Chapter 19
To conclude this book, it is important to turn again to the matter of reconciliation. We can never stress too much the fact that reconciliation is of crucial importance in the Christian life. If we are not constantly being reconciled to God we will not please Him at all and we will not mature. We need to verify our how our relationship with God is moment by moment and whether or not we are being reconciled to Him. If not, we need to turn to Him quickly and resume our organic relationship with the One whom our soul loves. We need to ask God to take away every veil from us so that we may have a clear vision of His eternal purpose and His desire toward us.
The Epistle to the Romans presents a very clear teaching of the complete Christian experience. In this book we see that God’s complete salvation transforms a sinner, who is without hope and whose destiny is perdition in the lake of fire, into a son of God. We were rescued by the Lord through His judicial redemption whereby He cleansed us and qualified us to receive His life. This is similar to a dirty cup: it firstly needs to be cleaned so that it can be put under the tap and be filled. Before we received salvation we were filled with unrighteousness and sin. Then we were emptied and cleansed so that God could fill us with Himself.
Receiving the life of God is the first step of our organic salvation. We call this step regeneration. This is the greatest event of all time and all places. It is the greatest miracle in the universe. Regeneration is the very God Himself being “born” in us and the divine life being implanted in us as a seed (cf. Pet. 1:23). In John 3 the Lord Jesus said that unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. Water in this passage, as well as the water that came out with the blood from the Lord’s side in John 19:34, typifies the divine life.
The blood is for our judicial redemption. We did not do anything to obtain this redemption; the Lord Jesus did everything. Through this He reconciled us to God while we were still enemies. However, in addition to the blood, water also came out of His side. This water typifies the divine life. When we believed in the Lord for the first time, when we called on His name, opening our being to Him, receiving Him as our Lord and Savior, He came into us and was born in us.
At that moment, no doubt, Christ was in us as a babe. His life in us was very small and without much expression. Hence, it needed to grow. Spiritually, we cannot be the same today as we were the day we believed. We have to grow in life. Just as we need to feed a baby for it to grow, we need to feed the divine life in us so that it will mature. The best spiritual food is the word of God. For this, we must long for the word as a newborn babe longs for milk (1 Pet. 2:2). We need to be serious with God and ask ourselves, “How is our spiritual growth?” On one hand, we can say and even realize that what we need most is Christ, His word, and for His life to grow in us. However, we must be serious and ask ourselves, “Is this really what we are seeking for the most?”
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