Fifth, Galatians shows us that all of our living and work must pass through death and resurrection in Christ to be freed from the old creation and become the new creation for God’s building on earth (6:14-15).
Sixth, Ephesians, a book specifically on the church as the Body of Christ, stresses particularly the building up of the Body. Ephesians 3:17-19 says that Christ desires to make His home, to build His dwelling place, in our hearts that we may be filled with God unto the fullness of God for God’s expression.
Furthermore, chapter four reveals to us that the Body of Christ is an organism constituted and built with the Triune God-the Father, the Son, and the Spirit-and His redeemed people, with the Father as the source, the Lord as the element, and the Spirit as the essence to be its intrinsic factors and the God-chosen, regenerated, and transformed believers to be its outward frame. No doubt, this is the building as the issue of the coordination of the God-chosen and transformed believers with the processed Triune God (vv. 4-6).
Chapter four goes on to show us that we need to be perfected until we become full-grown in Christ and are one in the faith, not being blown away or carried about by the winds of different teachings. It is only in this way that the Body of Christ can be built up (vv. 11-14). The same chapter also charges us to grow up into the Head, Christ, in all things, so that out from Him “all the Body, being joined together and being knit together through every joint of the rich supply and through the operation in the measure of each one part, causes the growth of the Body unto the building up of itself in love” (vv. 15-16).
Seventh, in Revelation, in 3:12-13 the Lord promised His overcomer that He would make him a pillar in the temple of His God for him to be one with God, with the New Jerusalem, and with the Lord in His new name.
Ultimately, in Revelation 21 and 22 the hidden and mysterious God presents to the apostle John the New Jerusalem in its entirety as the consummation of all the revelations, visions, types, and prophecies in the holy Scripture, including both the Old Testament and the New Testament. The holy city, which was hidden from the ages in God, who created all things and mankind, and which was seen by John, is the dwelling place (tabernacle) of the Triune God in eternity. It is constituted with the processed and consummated Triune God as the city itself-the nature of the Father as gold being its base, the pearls produced by the Son in the secretion of His resurrection life through His death and resurrection being its gates, and the precious stones, jasper in particular, transformed by the transforming Spirit being its wall and foundations-and His redeemed, regenerated, sanctified, renewed, and transformed elect. In the city there is a throne as the center for the ruling of God’s eternal kingdom; there are God and the Lamb as the temple in the city to be the place for His elect to worship and serve Him and to be their dwelling place; there are God and the Lamb as the light of the city; there is the river of water of life (the Spirit) flowing out of the throne, the center, to water the entire city and quench its thirst; and there is Christ as the tree of life growing in the river of water of life and producing new fruit in abundance as the supply to the entire city for its satisfaction and joy. Such a wonderful and unsearchable holy city becomes the mutual abode of God and His elect in eternity as God’s enlargement and expression for eternity.
Question: What is the difference between dispositional sanctification and transformation?
Answer: Dispositional sanctification is a change in disposition, a change in our peculiar disposition. Everyone has a peculiar and strange disposition, and there is no exception to this. After we have been sanctified, our former peculiar and strange disposition is changed and becomes proper, matching God’s nature. On the other hand, transformation is the outward manifestation as the issue of the metabolism in life within us. Dispositional sanctification changes our strange disposition, whereas transformation swallows up all the weaknesses in us by metabolism, resulting in an outward manifestation.
Question: When do we reach the maturity in life? At the Lord’s coming back or today?
Answer: Maturity is a daily matter, but no one dares to determine the degree of maturity. Paul said, “For I am conscious of nothing against myself; but I am not justified in this, but He who examines me is the Lord. So then do not judge anything before the time, until the Lord comes” (1 Cor. 4:4-5). If you feel that you have matured very much a month after you hear this message, it shows that you are not mature. The immature ones always feel that they are mature. On the contrary, the mature ones are humble and feel that they are not mature and are still lacking very much.
Question: We have been regenerated in life and changed in our disposition with God’s life and nature. Why do we still need to be transformed in our mind for our whole life?
Answer: God does not use our natural life; He uses only His own life. God has generated us in life, but our disposition is strange, so He sanctifies us with His holy nature. Furthermore, He also transforms us metabolically from within so that we have the outward expression of the divine image. This is the work of the organic aspect of God’s salvation. God carries out this organic work by His life, by His nature, and by the expression of His image. Eventually, the consummation of God’s work is for us to be conformed and glorified. However, all of these things must be carried out through transformation by the renewing of the mind. For example, the Bible clearly shows us that the Triune God is eternally co-existing and co-inhering, yet many in Christianity insist that there are three separate Gods. Another example is concerning 1 Corinthians 15:45, which says clearly that the last Adam became the life-giving Spirit, yet many in Christianity say that Christ and the Holy Spirit are two. This shows that unless our mind is turned, renewed, and transformed, we cannot accurately understand the Bible. The transformation of our mind takes a lifetime.
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