Here is this week’s outline & verses in a downloadable PDF format.
2020 Summer Truth Pursuit Week 11
Spend some time this morning to open up to the Lord in prayer regarding what He touched you with during the previous six days. Review your notes and the outline points and verses. Ask the Lord what He would have you share with all the saints. Prepare a prophecy (1-2 minutes long) to share with the saints what you enjoyed this week.
Message 11: Transformation, Conformation, Glorification and Building Up
Scripture Reading: 2 Cor. 3:16, 18; 4:16; Matt. 16:13–18; John 1:51; 2:16–22; 14:2, 23; Rom. 12:3–5; 1 Cor. 1:10–13; 3:9–15; 2 Cor. 3:16, 18; 4:16; Gal. 6:14–15; Rom. 8:23, 29–30; Eph. 4:30; Phil. 1:19–21a; 3:10; 1 Thes. 2:12; Heb. 2:10; 1 Pet. 5:10; 1 John 3:2; Eph. 3:17; 4:4–6, 11–16; Rev. 3:12–13; 4:3a; 21:2, 10–23; 22:1–5
I. In the metabolism in the divine life and in the joining and knitting in the building up
II. Transformation—Rom. 12:2
2 Corinthians 3:16–18 But whenever their heart turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. 17 And the Lord is the Spirit….18 But we all with unveiled face, beholding and reflecting like a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, even as from the Lord Spirit.
Romans 12:2 And do not be fashioned according to this age, but be transformed by the renewing of the mind that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and well pleasing and perfect.
2 Corinthians 4:16 Therefore we do not lose heart; but though our outer man is decaying, yet our inner man is being renewed day by day.
A. Transformation being not an outward change or correction, but the metabolic function of the life of God in the believers
B. By the believers turning to the Lord and thereby removing the various kinds of veils of their old concepts—2 Cor. 3:16
C. Even more, by the believers, with an unveiled face, beholding the Lord and reflecting like a mirror the glory of the Lord—2 Cor. 3:18
D. Thus they are being transformed into the same image as the Lord from one level of glory to another level of glory for the Lord’s expression
E. Even as from the Lord Spirit, that is, Christ as the life-giving Spirit
F. This requiring the believers’ outer man to be decaying (to be consumed) that their inner man may be renewed day by day—2 Cor. 4:16
III. Conformation—Rom. 8:29
Romans 8:29 Because those whom He foreknew, He also predestinated to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the Firstborn among many brothers.
Philippians 3:10 To know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death.
Philippians 1:19–21a For I know that for me this will turn out to salvation through your petition and the bountiful supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ. 20 According to my earnest expectation and hope that in nothing I will be put to shame, but with all boldness, as always, even now Christ will be magnified in my body, whether through life or through death. 21 For to me, to live is Christ….
1 John 3:2 Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not yet been manifested what we will be. We know that if He is manifested, we will be like Him because we will see Him even as He is.
A. Conformation is the consummation of the believer’s transformation in life
B. Conformation is to be conformed to the image of God’s firstborn Son
1. God’s firstborn Son being Christ as the God-man
2. To be conformed to the image of God’s firstborn Son being that the believers become full-grown in life as God-men
a. To be conformed to Christ’s death in all things through the power of His resurrection—Phil. 3:10
b. To live Christ for magnifying Him through the bountiful supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ (who is the God-man)—Phil. 1:19–21a
c. To be the reprints of the God-man, Christ, that the believers may be exactly like Him, the firstborn Son of God—1 John 3:2
IV. Glorification–Rom. 8:30
Romans 8:30 And those whom He predestinated, these He also called; and those whom He called, these He also justified; and those whom He justified, these He also glorified.
Hebrews 2:10 For it was fitting for Him, for whom are all things and through whom are all things, in leading many sons into glory, to make the Author of their salvation perfect through sufferings.
1 Peter 5:10 But the God of all grace, He who has called you into His eternal glory in Christ Jesus, after you have suffered a little while, will Himself perfect, establish, strengthen, and ground you.
1 Thessalonians 2:12 So that you might walk in a manner worthy of God, who calls you into His own kingdom and glory.
Romans 8:23 And not only so, but we ourselves also, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan in ourselves, eagerly awaiting sonship, the redemption of our body.
Ephesians 4:30 And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, in whom you were sealed unto the day of redemption.
A. Glorification is the spreading forth of Christ’s glory from the believers by their growing to maturity in Christ’s life
B. It is also the believers’ entering into the glory of God—Heb. 2:10; 1 Pet. 5:10; 1 Thes. 2:12
C. It is also the believers’ enjoyment of the redemption of their body—Rom. 8:23; Eph. 4:30
D. It is also the ultimate consummation of God’s complete salvation in the believers
E. The ultimate consummation of God’s complete salvation being the New Jerusalem—the crystallization of the union and mingling of God with man, the processed and consummated Triune God with His regenerated, transformed, conformed, and glorified tripartite elect
V. Building up
Ephesians 4:15–16 But holding to truth in love, we may grow up into Him in all things, who is the Head, Christ, 16 Out from whom all the Body, being joined together and being knit together through every joint of the rich supply and through the operation in the measure of each one part, causes the growth of the Body unto the building up of itself in love.
Ephesians 4:3 Being diligent to keep the oneness of the Spirit in the uniting bond of peace.
A. Building up is the God-men’s being joined and knit together with other God-men in the divine life by their growth in the divine life
B. Brought forth through the joining and knitting by the transforming Spirit—Eph. 4:3, 15–16
C. The building up of the Body of Christ in the New Testament is this kind of building up by being joined and knit together in the divine life, and its purpose is to consummate the building of the holy city, New Jerusalem
VI. The relationship between God’s judicial redemption and God’s organic salvation
A. God’s judicial redemption qualifies and positions the believers to enjoy God’s organic salvation and enter into God’s higher grace for the accomplishment of God’s eternal economy and the attainment of God’s ultimate purpose
B. The church is produced by both judicial redemption and organic salvation
1. God redeemed the church and produced the through His judicial redemption; it is “the church of God, which He obtained through His own blood”—Acts 20:28
2. God constituted the church organically with the God-regenerated people in the divine life; this organic aspect issues in the Body of Christ—Eph. 1:22–23
C. God’s judicial redemption as the procedure is purposeless without God’s organic salvation
1. Many believers are not clear about the purpose of judicial redemption, thinking it is so they can go to heaven
2. Our salvation is not merely for sinners to be redeemed, have their sins forgiven, and become righteous people justified by God
3. According to the revelation of the Holy Scriptures, God’s judicial redemption is the procedure, with God’s organic salvation as the purpose
4. The goal of God’s salvation is to regenerate us, shepherd us, sanctify us dispositionally, renew us, transform us, and build us up into the Body of Christ, which ultimately consummates in the New Jerusalem as the ultimate goal of God’s organic salvation to be God’s enlargement and expression in eternity
D. God’s organic salvation needs to be maintained constantly through God’s judicial redemption
1 John 1:6–7 If we say that we have fellowship with Him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and are not practicing the truth; 7 But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from every sin.
1 John 2:1–2 My little children, these things I write to you that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the Righteous; 2 And He Himself is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for those of the whole world.
1. When the believers’ fellowship with God is interrupted due to their sins, it can be restored through the redeeming blood of Christ—1 John 1:6–7
2. When the believers have a case against them before God because of their sinning, Christ, their Redeemer, is responsible for undertaking their case in His status as their Advocate in heaven before God—1 John 2:1–2
E. We will never outgrow the need for redemption
1. The ultimate step of the believers’ transformation for their body to be transformed and to enter in to God’s glory is called the redemption of their body—Eph. 4:30; Rom. 8:23
2. This implies the element of redemption even after we are fully transformed, conformed and glorified to be like Christ
3. Regardless of how spiritual, renewed, and transformed the believers are, our body still belongs to the old creation and therefore still needs God’s judicial redemption that it may receive God’s organic salvation and be transfigured to enter into glory—Phil. 3:21; Rom. 8:30
Further reading
God’s Full Salvation, Lessons 17–19.