We have the Right to Participate in God’s Image and to Participate in God’s Glory

As believers in Christ, we are God-men who have the divine right to participate in God’s image by being metabolically transformed into the image of Christ and we have the right to participate in God’s glory. Hallelujah!

We need to be reminded of our divine rights. We are not only human beings but divine-human beings who have a new life in our spirit, the divine life, and this life gives us a new set of rights and responsibilities.

As children of God, we have the divine right to participate in many aspects of God’s divinity.

When some Christians hear this, they think it is heresy; however, the word of God is clear that we can participate in many aspects and characteristics of God’s divinity.

It is good to come to the Lord in His word and prayerfully study and enjoy all the matters related to our divine right.

We have the right, above all, to participate in the life of God.

Whoever believes into the Lord Jesus receives Him as his life, and he has the divine right to participate in God’s life. Wow!

Even more, we have the right to participate in God’s nature; by exercising our spirit over the word of God, we are partakers of the divine nature.

It is our right to enjoy what God is in His life and nature, for we are children of God having the same divine life and nature.

We will never participate in the Godhead, but we can and should participate in what God is in His life and nature.

We also have the right to participate in God’s mind. Wow, the mind of Christ is becoming our mind!

We are in the process of being renewed in the spirit of our mind so that we may have the mind of Christ, and even our way of thinking is being changed.

As we spend time with the Lord in His word and in fellowship with the saints in the church, our way of thinking is gradually changed.

He infuses His mind into our mind, and His thinking becomes ours.

Even as He thinks, so will we think; we will have the mind of Christ.

Little by little and day by day, we are renewed in the spirit of our mind to have the mind of Christ.

We as God-men have the right to participate in God’s being; the riches of His being are dispensed into us day by day, little by little, to become the very constituents of our being.

All God’s being, all His riches, flow in the Spirit, and we can exercise our spirit to receive and enjoy what God is in His very being. Hallelujah!

In this article, we want to further see that we have the divine right to participate in God’s image by being transformed into the glorious image of Christ, and we have the divine right to participate in God’s glory, for He is glorifying us little by little, day by day. Hallelujah!

As God-men, we have the Right to Participate in God’s Image by being Metabolically Transformed into the Image of Christ

2 Cor. 3:18 tells us that, as we behold the Lord and reflect Him, we’re being transformed into the same image as Him. As God-men, we have the right to participate in God’s image.

The image of God is Christ, for Christ is the embodiment of God and the image of the invisible God, expressing what God is (Col. 1:15; 2 Cor. 4:4).

We have been created in God’s image and according to His likeness, and we have the image of God outwardly.

However, inwardly we need to be transformed in a metabolic way to have the inward image of Christ.

According to 2 Cor. 3:18, we are being transformed into the same image as Christ.

This means that we’re being conformed to the image of the resurrected Christ as the firstborn Son of God, for we’re being made the same as He is (Rom. 8:29).

Our Christian life is a wonderful metabolic process of transformation.

We start as men of clay and we end up being precious stones fit for God’s building.

As we spend time with the Lord in His word, beholding Him with an unveiled face, there’s a process going on in our being; we are transformed into His image.

We have the divine right to participate in God’s image.

The more we spend time with the Lord, the more we will look like Him and think like Him and do things like Him.

When others saw the disciples of Jesus, even though they didn’t have to say something or do something, others realized they were with Jesus, for they were infused with Jesus to the extent that they expressed Jesus.

It is the same with us. Others will see Jesus in us not because we try to express Him or do things as the Bible tells us to do but because we behold the Lord Jesus with an unveiled face, and we reflect Him spontaneously.

Hallelujah, there is a metabolic process going on in our being as we spend time with the Lord to enjoy Him: He is adding His new element into us and our old element is being discharged.

There is a metabolic process going on in our being – a spiritual metabolism – whereby our old natural element is gradually being discharged and Christ is being constituted into us to conform us to the image of Christ.

This is all from the Lord Spirit; the Lord Spirit is in us conforming us to the image of Christ by the spiritual metabolism of transformation. Hallelujah!

As we are metabolically changed into the image of Christ by our daily beholding and reflecting the Lord, we are gradually transformed into the image of the resurrected and glorified Christ to participate in God’s image!

This is our organic right, the right we have by birth of the divine life; we will enter into the full expression of God to bear the image of God.

Actually, even if we don’t spend time with the Lord and do not cooperate with Him in this age, we will still be transformed into His image in the next age, but it will take a little longer, for the Lord wants to conform all His believers to the image of Christ.

Christ is the Firstborn and we are the many sons.

In His organic salvation, He is transforming us into the image of Christ.

We have the right to be transformed and conformed to the image of the firstborn Son of God, to be made exactly the same as He is in life and nature, constitution and expression! Hallelujah!

We have this right, dear brothers and sisters in the Lord, and we need to exercise our divine right.

May we come to the Lord day by day and ask Him to go on in us in the process of spiritual metabolism of transformation so that we may be transformed into the image of Christ and participate in God’s image!

Hallelujah, we as believers in Christ are God-men, and we have the divine right to participate in God’s image! Praise the Lord, we can behold Him face to face and therefore reflect Him! Amen, Lord, transform us into the same image as Christ little by little, day by day. Make us the same as You are. Keep us in the process of spiritual metabolism as we come to You day by day. Have Your way to add the new element of God and discharge our old, natural element so that we may be reconstituted with Christ. Amen, Lord, we exercise our right to participate in God’s image. Transform us more today. Conform us more to the image of the resurrected Christ as the firstborn Son of God! Amen, Lord, it is our right to become the same as Christ in His image so that He may be the firstborn among many brothers! Go on in us and transform us into the image of Christ!

We have the Right to Participate in God’s Glory – He is Leading us into Glory to Glorify us!

Eventually, we will be brought into God’s glory to participate in His glory (Heb. 2:10).

We have the right to participate in God’s glory. Wow!

God is leading many sons into glory. He has predestinated us, called us, justified us, and He is now in the process of glorifying us (Rom. 8:30).

The last step of God’s organic salvation is glorification, and in this step, God will completely saturate our body with the glory of His life and nature.

He will transfigure our body of humiliation to be conformed to the body of Christ in His glory (Phil. 3:21).

Our God is a God of glory; the God of glory has appeared to Abraham and attracted him to go where God wanted him to go (Acts 7:2).

Stephen looked intently into heaven when he was being stoned to death, and he saw the glory of God (Acts 7:55).

Glory is God expressed; glory is the expression of God, God being manifested and expressed.

When God’s glory appears to a man, he is attracted, and he drops everything to follow God and be separated unto God from anything else.

When the God of glory appeared to Abraham again and again, His glory was a great encouragement and strength to him, and Abraham was enabled to follow God (Gen. 12:1, 4).

We believers in Christ have been called by God to and by His own glory (2 Pet. 1:3).

Even more, God has called us into His eternal glory (1 Pet. 5:10).

We have been called into God’s glory and by God’s glory. God’s salvation is with eternal glory (2 Tim. 2:10); eternal glory is the ultimate goal of God’s salvation (Rom. 8:21).

As we remain in the process of God’s organic salvation, we are being led into His glory (Heb. 2:10).

Christ came and cut the way into glory, and now He is leading many sons into glory. Hallelujah!

Our Christian life has very much to do with God’s glory, for we have been ordained for God’s glory and have been called into God’s glory (1 Cor. 2:7; 1 Thes. 2:12).

As we behold the Lord and enjoy Him, we are being transformed into this glory (2 Cor. 3:18) and we are brought into glory.

Eventually, we all will be glorified with Christ (Rom. 8:17, 30).

We will bear the glory of God for His expression in the New Jerusalem. Our destiny is glory.

We have the right to participate in God’s glory, that is, to become one with Christ and glorified by Him to express God in glory.

We are vessels of mercy unto glory, and God makes known the riches of His glory upon us (Rom. 9:23).

Hallelujah, though we are vessels of mercy, we are unto honor and glory, for He prepared us unto glory.

We as a vessel will contain and express God in His glory. This is our destiny.

We have been called unto His glory, we are daily being saturated with Christ to express God in glory, and we will be glorified to fully express God in glory.

We are becoming the New Jerusalem, the holy city, which has the glory of God (Rev. 21:11).

For eternity, we will bear the glory of God, for God Himself will be shining out through us, the New Jerusalem.

God’s eternal goal is to bring us, His many sons, into glory.

Hallelujah, the all-inclusive Christ dwells in us as the hope of glory (Col. 1:27), and we are being transformed day by day into the Lord’s image from glory to glory (2 Cor. 3:18).

Thank You, Lord, for calling us by Your own glory and into Your eternal glory. Hallelujah, Christ is in us as the hope of glory! Amen, Lord, thank You for the right to participate in God’s glory. Thank You for bringing us into this wonderful salvation in which You work Yourself into us to lead us into glory. Thank You for ordaining us unto glory and calling us unto glory. Keep us in the process of being transformed into the image of Christ from glory to glory. Oh Lord Jesus, we want to behold and reflect the glory of the Lord so that we may be transformed into Your image from glory to glory. Amen, Lord, we open our vessel to You: dispense more of Yourself into us and lead us into glory! Hallelujah, our God is a God of glory and Christ is leading us into glory!

References and Hymns on this Topic

• Inspiration for this article/sharing comes from the Word of God, the enjoyment in the ministry, a sharing by brother Minoru Chen in the message for this week, and portions from, The Conclusion of the New Testament, msg. 11 (by Witness Lee), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, An Overview of the Central Burden and Present Truth of the Lord’s Recovery Before His Appearing (2023 July Semiannual Training), week 10, entitled, The God-men’s Divine Right to Participate in God’s Divinity.
• Similar articles on this topic:
  – Deification by participation in God’s divinity, article by Ed Marks in, Affirmation and Critique.
  – Beholding and reflecting to be transformed into the image of Christ, a portion from, General Sketch of the New Testament in the Light of Christ and the Church, A – Part 2: Romans through Philemon, Chapter 6, by Witness Lee.
  – 2 Corinthians 3:18—Beholding and Reflecting the Lord with an Unveiled Face, article via, Bibles for America blog.
  – Q&R Sessions with Co-workers by Uni Students – “Many millennials resent church because their parents were good at church but not good at life. They struggle attending a place that consumed their parents’ time but never transformed their private life.” Read more via, Living to Him.
  – 10 Divine Rights for Every Believer to Participate in, article via, Holding to Truth in Love.
  – To participate in God’s life, a portion from, Incarnation, Inclusion, and Intensification, Chapter 4, by Witness Lee.
• Hymns on this topic
  – Spreading outward from our spirit / Doth the Lord transform our soul, / By the inward parts renewing, / Till within His full control. / By the power of His Spirit / In His pattern He transforms; / From His glory to His glory / To His image He conforms. (Hymns #750 stanzas 3-4)
  – By that final transformation, / We’ll be fully sanctified; / God will bring us into glory, / With His Son identified. / All creation is expecting / Sons of God revealed to be, / That they might be freed from bondage / Into glorious liberty. (Hymns #741 stanza 4)
  – O Lord Jesus, Thy redeemed ones / Are Thy Body and Thy Bride; / As Thy fulness, Thine expression, / In her Thou art glorified. / Thou, her all in all forever, / She Thy riches doth declare; / Thou dost fully saturate her / And Thy glory with her share. / Lo, the holy city, / Full of God’s bright glory! / It is God’s complete expression / In humanity. (Hymns #976 stanza 1 and chorus)