, God-likeness.
In His creation of man, God made man as a vessel to contain Him with the intention of coming into this vessel and filling it with Himself. When God enters into the vessels created by Him, He finds that the vessels are a proper match for Him. He has emotion, and His container has emotion also. Therefore, in the container God has a place to put, to dispense, His own emotion. In this way human emotion and divine emotion become one. The divine emotion is the content, and the human emotion is the container and the expression.
Although this revelation is in the Bible, not many have seen it. We praise the Lord that in His recovery this revelation has been made more than clear. No more are we veiled to the fact that man is a vessel to contain God and that God feels at home in such a wonderful vessel. If we see this, then we shall be able to understand the subject of this message: not an exchanged life, but a grafted life.
We have seen that when the divine life enters into the human life, the divine life becomes the content and the human life becomes the container and the expression. But there is no exchange, or trade, of lives. This means that we do not exchange the human life for the divine life. Instead of exchange, there is a dispensation. The empty glove is filled with the hand. Using another figure of speech, we may say that man is like a tire that needs to be filled with air. The air is dispensed into the tire and fills it, but the air is not exchanged for the tire. In like manner, the divine air, the heavenly pneuma, is dispensed into us, but it is not exchanged for our human life. Rather, as we shall see, it is dispensed into us and mingled with us.
Some Christian teachers regard the Christian life as an exchanged life. According to this concept, our life is poor and Christ’s life is superior. Therefore, the Lord asks us to give up our life in exchange for His. We yield our life to Him, and He replaces it with His own life. However, our Christian life is not an exchanged life. It is altogether a matter of the divine life dispensed, infused, into our human life. This is a basic concept in the Scriptures.
In the book of Romans Paul uses three illustrations to show the dispensation of the divine life into us. In each illustration we see that the Christian life is not an exchanged life. The first illustration is that of vessels. When a certain content is placed in a vessel, an exchange does not take place. On the contrary, there is a dispensation of the content into the vessel. The vessel may be earthy, not at all honorable or glorious, whereas the content is altogether honorable and glorious. When such a content is dispensed into the earthy vessel, the vessel becomes a vessel of honor, a vessel of glory. This is not exchange; it is dispensation.
Paul’s second illustration is that of married life. Marriage is not an exchange of life, but a union of life. In marriage, the husband becomes the very person of the wife. For this reason, the wife takes her husband’s name as her own.
In weddings throughout the world the bride’s head is covered. This indicates that in the marriage union there can be just one head. Hence, marriage is a union of two persons under one head. In such a union there is no trade or exchange, but identification. The wife is to identify herself fully with her husband. In this union, this identification, the wife is one with the husband, and the husband is one with the wife. This is a union of life, not an exchange of life.
In 7:4 Paul speaks of our being married to Christ: “So that, my brothers, you also have been made dead to the law through the body of Christ, that you might marry another, even Him Who has been raised from among the dead.” Christ is our Husband, and we are His Bride. Between the Bridegroom and the Bride there is no exchange of life. Instead, there is a wonderful union. We are one with Him in person, in name, in life, and in existence. If a man and wife are to have a proper marriage, they must learn to be one in such a way. Likewise, our Christian life is a life of identification with Christ and oneness with Him.