Search
I. The inward content and the outward equipment
II. The essential (inward) aspect
А. Christ in us
B. Christ as our life
C. The content of the church
III. The economical (outward) aspect
А. The baptism of the Holy Spirit
B. The propagation of Christ
IV. Our experience of both aspects of the Spirit
Christ has passed through a marvelous process. He has gone through incarnation, human living, crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension. Every item of that process was a further step in God's economy. That economy is to produce the church as the Body of Christ — the full, corporate expression of the Triune God and the mutual dwelling of God and man. As we pointed out in the previous lesson, Christ, the Head in heaven, needs His Body on the earth to coordinate fully with Him in order to carry out His purpose. We cannot do anything without Him but neither can He do anything without our cooperation. The crucial element of this coordination is that Christ is now the Spirit. As the Spirit, He can live in us and supply us inwardly; and at the same time He can empower us and work with us outwardly.
Many Christians do not realize that on the day of resurrection the resurrected Christ came as the heavenly breath and breathed Himself into His disciples (John 20:22). This is one aspect of the formation of the church. Then, fifty days later on the day of Pentecost, the ascended Christ on the throne poured Himself out upon the disciples (Acts 2:1-4). This is another aspect. The breathing out of the holy breath on the day of resurrection was for life, and the pouring out of the Spirit on the day of Pentecost was for power. On the day of resurrection there was the "pneuma." That is the Greek word for "Spirit"; it also means "breath" or "air." But on the day of Pentecost there was the mighty wind. Air is for life and wind is for power. The Spirit of life, who is the resurrected Christ, is our content of life; the Spirit of power, poured out by the ascended Christ, is our outward equipment. Thus, we have the inward content of life and the outward equipment of power. The first is essential and the second is economical. These are not two Spirits, but are two aspects of the one Spirit. We must be very clear about these two aspects of Christ as the Spirit.
Many Bible verses tell us that Christ is in us (Rom. 8:10; 2 Cor. 13:5; Gal. 2:20; Col. 1:27). He can live in us because He is the Spirit. Therefore other verses say that the Spirit is in us (John 14:17; Rom. 8:11; 1 Cor. 6:19; Gal. 4:6). When Christ was a man on the earth, He could not live inside anyone. Now, however, Christ is the Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45b; 2 Cor. 3:17). He is like the air that is around us; He can easily come into us. As the Spirit, the Lord regenerated us; our spirit is now born of the Spirit (John 3:6). Christ now dwells in our spirit (2 Tim. 4:22).
It is by the Spirit that we enjoy Christ as our inward life. He is the Spirit that gives life. In such a Spirit we enjoy Christ by reading His Word (John 6:63; 2 Tim. 3:16), calling on His name (1 Cor. 12:3), and praying (Jude 20). This is the eating, drinking, and breathing of Christ. This causes Christ to be dispensed into us as the Spirit for our living. We need physical food, water, and air to sustain our bodies. In the same way, we need to take in Christ as the Spirit to sustain our spiritual life. He is our living bread, living water, and living air. This is the Spirit of life for our essential being and living.
Although the Lord has entered into us, we cannot say that our entire being is filled with Him. We are still full of our old nature. Instead of expressing the Lord, we express selfishness, pride, rebellion, and many other things. We greatly need the inward sanctifying and transforming work of the Spirit.
The Spirit is the ultimate consummation of the processed Triune God. He is all-inclusive; He contains every item of the process that the Lord went through. He has the Lord's perfect human living, the killing element of the cross, and the resurrection power. As we enjoy such a Spirit, our being will begin to change. Christ's living will become ours, the negative things in us will be killed, and our life will be a life in resurrection.
When we enjoy Christ in this way, He becomes our inward content. He is the content of the church. The church is not a social club or just a group of people who meet together; it is the Body of Christ. To be His Body we must be full of His life. Suppose someone made a plastic model that looked exactly like your body. Would you call it your body? Of course not. In order for it to be your body it must be full of your life. As the Body of Christ, we need to be filled with Christ as our life. So Christ became the Spirit to dispense Himself as life into us.
After His resurrection, Christ appeared to His disciples and instructed them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the baptism of the Holy Spirit (Acts 1:4-5). He said, "But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you shall be My witnesses...unto the remotest part of the earth" (Acts 1:8). According to His word, the Holy Spirit was poured out upon the Body on the day of Pentecost. This baptism of the Holy Spirit was not for life essentially but for power and authority economically. The disciples were already filled with the Spirit for life, but they needed to be "clothed with power from on high" for the work (Luke 24:49). This clothing is the "heavenly uniform" of the economical Spirit.
The authority and power of the Spirit were to equip the disciples for the Lord's work. The Lord had told them to "go into all the world and preach the gospel to all the creation" (Mark 16:15), and to be His witnesses unto the remotest part of the earth. Christ had gotten into some people in Jerusalem, but desired to get into thousands, even millions more. That would be His multiplication and spreading — His propagation for the producing of the churches over the entire earth. Clothed with the economical Spirit, the disciples went out to preach the gospel. On one day three thousand repented, and on another five thousand were saved! The Spirit was their life inwardly and their authority outwardly. This is why their work was so prevailing.
Even Christ as a man experienced the two aspects of the Spirit: He was born of the Holy Spirit essentially, and also baptized with the Spirit economically for His ministry and work. Every believer in Christ should experience the same thing. God's desire is for a universal expression of Himself, a corporate man that is filled with His life and nature. To produce this expression, God has ordained that it be carried out by mortal men on the earth cooperating and coordinating with Him. What a monumental task! Yet, we are more than able; Christ went through a tremendous process for this purpose.
Now we can enjoy and experience the life-giving Spirit as our life and life supply. By now we should be clear of the many ways that we can partake of the Spirit for our essential living. But in order to go out to preach Christ to others, we need the "heavenly uniform." How do we experience this economical aspect of the Spirit? We experience it by faith. The baptism of the Holy Spirit upon the Body in Acts was a once-for-all accomplishment. We do not need to wait for it. We have it already. First Corinthians 12:13 says that "in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body." Now we simply go out to preach confident of that fact. When we exercise our faith in this way we will find that hell, Satan, and the demons cannot prevail against our ministry. We will be clothed with the "uniform" of greatest authority. Our preaching of Christ will prevail to bring Christ into others.
Here we see a wonderful cycle for the propagation of the resurrected and ascended Christ. First, we are filled and nourished with Him essentially. Then, clothed with Him economically, we dispense Him to others that they may also enjoy Him as their life essentially. Our essential enjoyment of the Lord is so that we may work economically to spread Him into others. But what we dispense to others must be what we are filled with essentially. One aspect is for the other. We cannot do without either. Praise the Lord! Christ will get His Body on the earth in this way. Each day we need to take Christ as the Spirit as our life. Then, knowing that we have the Spirit as our "uniform," we should carry out God's work of spreading and multiplying Himself into others. We are well able to do it!
