Isaac, who was born of grace and redeemed by God, became the unique heir of Abraham’s possessions (Gen. 21:9-12; Gal. 4:30). He was born according to God’s promise by God’s visitation; hence, he was the proper, legal heir to inherit his father’s possessions. All that his father had was his. It was absolutely and unconditionally by grace, not by his effort, that he became the heir of his father’s riches. The record of Isaac’s life shows that his life was a life of rest and enjoyment. Throughout his entire life he never suffered thirst, for wherever he went there was a well for his enjoyment (25:11; 26:18-33). He secured a choice bride without doing anything (24:61-67). He prayed to God and gained twin sons (25:20-26). Moreover, he was blessed by God in receiving a hundredfold harvest and becoming great (26:12-14). Isaac inherited not only all that his father had but also the promise which God had given to his father concerning the good land and the unique seed, which is Christ, in whom all the nations of the earth would be blessed (26:3-5).
We, the New Testament believers, are children born according to promise. Like Isaac, we are born not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit, as heirs of God (Rom. 8:17), having the full right to participate in God’s promised blessing (Gal. 4:28-30), that is, to enjoy the all-inclusive Spirit (Gal. 3:14) with all the riches of Christ. We simply need to be the same as Isaac, destined to be a person of rest and enjoyment, always living under the provision of God’s grace and enjoying all the promised blessings of God the Father.
The work carried out by the Triune God in us may be divided into three stages: first, God the Father’s choosing and calling us; next, God the Son’s redeeming us and making us heirs; and finally, God the Spirit’s transforming us and making us kings of God. We were chosen and called by God the Father; we were also redeemed and made heirs by God the Son; and now we are in the process of being transformed by God the Spirit that we may become kings of God. This experience is seen in Jacob with Joseph. Jacob stands for the transformed life, and Joseph represents the reigning aspect of the transformed life.
Our proper and complete experience of the Triune God is from our being chosen by God to our becoming kings of God, both of which are clearly seen in Jacob. Jacob was born a supplanter. When he was in his mother’s womb, he fought with Esau over who would be great, and he held on to Esau’s heel, not wanting to let Esau come out first. From the beginning he was such a person, one who was full of human strength and the natural life. He was also subtle and crafty, skillful in scheming, and capable in exercising his mind. He subtly acquired the birthright from his brother and, by cheating, obtained his father’s blessing. Later, he was forced to leave his loving mother and his father’s house. From then on, God’s disciplining and dealing hand was always on him (Gen. 25:22—32:32). Under God’s sovereignty Jacob arrived at his uncle Laban’s home, and under Laban’s squeezing hand he served Laban for twenty years, during which time his wages were changed ten times and he went through all kinds of sufferings (31:38-41). The envy, competition, and wrestling between his two wives, Leah and Rachel, in bearing children (29:31—30:24) also put him in a predicament. All these grindings in the environment were used by God to deal with Jacob from all sides in order to transform him.
Genesis 32:22-32 relates a crucial experience in the life of Jacob, God’s chosen one. While Jacob remained alone at the ford of Jabbok, God came in the form of a man to wrestle with him in order to expose his natural life. Moreover, God touched the hollow of his thigh and made him crippled. God changed his name to Israel, indicating that, having been dealt with directly by God, his life was broken and was no longer whole but was genuinely transformed.
After we have been regenerated and saved, God the Spirit enters into us to be our life and to carry out a transforming work in us. Through the working together of all things (Rom. 8:28), the direct dealings of God, and the dispensing of the divine element by the Spirit (2 Cor. 3:18), we are being transformed metabolically until we are conformed to the image of God’s Son (Rom. 8:29).