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Life is God Himself, and anything that is not an outflow of God cannot be considered life. Based upon this, we should be very careful to realize that any virtue or goodness, whether humility, meekness, or patience, that is not an outflow of God, manifesting the element of God and bearing the flavor of God, is merely human behavior, not life. It may be good behavior, but it is not life. This includes even our love. If our love does not give people the feeling of the presence of God and the flavor of God, then it is merely good behavior, a human virtue. Life is God Himself. When we see some brothers and sisters who are meek, humble, loving, and forbearing, we always think that they are advanced in their growth in life. We should not think in this way; rather, we should touch these virtues with our spiritual sense and smell them according to our spiritual “nose.” If we cannot sense the element of God and smell the flavor of God, then only man’s good behavior is being manifested, not life.
We should know that life is God Himself. All our goodness, virtues, and merits cannot substitute for God, because anything that is not of God is not life. Just as life is God Himself, life is also Christ. Anything that does not measure up to Christ is not life. Since Christ is the expression of God, He is also the expression of life. When we have life, we have God, and when we live out life, we live out God — that is, we live out Christ. All our goodness and virtues are life only if they have the flavor of God; likewise, they are life only if they have the flavor of Christ. If our goodness and virtue do not cause people to sense Christ and God, they are not life. Our walk is life only if it causes others to sense Christ.
Life is the Triune God Himself — the Father is the source, the Son is the expression, and the Spirit is the entering. The Father is the source of life, the Son is the expression of life, and the Spirit is the entering of life. The Gospel of John shows how the Triune God becomes our life. It speaks first in 1:1 of the Word, which was in the beginning, being God. He was in the beginning. Then verse 4 shows that in this Word was life, and verse 12 says that those who have received this Word have been given the authority to become children of God, and this authority is life. Verse 13 continues by saying that these ones have been begotten not of the will of man but of God.
When we put these four verses together, we see that in order for God to come to be our life, He must regenerate us. The God who was in the beginning was manifested in the Word and was manifested as the Word. We all know that words are the expression of man; all of man’s thoughts and desires are expressed in words. The word of God is God Himself; thus, the word of God is the expression and explanation of God. Because of the word of God, He is no longer hidden. He has been manifested to us. God as the Word came to be our life, and He was manifested so that He could be our life. Once we receive Him, He regenerates us so that we may receive life. This life is the authority that enables us to have a life relationship with Him and become His children.
From John 3:5 and 6 we can see that in order to be begotten of God, we must be born of the Spirit. If God were only God and not the Spirit, He would have no way to enter into us and beget us, and neither would He be able to be our life. In order to regenerate us and be our life, God must be the Spirit. Only as the Spirit can He enter into us and regenerate us. As the Word, He is manifested among us, and as the Spirit, He comes into us to beget us. If God were not the Word, He could not come among us, and if He were not the Spirit, He could not come into us. He became the Word so that He could be manifested among us, and He became the Spirit so that He could enter into us.
John 3:6 says, “That which is born of the Spirit is spirit.” The first Spirit is the Spirit of God, and the second spirit is our human spirit. God’s begetting of us is the Spirit’s begetting in our spirit; therefore, God comes into our spirit to beget us. This can also be seen in Ezekiel 36:26, which says, “A new spirit I will put within you.” John 4:24 says that God is Spirit and that our contact with Him must be in spirit; we must worship and touch Him in spirit. This is the light we found by following the line of life in the Bible, and this is the way to read the Bible.
God is Spirit, and we also have a spirit within us. As the Spirit, He comes into our spirit to regenerate us. This word is easy to speak, but it involves many verses: John 1:13; 3:5-6 and 4:24. The Word that was in the beginning was God. In order to be our life, He enters into our spirit as the Spirit to beget us; hence, all our contact with Him must be in our spirit.
How does the Spirit of God enter into our human spirit to regenerate us? John 6:63 says, “The words which I have spoken to you are spirit and are life.” The Lord’s words are spirit and life. The way the Spirit of God comes into our spirit and begets us is through the Lord’s words. Without the Lord’s words the Spirit is not solid, not tangible. The Spirit may be likened to life in the human body, and the words of God to the human body itself. If a man has only life, if he has only a spirit and a soul but not a body, people will not be able to contact and touch him. Only when the spirit and soul have a body can they become solid, can they contact the physical world, and can they be touched by the physical world.
Similarly, without the words of God the Spirit of God is without a “body,” so it is hard for man to touch Him. Hence, in consideration of our weakness and in order that we may touch the Holy Spirit in a solid way, God gives us the Word. The words of God are the embodiment of the Spirit of God and the hiding place of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit hides Himself in the words of God; in this way the Holy Spirit is embodied in a solid form. With the words of God we can easily touch the Spirit and practically experience the Spirit.
The Spirit of God cannot be separated from the words of God, just as the spirit and soul of a person cannot be separated from his body. Thus, when a person receives the words of God, the Spirit in the words enters into him. When we receive the words of God, the Spirit enters into us. The Lord said, “The words which I have spoken to you are spirit and are life.” This means that when we touch His words, we touch the Spirit, and when we touch the Spirit, we receive life. This sequence cannot be reversed: first there is the Word, then the Spirit, and then life — the Word, the Spirit, and life. It is not that we have life and then the Spirit, but when we have the Spirit, we have life because the Spirit is life and the Spirit is in the Word.
God regenerates us in our spirit, but we touch God as the Spirit through His words. If a person has only a spirit and soul but not a body, there will be no way to touch him. In the same way, if God were merely the Spirit, it would be difficult for us to touch Him; however, once we enter into His words, it is easy for us to touch the Spirit. The Lord’s words are the embodiment of the Spirit. Once we touch and receive His words, we touch and receive the Spirit because the Lord’s words are spirit.
We may use an illustration. There are batteries in a flashlight, and there is electricity in the batteries. Those who make batteries transmit electricity into the batteries, and thus, the electricity is embodied. When we put the batteries inside the flashlight, electricity automatically gets into the flashlight. The words of God are the batteries of the Spirit of God, and the Spirit in the words of God is like the electricity in the batteries, which is easy for us to receive. For example, John 3:16 says, “God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that everyone who believes into Him would not perish, but would have eternal life.” Such a word can easily touch people. As long as they open their heart and receive this word, the Spirit in this word will enter into them. The Spirit enters into everyone who receives this word. There are many words of God in the Bible, and as long as men open their heart to receive these words, the Spirit will enter into them. It does not matter whether these words are words of the gospel. As long as they are God’s words and as long as men open their heart to receive them, the Spirit will enter into them, because the Spirit is in the words. The Spirit comes with the words; as long as men receive the words, the Spirit enters into them. When this Spirit enters into the human spirit, the issue is life. “The words which I have spoken to you are spirit and are life” (6:63).
When we come to John 7, we see that the Spirit who enters into man will flow out of man’s innermost being as rivers of living water (vv. 37-39). Moreover, this Spirit was there only after Christ was glorified. Christ’s glorification is His resurrection. In other words, the Spirit spoken of in John 7 is the Spirit of Christ’s resurrection. Resurrection is life, and without life, there is no resurrection. The Spirit of resurrection is the Spirit of life. The Spirit of God enters into us in the words of God so that we may receive life. He as the Spirit is the Spirit of resurrection. Since He is the Spirit of resurrection, once He enters into us, His resurrection life regenerates us.
Being regenerated, receiving life, and being resurrected are three different ways of saying the same thing. In the New Testament, being made alive, receiving life, and being regenerated are seemingly three different things, but they are actually the same thing, because the Spirit who enters into us to enliven us, to make us alive, through the words of God is the Spirit of resurrection, the Spirit of life. Today in the New Testament age whoever receives the words of God into him receives the Spirit of the New Testament, the Spirit of resurrection, not the Spirit of the Old Testament. Before the Lord’s resurrection and glorification, this Spirit was not yet. In the age of the Old Testament the Spirit of God came upon men in order for them to receive power or certain kinds of inspiration, but they could not receive God’s life. It was not until the age of the New Testament, when the Lord Jesus was resurrected and glorified, that the Spirit of resurrection came into being. The Spirit of resurrection who enters into us through the words of God causes us to receive the life of God so that we may be made alive and regenerated, rather than just receiving some inspiration and power.
John 6 says that the Spirit enters into us through the Lord’s words, and chapter 7 says that the Spirit as the Spirit of resurrection enters into us. When we receive the words of God, the Spirit comes into us. When the Spirit comes into us, we are resurrected and made alive. Ephesians 2 says that God made us alive when we were dead in our offenses and sins (vv. 1, 5). We are made alive because the Spirit of resurrection in John 7 has entered into us. The Spirit enters into us through the words of God. Moreover, the Spirit who enters into us is the Spirit of resurrection, and as such, He enlivens our deadened spirit. This is what John 6 and 7 show.
