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Scripture Reading: Rom. 8:2, 4, 6, 9-11, 14, 16, 23, 26-27; 15:16
In the first five books of the New Testament we have seen that Christ, the God-man, after entering into His resurrection, became the Spirit of life as the breath breathed into His disciples (John 20:22). Then after His ascension, as the Spirit of power, as the wind, He poured out Himself upon His disciples. In the Acts we see a group of people on this earth filled with the Spirit inwardly for life and outwardly for power. They were persons of the Spirit, having the divine life within essentially and possessing the divine power economically. They walked, lived, worked, moved, and did everything as persons of the Spirit. They were persons living God to accomplish and carry out God’s economy. They were persons enjoying the seven basic items of the New Testament blessings. They were regenerated, having God’s life and possessing God’s nature. They had the Triune God living in them. By these basic elements they were being transformed and mingled with the Triune God to have His divine image and to enter into His divine glory.
The remaining twenty-two books of the New Testament show the details of how this wonderful Spirit makes sinners the sons of God, including the book of Romans, which mainly reveals that the Spirit who transforms sinners into sons of God is the Spirit of life. The term the Spirit of life is used only once in the entire New Testament — in Romans 8:2. The all-inclusive compound Spirit in Romans is the Spirit of life. Romans tells us how the Triune God, in His consummation as the Spirit of life, makes sinners the sons of God who become the living members of the Body of Christ. These members, who form the Body of Christ, have been regenerated and possess God’s divine life and God’s divine nature. Every member is wrapped up with the Divine Trinity, who is being wrought into their tripartite being. Thus, they are being transformed, renewed, and even conformed to the image of the firstborn Son of God. Even their mortal bodies are being supplied with the divine life (v. 11) to make them living members of Christ. These members are put together into a Body to express Christ, and this Body is manifested in many localities as the local churches. Romans, then, gives us the details of how the Spirit of life works in the tripartite man with the Triune God. This is the message, the revelation, and the vision that is carried out in this book.
The Spirit of life is the Spirit of God who dwells in the believers. Romans 8:9a says, “The Spirit of God dwells in you.” The Spirit of God in this verse is not the same as the Spirit of God in Genesis 1:2, where He was brooding upon the surface of the waters. The Spirit of God in Romans 8:9 now dwells in the tripartite man and is now the Spirit of Christ who possesses humanity as well as divinity. In Genesis 1 the Spirit of God had not yet gone through the processes of incarnation, human living, crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension. The Spirit of God in Romans 8, however, is the Spirit of life who in Christ has gone through incarnation, lived a human life on this earth, died an all-inclusive death, entered into an excellent resurrection, and is now in His exalting ascension. All these elements are compounded with the Spirit of God, who is no longer outside of us but inside of us to dwell in us. This is the consummation of the Triune God living in us.
When many Christians hear the term the Spirit of God, they think that this is the Spirit of the Creator. According to the human concept, the term God mainly denotes the Creator. The Spirit of Christ (Rom. 8:9b), however, denotes a great deal. Christ is the Son of God, even God Himself. Christ is also a man. He is Jesus, the Redeemer, our Savior, our sanctification, righteousness, holiness, life, light, and everything. The title the Spirit of Christ conveys the all-inclusiveness of the One who is living in us. This title includes not only God the Creator but also Christ the Redeemer with all His divine and human elements and all the items of His achievements, attainments, and obtainments. All these are compounded in the Spirit of Christ.
Many Christians have not seen such a compound Spirit as the Spirit of Christ. This Spirit is compounded with divinity, humanity, incarnation, human living, death, resurrection, and ascension. Even though I was in organized Christianity for years, I never heard a message concerning the Spirit of Christ. As a young man, I read through Romans again and again, but I was not impressed with the Spirit of Christ. It was not until I read Andrew Murray’s book The Spirit of Christ that the Lord impressed me with this divine title. I treasured this book to the uttermost. Over fifty years ago, Brother Nee told me that he would pay the publication expenses if someone would translate Andrew Murray’s book into Chinese. A few years later, he repeated the same thing to me. This gave me a deep impression concerning this book. As a result, I myself read this book, and I arranged for some young ones to help me translate it. When we were working on this book, I was deeply impressed with chapter 5, which covers “The Spirit of the Glorified Jesus.” This chapter indicates that in the Spirit of Christ there is the human element. From that time I began to see the all-inclusiveness of the Spirit.
Some of us may have read this book in the past, but we still did not have much spiritual apprehension or impression concerning the Spirit of Christ. However, if Andrew Murray had taught concerning Mark 16:17-18, where it talks about casting out demons, speaking with new tongues, picking up serpents, drinking something deadly without being harmed, and healing diseases, we would have immediately been impressed with this book. There would be no need to read it two or three times, since we would immediately be impressed with these miraculous things. This is because even without reading such a book, all these things are already in our natural mentality. Many Indian magicians can not only pick up things, but they can also wrap snakes around their arms and neck. In the matter of picking up serpents, their “foretaste of the millennium” may be much better.
Most readers of Andrew Murray’s book of thirty-one messages, one message for each day of the month, have retained nothing in their memory concerning it because in this book, he is talking about something that is far, far beyond our limited, natural comprehension. There is nothing in the natural concept concerning the Spirit of Christ. Many Christians may know something concerning the “Holy Ghost” or the Spirit of God. The Spirit of Christ, however, is something foreign to their understanding. After many years, one day when I was studying Romans 8 these three words, the Spirit of Christ, impressed me deeply. This caused me to study Romans 8 again and again. I have spent much time studying Romans 8 and have given many, many messages on this chapter. There are many riches here. In this chapter we can see the Triune God working Himself, in His Trinity, into the tripartite man. In Romans 8:9 the Spirit of God and the Spirit of Christ are synonyms, which are interchangeably used with a particular significance. The Spirit of Christ is the pledge that we are of Christ. Romans 8:9 says, “If anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not of Him.” We know that we are of Christ because the Spirit of Christ is in us. Also, this Spirit of Christ in us is the very Spirit of God as the Spirit of life.
In Romans 8:9 we see the Spirit of God and the Spirit of Christ. Then in verse 10 we see Christ. The Spirit of God, the Spirit of Christ, and Christ are not three separate entities. These three are one. The Spirit of God is the Spirit of Christ, and the Spirit of Christ is Christ. These are different titles denoting one person. You may call this person Christ, you may call Him the Spirit of Christ, and you may call Him the Spirit of God. This one divine person, who is all-inclusive, has three titles here: the Spirit of God, the Spirit of Christ, and Christ. These three titles are interchangeably used to bear a particular significance.
Thus far, we have seen the Spirit of life, the Spirit of God, the Spirit of Christ, and now we come to the Spirit of the One (v. 11). After Paul refers to the Spirit of Christ and the Spirit of God, he refers to the Spirit of the One who raised Jesus from the dead. This One who raised up Jesus is the Father, the Son, and the Spirit — the Triune God. This Triune God is the resurrecting One. When the Sadducees asked the Lord concerning resurrection in Matthew 22, the Lord referred them to Exodus 3:6 and 16 where God unveiled Himself as the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob — the Triune God. This divine title indicates resurrection because God could never be the God of the dead ones. He is the God of the living ones (Matt. 22:32). The Triune God — the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob — is the resurrecting God. In Romans 8:11 we see the resurrecting God, the Triune God. It is wonderful and marvelous that in Romans 8:11 we can see the Spirit of the resurrecting Triune God.
It is easy to realize that the Spirit of God refers to God the Creator and that the Spirit of Christ refers to the Spirit of the Savior, but it is not easy for us to gain a deeper understanding of these terms. Thus, to apprehend the title the Spirit of the One who raised Jesus from the dead requires much understanding. We must realize who dwells in us. The Spirit of God, the Spirit of Christ, Christ Himself, and the Spirit of the One who raised Jesus from the dead dwell in us. These are not four but one. The One who is the Spirit of God, the Spirit of Christ, and Christ Himself is the One who raised Jesus from the dead. This kind of speaking indicates that this One is all-inclusive.
This One is now in us to dwell in us to do a wonderful work. The Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in us to make our spirit life (v. 10b), to make our mind life (v. 6b), and to give life to our mortal body (v. 11b). The first thing that He does is to make our spirit life. When Christ is in us, our spirit is life. Before Christ came into us, our spirit was dead. Now that Christ is in us, however, our spirit is not only living but life. This wonderful One who is so all-inclusive as the Spirit of life, the Spirit of God, the Spirit of Christ, Christ Himself, and the Spirit of the resurrecting One, who is the Triune God, dwells in us first to make our dead spirit life. This is regeneration.
Following this, this indwelling Spirit makes our mind life. The mind set on the spirit is life. This is the renewing of our mind, which is transformation. To make our spirit life is to regenerate us. To make our mind life is to renew our mind and to transform us.
In addition, such a wonderful One dwells in us to give life to our mortal body. This is not the outward healing but the inward life impartation. Day after day the divine life is spreading into our body until that day when our body will be redeemed (v. 23) and transfigured (Phil. 3:21).
This is the Triune God dispensing Himself into the tripartite man. Man is of three parts — the human spirit, the human soul, and the human body. As believers, our spirit has been regenerated, and our soul with its leading part, the mind, is now under renewing, which is our transformation. The day will come when our body will be transfigured, conformed to the body of His glory. This will be the redemption of our body. Our regeneration has already been accomplished, our transformation is an ongoing process, and our transfiguration, the redemption of our body, will be accomplished at Christ’s coming back. This all-inclusive One, as the consummation of the Triune God, is working the Triune God into our three parts — into our spirit, into our soul, and into our body. This is the Triune God working Himself into the tripartite man by His divine dispensing.
Such an all-inclusive Spirit works the Triune God into our tripartite being to make us the sons of God. We were enemies of God, but such a wonderful, divine work by the consummation of the Triune God is making us sons of God. Romans 8:14 says, “As many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God.” This all-inclusive Spirit is making us the sons of God by accomplishing the divine sonship in our being. The Spirit is divinely “sonizing” us. We are sinners, and we were God’s enemies, yet this all-inclusive Spirit is not merely making us spiritual, holy, or victorious; He is divinely sonizing us, making us the sons of God. This is a great matter.
The Spirit witnesses with our spirit all the time that we are children of God (v. 16). The Spirit is making us sons of God, and at the same time He is witnessing that we are children of God. Many sisters have the experience that even while they are shopping in the department store, within there is a witnessing, reminding them that they are children of God. Sometimes the young people would go to the movies. While they were on their way to the movies, there was something within witnessing and saying, “Do not forget that you are a child of God.” Sometimes while a husband is losing his temper with his wife, there is also a witnessing — “Do not forget that you are a child of God.” Nothing stops a person’s temper as fast as saying Amen to this kind of witnessing in their spirit. This is the witnessing Spirit within our spirit who witnesses that we are children of God.
Romans 8:23 tells us that we have the firstfruits of the Spirit. This is not the foretaste of the coming age but the firstfruits of the rich God as our portion. The foretaste of the coming age is the taste of the outward things, but the firstfruits is the foretaste of the processed Triune God Himself. What we have enjoyed and what we are still enjoying of God Himself is just a foretaste. The full taste is coming. The Holy Spirit, the all-inclusive Spirit, is the firstfruits of all the riches of God’s being for our enjoyment. We are tasting just a foretaste of God, and the full taste of God will come. We will enjoy the full taste of God in eternity.
The interceding Spirit helps us, sympathizes with us, sustains us, comforts us, and supports us by interceding for us (vv. 26-27). Many times we feel that we are weak and depressed, but within us even at that time there is something sustaining, supporting, encouraging, and comforting us. There is something within us telling us that we should not be disappointed. Although we are weak, there is some sustaining and support within us. There is even a kind of prayer going on within us and for us. When we were disappointed before we were saved, we remained disappointed. But when we were disappointed after being saved, quite often something within us was still supporting us, comforting us, and sympathizing with us in a sweet way. This is the interceding Spirit, and this is the intercession of the helping Spirit. He helps us in any kind of situation.
No one fully understands us, but the interceding Spirit understands us thoroughly. We can tell anyone that they do not understand us, but we cannot say to the interceding Spirit, “Dear Spirit, You misunderstood me, and You do not understand me.” If you would say this, the Spirit would say, “I understand you much more than you understand yourself. I know your need, your problems, your weakness, and your shortcomings. No one else knows, and even you do not know. But I know, so I sympathize with you, I support you, and I even sustain you. I am your Helper. As long as you have Me, you are all right. You do not need to worry about yourself.” It is so easy, however, for us to neglect this One. Despite this, He is within us, so soft, so tender, so sympathizing, and so loving. This is wonderful! This is much better than any material thing. The witnessing Spirit plus His interceding is so sweet. He tempers us and makes us to be the proper persons.
This One is sanctifying us all the time (15:16). This is not objective, positional sanctification but subjective, dispositional sanctification. This sanctification is to renew us, to transform us, and to conform us to the image of God’s firstborn Son so that we may be so fitting to be a living member of the Body of Christ.
Eventually, such a Spirit becomes a mingled spirit, the Spirit mingled with our spirit (cf. 8:4; 1 Cor. 6:17), according to whom we walk. We do have such a mingled spirit within us, and what we should do now is to behave, to act, to live, to walk, and to have our being according to this mingled spirit. If we walk according to this mingled spirit, we will be a son of God in full, and as such a son, we will be a living member of Christ, living in the church life, which is the kingdom of God. This kingdom is mentioned in Romans 14:17 and is not mainly of power or ruling or government. The kingdom of God, which is today’s church life, is of righteousness with ourselves, peace toward others, and joy with God in the Holy Spirit. Do not think that the kingdom of God is for you to be a king to rule over others and to execute God’s government. You have to forget these thoughts. The kingdom of God today in the church life is not for ruling or for governing but is for living — a righteous living, a peaceful living, and a joyful living. The church life as the kingdom of God today is a kingdom of righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit. This is the Lord’s recovery.
