Search
Scripture Reading: John 16:7-11; 1 Pet. 1:2a; 1 Cor. 15:45b; 2 Cor. 3:6b; John 3:5-6; Rom. 6:19, 22; 15:16; Titus 3:5; 2 Cor. 3:18; Eph. 1:13, 14; 2 Cor. 1:22b; Rom. 8:11, 14; Gal. 5:18; John 15:26; 1 John 5:6; Rom. 8:16; Acts 9:31; Rom. 14:17; Acts 13:52.
The verses in the Scripture Reading concerning the functions of the all-inclusive Spirit were selected from the entire New Testament. I would encourage us all, especially the young people, to remember all these verses. If possible, it would be good to learn to recite them. In each of these verses there is a crucial word or phrase with which we must be impressed.
In the previous chapter we saw fifteen items concerning the all-inclusive Spirit. The first item is that God is Spirit, and the last item is that the Spirit is the processed and consummated Triune God. These two items are the alpha and the omega of the points concerning the all-inclusive Spirit. The alpha is God being Spirit, and the omega is the Spirit. In this chapter we want to see the functions of the all-inclusive Spirit.
The functions of the all-inclusive Spirit involve God’s economy in His Trinity. God is uniquely one, yet in His Godhead there are three. The Divine Trinity — the Father, the Son, and the Spirit — is for God’s economy. Regretfully, the term economy is mostly missed today among Christians, even though it is strongly revealed in the New Testament, especially in Paul’s writings (Eph. 1:10; 3:9; 1 Tim. 1:4). The Trinity is for God’s economy, and God’s economy is for His heart’s desire. The greater a person is, the more and higher his desires and aspirations are. God is so great. He is thoughtful and full of desire. God’s economy is for Him to carry out His desire.
According to the revelation of the Bible, God as the Father, in the first person of His Godhead, made an economy, a plan, in eternity past to work out something for His heart’s desire. The Father is altogether related to the divine plan, the divine economy, the divine arrangement. After the making of such a plan, God as the Son came in the flesh to be a man for the purpose of fulfilling the Father’s plan to carry out His economy. God as the Father made an economy, and God as the Son came to accomplish this economy. Then God as the Spirit applies to us what God as the Son has accomplished. We need to remember these three simple points — God as the Father planned, God as the Son accomplished, and God as the Spirit applies what the Son accomplished. Today we are in the stage of the Spirit’s application. The Spirit’s application of what the Son has accomplished is the function of the Spirit.
The function of the all-inclusive Spirit is His commission. He has been commissioned by the Godhead in His Trinity to come to function in applying what God the Son, Christ, has accomplished according to what God the Father has planned in His economy. Today we are under the application of the third in the Godhead, who carries out what God in the second person has accomplished according to what God in the first person has planned in His economy. We have to cover all of this when we speak about the function of the all-inclusive Spirit.
This brief fellowship covers the entire Bible. The Bible first shows us God’s plan in the person of the Father. Then the Bible unveils to us God’s accomplishment of His plan in the person of the second in His Trinity. Then the third person comes to put everything of the second’s accomplishment into our experience. This is the function of the all-inclusive Spirit.
The first function of the all-inclusive Spirit is to convict sinners to repent and believe in Christ. This is according to John 16:7-11. This is a wonderful portion of the Word. Before going to Russia last year for the spread of the Lord’s recovery, the brothers came to me, and we had some fellowship concerning what truths we should bring to the people of Russia. I proposed that we bring them the seven wonders of the Bible. John 16:7-11 is included in the wonders of the Bible.
When the Lord Jesus spoke this in John 16, the Spirit of reality had not yet come. The Lord said that when the Spirit would come, He would convict the world concerning sin, concerning righteousness, and concerning judgment. When the Lord Jesus said this, He had not yet gone to the cross to accomplish redemption. He told His disciples that if He did not go away, the Comforter, the Spirit of reality, would not come to them (v. 7). The Son’s going was for the coming of the wonderful Spirit. After dying on the cross, the Son entered into resurrection. The Spirit of reality came on the day of His resurrection. This Spirit was breathed by the resurrected Christ into His disciples to be the reality of whatever Christ is and whatever Christ has accomplished (John 20:22). After forty days Christ ascended to the heavens, and ten days later, on the day of Pentecost, the fulfillment of fifty days, the Spirit came down as power upon the disciples (Acts 1:8). Such a Spirit came to convict the world, including all tribes, tongues, peoples, and nations (Rev. 5:9). This is the third step of God’s economy.
In the economy of God the first step is the Father’s planning, the second step is the Son’s accomplishing, and the third step is the Spirit’s application of Christ’s redemption. The third step is the coming of the Spirit to gain the people whom God intended to gain. Now in the Spirit’s application the first step is the convicting of the Spirit. Today our preaching of the gospel is to carry out the conviction of the Spirit. In preaching the gospel, we first have to learn to convict people. We should not merely say good things to people. We have to carry out the conviction of the Holy Spirit.
When people listen to us, they should be convicted first concerning righteousness, second concerning sin, and third concerning judgment. Righteousness is related to Christ, sin is related to Adam, and judgment is related to Satan. If people do not repent of the sin that is in Adam and believe into Christ as righteousness, they will remain in sin and share the judgment of Satan for eternity (Matt. 25:41). Christ, Adam, and Satan are the three persons that must be involved in our gospel preaching. The function of the all-inclusive Spirit is to convict the fallen people on this earth. Our commission is to convict people. The first step of the Spirit’s application is to convict people.
The second function of the all-inclusive Spirit is to sanctify sinners in the process of their repentance and their believing in Christ before their regeneration (1 Pet. 1:2a). To convict people is to sanctify them, and to sanctify them is to separate them. The United States is like a big ocean full of all kinds of fish, all kinds of people, for us to catch, but we do not know how to convict them. We do not know the “high tech” way to preach the gospel. The apostle Paul had many different ways to convict people. Once a man is convicted, he is separated, and to be separated is to be sanctified.
God’s sanctification, through His Spirit, of His chosen ones has two sections. The first section is before our repentance and believing, and the second section is after our regeneration. The first section of God the Spirit’s sanctification is a part of the convicting. This is the finding work of the woman, signifying the Spirit, in Luke 15:8-9. Many missionaries went to other countries for the purpose of separating people unto Christ, sanctifying them by convicting them. Many of the Chinese were disciples of Confucius before the missionaries went there. Their philosophy, their logic, and their ethical understanding were based on the teachings of Confucius. Eventually, many in the old, conservative country of China were sanctified, separated, from the teachings of Confucius to the gospel of Christ. First Peter 1:2a speaks of the sanctification of people before they believe in Christ. Before people believe in Christ they need such a sanctification, such a separation unto Christ.
The Spirit also functions to give life to the believing ones all the time (1 Cor. 15:45b; 2 Cor. 3:6b). While the Spirit is sanctifying the sinners and convicting them, this same Spirit is imparting life into them. We need to consider how the sanctifying, separating, convicting Spirit imparts life to the sinners. While the preachers are preaching the word, the sanctifying, separating, convicting Spirit shows the hearers the beauty of Christ. Spontaneously, there is a kind of aspiration within the hearers to appreciate Christ. Outwardly, the hearers may seem hard, saying that they do not want Jesus. But within, while they are hearing the word, there is an aspiration within them to desire Jesus. This appreciation is the beginning of their faith in Christ.
Thus, life is imparted into them, and that life is a person. Life is Christ (John 14:6a; Col. 3:4a). The beautiful, loving, and attracting Christ as life is imparted into them. Some who hear the gospel may be afraid of their parents and relatives, not daring to confess that they would be a Christian, yet within they have a kind of appreciation of Christ. Through the preaching, they get to know this beautiful Christ. Thus, in their heart faith is produced, and that faith is also Christ. The very life they appreciate is Christ, and even the believing act within them is Christ. At the time they believe, they begin to enjoy the Spirit as the life-giving One.
The all-inclusive Spirit regenerates the repentant and believing sinners. This is shown in John 3:5-6. Regeneration is the imparting into us of another life, the divine life, a life other than our human life. D. L. Moody said that regeneration is the greatest miracle in the universe. In an instant a person can become regenerated. He becomes another person, not only with another life but also with another person. The life and the person are one. Christ is His believers’ life; Christ is also His believers’ person. Before a person is regenerated, he lives merely by his life, by his person. But once he is regenerated, he receives another life, another person. Actually, the person is the life, and the life is the person. Thus, from the time of our regeneration, it is no longer we who live, but another person, Christ, lives in us (Gal. 2:20a). Now Christ is within us as our life.
After regeneration, the second section of sanctifying begins. We are regenerated, but we are still full of our natural peculiarity. Therefore, the Spirit functions to sanctify the believers after their regeneration (Rom. 6:19, 22; 15:16). This sanctification involves a transformation from the natural disposition to a spiritual one by Christ as the life-giving Spirit saturating all the inward parts of our being with God’s nature of holiness.
Because of our oldness, we all need to be renewed. The all-inclusive Spirit renews us (Titus 3:5). We are renewed first in our spirit and then in our soul, including our mind, emotion, and will. All the inward parts of our being have to be renewed. We should not think, feel, or decide according to our old, natural man. We are Christians, so we should be renewed in everything. Even in the way that we comb our hair, we need to be renewed. In the way that we keep and arrange our rooms, we need to be renewed. In selecting a pair of shoes and in shining our shoes, we need to be renewed. Everything in our life should bear a sign that we are God’s children, because we are renewed. We need to be renewed in our thinking, in our loving and hating, in our deciding, and in everything.
The Spirit also functions to transform the believers (2 Cor. 3:18). We need to be transformed from one form to another form. A mere outward change is not transformation. Transformation is a metabolic change within by the addition of a new element. Confucius taught renewing too, but his kind of renewing was outward without any new element added. Morticians use cosmetics to make the faces of corpses look colorful outwardly, but this is not transformation. When we are nourished with organic food, this nourishing carries out a kind of metabolic transformation within us to give us a healthy appearance. Transformation is a metabolic change.
I hope that all of us would change in a metabolic way. We should be beautiful metabolically in an organic transformation. The word transformed is used only two times in the New Testament — in 2 Corinthians 3:18 and in Romans 12:2. Second Corinthians 3:18 says that we are being transformed from glory to glory, even as from the Lord Spirit. The Spirit with the Lord as the element changes our being metabolically to accomplish transformation in us. Romans 12:2 charges us not to be fashioned according to this age but to be transformed by the renewing of the mind. I would encourage us to study these wonderful verses with the help of the footnotes in the Recovery Version. If you read 2 Corinthians 3:18 plus Romans 12:2 with all the footnotes, you will receive much help. We all need to experience the transforming Spirit.
Ephesians 1:13 shows us that the Spirit functions to seal the believers. The seal needs the sealing ink. When a piece of paper is sealed, the sealing ink saturates the paper. Then the sealed paper bears the appearance, the image, of the seal. Furthermore, the sealing transfuses the element of the ink into the paper. Then the sealing ink and the paper are mingled together as one.
The sealing of the Spirit is a fine point of the function of the all-inclusive Spirit. The Holy Spirit today is on us as a seal and is continually sealing us. We are like the paper absorbing the sealing element of the Holy Spirit as the seal into us. Because we have been sealed, we bear a mark indicating that we belong to our God, that we are God’s inheritance. When we put our seal upon a book, that seal indicates that the book is ours. God put His Spirit as His seal upon us, indicating that we are His possession.
The Spirit also functions as a pledge within the believers (Eph. 1:14; 2 Cor. 1:22b). A pledge is a guarantee. The Spirit as the pledge within us guarantees that God is our inheritance. The sealing indicates that we are God’s inheritance, and the pledging guarantees that God is our inheritance. This is clearly revealed in Ephesians 1:13-14. The crucial word in verse 13 is sealed, and the crucial word in verse 14 is pledge.
The all-inclusive Spirit is indwelling the believers (Rom. 8:11). The Spirit not only dwells within us but also indwells us. To indwell is to make home, or reside (cf. Eph. 3:17). Today the Spirit is within us, and He is functioning to indwell us.
All the functions of the all-inclusive Spirit are very mysterious and abstract. In each believer all these functions are acting day by day. The world does not see this, but we believers can realize the functions of the Spirit. This is because these functions are actions. The Spirit is moving within us every day, even every moment.
This indwelling Spirit is the leading Spirit. He leads the believers (Rom. 8:14; Gal. 5:18). Romans 8:14 says that as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God. We are the sons of God because we have a particular Guide, who leads us always in a particular way. Whatever the Spirit tells us in His leading of us is true. We have to listen to Him.
The Spirit also functions in witnessing, or testifying. First, He witnesses concerning Christ (John 15:26; 1 John 5:6). While the gospel preaching is going on, the Spirit is always working within the listeners in the way of witnessing. This is why many unbelievers wonder why certain preachers are so convincing. Actually, it is not they who are convincing. While they are speaking, another One, a witnessing person, the witnessing Spirit, is working in the listeners. Actually, the witnessing Spirit within the listeners speaks more than the speaker who is witnessing concerning Christ. Otherwise, how could people such as the conservative Chinese ever believe in Jesus? Logically speaking, this is impossible. But whenever a witness of Christ is speaking about Christ, another Witness, the Spirit, works to witness concerning Christ within the listeners.
Also, the Spirit witnesses with the spirit of the believers that they are children of God (Rom. 8:16). How do we know we are children of God? We know because there is an inner witnessing, and that witnessing is the witnessing Spirit with our spirit. The two spirits work together. Some who become fallen or defeated in their Christian life may go to a sinful place. But when they go, there is a checking within them that says, “Should a child of God be here?” The witnessing Spirit with our spirit is witnessing all the time, but many Christians are not used to listening to this inward witness. When we go shopping, there is always an inward checking, an inward witnessing, telling us that certain things are not what children of God should buy. In everything we do, we have the witnessing Spirit functioning within us.
The Spirit is the reality of Christ (John 15:26; 1 John 5:6). The Spirit is the reality of Christ’s death, the reality of Christ’s resurrection, and the reality of all the divine attributes of Christ. If you have the Spirit, you have Christ’s humility and Christ’s love. The reality of everything that Christ is, everything that Christ has, and even everything that Christ has accomplished is the Spirit.
Acts 9:31 says that the church went on in the comfort of the Holy Spirit. The churches were not only comforted but also were in the comfort of the Spirit. The word comfort in the Bible implies satisfaction, rest, and enlightenment. If you are satisfied, your thirst is quenched and you have rest. Also, you are not in darkness. No one in darkness can be comforted. Darkness itself is a trouble. When light is here, we are comforted. When light is gone, we are troubled. The church needs the comfort of the Spirit, which includes satisfaction, rest, and enlightenment.
The all-inclusive Spirit is the joy in the believers for the kingdom of God (Rom. 14:17; Acts 13:52). Romans 14:17 says that the kingdom of God is righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit. Acts 13:52 says that the disciples were filled with joy and with the Holy Spirit. Thus, one of the functions of the Spirit is to make us joyful. He is our joy.
The above fifteen items should give us a view of the functions of the Spirit. They show us how the Spirit functions to apply to us what Christ is, what Christ has, what Christ has accomplished, and even what Christ will do. In other words, the functioning Spirit is making the Triune God in what He is, what He has, what He has accomplished, and what He will accomplish, one with us. Thus, the Christian life is a life by the all-inclusive Spirit.
