For years I was familiar with the story of the Lord’s transfiguration without realizing that this transfiguration should be something experiential and practical to us in our daily living. We all have the Lord Jesus within us, but He has not yet been transfigured in us. Hence, we need Him to grow in us until by transfiguration He blossoms into the expression of the kingdom of God in our experience.
In 1:15 the Lord Jesus said, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has drawn near.” Then in the parable of the seed the Lord said, “So is the kingdom of God, as if a man should cast seed on the earth” (4:26). Later, in 9:1, the Lord told His disciples that some standing there would not taste death until they saw the kingdom of God come in power. Immediately after speaking this word concerning the kingdom, the Lord Jesus was transfigured on the mountaintop before Peter, James, and John. His transfiguration was the coming of the kingdom of God in power. This is a strong indication that the kingdom of God is actually the transfiguration of the Lord Jesus.
In chapter four of Mark we have the seed of the kingdom. Now in chapter nine this seed is transfigured, and this transfiguration of the seed is the coming of the kingdom of God.
Do you know why among many genuine Christians there is the lack of the kingdom of God today? The reason is that among these Christians there is the lack of the transfiguration of Christ. The Christ who lives in so many believers is still a seed; He has not yet been transfigured. This may also be our situation. Yes, we have the Lord Jesus living within us, but we may not have given Him the opportunity to be transfigured in us. Therefore, with us there may be only the seed of the kingdom, but not the appearing of the kingdom.
On the day of the Lord’s transfiguration on the mountaintop there was the coming, the appearing, of the kingdom. From this we see that in order to have the appearing of the kingdom from within us, we need to experience the Lord’s being transfigured within us.
Mark 9:1-3 proves that the kingdom of God is not a material realm. We have emphasized the fact that the kingdom of God is the transfiguration of the Person of the Lord Jesus. Today such a transfiguration produces the church life, which is the kingdom of God.
This understanding of the church as the kingdom corresponds to Paul’s word in Romans 14:17: “The kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.” According to the context, the kingdom of God in this verse refers to the church life.
We all need to see that God’s eternal plan, which is His New Testament economy, is to dispense Himself as the Triune God into His chosen people. In order to accomplish His plan, He was incarnated, becoming a man named Jesus. When this man came out to preach, He began to sow Himself into God’s chosen people. However, as the soil for the Lord’s sowing, His chosen people had become fallen, damaged, and corrupt. Therefore, the Lord Jesus brought this soil to the cross and crucified it. Then He brought God’s chosen people as the soil with Him into His resurrection. Through His death and resurrection, the Lord not only healed the soil, but also became the replacement for God’s people. By replacing them with Himself, He made them His reproduction; that is, He made them the same as He.
When the Lord Jesus was on earth, He lived a life of God for the kingdom of God. He did not live a life of culture, religion, or ethics. Now His followers should live the same kind of life. This means that His followers should live a life of God for the development of God’s kingdom.
It is crucial for us to see that as God’s people, as those who have been replaced by Christ and with Christ, we need to live a life that is absolutely of God. We should not live a life that is of something other than the Triune God.
Day by day we need to put this vision into practice. This means that instead of living a life of culture, religion, ethics, morality, philosophy, improvement of character, and of trying to be spiritual, scriptural, holy, and victorious, we need to live a life that is absolutely of God and for the kingdom of God.
For example, a married brother should not try in himself to love his wife. Neither should he endeavor to be a pattern to others of what a good husband should be. To have this thought is to miss the mark of God’s New Testament economy. Furthermore, it is to miss the vision of God’s economy.
According to the vision of God’s economy presented in the New Testament, as God’s chosen people, those who have been replaced by and with Christ, we should live only a life of God. This means that if a married brother has the thought of trying to be a good husband, he should drop that thought and simply live a life of God. Such a brother needs to realize that he has been chosen by God and replaced by Christ, not that he should try in himself to be a good husband, but that he should live a life of God. He has not been destined to live a life of loving his wife; rather, he has been destined to live a life of God. Therefore, he should not live a life of culture, religion, or ethics. Instead of seeing these things, he should see Jesus only. Eventually, he will live in a way that is much higher than culture, religion, ethics, or morality. He will have a love for his wife that is much higher than his natural human love.
We should not be occupied even with good things such as ethics and improvement of character or be frustrated by these things. Instead, we should be occupied, thoroughly filled, with the Triune God. The One who lived a life fully according to and for God’s New Testament economy, the One who has replaced us with Himself, is now the Spirit living through us. We should not allow anything other than this One to fill us and occupy us.
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