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Scripture Reading: John 6:63; 2 Cor. 3:6c; 1 Cor. 15:45b; Rom. 8:2a; John 3:5-6b; 4:24; Matt. 28:18-19
We have covered the tree of life, the river of life, the breath of life, and the seed of life. In this chapter we come to the ultimate point, the highest point — the Spirit of life. There are three places in the New Testament that refer to the Spirit as the Spirit who gives life. John 6:63 tells us that it is the Spirit who gives life. Second Corinthians 3:6 tells us that the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life. Finally, 1 Corinthians 15:45 says that the last Adam became a life-giving Spirit. There is a principle in the Bible that two is the number of testimony. To speak something a third time is a confirmation to what has been testified. What has been spoken three times has been spoken in a full way. The matter of the Spirit giving life has been spoken, testified, and confirmed in the New Testament. The Holy Spirit of God is the life-giving Spirit, the Spirit who gives life.
The term the Spirit of life is mentioned only once in the New Testament; Romans 8:2 refers to “the law of the Spirit of life...in Christ Jesus.” In this verse are four items: the law, the Spirit, life, and Christ. The law is the law of life, the Spirit is the Spirit of life, and Christ is the Christ of life. The law, the Spirit, and Christ are related one to another, and they are one in life. Christ is the life-giving Spirit, and this Spirit is the Spirit of life. Revelation 11:11 tells us that the pneuma of life, the breath of life, comes into the two witnesses, who had been killed by Antichrist. This shows us that the Spirit of life is simply the breath of life.
It is very difficult to define what life is, but thank the Lord that in the Bible we can trace something of the divine life. The divine life is with the Spirit of God. The Spirit of God today is the life-giving Spirit, the Spirit of life, and this Spirit of life is the breath of life. If we have the breath of life, we have the Spirit of life and life itself. It is easy for us to receive life because this life is with the divine breath. We just need to breathe in the divine breath by exercising our spirit, our breathing organ.
According to the revelation of the New Testament, the divine Spirit has at least four crucial aspects. First, the New Testament says clearly that God is Spirit (John 4:24). John 4:24 does not say that God is a Spirit but that God is Spirit. This is similar to saying that a table is wood. Spirit in John 4:24 refers to the divine essence just like wood can be the essence of a table.
Second, the Bible tells us a mystery which we can never understand adequately, that is, that our God is the Triune God. The word triune is not in the Bible, but the fact of God’s being triune is revealed in the Bible. In Genesis 1:1 the word God is used for the first time. The subject God in Hebrew (Elohim) is plural in number, whereas the verb in this verse is singular in number. This contains the meaning that God is three-one. Matthew 28:19 tells us to disciple the nations, baptizing them into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. This verse uses the singular name, not names. There is one name for the Divine Trinity. The name is the sum total of the Divine Being, equivalent to His person.
The Father is in the Son, and the Son with the Father is in the Spirit. The three persons of the Godhead are not three separate beings, just as man’s spirit, soul, and body are not three separate parts. A man is one complete being with three parts. God is triune, and man is tripartite. With God there are three persons, but we should not think that these three persons are three separate, divine beings. Some Christians believe that the three of the Godhead are not only distinct but also separate. While the three of the Godhead are distinct, it is wrong, according to the truth of the Scriptures, to say that They are separate. The Father, the Son, and the Spirit are not three separate gods. Both in the Old Testament and the New Testament, we are always told that there is only one God (Isa. 45:5; Psa. 86:10; 1 Cor. 8:4; 1 Tim. 2:5). The Bible tells us clearly that God is uniquely one but that He is triune with three persons — the Father, the Son, and the Spirit. God the Father is in God the Son, and God the Son is in God the Spirit. In John 14:10 the Lord says that He is in the Father and the Father is in Him. Furthermore, Romans 8:2 refers to the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus.
We may also say that the Father is the Son and that the Son is the Spirit. In Isaiah 9:6 the Son is called Eternal Father, and 2 Corinthians 3:17 says that the Lord is the Spirit. On the one hand, the Father is in the Son, and the Son is in the Spirit. On the other hand, the Father is the Son, and the Son is the Spirit.
The three of the Godhead are distinct, yet They are one. John 1:1 says that the Word was with God and that the Word was God. On the one hand, the Word and God are distinct, and on the other hand, They are one. Second Corinthians 3:17 says that the Lord is the Spirit, but it also refers to the Spirit of the Lord. On the one hand, the Lord and the Spirit are one, but on the other hand, They are distinct.
Now we have to ask why God needs to be triune. To answer this we need to know the whole Bible in a proper way. God needs to be triune because He desires to work Himself into us, to dispense Himself into us. Dispensation is the noun form of the verb dispense. God’s dispensation is His plan to dispense Himself into us. God’s dispensation, His economy, is to dispense Himself into us, to apply Himself to us.
Let us take electricity as an illustration of God’s dispensing. The current of electricity and electricity itself are not two separate matters. They are one. The current of electricity is the electricity itself in motion. When electricity moves, when it flows, there is the current of electricity. We need the current of electricity for the application of electricity. If we never applied electricity, there would be no need for us to have the current of electricity. But if we are going to dispense electricity into our homes, we need the current of electricity. The current of electricity is for the dispensation, the economy, of electricity.
In the New Testament Jesus told us that He, as the Son, was sent by the Father (John 5:37; 8:18, 29). His being sent by the Father indicates that the Father is the source, out of which the Son flowed to be among mankind. This does not mean that the Son and the Father were two separate divine beings substantially. They are substantially one Divine Being. The Father is the source, and the Son is the expression of the Father. But the Son as the expression of the Father could only come to be among mankind; He could not come into man. Thus, we need the Spirit. In John 14 the Lord Jesus indicated that He needed to change His form from the flesh into the Spirit. He indicated that He had to pass through death and enter into resurrection so that He could come into us as the Spirit, as the breath (vv. 16-20). After His death and resurrection, He came back as the breath of life. In the evening on the day of resurrection, He came to the disciples, breathed into them, and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit” (20:22). As the breath He got into the disciples, so God was dispensed into human beings. Thus, the Divine Trinity is for God’s dispensation to dispense God into us.
The Spirit is the final person of God’s dispensation and of God’s visitation. How could God come to us? How could God visit us? He comes to us and visits us as the Spirit. Electricity comes into a room as the current. If there is no current of electricity, the electricity cannot be dispensed into the room and be applied to it. Electricity is applied to us in its current. Thus, the current is the visitation of electricity. In like manner, the Spirit is the visitation of God, the dispensing of God, the application of God. The third person of the Godhead, who is the Spirit, is the application of God to us. If God is going to be applied to us, He needs to be the Spirit. The essence of God needs the application of God. The essence of a certain medicine needs to be put in the form of a pill so that it can be dispensed into a sick patient. The pill is for the application of the medicine. Likewise, the Spirit as the third person of the Godhead is for God’s application of His essence to dispense Himself into us.
Now we want to see the third aspect of the divine Spirit. The first aspect is that God is Spirit in essence, and the second aspect is that God in His Trinity is the Spirit for application. The third aspect of the divine Spirit can be seen in 1 Corinthians 15:45, which tells us that the last Adam, who was Christ in the flesh, became a life-giving Spirit. The Redeemer, the Savior, who passed through incarnation, human living, crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension, became a life-giving Spirit. The third aspect of the divine Spirit is the aspect of life-giving. The essence is for the application, and the application is for life-giving. The Lord wants to apply Himself into us to give us life.
The fourth aspect of the divine Spirit is that the words the Lord speaks to us are spirit (John 6:63). This shows that His spoken words are the embodiment of the life-giving Spirit. God is Spirit, the third person of the Godhead is Spirit, Christ was made a life-giving Spirit, and the divine word is Spirit. This is one Spirit in four aspects. The first aspect is the essence, the second is the application, the third is the life-giving, and the fourth is the word for feeding. John 6 tells us that Christ is the bread of life to feed us (vv. 35, 57). We need the essence and the application for life-giving, and this life-giving mostly depends upon feeding. The Lord feeds us with Himself as the bread of life. The Spirit is living and real but rather abstract, mysterious, intangible, and difficult for people to apprehend. But the words are substantial and concrete. It is the Spirit who gives life, and today the Spirit is embodied in the word. The Spirit today is consolidated into the word, the living word. Words in Greek in John 6:63 is not logos but rhema — the instant, living, present, up-to-date word.
The four aspects of the divine Spirit that we have seen are for one purpose — to dispense God into us as our life and as our life supply. God Himself is Spirit essentially, the last person of the Godhead is the Spirit economically, Christ is the Spirit all-inclusively, and the words that He speaks are the Spirit practically for the one purpose of giving us life and feeding us with God Himself. These four aspects are like four steps that God takes to dispense Himself into us as life. The Spirit of life includes God as Spirit; includes the third person of God’s Trinity; includes the all-inclusive, redeeming Christ with His incarnation, human living, crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension; and includes the living word of God. All that God is to us is the all-inclusive Spirit, which is the Spirit of life. This Spirit gives us life. As a help in realizing the all-inclusiveness of the Spirit of life, I would encourage you to read the booklet entitled The All-inclusive Spirit of Christ (see The Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1965, vol. 1).
