God’s economy is to dispense Himself into our spirit as His abode and to take His residence in our spirit as a base to spread Himself through our whole being. Our spirit is God’s home, His dwelling place, His habitation, the very place from which He spreads Himself through our whole being (Eph. 2:22). By spreading Himself within us, He saturates every part of our being with Himself. First, He thoroughly mingles Himself with our spirit, then with our soul, and finally with our body. He comes into our spirit to begin the mingling by regenerating our spirit. Regeneration is the mingling of God Himself with our spirit. After our regeneration, if we cooperate with Him, offering ourselves to Him and giving Him the opportunity, He will spread Himself from our spirit into our soul to renew all the parts of our soul. This is His transforming work (Rom. 12:2; 2 Cor. 3:18). Through transformation the very essence of the Triune God is mingled with our soul, our very self. When our soul is transformed into the image of the Lord, our thoughts, our desires, and our decisions will always express the Lord.
God’s first step, therefore, is to regenerate our spirit; His second step is to transform our soul; and finally, His last step is to transfigure, or change, our body at the second coming of the Lord (Phil. 3:21; 1 Cor. 15:51-53). The Lord will then permeate our body, and His glory will saturate our whole being. This transfiguration is the ultimate consummation of His mingling with our being to the uttermost. At that time God’s economy of dispensing Himself into us will be fully accomplished. We need to remember these three steps by which God mingles Himself with us in every way. The following hymn expresses the final consummation.
Christ is the hope of glory, my very life is He,
He has regenerated and saturated me;
He comes to change my body by His subduing might
Like to His glorious body in glory bright!
He comes, He comes, Christ comes to glorify me!
My body He’ll transfigure, like His own it then will be.
He comes, He comes, redemption to apply!
As Hope of glory He will come, His saints to glorify.
Christ is the hope of glory, He is God’s mystery;
He shares with me God’s fulness and brings God into me.
He comes to make me blended with God in every way,
That I may share His glory with Him for aye.
Christ is the hope of glory, redemption full is He:
Redemption to my body, from death to set it free,
He comes to make my body a glorious one to be
And swallow death forever in victory.
Christ is the hope of glory, He is my history:
His life is my experience, for He is one with me;
He comes to bring me into His glorious liberty,
That one with Him completely I’ll ever be.
Hymns, #949
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