«　WEEK 8　DAY 4　»

　　2 Cor. 13:14 The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.

　　1 Thes. 5:23 And the God of peace Himself sanctify you wholly, and may your spirit and soul and body be preserved complete, without blame, at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

　　All the building is growing into a holy temple [Eph. 2:21]. The Greek word rendered “temple” means the sanctuary, the inner part of the whole temple. It is in the Lord that the building is growing into a holy temple. This means that the entire building of God’s house as His sanctuary is in Christ the Lord.

　　The fact that the temple is still growing indicates that, from our point of view at least, the temple of God is not complete.

　　The phrase all the building [v. 21] refers to the universal church... The universal building is still growing... The building [of the church] in Matthew 16:18 is the very building in Ephesians 2:21. Although the growth of the building is slow and hardly noticeable, it is nonetheless taking place. (Life-study of Ephesians, pp. 236-237)

　　To be holy is first to be separated to God; second, to be taken over by God; third, to be possessed by God; and fourth, to be saturated with God and one with God. Eventually, the issue of this in the Bible is the New Jerusalem, which is called the holy city, a city that not only belongs to God and is for God, but a city possessed by God, saturated with God, and one with God.

　　In order for us to be holy, we first need to be separated unto God positionally... Many Christians, however, are saved but not separated. Normally, once a person is saved, he should also be separated. This is the reason a believer is called a saint. Consider the majority of Christians today. They are virtually the same as the worldly people... Many of their relatives and friends do not even know that they are Christians. But to be holy is to be separated unto God. This, of course, is a matter of position.

　　Now we come to dispositional sanctification, which comes after justification (Rom. 6:19, 22). This is sanctification not merely in our position, but also in our disposition. Hence, it is deeper and more subjective than positional sanctification.

　　Separation can take place rather easily and in a very short time. But to be saturated dispositionally takes a long time. If we are faithful to the Lord, we shall be saturated with the nature of God day after day. God intends to saturate us with Himself, and we need to soak up God in our being. This requires time. This is the process of being made holy.

　　God has chosen us for the purpose of saturating us with Himself; He wants to work Himself into our being. Then we shall be holy, just as He is... I have been in this process more than fifty years, and I am still in it, still soaking up God day by day. Sometimes my wife or the brothers and sisters help me to soak Him up. They help me to be willing for this, even when in myself I am not willing. Thus, whether I am willing or unwilling, the Lord causes me to be saturated with Him and to soak Him up. Many of us who were in Christianity for years can testify that while we were there, we did not undergo very much of this saturation. But since we came into the church life, we have been more and more soaked with God. The church life is a life of soaking up God. Whether we are willing or unwilling, we are being soaked with the divine element.

　　First, we are separated unto God; second, we are saturated with God; eventually we become one with God. One day, we shall be just like Him. That will mark the completion of our sanctification, the process that begins with separation, continues with saturation, and is completed with the full redemption of our body. At that time, from within to without, we shall be the same as He is. We shall be holy. (Life-study of Ephesians, pp. 28, 30-31)

　　Further Reading: CWWL, 1988, vol. 4, “The Perfecting of the Saints and the Building Up of the Body of Christ,” ch. 3