«　WEEK 9　DAY 3　»

　　Matt. 16:18 And I also say to you that you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build My church…

　　2 Cor. 3:18 But we all with unveiled face, beholding and reflecting like a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, even as from the Lord Spirit.

　　God’s building Himself in Christ into our being [is] through the metabolic process of transformation. Because Christ is the Spirit, He can dwell in us, and we can fellowship with Him in our spirit. We should look to Him, behold Him, and reflect Him, opening to Him the three layers of our being—our spirit, our heart, and our mouth. Then we will spontaneously reflect Him as a mirror and gradually be transformed into His glorious image from glory to glory. As a result, we will have the same image that He has. This is altogether from the Lord, the Spirit (2 Cor. 3:18). When we look unto Him, He impresses Himself into our being. Then we become His reflection. (Life-study of 1 & 2 Samuel, pp. 171-172)

　　Transformation is a metabolic process that changes us by adding some new element into our being and discharging the old element. This is illustrated by one’s having a healthy complexion through the proper, daily eating, digesting, and assimilating of food. This healthy appearance is the result not of cosmetics but of nourishment…. In like manner, we need to receive spiritual nourishment day by day. This nourishment will supply a new element and then cause the old things to be carried away. Gradually, we will grow, change, and mature…. God’s economy is just to work Himself into us that we may experience such a metabolic process of spiritual digestion and assimilation that produces a gradual, intrinsic change in life.

　　God’s building Himself into our being is altogether an organic matter. In order for such a building to take place, we need to receive, digest, and assimilate an organic element. Our spiritual food and drink is the organic, pneumatic Christ (John 6:51, 57; 7:37-39), the Christ who is the life-giving Spirit.

　　When we enjoy the “now” Christ by eating, drinking, and breathing Him, a metabolic process, a spiritual digestion and metabolism, takes place within us. Through this metabolic process Christ is constituted into our being. This constitution is the building. Christ, therefore, is building Himself into us as our inner constitution. The issue of such a building is that we become a very particular class of people—the members of the Body of Christ. Whenever we gather together we are the church of God. In Matthew 16:18 the Lord Jesus said, “I will build My church.”…Christ builds the church…by supplying us with spiritual drink and by feeding us with spiritual food, which are uniquely Himself as the Spirit. In different kinds of meetings, we endeavor to minister Christ into the saints as their spiritual food and drink. The more we receive Christ in this way, the more we will experience the inner, spiritual metabolism. This metabolism is transformation, and transformation is the building.

　　This organic building up of the church as the Body of Christ through the process of spiritual metabolism is actually what Jehovah prophesied to David in the way of typology in 2 Samuel 7:12-14a…. It is only through this process that something human—the human seed—can become divine—the sons of God. In typology God prophesied to David regarding this when He told David that his seed would be God’s son. This indicates that a human seed would become a divine son. This is what we are experiencing today. Therefore, we, the believers in Christ, are a very particular and peculiar people, …a precious treasure in the eyes of God. (Life-study of 1 & 2 Samuel, pp. 172-174)

　　Further Reading: The Tree of Life, ch. 13; CWWL, 1987, vol. 3, “The Scriptural Way to Meet and to Serve for the Building Up of the Body of Christ,” ch. 15