You have to realize that to be a son of God, you first need to be regenerated. We were not born sons of God; we were born sons of men, descendants of Adam. We were born sons of man; we were constituted sons of man; we were educated sons of man. Then suddenly we were reborn to be sons of God. As sons of God we had a new start, our regeneration. Following regeneration we need reconstitution. We need both regeneration and reconstitution. You may have been regenerated, but have you been reconstituted? To be transformed and conformed is to be reconstituted. You were a son of man, and you have been regenerated to be a son of God. But today you don’t live like a son of God. You still live like a son of man. You have been reborn, yet you have not been reconstituted. This reconstitution will continue to take place even to the time of the redemption of our body. Although some have not experienced the redemption of their body, yet they have been reconstituted to a certain extent. Because they have been reconstituted, they can control and subdue the unredeemed body. Even now we are much under the influence of our body. Our body exercises a big role in our daily life, our family life, and, unfortunately, even in our church life. But when we will have been reconstituted to a certain extent, our body will be fully under the control of the reconstitution. This means that the body will not play that much role in our daily life and our fleshly body will not exercise too much influence over our Christian walk. This is why the opening words of chapter twelve indicate that we need to offer our body. In chapter twelve you could see consecration on the surface. That is somewhat superficial. It is not just a matter of consecration; it is a matter of the full control and the full subduing of your body. Most Christians misinterpret the offering of the body in chapter twelve. In certain meetings people may be encouraged to offer their body to be a missionary. But Romans twelve says we offer our body not to be a missionary, but to be a sacrifice. Everyone may like to be a missionary; nobody likes to be a sacrifice. To offer your body as a missionary doesn’t need any subduing, any control, of the body. Your body, because it is still not yet redeemed, is rebellious. Unless your entire being has been reconstituted, you cannot control your rebellious body.
Now we are going deeper and deeper to touch some part of the depths of Romans. Why could we not enter into the practical Body life? Because our body is still so rebellious. Our unredeemed body is still not under any kind of bridle; we cannot manage it. Why? Because we are still short of reconstitution. We have been regenerated, and now we are being reconstituted. Our reconstitution has not reached that standard where we are able to control this unredeemed body.
We all have to see that to enter into chapter twelve of Romans, we must pass through chapter eight. If we are going to enter into the Body life, we must pass through the sonship. The sonship is just the building up of the organic union. We have been regenerated. We secured the organic union in our regeneration. But after securing the organic union we need to build it up. The building up is the sonship. When we are living practically as the sons of God, we are the members of Christ. The Head of this Body is the firstborn Son of God, and all the members of this Body are the many sons of God. They are the many brothers of the firstborn Son of God.
You have to see what the Body of Christ is. It is just a composition of the sons of God. The Body of Christ is totally just a composition of the divine life. The sons of God are just the expression of the divine life. The Son of God is the expression of the Father, the divine life, and we are the many sons; so we also are the expression of the divine life.