THE IMPARTING OF LIFE
As the Spirit sanctifies us from within, He imparts God’s life into us. To impart God’s life into our being means to give us life. When we were saved and regenerated, we received God’s life into us. However, this does not mean that we received God’s life in a total sense. Although we have received God’s life into us, we still need more impartation of God’s life into us each day. This does not take place once for all; rather, it is a gradual process that goes on during our entire life. No matter how experienced we may be in the spiritual life, this process of life imparting must still go on within us. As the Spirit carries out His sanctifying work, He imparts more of God’s life into us. I can testify that I have more of God’s life today than I did a year ago, and much more than twenty-five years ago. In April, 1925, I received God’s life. Although I was very excited when I first received the divine life, I actually had only a little of it. But day by day throughout the years, more of God’s life has been imparted into me. Every month and every year I have gained more of this life.
This imparting of life always accompanies the sanctifying work of the Spirit. Without His work of sanctification, He could not impart God’s life into us. Life imparting is always included within God’s sanctifying work. The extent to which the impartation of life will proceed depends on the degree He is able to sanctify us. The impartation of life is always the issue of sanctification. Thus, life imparting and sanctifying work together. As the Spirit sanctifies us, He gives us life. This also is like teafication. When the tea bag teafies the water, the tea essence goes wherever the teafication takes place. Within the teafication is the essence of the tea. It is the same with the sanctifying and life-imparting work of the Spirit. In the sanctification of the Spirit of holiness there is the very impartation of God’s life. We do not arrive at this understanding through mental figuration. It is absolutely according to our experience. If you have not been regenerated and if you have not had this experience, you will simply be unable to understand what I am talking about. But according to our experience, we know that in this sanctification is the life impartation.
TRANSFORMATION, A METABOLIC CHANGE
When life is imparted into us, the result is transformation. It is similar to a chemical reaction caused by one element being added to another. The divine life brought into us through sanctification is a divine chemical element. When this element is imparted into our being, there is a reaction, and that reaction is transformation. Transformation means to change our nature, essence, appearance, tastes, and our whole being. Transformation is not outward change, correction, or adjustment; it is altogether an inward, metabolic change of our being. In the process of metabolism, a new essence is added to replace an old, to carry away the old, and to produce a new situation. This metabolism is the very transformation revealed in the New Testament (Rom. 12:2; 2 Cor. 3:18). Transformation is a divine metabolism wherein a new element is added to the old to discharge the old and to create a new situation. If our eyes are opened to see this, we shall drop all the teachings derived from the past regarding correcting ourselves and improving our behavior. Such outward changes are not metabolic changes. They are not the result of something new being added into our being to discharge the old and to create a new situation.
(The Spirit and the Body, Chapter 7, by Witness Lee)
