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Scripture Reading: Gen. 1:26a; 2:7; Zech. 12:1b; John 3:6; 7:39; 14:17; 1 Cor. 15:45b; 2 Cor. 3:17; 1 Cor. 6:17; 2 Tim. 4:22a; Rom. 8:2, 4, 16; 1 Thes. 5:17, 19; Eph. 6:18
When we read the Bible, it is easy for us to understand and even experience those things that fit our natural concept. If, for example, we read about how our environment perfects us, how tribulations make us patient, we can easily accept such a thought and apply it in our living.
It is another matter, however, when we come to the matter of God and man being organically mingled, as in grafting. We may feel we understand that we need to live such a grafted life, but when it actually comes down to our everyday experience, the truth is that we have not touched even the border of such a life.
In a recent meeting when the saints were sharing their experiences, I noticed that one after another testified that tribulation pressed them to experience the Lord. Some felt persecuted at home; others, at work. As I listened, I thought how easy it is to know tribulation, but how hard to know life. Yes, tribulation forces us to contact the Lord, but what is the result of contacting the Lord?
You may protest that it was I who taught you to accept your circumstances as the arrangement of the Lord. It is true that I preached a good number of messages telling you that all things work together for good, according to Romans 8:28. However, since 1961 I have been preaching mainly about the Spirit. How much of this have you taken in? The persecution of the environment we can easily comprehend, but the matter of the Spirit eludes us.
Consider the previous chapter on the grafted life. You may have been impressed while you were reading it, but before too long, you began to consider in your mind. You remembered learning that in grafting, the better branch is grafted to an inferior tree. Why did the chapter say that the poorer branch is grafted to a good tree? All your inspiration about the Lord and you being grafted into one life fades away, and your mind continues its thoughts: Romans 11 is talking about the nations being grafted to the nation of Israel; it is not about our being grafted to the Lord Jesus. By all this activity in your mind, the message is made void.
What Romans 11 says is that the wild olive branch has been grafted to the good olive tree, and that its root is supporting the wild branch. The Bible is contrary to your thought. The Lord Jesus is not the good branch grafted into the inferior tree. In that case, we would be upholding Him, instead of He upholding us. The thought is that we as the inferior branches are grafted into Him. He is the true vine, but we as the branches have not grown naturally on His vine. We have been grafted into it.
Romans 11 primarily refers to the natural Israel. However, Christ is joined to Israel, and He is the true Israel (see Isa. 49:1-4). All Israelites can become the real Israel by being grafted into Him. Hence, this olive tree in Romans 11 may also refer to Christ. All true believers among both Jews and Gentiles are grafted to this olive tree so that it includes Christ and all His believers.
In John 3:36 we are told, “He who believes into the Son has eternal life.” We believe into the Son. The same Greek preposition is used in Romans 6:3: “Baptized into Christ Jesus.” We were put into the Lord Jesus, just as we were put into the water at baptism. The step of being baptized into Him takes the one foot of believing and the other foot of being baptized. We believe into Him and are baptized into Him.
What does baptism mean? It does not refer to life but rather to death. “All of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death” (v. 3). The death of the Lord Jesus left Him with a wound. At the site of this wound we are baptized into Him, are grafted into Him, and grow together with Him. By being baptized into His death, we are grafted into Him. This grafting is a union and a growth. The joining activates the growth process. The life-juice of the tree gets into the grafted branch, and it begins to grow in resurrection.
For two trees to be grafted, there must be a close similarity between them. A banana tree cannot be grafted to a grapevine. The same is true with a skin graft. If the skin to be used in a graft is foreign to the body, the body will reject it.
How then can our human life be grafted to God’s life? It is because the two lives are to some extent similar. Man was made in God’s image and according to His likeness (Gen. 1:26). But, you may ask, how can God have an image when He does not have any form? Idols are images because they have a form, but what is God’s image?
Some explain image as meaning the inner attributes, with the term likeness denoting the outward form. However, I would explain image as referring to one’s expression, whereas likeness refers to one’s stance. If I stand with my hand raised in a salute, my image is my expression, but my likeness is that of a soldier. If I jump and leap on the platform, my image is still my expression, but my likeness is that of a hart.
When God created man in the beginning, He created man with His image, or expression, or face. Then He also made man according to His likeness, that is, according to His stature; for this He used the dust of the ground.
You may ask how God could have a physical form. This is a difficult question. There is, however, an instance of God’s appearing in the form of a body before the Lord’s coming to earth in the incarnation. In Genesis 18 Abraham was sitting at the entrance of his tent one hot summer day, when three men approached. Two were apparently angels (v. 22), but one was clearly Jehovah the Lord (v. 13). He came as a real person. He ate the meal Abraham prepared for Him, after having His feet washed. He talked with Abraham in an ordinary way, not like the Creator issuing decrees from a heavenly throne. As He was going on His way, Abraham accompanied Him a little distance. This closeness constrained God to open to him and reveal what He would do, as one would share with a friend. Is this God in Genesis 18 a man? Who is this Jehovah? He is surely the same as the Lord Jesus in the New Testament. This is beyond theology’s ability to explain, but we can see from this passage that man has a body after God’s likeness.
At the time of creation, God breathed into man’s nostrils the breath of life (2:7). The Hebrew word translated “breath” in this verse is translated “spirit” in Proverbs 20:27: “The spirit of man is the lamp of Jehovah, / Searching all the innermost parts of the inner being.” The breath of life in Genesis 2 becomes the spirit of man in Proverbs 20. The human spirit is the breath of life from God that enters into man and becomes his spirit.
The spirit may well be what Confucius was referring to when he said that there is a bright virtue within man. His thought was that this bright virtue needed to be developed and further brightened. The Bible, however, shows us that this spirit needs to be regenerated. In man’s spirit, which was formed from God’s breathing into man the breath of life, there is not the Spirit of God. Therefore, the spirit must receive another life by being “born of the Spirit” of God (John 3:6).
The spirit of man is his most precious part. It is what distinguishes him from animals. Once this breath of life got into man’s nostrils, he became a living soul, with a personality that in reality is in the image of God. Man’s emotions, desires, and intelligence correspond with God’s. God has such feelings as love; He has desires; and He has thoughts, wisdom, and intelligence. In a sense we are a photograph of God. The photograph is not God Himself, but it is His image.
It is foolish to accept Darwin’s theory that man evolved from lower animals. All the plants and animals created by God in Genesis 1 were designed to reproduce according to their kind (vv. 11-12, 21, 24-25). But when it came to the creation of man, instead of saying, “According to his kind,” it says, “According to Our likeness” (v. 26). Man is not in the category of animals. He is a picture of God. God created man like Himself.
We are not God any more than a picture of the president is the president. However, we must not demean ourselves. If we see that we are God’s image, we will realize that we are vessels of honor prepared unto glory.
Why did God make us so similar to Himself? It was so that one day man might be grafted into God.
In Zechariah 12:1 the Lord is described as the One “who stretches forth the heavens and lays the foundations of the earth and forms the spirit of man within him.” Notice how the heavens, the earth, and the spirit of man are put together as the three important things in the universe. The heavens are for the earth: without sunshine, water, and air, all of which come from the heavens, the living things on the earth could not exist. The earth is for man: without the provisions that come from the earth, man could not exist. What is man for? Man is for God. When Zechariah refers here to the creation of man, he does not mention the body but rather the spirit. To have man, God first stretched forth the heavens, then laid the foundations of the earth; then He formed “the spirit of man within him.” When all the physical things in the universe were ready and could provide man with a suitable environment, God put man on the scene. He formed the spirit of man to be a container for Himself. Our spirit is the organ by which we contact God.
Notice this series: the heavens, the earth, the spirit of man. In the whole universe these are the three most important matters. Treasure your spirit. It is as significant as the heavens and the earth. Zechariah could have enumerated countless other items created by God, but only these three are listed together, because these are directly related to God. All these were created so that God might obtain a group of people to express Him.
We are vessels of honor and glory because we contain God. A diamond ring is usually kept in an attractive velvet box. Because the ring is so precious, it needs a beautiful container. The box is honorable and glorious because of the diamond ring it contains. We in ourselves may be only a box, but within us is God Himself. Do you realize what a treasure you have in this earthen vessel? Does it not excite you to have such a precious diamond in your possession? The value of this diamond cannot be measured in carats. No scale can weigh it. It is limitless and immeasurable. God Himself is your marvelous, glorious content.
Within this man, who was created in the image of God, is a receiver, like a radio; this is his spirit. Once this receiver is turned on, God comes in. Man is not only close to God but similar to Him as well.
Although man from his creation was designed to receive God, God at that time was not ready to be received into man. Not until some four thousand years later did God initiate the process by which He could be joined to man. Do not think that four thousand years is a long time. In God’s eyes it is like four days (cf. Psa. 90:4).
God came in human form not in a majestic way but in a humble way. He passed through the womb of Mary and through the manger. He escaped to Egypt. Then He went to Galilee, where He grew up in a carpenter’s home in the village of Nazareth. He spent thirty years there, working as a carpenter, known to those around Him as Jesus. Yet this One, the child born to us, also has as His name Mighty God (Isa. 9:6).
Then He came forth to minister for three and a half years. He was persecuted and rejected by His own people. Finally, the time drew near, and He talked to His disciples, explaining to them that He would be going to the cross, where He would pass through death. By this means He would not only redeem them; He would also change His form. No longer would He be restricted by His physical body from entering into them. No longer would they be in one place and He in another. No longer would He be only with them; He would actually be in them. After His death and resurrection He as the last Adam would become the life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45b).
“The Spirit,” John tells us in 7:39, “was not yet, because Jesus had not yet been glorified.” This term, the Spirit, is significant. The Spirit of God is mentioned numerous times in the Old Testament, yet “the Spirit was not yet.” When the Lord Jesus emerged from death and was resurrected, He was glorified. Not until this happened was there “the Spirit.”
The Spirit of God is like a glass of plain water. When we add various ingredients to it, like tea and honey, it becomes a refreshing drink. Before these are added, the water is there, but the drink “is not yet.” What are the ingredients added to the Spirit of God? Before the Lord’s death and resurrection there was only God in the Spirit of God. But through the incarnation the Lord Jesus put on humanity. In resurrection this humanity was brought into the Spirit. His death was also an element that was added to the Spirit of God. This death was precious and lovable, not like the death of the first Adam. It encompasses redemption; the termination of the past; and the dealing with the self, with the old man, and with all the other negative things. There is salt in this drink also, added not only for improving the flavor but also to kill germs. Besides death, in the Spirit are found also resurrection, ascension, glorification, enthronement, dominion, and power.
In essence the Spirit is the Triune God — Father, Son, and Spirit — as the all-inclusive Spirit. This is the ultimate expression of the Triune God.
With this understanding of the Spirit, verses like those in Romans 8 about the Spirit should be clear to you. Whenever you come across this term, the Spirit, in your reading of the New Testament, remember that it refers to the Triune God passing through a long process and thus becoming the all-inclusive life-giving Spirit.
Man is ready, because of his having been created with a spirit, to be joined to God. God, now that He has been through the process we have described, is ready to be joined to man. Romans 10:8 tells us that He is as near as our mouth. He is like the air; we simply breathe, and the air comes into us.
As soon as you confess that you need Him, He will come in. You may say only, “O Lord,” very softly, and you will breathe Him in. Many can testify that something happened inside when they said “O Lord.”
This is how the two spirits are joined and the two lives are grafted into one. “He who is joined to the Lord is one spirit” (1 Cor. 6:17).
Christians do not grasp this matter of the mingled spirit. I spoke this here in Taipei in 1961; even some of the hymns we sang tonight were written at that time. Yet now, eighteen years later, I listen to your testimonies and hear nothing about these two spirits becoming one. Your testimonies still concern how you are pressed by your environment. What is the reason for your trying circumstances? We must be broken, you say. No. God does not want you whole or broken. He does not want you. What He is after is this Spirit. He wants the Spirit. He wants the Spirit to be lived out from you.
Why do we neglect this clear truth in the Bible and instead focus our attention on humility, for example? We read some passages in the Bible and then begin to walk with our shoulders stooped over. This meekness is short-lived. If we are deprived of our sleep, that will be the end of our meekness. It is like a monkey taught to eat in the Western way. Many years ago I saw a monkey in the zoo being trained to eat a meal with a knife and fork. After the trainer finished the lesson, the monkey tossed away the knife and fork and resumed eating in monkey fashion. So it is with our humility; the most it can last is a day or two.
When the sisters read Ephesians, they come across the term in Christ again and again. Nothing gets through to them, however, until they come to Ephesians 5: “Husbands, love your wives” (v. 25). Then they begin to consider whether their husbands love them and whether the elders really love their wives. After applying the Scriptures to others, they turn back to apply it to themselves: “Wives, be subject to your own husbands as to the Lord” (v. 22). They remember how many times they have made up their minds to submit and have failed. They repent, with tears, and confess to the Lord that they cannot make it. They reread Ephesians, then again try and fail to submit to their husbands. Finally, they have a talk with the elders and tell them that the Bible does not work.
We do not notice that the very same chapter of Ephesians says, “Be filled in spirit” (v. 18). We know Romans 8:28 about all things working together for good, but Romans 8:4, about walking according to spirit, we cannot quite grasp.
How much of our day are we living Christ? Even in the recovery there are probably very few of us who live Christ at all. Those who do are living Him for only a small portion of their day. The rest of us live in our flesh. We may or may not lose our temper, but we are not living Christ. There are Chinese philosophers, like Wang Yang-ming, whose standard of morality exceeds that of most Christians. But even if we can come up to his standard, God is not interested. God wants the Spirit, not our good conduct.
He has created us in His own image and likeness, not in the image of the virtues. We are not only His picture. When He comes into us, we are part of Him, grafted into Him, having His life, and being one spirit with Him. He has no need of our virtues.
Do not draw a wrong conclusion when I say that God does not want our virtues. In previous chapters I have said that God does not want our culture. This is not to say that we must begin to act like barbarians. The point is that our culture or our virtues are substitutes for Christ. Once we have Him, we no longer need those substitutes. But if society had no culture, how could it be maintained? How could family life hold together? Our children must be raised according to cultural standards; they have not grown sufficiently to experience Christ. Meanwhile, they must be kept in the sheepfold of the law until Christ comes (John 10; Gal. 3:24-25).
For those of us who are older, Christ has come. Why should we ride in a horse-drawn cart when we can take a 747 jet to our destination? There is no longer any reason for us to remain in the fold. We have no need of the substitutes. We can live directly in the Spirit. Such living is different from the law, from culture, from ethics, and from morality. Before we have the Spirit, we need culture and morality; we need the rules and regulations of society. But what God wants is that we live out the Spirit.
When we live out the Spirit, the result will exceed the law and the ethical virtues. It surpasses the bright virtue mentioned by Confucius. This Spirit is God Himself.
