V. LONGING TO BE BAPTIZED WITH THE BAPTISM OF HIS DEATH FOR THE RELEASE OF THE GLORY OF HIS DIVINITY
While the glory of His divinity was concealed by the shell of His flesh or humanity, the Lord Jesus was pressed and constrained, longing to be baptized with the baptism of His death for the release of the glory of His divinity. In Luke 12:50 the Lord said, "I have a baptism to be baptized with, and how I am pressed until it is accomplished!" The Greek word translated pressed can also be rendered "constrained." The Lord was constrained in His flesh, which He had put upon Himself in His incarnation. He needed to undergo physical death, to be baptized, that His unlimited and infinite divine being with His divine life might be released from His flesh. The Lord Jesus therefore desired to be released from the constraint of the shell of His flesh. He refers to this release in John 12:24: "Truly, truly, I say to you, Unless the grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it abides alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit." If the Lord Jesus as a grain of wheat had not died, He would have remained the same. But He fell into the ground and died, and that death released Him from His human shell. His incarnation caused His divine glory to be concealed in His flesh, but through His death His glory was released for the producing in His resurrection of the many grains, which become His increase as the expression of His glory.
VI. THE RELEASE OF THE GLORY OF HIS DIVINITY BEING TO CAST FIRE ON THE EARTH
The release of the glory of Christ’s divinity was to cast fire on the earth. In Luke 12:49 He said, "I have come to cast fire on the earth, and how I wish that it were already kindled!" This fire is the impulse of the spiritual life, an impulse that comes from the Lord’s released divine life. To cast fire on the earth is to burn the people of the earth. When Christ was baptized with the baptism of His death on the cross, the glory of His divinity was released. From the time of His resurrection a fire has been burning on earth. This fire started from Jerusalem, and then it spread through Judea and Samaria to the uttermost part of the earth. Today this fire is burning all over the earth—in America, in Russia, in Romania, in Poland, in Brazil, in Africa, in Australia, in New Zealand.
In the book of Revelation we see that Christ is the Lion-Lamb; He is the Lion to defeat Satan and He is the Lamb to redeem us (5:5-6). Revelation 5:6 says, "I saw in the midst of the throne and of the four living creatures and in the midst of the elders a Lamb standing as having just been slain, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven Spirits of God sent forth into all the earth." These seven eyes, the seven Spirits, are "like a flame of fire" (1:14; 2:18). Elsewhere we are told that the seven Spirits of God are "seven lamps of fire burning before the throne" (4:5). Christ today is a burning fire. We all have been burned by this fire; we have been brought together by this fire; and now we are burdened that this fire would burn many others. When the concealed glory of Christ’s divinity was released, a divine fire was cast on earth to burn the whole earth. Let the fire burn on! No one can stop it.
At the beginning of this message, we pointed out that in His resurrection Christ was born with His humanity to be the firstborn Son of God for His divine transformation. The words His divine transformation actually refer to our experience of transformation. Christ becoming the Lord Spirit is for our transformation (2 Cor. 3:18). He first became the life-giving Spirit to dispense the divine life and nature into our spirit. Then He became the Lord Spirit to transform our soul (including our mind, emotion, and will). This is proved by Romans 12:2a, which says, "Be transformed by the renewing of the mind." The Lord has dispensed Himself into our spirit, and now He is transforming our soul. Today we are in the process of being transformed in our soul. Eventually, at the time of His coming back, He will transform our body to be conformed to His body of glory (Phil. 3:21).
(The Issue of Christ Being Glorified by the Father with the Divine Glory, Chapter 1, by Witness Lee)
