PERFECTING THE SAINTS

SERIES ONE
FELLOWSHIP FOR THE CHINESE-SPEAKING SERVING ONES IN NORTH AMERICA – 02.15.2026

Message Eleven

What Is the Difference between Becoming God and Being like God

Scripture Reading: Gen. 1:26-27, John 1:12-14, 3:6, Rom. 8:14, 16, 29, 2 Cor. 3:18, 2 Pet. 1:4, 1 John 3:1-2, Rev. 21:2, 9-11

I.God’s eternal economy is to make man the same as He is in life and nature, but not in His Godhead; and to make Him one with man and man one with Him, thus being enlarged and expanded in His expression, that all His divine attributes may be expressed in human virtues—Eph. 3:9; 1:10:

A.God has a desire in the universe to have man be like Him; God desires to obtain in the universe a group of people who are the same as He is, who can express Him and represent Him; God is pleased to obtain such a group of people—Eph. 1:5, 9; 3:11; 4:16; 5:30, 32.

B.The main content of the New Testament is that The Triune God, according to His good pleasure, has an eternal economy to dispense Himself in life and nature into His chosen and redeemed people, making them all the same as He is in life and nature to be His reproduction for His expression; this corporate expression will ultimately consummate in the New Jerusalem—Eph. 3:9-21; Rev. 21:2, 9-11.

C.God’s intention is to accomplish His economy; God created us according to His image and dispenses His divine life and nature into us, making us God in life and nature (but not in the Godhead)—Gen. 1:26; Rev. 4:3; 21:10-11.

D.God became a man to obtain a mass reproduction of Himself, thus producing a new kind—the God-man kind—John 1:1, 14; 12:24; Heb. 2:10:

1.　God sent His Son to be a man, to live a God-man life by the divine life—John 3:16; 1:14; 6:57.

2.　The result of such a living is the producing of a great, universal man, who is the same as Christ—a corporate God-man, for God to be manifested in the flesh—Eph. 4:24; 1 Tim. 3:15-16.

E.If we enjoy God and partake of the riches of His being, we will be constituted with the divine nature to become the same as God in life and nature, but not in the Godhead, and to express Him in all that we are and do—2 Cor. 3:16-18.

II.The high peak of the divine revelation is that God became a man so that man may become God in life and nature but not in the Godhead for the building up of His organic Body, for the accomplishment of God’s eternal economy, consummating in the New Jerusalem; to end this age and to bring in the age of His kingdom—John 1:12-14; 1 John 3:1-2; Rom. 8:3; 12:4-5; Rev. 11:15:

A.“God became a man so that man might become God” is the kernel of the entire Bible—Gen. 1:26; John 1:14; 1 John 3:1-2.

B.God redeemed man for the purpose of making the redeemed ones God in life and nature so that God may have the Body of Christ, ultimately consummating in the New Jerusalem as the full expression and enlargement of God for eternity—Eph. 1:7; 4:16; Rev. 21:2.

C.The God-man abides in the man-God, and the man-God abides in the God-man; therefore, the two are a mutual abiding place—John 14:23, 20, 23; 15:4.

D.Through a wonderful process, God became a man so that man may become God in life and nature (but not in the Godhead)—John 1:14; 6:57a; 1:29; 3:14; 12:24; 20:22; Rom. 8:28:

1.　To God, this process is incarnation, human living, crucifixion, and resurrection—John 1:14; 6:57a; 1:29; 3:14; 12:24; 20:22.

2.　To man, this process is regeneration, sanctification, renewing, transformation, conformation, and glorification—John 3:6; Rom. 12:2.

3.　Today Christ is, in resurrection, the life-giving Spirit as the ultimate consummation of the processed Triune God, dwelling in our spirit; now we must do everything in our spirit day by day so that this life-giving Spirit may transform us, conform us, and ultimately glorify us, making us God in life and nature—2 Cor. 3:17-18; Rom. 8:29.

III.The difference between becoming God and being like God is that becoming God is a matter of reality in life and nature, whereas being like God is merely a matter of resemblance in outward appearance—John 1:12-13; 2 Pet. 1:4; 1 John 3:1-2:

A.We have been born of God, having the life and nature of God, and today we are only partly like Him; one day, when He comes, we will be completely like Him—1 John 3:2.

B.As the children of God, we are becoming sons of God with His divinity through a metabolic process of transformation—2 Sam. 7:14, note 1.

C.We, the many sons of God, all share the divine nature; to us, God is no longer merely the creating God but the begetting Father; He has dispensed into us His life, His nature, and even His being—John 1:12-13; 2 Pet. 1:4.

D.We are God in life and nature but not in the Godhead; on the one hand, the New Testament reveals that the Godhead is unique and that only God—the One who has the Godhead—should be worshipped; on the other hand, the New Testament also reveals that we, the believers in Christ, have the life and nature of God and that we are to become God in life and nature but will never have His Godhead—1 John 3:1-2.

IV.The reality of the Body of Christ is the corporate life lived by the perfected God-men, who are genuine men yet live not by their own life but by the life of the processed God—Gal. 2:20:

A.The highest peak of God’s economy is the reality of the Body of Christ—Rom. 8:2, 6, 10-11; 12:4-5.

B.The reality of the Body of Christ is not only a corporate life but also a mingled life; that is, the life of the regenerated, transformed, and glorified tripartite God-men mingled with the Triune God in an eternal union—John 14:20; 15:4; Eph. 4:4-6, 24.

C.God became a man so that man may become God to produce the Body of Christ; this is the high peak of the vision God has given us—Eph. 1:3-4, 8:14, 16, 29; 12:4-5.

V.The believers’ becoming God is a process that will consummate in the New Jerusalem; this is the highest truth, the highest gospel—Rev. 21:2, 9-11; 3:12:

A.The New Jerusalem is a composition of divinity and humanity mingled and built up together to be one entity—John 14:20, 23; Rev. 21:9-11:

1.　All the components have the same life, nature, and constitution and thus are a corporate person—Col. 3:4.

2.　God and man, man and God, are built up together by being mingled together; this is God becoming man and man becoming God in life and nature (but not in the Godhead)—John 14:20, 23; 1 Cor. 6:17.

B.The New Jerusalem is a composition of a group of people who have been chosen, redeemed, regenerated, sanctified, renewed, transformed, conformed, and glorified by God to become God—John 3:6; Heb. 2:11; Rom. 12:2; 8:29-30:

1.　The New Jerusalem, which is the ultimate consummation of the Bible, is God becoming man and man becoming God in life and nature (but not in the Godhead)—Rev. 21:2, 9-11; 3:12.

2.　Our becoming God means that we are constituted of the processed and ultimately consummated Triune God, making us God in life and nature for His corporate expression for eternity—Rev. 21:11.