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Scripture Reading: 4:3, Eph. 4:4, 30; 1:13-14; 2:18; 3:14-19; 6:11-12, 17; Phil. 1:19-21a; 2:12-16; 3:8-9; 4:13
In the Epistles of Ephesians and Philippians we see the Spirit as the Son with the Father, being the consummation of the Triune God. The Spirit is the consummation of the Triune God, or the Triune God consummated. After the Triune God had gone through a marvelous process, the consummation came out, that is, the all-inclusive, processed, compound Spirit. In the Epistles the Spirit is not something “raw” but something processed. The Triune God has passed through all the processes, consummating in the Spirit.
In Ephesians such a compound Spirit is the Spirit of the Body (4:4). In Ephesians the main topic is the Body of Christ, the church, so in this book the aggregate Spirit, the compound Spirit, is the Spirit for the Body and the Spirit of the Body. If there is no Spirit, there is no Body, no church. When people talk about the Body of Christ, the church, they mostly neglect the Spirit. Actually, the Spirit is the intrinsic reality of the Body of Christ. The reality of the church is this compound, aggregate Spirit.
Ephesians 1:13 tells us that we believers, who are the components, the members, of the Body, have all been sealed with the Holy Spirit. A good example of a seal is a rubber stamp. When a piece of paper is stamped or sealed, it receives some element of ink. Now it is no longer purely a piece of paper but a piece of paper with the element of ink. This shows that, first, to be sealed is to be impressed with some element. Ephesians 1:13-14 tells us that when we heard the word and believed in the Lord Jesus, we were sealed with this compound Spirit. This sealing put the divine element into our being. This is just like the stamping of the ink on a piece of paper. It is very easy to erase something written with pencil. However, when the best ink is used, it is very hard to erase. Sometimes it cannot be erased unless you rub through the paper. This means that the ink element has become one with the paper and that the two elements are mingled as one. In like manner, the divine element has become one with us. The divine Spirit dwells in our human spirit, and these two are mingled together as one spirit (2 Tim. 4:22; Rom. 8:16; 1 Cor. 6:17).
In addition, sealing something gives it a mark. To be sealed with the Holy Spirit means to be marked with the Holy Spirit as a living seal. If we had a seal with someone’s name on it, the stamping of this seal on a piece of paper would leave the mark of this person’s name on the paper. The mark looks exactly the same as the stamp. After we believed in the Lord Jesus, the Holy Spirit sealed us. It not only brought the divine element into our being, but it also put a mark upon us, causing us to bear God’s image signified by the seal, thus making us like God.
Sealing also denotes ownership. When a person buys a new book and stamps or seals it with his name, this seal denotes that the book belongs to him. The Holy Spirit put the divine element into our being as a seal to mark us out, indicating that we belong to God. The divine element added into our being, the mark made in us, and the indication of the divine ownership, when added together, become a pledge. A pledge is a guarantee that something is ours. The Holy Spirit sealed upon our being is the pledge that God is ours. It guarantees that God is our inheritance. The members of the church are the sealed ones. All the members have received the Holy Spirit as the divine element, as the divine mark, as the divine ownership, and eventually as a pledge that God is their inheritance. From the day of our salvation we may enjoy God every day as our portion.
In Ephesians 2:18 we are told that through Christ both the Jewish and the Gentile members of the Body have access in one Spirit unto the Father. Our access “unto the Father” means for us to contact God for our enjoyment. Whenever we come to God to contact Him, we enjoy Him. There is no enjoyment better than this. When we contact God, we come to Him through Christ in the Spirit to the Father. This is the Divine Trinity in our experience of God as our enjoyment. We all have been sealed with the Spirit as a pledge that God is our inheritance for us to enjoy. Now through the Son in the Spirit we come to the Father to enjoy Him. According to the context, this verse also indicates that through Christ all the Jewish and Gentile believers, who were once at enmity, have access to the Father in one Spirit for their enjoyment. Regardless of whether we are Jewish or Gentile believers, all of us are coming to the Father through the Son in the one Spirit to enjoy the Father as our inheritance.
In Ephesians 3:14-19 Paul prayed that through the Spirit the Father would strengthen the members of the Body into their inner man, that Christ may make His home in their hearts, that they may be strong to apprehend with all the members the breadth, length, height, and depth of Christ, that they may be filled unto all the fullness of God. Again, this is the Triune God. Ephesians 2:18 tells us that we have access unto the Father through the Son in the Spirit. Ephesians 3:14-19 indicates that Christ comes to make home in our hearts from the Father through the Spirit. This is two-way traffic. In one Spirit through Christ, we go unto the Father, which means that we come to Him and enjoy Him. On the other hand, through the Spirit, Christ comes from God to make His home in our hearts. He is making His home in our hearts so that we may know His breadth, length, height, and depth, His unlimited dimensions, that we may be filled unto all the fullness of God. This God is the Triune God.
Paul prayed that the Father through the Spirit would strengthen us into the inner man, that Christ may make His home in our heart, that we may be filled unto the fullness of God. In Paul’s prayer we see four divine titles: the Father, the Spirit, Christ, and God. These four titles do not refer to four different persons but to the same One, the same complete Triune God. Paul had such a vision of God’s New Testament economy that even in his prayer he had the Triune God in view. All the members need to be strengthened by the Father through the Spirit into the inner man in order that Christ may make His home in their hearts. This will enable all the members to apprehend this wonderful person together. Our goal is to apprehend together this wonderful person in His unlimited dimensions so that we may be filled with the Triune God unto His full expression.
In Colossians 2:9 we are told that in Christ dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. When this Christ comes to make His home in our heart, He comes with all the fullness of God, and He imparts to us all the fullness of God to such an extent that we become the fullness of God, the expression of God. Christ wants to make home in our hearts, to fill us with His riches to such an extent that we, the church, may become the full expression of God. This is to be filled unto all the fullness of God. When the riches are in God Himself, they are His riches, but when the riches of God are expressed, they become His fullness.
To apprehend the breadth, length, height, and depth, the unlimited dimensions of Christ, requires all the saints, not individually but corporately. No one can tell how broad is the breadth, how long is the length, how high is the height, and how deep is the depth. These are the universal dimensions of Christ. Our Christ is immeasurable and unlimited. All the saints must work together to apprehend the universal, unlimited dimensions of Christ, that they may be filled unto all the fullness of the Triune God. Unto in Greek means “resulting in.” We are filled, resulting in the fullness of God. It is wrong to translate this word into “with” or “by.” It is not with or by the fullness of God but unto the fullness of God, resulting in the fullness of God. When Christ makes His home in your heart, occupying your entire inner being, this means that Christ is filling you with all His riches. Every corner, every avenue, of our mind, our emotion, our will, and every inward part of our being is being occupied by this unsearchably rich Christ until we are filled, resulting in the fullness, the expression, of the Godhead.
A cup may contain some water, and it may be rich in water, but there is no expression of the water because the cup is not completely full of water. If the cup is filled with water until it is overflowing, this is the fullness, the expression, of the water. If you only have the riches without the fullness, there is no expression. We all need to let Christ with all His riches make His home in our hearts. The heart is a composition of our inner being, consisting of the mind, the will, the emotion, and the conscience. The heart, therefore, is composed of all the parts of the soul plus one part of the spirit, the conscience. When Christ with all His unsearchable riches makes home in our heart, this means that He is occupying every part of our inward being. His filling us from within with all His riches results in one thing — the full expression of God.
Ephesians 4:3 tells us that the members of the Body should keep the oneness of the Spirit. The Spirit is the oneness of the Body. We should not act, move, work, or speak without the Spirit. We must be people living, moving, walking, and having our being in the Spirit. Then we keep the oneness. If a husband and wife are not moving, living, and acting in the Spirit, there is no way that they can be one. When the husband and wife move, act, live, and even breathe in the Spirit, they are one. I have learned a secret in marriage life — that it is better for the couple not to talk if they are not in the Spirit. If a couple is not in the Spirit, when the husband says “west,” the wife will say “east.” When I was not in the Spirit, I was fearful of talking to my wife. When I was in the Spirit and she was in the Spirit, we had the full freedom to talk, and we were one. We must remember that we are one only when we are in the Spirit. When we are outside the Spirit, it is better not to talk to keep the peace. The only way to keep the oneness of the Spirit is to be in the Spirit. There is no other way.
Ephesians 4:30 tells us that the members should not grieve the Spirit, in whom they were sealed unto the day of redemption. Once the Spirit gets into us, He is always with us and will never leave us. Even if we offend Him or insult Him, He remains within us. We cannot be divorced from the Spirit, but we can surely grieve Him. We have been sealed with the Holy Spirit, and this sealing is going on continually unto the day of redemption. Since the day of our salvation unto the day of the redemption of our body, this sealing is always taking place. Do not forget that this sealing brings us the divine element. Day after day the divine element is being added into our being, the divine mark within us is being made more striking, more evident, and God’s ownership of us is being strengthened more and more. This sealing brings us into the transfiguration of our body, which will be the redemption of our body. We should not be those who grieve the sealing Spirit.
We must realize that actually the Spirit is the word of God. Ephesians 6:17 charges us to receive “the sword of the Spirit, which Spirit is the word of God.” The antecedent of which is Spirit, not sword, indicating that the Spirit is the word of God, both of which are Christ (2 Cor. 3:17; Rev. 19:13). The Bible is the Word of God, yet if we do not have the Spirit with us when we come to the word of God in the Bible, the Bible is merely dead letters to us. When we have the Spirit with us, the Spirit with us makes the black and white dead letters the living word of God. Therefore, the Spirit is the word of God, and such a Spirit is a sword, a weapon, for us to fight the battle against God’s enemy to bring in His kingdom, which is the church. In Ephesians we see such a wonderful person — the Triune God consummated in the Spirit to produce, to build up, to strengthen, and to enrich the church to live Christ, to express God, and to fight the battle for God’s children to bring in His kingdom.
In Philippians 1:19 the apostle Paul uses a special expression — “the bountiful supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ.” The first mention of the Spirit is in Genesis 1:2, which tells us that the Spirit of God brooded upon the death waters. Philippians, however, refers to the Spirit of Jesus Christ. We must realize that these are not two Spirits. In creation the Spirit was the Spirit of God. However, after creation, incarnation, crucifixion, and resurrection, the Spirit of God is the Spirit of Jesus Christ. In our Christian experience the Spirit of God is no longer merely the Spirit of God, but He is now the enriched, compounded, processed, all-inclusive, life-giving Spirit — the Spirit of Jesus Christ.
The Spirit of Jesus (Acts 16:7) includes Jesus’ incarnation, humanity, human living, suffering, and crucifixion. The Spirit of Christ (Rom. 8:9) includes Christ’s divinity, victory over death, resurrection, and power of resurrection. All these items added together issue in a compound. This is why we say that today the aggregate Spirit is a compound Spirit. It is compounded with the divine nature, the human nature, human living, human suffering, the all-inclusive death, Christ’s victory over death, His resurrection, and the power of His resurrection. These are the elements of the compound, processed, all-inclusive Spirit. The Spirit of God in Genesis 1 was like a glass of plain water. Through the marvelous processes that the Triune God has gone through, many elements have been added to this “water.” Through the Triune God’s incarnation, crucifixion, and resurrection, the Spirit of God has been compounded with divinity, humanity, human living, human suffering, crucifixion, resurrection, and the power of resurrection. Today the Spirit of Jesus Christ is the all-inclusive, processed, compound, life-giving, indwelling Spirit. In Him there is a bountiful supply. Do you need anything? Whatever you need, He is. He is the bountiful Spirit of Jesus Christ.
This bountiful Spirit of Jesus Christ is for the believers to live Christ and magnify Him (Phil. 1:20-21a). Nothing is as hard as living Christ. A person may get a Ph.D., but no one can graduate from living Christ. In order to live Christ, you are not adequate, you are not able, and you are not capable. To live Christ you need the bountiful supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ. Every morning of every day you must learn to give yourself to this bountiful supply. You must trust in this bountiful supply, and you must rely on this bountiful supply. The bountiful supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ sustains you to live Christ.
In marriage life, if either the husband or the wife gives the other a long face, the other party forgets about Christ. The wife may have been enjoying Christ and living Christ all day until the husband gets home at 5:30 P.M. When the husband walks in the door, he may not say anything; he only gives his wife a long face. Immediately, the wife is bothered, and Christ is gone. In this case, the wife did not live Christ, but she lived herself by reacting to her husband’s long face. She reacted to her husband by giving him a longer face. Do not think that this is a small thing. It takes the strongest power, the bountiful supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ, to deal with this small thing. To overcome the long face of your spouse is not easy, so we need the bountiful supply. The bountiful supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ is for us to live Christ and to manifest Him in death or in life, in prison or in freedom. To make Christ great in His expression we need the bountiful supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ.
Philippians 2:12-16 shows the bountiful Spirit of Jesus Christ as God operating in the believers both the willing and the working, for them as luminaries to shine forth the word of life in the world, that they may work out their own salvation. It is God who operates in you the willing and the working. This is the Triune God, the processed God, not merely the God in creation. For God to create the universe was somewhat easy. When He said, “Let there be light,” there was light. In creating the universe, God did not operate; He only spoke things into being. In our Christian life, however, God needs to operate, to energize. A young Christian may have the thought of going to a movie. The Triune God, who is this aggregate Spirit, operates and struggles within him to keep him from going and to operate in him both the willing and the working to carry out his salvation, to bring it to its ultimate conclusion.
Every day the processed Triune God suffers this struggling within us. To create the universe God spoke it into being. But if God says, “Let there be no movie,” many believers still desire to go to the movie, so God has to operate within them. The only thing we need to do is to obey the inner operating God. He has to exercise His divine, everlasting patience. Some have said that the patience of the Chinese is endless. However, everlasting patience does not belong to the Chinese but to God. God surely exercises His everlasting patience with His chosen and redeemed people. This operating God operates in us both the inner willing and the outer working for His good pleasure. This God is the Spirit as the Son with the Father, the consummation of the Triune God, for the believers as luminaries to shine forth the word of life in this world so that they may work out their own salvation.
We must realize that God’s salvation is full of many sections. The initial section was our salvation from hell, from eternal perdition. Today, however, we need a practical, present salvation to save us from our temper, our “long face,” our gossiping, and our going to the movies. We need to be saved from many things. We have to work out such a present, daily, and practical salvation for ourselves but not by our own strength. For a husband to overcome his wife’s long face, he needs the bountiful supply of the processed Triune God. This processed Triune God is operating in us for the inner willing and the outer working in order that we may be luminaries shining forth the word of God to work out our own daily, present, and practical salvation.
The bountiful Spirit of Jesus Christ is for the believers to gain Christ and be found in Him, having Him as the righteousness of God for the expression of God (3:8-9). This is not to gain Christ positionally. Positionally, we have gained Christ already. Christ is ours, but now we have to gain Christ dispositionally, experientially. To gain Christ means to experience and enjoy Christ. We have to experience and enjoy Christ and be found, be seen, and be discovered by others that we are living in Christ. We should be those not having our own righteousness but having Christ as God’s righteousness expressed from within us.
Finally, the bountiful Spirit of Jesus Christ is to empower the believers to do all things in Christ (4:13). In this processed Triune God as the life-giving Spirit, we are empowered to do all things for expressing Christ. The wonderful person revealed in Ephesians and in Philippians is not merely Christ but the pneumatic Christ. He is not merely the Spirit of God but also the bountiful Spirit of Jesus Christ. He is the Spirit as the Son with the Father, being the consummation of the Triune God today in the church. Hallelujah for such a person!
