Search
Date:June 13, 1948Place:Customs Lane, Foochow Scripture Reading:Acts 2:24-28, 31-34; 1 Cor. 12:12-13; Eph. 1:19-23
The Bible mainly speaks of three subjects. The first is resurrection, the second is the Holy Spirit, and the third is the church. The human mind cannot comprehend these three things because they are beyond human imagination and description. All three things are revealed to us by the Spirit of the Lord.
In order to understand these things, we have to go back to Genesis. When man was created by God, he was created perfect, but not complete. Other forms of creatures were both perfect and complete, but man was perfect yet not complete. After God created man, He placed him in front of the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Man was free to choose between the two. This proves that God's creation of man was not complete. In God's eyes man was not complete. Even though man did not have the knowledge of good and evil, he needed God's life, as typified by the tree of life. When man was created, he was living, but he did not have God's life. He needed to take one more step. Man is not complete until he has God's life (typified by the tree of life). However, before man ate of the tree of life, he first ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. He made the wrong choice and delayed his completion. Therefore, man has not reached the peak of his potential. In God's eyes man is still short of something. Today, even at his loftiest height, man is still short of God's glory. Man is limited, and even at his best he is still short. We can say that the whole Old Testament, from the first chapter of Genesis to the last chapter of Malachi, is a development of the creation story; it is a continuation of God's creation. Although Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, David, etc., were good, they were still short in God's eyes; they were not able to reach God's original goal in His creation. Although they had God's image, they did not have His likeness. Image refers to the outward shape while likeness refers to inward character and disposition.
During the past six thousand years, God's work of creation in man has not stopped. God has made no advance as far as the creation of other species is concerned. He has not created more kinds of flowers, birds, horses, etc. These things were complete and perfect from the day they were created; there was no room for improvement, but man has never been completed. In Genesis 1:26 God said, "Let us make man in our image, after our likeness." Man is created according to God's image and likeness. The word image signifies outward appearance; it does not refer to the inward nature. Adam was created a living soul. He did not have God's Spirit in him. Therefore, he was not complete; he was an unfinished piece. Adam needed God Himself, typified by the tree of life, to be his very nature.
Man did not reach God's standard at the time of Genesis. This went on until the time of the Lord Jesus. Adam had God's outward appearance, but he was not like God in his nature. When he fell, he came short of the glory of God (Rom. 3:23). He lost God's likeness. Before the Lord Jesus was incarnated, there was not a single man on earth up to the standard. Sages of past centuries have tried to reach the standard through their asceticism and stoic practices, but they are still short of God. There is a distinction between the Old Testament and the New Testament. In the Old Testament man did not reach God's goal. In the New Testament one man was after God's heart. He is the complete man.
Thank the Lord! What God longed for in ages past, but did not find, is finally here in the New Testament. That man is Christ. In the Lord Jesus God found the man whom He was after. The Lord Jesus is the model man. Christ is not merely a representative of man; He is a representative man. He is the man whom God is after.
While the Lord Jesus was on earth, He was perfect in His character but not in His power. Our Lord was limited in power. This is the reason it was not enough for Him to live thirty-three and a half years. He needed to go through resurrection. This is something beyond our mental power of comprehension. Brothers and sisters, this is a tremendous matter, but it is useless to try to fathom it with the mind. Without revelation, no one will be interested in this subject, just as a village simpleton has no interest whatsoever in the atomic bomb. Why did the Lord need resurrection? He was limited in time and space on earth. Some who came and looked for Him had to remove a roof to reach Him (Mark 2:1-4). One had to press against the crowd to touch the hem of His garment (5:24-27). The centurion was an exception; he had a faith that bypassed the pressing of the crowd. The Lord commended his faith as being great. His servant was ill, and he asked the Lord to say a word so that his servant would be healed (Luke 7:6-10). The centurion's word, in effect, acknowledged that the Lord was beyond time and space. His servant was immediately healed. Here was a man who had revelation. The Lord was conceived through the Holy Spirit (Matt. 1:20; Luke 1:35). As far as His character was concerned, He was the pinnacle of God's creation of man. Yet as far as His power was concerned, He was still limited. This is the reason there is the need of resurrection.
Let us consider the meaning of resurrection. Resurrection means that God has secured a representative man for Himself. Hebrews 1:5 says, "You are My Son; this day have I begotten You." According to Acts 13:33, this verse refers to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. Resurrection means that the model man Jesus is now no longer bound by anything. He lives now for eternity. The Lord's resurrection broke all the barriers of the natural realm. First Peter 1:3 says that we are saved and regenerated through His resurrection. There was the possibility of the Lord's death when He lived on the earth, but after His resurrection, death was destroyed, and He lives forever and ever. The potential and the power of death were forever destroyed.
Hallelujah! God worked on man for four thousand years. The man He sought after is finally here. God declared to the Lord Jesus at His resurrection, "You are My Son; today I have begotten You" (Acts 13:33). He did not declare this in Bethlehem at the Lord's birth. It was after the Lord's resurrection from the dead that God pronounced with joy, "You are My Son; today I have begotten You." Through the Lord's resurrection God secured the man He wants.
What is the meaning of resurrection? It means that a man has broken through all barriers, even the greatest barrier of all — death. All barriers were destroyed through the Lord Jesus in His resurrection. The New Testament speaks a few times of the raising of the dead. For example, there were the widow's son in Nain (Luke 7:11-15), the daughter of Jairus, a ruler of the synagogue (Matt. 9:18-25), and Lazarus (John 11). However, even the raising of Lazarus was merely a kind of coming back to life or resuscitation. He was bound by grave clothes and would not have been able to walk if others had not loosed him. Eventually, Lazarus still died. Only the Lord's resurrection was a total destruction of death. When He resurrected, He faced death no longer. The Bible shows us that only the Lord is resurrection. Mr. T. Austin-Sparks said in reference to the Lord's resurrection that with Him there is no such thing as coming and going. With Him there is only a matter of appearing and disappearing. He does not come; He appears. He does not go; He disappears. It is no longer a question of coming and going but of being visible or not visible. In John 20:16-17, on the morning of His resurrection, the Lord told Mary the Magdalene not to touch Him because He was not the same as before. As for Thomas's touching His side, it was a matter of faith. He wanted Thomas to touch in faith. It is possible to touch the resurrected Lord by faith. It is not a matter of coming and going with the resurrected Lord; it is altogether a matter of revelation. Man's biggest limitations are time and space, but these two things cannot limit the Lord. Resurrection means that all limitations have been broken. Hallelujah, our Lord Jesus is no longer bound by anything today! As long as we live in the Holy Spirit, we can touch the Lord. The Lord is in our midst, and all barriers are broken.
The Lord journeyed from beyond the Jordan to Judea after Lazarus died. When He arrived, Martha said, "Lord, if You had been here, my brother would not have died." The Lord said, "Your brother will rise again." She answered, "I know that he will rise again in the resurrection in the last day" (John 11:21-24). The Lord immediately replied, "I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes into Me, even if he should die, shall live....Do you believe this?" (vv. 25-26). In effect, the Lord was saying, "I am the last day! If you believe into Me, you will see resurrection now. Wherever I am, time no longer exists, and the `last day' no longer exists." As soon as resurrection comes in, the element of time is over. If resurrection is absent, time is a big factor, but wherever resurrection is, time is no longer an issue because resurrection is not bound by time.
Moreover, resurrection is not bound by space either. The two disciples on the way to Emmaus saw the resurrected Lord, but the disciples in Jerusalem also saw Him on the same day (Luke 24:13-35). When the Son of God resurrected, He transcended geography and time. In His resurrection there is no such thing as a sequence of time. He does not have a time schedule for His work. He does not have to wait three or five years for something to happen. The matter of time and space no longer exists. Today everyone on the whole earth can touch Him at the same time.
The greatest limitation on earth is death; nothing can extend beyond the confines of death. Death is the ultimate limitation of all living creatures. However, when the Lord resurrected, He destroyed this sepulchral limitation. Death is the greatest limitation, but resurrection has conquered death. Therefore, resurrection is the greatest power of all. We began talking about resurrection as early as 1926. But even now we are only touching the hem of the resurrected Lord's garment; we are still far off. If we can touch a little more, we will transcend death and everything else. This is the greatest power of all. Once we touch the power of resurrection, it will be easy to spread the gospel of the kingdom to all of China. Resurrection power is the greatest of all powers.
What then is the Holy Spirit? In Acts 2:33 Peter preached the gospel to the Jews. He told them that the Lord was exalted to the right hand of God, had received the promise of the Holy Spirit from the Father, and had poured out this Spirit on men. Therefore, the power of the Holy Spirit is the power of resurrection. This means that the Lord installed the power of resurrection and even resurrection itself into the Holy Spirit when He sent this Spirit to us. As soon as a man touches the Holy Spirit, he touches resurrection. Once a man is in the Spirit, he touches the Lord of resurrection. The Holy Spirit testifies to the resurrection of the Lord. While the Lord was on the earth, some leaned on His bosom. Others kissed Him, pressed upon Him, or received from His hands. He washed the feet and touched the hands of many. It was possible to touch the Lord then. However, this kind of touch cannot compare with our touch today. Today we are not bound by time and space. The resurrected Lord is now in the Holy Spirit. What we see today far exceeds what men saw then. The church has been able to go on continuously for two thousand years because men have inwardly seen the Lord in a clear way. Outwardly we do not see as clearly as the men in the four Gospels, but inwardly our knowledge of the Lord far exceeds that of those in the four Gospels. Once we are in the Spirit, we touch the resurrected Lord. The single, most important work of the Holy Spirit today is to transmit the resurrected Lord to men. The Holy Spirit is not transmitting the Christ of the Gospels to men, but the Christ in resurrection. When men saw the Lord on earth, they could only tell how tall He was, how wise He was, or how old He looked. Some could say that they saw Him when He was twelve or that they knew His brothers. However, we who are in the Holy Spirit today are not bound by time and space. We are touching the Christ who is not limited by time and space.
The Lord has transcended all barriers. Today the Holy Spirit is here to testify of this transcendent Christ. If a man claims to know the Holy Spirit yet does not know the transcendency of the resurrected Christ, he does not know the Christ in the Holy Spirit. The power of resurrection is in the Holy Spirit. Ephesians 1:21 says that when the resurrected Christ was uplifted, He transcended all rule and authority and power and lordship and every name that is named not only in this age but also in that which is to come. God made the resurrected Christ to sit at His right hand and exalted Him to a place that is far beyond human understanding. He has transcended all the names that man can name, not only in this age but also in the age that is coming. Resurrection means the breaking down of all barriers. Only the self-existing and ever-existing One can transcend all, yet God decrees that even those who are not self-existing and ever-existing can transcend all as well. The work of the Holy Spirit today is to reveal this resurrection power to us. We have to see that the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of resurrection. The Spirit that transcends everything is the Holy Spirit.
Let us move on to the church. What is the church? The church is where the Lord is the Head and we are the Body. What is the relationship between the church and resurrection, and what is the relationship between the church and the Holy Spirit? Ephesians 1:19-20 speaks of the surpassing greatness of His power which God caused to operate in Christ. The church is the place where God demonstrates the operation of the might of His strength, according to the power which He caused to operate in Christ. We have to pay attention to the words according to. They mean that God is causing the same degree of might and strength that operated in Christ to now operate in the church. Those who have might do not necessarily have strength, and those who have strength do not necessarily have might, but here we have "the might of His strength." The same might of strength which God caused to operate in Christ is now similarly operating in the church. The church can now experience the same might and strength that the Lord experienced. The church is the same as the resurrected Lord not only in nature but also in power. If this were not so, everything about the church would be vanity. Just as God broke through all barriers in the Lord, He is breaking through all barriers in the church. Therefore, the church should be the same as the resurrected Lord. It should be as powerful, as free, and as unfettered by any limitation as the Lord is. Otherwise, it cannot be called the church. The might of God's strength not only operated in Christ, but it continually operates in the church as well. Today the church is the depository and storehouse of the power of resurrection. This is the church. Anything less than this will not do. The church is the Body of Christ. Therefore, this might and strength cannot be anything less than they should be.
Following verses 19 and 20, verse 22 says that God has not only caused Christ to rise from the dead and to transcend all things but that He has also "subjected all things under His feet and gave Him to be Head over all things to the church." He is resurrected, and He is in glory. He is no longer a humble Nazarene, but the victorious Christ. All things are under His feet today. When the Lord was on earth, He was a perfect man, but He was not yet the Head of the church. He was the Head but not the glorified Head. At that time death was not yet totally annulled. Many Bible teachers in their foolishness insist on finding the church in the four Gospels, but no one can find the church in the four Gospels, because Jesus in the four Gospels was a limited man. If there was only this first portion of the Word, the church would only be a limited and finite institution. We may think that the Lord's power and authority on earth were great enough, but God said that this was not enough. He had to pass through death and resurrection, and the Holy Spirit had to come before He could commit the power of resurrection to the church. Today the church has received this power supply from the ascended and glorified Christ. Therefore, there is no problem that the church cannot solve and no temptation that the church cannot overcome because the power of the church is the resurrection power of Christ, the same power that subjected all things under His feet. It is no less than the very power that operated in Christ.
When the Lord was on the earth, there was no church, because Christ was not yet resurrected; everything was bound. The church was produced after Christ rose from the dead, ascended to the height, and poured forth the Holy Spirit. The church became the Body of Christ after the Lord's resurrection. The church is filled with all that He is; it is the very vessel which holds the resurrected Christ. This is the meaning of the church. The Lord Jesus has passed through everything and has inherited everything. Nevertheless, He is only the Head. The church is His Body; it bears His characteristics. The church is what Christ is in Himself. Just as Christ is unlimited, the church is also unlimited. Nothing can match the relationship between Christ and the church. The body is the best analogy because the head and all the members share the same life and bear the same characteristics. If I make a chair, I can make it without one leg, but the Body of Christ cannot be short of a leg.
We believers were given to drink one Spirit. This Spirit constitutes us the one Body of Christ. Therefore, when two persons on earth touch the resurrection of Christ, whatever they bind will be bound and whatever they loose will be loosed (Matt. 18:18-20). The minimum number for the church to function is two. If two persons touch the power of resurrection and stand on resurrection ground, everything will have to obey them and go along with them. In the past the church did not know this. Perhaps we have to go through many years before we experience this, but now we know what the church is. Once we know the church, all problems go away in an instant. We might have had a hard problem in the past which we could not overcome personally. Now our problems are settled in an instant. Today the church is the depository of the resurrection power of Christ. What is the Holy Spirit doing today? He is manifesting the resurrection power of Christ through the church. All the problems are over now. The Lord said that the gates of Hades cannot prevail against the church. Personally, I believe that the gates here refer to all the gates of Hades. They are all open to the church, and they cannot prevail against the church because Hades represents death, and the church represents resurrection. This is the reason the church is victorious. Whether or not the Lord has a way on earth today is not a matter of changing our behavior or knowing some truth. Some must be ready to pay the price to know resurrection, to know the Holy Spirit, and to know the church. When we know these things, the church will have a glorious testimony.
Practically speaking, every one of us has touched a little resurrection at one time or another. Personal salvation is an example of the operation of resurrection. But the power of resurrection can do more: A man is able to suffer for the Lord or even to die and be martyred for Him. First Corinthians 15 speaks of the truth of resurrection. Verse 58 concludes with us abounding in the work of the Lord. The power which sustains us in such a work is the power of resurrection. A man also can bear the cross, receive spiritual training, see light, and be sanctified through the power of resurrection.
Throughout the last two thousand years this truth has been released a little here and a little there. Today the truth is revealed in its present advanced stage. It is a great thing when a person stands on resurrection ground today. I feel that we have not seen enough of the Lord's resurrection today. He is powerful to subdue everything and to transcend everything. Yet by Himself He is only the Head. The amazing thing, however, is that the Lord wants to become one with us. This corporate man is not limited by anything; he is able to manifest God's power. This is too great a thing. Unless we know this revelation and bear this testimony, we cannot make any progress. We will save ourselves much time and energy if we receive some light from the Lord and have our eyes opened to this fact. May the Lord be merciful to us and open our eyes to see resurrection, the Holy Spirit, and the church.
