WEEK 1— DAY3

Morning Nourishment

Eph. 1:4-5 Even as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world to be holy and without blemish before Him in love, predestinating us unto sonship through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will.

Lev. 11:44 For I am Jehovah your God. Sanctify yourselves therefore, and be holy, for I am holy...

  The first item of the spiritual blessings is the Father's choosing. We may think that God's choosing is one thing, and God's predestinating is another thing, but this is wrong. We need to look at the grammar of Ephesians 1:4-5....These verses do not say He chose us and predestinated us. Instead they say that He chose us, predestinating us. Predestinating in verse 5 modifies the predicate chose in verse 4, so these are not two things. These are one thing. God chose us. How did He choose us? God chose us by predestinating us, by marking us out. To predestinate is to mark out. God chose us to be holy for the sonship. The choosing of God's people for them to be holy is for the purpose of their being made sons of God, participating in the divine sonship. (The Issue of the Dispensing of the Processed Trinity and the Transmitting of the Transcending Christ, pp. 12-13)

Today's Reading

  God chose us that we should be holy. The words "holy" and "holiness" have
been spoiled by today's Christian teachings.... In the Bible the word "holy" should not be understood according to our natural concept. Many think that holiness is sinlessness. According to this concept, someone is holy if he does not sin. This thought is absolutely mistaken. Holiness is neither sinlessness nor perfection. Holy not only means sanctified, separated unto God, but also different, distinct, from everything that is common. Only God is different, distinct, from all things. Hence, He is holy; holiness is His nature.

  The way God makes us holy is to impart Himself, the Holy One, into us so that our whole being may be permeated and saturated with His holy nature.For us, God's chosen ones, to be holy is to partake of His divine nature (2 Pet. 1:4) and to have our whole being permeated with God Himself. This is different from mere sinless perfection or sinless purity. This makes our being holy, like God Himself in His nature and in His character.

  We should not be common but different. In the universe God alone is holy. He is different from everything else and is distinct. Therefore, to be holy means to be one with God....To be holy we need to be one with God because only God is holy (Lev. 11:44; 1 Sam. 2:2). (Life-study of Ephesians,pp. 24-25)

  God is working Himself into us and mingling Himself with us so that we may be holy, absolutely sanctified by Him, in Him, and with Him. Every bit of our human nature will be mingled with the divine nature. In the Old Testament type, every part of the boards of the tabernacle was overlaid with gold. In the fulfillment of the type, God mingles Himself with the church so that we may be brought into full sonship.

  According to the teaching of the New Testament, sonship first means that we are born of God to have God as our life and nature. Second, it means that we grow up with God and in God, and third, it means that we are absolutely mingled with God; every part of our being will be permeated, saturated,overlaid, and absolutely mingled with God. Fourth, we are qualified to inherit all that God is, all that God has, and all that God has purposed. Fifth, we eventually are absolutely sanctified, holy, and divine. This is the proper meaning of sonship. Sonship implies a birthright, qualifying us to enjoy God by being mingled with Him. By being mingled with Him we are absolutely, thoroughly sanctified by Him, with Him, and in Him; within and without we are made holy and divine. God's purpose is to have the church sanctified to such an extent. This is the first item of God's purpose concerning the church.(CWWL, 1965, vol. 1, "The Vision, Practice, and Building Up of the Church as the Body of Christ," pp. 52-53)

Further Reading: Life-study of Ephesians, msgs. 3-4