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Scripture Reading: John 3:6; Matt. 28:19; Gal. 3:27; Rom. 6:3; 1 Cor. 12:13; 4, Rom. 8:9, 11; Gal. 5:16, 25; 1 Cor. 3:6-7; Eph. 4:16; 2:21-22; 1 Pet. 2:5; 2 Cor. 3:18; Rom. 12:2; 1 Thes. 5:23; Phil. 3:21; Rom. 8:29-30; 10:8-9, 12
The subject of this chapter, the believers, is seemingly simple, but actually it is mysterious. A medical student very soon learns that the physical body is not simple. A person’s psychological being is even more mysterious. As living beings, we have two hearts — a physical one and a psychological one. We can locate our physical heart, but where is our psychological heart? Where are our mind, emotion, will, and conscience? Where is our spirit? Where is our soul? We believers in Christ are spiritual beings, and as such, we are a mystery.
We believers are all descendants of fallen Adam. We are all fallen. We were dead in sin under God’s condemnation (Eph. 2:1, 5; Rom. 3:19; 5:12; John 3:18). While we were dead in sin, God afforded us a change. We heard the gospel and believed in the Lord Jesus Christ to receive eternal life (v. 16).
Acts 16:31 tells us that when we believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, we are saved. A complete initial salvation has six aspects: forgiveness of sins, the washing away of our stain, separation unto God positionally, justification, reconciliation, and regeneration.
After believing, the first thing we receive, the first bequest according to the divine testament, the divine will, is the forgiveness of our sins (10:43).
We have not only been forgiven but also washed. To be forgiven settles our case before God. To be washed takes away the spot, the stain, of our sins. For example, if a child got his shirt dirty and then repented, his mother would forgive him, but his shirt would still need to be washed. To forgive the child of his wrongdoing is one thing. To wash away the stain from his shirt is another. God, at our believing in the Lord Jesus, not only forgave us but also washed us. Hallelujah! We have been forgiven and washed by the blood of Christ.
As part of our initial salvation, we have been positionally sanctified, that is, separated by God from the world unto Himself. First Corinthians 6:11 indicates that we are sanctified first and then justified. Positional sanctification precedes justification; dispositional sanctification follows justification.
The death of Christ has fully fulfilled and satisfied God’s righteous requirements so that we are justified by God through His death (Rom. 3:24). We are “justified from all the things” from which we “were not able to be justified by the law of Moses” (Acts 13:39).
We needed to be reconciled to God because, when we were sinners, we were God’s enemies (Rom. 5:10). We have been reconciled to God through the death of His Son.
When we believed in the Lord Jesus and called upon His name, we were regenerated; that is, the very Spirit of Christ entered into our spirit and enlivened us (John 3:6; Eph. 2:5). Regeneration has made us children of God (John 1:12-13; Rom. 8:16), members of the household of God (Eph. 2:19). It has also made us members of Christ, members of the Body of Christ (5:30; 1 Cor. 12:27). We who have been regenerated are members of the Body of Christ and also the sons of God.
Regeneration took place in our spirit, not in our physical body or in our mind. This means that the Triune God is now in our spirit (Eph. 4:6; 2 Cor. 13:5; Rom. 8:9). What a treasure we have within (2 Cor. 4:7)! The Triune God has come into our spirit to stay (John 4:24; 2 Tim. 4:22; Rom. 8:16). Here in our spirit is where the unsearchable riches of Christ are.
To enjoy these riches we must call on the name of the Lord Jesus (10:12). If we want to be nourished, we can call “O Lord Jesus!” When we are at home and also when we are at work, we can call on the Lord’s name. When we call, we touch the Spirit (1 Cor. 12:3). Many of us pray often, but we do not get the nourishment from our praying. This should not be so. We are not praying to an idol; we pray to the living God. He is the very God who is now in our spirit. When we speak to Him, He responds in our spirit. When we exercise our spirit, we realize Him within our spirit. If we merely exercise our mind and pray from our mouth, the Triune God within us has no way. He is not in our mind but in our spirit. We must exercise our spirit (1 Tim. 4:7). In this way we can experience this true, real, and living God who is right now in our spirit. The Triune God as the life-giving Spirit dwells in our regenerated spirit.
After His resurrection and before His ascension, the Lord Jesus charged His disciples to go and disciple the nations, “baptizing them into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit” (Matt. 28:19); that is, they were to baptize people into the very person of the Triune God.
In Acts and in the Epistles, however, there is not one verse indicating that the apostles baptized people into the name of the Father, the Son, and the Spirit. Rather, those who repented and believed in the Lord were baptized into the name of the Lord Jesus (Acts 8:16; 19:5). To be baptized into the name of the Lord Jesus equals to be baptized into the name of the Father, the Son, and the Spirit, and to be baptized into the Lord’s name is to be baptized into His person, the very Christ (Gal. 3:27; Rom. 6:3). To be baptized into Christ equals to be baptized into the Triune God because the very Christ into whom we have been baptized is the embodiment of the Triune God. The Triune God is embodied in Christ the Lord, the Son of God.
Furthermore, when we were baptized into Him, we were baptized into His death (v. 3). Baptism unites us with Him in His death and in His resurrection. Water baptism should not be the performance of a ritual. It should signify that we are putting those being baptized into the Triune God, into Christ, and into His death and resurrection.
We have also been baptized into the Body, the church: “In one Spirit we were all baptized into one Body” (1 Cor. 12:13).
We have been baptized, then, into the Triune God, into Christ, into the death and resurrection of Christ, and also into the Body, the church. Actually, all these “intos” are one. When we are baptized into Christ, we are baptized into His death and resurrection, and we are also baptized into the Triune God and into Christ’s Body. This means that we are now in Christ, in His death and resurrection, in the Triune God, and in Christ’s Body. When we baptize people, we should point out to them that they are now in Christ, in His death and resurrection, in the Triune God, and in the Body.
We need the reality of the spiritual fact that when we baptize people, we put them into Christ. We can put them into Christ because Christ today is the very Spirit. When we baptize people, we put them into the Spirit, who is the reality of Christ. This is what baptism should be. Baptism gives us the position to say that we are people in Christ, in His death, in His resurrection, in an organic union with the Triune God, and also in the living Body of the living Christ. To have this realization of baptism makes a great difference in our lives.
After believing and being baptized, we are indwelt by the Spirit (Rom. 8:9, 11; 1 Cor. 6:19). As He indwells us, we are drinking. The drinking fountain is right in our spirit (John 4:14, 24). We must turn to our spirit and drink by calling on the name of the Lord (1 Cor. 12:3, 13b).
We have the Spirit as the aggregate of the Triune God indwelling us. In 1936 when I saw that God was living in me, I was beside myself. I wanted to go outside, get up on the roof or run into the street, and shout to people, “Do not touch me; I have God in me!”
The Triune God is in us. He indwells us, and we are drinking of Him. He is our drinking fountain; this fountain is not in the heavens but in our spirit.
Now we must live and walk in the mingled spirit. Romans 8:4 and Galatians 5:16 and 25 refer to this mingled spirit. J. N. Darby points out the difficulty of putting a large or small S on spirit in Romans 8. Although he does not use the word mingled, he surely conveys the thought that these two spirits are considered as one.
In Galatians 5:16 the Greek word for walk means to have our being, to move, and to act. Here is the consummate charge of the New Testament: to live, to have our being, to walk, to move, and to act according to the mingled spirit. All that we do must be according to our spirit indwelt and mingled with the compound Spirit, not according to ethical teachings or moral regulations. To walk according to the spirit is much higher than to walk according to ethical teachings or moral regulations.
The moving of the Spirit is called the anointing. In 1 John 2:20 and 27 we see that we all have received an anointing from the Holy One. This anointing within us is true; it teaches us to abide in the Lord. The anointing that John talks about in 1 John 2 refers to the ointment in Exodus 30. The tabernacle and all its utensils were anointed with that compound ointment (vv. 26-29).
Today the compound ointment, the Spirit, is within our spirit anointing us, moving within us, all day. Even when we are arguing or when we are about to argue, the anointing within moves in us not to continue but to go to our bedroom and pray. One day a sister went shopping, but whenever she picked up an item to consider buying it, the anointing within told her to put it down. Everything she picked up she had to put back. Finally, she decided she had better go home. As she obeyed the inner anointing and went back to her car to drive home, she felt excited and happy. If we do not take heed to the inner anointing, we offend the Spirit. We must live and walk according to this Spirit who is mingled with our spirit.
Few Christians pay attention to the growth in life (1 Cor. 3:6-7) and the building up (vv. 10-12) of the Body of Christ and of the church, the house of God. Spirituality comes out of the growth in life; the aim of the growth in life is the building up of the Body of Christ and of the house of God. Practically speaking, this means the building up of the local church. Without the proper church life in our locality, how can we be built up with others? We need to be where there is a church. Then within that church we can be built up with others to be God’s spiritual house (Eph. 2:21-22; 1 Pet. 2:5). While we are being built up as the local church, we are also being built up as the Body of Christ (Eph. 4:16).
Our spirit has been regenerated, but what about our soul? We need to be transformed (2 Cor. 3:18) by the renewing of our mind (Rom. 12:2; Eph. 4:23). The mind is the leading part of our soul (Psa. 13:2; 139:14; Lam. 3:20). For the transformation of the soul, the mind must be renewed.
The transformation of our soul is the sanctification of our disposition. The Lord sanctifies us in our spirit, soul, and body (1 Thes. 5:23). Our entire being is to be sanctified, transformed.
When the Lord returns, our body will be transfigured (Phil. 3:21), fully redeemed (Rom. 8:23). When we believed, our spirit was regenerated. During our Christian life on this earth, our soul is gradually being transformed and sanctified. Then at His coming back our body will be transfigured. Our entire being will then be fully conformed to Christ.
As the many brothers of Christ, we will be conformed to His image and be with Him in glory (vv. 29-30). We will no longer be natural in any part of our being. We are still somewhat natural in our soul and corrupted in our body; this is why, after the regeneration of our spirit, we need the transformation of our soul and the transfiguration of our body. Then we will be fully conformed to the firstborn Son of God as His many brothers.
Finally, we will be glorified in the divine life and divine nature (v. 30) to bear the glory of God for His expression in the New Jerusalem.
The book of Romans is a sketch of the proper Christian life. In chapter 6 are all the facts accomplished by Christ. He died, and we died in Him. He was resurrected, and so were we. In Christ these are facts. In Him we are joined to His death and resurrection (vv. 4-5).
In Romans 6, however, we do not have the experience of Christ’s death and resurrection. We need to go on to Romans 8 to experience Christ in His doings by the Spirit. In Romans 8 are the experiences of the facts revealed in chapter 6.
Then in chapter 10 the word gets into our mouth and into our heart. First, we believe the word that reaches us; second, we call on His name (vv. 8-9). The Lord is rich to all who call on His name (v. 12). The word call in Greek means “to cry out, to call with a voice.” In Acts the Christians were considered callers of Jesus’ name; we know this because Saul of Tarsus had authority to arrest all those who called on this name (9:14). Calling on the name of the Lord Jesus designated the early Christians. They were not silent; they cried out the dear name of the Lord Jesus.
If we want to enjoy Christ and all His accomplishments, we need to call on Him. The way to enjoy Christ in all His doings is to walk according to the mingled spirit and to call on His dear name. Then we participate in Him, enjoy Him, and experience Him to the uttermost.
