Dear brothers and sisters, I always feel it is very difficult to speak at the Lord’s table.
Thank God that He has crowned this conference with the Lord’s table. I recall that, on the day our Lord Jesus was raised from the dead, two of His disciples were so disappointed at the death of the Lord Jesus that they left Jerusalem and went toward Emmaus.
While they were walking toward Emmaus, the Lord appeared to them in another form, and they did not recognize that it was the risen Lord. You remember how our Lord explained to them, according to the Scriptures, how Christ must first suffer and then enter into His glory.
As they continued on their way, the Lord was speaking to them. Their hearts were warmed, yet they still did not recognize that it was the Lord.
When they came to Emmaus and began to have supper, the Lord Jesus took the bread, blessed it, and gave it to them. Immediately their eyes were opened, and they realized that it was the Lord.
Then, in that strength, they returned immediately to Jerusalem to testify that the Lord had risen.
We have been meeting together for a few days, and it is as if our Lord has spoken to us through His humble servants. I believe, brothers and sisters, that our hearts have been warmed. But it was not until the breaking of bread that they saw the Lord.
When they saw the Lord, they were strengthened inwardly. By that strength, they returned immediately to Jerusalem and testified that the Lord is living.
Dear brothers and sisters, I hope that during these past few days, after you have heard the word of the Lord, your hearts have been warmed. But that is not enough. It takes the breaking of bread to open our eyes and enable us to see that it is the Lord.
The Lord alone will give us strength to return to our different places and testify that the Lord is living. That is why I feel it is very difficult to speak after the breaking of bread. Once we see the glory of the Lord, there is nothing more that needs to be said. He gives us the strength to continue on, bearing witness to Him, until we see Him face to face.
Please turn to Romans 8. We will begin with Romans 8:28-30.
And we know that to them that love God all things work together for good, even to them that are called according to His purpose.
For whom He foreknew, He also foreordained to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren:
And whom He foreordained, them He also called: and whom He called, them He also justified: and whom He justified, them He also glorified.
Let us also read Colossians 1:26-27.
Even the mystery which hath been hid from all ages and generations: but now hath it been manifested to His saints,
To whom God was pleased to make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.
Finally, let us read 2 Corinthians 3:17-18.
Now the Lord is the Spirit: and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.
But we all, with unveiled face beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are transformed into the same image from glory to glory, even as from the Lord the Spirit.
Dear Lord, as we gather together in Thy presence, our hearts are full of gratitude. We wonder why Thou shouldst love us so much. We can never understand Thy great love.
We praise and thank Thee for inviting us to Thy table. O Lord, Thou art enough. Thou art more than enough. We praise and thank Thee that Thou dost belong to us, and that we belong to Thee.
We pray that at this concluding time Thou wilt continue to speak to us and open our inner eyes, that we may see Thy glory—the glory of the only begotten Son of the Father. We worship Thee in the name of our Lord Jesus. Amen.
If you love the Lord, of course you will understand God’s purpose, and you will appreciate His purpose. What is His purpose? It is that eternal purpose which He purposed in His beloved Son.
Even before the foundation of the world, He chose us in His beloved Son. He knew us even before time and space, and He predestined us to be conformed to the image of His own Son.
Oftentimes, when we hear the word predestination, we are horrified by it. We think that whether we will go to heaven or hell was predetermined, and that we are totally helpless.
But, dear brothers and sisters, this is not predestination. Predestination is something far, far more glorious than that. We may be satisfied simply to be in heaven, but God is not satisfied.
According to God’s eternal purpose, there is something far more glorious than merely going to heaven. He has predestined us to be conformed to the image of His beloved Son, that the only begotten Son might be the firstborn among many brethren.
Dear brothers and sisters, can you imagine? This is what God has purposed for you and me. According to His foreknowledge, He has predestined us. That is what we shall be; that is what we must be, because this is God’s glorious pleasure and will.
Whom He has foreknown, He has called to this purpose. Because He has called us, He is faithful. If He calls, then He will perform. As 1 Thessalonians 5 teaches us, it is God who calls us, and because He is faithful, He will perform it.
When we think of being conformed to the image of Christ, it is a glorious thought, but it makes us tremble. As we look at ourselves, it seems impossible. How can sinners such as we are, the chief of sinners, arrive at conformity to the image of God’s beloved Son?
He is so high, and we are so low. No matter how we stretch ourselves, there is no possibility in ourselves. Many of God’s people, when they think of God’s purpose, are in despair.
But thank God. Romans 8 says that whom He called, He also justified. We do not justify ourselves. It is impossible for us to make ourselves justified in the presence of a righteous God. It is beyond us.
But it is He who calls us and justifies us. Not only that, He has sanctified us; He has set us apart for Himself. It is He Himself who glorifies us. To be glorified simply means to be conformed to the image of God’s Son.
This is not something we try to achieve. If we depend on our own achievement and try to imitate Christ, the more we try, the less hopeful we become. It is all by grace.
We lack one basic factor: life—divine life, uncreated life, the life of God, the life of Christ. Without that life, conformity to the image of Christ is impossible.
There is only one Christ. He is the exact image of the invisible God. Unless His life is given to us, there is no possibility of our being made like that image.
Thank God, this is where the gospel comes in. We need to realize the riches of the glory of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Our Lord Jesus came into this world not only to declare the invisible God by His words, deeds, and life on earth. He declared to us what God is. He is the perfect representation and manifestation of God. He could say, “He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father.” He makes the invisible God visible.
If the Lord Jesus had departed from this world on the Mount of Transfiguration, He would have had every right to do so. You remember how His face shone like the sun, and even His garments were white as light. Moses and Elijah appeared, and they spoke together concerning His departure.
The Word became flesh. God came into this world and took the form of a man. By living through thirty-three years, He fully represented and manifested God the Father. He declared the Father to us and showed what God is like. He lived a perfect life.
Yet He did not depart from the Mount of Transfiguration. Thank God, He came down to Calvary.
Why was this necessary? He had shown us the image of God, but it was only a declaration and demonstration of that image. If that were all, instead of justifying us, He would condemn us.
Before, our standard was low because we knew very little of God. But now we see a perfect model, and before that standard we are more condemned than ever. Merely showing us the image is not enough. He had to go to the cross.
He went to the cross in order that He might provide for us the way to be conformed to that image.
This is why Colossians 1:27 speaks of the mystery of the gospel and the riches of its glory:
Christ in you, the hope of glory.
If Christ is not in us, there is no hope of glory—no hope of being conformed to that image. But because of the cross, through His death and resurrection, His life is released and given to those who believe in Him.
Thank God, we have Christ in us: Christ in you, the hope of glory. This is where glorification begins. It is not an outward imitation; it is an inward transformation. It is all because His life is in us.
As this life begins to grow, we are conformed to His image, and He becomes the firstborn among many brethren. Dear brothers and sisters, do you have the life of Christ in you?
If you believe in Jesus as the Christ, the Son of the living God, then something wonderful happens: Christ comes into you and becomes your life.
Every kind of life has its own nature. A bird has the nature of a bird, and a fish has the life of a fish; its nature is to swim. What is the nature of the life of Christ? If you follow that nature, you will find that you are being conformed to His own image.
If all those who belong to the Lord Jesus, from the very beginning of their salvation, lived moment by moment according to the nature of that life, how quickly they would be conformed to the image of God’s beloved Son.
But unfortunately, we find that our old Adamic life is still there. That Adamic life has its own nature. It is self-centered; it is not God-centered. This is where the matter of transformation comes in.
What is transformation? Transformation is metamorphosis.
You may see an ugly worm crawling on the ground. We are afraid of such a creature. But one day it enters into a kind of coma, and after a certain period of time, suddenly there is a butterfly. Everybody loves a butterfly.
The nature of that worm is earthly. It crawls upon the ground, and it is ugly. But when you see a butterfly, you find that it is heavenly. It flies; it is beautiful. This is transformation.
Within us there is that ugly worm-life, and we crawl upon this earth. Our eyes are always downward, not upward. We are not able to raise ourselves and live ourselves into heaven.
We are all ugly, especially in the sight of God. Yet God loves us. He sends us into a kind of coma; that is to say, our self-life has to go into death so that the life of Christ in us, like the butterfly, may truly rise up to heaven.
The word form in Philippians 2 refers to inward character. Our Lord Jesus, subsisting in the form of God, has God as His very substance. The word does not refer to outward appearance.
Likewise, transformation refers to an inward quality. It is something going on within. We are gradually delivered from the old nature and character; we put off the old man and put on the new man. In this way, we begin to be conformed to the image of Christ.
After we believe in the Lord Jesus, the work of transformation begins. What is of the old is dying out, and what is of the new is gradually increasing.
But, dear brothers and sisters, this matter of transformation is the work of the Holy Spirit. We are not able to transform ourselves. It is God’s work.
2 Corinthians 3 teaches that we all, looking on the glory of the Lord with unveiled face, are transformed according to the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Lord the Spirit.
Transformation is the work of the Holy Spirit. He is able to show us Christ. He arranges our circumstances, disciplines us, and brings us out of self into Christ.
He puts to death that which belongs to the flesh, and He continues revealing Christ to us. From glory to glory means the increase of Christ in us. This is the ministry of the Holy Spirit.
He is within us as our Teacher. In everything, small and great, He teaches us. If we obey the teaching of the anointing, we abide in Christ.
He arranges whom we meet and what happens to us every day. By these arrangements He disciplines and retrains us, in order that we may be transformed from glory to glory.
Even so, there is something that we must do. If we do not do it, the Holy Spirit will not work. We all must look on the glory of the Lord with unveiled face.
In other words, for the Holy Spirit to transform us, every one of us who has the life of Christ must look on the glory of God with unveiled face. This is something we must do.
Put simply, this is what consecration means. After we have received all the mercies of God, what should we do? How can what we have seen and heard become real in us?
We need to present our bodies as a living sacrifice. Romans 12:1 says:
I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service.
For the Holy Spirit to do the work of transformation in our lives, we need to offer ourselves totally to Him.
What is a sacrifice? A sacrifice is something that gets out of your right and belongs to another. This lamb belongs to me; I own it and have every right over it. But, constrained by the love of God, I take that lamb and put it on the altar. It is sacrificed to God.
In other words, what was mine no longer belongs to me. I cannot decide its future; it is up to God. It is killed for God. That is consecration.
We who are constrained by the love of Christ should present ourselves to Him. I believe that everyone who believes in the Lord Jesus, when saved, has a first love. You want to serve Him, love Him, and express something to Him.
All He requires is that you present your bodies as a living sacrifice. You give up your right. You surrender your life to God. From now on, God has every right to do whatever He wants in you.
God respects our will. He created us with a will, and He respects that will. Unless we are willing, He will not force us. He can persuade us; He can even beg us. But He will not force us.
He waits for us to give our will to Him and say, “Now I am willing to do whatever You want to do.”
If you give your right to God, you will find that you are looking on the glory of the Lord with unveiled face. Whenever your heart turns to the Lord, the veil is taken from your face.
Brothers and sisters, consecration is not once for all. It has a beginning, but it is a way throughout our Christian life. We need to present ourselves again and again to God. Consecration should deepen as we go on.
The Holy Spirit reveals to us the areas in which we have not truly consecrated ourselves—where we are still holding on to self. As He reveals, we begin to deepen our consecration.
This is why the burnt offering had to be offered morning and evening. The fire of the burnt offering was never to go out. This is the way to maintain us in first love.
Under first love, the Holy Spirit has liberty to do what God wants to do. On the one hand, He shows us the glory of the Lord.
When we see the glory of the Lord, all the beauty we considered beautiful in the past becomes corrupted. We are willing to deny ourselves, take up the cross, and follow Him. We look away from everything and look unto Jesus.
As we look on the glory of the Lord with unveiled face, we are transformed from glory to glory, even as by the Lord the Spirit.
The reason the work of transformation slows down, and sometimes even seems to stop, is that our heart has been enticed away from Christ. We have lost our first love. We begin to see ourselves instead of seeing Christ.
What you look at, you become. If you look at the earth, you become earthly. If you look at heaven, you become heavenly.
The final result is conformity to the image of God’s Son. When we are conformed to the image of God’s Son, then we are truly the brethren of our Lord Jesus.
What is the inward motivating power in this matter of transformation and conformity to the image of God’s Son? On our side, it is also a matter of love. The love of Christ constrains us; therefore, we give ourselves to Him. This is loving Him in return.
His love begins to be rooted and grounded in us, and as this happens, transformation takes place. As I meditated before the Lord, I felt that this whole matter of conformity to the image of God’s Son is a matter of love.
There is one book in the Word of God which shows us how love is the power behind transformation unto conformity: the Song of Songs.
The Song of Songs speaks of a virgin and a shepherd-king. It is a love story between the shepherd-king and a humble shepherdess. Between that virgin and the shepherd-king there is such a distance; there is no comparison.
The virgin is a humble shepherdess, but the beloved is the King of kings. Yet when you read the story of the Song of Songs, you come to Song of Songs 6:13:
Return, return, O Shulammite;
Return, return, that we may look upon thee.
In the beginning, this unnamed virgin has no name. But as the story progresses, when you come to chapter 6, she is called Shulammite.
We all know that Shulammite is the feminine form of Solomon. Solomon means peaceful, and now this virgin is Shulammite; she also is peaceful because she has taken upon herself the character of Solomon.
As you read the story, you find that it is a matter of love. At the very beginning, the virgin experiences the kiss of the king upon her neck.
Is this not true when the prodigal son came back? The father kissed his neck. Why? Because he was a stiff-necked son. He had rebelled against his father, and he had suffered because he went his own way.
When he came back, the first thing the father did was kiss his neck. This is what happened to us. We were all stiff-necked people. We wanted to go our own way, and we suffered until we were reduced to poverty.
The prodigal remembered the father’s house, though at first he was more interested in the father’s food than in the father himself. His neck was still stiff, but the father kissed his neck. Thank God this happens to every one of us.
After you have been kissed on your neck, will you be satisfied? No. That kiss stirs up something for more. The virgin begins by saying:
Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth;
For thy love is better than wine.
“I want a closer relationship with Him. I desire Him because He is so beautiful.” Here you find the story of love and how the shepherd-king brings her into the banqueting house. The banner over her is love.
This virgin begins to be more and more attracted by the love of the shepherd-king. In Song of Songs 2:16 she says:
My beloved is mine, and I am his.
The shepherd-king is so full, so rich, so steady, and unchanging. His love is persistent and patient; it never gives up. It is the exact image of the invisible God.
But the love of the virgin is self-centered. “My beloved is mine” comes first. In spite of all the love she has received, she is still self-centered. She has taken upon herself a little more of the shepherd-king’s nature, yet there remains much of her own natural character.
The shepherd-king never gives up. He tries to draw her out. She is satisfied with her past experience and thinks it is wonderful, but enough. Yet the shepherd-king says, “No, it is only the beginning.”
Is that not our story? When we receive a little more of the grace and truth of the Lord Jesus, we think we can hardly hold anything more. We think we have reached the peak, yet the Shepherd-King comes and calls us out.
She hesitates. “I will not go with You, but You come back to me, because I feel so comfortable here.” This is the way the Lord deals with us. Gradually, gradually, there is a change—a transformation—in that virgin.
When you come to Song of Songs 6:3, you find this change:
I am my beloved’s, and my beloved is mine.
It is no longer, “My beloved is mine, and I am his.” There is more of Christ in her than of herself.
Then she thinks she has reached the top; she is the most spiritual person in the world. Yet the Shepherd-King is still calling. There are more lessons to be learned. She has to learn to deny herself, take up the cross, and follow Him.
When you come to Song of Songs 7:10, she says:
I am my beloved’s,
And his desire is toward me.
None of self; all of Christ. Brothers and sisters, this is transformation. Until she becomes so one with the Shepherd-King, she is called Shulammite.
Then the story ends with this cry:
Make haste, my beloved,
And be thou like to a roe or to a young hart
Upon the mountains of spices.
We have seen Him in the Holy Spirit. He has said, “I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.” But that is not enough. We want to see Him face to face.
So, brothers and sisters, this is the last cry of the Shulammite: “Come quickly, come.” May this be the cry of our hearts.
Are we ready? Are we looking forward? Or are we afraid of meeting Him face to face? If today you see Him, will you be ready? We shall welcome Him.
Dear Lord, Thou hast drawn us with Thy love. In spite of our stubbornness, Thou hast never given up.
O Lord, we pray that Thy love will continue to constrain us, that we cannot help but allow the old self-life to be dealt with. O Lord, we welcome Thy work of transformation.
It is the cry of our hearts: more of Christ, less of self. O Lord Christ, none of self; all of Thee.
Make us ready to be Thy bride. In the precious name of our Lord Jesus, we pray. Amen.