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What we have covered in this series of messages entitled The Experience and Growth in Life is the extract of the entire New Testament. Within every substance there is an essence, the essential constituent of the substance. An apple is substantial, but within this substance there is the apple juice as its essence. It is easy for many readers of the Bible to understand the story of Jesus. However, it is not as easy to see the extract of what the New Testament speaks concerning Jesus. The history of Jesus is the substance of the New Testament, but we need to see the essence of this substance. Some people have obtained doctoral degrees in the study of the Bible, but they may have seen only the substance. They can tell you what is taught in the four Gospels, in the Acts, in the Epistles of Paul, James, Peter, John, and Jude, and in Revelation. They have seen the substance of the New Testament, but very few Bible readers have seen the essence within the New Testament. If we see the essence of the New Testament, we will rejoice. The essence of the New Testament is the mingling of the divine Spirit with our human spirit. These two spirits are mingled as one (1 Cor. 6:17).
The divine Spirit is the consummation of the processed Triune God dispensing Himself into our being. The elements of this Spirit are the Triune God — the Father, the Son, and the Spirit — with the human nature that was added to Him in incarnation, the human living of thirty-three and a half years, the all-inclusive death that He accomplished in crucifixion, and the all-powerful resurrection. Such a realization of the Spirit is the divine revelation of the sixty-six books of the Bible. At the conclusion of the entire Bible, Revelation 22:17 says, “The Spirit and the bride say, Come!” If we have not seen the essence of the Bible, it is difficult to understand this verse. Most readers of the New Testament realize that the Spirit in this verse is the Holy Spirit. However, to merely see this is to see the substance and not the essence of the Spirit. If we have seen the essence of the Spirit, we will realize that the Spirit is not simple. We need the entire Bible of sixty-six books to expound the truth of the Spirit.
The Spirit is the consummation of the processed Triune God. The term consummation implies certain procedures, or processes. The processes through which the Triune God has passed may be compared to cooking. Before His incarnation the Triune God was the “raw” God. He was the divine, eternal person, without humanity and without human living. Just as certain spices are added to food in the process of cooking, many elements such as humanity, becoming flesh with the human living, were added to the Triune God in these processes. By passing through these processes, God was “cooked.” Today the God we love and whom we have received is not the “raw” God but the “cooked” God. The cooked God today is Jesus Christ, and Jesus Christ is the consummated Spirit to be life and everything to His believers (1 Cor. 15:45b).
As we have seen, the extract of the New Testament is the mingling of the divine Spirit with our human spirit. Our human spirit is not simple. Our spirit was created with the breath of God. Genesis 2:7 says, “Jehovah God formed man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living soul.” The breath of life in Genesis 2:7 became our human spirit. Proverbs 20:27 says, “The spirit of man is the lamp of Jehovah, / Searching all the innermost parts of the inner being.” The Hebrew word for breath in Genesis 2:7 (neshamah) is the same as the word for spirit in Proverbs 20:27. In the Old Testament the Hebrew word used most of the time for spirit is ruach. The Hebrew word ruach, and the Greek word pneuma, as in John 3:8, mean “spirit,” “breath,” “wind,” and “air.” The breath of life in Genesis 2:7 is not the Spirit of God but something very close to the Spirit of God. Our human spirit originated in the breath of God, so it is very close to God. It is something in our makeup that is nearly the same as God Himself. God is Spirit (John 4:24). Man’s spirit is not the Spirit of God, but it is God’s breath of life.
The most active, aggressive, and living part of man is his spirit. Without his spirit man is merely clay without life. Even after man was formed from the dust of the ground, he was still inanimate until God breathed the breath of life into him. Then man became a living soul. Man’s life came from God’s breathing into him the breath of life. The living soul of man is the product of the breath of life entering into the inanimate man, the clay vessel.
However, through man’s fall his spirit was contaminated and defiled and became deadened (Eph. 2:1, 5). When we were dead in our spirit, Jesus, as the embodiment of the very Triune God who became the life-giving Spirit, came to us. We received Him, and He entered into our spirit. The extract of the Triune God, the Spirit, was added to our spirit. This extract is the Triune God, who became a man, lived a human life, died on the cross, and rose from the dead. Many elements are included in this extract, including divinity, humanity, human living, the all-inclusive death, and the all-powerful resurrection. When we received this extract, we received all the elements in it. This extract is in our spirit, causing our deadened spirit to become regenerated. Now in our spirit are the divinity, the uplifted, high standard humanity, the proper human living, the all-inclusive crucifixion, and the all-powerful resurrection. Whether or not we understand the elements of this extract, the extract is still in us, nourishing and energizing us.
In our regenerated spirit is the all-inclusive death of Christ. Our temper, our flesh, our old man, our natural man, and all that we are were all-inclusively dealt with in the all-inclusive death of Christ. Now we need to learn how to apply this death by turning to our spirit and remaining there. Remaining in our spirit is also the way to apply the divinity of the Triune God, the uplifted humanity of Jesus with the highest standard, and the powerful resurrection of Christ. By turning to our spirit and remaining there, we enjoy what we have received and now possess. The cross of Christ today is not on Calvary but in our spirit. If a brother’s wife gives him an unpleasant look, he does not need to consider how to apply the cross of Christ. He only needs to turn to his spirit and remain there. There he will have the enjoyment of the processed Triune God with His divinity, His humanity, His uplifted human living, His all-inclusive death, and His all-powerful resurrection.
The essence of the New Testament is the two spirits, the divine Spirit and the human spirit, mingled together as one spirit. If we see this, we will be different persons, rejoicing continually. It is a wonderful thing that people on the earth can live in and by such a mingled spirit.
Now let us all sing the short song:
Turn to your spirit and there remain,
Enjoy the extract — never the same.
Turn to your spirit and there remain,
Enjoy the extract — never the same.
(Tune: Hymns, #308, chorus)
