Last week we looked at the first two processes of the fivefold way of spiritual growth. First was God’s grace coming to us. Second was purification. The third way is infilling. As he takes the bad stuff out of us he also puts his good stuff inside us. And we are to actively engage in this process: Ephesians 4 teaches us to “to put off your old self” (v. 22, NIV) and “to put on the new self” (v. 24, NIV). As God brings us into communion with himself he wants to pour himself into us and expand his Spirit inside us. Think of yourself as a dry riverbed downstream from a mighty river. God is a big wave of beautiful water coming down the river towards the mouth of your riverbed. You can either open up to his river with surrender in faith or you can dam it up. To the one who opens up their deep self to God “Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water” (John 7:38 ESV). This is why Ephesians 5:18 instructs us to “be filled with the Spirit” (ESV). “Be filled” in the Greek refers to a continuous process not just a one time event. And remember Romans 13:14 which uses a vivid image: “clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ” (NIV).
We may experience some infilling before purification. The new self that God gives us in the beginning is an infilling. The exact order is not that important; it is just important to remember that God is doing all five “ways” and any of the five ways could be happening at any time.
The next process is Christformation. This is a culmination of the previous three ways and reminds us that we are focused on actually living like Christ. God is purifying and filling us so that we think and act like Jesus. We are the New Adams living in the kingdom of God looking forward to the New Earth. This means we are to take risks like Jesus did and intersect with the people around us in ways that lead them into the community of love with God and his followers. Thus, in Christformation we actively infiltrate our world with the love and power of God’s kingdom, the New Creation that God is giving to all who will receive it.
The fifth and last process is union with God. He is transforming us into New Adams so that we can become one with him. We are in the process of becoming one with him now and he will complete this after Jesus returns. The future union is mentioned in Ephesians 5 where we find the wonderful words that “Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her . . . to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle” (vv. 25, 27 NIV). And the purpose of the presenting is so that Christ and the church will become one like a husband and wife (v. 32)! In Revelation 21 we can read the story of our upcoming marriage.
But union with God is not just a future event. It begins when we are reborn as New Adams, and God wants this union or oneness to grow in this life. By union I refer to the passages in the New Testament about God or Christ being in us and we being in God or Christ. God wants this mutual indwelling to grow in its influence on our lives. We have already seen that we are united with Christ; we can allow this union to grow or allow it to stagnate. The Apostle Paul describes his earthly experience of becoming one with Christ in Galatians 2:20: “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me” (NIV).
This is the place where the other four ways of the fivefold way is bringing us – that we are so one with God in Christ in our real life that it is Christ living through us. Our role is to stay open to his Spirit and pursue him. This union is our ultimate happiness, the highest bliss.
