Scripture Reading: John 15:1, 4-5; Rom. 11:17-24; 1 Cor. 6:17
Ⅰ
As believers in Christ, we should live a grafted life—a life in which we are one spirit with the Lord and live in an organic union with Him—1 Cor. 6:17; John 15:4.
Ⅱ
The Bible reveals that the relationship God desires to have with man is that He and man become one—1 Cor. 6:17:
A
God desires that the divine life and the human life be joined together to become one life—John 15:1, 4-5.
B
This oneness is an organic union, a union in life—a grafted life.
C
The concept of the divine life and the human life being grafted into one is mysterious, beyond the natural concept, and foreign to human thought.
Ⅲ
In grafting, two similar lives are joined and then grow together—Rom. 11:17-24:
A
Grafting can be effective only if the lives to be grafted are similar.
B
Because our human life was made in the image of God and according to the likeness of God, it can be joined to the divine life.
C
Our human life resembles the divine life; therefore, the divine life and the human life can be grafted together and then grow together organically.
Ⅳ
In order for us to be grafted into Christ, He had to pass through the processes of incarnation, crucifixion, and resurrection:
A
Christ became flesh to be the seed of David, the branch of David, the Shoot, so that we might be grafted together with Him; He became the same as we are so that He and we could be grafted together—John 1:14; Matt. 1:1; Zech. 3:8; Jer. 23:5; 33:15.
B
Christ was “cut” on the cross so that we could be grafted into Him:
１
Christ’s becoming the branch of David does not by itself mean that He could be grafted together with us.
２
Grafting requires cutting; two branches cannot be grafted together unless both are cut:
ａ
Christ was cut when He died on the cross.
ｂ
We were cut when we repented and received the Lord.
３
After the cutting occurs, the joining and the organic union take place; therefore, in grafting we have the cutting, the joining, and the organic union.
C
After Christ was cut on the cross, He was resurrected to become the life-giving Spirit—1 Cor. 15:45b; 2 Cor. 3:17a:
１
By becoming such a Spirit, Christ was ready for grafting.
２
Once we repent and receive the Lord, He as the life-giving Spirit enters into our spirit, bringing the divine life into us, and we are grafted together with Christ—John 20:22; Rom. 8:11:
ａ
This life is a life of death and resurrection.
ｂ
As the life-giving Spirit, Christ brings the key to death and resurrection into us, the believers, that we may die and be raised with Christ—Gal. 2:20.
ｃ
In this death and resurrection we are grafted together with Christ.
Ⅴ
As regenerated ones, we should live a grafted life—a life in which two parties are joined to grow organically—John 15:1, 4-5:
A
After we have been grafted into Christ, we should no longer live by ourselves; rather, we should allow the pneumatic Christ to live in us—Gal. 2:20.
B
We should no longer live by our flesh or by our natural being; instead, we should live by our regenerated spirit, a spirit grafted with Christ—Rom. 8:4.
C
Through this grafting we are united with Him, mingled with Him, and incorporated with Him to become the Body of Christ—12:4-5.
Ⅵ
The grafted life is not an exchanged life but the mingling of the human life with the divine life—Gal. 2:20:
A
The concept of the exchanged life is that we yield our human life to the Lord, and He replaces it with His divine life.
B
The Christian life is not an exchanged life but a grafted life—the mingling of the human life with the divine life—Rom. 6:3-5; John 15:1, 4-5:
１
There is no exchange, or trade, of lives.
２
Instead of exchange there is the dispensing, the infusing, of the divine life into the human life and the mingling of the divine life with the human life.
C
The most wonderful reality in the Christian experience is that the believers in Christ are united with Christ in the way of life—1 Cor. 6:17:
１
Whatever Christ is and whatever He has done are altogether for one thing: that He and we could be organically united and live a grafted life—John 15:4-5.
２
In His recovery the Lord is recovering this neglected matter of the grafted life.
Ⅶ
In the grafted life the human life is not eliminated but is strengthened, uplifted, and enriched by the divine life—Rom. 11:17-24:
A
In the grafted life the branch still retains its same essential characteristics, but its life is uplifted and transformed by being grafted into a better life:
１
The higher life subdues the lower life.
２
The higher life enriches, uplifts, and transforms the lower life.
B
In the grafted life the divine life works within us to discharge the negative elements—2 Cor. 3:18:
１
The divine life works in a gradual way to eliminate whatever is natural.
２
The negative element in our disposition is killed, and then, instead of casting away our disposition, the Lord uplifts it and uses it.
C
In the grafted life the divine life resurrects God’s original creation—John 11:25:
１
Instead of giving up His creation, God will reclaim it.
２
God intends to bring all the aspects of our being into resurrection—Phil. 3:11:
ａ
As the divine life discharges the negative things, it works to resurrect God’s original creation.
ｂ
In this way our original functions—the functions given us at creation—are restored, strengthened, and enriched—Gal. 2:20.
D
In the grafted life the divine life supplies the riches of Christ to our inward parts—Rom. 12:2:
１
Our resurrected and uplifted faculties are supplied with the riches of Christ.
２
Through such a supply we are renewed in our mind, emotion, and will.
E
In the grafted life the divine life saturates our whole being—8:29-30:
１
The riches of Christ saturate us and transform us—12:2; 2 Cor. 3:18.
２
By this saturation of the divine life we are conformed to the image of Christ—Rom. 8:29.