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Scripture Reading: Rom. 8:2a, 9-10, 6b, 11
The relationship between God and man, as we have seen in the two previous chapters, is a matter of life and the spirit. Both life and the spirit are mysterious. Actually, according to the New Testament revelation, these two are one. In John 6:63 the Lord Jesus said that the words He spoke “are spirit and are life.” The spirit is life, and life is the spirit.
Our human life and our human spirit are closely related. When man was formed, God “breathed into his nostrils the breath of life” (Gen. 2:7). The word breath here is the same as the word for spirit. In both Hebrew and Greek, the word spirit may mean “spirit,” “breath,” or “wind.” In fact, in Ezekiel 37 the one Hebrew word is translated “Spirit” in verse 1 and “wind” and “breath” in verse 9. Spirit, breath, and wind refer to three aspects. When the wind is weakened, it is the breath, and then it becomes the spirit. We do not enjoy the strong wind of a typhoon; we prefer the gentle breeze, which is the breath. It is our breath that keeps us alive; when our breathing stops, our life is over.
In Romans 8:2 the words spirit and life are brought together: “The law of the Spirit of life has freed me in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and of death.” Life and spirit are one. The term Spirit of life indicates that the Spirit is the source, and life is the current or flow that comes from the Spirit. Life is of the Spirit and issues from the Spirit. The Spirit is the substance and the source of life. When we refer to the electric current, we are talking about the electricity. It is electricity when it is constant; it is an electric current when it is moving. Similarly, when the Spirit is activated, it becomes life; without movement it is the Spirit. Apart from an electric current, there is no electricity. The movement of the electricity is the current; the current is the very electricity itself.
Apart from the Spirit, there is no other life. When did the Spirit become activated and come into you as life? It was when you confessed your sins, repented, and received the Lord Jesus. It was then that you were grafted to the Lord, and His Spirit flowed into you. Within you, He should be flowing as life to you all the time.
Electricity has been installed in this building, but if you do not turn on the switch, the function of the electricity will not be manifested. If you want the heat or the air-conditioning or the lights, you must activate the electricity by turning on the switch. Then it will be hot or cold or bright. With too many Christians today, the Spirit within is not activated.
Is the Spirit within you activated? It may be moving when you are in a meeting, but how about when you are at dinner with your family? How about when you are chatting with your friends? How about when you are criticizing your daughter-in-law or your mother-in-law? How about when you are gossiping? How about when you are exchanging words with your spouse?
How much of the day is the Spirit in you switched on? You may love the Lord and seek Him, you may pay a price to follow Him, and you may even serve Him full time. But the question still remains: how much of your time is the Spirit turned on? If we turn off the switch in the building, what is the use of talking about how dark it is in the room?
You have asked me to have meetings with you about how to govern the church or how to serve the Lord. Whenever I hear a question about “how to,” my head whirls. Why? If you do not turn on the switch, what is the sense of studying how to make the lights shine or how to cool the building? If you do not know how to touch the Spirit, it is a waste of time to talk about how to be an elder. The great problem throughout the whole world today is the energy source. If this problem is not solved, it is useless to work on problems in transportation or industry. Without sufficient energy the other problems cannot be dealt with. As soon as you find the energy source, you will have light, heat, or air-conditioning.
When I heard that there was a young people’s meeting arranged for me to speak at, I told the brothers, “No, let old and young both come.” I have only one subject to talk about, whether to the young or the old: touch the Spirit. If you are an unbeliever, I tell you, once you touch the Spirit by repenting, confessing, and asking the Lord to save you, you are saved. If you have had fifty years of spiritual history, I tell you, touch the Spirit. If you are weary of turning on the switch and do not want to do it anymore, you will be in darkness. Every day you must turn on the switch. If you stop, you are about to die.
Your need is to turn on the switch, not study. “You search the Scriptures,” the Lord Jesus told the religious Jews, “Yet you are not willing to come to Me that you may have life” (John 5:39-40). They spent time studying and searching the Scriptures from Genesis to Malachi, but they would not come to the One who could give them life. You may study the books on electricity, but if you do not want to turn on the switch, what is the use?
I have no understanding of how electricity works, but I turn on the switch, and the lights go on at once. I enjoy the brightness so much that I do not want to turn the lights off. Let them keep shining. I can also turn on the switch and get air-conditioning in the summer and heat when the temperature is cold. Heat, cooling, and lights all depend on my using the switch.
If you study the Bible every day without touching the switch, what is the use? Your spirit must touch the Spirit. These two spirits must mingle as one. The Triune God has passed through a long process to become the life-giving Spirit dwelling in your spirit. Do you really believe 1 Corinthians 6:17: “He who is joined to the Lord is one spirit”? I know you believe John 3:16. You must also believe 1 Corinthians 6:17. If you are one spirit with the Lord, you have the switch. Open your spirit. Do not exercise your mind. Whether you are young or old, sister or brother — whoever you are — if you turn on the switch, you enjoy the light. If the switch is off, you may be an elder or a worker and be in darkness and death.
The Spirit within us needs to be activated. Then it becomes life. We have already seen in the previous chapters that our life is the life that results from two lives grafted into one, and that our spirit is the spirit that issues from two spirits mingled as one. In this chapter we want to consider how this spirit moves and acts.
The Spirit that we are referring to is the Spirit; that is, it is the Triune God who has been processed and has become the life-giving Spirit. This Triune God saturates the tripartite man. Look at Romans 8:9, and you will see the reference to the Triune God: “You are not in the flesh, but in the spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. Yet if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not of Him.” Notice that God, Christ, and the Spirit are all mentioned here. Yet this verse is not making a doctrinal statement; it is dealing with our experience. Contrary to the way Christianity presents it, the Trinity is not a doctrine for us to subscribe to. We need God to be triune in order that we may experience Him. God, Christ, and the Spirit are all for our experience.
The traditional explanation of the Trinity is grossly inadequate and borders on tritheism. When the Spirit of God is joined with us, God is not left behind, nor does Christ remain on the throne. This is the impression that Christianity gives. They think of the Father as one person, sending the Son, another person, to accomplish redemption, after which the Son sends the Spirit, yet another person. The Spirit, in traditional thinking, comes into the believers, while the Father and Son are left on the throne. When believers pray, they are taught to bow before the Father and pray in the name of the Son. To split the Godhead into these separate persons is not the revelation of the Bible but the doctrine of the Nicene Creed.
When I was in Rome, I saw two paintings in the Vatican. One was of an old, bearded man sitting down, with a young son standing at his side, and a dove flying overhead. This picture, we were told, represented the three persons in the Trinity. There was another painting right next to it, similar to it, with an old man sitting, a young man standing, and a dove flying above; however, this one also had a young woman standing there. Here were four persons, with Mary included. Should we not battle against such teachings until there is no place for them?
John 14 clearly says that the Son is in the Father and the Father in the Son (vv. 10, 11). To see the Son is to see the Father. When the Son speaks, it is the Father who is working. The two are inseparable. The Bible goes on to say that the Son, after death and resurrection, became the Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45b). The Son, in whom is the Father, has become the Spirit. Thus, the Triune God can come into the sinner. With the Spirit comes the Son; when the Son comes, the Father comes as well.
The term triune means “three in one.” From one side there are three; but from the other side They are one, because They cannot be separated.
Notice the three terms Paul uses in Romans 8:9 and 10. He says that the Spirit of God dwells in you, that without the Spirit of Christ you are not of Him, and that Christ is in you. Why does Paul use three terms to refer to the same One? It is because this One has three aspects: the aspects of the Father, of the Son, and of the Spirit.
Not only is God triune; man is tripartite. We human beings are spirit, soul, and body. We were created in this way so that we could be organically grafted to God and so that the two spirits, His and ours, could be joined together.
Romans 8:10 says, “If Christ is in you, though the body is dead because of sin, the spirit is life because of righteousness.” When the Triune God enters into you, His divine life is dispensed into you and makes your spirit life. Your spirit is life. Here is a reference to your spirit.
Then verse 6 says, “The mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the spirit is life and peace.” The mind is the main part of the soul. Thus, the mind is sometimes used in the Bible to represent the soul. In verse 10 we saw that the spirit is life. Here in verse 6 the mind, representing the soul, is also life. When we set the mind on the spirit, the life and the spirit will be infused into our mind, making it also life.
Verse 11 mentions our mortal bodies: “If the Spirit of the One who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who indwells you.”
In just these few verses we have the tripartite man — spirit, soul, and body — and the Triune God. It is only in these last few years, even since we completed the Life-study of Romans, that I have seen the Triune God and the tripartite man in Romans 8. For Him to become our life, He first enters our spirit, making it life. Then our soul is made life by the mind being set on the spirit. Last, our mortal bodies are made life. The divine life thus saturates our whole being.
Hymns #501 says, “Thy Spirit will me saturate, / Every part will God permeate.” Our relationship with God should reach to this extent. Our whole being must be saturated with Him. We should not be content with outwardly worshipping Him, loving Him, fearing Him, and doing things to please Him. This mysterious God has passed through a process: creation, incarnation, human living, death, resurrection, and ascension. Now He has returned as the Spirit to enter all who believe in Him. Such is our God and our Savior.
He does not want us to worship Him from afar. He does not want us to stand in awe of Him. Nor does He want us to perform certain duties to please Him. What He wants is that we open the deepest part of our being to Him and call on His name. Then His Spirit comes into us, making our deadened spirit life. From there He spreads out. As we set our mind on the spirit, the soul too is saturated with Him. It also becomes life. From the soul, life spreads also to our mortal body. The resurrection life saturates it. When every part of us is saturated with this all-inclusive life-giving Spirit, we are in the union that God wants.
God has no use for the religious forms of worship. He does not want us to bow, kneel, or prostrate ourselves before Him. What He wants are those who have a contrite heart and will open themselves to Him, receiving Him as their life, light, power, and even their living. The worship He wants is this union. If we give Him the opportunity to be in union with us, this is worship. To allow Him to be joined with us is what pleases Him most.
This is the true nature of the Christian life. For most Christians, however, Christianity has become a religion. The talk about bearing the cross, for example, is similar to what Buddhism and Hinduism teach. The talk about living uprightly sounds like the ethics of Confucius, entirely apart from God. The way God wants us to live exceeds human ethics or morality, because it is Christ Himself lived out from us.
Let us take the example of marriage. At the wedding ceremony the groom promises to love his wife, and the bride vows to submit to her husband. Not too many days after the wedding, however, trouble arises between this new couple. Their personalities are not compatible. The groom may be an even-tempered person, but the slowness of his wife nonetheless provokes him beyond measure. The bride, on her part, cannot stand this speedy man she has married. It seems she has no way to keep up with him. Whatever they vowed at their wedding ceremony is gone. Loving and submitting — those promises have to be thrown away.
In time there is some easing of the problem. Perhaps a talk with someone helps. Perhaps they hear a message that inspires them. They resolve to work out their problems. Yes, the groom thinks, I am too fast; I should be more sympathetic toward my wife. The bride too resolves that she will try harder to catch up with her husband; after all, he is her head. These renewed efforts on the part of the groom to be loving and the wife to be submissive cause a great deal of suffering.
Suppose they succeed. The husband does find enough love for his wife, and the wife manages to submit to her husband. God does not want that. He does not want a love or a submission that is apart from Christ.
Frankly, Ephesians 5:22-25 troubled me for years. From my experience it seemed to me that this word did not work. It says to love, or to submit, but this is beyond our power. If this is what God requires of us, why does He not enable us to do so? I kept studying this passage, trying to find the answer.
I saw that I was taking the verses out of context. Earlier it tells us to “be filled in spirit” (v. 18). The love or the submission comes from the filled spirit. There is no sense ordering the light bulbs to give light if we do not turn on the switch. Unless the electricity goes into the light bulbs, they cannot give light. Light is not a matter of their behaving; it is the expression of the electricity.
Loving your wife is not a matter of your proper behavior. It should be Christ expressed, His life flowing out. Submitting to your husband is not within your capacity; there is no sense looking within to find the submission. Christ Himself is the real submission. When you are filled with Him, what will come out toward your husband is submission.
The same is true of other virtues, like gentleness and patience. Consider how quickly your patience is exhausted. Notice how soon your gentleness disappears. Meekness is beyond your best efforts. How are you going to measure up to all these standards?
The answer to all your shortcomings is to live out Christ. You must cease trying to love or to submit, to be gentle or to be meek. Admit that you are unable and stop trying. Simply live out Christ. Call on His name. This is not something for just the young people to do. The older sisters need to say, “O Lord Jesus!” too. The brothers, whatever their position in society, must also say, “O Lord Jesus!” You need Him. If your situation does not allow you to call on Him loudly, you can say His name softly over and over. You will feel different inside. Because He is the true and living God, when you call on His name, you touch the Spirit. The Spirit contains the person of the Lord Jesus. Jesus is the name, and the Spirit is the person. Keep breathing Him in, in this way. Do not think that you have heard such a message before. You still need to breathe. Do not feel that it is embarrassing and uncultured to call on His name. It is not by being in an impressive-looking church building and acting in a dignified, solemn way that you will touch the Lord. In such places it is hard to say, “O Lord Jesus!” Whoever you are and whatever your position, be assured that you need Him. You need Him. Call on His name. The effect this will have on you is not merely psychological. If it were, then whatever name you say should give the same effect. Try saying, “O Socrates,” and you will see how vain it is. It is only when you call, “O Lord Jesus,” that you touch the Spirit.
For too many years we have exercised our mind to understand spiritual matters. We have searched the Scriptures, but we have not come to the Lord for life. The Jews had only thirty-nine books to study, but we have the additional twenty-seven in the New Testament. Then, since the time of the Reformation, countless books have been written. We have been inspired by the life of Madame Guyon and tried to be like her. We have read the writings of Zinzendorf about the Moravian brothers. We have studied the writings of the Brethren. Brother Nee’s writings are available to us. We have hundreds of Life-study messages. What has been the result of studying all these writings? Because we have not come to the Lord for life, the result has been differing opinions. We measure the church by what we have studied and conclude that things are not the way they should be.
Let me tell you that you are the first one who is not the way you should be. You are not breathing freely. Your spirit is plugged up. The problem is not whether things are being done correctly. It is not a matter of knowing who is doing well and who is not. The problem is a lack of the Spirit. You will not gain any life from merely understanding the Bible. Life is Christ Himself. Life is the Spirit. You must come to the Lord. I do not mean for you not to study the Bible, not to read spiritual books, and not to read the Life-study messages. But you must come to such reading the way you come to a meal.
When you read a Life-study message, you should eat and drink it. The food may not always suit your taste. You may tire of the same cooking after many years. But whether you enjoy it or not, you need the nourishment. If you do not eat and sleep properly, you will not have any energy. Sometimes you may be given too much to eat. Overeating is not good for your health either, but this is not the problem with most of you. Most of you are undernourished. You approach things in an analytical way, trying to look into this and check out that. If you go on in this way, you will end up in a coffin. Whenever you are trying to figure out who is right and who is wrong, you are eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
Sometimes I do not enjoy the food that I am served. But whether it tastes good or not, I eat it because I know it is nourishing. I am like a car with a long way to go. If it does not have a full tank of gasoline, how can it get to its destination?
If you really love the Lord and are seeking after Him, turn away from your studying and your efforts to figure out what is right and wrong. Eat and drink. Praise the Lord that the Triune God has passed through this lengthy process and is now in the realm of ascension, waiting for us to contact Him. He is the Spirit. Look away from doctrines and praise Him that you also have a spirit. Your spirit is as important as the heavens and the earth. God formed your spirit so that you could contact His Spirit. These two spirits mingle as one. Live out this spirit that comes from the two spirits joined as one. Let nothing else bother you.
The matters of right and wrong cannot be settled. Someday they will pass away. Nor do arguments over doctrine lead anywhere except to death. We may talk about the ground of the church, but if we do not live in the Spirit, while we are preaching about oneness, we will not be one. When we live in the Spirit, instead of doctrine we will have oneness. We know there is one God, one Lord, one Spirit, and one Body. By living in this Spirit, we are living in the Body and standing on the ground of oneness. But we do not hold this as our doctrine. We simply live in this Spirit. I have seen too much. As soon as doctrinal matters come up, everyone is divided. Whenever we are in the realm of doctrine, there are problems.
God is Spirit and life. He has passed through a process and is now ready for us to receive Him. Praise the Lord that we have done so! His Spirit and ours are joined as one. Every moment we live in this Spirit. His divine life makes our spirit life. Then our soul becomes life by the spreading of His life, until finally our body is also life by His saturating of us. Here is what God wants: the Spirit saturating our whole being until every part is Christ. Morality and ethics cannot compare with this. When man lives himself, even the best of his living is only copper. When we live Christ, our living is gold, shining bright.
