VI. IN THE SUBJECTIVE SANCTIFICATION
OF THE SAINTS
The accomplishment of God’s full redemption and salvation in Christ progresses in the subjective sanctification of the saints (Rom. 6:19, 22). After our regeneration, we need to be sanctified subjectively. Subjective sanctification is the dispensing of the holy nature of God into the saints, separating the saints unto God by the saturation of God’s holy nature into the saints’ being (2 Pet. 1:4; 1 Thes. 5:23).
When we were regenerated, a great change occurred in our life. However, at that time we were still common and worldly, both within and without. The applying of the blood of Christ to separate us from the world (Heb. 13:12) is an outward, positional matter, not a dispositional matter. We still need a dispositional sanctification by the inner life, by the indwelling Spirit, by the very God who is within our spirit. Every day the divine life as the Holy Spirit, who is God Himself, is operating, moving, working, saturating, and anointing us little by little. Today we may be much holier than we were when we were regenerated. After we were regenerated, we might have enjoyed certain worldly entertainments, but today we would not do those things. When we do those things, we do not feel right in our spirit. Because we are being sanctified subjectively, we prefer to meet with the saints to enjoy and praise the Lord.
We need sanctification to follow our regeneration. Regeneration is a beginning, a renewing, but sanctification is a continuation, a constant renewing day by day. By such a sanctification we will not be fashioned according to this age but will be transformed by the renewing of our mind (Rom. 12:2).
Both regeneration and sanctification are a dispensing of God into us. God’s intention is to work Himself into our being. He does this little by little, saturating us vertically and permeating us horizontally in every part of our being until our body is redeemed (Rom. 8:23). The redemption of our body is the transfiguration of our body (Phil. 3:21). This is to have our entire being saturated and permeated with the glorious element of the divine God. When we are saturated to this degree, we will be glorified. All this is the dispensing of the Divine Trinity, from regeneration to glorification. This is the accomplishment and experience of God’s full redemption and salvation in Christ.
(The Central Line of the Divine Revelation, Chapter 22, by Witness Lee)
