Search
In Galatians 1:16 Christ is presented as the One revealed in the apostle. When Saul of Tarsus, on his way to Damascus to bind those who call upon the Lord’s name, was opposing Christ and persecuting the churches, Christ appeared to him. When Christ met him there, he saw Christ, was captured by the appearing of Christ, and became Paul the apostle. Years after his conversion, the apostle declared in Galatians 1:15-16 that it pleased God to reveal His Son in him. Here Paul did not say that Christ revealed Himself to him but that the Father in His pleasure revealed Christ into Paul. This revelation was not merely an outward vision but an inward seeing. Paul had an inner vision of Christ; inwardly he began to see Christ. This inner vision made him and qualified him to be an apostle in order that he might present the very Christ who had been revealed in him, rather than merely teaching doctrines and theology according to a certain religion.
In 1:11-12 Paul says, “I make known to you, brothers, concerning the gospel announced by me, that it is not according to man. For neither did I receive it from man, nor was I taught it, but I received it through a revelation by Jesus Christ.” These verses reveal that Paul’s gospel was not taught by man, that man was not the source of his gospel, and that he received a marvelous revelation of the gospel directly from the Lord Himself.
The apostle received the gospel through the revelation of Christ. Here the revelation of Christ does not refer merely to a revelation received through Jesus Christ or to the revelation concerning Christ. Rather, it refers to the person of Christ, who was revealed in the apostle. Paul received the gospel through such a personal revelation. Revelation is the opening of the veil in order to show something hidden from view. One day God opened the veil to Paul, and he immediately saw the revealed Christ.
The gospel that the apostle received through the revelation of Christ is the center of God’s revelation in the New Testament (Rom. 1:1, 9). Paul’s gospel is a revelation of the Triune God processed to become the all-inclusive life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45b; 2 Cor. 3:17; Gal. 3:2, 5, 14). His gospel is centered on the Triune God being our life in order to be one with us and to make us one with Him so that we may be the Body of Christ to express Christ in a corporate way (Rom. 8:11; 12:4-5; Eph. 1:22-23). The focal point of Paul’s gospel is God Himself in His Trinity becoming the processed all-inclusive Spirit to be life and everything to us for our enjoyment so that He and we may be one to express Him for eternity (Gal. 4:4, 6; 3:13-14, 26-28; 6:15).
Christ, a living person, is the focus of Paul’s gospel. Hence, the book of Galatians is emphatically Christ-centered. Christ was crucified to redeem us out of the curse of the law and rescue us out of the present evil religious course of the world (3:1, 13; 1:4, 15-16). Christ was resurrected from the dead that He might live in us (v. 1; 2:20). We were baptized into Christ, being identified with Him, and we have put on Christ, clothing ourselves with Him; thus, we are in Christ and have become of Him (3:27-29; 5:24). Christ has been revealed in us, He is now living in us, and He will be formed in us (1:16; 2:20; 4:19). To Christ the law has conducted us, and in Christ we are all sons of God (3:24, 26). In Christ we inherit God’s promised blessing and enjoy the all-inclusive Spirit (v. 14). In Christ we all are one (v. 28). We should not be deprived of all profit from Christ and thus be separated, severed, from Him (5:4). We need Christ to supply us with grace in our spirit that we may live Him (6:18). God’s desire is that His chosen people receive His Son into them; this is the gospel (1:15-16; 2:20; 4:19).
In Galatians 1:15 and 16a Paul says, “It pleased God, who set me apart from my mother’s womb and called me through His grace, to reveal His Son in me.” The Son of God, as the embodiment and expression of God the Father (John 1:18; 14:9-11; Heb. 1:3), is life to us (John 10:10; 1 John 5:12; Col. 3:4). God’s heart’s desire is to reveal His Son in us that we may know Him, receive Him as our life (John 17:3; 3:16), and become the sons of God (1:12; Gal. 4:5-6). As the Son of the living God (Matt. 16:16), He is far superior to Judaism and its traditions (Gal. 1:13-14). The Judaizers had bewitched the Galatians into considering that the ordinances of the law were above the Son of the living God. Hence, in the opening of this Epistle the apostle testified that he had been deeply involved and had become far advanced in the realm of Judaism, but that God had rescued him out of that course of the world, which was evil in God’s eyes, by revealing His Son in him. In his experience he realized that there was no comparison between the Son of the living God and Judaism with its dead traditions handed down from his forefathers.
In 1:16 Paul emphasizes the fact that the Son of God was revealed in him. This indicates that God’s revealing of His Son to us is in us; it is not outward but inward, not by an outward vision but by an inward seeing. It is not an objective revelation but a subjective one.
Moreover, Paul says that it pleased God to reveal His Son in him. This indicates that to reveal the Son of God brings pleasure to God. Nothing is more pleasing to God than the unveiling, the revelation, of the living person of the Son of God.
At the time appointed by God, when Saul, zealous in his religion, was persecuting the church, the Son of God was revealed to him. God could bear with Saul’s zeal for the traditions of his fathers, for this produced a dark background against which to reveal Christ. At a time which was pleasing to Him, God revealed His Son in Saul of Tarsus. God was pleased to reveal to him the living person of the Son of God. To reveal His Son in us is a pleasure to God. It is Christ, the Son of God — not the law — in whom God the Father is always pleased (Matt. 3:17; 12:18; 17:5).
God’s Son, a living person, is versus man’s religion. This was true at the time of Saul of Tarsus, it has been true throughout the centuries, and it is true today. Instead of focusing his attention on this living person, man has a natural tendency to direct his attention to religion with its tradition. But from Genesis 1 through Revelation 22 the Bible reveals a living person. God cares only for this living person.
The record of the experience of the disciples with the Lord Jesus on the Mount of Transfiguration illustrates this (Matt. 17:1-8). After bringing Peter, James, and John up into a high mountain apart, the Lord Jesus “was transfigured before them, and His face shone like the sun, and His garments became as white as the light” (v. 2). Along with the other two disciples, Peter saw the Lord’s glory. He also saw Moses and Elijah speaking with Him. Although it is doubtful that Moses and Elijah were in glory, they nonetheless were speaking with the glorified Jesus. According to Matthew 17:4, Peter said to Jesus, “Lord, it is good for us to be here; if You are willing, I will make three tents here, one for You and one for Moses and one for Elijah.” In making this suggestion, Peter was elevating Moses and Elijah to the same level as that of the Lord Jesus. He was heir of the centuries-old tradition concerning Moses, who represented the law, and Elijah, who represented the prophets. To the Jews, Moses and Elijah were the representatives of the entire Old Testament. Hence, even on the Mount of Transfiguration, Peter was zealous for the traditions regarding Moses and Elijah. But while Peter was still speaking, the record says, “Behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them, and behold, a voice out of the cloud, saying, This is My Son, the Beloved, in whom I have found My delight. Hear Him!” (v. 5). Moses and Elijah then disappeared from the scene. When the disciples lifted up their eyes, “they saw no one except Jesus Himself alone” (v. 8). This indicates that in the eyes of God there is no place for religion or tradition — only the living person of His Son has a place.
It is significant that in Galatians 1:15 and 16 Paul does not say that God revealed Christ in him but that God revealed His Son in him. Speaking of Christ does not lead to the same kind of involvement as does speaking of the Son. The reason for this difference is that whenever we speak of the Son of God, we are immediately involved with the Father and the Spirit. According to the writings of Paul, to have the Son is to have both the Father and the Spirit. The Son is the embodiment of the Triune God realized as the Spirit for our enjoyment (2 Cor. 13:14). Hence, when Paul says that it pleased God to reveal His Son in him, this means that the One revealed in him was the embodiment of the Triune God realized as the processed, all-inclusive Spirit.
In Paul’s Epistles we see that the Son is the mystery of God, the embodiment of God, and the One in whom the fullness of the Godhead dwells bodily (Col. 2:2, 9). One day, through incarnation, the Son of God became a man called the last Adam, who, through death and resurrection, became the life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45). In 2 Corinthians 3:17 Paul says, “The Lord is the Spirit.” Putting all these verses together, we see that in incarnation the Son of God, the embodiment of the fullness of the Godhead, became a man and that in resurrection this One is now the life-giving Spirit.
Concerning Christ as the Son of God, there are two “becomings.” According to John 1:14 the Word, the Son of God, became flesh. In other words, He became a man. Furthermore, according to 1 Corinthians 15:45 this One, called the last Adam, became the life-giving Spirit. This is the reason that Paul can say explicitly in 2 Corinthians 3:17 that the Lord is the Spirit. The Son of God is thus the embodiment of the Triune God realized as the all-inclusive Spirit. This wonderful person is versus man’s religion.
The focal point of the Bible is not the practices, doctrines, or ordinances. Rather, it is the living person of the Son of God who is the embodiment of the Triune God realized as the all-inclusive Spirit in our spirit for us to enjoy Him, partake of His riches, and live Him (1 Cor. 15:45; 2 Cor. 3:17; Phil. 1:19; Gal. 6:18). The heart of God is fully occupied with the living person of His Son. God’s unique intention is to give us His Son as a living person. However, because of the fall, we are easily distracted to care for other things in place of Christ. It is crucial for us to have a vision of this all-inclusive living person. This person includes the Father, the Son, and the Spirit; He includes divinity and humanity. Although this living person is so all-inclusive, He is very practical to us, for, as the life-giving Spirit, He is in our regenerated spirit. On the one hand, He is in the heavens as the Lord, the Christ, the King, the Head, the High Priest, and the heavenly Minister (Acts 10:36; 1 Tim. 6:15; Heb. 4:14-15; 7:26; 8:2). On the other hand, He is in our spirit to be everything to us (2 Tim. 4:22). He is God, the Father, the Redeemer, the Savior, man, life, light, and the reality of every positive thing. This is the living person of the Son of God.
From the time this living person was revealed in Saul, the veil was taken away and Saul was enlightened concerning the Son of God. Henceforth, he cared for this person and no longer cared for religion or tradition. We need to pray that we may see such a vision of the living person of the Son of God and care for Him more than anything else. Without this living person as the reality and content of the church life, even the church life will become a tradition. It is vital that we see this living person.
We should not treasure anything, including our Bible knowledge or spiritual experience and attainments, in place of this living person. Daily and hourly, we need to experience this living person. The church is the Body of this person, His practical and living expression. As the embodiment of the Triune God realized as the all-inclusive life-giving Spirit, He is within us to be whatever we need. He is versus everything. Without Him, everything is a tradition made either by others or by ourselves.
Apart from Christ, the living person of the Son of God, whatever we have is religion. This living person is the embodiment of the processed, all-inclusive Triune God realized in our spirit as the life-giving Spirit. In our spirit we enjoy Him, experience Him, partake of His riches, and live Him. To be a Christian is to be one who is occupied with the living person, not with religion. Judaism is a religion formed by man in dead letters with vain traditions. But the Son of God is life, the uncreated, eternal life of God (John 14:6). For our experience and enjoyment, this One is the all-inclusive Spirit with the divine reality (1:14; 1 John 5:6).
As a living person, Christ is spiritual and mysterious. Apart from God’s revelation of His Son in us, no human being would be able to see this living person. Christians may read the Bible and study it carefully but see very little of Christ. From the beginning of the Bible to the end, especially in the New Testament, Christ occupies the central place. God’s revelation throughout the Scriptures is altogether focused on Christ.
Concerning the revelation of God’s Son in us, Paul covers two cases in 2 Corinthians 3 and 4 — the case of the Jews in particular and the case of the unbelievers in general. When the Jews read the Old Testament, they read it with their understanding veiled. In 2 Corinthians 3:15 Paul says, “Indeed unto this day, whenever Moses is read, a veil lies on their heart.” Here the veil refers to the religion of Judaism. In 4:4 Paul goes on to say that the god of this age has blinded the thoughts of those who do not believe. The god of this age is Satan. Those who are blinded or veiled think that they do not worship anything. Actually, their god is Satan. Atheists worship Satan without knowing what they are doing. Nearly all people today, whether primitive or highly cultured, have been blinded by the god of this age.
We need to apply this word about veils to ourselves. It is crucial that we be on the alert, for it is possible for anything that is not Christ Himself to be used as a veil by Satan, the subtle one. If we would receive the revelation of the Son of God, we need to drop our concepts. Every concept, whether spiritual or carnal, is a veil. To have revelation we need to drop our concepts.
God today is shining everywhere. This age of grace is an age of light. God is shining, and the Bible also is shining. Moreover, the all-inclusive Spirit moving on earth is full of grace. However, even while the Bible is shining and the Spirit is moving, many still do not receive revelation. The reason is that they hold to certain concepts and are veiled by these concepts.
With respect to receiving revelation, there is no problem on God’s side. On His side everything is ready. The problem is altogether on our side. We need to drop the veils; that is, we need to drop our concepts. It is important for us to pray, “Lord, help me to drop everything that is a veil.” If we hold on to our concepts while reading the Bible, we will be like the ancient Jews who had a veil on their mind whenever the Scriptures were read. But if we drop our concepts as we read the Word, we will read it with an unveiled face. Then the light will shine into us subjectively.
We also need to pray, “Lord, I trust in You to defeat the god of this age. Apart from You, I do not worship anything. Lord, I turn my heart to You, and I drop all my concepts. I don’t want to worship anyone other than You.” If we pray in this way, the light will shine, and we will receive revelation. If we drop our concepts and turn our heart to the Lord, the veils will be taken away, and the god of this age will have no ground in our being.
The revelation of the Son of God is an inward revelation. This inward revelation is in our spirit through our enlightened mind. Because the mind plays an important part, it is crucial that we drop our concepts, all of which are in the mind. If we hold on to the concepts in our mind, the revelation may be in our spirit, but it will not be able to penetrate our veiled mentality. We need to drop our concepts so that our mind may be released and become transparent. Then when the Spirit shines in our spirit, this shining will come into our transparent mind. Then we shall receive an inward revelation.
If we would see the revelation of Christ, we must also turn our hearts to the Lord. According to 2 Corinthians 3:16, when the heart turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. The more we turn our heart to the Lord, the less ground the god of this age will have in our life and in our being. We should tell the Lord that we hold on to nothing besides Him and that our heart is wholly for Him. Then we will be under the shining of the heavenly light, and we will receive the revelation of the living person of the Son of God.
This inward revelation of Christ is subjective, and this subjective revelation is given in our spirit by the Spirit (Eph. 1:17; 3:5). Both our spirit and the Spirit of God are realities. We cannot deny that within us we have a human spirit. Neither can we deny that the divine Spirit is in our spirit. In order to receive the revelation of the Son of God, we must take care of the depths of our being, that is, our spirit. It is in our spirit that the Spirit is shining, revealing Christ in us and speaking to us concerning Christ. It is also helpful to pray-read the word, especially verses from the Epistles of Paul (6:17-18). This will enable us to see Christ and to receive a subjective revelation of this living person.
In brief, in order to receive an inward, subjective, and spiritual revelation, we all must learn to drop our concepts, turn our heart to the Lord, pay attention to our spirit, and pray over verses from the writings of Paul. Then the Spirit will enlighten us and speak to us of Christ. As a result, we shall receive a subjective revelation of the Son of God.
Christ revealed in us is the center of God’s plan. God’s plan is neither to have a religion nor to have many religious works accomplished. God’s plan is to reveal Christ into us, to make Christ our life and everything, and to regenerate and transform us to be members of Christ.
When God the Father reveals His Son in us, He sows Christ into us as the seed of life. For God to reveal Christ, His Son, in us is for God to dispense Christ into us. When the Son of God is revealed in us, something divine is added to us. Selection and calling do not cause anything to be added into us, but the revelation of the Son of God in us causes divinity to be added to our humanity. God Himself is added into our being to become our life. He who has the Son has life (1 John 5:12). Hence, to have the Son of God revealed in us means to have God added to us to become our life.
God made the apostle Paul a minister of Christ by setting him apart, calling him (Gal. 1:15), and revealing His Son in him (v. 16). At the time of Paul’s conversion, God was pleased to reveal Christ in him. Paul then realized that what matters to God is not for him to keep the law, to worship Him, or to do good works but to have Christ, the Son of God, as a living person revealed in him. The central point of the gospel is that the Son of God would come into us as our person to become our life and life supply, to be formed in us, to make Himself one with us, and even to become us.
The New Testament tells us that Paul was a pattern to all the believers (1 Tim. 1:15-16). Therefore, just as God revealed Christ into Paul, God must reveal Christ into each of the believers. We, the believers who have been genuinely regenerated and saved, can testify that since the time we heard the gospel, there has been an unveiling of Christ within us. We could not have been saved unless we had had such an unveiling of Christ within us. From the time we heard the gospel, the scenery of a person, the Son of God, began to shine within us, and day by day He is unveiled to us more and more. Today Christ is still shining in us, and we are continually seeing more of Him. This unveiling of Christ 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. Our Christian life comes out of the Christ whom we see day by day. Christ must be continually revealed in us. Since the day we believed in the Lord Jesus, God’s unveiling of Christ should continue in us; this unveiling should never cease.
The more revelation we receive of the Son of God, the more He will live in us. The more He lives in us, the more He will become to us the unique and central blessing of the gospel which God promised to Abraham. This means that He will be to us the all-inclusive land realized as the all-inclusive, processed, life-giving Spirit. If we drop our concepts, turn our heart to the Lord, pay attention to the spirit, and spend time in the Word, Christ will be revealed in us, live in us, and be formed in us. Day by day He will become more of an enjoyment to us. As a result, this living person will make us a new creation in a practical way. The book of Galatians eventually brings us to the new creation by way of the inward revelation of the living person of the Son of God. Paul’s burden in writing the book of Galatians, and our need today, is that we be brought into a state where we are full of the revelation of the Son of God and thereby become a new creation with Christ living in us, being formed in us, and being enjoyed by us continually as the all-inclusive Spirit.
Christ was revealed in Paul so that he might announce Him as the gospel among the Gentiles (Gal. 1:16). From the time he first met the Lord on his way to Damascus, God’s revelation of Christ began to shine within Paul. He received not only a revelation of Christ but also a burden to preach, to minister, and to present this One to others. The apostle Paul did not preach the law but announced Christ, the Son of God, as the gospel; he announced not merely the doctrine concerning Him but the living person Himself.
The proper preaching of the gospel is not the preaching of a doctrine; it is the preaching of the person of the Son of God. The Son of God is the embodiment of the Father and is realized as the Spirit. To preach the gospel is to preach this person. Whenever we preach the gospel, we must impress those who hear us with the living person of the Son of God. No matter what the subject of our gospel message may be, the focal point of our preaching must be this living person.
According to Acts 26:16 the Lord’s appearing made Saul of Tarsus a witness both of the things in which he had seen Him and of the things in which He would appear to him. The Lord said to Saul that He would reveal other things to him, not in the way of mere teaching but by means of His appearing. We must see the things concerning Christ by having Christ appear to us. All that the apostle Paul ministered to others were the things in which the Lord appeared to him. Being a witness of Christ is not a matter of teaching and knowledge; it is a matter of appearing and vision. The things in which the Lord appears to us are the things which we must minister to others. We need to pray, “Lord, appear to me that in Your appearing I may see something and then tell people of what I have seen.” When we pray in this way, the Lord Jesus will appear to us, and His appearing will give us a vision. His appearing will make us witnesses; we will tell others of what we have seen in the presence of the living Lord. It pleased God to reveal His Son in us that we might announce Him as the gospel. Our preaching must be the issue of what we have seen. We do not preach doctrine; instead, we minister and witness what we have seen in Christ’s appearing. After we have seen the vision, we need to contact others, telling them that Christ has appeared to us and that we have seen Him.
