With this lesson we will begin to consider the believers’ future. In their past in eternity, the believers were foreknown, chosen, and predestinated by God. Furthermore, in the past they were created by God but became fallen and dead in offenses and sins. The believers’ present comprises both the initial stage and the progressing stage of God’s full salvation. In the initial stage, the stage of regeneration, the believers have been called by God and separated unto Him; they have repented, believed, and been baptized; and they have been joined to the processed Triune God, redeemed, made a new creation, and saved. Finally, in the initial stage, they have cleared the past. In the progressing stage of God’s full salvation, the stage of transformation, the believers experience and enjoy the processed Triune God in His triune dispensing. They experience God’s redemption continuously, they enjoy the dispensing of the Divine Trinity in the divine transformation for the divine conformation, they experience the dispensing of the Divine Trinity corporately, and they experience this dispensing in other aspects. Eventually, at the end of the progressing stage, the believers will be conformed to the image of Christ, the firstborn Son of God, and look to and wait for the Lord Jesus’ coming back to usher them into their future.
The first aspect of the believers’ future is in the completing stage of God’s full salvation, the stage of glorification. The initial stage of God’s full salvation is the stage of regeneration, the progressing stage is the stage of transformation, and the completing stage is the stage of glorification. We have experienced a good deal of transformation and are heading toward the goal of glorification. The seed of the divine life has been sown into us. Now this seed is growing, developing gradually until it reaches full growth, the maturity in life. At that time there will be a “blossoming” of the divine seed within us. That will be our glorification. Glorification is the completing stage of God’s full salvation.
Many believers have only an objective concept of glorification. According to this concept, one day those who have been saved and regenerated will suddenly be glorified. They claim that the glorification of the believers will take place instantaneously at the coming of the Lord Jesus. Certain Scriptures seem to prove this. For example, Colossians 3:4 says, “When Christ our life is manifested, then you also will be manifested with Him in glory.” However, our glorification will actually be the consummation of a process of gradual growth and development in the divine life. First, we are regenerated; that is, we receive the divine life into us. Then, as the divine life grows in us, it saturates us with the divine element, and this element changes us metabolically so that we are transformed organically. In our Christian experience transformation is simply the growth in the divine life. This can be compared to a plant; as it grows, it is transformed from one appearance to another. This process of growth and transformation continues until the plant reaches maturity, glorification. In like manner, our regeneration is followed by transformation, and transformation issues in glorification. Without regeneration there is no possibility of transformation. Furthermore, if we are lacking in transformation, there will be no glorification. Glorification is the issue of transformation, and transformation is accomplished through the gradual and continuous growth in life. Just as the blossoming of a carnation flower is the issue of the gradual growth of a carnation plant, so our glorification will not be an accident; it will be the issue of our growth in the divine life unto maturity. A carnation does not blossom until it has reached maturity, and in like manner, the believers will not be glorified, brought into the full expression of the Triune God, until they reach maturity in life.