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Scripture Reading: Gal. 1:16a; 3:2; 4:29b, 6; 3:27; 2:20
Prayer: Lord, we look to You for Your teaching, Your instruction, Your guidance, even Your interpretation of Your Word. We need You to teach us, to guide us into Your light. Lord, do cleanse us and anoint us and render us much help that we may know You through Your Word. Amen.
This chapter concerns the way to receive, experience, and enjoy the all-inclusive Christ as the all-inclusive life-giving Spirit — the aggregate of the all-embracing blessing of the full gospel of God — in the book of Galatians. It is Galatians that tells us that the blessing of the full gospel of God is the promised Spirit (3:14). This promised Spirit, when He comes to us in His consummation, is the life-giving Spirit. According to Paul’s interpretation, the promise God gave to Abraham was the blessing of this life-giving Spirit. We need to spend some time to see the logic by which Paul said this. Paul was very logical doctrinally, spiritually, and economically according to God’s plan.
The book of Galatians presents to us the very Christ who is the threefold seed in humanity. He was the complete God in eternity. Then He came in to promise something to the fallen race, beginning with the first couple, Adam and Eve (Gen. 3:15). I believe that He directed this promise particularly to the wife, Eve, because Eve very much regretted what she had done. She was the one who spoke to the serpent, and as a result, the serpent damaged her and also her husband through her. Therefore, she was fully responsible for that mistake, which led to man’s fall (2 Cor. 11:3; 1 Tim. 2:14). After the fall the complete God as Jehovah came from heaven down to the earth to the garden of Eden, seeking the fallen sinner: “Jehovah God called to the man and said to him, Where are you?” (Gen. 3:9). That was the first visit for the purpose of preaching the gospel. Then God gave them the promise. That promise was the first preaching of the gospel. In that promise, in that first preaching of the gospel, the complete God made a promise to the couple, especially to Eve, by cursing the serpent (v. 14). The first preaching of the gospel was the pronouncing of a curse. When God was cursing the damaging serpent, He promised the damaged persons that the seed of the woman would bruise the serpent’s head (v. 15). In the entire Bible of sixty-six books there is such a reality as the seed of the woman. This is not a small thing. In Galatians 4:4 Paul purposely said that the sent One, Christ, was born of a woman. This indicates that Paul knew what God had promised in Genesis 3:15. Paul knew the Bible, the Old Testament; therefore, he said, “God sent forth His Son, born of a woman.”
After the first promise in Genesis 3:15, twenty-seven centuries passed until the time of Isaiah, who repeated God’s promise: “Behold, the virgin will conceive and will bear a son, and she will call his name Immanuel” (Isa. 7:14). This son borne by the virgin is the seed of the woman. For two thousand years after the first promise was given, nothing took place to fulfill that promise. Man continued to fall step by step, all the way to the bottom, to Babel (Gen. 11:1-9). However, God called Abraham out of the fallen race and promised him that he would be a blessing to all the nations on the earth (12:1-3). Eventually, God gave more details, saying that not through Abraham directly but through his seed all the nations of the earth would be blessed (22:18). This became the promise to Abraham concerning the seed of Abraham. Then, approximately one thousand years later, God promised David that He would establish the throne of his seed forever (2 Sam. 7:12-13). This was the promise to David concerning the seed of David.
These three promises, concerning the seed of the woman, the seed of Abraham, and the seed of David, were fulfilled four thousand years after man was created (Matt. 1:1, 18-23). The Lord was very patient. First, He promised; then four thousand years later, He fulfilled the promise. In the middle of the four thousand years He repeated the promise to Abraham, and after another thousand years He repeated the promise to David. One thousand years after that, Jesus came to fulfill the three promises.
Christ as the threefold seed in humanity is a great subject in the entire Bible. The Triune God, the complete God, created man and then purposed to be born of fallen man to become a threefold seed. The first aspect of this seed was to destroy Satan to deliver fallen man out of sin, death, and self. The second aspect was to be a blessing to the fallen race. He Himself would be the blessing in His Trinity. By this we can see that the Trinity is not a doctrinal matter but a matter of dispensing and enjoyment to the fallen race. The seed of Abraham is the consummated God. This is the truth the Lord has shown us in His recovery. Before the incarnation God was complete, yet He was not consummated. Eventually, His intention was to become a God-man. We need to realize that today our God is absolutely different from the God of the Jews and from the God of the Muslims. The God of both the Jews and the Muslims is only a divine person, not a God-man. But our God today is God plus man, the God-man. Our God is a God who is one with man to the extent that He became a man, a God-man. Now, in His constitution He has both divinity and humanity as His elements.
Nearly every page of the sixty-six books of the Bible is occupied with the threefold seed in humanity. This threefold seed in humanity is God who became a man. First, He became the seed of the woman to overcome all the enemies — Satan, sin, death, and man’s self. Second, He became the seed of Abraham to be the consummated Triune God. This consummation began with incarnation and ended in resurrection. In resurrection this incarnated One became the life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45b). This is a great truth in the Bible. The Nicene Creed does not mention this, nor does it mention the sevenfold Spirit in Revelation 1:4; 4:5; and 5:6. The Triune God has not only been consummated as the life-giving Spirit; He has been intensified sevenfold. This is the clear revelation of the Bible. Paul, in 1 Corinthians 15:45, saw only the life-giving Spirit, but John saw not only the consummated Triune God but also the consummated Triune God intensified sevenfold.
The conclusion of my study of the Bible is that the Triune God — the complete, eternal God — one day became a threefold seed in humanity, first, to destroy God’s enemies, second, to cause Himself to be consummated for the blessing of His chosen people, and third, to be the seed of David to bring in the kingdom. He came not just to be a blessing to His chosen people but to set His chosen people up as a kingdom. This kingdom is the great mountain in Daniel 2:34-35 that will fill the whole earth. The great mountain is the corporate threefold seed in humanity, which includes all the believers in Christ. We are all incorporated in that great mountain.
The threefold seed in humanity first dealt with all the enemies; second, He became the consummated Triune God as our full blessing, intensified sevenfold; and third, He made His chosen people His kingdom that fills not only the earth but also the heavens, causing the whole universe to become His great kingdom. The enemies are gone, the blessing is here, and we are in the kingdom. This is the revelation of the entire Bible. How wonderful this is!
The way to share in, partake of, and participate in the threefold seed can be seen in the book of Galatians. In the short book of Galatians Paul presents the fact that the very Christ whom he ministered to people is the consummated God as the Spirit to be our blessing (3:14). I studied Martin Luther’s exposition on Galatians, and I appreciate his interpretation of chapter 3. However, he did not see that the blessing of God’s gospel is the consummated Triune God as the consummated Spirit. Nevertheless, Paul presented this to us, and we thank the Lord that He has opened our eyes to see this.
The way to receive, experience, and enjoy the all-inclusive Christ as the all-inclusive life-giving Spirit, the aggregate of the all-embracing blessing of the full gospel of God, is first by God’s revealing of Christ in us (1:16a). Apart from God’s revelation, none of us, not even Paul, has a way. Paul says that he was formerly a zealot for his fathers’ traditions (v. 14) and that he had advanced in that religion beyond many of his contemporaries. Paul was fighting absolutely for his fathers’ religion against Jesus Christ. On a certain day he was traveling from Jerusalem to Damascus to bind the followers of Jesus and bring them to the high priest for sentencing. As he went, he drew near to Damascus; suddenly a light from heaven shone around him, and he fell on the ground and heard a voice saying to him, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?” (Acts 9:3-4). That shocked him. He thought that he was persecuting the followers of Jesus on the earth. How then did a voice come from heaven? Paul responded, and spontaneously he called this One “Lord.” He said, “Who are You, Lord?” (v. 5). He did not know who this One was, yet he called Him “Lord.” By this he was saved, for “whoever calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved” (Rom. 10:13). The Lord answered Paul, “I am Jesus” (Acts 9:5). From that time the revelation began to shine within Paul. He received a revelation of Christ, and he also received a burden to preach, to minister, and to present this One to others.
The New Testament tells us that Paul was a pattern to all the believers (1 Tim. 1:15-16). Therefore, since God revealed Christ into Paul, it should be the same with us. God must reveal Christ into each of us. Those who have been genuinely regenerated and saved can testify that since the time they heard the gospel, within them there has been an unveiling. After they heard the gospel, the scenery of a person, Jesus, began to shine within them. From that time onward, nearly every day something more concerning this One is unveiled to them. We have not just heard something; we have seen something within. We could not have been saved unless we had had such an unveiling of Christ within us.
The Christ whom we have seen is a profound Christ, One whose size is the dimensions of the entire universe. The dimensions of the universe are unlimited. No one can tell the length, the breadth, the height, and the depth of the universe. However, Paul says that if we allow Christ to make His home in our hearts, we will have the ability to know with all the saints the breadth, the length, the height, and the depth of this universe, that is, the dimensions of Christ (Eph. 3:17-18). From 1960, when I was in Taiwan, I began to count how many items of Christ are revealed in the Bible. They are endless. It was from that year that I began to preach the unsearchable riches of Christ (v. 8). Oh, the riches of Christ are unsearchable!
Today Christ is still shining in me, and I am continually seeing more of Him. We all need such an unveiling. This is God’s doing. Every aspect of the Christian life comes out of this unveiling. We live the Christian life according to the Christ whom we have seen. My Christian life is not according to the teachings I picked up from reading the Bible or from listening to messages. My Christian life comes out of the Christ whom I have seen day after day. Christ must be revealed not only into us but in us. This means that something is going on within us. Since the day we believed in the Lord Jesus, God’s unveiling of Christ has been going on in us. This unveiling never ceases.
Day after day we see more of the Lord Jesus. As God, on His side, is revealing, we, on our side, are receiving. In our receiving, we receive Christ as the Spirit out of the hearing of faith (Gal. 3:2). The Spirit whom we receive is the indwelling, life-giving, compound, sevenfold intensified Spirit. We need to receive Christ as such a Spirit.
When we were saved, we received the Spirit out of the hearing of faith. Here faith does not refer to the action of believing but to the things we believe in. The word faith denotes first the things we believe in; then, based on what we believe in, we have the action of believing. In Galatians 3:2 the word faith means belief, referring to what we believe in. We have received Christ out of our hearing of the belief. The Christian belief is Christ Himself in His person and His redemptive work. Christ’s person and Christ’s work together constitute our belief.
When we preach the gospel, we preach this belief, that is, the person of Christ and the redemptive work of Christ. When the audience hears our preaching, they hear the faith; that is, they hear the belief. They hear about Christ’s person, and they hear about Christ’s redemptive work. As they are hearing of the person and work of Christ, something rises up within them, that is, a believing. By hearing, we believe.
Romans 10 says that faith comes out of hearing, hearing comes out of preaching (vv. 14, 17), and preaching comes out of being sent (v. 15). Recently, I received a letter from a dear brother who had just returned from a trip to Eastern Europe to visit Czechoslovakia, Poland, and Hungary. The impression I received from this report is that there is the need for the preaching of what we believe. Those countries need our young people to go there to teach the people our belief, our faith. I do believe the Lord will afford us the way to go. We need to send a good number of young people to these countries. But where are the people who will go? The Lord said to Isaiah, “Whom shall I send? Who will go for Us?” (Isa. 6:8). Would you answer, “Lord, I am here. I will go”? You do not need to care for your living. Jesus will feed you. Some of you can go to those countries to teach English. As you teach English to the people, you can teach them the truth, the faith, the belief, and the holy word that you have heard. If you would go there and take care of just ten people, I believe that in half a year you would bring all these ten to the Lord and into the truth.
The third way in the book of Galatians to receive, experience, and enjoy the all-inclusive Christ as the all-inclusive life-giving Spirit is by being born according to the Spirit and by being given the Spirit of God’s Son into our hearts (Gal. 4:29b, 6). Galatians 4:29 refers to being born according to the Spirit. This being born surely refers to our regeneration. Our regeneration was according to the Spirit; that is, it was accomplished according to the Spirit within us.
At one time you had never believed in the Lord Jesus because you had never heard about Him. However, one day you did hear. While the preacher was speaking, something was going on within you. The Spirit within you either showed you the preciousness of the Lord Jesus or convicted you of your sins or showed you how pitiful you were in your human life. As a result, you regretted and repented. Even before anyone asked you to do anything, something within you spontaneously brought you to pray and to say, “O Lord, I want to believe; I want to take You. You are too good.” You might also have said, “Lord, I am an evil person.” This was your repentance. Your repenting just this much was sufficient for you to be saved. Or you might have said, “Lord Jesus, You know my situation. Look at my situation. How pitiful I am!” Just by saying this much, you were saved.
This is to be regenerated according to the Spirit. We were not regenerated merely by the Spirit; we were regenerated according to the Spirit. After the gospel meeting you might have gone back home, and your inward feeling continued. Actually, that was not your feeling; that was the moving of the Spirit. This might have continued for a week. According to the recollection of my experience, this moving of the Spirit within me lasted quite a long time. As a result, I began to lose my taste for all the worldly things. I began to think about my attitude toward my mother. That was not just my thinking or my feeling by myself; that was the moving of the Spirit. Perhaps after one week or after ten days, you thoroughly realized your regeneration.
It is right to say that regeneration is instantaneous. However, regeneration is also a process. This process is the moving of the Spirit within us to regenerate us. Therefore, we were regenerated according to the Spirit. To be regenerated by the Spirit is instantaneous, but to be regenerated according to the Spirit implies a process. I do know of some who were regenerated not just in one week but in six months. The Spirit began to move in them a little, but they did not pay much attention to that. However, the Spirit continued to move within them. This process lasted for quite a time, until they fully realized that they were regenerated.
Doctrinally speaking, regeneration is immediate and instantaneous. However, although regeneration is instantaneous, with some persons the process is not quick but, rather, very slow.
It was according to the process of the Spirit’s moving within us that we were regenerated. Therefore, our regenerated being is absolutely spiritual. Immediately after this regenerating birth, God sent the Spirit of His Son into our hearts (v. 6). We were born according to the life-giving Spirit, and immediately after our birth, God gave us the life-giving Spirit. This is a double portion. We were born according to the life-giving Spirit, and God gave us a gift — the Spirit of sonship. This gift is also the life-giving Spirit, and this life-giving Spirit is the consummated Triune God. Therefore, we were born according to the consummated Triune God, and after our birth we received the gift of the consummated Triune God. This One is the threefold seed in humanity. Every aspect of our spiritual experience is nothing less than the processed and consummated Triune God.
We receive, experience, and enjoy the all-inclusive Christ as the all-inclusive Spirit also by putting on Christ through the baptism that puts us into Christ (3:27). To put on Christ is to be clothed with Christ. We were once naked, without any covering. To be naked is a shame. However, at the time we believed and were baptized, something was put on us to clothe us. We were clothed with Christ through baptism. Matthew 28:19 says, “Go therefore and disciple all the nations, baptizing them into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” We baptize people not only into water but also into the Triune God. In so doing, we put Christ upon them; we clothe them with Christ through baptism.
Baptism puts us into Christ. When we go to preach the gospel, we need to have the full realization that when we baptize people, we are putting them not only into water but also into the consummated, processed Triune God. We should tell them, “From today onward you are no longer naked; you are clothed and covered with the processed, consummated Triune God.” This is the way to receive, experience, and enjoy the all-inclusive Christ as the all-inclusive life-giving Spirit, who is the aggregate of the all-embracing blessing of the full gospel of God.
The fifth way in Galatians to experience the all-inclusive Christ as the life-giving Spirit is by being identified with Him so that it may be no longer we who live but He who lives in us; and the life which we now live in the flesh we live in the faith of Christ (Gal. 2:20). To be identified with Christ is to be made one with Christ. Baptism identifies us with Christ by making us one entity with Christ. We are identified with Christ especially in His death. Romans 6:3 says, “Are you ignorant that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death?” We have been baptized into two things — into Christ and into His death. Therefore, we are now one entity with Christ in His death. This means that He died, and we died also. His death is our death. With Him, His death is history, but with us, it is a present, living, vivid experience. When we are baptized, we are put into Christ’s death, making Christ’s death ours. Since we are dead and buried, how could we live any longer? We have been identified with Christ in His death that it may be no longer we who live but He who lives in us; and the life that we now live in the flesh we live in the faith of Christ.
To live in the faith of Christ means that the very Christ who lives in us becomes our faith. Galatians 2:20 says that it is no longer we who live, but it is Christ who lives in us. It then goes on to say that the life that we now live, we still live in the flesh, yet we live this life by Christ as our faith. Christ is living within us, and this living Christ within us eventually becomes our faith. It is by this faith, which is the very realization of Christ, that we still live in the flesh. This kind of living is actually not we who live but Christ who lives in us. Christ’s living in us means that we still live in the flesh by Christ as our faith. Thus, the life spoken of in Galatians 2:20 is a life that is absolutely Christ. People may say, “Since you are still eating, sleeping, studying, working, and doing things, you are still living.” To this we may reply, “Yes, I am still living, but I do not live by anything of myself; I live by Christ as my faith. And this Christ is the One who lives in me. So actually this is not my living. This is Christ’s living, because I live no longer, but Christ lives in me. I still have a kind of living, but this living is not by me but by Christ as my faith. The more He lives in me, the more I realize His preciousness. The more I appreciate His preciousness, the more faith is within me. This, therefore, is altogether not a life by myself but a life by Christ. As for me, I am terminated; I am finished; I have been crucified and even buried. It is no longer I who live but Christ who lives in me. I am still living, yet I am living not by something of myself but by Christ Himself as my faith.”
It is in this way that we enjoy, experience, and receive this wonderful Christ. Paul’s presentation concerning the way is not simple. It is very deep and very logical. This is the Christian life. I do not believe that such a truth is being adequately taught among Christians today. We thank Him that He has opened both His Word and our eyes so that today we can see something. I hope that you all will learn such things. Then you will spontaneously have more experience of Him, and you will have something as a testimony or a teaching of the truth to render to others. Today the whole world is in need. The entire earth is in a famine like that at the time of Joseph (Gen. 41:30-31). Therefore, we need to be raised up in His stewardship to dispense all the riches of our Father’s great household. I hope that many of you will be stirred up to sacrifice all the things that are considered by people as blessings so that you may gain the real blessing. The whole world is starving, waiting for help from the proper sources. We all need to realize the Lord’s sovereignty in raising up the present world situation. We also need to realize that God’s ordained way is not to use a big speaker but to raise up all His chosen people to prophesy for Him. We all have accumulated quite much of the Lord’s riches in His Word; therefore, now the time is ripe for all of us to go and minister to the hungry ones what we have received.
