We’re being Renewed by the Spirit and Transformed Metabolically into Christ’s Image

As part of God’s organic salvation, we are renewed in the spirit of our mind and through the consuming of the outward environment to become God’s new creation and we are being transformed metabolically into the glorious image of Christ as we live and walk by the Spirit. Hallelujah!

As we are reviewing and enjoying the marvellous process of God’s organic salvation based on His judicial redemption, we cannot but marvel and give thanks to God.

God doesn’t want only that we serve Him, worship Him, and do the things that are pleasing to Him in an outward way, out of fear and respect for Him.

God wants to come into us, work Himself into our being, and make His home in our heart, even make us the same as Christ in life, nature, expression, and function.

How can we, sinners, be made into sons of God, even God-men, to express God corporately?

All this is possible through a process which lasts a lifetime; it is the process of God’s complete salvation.

In particular, God has an organic salvation for us, a salvation in life (Rom. 5:10); after reconciling us to Himself, He is further saving us in His life.

As part of His organic salvation, we have seen that we first are being regenerated by God with His life to be children of God.

Hallelujah, we believers in Christ are sons of God! We are human beings who have the human life, but in addition to the human life we have another life – the divine life, the life of God, in our spirit.

This is very mysterious, and based on this life all our experience and knowledge of God takes place.

We don’t touch God with our mind nor do we contact Him with our emotion; it is in spirit, in our mingled spirit, our regenerated spirit indwelt by the Spirit of God, that we can contact God, worship God, and enjoy God.

However, for Him to remain in our spirit is not what He wants; yes, He does want to dwell in us, but He wants to spread from our spirit into every part of our inner being.

However, we are so complicated, complex, and deep within, so it takes time for the Lord to spread in the way we think, the way we feel, the way we decide things, our emotions, feelings, thoughts, decisions, and concepts.

So He goes on in us little by little, day by day, until He seeps into every part of our inner being to possess, occupy, and saturate us.

He first shepherds us by feeding us so that we may be cherished and nourished and grow in life unto maturity.

Then, He sanctifies us in our disposition to work His holy nature with His holy element into us so that our inner being would be reconstituted with God’s element and be holy as God is holy.

Today we will see even more how we are being renewed in the spirit of our mind and how we are being transformed into the very image of the glorious Christ.

What a wonderful organic salvation!

We are being Renewed by the Spirit and through the Consuming of the Sufferings to be God’s New Creation and become the New Jerusalem

2 Cor. 5:17 says that if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; we believers in Christ are not only saved, redeemed, cleansed, and forgiven but even more, we’re a new creation.

Outwardly we still are a human being that grows older and whose physical body is decaying; inwardly, however, we are a new creation in resurrection, a new creation in Christ.

Just as our human body grows and develops as we eat, drink, breathe, and exercise, so spiritually speaking, we grow, develop, and advance as we eat, drink, and breathe in the Lord through the exercise of our spirit.

As we eat and enjoy the Lord, there’s a renewing going on in our being; there’s a rejuvenation through the addition of the new element of God to bring forth a renewal in us.

The believers in Christ are spontaneously renewed when they are sanctified by the Holy Spirit.

When the sanctifying Spirit brings into us God’s holy nature, He saturates us and permeates us with what God is, and spontaneously renewing takes place.

Renewing is the continuation of the washing of regeneration and is based on the ongoing process of sanctification, making us new.

May we never get old spiritually; may we be renewed by the Spirit day by day.

We are a new creation, we live and walk in newness of life, and our God is always new.

Our God is a God of newness, and we’re a new creation with Him and in Him every day.

Everything of God is new; as we touch God, enjoy God, and remain in fellowship with Him in His word, we are being renewed.

May we tell the Lord,

Lord Jesus, don’t let me get old in my experience with You. I want to have some new experiences of the Lord today. I want to have a new enjoyment of the Lord today. I don’t want to rely on what I knew many years ago or what I experienced of Christ last month. Grant me a new appreciation of Christ today!

Every day the Lord wants to renew us until a day is coming, as Rev. 21 says, when the One on the throne declares, I have made all things new. Hallelujah!

How are we being renewed? How is the renewing being carried out?

Renewing is carried out first by the renewing Spirit mingling with our regenerated spirit indwelt by Christ as one spirit to spread into our mind and renew our entire being as a member of the new man (Titus 3:5; Eph. 4:23).

The renewing particularly addresses our mind; Rom. 12:2 and Eph. 4:23 says that we need to be renewed in our mind.

We are being renewed by the Spirit in our mind so that our mind would no longer remain in the old realm, thinking about so many things outside of God but would allow the Spirit to come in and saturate us with the mind of Christ.

If our mind is a stronghold, holding on to our old concepts or treasuring unforgiven offenses, the Lord cannot spread into our mind.

May the Lord save us from holding to our concepts and not allowing Him to renew us.

May He save us from refusing to forgive someone in the church life who has offended us.

How can we stand before the judgment seat of Christ if we have not forgiven our brother his offenses?

If we hold on to our concepts and have an unforgiving attitude, we are old, and we are not being renewed. Oh, Lord Jesus!

We are being renewed by the Spirit in our mind, and we are also being renewed by walking in the newness of life in resurrection (Rom. 6:4; Eph. 4:22-24; Phil. 1:19-21).

As we are inwardly renewed, we outwardly walk in the newness of life.

We no longer walk like the Gentiles do, in the vanity of their mind, but we walk in newness of life.

Renewing is also through the consuming by the environmental sufferings sovereignly arranged by God around us (2 Cor. 4:16).

Our being renewed by the Spirit and the consuming of the outer man go together; the more we’re being consumed in our outer man, the more we can be renewed in the spirit of our mind.

God sovereignly allows and arranges many circumstances, situations, people, and matters to come our way for our outer man to be consumed and decay.

There may be some sicknesses, difficulties, and complicated situations.

All these, however, work together for good to those who love God and are called according to His purpose (Rom. 8:28-29).

If everything goes well in our environment, we enjoy the Lord one way, but when we’re facing difficulties and challenges, when impossibilities and pressing situations come our way, we will desperately go to the Lord, depend on Him, open to Him, and let Him renew us.

We will sense that God is closer to us than ever before, for we are in despair yet, when we contact God, we experience His work of renewing in us.

We don’t have to ask for difficult situations and sickness – God will arrange and allow things; we just need to open to the Lord and contact Him, allowing Him to renew us.

As believers in Christ, we must be thoroughly and absolutely renewed by the Spirit so that we may be practically the genuine new creation of God and for God (Gal. 6:15).

What matters is a new creation – not circumcision, uncircumcision, or any other thing. God wants the new creation.

As we experience God’s renewing, we become God’s new creation, and we will even be as new as the New Jerusalem (Rev. 21:2).

We are not becoming an old Jerusalem but a New Jerusalem, always new because God who is new dwells in it and saturates it. Hallelujah!

Lord Jesus, we open to You to be renewed by the Spirit in our mind for us to become a new creation in resurrection! Hallelujah, we are spontaneously renewed when we’re sanctified by the Holy Spirit to be made new even as God is new! Amen, Lord, have a way to spread from our spirit into our mind to renew our mind and make our mind the same as Your mind! Make our entire being a member of the new man by renewing us from within. We want to walk in the newness of life in resurrection so that we may be renewed by the Spirit. Oh Lord, even as we go through the consuming of the environmental sufferings, we want to be renewed! Amen, as our outer man is decaying and being consumed, may there be a renewing going on within us so that our inner man be renewed day by day! Yes, Lord, grant us a new experience of Christ today. We want to have a new appreciation of the wonderful Jesus Christ in our experience today! Thoroughly and absolutely renew us so that we may be practically the genuine new creation of God and for God! Amen, Lord Jesus, make us new even as the New Jerusalem!

We are being Transformed Metabolically by the Spirit into the Image of the Glory of Christ

Sanctification refers to the process of God’s dispensing His element into us to saturate us with His holy element and nature.

Transformation as revealed in the New Testament signifies that, as a result of this process of sanctification, there is a metabolic process going on in us in which the old elements are discharged and the new elements of God are added to us.

Something new of God is being solidified in our being to the extent that there’s an image, not our image but the image of Christ.

We are being transformed metabolically by the Spirit into the image of the glory of Christ.

As we behold the Lord and reflect Him, as we spend time with Him in His word and are renewed by the Spirit in our mind, there’s a metabolic change happening in us, and we’re transformed by the Spirit into the glorious image of Christ (2 Cor. 3:18; Rom. 12:2).

This process transforms our entire being – it starts from our mind by renewing it, continuing with our emotion and will – so that we may fully participate in God’s divinity.

Renewing particularly addresses our mind, which is the leading part of our being; transformation addresses our entire being.

Our whole being is transformed, beginning from the renewing of our mind, so that we may participate not only in God’s mind but also participate in God’s being.

Transformation is not any kind of outward correction or adjustment; it is a kind of metabolism, a spiritual metabolism, by the addition of the element of the divine life of Christ into our being, until we express the glorious image of Christ outwardly.

Man’s way is to try to imitate something or someone outwardly, but God’s way is to work Himself into us and transform us inwardly until there’s the image of Christ being expressed outwardly.

It is like petrified wood: the wood remains in the flow of water for many years until the element of wood is discharged and replaced by the element of stone.

What remains is something that looks like wood but it is actually made of stone, for the element of stone reconstituted the piece of wood.

Transformation is accomplished by the Lord Spirit (the pneumatic Christ, Christ in His resurrection, Christ as the Spirit) who is transforming us into the image of the glory of Christ.

The more we behold the Lord through prayer and fellowship with Him, the more we are infused with His element, and we will reflect Him even as a mirror, expressing the glory of the Lord.

In this way, we are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another degree of glory (2 Cor. 3:18). Hallelujah!

On our side, we simply need to remain open to the Lord and not close our vessel; we need to deal with anything that veils us.

When the heart is turned to the Lord, the veil is taken away (v. 17) and we can behold the Lord with an unveiled face to be transformed into His image.

May we learn to deal with any obstacle between us and Him, anything that would hinder our vision of Christ, so that we may behold Him in His word, in fellowship, in prayer, and in the meetings of the church.

As we behold the Lord by turning our heart to Him again and again, He infuses Himself into us, and there’s a constitution of the element of Christ that takes place in us.

Our old element is being removed and replaced by the new element of Christ.

As believers in Christ, we should live by the Spirit and walk by the Spirit (Gal. 5:16, 25) and walk according to the mingled spirit (Rom. 8:4) so that the divine life of Christ may have the way to regulate us and transform us into the image of the Lord in glory.

On one hand, we need to turn our heart to the Lord; on the other hand, we need to walk according to the Spirit so that the Spirit would operate in us to transform us into the image of Christ in glory.

Lord Jesus, we turn our hearts to You. Remove any veil so that we may see the Lord face to face. Amen, Lord, we turn to You right now; we want to behold You and be infused with You. We love You, Lord Jesus. Infuse us with Yourself. Work Yourself into us. We want to remain in fellowship with You throughout the day so that there would be an inward, metabolic process going on. Transform us from within. Change us into Your image. Amen, Lord, we want to behold You and reflect You like a mirror so that we may be transformed into the glorious image of Christ. Keep us open to Your transforming work today. We want to live and walk by the Spirit so that the divine life may have a way to regulate us and transform us into the image of the Lord in glory! Amen, Lord, we choose to walk according to the mingled spirit today so that we may remain in the metabolic process of being transformed into the glorious image of Christ!

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 James Lee in the message for this week, and portions from, Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1994-1997, vol. 4, “The Secret of God’s Organic Salvation—‘the Spirit Himself with Our Spirit,’” pp. 249-253, 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 7, entitled, The Two Aspects of God’s Complete Salvation — Judicial Redemption Plus Organic Salvation.
• Similar articles on this topic:
  – Renewed in the Spirit of Your Mind – What does it mean and how do you experience it? Read more at, Holding to Truth in Love.
  – 2 Corinthians 3:18—Beholding and Reflecting the Lord with an Unveiled Face, article via, Bibles for America blog.
  – Transformed by the renewing of the mind, article by Ron Kangas in Affirmation and Critique.
  – Transforming the believers, a portion from, The Christian Life, Chapter 4, by Witness Lee.
  – What is Transformation? Read more via, Radio newsletters.
  – What Is Transformation in the Bible? Read more via, Bibles for Europe blog.
  – The word of righteousness – glorification and rapture, article via, Affirmation and Critique.
  – The Amazing Process of Transformation as Revealed in the Bible, article via, Holding to Truth in Love.
• Hymns on this topic:
  – Christ to me is so subjective, / Life imparting all the way; / As the Spirit He revives me / And refreshes day by day. / Christ to me is so subjective, / All my being He transforms; / By the mind and will renewing / To His image He conforms. (Hymns #537 stanzas 2-3)
  – God’s intention is to have us / All conformed to His dear Son; / Thus a work of transformation / By the Spirit must be done. / Lord, transform us to Thine image / In emotion, mind, and will; / Saturate us with Thy Spirit, / All our being wholly fill. / God hath us regenerated / In our spirit with His life; / But He must transform us further— / In our soul by His own life. (Hymns #750 stanzas 1-2 and chorus)
  – As the center, as the kernel, / Of God’s plan our spirit is; / Calling on the name of Jesus / Makes our spirit one with His. / From the center to circumference / God would saturate each part; / Feeling, mind, and will renewing, / Making home in all our heart. (Hymns #1325 stanza 4)