The processed Triune God and His regenerated, sanctified, transformed, and glorified elect will be joined and mingled as one to constitute an organism as the enlargement and expression of God in eternity. In the beginning of Genesis, when God created Adam, Adam was all alone without a counterpart. Then God took a rib out of Adam and built it into a woman. Adam and this woman were joined as one (Gen. 2:21-24). This is the increase of Adam. In John 3, a chapter on regeneration, John said, “He who has the bride is the bridegroom” (v. 29). The Bridegroom is Christ, and the bride is a living composition of all the regenerated people, who have the divine life and nature, as the increase of Christ, the corporate bride. Therefore, in verse 30 John went on to say, “He must increase, but I must decrease.” The increase in this verse is the bride in the preceding verse, and the bride is a living composition of all the regenerated people. Eventually, Revelation 21 unveils to us that the entire New Jerusalem as the wife of the Lamb, Christ (vv. 2, 9), becomes the enlargement and expression of God.
Unfortunately, most of the believers through the generations have considered the redemption which God accomplished for us in procedure as the purpose of God’s salvation, stressing the five items which God has accomplished for us in the aspect of redemption according to His righteousness judicially, while neglecting the eight items which God will do for us in the aspect of salvation through His life organically. This is a great shortcoming of the majority of believers today in the salvation in God’s life. As a result, they neglect the pursuing and growing unto full growth in God’s life and hardly see anything concerning the building of the Body of Christ, much less the consummation of the ultimate goal of God’s eternal economy, which is the New Jerusalem. Moreover, even concerning the New Jerusalem as the conclusion of the entire Bible, nearly no one knows what it is, yet some consider the New Jerusalem as the heaven where the believers will go after their death. Because of the lack of knowledge concerning the universal oneness of Christ and the unique goal of God’s economy, they form different sects and establish their own churches according to the partial truths of their fragmentary seeing, thus resulting in the divided and confused condition of Christianity today.
We need to be clear that the complete salvation of God is of two aspects: the judicial aspect and the organic aspect. The judicial aspect is according to the righteousness of God (Rom. 1:17a; 3:21-26; 9:30-31) as the procedure of God’s salvation to satisfy the requirements of God’s righteous law on the sinners. It is for sinners to be forgiven before God (Luke 24:47), washed (Heb. 1:3), justified (Rom. 3:24-25), reconciled to God (Rom. 5:10a), and sanctified unto God positionally (1 Cor. 1:2; Heb. 13:12), thereby entering into the grace of God for the accomplishment of the purpose of God’s salvation. However, redemption as the judicial aspect cannot carry out the purpose of God’s salvation, because it is merely the procedure, not the purpose. For example, a cook spends a great amount of time cooking in the kitchen to prepare a feast. However, the cooking is not his purpose but merely a procedure. Later when the guests are invited to enjoy the feast, that is the purpose of the cooking. Likewise, in the salvation of God we should not remain in the aspect of procedure, the judicial aspect; rather, we should go on to the aspect of purpose, the organic aspect.
The organic aspect of God’s salvation is through the life of God (Rom. 1:17b; Acts 11:18; Rom. 5:10b, 17b, 18b, 21b). Whereas the judicial aspect is according to the righteousness of God to accomplish God’s redemption, the organic aspect is through the life of God to carry out God’s salvation, including regeneration, shepherding, dispositional sanctification, renewing, transformation, building up, conformation, and glorification. This is the purpose of God’s salvation to accomplish all that God wants to achieve in the believers in His economy through His divine life.
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