Outline

«　WEEK 6　DAY 5　»

　　Rom. 6:5 For if we have grown together with Him in the likeness of His death, indeed we will also be in the likeness of His resurrection.

　　8:11 And if the Spirit of the One who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who indwells you.

　　Christ was designated the Son of God “out of the resurrection of the dead” [Rom. 1:4]. In 6:5 Paul says that “we will also be in the likeness of His resurrection.”…As we share Christ’s resurrection, we undergo the process of being designated the sons of God. We are designated, in fact, by resurrection. (Life-study of Romans, p. 536)

　　As sons of God, we are designated by resurrection, that is, by a change in life. Let us use a carnation seed as an illustration…According to the way of life, the carnation seed is designated by being put into the earth so that it can grow into a blossoming carnation plant. When a carnation plant is still a tiny sprout, it is very difficult to recognize that it is a carnation, for it looks the same as other kinds of sprouts. But the more the carnation plant grows, the more it is designated. Eventually, by its blossom we all can recognize that it is a carnation.

　　In the same principle, we are designated the sons of God by a change in life through the process of resurrection. The day is coming when we will reach the stage of “full blossom.” That will be the time of the redemption, the glorification, of our body, which is the full sonship (Rom. 8:23). The life of the Son of God has been implanted into our spirit. Now we, like the carnation seed that is sown into the earth, must pass through the process of death and resurrection. This causes the outward man to be consumed, but it enables the inner life to grow, to develop, and, ultimately, to blossom. This is resurrection.

　　The entire creation is waiting and groaning for this. We also groan because we do not yet have the appearance we should have. We know that we are still short in so many respects and wrong in many things, and we still have failures. But under the Lord’s sovereignty, even our failures are used as part of the process…By our failures our ugly self is torn down, and the Lord has a greater opportunity to work within us.

　　In this process of resurrection there are four aspects: sanctification, transformation, conformation, and glorification…Sanctification, the process of being made holy, brings us into the enjoyment of eternal life [6:22]. In 12:2 Paul speaks of transformation, saying that we should not be fashioned according to this age but that we should be transformed by the renewing of the mind. In 8:29 Paul speaks of conformation, and in the next verse, of glorification. Our future glorification will be the ultimate step of resurrection; it is resurrection as applied to the body. Because our bodies are still subject to death, we are sometimes weak and even physically ill. Thus, we need the redemption of our bodies; we need resurrection applied to our bodies. As those who are in the process of resurrection, we have as the last step of resurrection, the transfiguration, the glorification, of our bodies.

　　We all have the sense within that today our sonship is not yet full. However, it will get fuller and fuller until it reaches the peak at the time of our glorification, when we will be fully resurrected and designated the sons of God in nature and in appearance. Both in name and in reality we will be the sons of God in spirit, in soul, and in body. Just as a carnation seed grows from a seed into a full-grown blossoming plant, so we will be processed through resurrection until we are fully glorified and designated as the many sons of God. We are now in the process of resurrection so that we may be sanctified, transformed, conformed, and glorified…This is the central aim of the gospel. (Life-study of Romans, pp. 536-538, 540)

　　Further Reading: Life-study of Romans, msg. 52; The Conclusion of the New Testament, msg. 287