Search
Scripture Reading: Col. 2:9; 1 Cor. 15:45b; Rom. 8:2, 4; 15:16; 1 Cor. 6:11; 2 Cor. 3:18; Phil. 1:19-21a; 4:8, 12b-13
I. The embodiment of God as the Spirit of life becoming our life — Col. 2:9; 1 Cor. 15:45b; Rom. 8:2.
II. God’s Spirit of life becoming the way for our spiritual living:
А. For us to fulfill God’s righteous requirement of the law — vv. 2, 4.
B. For us to be sanctified positionally and dispositionally — 15:16; 1 Cor. 6:11.
C. For us to be transformed into Christ — 2 Cor. 3:18.
D. For us to live out Christ as our virtues — Phil. 1:19-21a; 4:8, 12b-13.
Prayer: Lord, we are gathered once again into Your name, the loving, rich, and protecting name. Here we would listen quietly to Your speaking. Speak to us the living word, the word of life. Lord, grace us, and speak into every one of our hearts. May You supply us, tend our wounds, heal us, and lead us on richly in the way that You desire today. Lord, operate here. Operate among and in us so that we can be free and so that our spirits can be enlightened. For this, grant us the utterance so that we can explain Your need to all the people. May every word be food and supply to us.
O Lord Jesus, we tell You again that we love You. We treasure You. We want to follow You and exalt You forever. May Your name be exalted by the nations. May Your kingdom come, and may Your glory be manifested. May this glory be expressed among us this morning, and may You gain our worship and exaltation. Lord Jesus, may You glorify the Father’s name. Bless Your children, build Your church, and shame Your enemy. Amen.
We have come to the second chapter, which is God’s Spirit of life becoming our way to live Christ in the spiritual living. We often talk about the spiritual living. But what actually is the spiritual living? Here we have a clear explanation: the spiritual living is simply a living that lives Christ. A spiritual living is not for us to be spiritual but for us to live Christ. A spiritual living is not one where we do good, where we are humble, kind, or forbearing. A spiritual living is one where we live Christ. Whether or not our living is spiritual depends on whether or not we live Christ. In other words, true spirituality is Christ.
Who is Christ? He is the embodiment of the Triune God. All the fullness of the Godhead dwells in Him bodily (Col. 2:9). Outwardly speaking, Christ was a man and a Jew, one who lived on earth two thousand years ago. He was indeed a man, a noble and perfect man, but within Him He had God as His content. The fullness of God dwells bodily in Him in full measure. We all have to know that the One we follow, worship, love, and exalt is such a One. This is also the One we preach and supply to others. The name of this One is Jesus Christ.
This wonderful One lived on earth for over thirty-three years. One day He suddenly told His disciples that He would go to Jerusalem to be crucified on the cross. When the disciples heard this word, they were very disappointed. They did not understand what the Lord meant. They thought that the Lord was going to die — the One whom they loved and followed, the One who calmed the waves, healed the sick, and cast out the demons. To them everything would be over if the Lord were to die. It seemed that they did not hear the next word that the Lord spoke, that in three days He would rise up again. They knew what death was, but they had never heard of resurrection. Hence, they did not at all understand what the Lord meant. Although the Lord revealed the matter to them three times already (Matt. 16:21-27; 17:22-23; 20:17-19), they still did not grasp it.
The Lord Jesus is the Passover lamb ordained by God (John 1:29; 1 Cor. 5:7). He was indeed crucified for us and died on the Jewish Passover day according to God’s prophecy and the Old Testament type (Matt. 26:2; 27:15). When He died and was buried, the disciples were greatly disappointed; they returned home in disenchantment. But in a little over thirty hours the news came that He was resurrected. Those who heard it ran to the tomb and discovered that the stone was rolled away and that the Lord’s body was not there; only the linen cloths and the handkerchief that had been on His head still lay there. This proves that the Lord did not escape, nor was He stolen by anyone. While they marveled, a messenger of the Lord came and told them that the Lord had resurrected.
In this resurrection He changed His form. Formerly, He was God; by becoming flesh, He put on the form of man. Then He was crucified and resurrected to become the Spirit. This is what is written in 1 Corinthians 15, that “the last Adam became a life-giving Spirit” (v. 45). Through becoming the life-giving Spirit, He is able to dispense Himself into us. The Lord Jesus said, “I am...the life.” He also said, “I have come that they may have life” (John 14:6; 10:10). How can we receive Him as life, and how can He come into us? When He was resurrected, He became the Spirit of life (Rom. 8:2). By this He is able to come into us as our life.
On the evening of the Lord’s resurrection, the disciples were gathered together in one place. Although they heard that the Lord had resurrected and they had believed, they did not see Him nor know where He was, and they were therefore very uneasy. The door of the room where they were was closed for fear of the Jews. Suddenly, the Lord appeared in their midst and said to them, “Peace be to you.” After this He showed them the marks of the nails in His hands and in His side. By that time, when the disciples saw that it was the Lord, they were glad, and their hearts were put at ease. Then Jesus said, “As the Father has sent Me, I also send you.” After He spoke this word, He breathed into them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit” (John 20:19-22). This Holy Spirit is the Holy Breath, who is also the Lord Himself. This time the Lord did not come in that flesh that He had before; rather, He came with a resurrected body. This body is real and touchable, and yet it can penetrate through closed doors. This is something that our finite mind can never understand.
Through death and resurrection this Jesus Christ who was the embodiment of God became the life-giving Spirit. As breath, He was breathed into the disciples as life. This Holy Breath is the ultimate consummation of the Triune God. The Triune God has been processed to be consummated as the completed Spirit. This Spirit is the Lord Himself. In this Spirit there are many rich elements, including God, man, human living, the all-inclusive death, the mysterious resurrection, and the transcending ascension (v. 17). Now this Spirit has entered Peter, James, John, and all the believers. Hence, wherever the disciples are sent, He is always with them. As the Father sent the Son and came with Him, in the same way the Lord sends the disciples and goes with them.
The disciples were overjoyed at the scene before them. To them it was too good to be true. But suddenly the Lord disappeared again. He did not go away; rather, He remained within the disciples so that they could become accustomed to His invisible presence. The Lord appeared again to them many times. Those, however, were not His comings but His appearings. He had never left the disciples but was with them all the time. Because of their weakness He would sometimes manifest His presence to strengthen their faith. Not long after this, due to his need for his livelihood, Peter brought a few brothers with him to fish by the sea. Some of them were professional fishermen, and the sea was full of fish. Moreover, nighttime is the best time to catch fish. However, they did not catch anything for the whole night. This was truly a miracle. Surely the Lord had commanded all the fish to stay away from the nets. After this the Lord appeared to them and gave them guidance. Although that was not the good time to fish, they cast their net according to the Lord’s word and caught many fish. This is, of course, a miracle too. Surely the Lord had ordered the fish to swim into their net. By this the Lord recovered Peter back to His calling, and through this he experienced the Lord living in him as his life.
In this message I want to set clearly before you a way to spiritual living. In simple terms, this way is just Jesus. We have seen that this Jesus is the embodiment of God. He passed through thirty-three and a half years of human living. In the end He entered death, and He came out of death. In resurrection He became the life-giving Spirit. This is the Lord Jesus today. His Spirit is like the air that fills the earth; it is everywhere. As soon as a person repents, confesses his sins, believes, and calls “O Lord Jesus,” the Spirit of life enters into him, and he is saved and changed. Every one of us who have truly believed in the Lord experienced this story within. As to how we should live the spiritual living after this, we should do the same thing we did in our experience at the time of salvation; that is, we should call on the Lord and pray to Him.
Today we know a little more than before. The Lord is living in us already. More or less we have some experience. Particularly when we contact Him and call on Him when we wake up in the morning, we become different inside. We feel peaceful and calm. If we breathe a few more breaths, the breath of life will fill us, and anxiety and temper will be gone. Hence, we must not think that as soon as we are saved, everything is finished. If a saved person does not call on the Lord, he will be just like an unbeliever. Only when we call on the Lord will we have life, and only when there is life will there be the way. Without calling, we cannot have life; there will be death, and we will have no way to go on. I believe that every saved person here can testify to the same thing. Nevertheless, I hope that you would take up this matter as a principle and would practice it every day and moment by moment. In this way we will be able to enjoy God’s Spirit of life as the way for us to have a spiritual living.
God’s law consists mainly of the Ten Commandments. The first commandment says that we should have no God other than Jehovah. Everything that replaces the Lord is another god, and such a replacement is forbidden. The second commandment says that we must not make graven images for ourselves. Everything apart from God can become an image or idol. Examples of these things are money, education, and career. We can make idols out of these, and we can worship them. The third commandment is that we must not take the name of the Lord in vain. The fourth is that we must keep the Sabbath. For us today in the New Testament, we should keep the Lord’s Day. This day should be sanctified to the Lord. On this day we should come to His habitation, which is the church, to break the bread, to remember Him, to learn to serve Him, and to speak the Lord’s word. The fifth commandment is that we should honor our parents.
The Ten Commandments are divided into two sections. The first five were engraved on one tablet, and the last five were engraved on another. The fifth commandment is put together with the first four that have to do with God. This means that we should treat our parents in the same way that we should treat God, because God is the ultimate source of mankind. Furthermore, we have the sixth commandment, which says that we should not kill. This is to honor human life. The seventh commandment says that we should not commit adultery. This is to honor human morality. The eighth commandment says that we should not steal. This is to honor human rights. The ninth commandment says that we should not bear false witness against our neighbor. This sin is worse than the sin of lying. The tenth commandment says that we should not covet our neighbor’s wife, his house, or anything he has. This is to deal with the covetousness that is in man.
Romans 8:4 says, “That the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the spirit.” This spirit is the spirit of life, and to walk according to the spirit is to walk according to the Lord’s life within us. Within us there is surely another life, which is the Lord’s Spirit of life. He is the way for us to have a spiritual living. When we call on Him all the time and walk by Him, we will fulfill the righteous requirement of the law.
God’s Spirit of life is also sanctifying us positionally and dispositionally. Romans 15:16 says that the Gentiles are sanctified and made acceptable in the Holy Spirit. First Corinthians 6:11 also says that we are sanctified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God. If we call on the name of the Lord all the time and contact Him, God’s Spirit of life will not only sanctify us positionally but dispositionally, so that our words and our walk can be separated unto God.
Second Corinthians 3:18 says, “We all with unveiled face, beholding and reflecting like a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, even as from the Lord Spirit.” We begin every day with an unveiled face, looking to the Lord and calling on His name. His Spirit will then operate within us and will mingle God’s life and nature with us, with the result that we will be transformed into His glorious image.
Philippians 1:19 tells us that within us we have the bountiful supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ. This Spirit is simply Christ Himself as the Spirit of life within us. He is all-inclusive. Within Him is the rich element of divinity, the noble element of humanity, the proper, excellent human living, and the elements of death, resurrection, and ascension. Now this Spirit is within us. He is the bountiful supply that enables us to be saved under all circumstances. This Spirit of life with the bountiful supply is our way unto salvation. In the end we will be able to live out Christ as our virtues. These virtues are described in Philippians 4:8 as “what things are true, what things are dignified, what things are righteous, what things are pure, what things are lovely, what things are well spoken of.” This kind of life is full of virtues and is worthy of praise.
Paul learned the secret concerning the attainment of all these things. He said that “in everything and in all things I have learned the secret” (v. 12). This secret is what he described in the following verse: “I am able to do all things in Him who empowers me” (v. 13). Paul continually allowed Christ to be life in him and to live Himself out in his living. The Lord empowered him and enabled him to do all things. This is to live Christ and to magnify Him. “Even now Christ will be magnified in my body, whether through life or through death. For to me, to live is Christ” (1:20b-21a).
Hence, Christ as the Spirit of life is in us as our life to be our way. By this way we can live a spiritual living and can have the righteous requirement of the law fulfilled in us so that we can become sanctified positionally and dispositionally, and we will be transformed into the image of Christ to live out His virtues.
