Scripture Reading: Phil. 3:20-21
Ⅰ
The life which Paul lived in the experience of Christ was one that awaited the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who would transfigure his body of humiliation, con-forming it to the body of His glory; thus, he took the Christ whom he experienced as his expectation—Phil. 3:20-21; cf. 1 Thes. 1:10; 2:19; 5:23b.
Ⅱ
"Our commonwealth exists in the heavens, from which also we eagerly await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ"—Phil. 3:20:
A
Our national life is not in any earthly country; our real citizenship, our true common-wealth, is in the heavens—Eph. 2:6, 19.
B
Because our citizenship is in the heavens, we should not be occupied with earthly things, the physical things needed for our existence—1 Tim. 6:6-10.
C
In dealing with our body, we should take care of our physical need but should not indulge in excessive physical enjoyment—Phil. 3:17-19; 1 Cor. 9:27.
D
As we await and love the Lord's glorious appearing, we should live a God-expressing and flesh-restricting life—Titus 2:12-13; Luke 21:34-36; 2 Tim. 4:8.
Ⅲ
Christ "will transfigure the body of our humiliation to be conformed to the body of His glory, according to His operation by which He is able even to subject all things to Himself"—Phil. 3:21:
A
We are waiting for Christ to come back so that we may be brought into the ultimate consummation of God's salvation—the transfiguration of our body:
１
In His salvation God first regenerated our spirit (John 3:6), now is transforming our soul (Rom. 12:2), and consummately will transfigure our body for our glorification, making us the same as Christ in all three parts of our being (1 John 3:2).
２
The body of our humiliation is our natural body made of worthless dust (Gen. 2:7) and damaged by sin, weakness, sickness, and death (Rom. 6:6; 7:24; 8:11).
３
The body of His glory is Christ's resurrected body, saturated with God's glory (Luke 24:26) and transcendent over corruption and death (Rom. 6:9).
４
The transfiguring of our body is accomplished by the Lord's great and almighty power, which subjects all things to Himself—Eph. 1:19-22.
B
The transfiguration of our body is the redemption of our body for the full sonship of God— Rom. 8:23:
１
Although we have the divine Spirit as the firstfruits in our spirit, our body has not yet been saturated with the divine life; our body is still the flesh, linked to the old creation, and it is still a body of sin and death that is impotent in the things of God— 6:6; 7:24; cf. 2 Cor. 5:4.
２
Hence, we groan together with the creation and eagerly await the glorious day when we will obtain the full sonship, the redemption and transfiguration of our body—Rom. 8:19-23.
３
The redemption of our body is through the saturation of the divine element by the sealing Spirit of God—Eph. 1:13; 4:30; 1 Cor. 1:30; Luke 21:28.
C
The transfiguration of our body will be the glorification of our entire being—Rom. 8:30, 17; 1 Pet. 5:10; 2 Tim. 2:10:
１
Objectively, glorification is that the redeemed believers will be brought into the glory of God to participate in the glory of God—Heb. 2:10a; 1 Pet. 5:10a.
２
Subjectively, glorification is that the matured believers will manifest from within them, by their maturity in life, the glory of God as the element of their maturity in life—Rom. 8:17-18, 21; 2 Cor. 4:17:
ａ
The Lord is in us as the hope of glory to bring us into glory—Col. 1:27.
ｂ
At His coming back, on the one hand, He will come from the heavens with glory (Rev. 10:1; Matt. 25:31), and on the other hand, He will be glorified in His saints— 2 Thes. 1:10:
⑴
His glory will be manifested from within His members, causing their body of humiliation to be transfigured into His glory, conforming it to the body of His glory—Phil. 3:21.
⑵
Thus, the unbelievers will marvel at Him, admire Him, wonder at Him, in us, the believers.
Ⅳ
We are on the way of being brought into glory for our full sonship by the sanc-tifying work of the Spirit—Heb. 2:10-11; 1 Thes. 5:23; Eph. 5:26-27; Rom. 8:23:
A
Christ as the Author, or the Captain, of salvation leads God's many sons into glory, the corporate expression of God, by saving them organically through sanctification; sanc-tification is God's "sonizing"—Heb. 2:10-11; Eph. 1:4-5; 1 Thes. 5:23; Rom. 5:10:
１
God's chosen ones are made His sons by His sanctifying Spirit (15:16; Gal. 4:6); how-ever, we may not live in our sonship because we may not care for the sanctifying Spirit speaking and working in our spirit—Rom. 15:16; 8:4; Eph. 5:26.
２
Today we must learn to live by the Spirit, to serve by the Spirit, to act according to the Spirit, and to have our being altogether by the Spirit, with the Spirit, and according to the Spirit all day long—Rom. 1:1, 9; 8:4; Phil. 3:3; Zech. 4:6.
３
Then we need to grow in the life of Christ with the proper nourishment in the Spirit; we can be nourished in three ways: by reading the holy Word, by listening to the spiritual speaking, and by coming to the meetings—John 8:31-32; Eph. 5:26; Rev. 2:7; Psa. 73:16-17, 22-26; 77:13.
B
God's chosen ones become holy and without blemish before Him and are predestinated unto sonship "in love"—Eph. 1:4; 3:17; 4:2, 15-16; 5:2; 6:24; Rev. 2:4:
１
Love in Ephesians 1:4 refers to the love with which God loves His chosen ones and His chosen ones love Him; it is in this love, in such a love, that God's chosen ones become holy and without blemish before Him.
２
First, God loved us; then this divine love inspires us to love Him in return; in such a condition and atmosphere of love, we are saturated with God to be holy and without blemish, just as He is—1 John 4:19; Psa. 31:23a; 116:1; Mark 12:30.
C
Hebrews 2:10 says that the Lord as the Author, or Captain, of God's salvation will lead many sons into glory; then verse 11 speaks of the One who sanctifies and those who are being sanctified; this shows that sanctification is for sonship.
D
Verse 4 of Ephesians 1 says, "To be holy," and verse 5 says, "Unto sonship"; to be holy… unto sonship shows us again that sanctification is for sonship.
E
The divine sanctification for the divine sonship is the center of the divine economy and the central thought of the revelation in the New Testament; sanctification is the hinge of God's carrying out His eternal economy.
F
The divine sanctification is the holding line in the carrying out of the divine economy to "sonize" us divinely, making us sons of God that we may become the same as God in His life and in His nature (but not in His Godhead), so that we may be God's expres-sion, His glory; we say that sanctification is the holding line because every step of God's economy in His work with us is to make us holy unto glory, unto full sonship:
１
The seeking sanctification, the initial sanctification, is unto repentance to bring us back to God; our repentance and believing were due to the seeking Spirit, the con-victing Spirit—1 Pet. 1:2; Luke 15:8-10, 17-21; John 16:8-11.
２
The redeeming sanctification, the positional sanctification, is by the blood of Christ to transfer us from Adam to Christ—Heb. 13:12.
３
The regenerating sanctification, the beginning of dispositional sanctification, renews us from our spirit to make us, the sinners, sons of God to form an organism for God's corporate expression, which is the organic Body of Christ, the church—2 Cor. 5:17; John 1:12-13; 3:5-6, 8; 1 Pet. 1:3; Titus 3:5.
４
The renewing sanctification, the continuation of dispositional sanctification, renews our soul from our mind through all the parts of our soul to make our soul a part of God's new creation—Rom. 12:2b; Eph. 4:23; 2 Cor. 4:16; Gal. 6:15.
５
The transforming sanctification, the daily sanctification, reconstitutes us with the element of Christ metabolically to make us a new constitution as a part of the organic Body of Christ—1 Cor. 3:12; 2 Cor. 3:16-18; Rom. 12:1-2; Psa. 68:19.
６
The conforming sanctification, the shaping sanctification, shapes us in the image of the glorious Christ to make us the expression of Christ—Rom. 8:29; Phil. 3:10.
７
The glorifying sanctification, the consummating sanctification, redeems our body by transfiguring it to make us Christ's expression in full in glory so that we may be fully and wholly sanctified in our spirit, soul, and body to be a consummated incorporation of God's many sons who are matured in the processed Triune God as their life that they may express God as the New Jerusalem for eternity—v. 21; Rom. 8:23; 1 Thes. 5:23-24; Rev. 21:2-3, 7, 9-11, 22.
G
The reality of the believers' glorification is their gaining of God Himself—the glory of God is God Himself (Jer. 2:11; Eph. 1:17; 1 Cor. 2:8-9; 1 Pet. 4:14), and the manifestation of God is the glory of God (Acts 7:2; 2 Cor. 3:18; 4:17).
H
The believers' arriving at glorification is the climax of their maturity in the life of God and the climax of God's salvation in life—Heb. 6:1a; Rom. 5:10.
I
The believers' glorification is the accomplishment of God's economy for the satisfaction of God's desire:
１
The full expression of the believers' glorification is the New Jerusalem, which will be manifested in glory—Rev. 21:10-11.
２
This is the full expression in eternity of God's becoming a man in humanity and of man's being conformed to God in divinity.
３
This is what God desires and is His heart's delight, and this is also what God is waiting for in His good pleasure—Eph. 1:5.