God's intention is to have us

Our growing is for the unique purpose of God, that is, the building up of the Body of Christ through transformation (Eph. 4:12b; 1 Pet. 2:2, 5; 1 Cor. 3:12). The first stanza of hymn #395 (Hymns) begins, "O Jesus Christ, grow Thou in me." We all need to pray, "Lord, grow in me." Two additional hymns, #548 and #750, concern the matter of transformation. The young people need to spend their time on their education, and the working ones need to have a job in order to make a living, but the goal is not merely for us to have a proper daily living. The goal of our living is the building up of the Body of Christ. We need to be built up.

In the past we have spoken very much about transformation. We even have a hymn on the subject of transformation (Hymns, #750). However, it is still possible that many do not realize that transformation involves the renewing of the mind. According to Romans 12:2, the renewing of the mind is a basic aspect of transformation. The transformation of our soul depends to a great extent on the renewing of our mind. If our mind is not renewed, our soul will remain unchanged.

Much of what I have spoken and written since 1963 has been concerning the eight sections of God's organic salvation. For example, regarding Christ, Hymns, #501 says, "All things of the Father are Thine; / All Thou art in Spirit is mine; / The Spirit makes Thee real to me, / That Thou experienced might be." All that the Father has is the Son's, and all that the Son possesses is in the Spirit, who brings everything into us so that it becomes real to us for our experience. Hymns, #750 concerns transformation. It is brief, dear, and to the point. We have seen these things in the past but never as completely and wholly as we do now. The Lord has given us a complete picture of what He is doing.

The Lord also promised the faithful ones at Pergamos that He would give them a white stone on which a new name is written (Rev. 2:17). If we do not follow the worldly church but enjoy the Lord in the proper church life, we will be transformed into stones for the building of God. There are millions of Christians today, but it is difficult to see any one of them built up together with others. We are not built up with others because we all have our peculiar traits. This is why there are many separations and divorces among husbands and wives. The husband and wife cannot be built up together because of their peculiar traits.

In like manner, we cannot be built up together in the church life because of our peculiarities. We all have our particular, peculiar traits. This is why we need to be transformed. It would be helpful for us to sing the following hymn (Hymns, #750) on transformation with our heart and with our spirit.

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We need such transformation. Then we will no longer be natural, and we will be able to be built up together. God desires a house, not individual pieces of material. God wants all the individual material to be built together to be His house, to be His Body. Therefore, today our urgent need is to be transformed.

Before we were saved, we were merely physical beings in a physical world, but one day Jesus visited us privately in a spiritual way. We received Him and He regenerated us privately, secretly, and spiritually with God's divine life. From that day we became spiritual, but just partially, in our spirit. The rest of our entire being still remained untransformed in the physical world. Stanza 2 of Hymns, #750 says: 'God hath us regenerated / In our spirit with His life; / But He must transform us further—/ In our soul by His own life.' After regeneration God works to transform our untransformed part, our soul.

Romans 12:2 says that we are to be transformed by the renewing of our mind. The mind is the main part of our soul. The second part is the emotion, and the third is the will. To transform us is to metabolically change our soul. Verse 2 and the chorus of hymn #750 (Hymns) say:

God hath us regenerated
In our spirit with His life;
But He must transform us further—
In our soul by His own life.

Lord, transform us to Thine image
In emotion, mind, and will;
Saturate us with Thy Spirit,
All our being wholly fill.

First, God regenerated us and now He is transforming us by the renewing of our mind, emotion, and will.