WEEK 1 — DAY5

Morning Nourishment

Eph. 1:4 Even as He chose us in Him...to be holy and without blemish before Him in love.

5:27 That He might present the church to Himself glorious, not having spot or wrinkle or any such things, but that she would be holy and without blemish.

Ephesians 1:4 also says that we were chosen in Him to be without blemish.A blemish is like a foreign particle in a precious gem. God's chosen ones should be saturated only with God Himself and have no foreign particles,such as the fallen natural human element, the flesh, the self; or worldly things. This is to be without blemish, to be without any mixture, to have no element other than God's holy nature. After being thoroughly washed by the water in the Word, the church will be sanctified in this way (5:26-27). (Lifestudy of Ephesians, p. 32)

Today's Reading

  Today, we still have a great deal of mixture....But we are gradually being transformed. Therefore, eventually we shall be so holy and so pure that we shall
be without blemish, without any foreign particles, having only the divine element.

  We shall be holy and without blemish before Him. [In Ephesians 1:4] "before Him" means to be holy and without blemish in the eyes of God according to His divine standard. This qualifies us to remain in and enjoy His presence. We shall be holy and without blemish, not according to our standard or in our eyes but according to His standard and in His eyes.

  Finally, we shall be holy and without blemish before Him in love. Love here refers to the love with which God loves His chosen ones and with which His chosen ones love Him. It is in this love, in such a love, that God's chosen ones become holy and without blemish before Him. Firstly, God loved us.Then this divine love inspires us to love Him in return. In such a condition and atmosphere of love, we are saturated with God to be holy and without blemish as He is. In this love, a mutual love, God loves us, and we return this love to Him. It is in this kind of condition that we are being transformed...When this takes place in full, we shall be wholly sanctified, transformed,and conformed to the image of God's Son, Jesus Christ. Then we shall be completely holy. (Life-study of Ephesians, pp. 32-33)

  Sanctification is God's "sonizing." When you are sanctified, you are sonized. This is based upon Ephesians 1:4-5. It is even more strongly based upon Hebrews 2:10-11, which says, "For it was fitting for Him, for whom are all things and through whom are all things, in leading many sons into glory,to make the Author of their salvation perfect through sufferings. For both He who sanctifies and those who are being sanctified are all of One...." Verse 10 speaks of bringing many sons into glory, and verse 11 speaks of the Sanctifier and the ones being sanctified. This shows that sonship is greatly dependent upon sanctification. God brings His many sons into glory by Christ's sanctifying us dispositionally, beginning from our regeneration throughout the full course of our Christian life. Sanctification is still going on because we have not yet entered into glory in full. One day we will be fully in glory. That fullness of entering into glory will be the fullness of God's sanctification. (The Spirit with Our Spirit, pp. 111-112)

  The Father's dispensing in His choosing and predestinating of the believers issues in His sonship through His sanctifying of His chosen people,making them holy as He is in His life and in His nature, to make them like God in the divine life and nature, but without His unique Godhead. This is the divine sanctification unto (for) the divine sonship. This is the center of the divine economy and the central thought of the revelation in the New Testament. Such a divine sanctification is carried out by the sanctifying Spirit (Rom. 15:16). The divine sonship is accomplished by the regenerating Spirit, who is the Spirit of the Son of God (Gal. 4:6). (The Issue of the Dispensing of the Processed Trinity and the Transmitting of the Transcending Christ, p. 18)

Further Reading: Life-study of Ephesians, msg. 3; The Spirit with Our Spirit, ch. 11