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Scripture Reading: Gal. 3:14; 4:6; 5:16-18, 25; 6:18; Eph. 1:13, 17; 2:18-22; 3:5, 16-17a; 4:4, 23, 30; 5:18; 6:17-18a; Phil. 1:19-20; 2:1; Col. 3:16; 1 Cor. 5:7; 10:4; Col. 1:12; 2:6; 3:11; Eph. 3:8
There may be a bountiful spread on the dining table, a sampling of the riches of America. It is another matter, however, for those riches to be realized by us in our being. The same is true with regard to our enjoyment of Christ as the good land. The key to experiencing Him is to be found in the two spirits, which are mentioned in most of the verses given above.
Galatians 3:14 tells us, “In order that the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles in Christ Jesus, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.” In the New Testament economy the promise that God gave to Abraham has come to us through Jesus Christ. What is this blessing that was promised to Abraham? It is the Spirit, as this verse clearly tells us.
But, you may ask, was it not the good land that was promised to Abraham? Yes, Abraham was surely promised the good land (Gen. 12:7; 13:15, 17; 15:18; 17:8). This promise was repeated to his son Isaac (26:3) and to his grandson Jacob (28:13; 35:12). However, in Galatians 3 Paul interprets the good land as the blessing of the Spirit. The Old Testament promise was of the good land, but in the New Testament fulfillment the promise becomes the Spirit. Have you ever realized that the Spirit whom you have received is the good land?
“Because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, Abba, Father!” (4:6). The Spirit sent by God is the blessing promised to Abraham for his descendants. We today in Jesus Christ are by faith the descendants of Abraham and the heirs of God’s promise (3:29). We may say, then, that the good land has been sent to us. What need is there for us to go to the Holy Land for a sightseeing tour? The good land is within us. This is where we are walking and living.
There is a further inference of the Spirit as the good land in Galatians 5:25: “If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit.” The good land was the type of the all-inclusive Christ, and Christ in His resurrection became the all-inclusive life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45b). This Spirit has been dispensed into our spirit. Here we receive life by Him, and we are to walk by Him. (See also Galatians 6:18, where we find that the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ is with our spirit.)
Ephesians speaks further of the Spirit and our spirit. In 1:13 we are told, “You were sealed with the Holy Spirit of the promise.” Earlier, chapter 1 says that God has blessed us, or spoken well of us. The Spirit’s sealing us is the reaching stage of God’s well-speaking of us. When a paper, for example, has a seal stamped upon it, this indicates that the paper has been reached by the seal. The Triune God is rich, but God did not reach us as the Father. Nor did He ultimately reach us as the Son. Yes, the Son came to us, but He did not come into us. It was the Spirit who entered into us. The Triune God reaches us as the Spirit. The Father, Son, and Spirit all reach us in the sealing of the Spirit.
A seal is fixed and lasting. Now that God has reached you, He remains with you and will never leave. When a seal has been affixed to a paper, the two cannot be separated; they become one. Do you realize that the Triune God has reached you in the Spirit and made Himself one with you?
The seal of the Spirit is also the good land. Corporations use a seal, which may vary in size, to authenticate their documents. What is the size of our seal? It is the size of the good land. No one can take the good land away from us because it seals us, making us one with God and Him one with us.
In Ephesians 1:17 Paul prays “that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the full knowledge of Him.” Spirit in this verse refers to the human spirit. On the one hand, the Spirit is within us, yet on the other hand, our spirit needs to be enlightened. We need a spirit of wisdom and revelation so that we may realize this sealing Spirit, who is the good land.
I have no doubt that you are saved. But, sorry to say, I do not have the confidence that you realize what you have received with your salvation. You have received the blessing promised to Abraham. This blessing is the good land; it is Christ as the Spirit, who has sealed you. For this to be real to you, you need the spirit of wisdom and revelation for which Paul prayed. Are you living in the good land? If you are, you are living in your spirit, enjoying the Spirit as the good land.
“Through Him we both have access in one Spirit unto the Father” (2:18). Even this short verse speaks of the Trinity. Through Him means through the Son; but until we add in one Spirit, our access is somewhat theoretical. When we are in the Spirit, we are in the presence of the Father to enjoy all the riches.
Verses 21 and 22 go on to tell us that in Christ “all the building, being fitted together, is growing into a holy temple in the Lord; in whom you also are being built together into a dwelling place of God in spirit.” How big is our spirit? It must be big enough to contain God’s habitation. When we build a meeting hall, we need to have a good-sized lot. The lot where God’s habitation is, our spirit, is universally spacious. All of us together are one lot, for God has only one habitation; we are not separate small lots.
The mystery “has now been revealed to His holy apostles and prophets in spirit” (3:5). The revelation came to them not in their mentality but in their spirit.
Paul prays that the Father “would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit into the inner man” (v. 16). When we listen to a message, it has the effect of strengthening our whole being into the inner man. The inner man is the regenerated spirit, where the Spirit of God dwells. During the day we may find it easy to gossip or feel discouraged, but after a meeting we have no use for gossip, and the discouragement is gone. This is because our being has been brought into the inner man, where the good land, with the riches of Christ, is.
The result of our being thus strengthened is that Christ makes His home in our hearts through faith (v. 17). When the Spirit works and our spirit, the inner man, responds, Christ settles down in our heart, becoming our enjoyment. By enjoying this settled Christ as the riches of the good land, we are “filled unto all the fullness of God” (v. 19).
Ephesians 4 also refers to both the Holy Spirit and the human spirit.
In verse 4, where it says, “One Body and one Spirit,” the reference is to the Holy Spirit. One Body implies one habitation; one Spirit means the one Spirit in all our spirits.
Verse 23, “That you be renewed in the spirit of your mind,” indicates that our mind is now occupied and saturated by the Spirit. The nations walk “in the vanity of their mind” (v. 17), preoccupied with worldly entertainment. Our mind, in contrast, is being renewed from the old creation to the new so that our mind is a mind of the spirit.
In Ephesians 4:30 we are exhorted to not “grieve the Holy Spirit of God, in whom you were sealed unto the day of redemption.” This sealing Spirit, who is the good land to us, will not leave us, but we should not grieve Him.
“Do not be drunk with wine, in which is dissoluteness, but be filled in spirit” (5:18). To be drunk is to have our body filled with wine. Rather than this, we are to have our spirit filled with God, with the riches of Christ. Our spirit must be filled.
“Receive the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which Spirit is the word of God” (6:17). According to the Greek grammar, the word which in this verse refers to Spirit, not to sword. The Spirit, then, is the word of God. This corresponds with the Lord’s word in John 6:63: “The words which I have spoken to you are spirit.” There is a sense, then, in which the Word is the Spirit and the Spirit is the Word.
You may feel that much of what we have covered in this chapter about the Spirit is too abstract. When we speak of the Word, however, you have something down to earth that you can grasp. The Lord today is the Spirit; He is also embodied in His Word. The Lord, the Spirit, and the Word are all one. We need all three, because it is through the Word and the Spirit that the Lord is realized by us.
If the Lord Jesus were not the Spirit, we could not realize Him. Nor could we realize Him if we did not have a spirit. As the Spirit, He indwells and mingles with our spirit, making us both one. Yet the matter of the Spirit is mysterious.
It is the Word that makes these abstractions real to us. Whenever we come to the Bible with a proper spirit — reading, praying, and receiving it — this Word getting into us becomes the Spirit. What we read and receive is the Word; what comes into us is the Spirit. As long as we receive the Word into our spirit, it becomes spirit and life. If we take the Word only into our mind, however, it is merely a thought or some knowledge.
How can we be sure that we are receiving the Word into our spirit? The next verse, Ephesians 6:18, gives us the way: “By means of all prayer and petition, praying at every time in spirit.” We must pray but not for our affairs. Pray to receive the Word as the Spirit. Day by day, unceasingly, use the Word to pray for the Spirit. Such prayer will make the mystery real to you in your life.
Paul told the Philippians that whatever sufferings or persecutions he underwent, “I know that for me this will turn out to salvation through your petition and the bountiful supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ” (1:19). Notice the term that is used for the Spirit here. Paul said that his afflictions would become a salvation to him by the bountiful supply of the Spirit, but not the Spirit of God or the Spirit of Jesus or the Spirit of Christ. It was by the Spirit of Jesus Christ.
Who is Jesus Christ? He is the processed God. He passed through creation, incarnation, human life, and death. He entered into resurrection and ascension. The processed God as a term is not found in the Bible; nor is the word Trinity. But the facts are clearly stated in the Bible.
What is the bountiful supply of this Spirit? It is the realization of the unsearchable riches of Christ (Eph. 3:8). The riches are objective, but they are experienced subjectively as this supply. It was because of this Spirit’s supplying, supporting, and sustaining him that Paul could say, “Christ will be magnified in my body” (Phil. 1:20).
Besides the bountiful supply of the Spirit, there is also the need for the fellowship of spirit (2:1). Our spirit is necessary for taking in the supply that God has made available. The Spirit supplies the food, and our spirit supplies the mouth and the stomach. Day by day we exercise our spirit to fellowship with Him and with one another. Such vertical and horizontal fellowship is the eating. In my speaking I am eating; in your listening you are eating. When the meeting is over, we all feel full. This is the fellowship, the enjoyment of the bountiful supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ.
In Colossians the stress is not on the Spirit but on the word. Colossians 3:16 says, “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly.” The parallel verse in Ephesians 5:18 says, “Be filled in spirit.” One says the word; the other, the spirit. The result of both is the same: singing, speaking, and praising the Lord. The word of Christ in Colossians 3:16 is the Spirit. Letting the word dwell in us richly equals letting the Spirit fill us.
How are we to experience this Christ, the One who as the Spirit is the rich land to us? How does He bountifully supply us? The key is found in the two spirits, which are one (1 Cor. 6:17). In our spirit is this very One who Himself has become the Spirit.
Stay in this mingled spirit. Return whenever you find you are away.
How can you remain in, or return to, this mingled spirit? It is by praying and by reading the Word. Do not allow yourself to be distracted by your circumstances. All other things are contrary to Christ. Christ is contrary to all other things. Pray to contact Him. Pray by reading the Word. These two things will keep you in the spirit. Then you will taste and experience Christ. He will be whatever you need, whether it is light, strength, wisdom, or victory. Do not seek these things themselves. Seek the living person.
This will give the Lord the opportunity to fulfill His word: “I will build My church” (Matt. 16:18). This building is accomplished by the believers remaining in the mingled spirit. Then the Body of Christ can be built up. In the mingled spirit is the mystery of God and of Christ. Here are His riches and the Spirit’s bountiful supply. Here is the good land where we should walk.
There are two passages in 1 Corinthians that indicate that the church in Corinth was only in the initial stage of the enjoyment of Christ: “Purge out the old leaven that you may be a new lump, even as you are unleavened; for our Passover, Christ, also has been sacrificed...And all drank the same spiritual drink; for they drank of a spiritual rock which followed them, and the rock was Christ” (5:7; 10:4).
The children of Israel were in Egypt when they enjoyed the passover lamb and in the wilderness when their thirst was quenched by the living water that flowed out of the rock that followed them. To enjoy Christ as the Passover pertains to salvation and the exodus from the world. Christ as the rock supplying living water is for the beginning period of the Christian life.
The church in Corinth was in this elementary stage. It was characterized by worldliness and wanderings in the soul. Thus, their enjoyment of Christ was not mature.
When we come to the writings of Paul to the Colossians and the Ephesians, however, we find that their enjoyment of Christ was as the good land. This is the mature stage.
Colossians 1:12 says, “Giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you for a share of the allotted portion of the saints in the light.” What the apostle Paul had in mind here was the good land, which was allotted to the twelve tribes of Israel when they entered it. Our portion means the part of the good land allotted to us.
Christ in Colossians is no longer merely the Passover or the manna but rather the final portion of God’s chosen people, that is, the good land. Colossians 2:6 bears this out: “As therefore you have received the Christ, Jesus the Lord, walk in Him.” We could not walk in the passover lamb or in the manna, but Christ as the good land is spacious and rich. Our lot is a rich land that produces many passover lambs and many grains, as well as oil and wine.
Christ in this book is “all and in all” (3:11). Such a description does not fit the passover lamb or the manna; only the good land can be described in such an inclusive way.
The same is true of the unsearchable riches of Christ, a term found in the book of Ephesians (3:8). The passover lamb and the manna cannot be considered as unsearchably rich. Christ’s unsearchable riches are surely the rich produce of the good land.
Would you say that the churches today are in 1 Corinthians? Are we enjoying Christ as the Passover, yet still in Egypt? Or we may have made our exodus from Egypt and are now in the wilderness, receiving revelation, building the tabernacle, and feasting on manna. Surely it is good to have the tabernacle as God’s building, yet the tabernacle lacked solidity; it was portable with no foundation. There was no stone, only wood, in its construction. The wilderness had no supply for building the temple. Neither manna nor the living water could be used for building material. Only in the good land were there materials suitable for the temple’s construction. Are we wandering in the wilderness of the soul, enjoying manna from heaven and water from the rock and carrying a floating church life with no solid foundation?
Or, are the churches today in Colossians and Ephesians? Are we walking about in a spacious land, full of unsearchable riches? Is the church life built up, as solid as the temple?
We hesitate to evaluate the churches from this standpoint, but at least we may say that we are on the way to the good land and are not satisfied to remain in the tabernacle church life. Within us there is a hunger and thirst for something higher in the church life than we have yet experienced. The dissatisfaction that we sense is really not ours but the Lord’s. He within us is aspiring to have the temple church life in the good land. He would have us out of Corinth and into Ephesus, out of the wilderness and into the good land, out of the soul and into the spirit.
During this interim stage, let us go on. We are well able to enter the good land and possess it. Our way is by means of the Ark with the tabernacle. Without the Ark and the tabernacle the children of Israel could not have succeeded in entering the good land. Before they crossed the Jordan River, the Ark preceded them and stayed in the riverbed until all of them had crossed over (Josh. 3:14-17). By virtue of the Ark and the tabernacle they entered the good land.
In one way we are happy to be in the church life; in another, we long for something richer. We must go on by virtue of what we have. We do have the Ark in the tabernacle church life. By this we can enter a higher level, the good land, where the temple can be built up. May we together press on toward this.
