Being Saved in Christ's Life and Walking according to the Spirit for the Building Up of the Body of Christ

Being Saved in Christ's Life and Walking according to the Spirit

for the Building Up of the Body of Christ

Scripture Reading: Rom. 5:10, 17, 21; 6:4, 22; 8:2, 4-6, 9-10, 14, 29; 12:2-5; 10:12

BEING SAVED IN CHRIST’S LIFE THROUGH A METABOLIC TRANSFORMATION

In Romans 12:2 Paul says, “Do not be fashioned according to this age, but be transformed by the renewing of the mind.” The expression this age denotes the present, practical part of the world, that part which we contact and in which we live. To be fashioned according to this age is to follow the modern course of the world. To be transformed is to be changed not only in outward form and behavior but also in inward nature. Transformation is a metabolic change, an inward change by life, in which the element of the divine life within us replaces, carries away, and discharges the things of our old nature. A person can alter his appearance by adding color to his face, but this is only an outward change, having nothing to do with life. However, if that person eats healthy food, his appearance will change by an inward metabolism through the adding of a new organic element that replaces and washes away the old element. Day by day the Lord Jesus is the new element within us that produces a metabolic change in our nature so that we may walk in newness of life (6:4). Transformation is the issue of subjective sanctification in our disposition. To be transformed is to be saved in Christ’s life. Having been reconciled to God through Christ’s death, much more we shall be saved in His life. This salvation is transformation, which comes from the growth in life, the increase of the element of Christ in our being (Col. 2:19).

BEING SAVED IN CHRIST’S LIFE BY CONFORMATIONTO THE IMAGE OF THE SON OF GOD

Romans 8:29 says, “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.” We are not only being transformed, but we are also being conformed to the image of God’s firstborn Son. To be transformed is to be changed in our nature, and to be conformed is to be shaped into the form of the Son of God. Such a conformation saves us from self-likeness. Before we are conformed to Christ’s image, we look like ourselves, not like Jesus, the Son of God. We need a salvation in life that shapes and forms us into the image of the Son of God. This implies a deeper maturity in life.

BEING SAVED IN CHRIST’S LIFE FROM INDIVIDUALISMFOR THE BODY OF CHRIST

We are being freed from the law of sin and of death, and we are being sanctified dispositionally, transformed, and conformed to the image of Christ. Even after all this, we still need to be saved from individualism. It is normal to be an individual, but as individuals we should not be individualistic. By ourselves we are not complete. God saves and transforms us not as individual units but as members of the Body of Christ. None of the members of a human body is complete in itself. A shoulder does not have the functions of seeing or walking; for these functions it must be one with the eyes and with the feet. We are all members of the one Body of Christ. To see this, we need Romans 12. The fact that chapter 12, which is on the Body, comes after chapter 8 indicates that even if we have been freed from the law of sin, sanctified, transformed, and conformed to the image of the Son of God, we still need to be saved from individualism in order to be incorporated into Christ’s “corporation,” which is the church as His Body (Eph. 1:22-23). We need to be saved from our individualism to live practically in the Body for God’s ultimate goal.

We need to be saved not only from eternal condemnation but also from the subtle and deeper problems. To be saved in the life of Christ is to be saved from the law of sin, from being common and worldly, from being natural, from being self-like, and from being individualistic. We can be saved from all these things by the growth in life. The way to be saved in life is to receive Christ as the life element and let Him have a free course within us. The key to this life experience is in Romans 10:12, which says, “The same Lord is Lord of all and rich to all who call upon Him.” When we call on the name of the Lord, we participate in all His riches, and we give Him a free course within us to reach all our inward parts. This is to have the best spiritual digestion of Christ. Then we will have the growth in life that issues in our being saved in His life. We will grow in Him with Himself as the life element. The issue of our salvation in life is the Body of Christ, which is God’s goal. We need to put all these matters into practice.life for our sanctification.