VII. TRANSFORMING THE BELIEVERS
The Spirit also functions to transform the believers (2 Cor. 3:18). We need to be transformed from one form to another form. A mere outward change is not transformation. Transformation is a metabolic change within by the addition of a new element. Confucius taught renewing too, but his kind of renewing was outward without any new element added. Morticians use cosmetics to make the faces of corpses look colorful outwardly, but this is not transformation. When we are nourished with organic food, this nourishing carries out a kind of metabolic transformation within us to give us a healthy appearance. Transformation is a metabolic change.
I hope that all of us would change in a metabolic way. We should be beautiful metabolically in an organic transformation. The word transformed is used only two times in the New Testament—in 2 Corinthians 3:18 and in Romans 12:2. Second Corinthians 3:18 says that we are being transformed from glory to glory, even as from the Lord Spirit. The Spirit with the Lord as the element changes our being metabolically to accomplish transformation in us. Romans 12:2 charges us not to be fashioned according to this age but to be transformed by the renewing of the mind. I would encourage us to study these wonderful verses with the help of the notes in the Recovery Version. If you read 2 Corinthians 3:18 plus Romans 12:2 with all the notes, you will receive much help. We all need to experience the transforming Spirit.
VIII. SEALING THE BELIEVERS
Ephesians 1:13 shows us that the Spirit functions to seal the believers. The seal needs the sealing ink. When a piece of paper is sealed, the sealing ink saturates the paper. Then the sealed paper bears the appearance, the image, of the seal. Furthermore, the sealing transfuses the element of the ink into the paper. Then the sealing ink and the paper are mingled together as one.
The sealing of the Spirit is a fine point of the function of the all-inclusive Spirit. The Holy Spirit today is on us as a seal and is continually sealing us. We are like the paper absorbing the sealing element of the Holy Spirit as the seal into us. Because we have been sealed, we bear a mark indicating that we belong to our God, that we are God’s inheritance. When we put our seal upon a book, that seal indicates that the book is ours. God put His Spirit as His seal upon us, indicating that we are His possession.
IX. PLEDGING IN THE BELIEVERS
The Spirit also functions as a pledge within the believers (Eph. 1:14; 2 Cor. 1:22b). A pledge is a guarantee. The Spirit as the pledge within us guarantees that God is our inheritance. The sealing indicates that we are God’s inheritance, and the pledging guarantees that God is our inheritance. This is clearly revealed in Ephesians 1:13-14. The crucial word in verse 13 is sealed, and the crucial word in verse 14 is pledge.
(The Christian Life, Chapter 4, by Witness Lee)
