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In order to live in resurrection, we must know, experience, and gain the God of resurrection—2 Cor. 1:8-9:
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God is working through the cross to terminate us, to bring us to an end, so that we will no longer trust in ourselves but in the God of resurrection—v. 9.
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Although the living God can perform many acts on man's behalf, the life and nature of the living God are not wrought into man; when the God of resurrection works, His life and nature are wrought into man—4:16:
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God is not working to make His might known in external acts, but He is working to impart and work Himself into man—Gal. 4:19.
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God uses the environment in order to work His life and nature into us—2 Cor. 4:7-12; 1 Thes. 3:3.
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In order to live in resurrection and be constituted with the God of resurrection, we must be conformed to the image of Christ as the firstborn Son of God through "all things"—Rom. 8:28-29; Heb. 12:10; Jer. 48:11.
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The primary purpose of suffering in this universe, particularly as it relates to the children of God, is that through it the very nature of God may be wrought into the nature of man so that man may gain God to the fullest extent—2 Cor. 4:16.
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As we pass through afflictions, there needs to be a continual renewing taking place in us day by day so that God can accomplish His heart's desire to make us the New Jerusalem—Ezek. 36:26; 2 Cor. 5:17; Rev. 21:2.
Morning Nourishment
2 Cor. 1:8-9 ...We were excessively burdened, beyond our power, so that we despaired even of living. Indeed we ourselves had the response of death in ourselves, that we should not base our confidence on ourselves but on God, who raises the dead.4:16 ...Though our outer man is decaying, yet our inner man is being renewed day by day.
While the living God can perform many acts on man's behalf, the nature of the living God cannot blend with the nature of man. When, on the other hand, the God of resurrection works, His very nature is wrought into the nature of man.... When the living God has performed some act on your behalf, after that act as before it, He is still He and you are still you. His working on your behalf does not impart anything of His nature to you. The living God can work on behalf of man, but the nature of the living God cannot unite with the nature of man.... When the God of resurrection works, He communicates Himself to man by that which He does for him.
Paul was so sorely tried that he despaired even of living, but it was thus that he learned to trust in the God who raises the dead. When the God of resurrection acted on his behalf to raise him from the dead, that divine act not only accomplished something for Paul; it also communicated God's own nature to Paul. (The God of Resurrection, pp. 6-7)
Today's Reading
Resurrection life is a life that can overcome all affliction and can even swallow up death. [A brother who is ill may be] conscious of much weakness and [be] sorely tested; nevertheless, the realization deepens that God is not working to make His might known in external acts but is working to impart Himself. Light breaks upon him gradually, and gradually health returns. This brother does not just experience a healing; he comes into a new experience of God.The significance of suffering...is this, that the devastation it brings to the old creation provides an opportunity for the God of resurrection to impart Himself into His creatures so that they emerge from the death process with a divine element in their constitution. The primary purpose of suffering in this universe, particularly as it relates to the children of God, is that through it the very nature of God may be wrought into the nature of man....Through a process of outward decay, an inward process is taking place that is adding a new constituent to our lives [2 Cor. 4:16]. (The God of Resurrection, pp. 8-9, 15)
Is there some renewing going on with us, or are we remaining the same day by day and year after year? It would be tragic if we would pass through many sufferings and still remain the same. In order to consummate His renewing work in us and with us, God becomes our life and nature within. In addition to this, God as the sovereign Lord controls the entire universe in order to renew us. God uses the environment in order to work His life and nature into us. Without the environment, we could never be renewed.
God desires us to be the new creation. When all of the Lord's children pass through the process of renewing to become the New Jerusalem, they will be in a state of being fully renewed. The holy city is called the New Jerusalem because it has no old element of God's old creation. As we pass through afflictions, there needs to be a continual renewing taking place in us day by day so that God can accomplish His heart's desire. (CWWL, 1989, vol. 2, "Being Renewed Day by Day," pp. 358, 363)
We, the God-men, live a human life to express God, not by our own life, our natural life, but by the divine life of Christ in resurrection (Col. 3:4)....To live Christ by the divine life of Christ in resurrection is to have Christ grow in us that we may be formed inwardly and even conformed to the image of Christ as the Firstborn of God among many brothers (Gal. 4:19; Rom. 8:29b). (CWWL, 1994-1997, vol. 2, "The Practical Way to Live a Life according to the High Peak of the Divine Revelation in the Holy Scriptures," p. 70)
Further Reading: CWWL, 1990, vol. 1, "The Spirit," ch. 12; The Living God and the God of Resurrection, ch. 3; The God of Resurrection