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Scripture Reading: Gen. 1:26; 2:7; Prov. 20:27; 1 Thes. 5:23; John 4:24; Rom. 1:9; 7:6b; 8:4b-6, 9-11, 15-16; 12:11; Heb. 4:12
V. The spirit of John the apostle in seeing the four great visions, as the contents of the last book of the Bible, concludes the Holy Scriptures in the consummation of the New Jerusalem for the fulfillment of God’s eternal economy.
VI. The discernment of the spirit from the soul:
А. The spirit and the soul of man are not synonymous; they are two distinct parts of man’s composition and can be distinctly divided one from the other. First Thessalonians 5:23 confirms this fact, and Luke 1:46-47 strengthens such a teaching. In Luke 1:46-47 Mary said that her spirit had exulted in God her Savior and her soul magnified the Lord. Her word shows clearly that her two parts, the spirit and the soul, performed two different actions, her exulting in God and her magnifying the Lord.
B. For the New Testament believers to experience Christ for the producing and building up of His organic Body in the consummation of the New Jerusalem for the accomplishment of the eternal economy of God, they need to discern their spirit from their soul — Heb. 4:12:
1. In God’s old creation, the spirit of man was the reality of man, and the soul of man was the person of man.
2. In God’s new creation, the spirit of the believers becomes their person, and their soul becomes their inner organ, as their body is their outer organ; they are a spiritual man according to their regenerated spirit with their soul as their inner organ, which is considered as the psychological part of man, and with their body as their outer organ, which is considered as the physical part of man.
3. In God’s New Testament economy the believers should live, walk, and have their being according to their spirit, which is mingled with the Spirit of God (Rom. 8:4b, 2), and only use their soul as their inner organ for them to live as a human being, as they use their body as their outer organ for them to do things outwardly, but they should deny and reject their soul as their person (Matt. 16:24-25; Luke 9:23-24).
C. The believers need to discern their spirit from their soul by the living, operative, and sharp word of God — Heb. 4:12:
1. God’s living word pierces to the dividing of the believers’ soul and spirit, as their joints and marrow are divided.
2. God’s operative and sharp word is able to discern the thoughts and intentions of their heart.
3. They should pray-read the Word of God until it pierces into their spirit that they may be able to discern their spirit from their soul.
VII. The concluding word — the book of Romans, as a book on the organic and dynamic salvation of God in Christ, not only presents a full and detailed definition of God’s dynamic salvation but also shows the way God takes to execute and apply His dynamic salvation to the fallen sinners and the way the sinners should take for them to receive, experience, and enjoy God’s dynamic salvation. These two ways are the divine Spirit of life and the human spirit of the believers:
А. The divine Spirit of life is the Spirit of God processed and consummated to be the life-giving, compounded, and indwelling Spirit, who indwells the believers as the reality of the pneumatic, pneumatized Christ, as the consummation of the processed and consummated Triune God, and as the reality of the divine resurrection. It is through such a Spirit of life that the eternal, only wise God, according to the revelation of the mystery hidden through the ages (16:25), dispenses Himself in His processed and consummated Trinity into the believers to be their dynamic salvation as their life and everything.
B. The human spirit of the believers is the believers’ spirit regenerated and indwelt by the divine Spirit of life and mingled with the divine Spirit of life as one spirit. It is through such a human spirit that the people chosen by God participate in the dynamic salvation of God as their living in this age and their destiny in eternity. Hence, “the Spirit...with our spirit” in verse 16 of Romans 8 (the key chapter of the book of Romans concerning the Spirit of life and the spirit of the believers) is the most crucial secret in the whole book of Romans for God to execute His dynamic salvation and for the believers to participate in it. We all have to know these two spirits in the divine enlightenment so that we may enter, by the Spirit of life in our regenerated spirit, which is mingled with the Spirit of life, into the intrinsic essence of the dynamic salvation of God in Christ, which is the Triune God processed and consummated to be our eternal inheritance for our enjoyment.
In this chapter we want to continue our fellowship on the human spirit of the believers.
The New Testament unveils to us only three great, excellent persons. The first person is the all-inclusive, mysterious Christ. The first four books of the New Testament, the four Gospels, are on Christ the all-inclusive One, who was God becoming a man, the God-man. God is a mystery, and man is also a mystery. Christ is the One who combines these two together as one. Christ is neither merely God nor merely man. He is the God-man. Second, there is the mysterious, organic church, which was formed in the book of Acts. Following the all-inclusive Christ, the church came to be the second great person in the universe. The church begins in Acts and then occupies twenty-one books of the New Testament, twenty-one Epistles, from Romans to Jude. Third, the last great person in the New Testament is the New Jerusalem, which is seen in the last book of the Bible, Revelation.
These three great persons all need man to be in one part of his being, his human spirit. In the first four books the human spirit is not mentioned often. Then in Acts, for the church, the human spirit, the spirit of the believers, is very crucial. The church is constituted with Christ and the believers. Christ is divine becoming human, possessing a human nature with a human spirit, and the church is the aggregate of all the believers as the Body of Christ. The church needs to be altogether in the human spirit. In the book of Acts and in the Epistles, the human spirit is unveiled again and again. Eventually, the New Jerusalem as the consummation is brought in.
In Revelation, John saw four great visions. The first one is concerning the church (1:10—3:22). The second one is concerning the world situation (4:2—16:21). The third one is concerning Babylon the Great and her termination by Christ’s coming back to set up His kingdom for one thousand years and to destroy Antichrist and Satan (17:3—20:15). The fourth vision is of the New Jerusalem in the new heaven and new earth (21:1—22:5). In order to see these four great visions, the human spirit is needed. Every time John saw one of these visions, he told us that he was in spirit. The four verses in Revelation that show that John was in spirit to see these visions are 1:10; 4:2; 17:3; and 21:10.
We all have to realize that to be a genuine believer as a God-man, to live a life for the church as the Body of Christ so that Christ can come back to consummate the New Jerusalem, our human spirit is needed. Most Christians speak only of the Holy Spirit, but nearly no one talks about the human spirit. The story of God becoming a man that man might become God in life and nature but not in the Godhead to produce a Body that consummates in the New Jerusalem is altogether a story of two spirits. First, there is the divine Spirit as the Spirit of God and then as the Spirit of Jesus Christ, the life-giving Spirit, the compound Spirit, and the consummated Spirit. Then the divine Spirit needs the human spirit to match Him, to be His counterpart, that they could be mingled together as one entity (1 Cor. 6:17). In the whole universe, that mingling is consummated in the New Jerusalem. Today if we do not see our human spirit, we have no way to be a believer up to the standard of God’s calling. The spirit of John the apostle in seeing the four great visions, as the contents of the last book of the Bible, concludes the Holy Scriptures in the consummation of the New Jerusalem for the fulfillment of God’s eternal economy. This shows that in order for us to be a God-chosen believer, a God-man, for the producing of the church, we need to be absolutely in the spirit, our human regenerated spirit.
There is the need of the discernment of the human spirit from the human soul. God created man with a body and with a spirit to produce a soul (Gen. 2:7). But this man fell, and his spirit became deadened. So the fallen man pays attention mainly to his soul plus his body to take care of his physical and psychological needs. Nearly no one would pay attention to his spirit; even nearly no one knows that he has a spirit. The people in the world know only that they are a psychological person with a physical part as their body. They do not know the spirit.
Man’s spirit was deadened because of the fall. But the believers have been resurrected from that deadened situation to become regenerated persons. Regeneration transpires in the believer’s spirit (John 3:6). Today we have to discern our spirit from our soul. Regretfully, very few Christians know that they have a spirit, so for them there is no need to have any discernment. But for those of us who have been enlightened, we realize that in order to be a God-man, we must know our spirit. If we do not know our spirit, there is no way to be a Christian up to the standard of God’s calling.
The spirit and the soul of man are not synonymous; they are two distinct parts of man’s composition and can be distinctly divided from each other. First Thessalonians 5:23 confirms this fact, and Luke 1:46-47 strengthens such a teaching. In Luke 1:46-47 Mary said that her spirit had exulted in God her Savior and her soul magnified the Lord. Her word shows clearly that her two parts, the spirit and the soul, performed two different actions, her exulting in God and her magnifying the Lord.
For the New Testament believers to experience Christ for the producing and building up of His organic Body in the consummation of the New Jerusalem for the accomplishment of the eternal economy of God, they need to discern their spirit from their soul (Heb. 4:12).
In God’s old creation, the spirit of man was the reality of man, and the soul of man was the person of man. In God’s new creation, the spirit of the believers becomes their person, and their soul becomes their inner organ, as their body is their outer organ; they are a spiritual man according to their regenerated spirit with their soul as their inner organ, which is considered as the psychological part of man, and with their body as their outer organ, which is considered as the physical part of man. This is a believer in God’s new creation. Our person today is the spirit, and this person has two organs, the soul as the inward organ and the body as the outward organ.
In God’s New Testament economy the believers should live, walk, and have their being according to their spirit, which is mingled with the Spirit of God (Rom. 8:4b, 2), and only use their soul as their inner organ for them to live as a human being, as they use their body as their outer organ for them to do things outwardly, but they should deny and reject their soul as their person (Matt. 16:24-25; Luke 9:23-24). Today all the fallen people still consider their soul as their person. Even many Christians do not know this point. Our soul is no longer our person. Our regenerated spirit has become our person. The soul should remain only as an organ.
The believers need to discern their spirit from their soul by the living, operative, and sharp word of God (Heb. 4:12). God’s word always puts down our soul and uplifts our spirit. Galatians 2:20 says, “I am crucified with Christ.” This is to put down “I,” to put down the soul, the natural man. Galatians 2:20 goes on to say, “It is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me.” This is to uplift our spirit. The “I” is of the old creation. The “me” in whom Christ lives is a new creation. “I” was the soul, “me” is the spirit.
The Lord Jesus said in Matthew 16:24-25, “If anyone wants to come after Me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow Me. For whoever wants to save his soul-life shall lose it; but whoever loses his soul-life for My sake shall find it.” In Luke 9:24-25 soul-life is replaced with himself, indicating that our soul-life is our self. The Lord told us to put down the soul and follow Him. The One we follow is the divine Spirit indwelling our human regenerated spirit. This shows that the words of the Bible always uplift the spirit and put down the soul.
God’s living word pierces to the dividing of the believers’ soul and spirit, as their joints and marrow are divided. God’s operative and sharp word is able to discern the thoughts and intentions of their heart. They should pray-read the Word of God until it pierces into their spirit that they may be able to discern their spirit from their soul.
Let us apply this truth to our daily life. When we go shopping, do we buy things that the soul wants or that the spirit wants? We may wonder how we can discern the difference between what our soul wants and what our spirit wants. This is why we need to prayerfully read the Bible, the living word. Day by day the more we read the Bible, the more discerning ability we have. The people in the world may decide to buy something according to whether or not they need it. But this should not be the case with us. We have to say, “What I buy should be okayed by my spirit.” Within us there is an ability to discern that our spirit is not for certain things. If our spirit does not give us the okay to buy something, we should not buy it. Such a teaching is very practical and very deep.
The way that we cut and style our hair must be okayed by our spirit, not by our soul. We must check ourselves by this principle. We may wonder how we can know the difference between the spirit’s “okay” and the soul’s “okay.” We should never forget that the spirit is the deepest part of our being. Our soul is always on the surface. What comes from the surface must be something of the soul. What comes from “underneath” must be something from our spirit.
When we go shopping, we may see many things that we would like to buy, but we do not buy them, because we do not have the money. If we had the money, however, we would buy them. This is not to be checked by our spirit but to be checked by our checkbook. Many of us are not checked by our spirit according to the Word but by our checkbook.
In order to discern our spirit from our soul, we need to pray-read the Bible until it pierces into our being. For example, 1 John 2:15 says, “Do not love the world nor the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, love for the Father is not in him.” If we pray-read such a verse, we will see that there are many things of the world that we still have. We may have some neckties that we did not buy according to the spirit. If so, those neckties are worldly. We must do everything according to our spirit. If a young brother is choosing a university to go to for his further education, he should choose it by exercising his spirit. We must live, walk, and have our being absolutely according to our spirit.
In the old creation, your spirit was only the reality, but your soul was the person. Since the day you were transferred from the old creation to the new creation through regeneration, your spirit became your person. Now you must be a person in the spirit, not a person in the soul. The soul is now the organ. The Bible tells us that we need to deny our soul. To deny the self is to deny the soul.
Some may ask, “How can we live if we deny our soul? If the soul is denied, how can we think?” We must remember that the soul as the person, not as the organ, should be denied. We deny the person, not the organ. A spiritual person must be very strong in the mind, that is, in knowing and discerning things. But in God’s new creation, the spirit of the believers becomes their person because the spirit becomes the inner man (Eph. 3:16), and their soul becomes only an organ. You would not ask your finger whether or not it agreed with you if you wanted to buy something. In the same way, you should not consult your soul, because your soul is an inner organ. Do not regard your soul as your person. The person is your spirit. What you do is not up to your soul’s “okay.” If the spirit does not give you the okay, you should not do it.
The book of Romans, as a book on the organic and dynamic salvation of God in Christ, not only presents a full and detailed definition of God’s dynamic salvation but also shows the way God takes to execute and apply His dynamic salvation to the fallen sinners and the way the sinners should take for them to receive, experience, and enjoy God’s dynamic salvation. These two ways are the divine Spirit of life and the human spirit of the believers.
The Spirit is the way God takes to execute His dynamic salvation and apply this salvation to fallen sinners. At one time the Spirit was not yet (John 7:39), but today the Spirit as the Spirit of life is here. Thus, the Spirit of life is God’s way to execute His salvation and apply His salvation to us, and our human spirit is the way to receive, experience, and enjoy God’s dynamic salvation.
The divine Spirit of life is the Spirit of God processed and consummated to be the life-giving, compounded, and indwelling Spirit, who indwells the believers as the reality of the pneumatic, pneumatized Christ, as the consummation of the processed and consummated Triune God, and as the reality of the divine resurrection. It is through such a Spirit of life that the eternal, only wise God, according to the revelation of the mystery hidden through the ages (Rom. 16:25), dispenses Himself in His processed and consummated Trinity into the believers to be their dynamic salvation as their life and everything.
The human spirit of the believers is the believers’ spirit regenerated and indwelt by the divine Spirit of life and mingled with the divine Spirit of life as one spirit. It is through such a human spirit that the people chosen by God participate in the dynamic salvation of God as their living in this age and their destiny in eternity. Hence, “the Spirit...with our spirit” in verse 16 of Romans 8 (the key chapter of the book of Romans concerning the Spirit of life and the spirit of the believers) is the most crucial secret in the whole book of Romans for God to execute His dynamic salvation and for the believers to participate in it. We all have to know these two spirits in the divine enlightenment so that we may enter, by the Spirit of life in our regenerated spirit, which is mingled with the Spirit of life, into the intrinsic essence of the dynamic salvation of God in Christ, which is the Triune God processed and consummated to be our eternal inheritance for our enjoyment.
What the Lord has burdened me to release here is an up-to-date vision. These intrinsic things are in the New Testament, but they are not seen by many. So to release such a word, there is the need of a struggling, a battle, a spiritual fighting.
