According to the teaching of the New Testament, God's salvation is altogether hinged on sanctification. We saw in the previous message that sanctification is the holding line in the carrying out of the divine economy and that this line begins from the seeking Spirit's sanctification. The Spirit's seeking us out is the initial work of the sanctifying Spirit. It is through sanctification that God carries out His economy.

God made an economy according to His desire. After He made this economy, He worked to carry it out. In this economy God purposely chose us to be holy, predestinating us unto sonship (Eph. 1:4-5). God's choosing is to make us holy unto sonship, to make us holy to be His sons. God wanted man to be sanctified unto His sonship, and He carries this out through His sanctification.

After His choosing, God created the universe with man as the center. But after His creation man became fallen, and God applied His anticipated redemption in the Old Testament. Then in the New Testament time, God came to be incarnated as a man, and this man is the God-man. God became a man to be our Shepherd. Luke 15 first tells us that the shepherd came (vv. 1-7). That indicates God's incarnation. The Shepherd came through the way of God becoming a man, so this shepherd is the God-man.

God not only became a man to shepherd us. In Luke 15 He is also the seeking woman, the woman who has lost a coin (vv. 8-10). Out of one hundred sheep, one became lost, so the shepherd went out to find it. The lost sheep which the shepherd went out to find was the lost coin which the woman sought. On the one hand, He is a God-man as the Shepherd to die for us on the cross. On the other hand, He is the woman, the Holy Spirit, to find the lost coin in a fine way by lighting a lamp and sweeping the house. This signifies the Spirit enlightening our heart and searching and cleansing our inward parts. Eventually, the lost coin was found by this woman. Christ, in His first aspect, is the Shepherd. Christ in His second aspect, is the Spirit (2 Cor. 3:17). He is a life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45b). In His incarnation He became the Shepherd. In His resurrection He became the Spirit. It is this Spirit who comes to find us.

The salvation of God begins with this finding. This finding is the initial sanctifying work of the Spirit. The sanctifying work of the Spirit continues in us until we are glorified. Thus, sanctification by the Triune God is the holding line of God's salvation. It is also the holding line of our spiritual experiences. Our first experience in our salvation was the seeking sanctification of the Spirit. The prodigal son in Luke 15 came to himself and repented because the seeking woman, typifying the Spirit, enlightened him and found him (vv. 17-20a). Our repentance came from the finding of the Spirit, and the finding of the Spirit is the Spirit's sanctification. The finding of the Spirit was the cause, and our repentance was the result. Our final experience of sanctification will be our glorification, the transfiguration and redemption of our vile body. We are redeemed first in our spirit, then in our soul, and finally in our body (Rom. 8:23b). The redemption of our body is the full sonship of God.