AN OVERVIEW OF THE CENTRAL BURDEN AND PRESENT TRUTH OF THE LORD'S RECOVERY BEFORE HIS APPEARING
Message Seven
The Two Aspects of God's Complete Salvation— Judicial Redemption Plus Organic Salvation
Scripture Reading: Rom. 5:10, 21; John 1:12-13; 1 Pet. 2:25; Rom. 6:19, 22; 2 Cor. 4:16; 3:18; Eph. 4:15-16; Rom. 8:28-29; Phil. 3:20-21
I. God's complete salvation is of two aspects—the judicial aspect and the organic aspect—Rom. 5:10, 21; John 1:12-13; 1 Pet. 2:25; Rom. 6:19, 22; 2 Cor. 4:16; 3:18; Eph. 4:15-16; Rom. 8:28-29; Phil. 3:20-21:
A. The judicial aspect of God's salvation was accomplished in the physical realm of Christ's earthly ministry objectively by Christ in His flesh— John 1:14; Col. 1:22:
1. It is according to the righteousness of God—Rom. 1:17a; 3:21-26; 9:30-31.
2. It is through God's fulfilling of all the requirements of His righteous law on sinners by Christ's redemptive death on the cross—Gal. 3:13; 1 Pet. 2:24; 2 Cor. 5:21; Heb. 9:12.
3. Christ carried out His earthly ministry by accomplishing God's judicial redemption with the following objective results:
a. The forgiveness of the believers' sins—Luke 24:47; Eph. 1:7.
b. Washing away the believers' sins—Heb. 1:3.
c. Justifying the believers—Rom. 3:24-25.
d. Reconciling the believers, who were His enemies, to Himself—5:10a.
e. Sanctifying the believers in their position unto Himself as His holy people—1 Cor. 1:2; Heb. 13:12; 10:29.
B. God's judicial redemption is the procedure of God's complete salvation for the believers to participate in God's organic salvation as the purpose of the complete salvation of God—Rom. 5:21.
C. All the items of God's organic salvation are carried out not by Christ in the flesh in His earthly ministry judicially and objectively but by Christ as the life-giving Spirit in His heavenly ministry organically and subjectively—1 Cor. 15:45b.
II. The organic aspect of God's salvation is carried out in the divine and mystical realm of Christ's heavenly ministry subjectively by Christ as the life-giving Spirit in the following eight steps:
A. Regeneration is the center of God's complete salvation and the commencement of God's salvation in its organic aspect:
1. It is the propagation of the divine life by the imparting of God's life into the believers to regenerate and re-create the redeemed believers in their spirit by the Spirit of God— John 3:6b.
2. It is through the resurrection of Christ that He may impart His life into the believers as the authority for them to be the children of God, begotten of God as His species—1 Pet. 1:3; John 1:12-13.
3. Through regeneration the believers have the eternal, divine life of God in addition to their natural, human life—3:15, 36.
B. Feeding in shepherding is the nourishment of the divine life:
1. Feeding is the continuation of regeneration through Christ's shepherding His flock by nourishing and cherishing that His sheep may grow in the divine life unto maturity—Eph. 5:29; John 10:10-11, 14-16; 21:15-17; Heb. 13:20; 1 Pet. 5:4; 2:25.
2. Feeding nourishes the newborn babes (new believers) that they may grow and be saved gradually through the supply of the milk in the word of God—v. 2.
3. Feeding results in the believers' maturity in the divine life unto transformation and conformation to the image of Christ— 2 Cor. 3:18; Rom. 12:2; 8:29.
4. Feeding is also by the believers through the mutual shepherding for the building up of the Body of Christ for the accomplishment of God's eternal economy and the achievement of God's eternal purpose—Eph. 4:11-16; John 21:15-17; 1 Pet. 5:2-3.
C. Dispositional sanctification constitutes the believers with God's divine nature:
1. It is an inward sanctifying of the believers who are growing in the divine life by the working of the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of life, in their disposition—Rom. 15:16; 8:2.
2. The believers are sanctified with the divine, holy nature of God for them to be holy unto God and thus fulfill God's purpose in choosing them—2 Pet. 1:4; Eph. 1:4.
3. Dispositional sanctification implies transformation—Rom. 6:19, 22.
4. Sanctification will ultimately be manifested in the New Jerusalem as the holy city—Rev. 21:2, 10; 22:19.
D. Renewing is the process of God's new creation:
1. The believers are spontaneously renewed when they are sanctified by the Holy Spirit—2 Cor. 5:17.
2. Renewing is the continuation of the washing of regeneration and is based upon the ongoing process of sanctification, making the believers new.
3. Renewing is carried out:
a. By the renewing Spirit mingling with the believers' regenerated spirit indwelt by Christ as one spirit to spread into the believers' mind to renew their entire being as a member of the new man—Titus 3:5; Eph. 4:23.
b. By the believers' walking in the newness of life in resurrection—Rom. 6:4; Eph. 4:22-24; Phil. 1:19-21.
4. Renewing is through the consuming by the believers' environmental sufferings—2 Cor. 4:16.
5. The believers must be thoroughly and absolutely renewed so that they may be practically the genuine new creation of God and for God—Gal. 6:15.
6. Renewing causes the believers to be as new as the New Jerusalem—Rev. 21:2.
E. Transformation is the metabolic process in the divine life:
1. This process transforms the believers' entire being, beginning from the renewing of the mind, that they may fully participate in God's divinity—Rom. 12:2b.
2. It is not any kind of outward correction or adjustment but a kind of metabolism, by the addition of the element of the divine life of Christ into their being, to be expressed outwardly in the image of Christ.
3. It is accomplished by the Lord Spirit (the pneumatic Christ) transforming the believers into the image of the glory of Christ—2 Cor. 3:18.
4. The believers should live and walk by the Spirit (Gal. 5:16, 25) and walk according to the mingled spirit (Rom. 8:4b), that the divine life of Christ may have the way to regulate them and transform them into the image of the Lord in glory.
F. Building up is the joining and knitting together in the divine life:
1. God's building is brought forth through the joining and knitting together by the working of the transforming Spirit on the believers—Eph. 4:16.
2. It is the issue of the believers' growing up into the Head, Christ, in all things—v. 15; Col. 2:19.
3. This is the building up of the Body of Christ to consummate the building of the holy city, New Jerusalem—Eph. 4:16; Rev. 3:12; 21:10-11.
G. Conformation is the maturity in the divine life:
1. Conformation is the consummation of the believers' regeneration, feeding, sanctification, renewing, and transformation in the divine life—Rom. 8:28-29.
2. Conformation is when the believers have matured in the divine life by the maturing Spirit in their spirit enriched with Christ to be a full-grown man, at the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ—Col. 1:28; Eph. 4:13.
3. Conformation is to be conformed to the image of God's firstborn Son—Phil. 3:10; 1:19-21a; 1 John 3:2.
H. Glorification is the full manifestation of God's complete salvation:
1. In regeneration God seals the regenerated believers with His Spirit unto the day of redemption—Eph. 1:13; 4:30.
2. The matured believers will be glorified from within through the lifelong saturation with the glory of God and from without through their being brought into God's glory—v. 30; 2 Thes. 1:10; Rom. 8:23, 30; Heb. 2:10.
3. The glorification of the matured believers is the top portion of their divine sonship in God's organic salvation, which they received at the time of their regeneration—Gal. 4:5; Rom. 8:23.
4. The redemption of the believers' body is the transfiguration of their body at the Lord's coming back—Phil. 3:20-21.
5. Through glorification God realizes the fulfillment of His eternal purpose—the New Jerusalem—the crystallization of the union and mingling of the processed and consummated Triune God with His regenerated, transformed, conformed, and glorified tripartite elect.
III. God's goal in these eight sections of His organic salvation is simply to make us God in life, in nature, and in expression but not in the Godhead, that is, to make us a duplication, a xerox copy, of God; "the Spirit Himself with our spirit" is the secret of God's organic salvation:
A. The generating Spirit in our spirit, quickened by Christ, regenerates us, giving us the authority to be children of God, begotten of God.
B. The nourishing Spirit in our spirit, cherished by Christ, feeds us with the spiritual milk of the word that we may grow unto salvation.
C. The sanctifying Spirit from our spirit, captivated by Christ, sanctifies us with the nature of God, making us holy unto God.
D. The renewing Spirit in our spirit, indwelt by Christ, renews us that we may put on the new man through the breaking of the cross.
E. The transforming Spirit in our spirit, filled by Christ, transforms us into the glorious image of Christ for His expression.
F. The building Spirit in our spirit, possessed by Christ, builds us into the house of God and the Body of Christ for Their dwelling.
G. The maturing Spirit in our spirit, enriched with Christ, conforms us to the image of Christ, the firstborn Son of God—the model of God's sons.
H. The sealing Spirit in our spirit, exulting with Christ, saturates us with and brings us into the glory of God for our glorification.