Scripture Reading: Rom. 1:3-4; 8:2-3, 6, 10-11; 9:21, 23; 10:13; 12:4-5
Ⅰ
In the book of Romans there is a deep, divine thought—8:3; 1:3-4; 12:4-5:
A
The deep thought in Romans is that God became man so that, in God's complete salvation, sinners may be redeemed, regenerated, sanctified, renewed, transformed, conformed, and glorified to become the sons of God, who are the same as God in life and nature, to be the members of the Body of Christ—8:3; 1:3-4; 3:24; 5:10; 8:14, 29-30; 12:2, 4-5:
１
God sent His Son in the likeness of the flesh of sin and condemned sin in the flesh so that sinners—serpentine beings, children of the devil—could be reconciled to God and justified by Him in order to receive eternal life and thus become children of God—8:3, 16.
２
Jesus Christ our Lord, who came out of the seed of David according to the flesh, was designated the Son of God according to the Spirit of holiness out of the resurrection of the dead—1:3-4.
３
The firstborn Son of God, the first God-man, is the prototype for the production of many God who, as members of the Body of Christ, are exactly the same as the firstborn Son—8:14, 29.
４
The purpose of God's salvation is to have Christ reproduced in millions of believers so that they may become the members of His Body—12:4-5.
５
Through God's organic salvation, carried out by the divine dispensing of the Triune God as life to the tripartite man, the children of God are growing in life to become sons of God led by the Spirit—5:10; 8:2, 6, 10-11, 14.
６
The sons of God, the many brothers of Christ as the firstborn Son of God, are the members of the Body of Christ—12:4-5.
B
We are one Body in the organic union with Christ—vv. 4-5:
１
The will of God is to obtain a Body for Christ to be His fullness, His expression— Rev. 4:11; Eph. 1:5, 9; Rom. 12:2, 4-5.
２
We are one Body in Christ, having an organic union with Him; this union makes us one in life with Christ and with all the other members of His Body—vv. 4-5:
ａ
The Body is an organism produced by the union in life that we have in Christ—John 15:1.
ｂ
The Body is held together in the organic union with Christ, and the actuality of the Body is the remaining in the organic union with Christ—Rom. 12:4-5.
３
If we would live in the reality of the Body of Christ, we need to live a grafted life—a life in which two parties are joined and grow together organically—6:5; 11:17.
Ⅱ
The divine intention, as conveyed in the deep, divine thought in Romans, is carried out by the divine dispensing of the Triune God as life into the tripartite man—8:2, 6, 10-11:
A
The Triune God created a tripartite man to be a living vessel to contain Him as life so that He may express Himself in humanity—Gen. 1:26; 2:7; Rom. 9:21, 23:
１
Man was created in the image of God to receive God as life and contain God as life for the reproduction, the duplication, of God in life—Gen. 1:26; 2:7, 9; John 12:24.
２
God created man in such a way that man could receive Him and become one with Him—2 Cor. 4:7.
３
The basic teaching of the Scriptures is that we are vessels created in the image of God to receive and contain God as our unique content—Gen. 2:7; 2 Cor. 4:7; Rom. 9:21, 23:
ａ
We need to be vessels open to the Lord, continually receiving the divine dispensing; if the vessel is open, God can fulfill His purpose, but if the vessel is closed, God's purpose is frustrated—2 Cor. 13:14.
ｂ
We need to love the Lord and keep ourselves open to Him, giving Him every opportunity to do everything He wants to do—Mark 12:30; 1 Cor. 2:9; Eph. 3:16-17a.
B
Romans 8 unveils to us how the Triune God—the Father, the Son, and the Spirit—dispenses Himself as life into our tripartite being—spirit, soul, and body—to make us His sons for the constituting of the Body of Christ—vv. 2, 6, 10-11:
１
In verse 11 we have the Triune God, the process required for His dispensing, and the dispensing of Himself as life into the believers.
２
Through the dispensing of the Triune God as life, our spirit is life—v. 10.
３
Through the dispensing of the Triune God as life, our soul (represented by the mind) becomes life—v. 6.
４
Through the dispensing of the Triune God as life, the indwelling Spirit gives life to our mortal bodies—v. 11.
C
The way to experience the dispensing of the Triune God as life into our tripartite being is to call upon the name of the Lord—10:9-13:
１
In the Christian life nothing is more crucial than the constant receiving of the Spirit by opening to the Lord and calling upon His name—Gal. 3:2, 5.
２
The Spirit is the heavenly air for us to breathe; by exercising our spirit to call upon the name of the Lord, we breathe in the Spirit and thereby receive the Spirit, experiencing the dispensing of the Triune God as life into our tripartite being—John 20:22; Gal. 3:2; 1 Thes. 5:17.