We have seen that for the reproduction of the God-man we need to be reborn of the pneumatic Christ in our spirit with His divine life and nature. In this message we shall go on to see that for this reproduction we also need to be transformed by the pneumatic Christ in our soul and then live Christ as the God-man.
After we have been born again, born of the Spirit in our spirit, we need to be transformed. We need to be transformed by the pneumatic Christ in our soul with His divine attributes to uplift, strengthen, enrich, and fill our human virtues for His expression in our humanity. Concerning this, Paul says in 2 Corinthians 3:17 and 18, “The Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And we all with unveiled face, beholding and reflecting as a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, even as from the Lord Spirit.” Both “the Spirit” in verse 17 and “the Lord Spirit” in verse 18 refer to the pneumatic Christ. As we behold and reflect Him, we are being transformed into His image. Furthermore, the Lord Spirit is actually the Spirit in John 3:6. The Spirit in John 3:6 is for regeneration, and the Lord the Spirit in 2 Corinthians 3:18 is for transformation. To be regenerated, reborn, is a once-for-all matter, but to be transformed is a life-long matter. Hence, Paul says that we are “being transformed.” The word “being” indicates a process. We are undergoing the process of being transformed.
It is rather easy to understand the meaning of regeneration, but it is not easy to understand the meaning of transformation. In 2 Corinthians 3:18 the King James Version even uses the word “changed” instead of “transformed.” The use of “changed” in this verse is not adequate. Although transformation is a change, it involves more than a mere outward change. Transformation involves a metabolic change, an inward change in life. Such a metabolic change requires the working within us of the element of the divine life. This produces a change not only in appearance and behavior, but also a change in life, nature, and intrinsic essence.
We should not think that the Lord saves us merely in an objective way. We should not expect that the more we pray, the more the Lord will save us from the heavens objectively. On the contrary, the more we call on the name of the Lord, the more He moves within us to cause a metabolic change that affects our intrinsic being. This means that the Lord’s salvation is a metabolic salvation, not merely a salvation of outward activity. It is easy to do something outward, but to save us metabolically takes time. What is revealed concerning divine salvation in the New Testament is not merely a salvation of action; it is primarily a salvation of metabolism. From experience we know that this metabolic salvation is slow, gradual, and steady.
We are reborn in our spirit, but we are transformed in our soul. Regeneration is with the divine life and nature, but transformation is with the divine attributes to uplift, strengthen, enrich, and fill our human virtues for the Lord’s expression in our humanity.
Regeneration and transformation are two steps in the process to reproduce the God-man. The Man-Savior as the God-man is the unique prototype. God intends to reproduce, or mass produce, this prototype through regeneration and transformation. This reproduction takes place by the regeneration of the pneumatic Christ in our spirit and through the transformation by this same pneumatic Christ in our soul. Through these steps we become the reproduction of the God-man. This reproduction is the mass production of the unique prototype. Praise the Lord that we have been regenerated once for all and that we are now in the process of being transformed!
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