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Scripture Reading: Exo. 17:6; John 7:38-39; Matt. 3:16; Gal. 5:16-17, 24-25; Heb. 9:14; Rom. 8:13-14
In the previous chapters we saw the relationship between Christ and the cross. In this chapter we will look at the relationship between the Spirit and the cross. Christ and the cross are inseparable, and the Spirit and the cross are inseparable as well. Both the Old Testament types and the New Testament revelation reveal that the Spirit is connected to the cross. Furthermore, our experiences prove that the Spirit and the cross are inseparable. If we have the cross, we have the Spirit, and if we have the Spirit, we have the cross. Without the cross there is no Spirit, and without the Spirit there is no cross. The cross cannot be separated from the Spirit. We should note that when we speak of the Spirit and the cross being inseparable, we are referring to our experience of the Spirit and the cross. In our experience the Spirit and the cross are inseparable. Whether we are experiencing the Spirit, or the Spirit is leading us to receive a spiritual blessing, the Spirit cannot be separated from the cross.
The Bible reveals that the Spirit enters into man and comes upon man through the cross. The Spirit comes from God, but He passes through the cross in order to reach man and to enter into man. John 7:38-39 says, “He who believes into Me, as the Scripture said, out of his innermost being shall flow rivers of living water. But this He said concerning the Spirit, whom those who believed into Him were about to receive; for the Spirit was not yet, because Jesus had not yet been glorified.” First Corinthians 10:4 says, “All drank the same spiritual drink; for they drank of a spiritual rock which followed them, and the rock was Christ.” According to these two passages, the water that the children of Israel drank out of the rock in the wilderness typifies the Spirit (Exo. 17:6). Before water could flow out and be enjoyed by the children of Israel, the rock had to be struck. The striking of the rock typifies Christ’s being crucified. This shows that the Spirit flows out of Christ as living water for us to receive and enjoy through the cross.
John 7:38-39 says that the Spirit could not be received as living water until Christ was glorified. In order for the Spirit to be received, Christ had to be glorified. Christ’s glorification refers to His resurrection from among the dead. After Christ was raised from among the dead, He entered into glory (Luke 24:26). In order to enter into glory, Christ had to pass through the cross, that is, to pass through death. Therefore, the Spirit could be received and gained by man as living water only after Christ was crucified on the cross. Even though the Holy Spirit exists, He could not be received and enjoyed by man without Christ’s death on the cross. The Spirit could flow out as the living water of life into man for man’s enjoyment only after Christ, as the eternal spiritual rock, was struck on the cross (John 19:34). The Spirit flowed out through Christ’s death. The eternal Spirit passed through the cross so that He could be gained and experienced by man.
The Spirit passed through the cross in order to be received by us. This principle applies to us, as it applied to the Lord Jesus. The Spirit descended upon the Lord Jesus after His baptism (Matt. 3:16; Mark 1:9-10). Baptism typifies the death of the cross. The descending of the Spirit upon the Lord after His baptism signifies that a person must pass through the cross before he can receive the Spirit. The Spirit can be gained and experienced only by a person who passes through the cross.
The descension of the Spirit follows the operation of the cross. The Lord breathed the Spirit of life into the disciples on the evening of His resurrection (John 20:19-22), and the Spirit of power was poured upon the disciples on the day of Pentecost, fifty days after His resurrection (Acts 2:1-4). Both the resurrection and Pentecost occurred after the Lord’s death at Golgotha (John 19:17-18). In our experience there is first the cross and then the Spirit. There must be crucifixion before there can be the receiving of the Spirit of life and the Spirit of power. The Spirit comes through the cross, and the Spirit is gained and experienced through the cross; this is a great principle. The cross enables us to experience the Spirit.
The cross enables us to gain and experience Christ, and the cross enables us to gain and experience the Spirit. We gain Christ and experience Christ through the cross, and we also gain the Spirit and experience the Spirit through the cross. Now that the Spirit has descended, He guides us to know Christ’s redemption and moves us to receive this redemption. As soon as a person believes, he receives the redemption of the cross, and the Spirit enters into him as the Spirit of life to regenerate him (Acts 2:36-39). The Spirit then leads the believer to gain and experience more of the Lord through the cross. The more a believer receives and experiences the cross and the more he is broken and dealt with by the cross, the more ground the Spirit will have in him. This issues in his gaining and experiencing more of the Lord.
The Spirit enters into a believer based on the redemption of the cross, and the Spirit increases and spreads in a believer through the dealings of the cross. Based on the redemption of the cross, the Spirit enters a believer as life. Furthermore, the Spirit is manifested as power and authority in a believer through the dealing of the cross. Whether inwardly as life or outwardly as power, a believer gains and experiences the Spirit through the cross. The cross opens the way for us to gain and experience the Spirit. The cross always opens the way for the Spirit to gain ground in us so that we would gain and experience the Spirit. The cross is the means for the Holy Spirit to work in us. In order for us to gain and experience the Spirit, we must pass through the cross. The Spirit and the cross are inseparable. We cannot gain and experience the Spirit apart from the cross.
Galatians 5:16 says, “Walk by the Spirit and you shall by no means fulfill the lust of the flesh,” and verse 24 says, “They who are of Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and its lusts.” Even though a believer has received the divine life and the Spirit dwells in him, he may not walk by the Spirit. Walking by the Spirit requires the cross. After a person is saved, he must see that his flesh has been crucified on the cross and acknowledge his co-crucifixion with Christ by putting to death his flesh with its passions and its lusts by the Spirit who dwells in him. Then he can live and walk by the Spirit (v. 25). Before a believer can walk by the Spirit, he must stand in the death of the cross and put to death the flesh with its passions and its lusts. In order to walk by the Spirit, a believer must apply by the Spirit the crucifixion of the cross to his flesh. The Spirit works in us and gains ground in us through the cross, and we also experience the Spirit’s power and enjoy His presence through the cross.
The cross enables us to live by the Spirit and to walk by the Spirit. If our flesh with its passions and its lusts is not put to death through the cross, the Spirit cannot gain any ground in us. Without having the ground in us, the Spirit will not be our power for our living and walk, and He will not have the opportunity to supply us with Christ’s life. Our flesh fights against the Spirit, who indwells us (v. 17). If we do not put our flesh to death through the cross, the Spirit cannot prevail to be our power and life. If we do not apply the crucifixion of the cross to our flesh, we cannot live and walk by the Spirit. The experience of the cross is necessary for our experience of the Spirit. If we want to experience the Spirit, we should not avoid or disregard the cross, because the Spirit is connected to the cross. The Spirit is gained and experienced through the cross.
The disciples, the first group of people to gain and experience the Spirit in the New Testament, passed through the cross. The disciples passed through the cross and then received and experienced the Spirit. They first passed through the Lord’s death at Golgotha (John 19:17-18), and they received and experienced the Spirit on the evening of the Lord’s resurrection and when He descended upon them on Pentecost (20:19-22; Acts 2:1-4). The disciples gained the Spirit of life inwardly and experienced the Spirit of power outwardly after passing through the cross. This is the order ordained by God and revealed in the Bible. The cross precedes our gaining and experiencing of the Spirit. Death precedes resurrection and Pentecost. The Spirit flowed out from God through the cross, and He flows into us through the cross. The cross leads us to gain and experience the Holy Spirit.
The Spirit is the transfiguration of Christ, and He does the work that God desires to accomplish in us for the fulfillment of His eternal plan. If the cross does not deal with our flesh and break our self, the Spirit cannot accomplish anything in us, nor can He be experienced by us. In order for the Spirit to accomplish something in us and be experienced by us, the cross must be the base and the means for the Spirit’s work. The Spirit can work in us and be experienced by us only when we accept the cross.
According to Hebrews 9:14, Christ offered Himself without blemish to God through the eternal Spirit. The Lord Jesus offered Himself to God on the cross through the eternal Spirit of God. Hence, the Spirit led the Lord Jesus to the cross, to the place of death. In His baptism the Lord Jesus received the termination of the cross in order to receive the Spirit (Matt. 3:16). From the time of the Lord’s baptism, the purpose of the Spirit’s leading Him was for Him to remain in the condition of death in order to have a living and a walk according to the cross so that He could enter into the place of death and experience death on the cross. When the Lord received the termination of death through baptism, the Spirit descended upon Him as a dove. After descending upon the Lord, the Spirit led Him to experience the death of the cross. Under the leading of the Spirit, the Lord lived a life of the cross and walked the way of the cross for His entire life, until the Spirit brought Him to the cross to be put to death. The Lord’s living and walk were entirely in the death of the cross. The death of the cross led Him to experience the Spirit, and the Spirit led Him to experience the cross.
Romans 8:13-14 says, “If you live according to the flesh, you must die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the practices of the body, you will live. For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God.” This shows that we put to death the practices of the body by the leading of the Spirit. Putting to death the practices of the body is the experience of the cross. We must receive the cross and allow the cross to put to death the practices of our body. These verses say that the Spirit leads us to receive the cross and to allow the cross to work in us. According to the context of Romans 8, the Spirit’s leading is mainly related to our putting to death the practices of our body. The Spirit leads us to put to death the practices of the body, that is, to receive and experience the cross.
When we mind the Spirit, follow the Spirit, and live and walk by the law of the Spirit of life, we will sense that the Spirit is leading us continually into deeper experiences of the death of the cross. If we are faithful to obey the leading and guiding of the Spirit, He will lead us to experience the death of the cross day by day and even moment by moment. The more we obey the Spirit, the more He will lead us to experience the cross. The more we experience the cross, the more the cross will enable us to receive the Spirit. The Spirit and the cross interact with each other as both a cause and an effect. They continually deliver us from ourselves so that we may live in Christ. Their work will continue until we are mature in the life of Christ and arrive “at a full-grown man, at the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ” (Eph. 4:13).
The cross gives us the Spirit, and the Spirit gives us the cross. The cross enables us to experience the Spirit, and the Spirit leads us to experience the cross. If we want to gain and experience the Spirit, we must accept the cross, and if we want to accept and experience the cross, we must depend on and obey the Spirit. Only the cross can give us the Spirit, and only the Spirit can bring us into the experience of the cross. Only by standing in the death of the cross can we experience the Spirit, and only by living in the Spirit can we experience the cross. The cross is the means of the Spirit, and the Spirit is the power of the cross. We must gain the Spirit through the cross, and we must experience the cross by the Spirit.
