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In 1 Corinthians 6:11 Christ is presented as the Washer and the Spirit: “But you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God.” In contrast to the washing, sanctifying, and justifying in 1 John 1:7, Hebrews 10:29, and Romans 3:24-25, the washing, sanctifying, and justifying in 1 Corinthians 6:11 are not by the blood in an objective way. They are the subjective washing of regeneration as in Titus 3:5, the subjective sanctifying by the Spirit as in Romans 15:16, and the subjective justifying in the Spirit as in this verse in 1 Corinthians 6. All these items of God’s salvation were accomplished in us in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ (that is, in the person of the Lord, in an organic union with the Lord through faith) and in the Spirit of God (that is, in the power and realization of the Holy Spirit). First, we were washed from the sinful things; second, we were sanctified, separated unto God, transformed by God; and third, we were justified, accepted, by God.
According to 1 Corinthians 6:11, it is in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God that we were washed, sanctified, and justified. In the New Testament the expression in the name of the Lord actually means in the person of the Lord, because the name denotes the person. Moreover, by speaking of “in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God,” Paul indicates that we need to link the name of the Lord with the Spirit of our God. The name is the person, and the person is the Spirit of our God. It is in this person, the Triune God, that we were washed, sanctified, and justified. Here washing, sanctifying, and justifying are not merely outward, objective, and positional; rather, they are inward, subjective, and dispositional. Such intrinsic washing, sanctifying, and justifying are carried out by the Triune God Himself in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ, that is, the Spirit of our God.
We are washed, sanctified, and justified in the name of the Lord Jesus. If a person with a certain name does not exist, the name is in vain, but when we call a living person by name, that person responds. In like manner, when we call on the name of the Lord Jesus, He responds, and we experience the person of the Lord. The Lord is a living person, not merely a name. Therefore, whenever we call on the name of the Lord Jesus, we call on the person of the Lord. Since the name is the person and the person is the Spirit, when we call on the name of the Lord, He comes to us as the Spirit. By experience we know that when we continue to call on the name of the Lord, enjoying His name and His Spirit, we are continually washed, sanctified, and justified. However, when we cease to call on the Lord, the subjective experience of the washing, sanctifying, and justifying is no longer ours.
We may experience this subjective washing, sanctifying, and justifying day by day. There is a person within us, and His name is Jesus Christ. He is constantly working within us to wash us, sanctify us, and to justify us. This person is actually the Spirit, the Spirit of Jesus Christ; He is also the Spirit of our God. Hence, the Triune God embodied in Christ and realized as the Spirit is the Washer and the Spirit.
Christ is the Washer and the Spirit, and we are joined to Him as one spirit. First Corinthians 6:17 says, “He who is joined to the Lord is one spirit.” In this verse the word joined refers to the believers’ organic union with the Lord through believing into Him (John 3:15-16). This union is illustrated by that of the branches with the vine (15:4-5). It is a matter not only of life but in life (the divine life). Such a union with the resurrected Lord can only be in our spirit.
The expression one spirit indicates the mingling of the Lord as the Spirit with our spirit. Our spirit has been regenerated by the Spirit of God (3:6), who is now in us (1 Cor. 6:19) and is one with our spirit (Rom. 8:16). This is the realization of the Lord, who became the life-giving Spirit through resurrection (1 Cor. 15:45; 2 Cor. 3:17) and who is now with our spirit (2 Tim. 4:22). This mingled spirit is often referred to in Paul’s Epistles, as in Romans 8:4-6.
Not only have we been saved and redeemed; we are even one spirit with the Lord, and as a result, we have the divine life and nature. We are not simply one with Him in a general way. We are actually one spirit with Him. We should testify with assurance that we truly believe that we are one spirit with the Lord. We need to see this experientially as well as doctrinally. We all need to humble ourselves before the Lord and pray: “Lord, show us the vision that we are one spirit with You. I am not satisfied with a mere doctrinal knowledge of this. Lord, open the heavens and cause us to see that we are now one spirit with You.”
At the time we were saved and regenerated, our spirit was joined to the Lord, and we became one with Him. When we were saved and regenerated, we entered into an organic union with the Triune God. This union is real and vital. As a result of salvation and redemption, the Lord dispensed Himself into our spirit and made us one with Him. Now, no matter what we do, we cannot separate ourselves from being one with Him in spirit. Even if we would seek to break this union, the Lord would not agree. What a wonder that sinners such as we can be one spirit with the Lord!
To be one spirit with the Lord is to enter into an organic union with Him, to be united with Him organically. Such a union with the resurrected Christ can only be in our spirit, because Christ today is the life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45) and is now with our spirit. We must exercise and practice to experience the Lord as the life-giving Spirit dwelling in our spirit. This is to practice being one spirit with the Lord.
The Christian life is not a religious life or an ethical life; rather, it is a life of being one spirit with the Lord. According to God’s New Testament economy, the Lord desires to come into us, to become one with us, and to make us one with Him. The requirement in the New Testament is that we live one spirit with the Lord. We should live Christ by being one spirit with Him. We need to pray to the Lord in the morning: “I thank You for another day in which to practice being one spirit with You. Lord, grant me this day’s portion of grace that I may live one spirit with You.” The more we are one spirit with Him in our daily living, the more we will enjoy salvation, sanctification, and transformation.
In 1 Corinthians 7:22-23 Christ is revealed as the Master of the believers: “The slave who has been called in the Lord is the Lord’s freedman; likewise the free man who has been called is Christ’s slave. You were bought with a price; do not be slaves of men.” These verses indicate that believers inwardly should be slaves only of Christ; they should not become slaves of men. Christ bought the believers with a price, that is, with His precious blood (6:20; Acts 20:28; 1 Pet. 1:18-19; Rev. 5:9). As a result, the believers become His slaves to serve Him by doing the will of God (Eph. 6:6-7). We must consider Him as our Master, and we must daily serve Him by doing the will of God.
In keeping with this, Paul in Ephesians 6:5-7 says, “Slaves, be obedient to those who are your masters according to the flesh with fear and trembling, in singleness of your heart, as to Christ; not with eye-service as men-pleasers but as slaves of Christ, doing the will of God from the soul; with good will serving as slaves, as serving the Lord and not men.” Paul exhorts the slaves to obey with fear and trembling in singleness of heart, as to Christ. In other words, the slaves are to be in obedience to their masters as to Christ. This means that the slaves are to regard their masters as if they were the Lord. The relationship between slaves and masters is a type of our relationship with Christ, our Master. We should obey Him as a slave, in singleness of heart.
A slave is to do the will of God from the soul. The expression from the soul equals from the heart, from the inner being. This means to serve not only with the physical body but with the heart. The slaves were to serve “as serving the Lord and not men.” This indicates that Paul’s intention was to direct the slaves to the Lord. As the slaves of Christ, the believers must obey Him as their Master and do the will of God from the soul.
In 1 Corinthians 10:3-4 Christ is presented as the spiritual food and the spiritual rock.
As the spiritual food, Christ nourishes the believers. In verse 3 Paul says, “All ate the same spiritual food.” The expression spiritual food refers to manna (Exo. 16:14-18), typifying Christ as our daily life supply (John 6:31-35) for the Christian journey. We believers should all eat the same spiritual food and should not eat anything other than Christ. Christ as the heavenly manna should be the unique food for God’s people.
John 6 reveals Christ as the real manna, as the heavenly food given to us by God. As the real manna, Christ was sent by God the Father for God’s chosen people to live by Christ. In verses 32 and 33 He said, “My Father gives you the true bread out of heaven. For the bread of God is He who comes down out of heaven and gives life to the world.” Then in verse 35 He declared, “I am the bread of life; he who comes to Me shall by no means hunger.” In verse 57 He went on to say, “He who eats Me, he also shall live because of Me.” Without eating Christ as the real manna, it is impossible for us to live by Christ.
Moreover, manna signifies that Christ as the heavenly food is to be dispensed into us for our nourishment in order to constitute us a heavenly people. Every human being is a constitution of the food he has eaten. Food is anything we take into us for our satisfaction, and the food we eat enters into us organically and becomes our constitution. Before their exodus from Egypt, the children of Israel had an Egyptian constitution. The book of Numbers shows that while the children of Israel journeyed in the wilderness, they remembered the fish, cucumbers, melons, leeks, onions, and garlic that they had eaten freely in Egypt (11:5). This diet made the children of Israel Egyptian in their constitution.
God gave the children of Israel manna to eat in order to change their diet from the earthly to the heavenly. While the children of Israel journeyed for forty years in the wilderness, the divine diet replaced their Egyptian diet. Through the change of their diet, the children of Israel became a constitution of the heavenly diet. Thus, they became no longer an Egyptian people but a heavenly people.
Manna typifies Christ as our heavenly food, our bread of life, and our living bread (35, John 6:41, 48, 50-51). What helps us most in our daily living with the Lord is eating Christ as heavenly food. By eating Christ we become Christ; that is, Christ becomes our constituent. If we eat Christ, we become Him and then live Him. As we partake of Him as our heavenly food day by day, He is reconstituting us to change our inward constitution. From the first day Christ entered into us, we should take Him as our daily food to be constituted with Christ as our heavenly diet so that we may become a heavenly people.
In 1 Corinthians 10:4 Paul goes on to say, “All drank the same spiritual drink; for they drank of a spiritual rock which followed them, and the rock was Christ.” As the spiritual rock, Christ follows the believers to give them the spiritual drink. The spiritual drink in verse 4 refers to the living water that flowed out of the cleft rock (Exo. 17:6), typifying the Spirit, who flowed out of the crucified and resurrected Christ, as our all-inclusive drink (John 7:37-39; 1 Cor. 12:13). In His crucifixion Christ, as the living, spiritual rock, was smitten by the authority of God’s law in order that the water of life in resurrection could flow out of Him into His redeemed people for them to drink. The water of life flowing out of the smitten rock signifies the Spirit (John 7:37-39). We should all drink the same spiritual drink and should not drink anything other than the all-inclusive Spirit.
The rock that was smitten and cleft to flow out the living water for God’s chosen people was a physical rock. Yet the apostle called it a spiritual rock because it typified Christ, who was smitten and cleft by God to flow out the water of life (John 19:34) to satisfy the thirst of His believers. Hence, the apostle said that the rock was Christ. Since it was a spiritual rock signifying Christ, it was able to follow the children of Israel. This indicates that Christ as the real rock is following His believers.
Paul was bold to say that the physical rock of Exodus 17:6 was a spiritual rock and that this rock was Christ. In actuality the rock in Exodus 17 was physical. However, we need to have a spiritual view of this physical rock and see through the physical into the spiritual. Because Paul viewed this rock according to his spiritual sight, in his eyes it was a spiritual rock. To him, that rock was Christ, and he boldly declared this in 1 Corinthians 10:4.
Through incarnation Christ came to earth as the rock. On the cross He was smitten by the authority of God’s righteous law to accomplish God’s redemption. His side was pierced, and living water flowed out for God’s people to drink (John 19:34). This living water is the water of life in resurrection, the all-inclusive life-giving Spirit as the ultimate issue of the Triune God. This water of life quenches our thirst and satisfies our being.
To drink of the water of life, we first need to be positioned to drink (1 Cor. 12:13), and we also need to be thirsty (John 7:37; Rev. 21:6). Then we need to come to the Lord (John 7:37; Rev. 22:17), to ask of the Lord (John 4:10; cf. Num. 20:8), and to call on the name of the Lord (Isa. 12:3-4; Acts 2:21).
As the spiritual rock, Christ follows the believers to be the source of living water to them (Exo. 17:6; John 4:14). Mainly, the Lord led the children of Israel through the wilderness into the good land in a pillar of cloud by day and in a pillar of fire by night (Exo. 13:21), but in regard to many details, the Lord followed them in their journey through the wilderness because they were disobedient to His leading. Likewise, mainly the Lord is leading us, the New Testament believers, into glory (Heb. 2:10), but in regard to many details He is following us because of our disobedience. For example, He does not want us to go to certain places. Yet when we go to those places, He does not give up on us; rather, He still follows us with a purpose of bringing us back under His leading.
On the one hand, the Lord was leading the children of Israel through the wilderness into the good land; as a result, they entered into the good land. On the other hand, while the children of Israel wandered in the wilderness for forty years, the Lord was following these foolish people. Today we need to know that as the spiritual rock Christ is following us, who often foolishly wander in the wilderness of our soul. Ultimately, He will achieve His purpose to bring us into Himself as the reality of the good land. We will then tell the Lord, “You are the Lord. We were so foolish when we wandered in the wilderness of our soul for many years. Yet through these years of wandering, our real condition — our sinfulness, our unfaithfulness, and our shortage of the living water — was exposed. As the spiritual rock, You nevertheless followed us to give us the spiritual drink in order to quench our thirst and to bring us back under Your leading. Eventually, You have brought us into Yourself as the good land of Canaan.”
As our guide, Christ not only leads us but also follows us. The Christ who follows us as the spiritual rock flows out the life-giving Spirit as the living water to satisfy our thirst. The fact that the spiritual rock followed the children of Israel indicates that they were not obedient to the Lord. Although they were disobedient to Him, they had the rock following them, and the living water flowed out of the rock to quench the thirst of these sinful people. According to the intrinsic significance of 1 Corinthians 10:4, the situation of the New Testament believers is exactly the same as that of the children of Israel in the Old Testament. Christ is leading us, yet we are not obedient to Him. Hence, as the spiritual rock He follows us to flow out His eternal life in order to quench our thirst and, ultimately, to carry out God’s purpose, that is, to bring us all into the all-inclusive Christ as the reality of the good land.
