The Saving Life of Christ Accomplishes the Organic Goal of God’s Dynamic Salvation

The righteous shall have life and live by faith (Rom. 1:17) – the righteousness of God is the procedure of God’s salvation judicially, the life of Christ is the purpose of God’s salvation organically, and the faith of the believers is the substantiation of God’s salvation practically.

The gospel of God has a solid structure: it is based on God’s righteousness (which was fully satisfied by Christ through His death on the cross), it brings forth His life (which is received by the believers and which operates in them unto full salvation), and it is practical to us through faith (which is our response to Christ’s attraction).

God is righteous, and based on His righteousness we as sinners cannot approach God or come into contact with God, but Christ came and fulfilled all the righteous requirements of God through His perfect and all-inclusive sacrifice on the cross, and now we can come forward to God through faith in Jesus Christ, taking Him as our righteousness and way into God.

Now we, sinners who are saved by grace and through faith, can enjoy God’s life and His full salvation organically, because we have a solid foundation – the blood of Christ which satisfies God. Hallelujah! The result of our being justified before God through Christ is that we have the full enjoyment of God in Christ as our life!

In God’s organic salvation we as believers in Christ have God’s love, grace, peace, hope, life, glory, and the entire Triune God is available for our enjoyment.

All we have to do is exercise our spirit, apply the blood of Christ, and enjoy the Lord day by day, and God’s organic salvation will operate in us to regenerate us, transform us, renew us, sanctify us, conform us, glorify us, and build us up to be God’s corporate expression. Hallelujah!

The Saving Life of Christ Accomplishes the Organic Goal of God’s Dynamic Salvation

According to the divine revelation in the New Testament there are at least eleven main ways in which the saving life of Christ (which we have received through regeneration based on God’s justification) accomplishes the organic goal of God’s dynamic salvation, and today we just want to touch on them.

It takes a lifetime of enjoying the Lord, experiencing Christ, and digging in His word with a prayerful spirit and a heart turned to Him for us to experience all these aspects and ways in which the life of Christ accomplishes the goal of God’s salvation.

1. Justified by God in Christ to live in the divine life. Hallelujah, we believers in Christ have been justified by God in Christ as the righteousness from God to us so that we may live in this life before God (Rom. 1:17). Because Christ became our Substitute on the cross and bore our sins, we are now released from our sins, justified by God, made alive, and we can live before God by this life and in this life.

2. This life makes us the sons of God and the brothers of Christ. As the God-justified people, we are now being made by the divine life the sons of God and the brothers of Christ (see Rom. 8:14; Heb. 2:20; Rom. 8:29). Based on God’s justification and our receiving through faith, we are being regenerated by the Spirit of life with God’s producing and multiplying life, and we are in the process of being made mature sons of God and the many brothers of Christ, partners with Him in the divine enterprise for the Father’s glorification.

3. This life causes us to grow out of death unto maturity. The Spirit of the One who raised Jesus from the dead is in us, and through His divine life being imparted into us we, the dying believers, can grow in Christ out of death unto maturity (Rom. 8:11). The divine life is a living, dynamic, and always moving life; when we cooperate with this life, it grows in us to bring us to maturity so that we may express God in full.

4. Christ as the Spirit moves in us for us to enjoy Christ’s life with its peace. Whenever we set our mind on the spirit, we enjoy the riches of the divine life with its peace (Rom. 8:5-6). Life and peace result from setting our mind on the mingled spirit; when we set our mind on the spirit, there’s no discrepancy between us and God, we are at peace with Him, we feel peaceful within, and we are full of life.

When our mind is not set on the spirit, however, we have the sense of death in us, which warns us to return to our spirit! As children of God, His divine life grows in us, and we can enjoy this life – God’s life in us is enjoyable!

5. This life sanctifies us with the holy nature of God. As we learn to set our mind on the spirit, the saving life of Christ spreads in our being to sanctify us unto God, making us holy in our position and in our constitution. First, the divine life separates us from any common and sinful things unto God, and then inwardly this life is doing a sanctifying work to spread God’s holy element in every part of our being.

Just as tea is put in hot water and spreads to make the water tea, so God’s holy nature is in us to spread the holy element of God in our inward being and sanctify us inwardly.

6. This life renews us by the Spirit of life. As we are being inwardly sanctified, the Spirit of life renews us from the old element of our old man into the new constitution of our new man (Rom. 12:2; Titus 3:5). Based upon the washing of regeneration, the divine life renews us by the Spirit of life to remove any old element and add the new divine element to our being.

Our outer man is decaying daily, but our inner man is being renewed day by day (2 Cor. 4:6)! Through this renewing process, we have a living hope – we are being made new as God is new, and all our oldness and death will be removed as we experience God’s organic salvation!

7. This life transforms us for the building up of the Body of Christ. The more we are sanctified and renewed, the more we are transformed; sanctification and renewing may not be visible, but at one point something is expressed – this is transformation. The divine life transforms us metabolically by the Spirit of life with the element of Christ’s divine life from our old constitution to our new constitution for the building up of the organic Body of Christ (see Rom. 12:2, 5; 2 Cor. 3:18).

Transformation is an inward metabolic process in which God works to spread His divine life and nature throughout our soul, bringing Christ and His riches into our being as our new element and eliminating our old natural element, so that we may be transformed into His image for the building up of His Body.

8. This life conforms us to the image of Christ to express God. The transformation process is to shape us into the image of Christ; His image is a mold to which we are being conformed, and the saving life of Christ conforms us to His image so that we may be full-grown God-men for the Triune God’s expression (Rom. 8:29).

The more we are transformed, the more we will be like Christ; every believer is like Jesus – he is a little Jesus, being made the same as He is. The goal of God’s salvation is to conform us to the image of Christ, the firstborn Son of God.

9. This life glorifies us to make us the same as God in life and nature (but not in the Godhead). When the life of Christ enters into us through being justified by God, this life works in us to enliven us, grow in us, sanctify us, renew us, transform us, and conform us to His image until we reach the point where we are glorified, that is, we become God in life and nature but not in the Godhead.

This life glorifies us through the redemption of our body so that we may enter into the freedom of glory and our full sonship (Rom. 8:21, 23, 30). Glorification is deification: we are being glorified by God to such an extent that we become one with God in His glory!

10. This life makes us reign as kings over Satan, sin, and death. As we enjoy God’s life and let it grow in us, spread in us, renew us, sanctify us, and transform us, this life will reign in us and will cause us to reign in life as kings over Satan, sin, and death (Rom. 5:17, 21).

This life brings us to the point that we reign in life – not to control or command people to do this or that, but that we would reign as kings over Satan, sin, and death which are under our feet. The more we cooperate with the Lord’s life within, the more we will reign in life, and for eternity we will reign with Christ over all things.

11. This life is for the producing and building up of the Body. All these items – justification, regeneration, enlivening, growth in life, sanctification, enjoyment of life, transformation, renewing, sanctification, conformation, glorification, and reigning in life – are for the producing and building up of the organic Body of Christ expressed as the local churches all over the earth.

We are regenerated for the Body, we grow in life for the Body, we are transformed for the Body, and we are being glorified for the building up of the Body, which is being expressed in the local churches.

Therefore, today we need to live a proper church life in the local churches enjoying Christ and allowing the saving life of Christ to operate in us to accomplish the organic goal of God’s dynamic salvation, the building up of the Body of Christ!

Lord Jesus, we want to set our mind on the spirit so that our outward actions may be in agreement with our inner man and there would be no discrepancy between us and God. Lord, we treasure the enjoyment of life and peace in our spirit! Have a way to spread Your divine life and nature throughout every part of our being by removing any old natural element and adding Your new element for our transformation. Amen, Lord, transform us into Your image until we are fully conformed to You and become like You for the building up of the church as the Body of Christ. We want to cooperate with the divine life in us so that we may reign in life over Satan, sin, and death. Oh Lord, may Your saving life accomplish the organic goal of God’s dynamic salvation for the building up of the Body of Christ!

References and Hymns on this Topic

• Inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, brother James Lee’s sharing in the message for this week, and Crystallization-study of the Epistle to the Romans, msg. 6 (by Witness Lee), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, The Gospel (2016 International Chinese-speaking Conference), week 3 / msg. 3, The Structure of the Gospel of God—the Righteousness of God, the Life of Christ, and the Faith of the Believers.
• All Bible verses are taken from, Holy Bible Recovery Version.
• Hymns on this topic:
  # For the mind set on the flesh is death, / But the mind set on the spirit is life. / So I will walk in the Spirit today, / Being filled with life and peace! (Scripture song)
  # God’s intention is to have us / All conformed to His dear Son; / Thus a work of transformation / By the Spirit must be done. (Hymns #750)
  # 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)