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Scripture Reading: John 15:4; Gal. 2:20; Rom. 8:4
Prayer: Lord, shame Your enemy. We trust in Your blood to cover us. Under the covering of Your blood we stand against the enemy and enjoy You. Lord, anoint us. We need to see more of You. Show us Your way — the way in life and the spirit. Lord, show us that You are living in us, and show us how to live You. By Your mercy and grace, cause us to see the things concerning Your economy.
In this chapter we will continue to consider the focus of the Bible, which can be found in John 15:4 and Galatians 2:20. In John 15:4 the Lord Jesus said, “Abide in Me and I in you.” In Galatians 2:20 Paul said, “It is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me.” We may be familiar with these simple words, yet we need to realize that they convey a profound revelation that has been greatly neglected.
The Lord Jesus was with His disciples for three and a half years and gave them many messages, including His word in Matthew 5—7. The last message that the Lord gave to His disciples before His crucifixion is recorded in John 14—16, and the focus of this last message is in chapter 15, which uses the illustration of the vine. In verse 5 the Lord said, “I am the vine; you are the branches. He who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit; for apart from Me you can do nothing.” A picture is better than a thousand words. These words are simple, but their significance is profound.
No other portion in the Bible defines and describes the Trinity in as much detail as John 14—16 does. John 14:7-11 reveals that the Father is one with the Son, for the Son is in the Father and the Father is in the Son. In other words, the Son is the Father’s embodiment and expression. Verses 16 through 20 tell us that the Spirit is the reality and realization of the Son. The Father is embodied in the Son, and the Son is realized as the Spirit. These three are one. Then in chapter 15 we see that the Son is the vine, and the Father is the husbandman (v. 1). Verse 26 mentions the Spirit of reality again. Chapter 16 continues to reveal the Trinity. The Son has been given all that the Father has, and the Spirit reveals and conveys to us all that the Son is (vv. 13-15). Thus, the Spirit conveys to us the entire Triune God — the Spirit comes with the Son and with the Father.
The vine is Christ the Son, who is the embodiment of the Triune God. As branches in the vine, the believers are members of Christ (Rom. 12:5; 1 Cor. 12:12, 27; Eph. 5:30). The vine in John 15 is the universal new man, of which Christ is the Head and all the believers are the members (Eph. 2:15). Because the believers are branches of Christ, who embodies the Triune God, we may also say that the believers are the branches of the Triune God. We branch out the Triune God.
To teach that we branch out the Triune God according to John 15 is not to teach that we are God as an object of worship. Because we were born of Adam, we are the branches of Adam. When we have children, we continue to branch out Adam. We began as branches of Adam, but we were grafted into Christ (Rom. 11:24). This grafting was another birth. John 1:12 says, “As many as received Him, to them He gave the authority to become children of God, to those who believe into His name.” Because we have been born of God, we are the offspring of God. As such, we should branch out God. If we walk according to the flesh, we branch out Adam, but if we walk according to the spirit, we branch out God.
In John 15 the Lord charged us only to abide in Him (v. 4). All the life and activity of the branches come from their abiding in the vine. As long as the branches abide in the vine, the leaves, blossoms, and fruit will spontaneously come forth. Therefore, the Lord emphasized not fruit-bearing but abiding. The crucial point is our abiding in Christ. We do not need to struggle to bear fruit, for fruit-bearing is an issue of our abiding in Christ. As long as we abide in Christ, the other experiences of the normal Christian life will automatically follow. Therefore, our unique need is to abide in Christ.
The mutual abiding of the vine and the branches depicts the Triune God living in us so that we may live Him. The revelation in John 15 is essentially the same as that in Romans 8. Both reveal the focus of the universe and the center of the Bible — the Triune God lives in us so that we may live Him. This should also be the focus of our Christian life.
All we need to do is to live the Triune God; everything else will be a spontaneous issue of our living the Triune God. However, nearly all Christians, including the great teachers, have missed this focus. The teachings of Thomas á Kempis and Mrs. Jessie Penn-Lewis concerning bearing the cross, experiencing the subjective death of Christ, and following Jesus outside the camp have been influential among many seeking Christians but have erroneously led some to asceticism. Other teachings emphasize the resurrection life, subjective sanctification, or holiness, and the victorious life. For instance, an American brother, Charles G. Trumbull, wrote a book called The Life That Wins concerning the victorious life. Many books have been written concerning these matters and have influenced countless seeking Christians during the past few centuries. In my early Christian life I studied and was influenced by these books. I endeavored to bear the cross, experience the subjective death of Christ, follow Jesus outside the camp, and exercise faith to experience the resurrection life. I saw that these mystical teachings are higher than the merely ethical teachings of fundamental Protestantism. However, I eventually discovered that the practices taught by the mystics are based on human effort and are therefore ineffective. I also tried experiencing the spiritual gifts as practiced by the Pentecostals, such as speaking in tongues, and discovered that their practices were ineffective as well.
The experiences of the subjective death of Christ, the resurrection life, and the spiritual gifts are scriptural, but these experiences should be the spontaneous issue of the Triune God living in us and our living Him. We may use our physical body as an illustration. If our heart is not pumping, we cannot cause our members to function artificially. However, if our heart is pumping, we do not need to teach the nose to breathe, the ears to listen, or the eyes to see, for all our members will function spontaneously. The “heart” of the Christian life is the Triune God living in us and our living Him. As long as we live the Triune God by walking according to the spirit, all the other experiences of the normal Christian life, such as bearing the cross and participating in the resurrection life, will spontaneously come forth.
Romans presents a sketch of the Christian life. In chapter 8, which is the heart of Romans, verse 4 charges us to walk according to the spirit. The spirit in this verse is our regenerated human spirit indwelt by and mingled with the Spirit, who is the consummation of the processed Triune God. Verse 16 says, “The Spirit Himself witnesses with our spirit.” This shows that these two spirits are one.
The Triune God in Christ has passed through the processes of incarnation, human living, crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension. Furthermore, Christ has attained to the throne and has obtained the kingdom, the highest name, the lordship, and the headship. The Triune God in Christ has been processed through all these steps and accomplishments and has become the life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45b). Romans 8 shows us that the life-giving Spirit is the consummation of the processed Triune God. Verse 2 mentions the Spirit of life, which is the life-giving Spirit. Verses 9 and 11 refer to the Spirit as the Spirit of God, the Spirit of Christ, and the Spirit of the One who raised Jesus from the dead. Thus, the life-giving Spirit is the Spirit as the consummation of the processed Triune God. This Spirit is one with our spirit (1 Cor. 6:17).
God created us with a spirit so that we could contact and receive Him. However, because of the fall, our spirit was deadened. At the time of our salvation, our spirit was made alive as the Spirit came into our spirit and regenerated it with the divine life. Now our spirit is indwelt by and mingled with the Spirit, who is the consummation of the processed Triune God. Since we have such a wonderful mingled spirit within us, our unique need is to walk according to this spirit.
The vine is Christ, who has become the life-giving Spirit, the consummation of the processed Triune God. Therefore, to abide in the vine is to walk according to the mingled spirit. Our experience tells us that as long as we walk according to the spirit, all the other experiences of the normal Christian life, such as bearing the cross and participating in the power of the resurrection life, will spontaneously issue forth. We do not need to endeavor or exercise our human effort. We need only to walk according to the mingled spirit, which is the practical way to live God and to allow God to live in us.
Romans 8:9 says that the Spirit dwells in us. When we walk according to the spirit, we allow the Triune God to make His home in, settle down in, take possession of, and occupy our entire inner being. If we allow the Triune God to indwell us in this way, we will spontaneously and continually experience the killing of the death of Christ. This is not asceticism, for it is joyful and kills only the negative, natural elements in us. The focus of the Bible and of the Christian life is not to experience the subjective death of Christ; the unique focus is to live God.
According to my fifty years of experience, I can testify that if we are not living God, no other practices work, for they are matters of our own effort. Some may point out that walking according to the spirit also requires effort. This is true, but it is a small effort, and it is effective, for all the other experiences of the normal Christian life will result. Thus, the effort of walking according to the spirit may be compared to the effort of turning on a light switch in order to light a large room, which is more effective than lighting many separate lamps. God made us with a mind to understand and a will to choose. We have to use these faculties to live the Christian life. Even our initial believing in the Lord for our eternal salvation requires our effort to understand the gospel and choose to believe. However, this does not mean that we save ourselves by our own effort. We do not need to exert much effort to produce the experiences of the normal Christian life. Instead, we need only to walk according to the spirit — the other experiences will spontaneously follow.
In a sense, it is difficult to know when we are walking according to the spirit, but it is easy to know when we are not walking according to the spirit. When our body functions normally, we do not have much feeling. We do not sense that our stomach is digesting normally. If we feel our stomach, this means that something is abnormal. Similarly, as long as we are walking according to the spirit, we will live a normal Christian life without much feeling. However, we have a clear negative feeling when we are not walking according to the spirit so that we know to stop and turn to the spirit.
The focus of the Bible is that the processed Triune God lives in us so that we may live Him. Our need is simply to live Him by walking according to the spirit. We have a mingled spirit, which is composed of our regenerated spirit and the all-inclusive Spirit as the consummation of the processed Triune God. If we walk according to this wonderful mingled spirit, every other experience of the normal Christian life will spontaneously come forth. All the saints today need this kind of life. We need to take the lead to pursue a daily life of walking according to the mingled spirit so that we can minister such a life to others.
