Message 11: Transformation, Conformation, Glorification and Building Up
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
Read over the outline points and verses above and use these for your prayer to spend time with the Lord in the Word in the morning. After your prayer time, jot down in your notebook one or two things that the Lord touched you with.
Later, watch the following short video podcast sometime during the day.