The Divine Sanctification is the Holding Line in the Carrying out of the Divine Economy

1 Peter 1:2 Chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father in the sanctification of the Spirit unto the obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ: Grace to you and peace be multiplied.

All the believers in Christ as God’s chosen ones are in the process of becoming holy and without blemish before Him in love, and they are predestinated unto sonship in love. God predestinated us to be holy and without blemish before Him in love (Eph. 1:4), and He does all things to sanctify us and make us His sons.

If we look at ourselves we may still see some “foreign particles” – we may still see our natural man, our flesh, our self, and our sins….but God is working in us to saturate us with His element and remove any blemish so that we may be fully saturated with Himself in love.

Christ is the Captain of our salvation, and He is leading us as His many sons into glory by saving us organically day by day; Christ is saving us organically through sanctification. How does God make us His sons in full? It is by sanctifying us.

Those who are being sanctified and those who sanctifies are all of One; we as those who are being sanctified are becoming the same as Christ in life, nature, expression, and function, but not in the Godhead. Hallelujah, we are being sanctified unto sonship – we are being sanctified by God so that we may become the sons of God, the sonship.

This divine sanctification is the center of the divine economy and the central thought of the revelation in the New Testament. The divine sanctification is the holding line in the carrying out of the divine economy to make us God’s sons in full.

The way God makes millions of sinners into His sons is through the process of sanctification. First, He sanctifies us by seeking us out and working in our environment that we may repent and believe into Christ. Then, He sanctifies us by regenerating us: the Holy Spirit comes into our spirit to sanctify our spirit.

From our spirit, the Lord continually desires to spread and sanctify our whole being completely until we are inwardly transformed and outwardly conformed to His image, and then we will be glorified with Him in His divine glory.

Today all believers in Christ are in this process of sanctification to be sonized and be sons of God, the same as He is in life and nature but not in the Godhead!

We are Predestinated to be Holy in Love unto Sonship

Christ as the Captain of salvation leads God’s many sons into glory, the corporate expression of God, by saving them organically through sanctification.God chose us to become holy and without blemish before Him, and we as God’s people are predestinated unto sonship in love (see Eph. 1:4; cf. 3:17; 4:2, 15-16; 5:2; 6:24; Rev. 2:4).

God loves us; when we see His love for us, we are inspired 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 (see 1 John 4:19; Psa. 31:23a; 116:1; Mark 12:30).

Because God loves us, we love Him in return; in this love, we as God’s chosen ones are being made holy and without blemish before Him. We need to keep ourselves in the atmosphere and condition of love, loving the Lord Jesus all the time.

Our dear Lord Jesus Christ is the Captain of our salvation, and He is leading us as His many sons into glory by saving us organically through sanctification (see Heb. 2:10-11). If we put together Eph. 1:4-5 and Heb. 2:10-11 we realize that God’s sanctification is unto sonship; God brings His many sons into glory by Christ’s sanctifying us dispositionally throughout the course of our Christian life.

Both He who sanctifies and those who are being sanctified are all of One, and Christ is leading many sons into glory. Hallelujah, today Christ is the Captain of God’s full salvation, and He is leading many sons into glory by sanctifying each and every one of them unto full sonship!

Today we are in the process of being sanctified by God so that we may be saturated with God’s holy nature and element and be renewed, transformed, conformed, and eventually glorified.

“The Father’s dispensing in His choosing and predestinating of the believers issues in His sonship through His sanctifying of His chosen people, making them holy as He is in His life and in His nature, to make them like God in the divine life and nature, but without His unique Godhead. This is the divine sanctification unto (for) the divine sonship. This is the center of the divine economy and the central thought of the revelation in the New Testament.” (The Issue of the Dispensing of the Processed Trinity and the Transmitting of the Transcending Christ, p. 18)

How wonderful to be in this process of sanctification today! We may not know this – and the enemy wants to keep us busy with many other things so that we may not realize this, but God has predestinated us in love to be holy and without blemish before Him so that we may be His sons, the same as He is in life and nature but not in the Godhead.

Today we are in the process of the divine sanctification, and God’s economy is carried out by Christ as the Spirit sanctifying us day by day to make us the holy sons of the Holy Father. Praise the Lord!

Thank You Father for predestinating us to be holy and without blemish before You in love. Thank You for predestinating us unto sonship in love so that we may be Your many sons, as holy as You are. Lord Jesus, lead us all the way through the process of sanctification to be the holy sons of our holy Father. Save us organically day by day through sanctification until we are fully sons of God, the same as God in life and nature, but not in the Godhead!

The Divine Sanctification is the Holding Line in the Carrying out of the Divine Economy to Sonize us Divinely!

When one goes fishing, he uses a line – a holding line for the bait and later for the fish, so that the fish would be caught and then reeled in. In God’s economy there’s “a holding line”, which is the divine sanctification. Sanctification is the holding line in God’s economy because every step of God’s economy in His work with us is to make us holy.

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 expression.

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 expression; 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. (Witness Lee)

God’s sonizing is the process of making us sons of God, those who are the same as God in life and nature but not in the Godhead. Every step in God’s economy is to make us holy.

1. The seeking sanctification: even before we were saved, the Spirit was working in our environment to sanctify us initially unto repentance to bring us back to God.

We didn’t just suddenly believe into the Lord Jesus; the Spirit was seeking us, sweeping in our being, and working in us and in our environment until we repented and believed into the Lord Jesus (see 1 Pet. 1:2; Luke 15:8-10, 17-21; John 16:8-11). Our repentance and believing into the Lord were due to the seeking Spirit, the convicting Spirit sanctifying us initially.

2. The redeeming sanctification: when we believed into the Lord Jesus, we were positionally sanctified by being transferred from Adam into Christ (Heb. 13:12). Just as the gold was sanctified by being put into the temple for God’s use, so we were sanctified positionally by applying the blood of Christ through repentance.

3. The regenerating sanctification: when we received Jesus as our Lord and Savior, we were renewed in our spirit to be made from sinners into sons of God to form an organism for God’s corporate expression, the Body of Christ (see 2 Cor. 5:17; John 1:12-13; 3:5-6, 8; 1 Pet. 1:3; Titus 3:5).

Through the washing of regeneration we were made sons of God, and the Holy Spirit came into our spirit to regenerate us and sanctify us for God’s corporate expression, the church as the Body of Christ.

4. The renewing sanctification: after being regenerated by the Lord, we are in the process of the dispositional sanctification which renews our soul from our mind through all the parts of our soul to make our soul a part of God’s new creation (see Rom. 12:2; Eph. 4:23; 2 Cor. 4:16; Gal. 6:15).

The Lord doesn’t stop with our spirit: He wants to absolutely, thoroughly, and fully sanctify our whole being starting from our spirit and continuing with our mind, emotion, and will, until He makes our soul a part of God’s new creation! One day our fallen soul which became the self – will become fully a part of the new creation!

5. The transforming sanctification: we are daily being sanctified by the Lord to be reconstituted with the element of Christ metabolically and be made 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). As we enjoy the Lord and cooperate with His transforming work, more and more of our old element is being discharged and God’s new element is being added to our being to make us living members of the Body of Christ for the building up of the Body of Christ.

6. The conforming sanctification: as we are being renewed and transformed, the divine life in us is also shaping us into the image of Christ through the process of sanctification so that we may become the expression of Christ (see Rom. 8:29; Phil. 3:10).

In the sanctifying Spirit working within us there’s a certain DNA, a certain organic element that constitutes us inwardly and shapes us outwardly into the image of the glorious Christ to make us the corporate expression of Christ. Day by day we’re being shaped into the image of Christ and we’re looking like Him, bearing His image!

7. The glorifying sanctification: this is the consummating sanctification in which even our body is redeemed by being transfigured, and we are made Christ’s expression in full and in glory so that we may express Him forever in glory as the New Jerusalem (Phil. 3:21; Rom. 8:23; 1 Thes. 5:23; Rev. 21:2-3, 7, 9-11, 22).

Through the glorifying sanctification, the Spirit fully glorifying our whole being until we are 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!

Hallelujah! We are now in the process of being sanctified by God, and the holding line of God’s economy is the divine sanctification unto the divine sonship. The sanctifying work of God will reach the highest level: the glorification of the sons of God. Even our mortal, fleshly, vile, sickly body will be fully sanctified so that we may have the spiritual body of the resurrected Christ.

Today we need to go on with the Lord level by level and step by step so that we may be sanctified continually until we reach the highest peak, the glorification of our body for the corporate expression of the Triune God!

Lord Jesus, keep us in the process of the divine sanctification for the divine sonship. Thank You for initially and positionally sanctifying us unto the regeneration of our spirit. Lord, renew us and sanctify us dispositionally day by day. Transform us by reconstituting us with Your element to make us a new constitution for the Body of Christ. Shape us into Your image to make us a part of the glorious expression of Christ. Lord, keep us in the organic process of the divine sanctification until we become the sons of God in full for God’s corporate expression!

References and Hymns on this Topic
  • Inspiration: the Word of God, my Christian experience, bro. Minoru Chen’s sharing in the message for this week, and portions from, Life-Study of Ephesians (msg. 3), as quoted in, the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, The Vision, Practice, and Building up of the Church as the Body of Christ, week 1 / msg 1, God’s Purpose for the Church (1) To Have the Divine Sonship in Full through Sanctification for the Corporate Expression of God.
  • Picture credit for 1 Peter 1:2 and more spiritual quotes via, Christian Pictures Blog.
  • Hymns on this topic:
    # Oh, sanctify us, Lord; now add Thyself to us, / In our experience, Thy Person spread in us, / That in reality the church be glorious, / O Lord, do add Thyself, we pray. / Oh, sanctify us, Lord, today; / Lord Jesus, You’re the only way. / We take Your Person, Lord; / Oh, spread Yourself abroad. / Oh, sanctify us, Lord, today. (Hymns #1135)
    # He transforms, all sanctifying, / Till like Him we are matured; / He transforms, our soul possessing, / Till His stature is secured. (Hymns #750)
    # I would give myself, Lord, / Fully unto Thee, / That Thy heart’s desire / Be fulfilled in me. / I no more would struggle / To myself reform, / Thus in me to hinder / What Thou wouldst perform. (Hymns #841)
About aGodMan

A God-man is a normal believer in Christ; the author of this article is one who is learning to be a normal Christian, a daily enjoyer of Christ, a living and functioning member in the Body of Christ. Amen, Lord, make us such ones for the building up of the Body of Christ!

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