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Scripture Reading: 1 Cor. 1:24, 30; 2:10; 17, 6:19; 12:13; 2 Cor. 1:21-22; 2:14-15; 10:1; 11:10; Eph. 3:16-19; Gal. 4:19; 1:15-16a; 3:27; 2:20; 3:29; Eph. 1:13b-14; 1 Pet. 1:4
In this chapter we want to continue our fellowship concerning living with the Divine Trinity. To live with the Divine Trinity is the enjoyment and the experience of the Divine Trinity.
To live with the Divine Trinity is to have Christ become power and wisdom to us from God: both righteousness and sanctification and redemption (1 Cor. 1:24, 30). Christ is both power and wisdom from God to us. To us indicates a transmission. This is similar to the electricity installed into a building. In order to experience and apply the electricity, the switch must be turned on. Then there is the transmission of the electricity. Christ is both power and wisdom transmitted from God to us like the transmission of electricity. This transmission is not once for all. We use the electricity in a building day after day. Day after day we switch on the electricity to enjoy the transmission of electricity. In the same way, we need to enjoy the continual transmission of Christ as power and wisdom from God to us.
According to 1 Corinthians 1:30, Christ as our wisdom is all-inclusive. Christ became wisdom to us from God as righteousness, sanctification, and redemption. Righteousness is for our past. By Christ as our righteousness, we have been justified by God that we might be reborn in our spirit to receive the divine life (Rom. 5:18). Sanctification is for our present. By Christ as our sanctification, we are being sanctified in our soul, that is, transformed in our mind, emotion, and will with His divine life (6:19, 22). Redemption is for our future. Christ as our redemption is for the redemption of our body (8:23), by which we will be transfigured in our body with His divine life to have His glorious likeness (Phil. 3:21). Righteousness, sanctification, and redemption are included in Christ as our wisdom. This wisdom is to us from God as a continual transmission for our experience and enjoyment.
It is of God that we are in Christ (1 Cor. 1:30a). We were put into Christ by God so that He could be both power and wisdom to us in a continuous way. This has been revealed to us through the Spirit (2:10). The unveiling Spirit reveals the depths of God to us through God’s holy Word for our deep experience and deep enjoyment. First Corinthians 6:19 says that our body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in us and whom we have from God. The Spirit is the means, the element, and the sphere for our experience of the wonderful Christ. Our body is a temple for the unveiling Spirit. We have to treasure the fact that our body is a holy temple, sanctified for the consummated Spirit of the Triune God. He is lodged in our being, taking our being as His dwelling place.
Because of the indwelling Spirit in our spirit, we are joined to the Lord as one spirit (v. 17). It is a wonder that our human spirit is mingled, or joined, with the divine Spirit into one! The two spirits have been merged into one spirit. The relationship between us and God has arrived at such a marvelous state that we and God are one in the spirit. As proper, normal Christians, we must learn to remain in our spirit. We should always come back to our spirit, exercise our spirit, and use our spirit. To experience and enjoy God, Christ, and the Spirit, we need to be in our spirit all the time. We should always stay here and dwell here. We need to be those enjoying the Triune God in our spirit.
First Corinthians 12:13 says that we were all given to drink one Spirit. First, the Spirit dwells in us. Then He becomes our drink. The Spirit of God is our drink, and the Word of God is our food. Day by day we should eat the Word of God and drink the Spirit of God as our living water.
All the items of Christ revealed in the book of 1 Corinthians can be experienced and enjoyed by us only in and through the all-inclusive Spirit. God has made Christ our power and wisdom in and through the Spirit.
Second Corinthians 1:22 says that God has given us the pledge of the Spirit in our hearts. According to 2 Corinthians 1:21-22, God has anointed us and firmly attaches us unto Christ. He has also sealed us. Based upon this, God manifests the fragrance of Christ through us for others’ salvation (2:14-15). The saving power is the fragrance of Christ going out from us. This fragrance is actually the living Spirit. The fragrance that goes out from us may be compared to the steam that goes out from a vaporizer. A vaporizer converts water into steam so that others can breathe it in. When they breathe the air, they receive the water as well. This is similar to the fragrance that goes out from our Christian being to save others. When they breathe in this fragrance, they receive Christ. When we go out to visit people for the preaching of the gospel, they should be able to breathe in the fragrance of Christ.
Christ has been ministered to us for us to become letters written with the Spirit as ink (3:3). We are living letters. A letter conveys a revelation of a certain thing or a certain person. As the living letters of Christ, we convey the beautiful and wonderful person of Christ. We are His living letters conveying Him to people. We have been inscribed, or written on, with the element of the living Spirit of God as the ink.
In chapters 2 through 4 of 2 Corinthians Paul uses five very significant and expressive metaphors as illustrations of what the believers should be. The first metaphor is that we are captives in a triumphant procession for the celebration of Christ’s victory (2:14a). We were captives under Satan’s hand, but Christ has rescued us and made us His captives. We are captives in His triumphant procession to celebrate His all-inclusive victory. Then we are incense-bearers to scatter the fragrance of Christ (vv. 14b-16). Chapter 3 shows that we are letters written with the Spirit of God to convey Christ to others (vv. 1-3) and mirrors beholding and reflecting the glory of Christ in order to be transformed into His glorious image (v. 18). On the one hand, we are the letters conveying Christ. On the other hand, we are mirrors reflecting Christ in our transformation by the Lord Spirit. Finally, we are the earthen vessels that contain the Triune God in Christ as the excellent treasure (4:7). The above five metaphors are used to describe, to illustrate, or to portray the real experience and enjoyment that we have in the processed Triune God embodied in Christ and consummated as the Spirit. Today this wonderful Spirit is indwelling our spirit. Whenever we are in our spirit, we are with this wonderful Triune God. We are with the consummated Spirit, with the embodied Christ, and with the processed Triune God. We are experiencing Him and enjoying Him as captives, as incense-bearers, as letters, as mirrors, and as vessels.
Furthermore, we are being transformed into the image of Christ by the Lord Spirit (3:17-18). As we experience the Triune God, we are being transformed into the image of Christ as the embodiment of the Triune God by the consummated Spirit as the Lord. When I was a young Christian, I heard messages on God’s chastening and disciplining, but I did not hear anything concerning transformation. Eventually, the Lord brought me out of that old field into a new field. My understanding of the Bible changed. We need a new view to see the processed Triune God embodied in Christ and consummated as the Spirit. Everything that we have been talking about in these chapters is covered by the phrase the processed Triune God embodied in Christ and consummated as the Spirit.
Second Corinthians 5 goes on to show us that God has wrought us for our transfiguration with the Spirit as the pledge (vv. 2-5). Verse 17 says that we are a new creation in Christ. Many Christians know this verse, but they do not know the real significance of this term the new creation. We have to realize that we were not only regenerated but also re-created. We were regenerated to be a new man and re-created to be a new creation. We are in another creation. We do not belong to the old creation, and we are not in the old creation. Now we are in the new creation as a new man.
Eventually, 2 Corinthians reveals that we need to express the virtues of Christ as meekness, forbearance, and truthfulness (10:1; 11:10). Our Christian virtues are a product of the divine virtues of God. The five metaphors that we have seen in 2 Corinthians 2—4 are great items, whereas the virtues of Christ mentioned in chapters 10 and 11 may be considered as small items. This shows that the all-inclusive Christ covers not only big items but also the small, fine items of the Christian virtues. In the Life-study of Philippians we gave seven messages on the subject of forbearance (see Messages 56 through 62 of the Life-study of Philippians). In those messages I contrasted forbearance with anxiety. If we would have forbearance, we must be released from anxiety. It is difficult to express the real meaning of the Greek word for forbearance. This word means “reasonableness, considerateness, and consideration in dealing with others without strictness of legal right.” This implies that we can fit in any kind of situation to meet the need of any kind of person. It means that we are humble, that we can give in to others, and that we are able to fit any situation and any circumstance with anybody. A forbearing person can fit in with both the older generation and the younger generation.
Forbearance seemingly is a small virtue, but actually, it is great. If we are forbearing persons, we are great persons. If I easily lose my temper when someone makes a mistake, am I a great person? When we lose our temper in this way, we are small persons. A great person embraces all kinds of people. A forbearing person, a great person, can embrace even the ones who oppose him. The Lord Jesus charged us in Matthew 5:44 to love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us. This is the expression of forbearance.
I have seen some saints who have been offended and would never forget that offense. Some wives never forget how their husbands have offended them. In the biblical sense, to forgive is to forget. Without forgetting, forgiving means nothing. If we do not forget others’ offenses, this means that we have not forgiven them. Forgiving is forgetting. When God forgives us, He washes away the stain of our sin (Psa. 51:7; 1 John 1:7). Furthermore, He remembers our sins no more (Heb. 8:12). We need to be one with our God to forgive people to such an extent.
A new church in a new locality is always sweet, and the church life there is in the “honeymoon stage.” However, after the church has been there for ten years, the offenses accumulate. This mountain of offenses can kill the entire church life. Among all the local churches on the earth, it is hard to find one that has been existing for over five years without the accumulation of offenses. These offenses are a big stumbling block. We have to stop to move this stumbling block, this mountain, out of the way. Then we can drive on, and the church life can go on. Why is it that a couple can be married for many years, yet they can become separated and then divorced? This is because of the accumulated offenses. The husband offends the wife, and the wife offends the husband again and again with no mutual forgiveness. This accumulation of offenses leads to separation and then divorce. There is divorce because there is no forbearance. To be proper Christians, we need forbearance. Forbearance implies forgiveness, lowliness, giving in, and fitting in with others under any kind of situation. Paul told us that he had the meekness and forbearance of Christ because he had been attached to Christ. Paul realized that he was one with Christ. Because of this Paul also realized that he had the virtues of Christ’s human life. Paul not only enjoyed Christ’s divinity in great things but also enjoyed His humanity in the detailed items of Christ’s human virtues based upon the divine attributes.
Ephesians 3:16-17a speaks of Christ making His home in our hearts through faith by the Father strengthening us into our inner man through His Spirit with power according to the riches of His glory. Since we love Christ, we need to allow Him to make His home in our hearts through faith. The very presence of Christ within us is substantiated by our faith. In order for Christ to make His home in our hearts, the Father has to strengthen us into our inner man. To understand what it means to be strengthened into our inner man, we need to consider our experience. The more we are not in our spirit, the weaker we are. When we are weak, we are surely absent from our spirit. When God the Father comes to strengthen us, that strengthening will bring us back to our spirit, which is our very inner man. When we are weak, we are remaining in our outer man, in our flesh, in our self, in our natural man, and in our soul. But when we are strong in the Lord, we are remaining in our spirit, in our inner man.
Because we are not in our inner man much of the time, there was the need of some apostle to pray for us. Paul prayed to the Father, asking the Father to strengthen all the saints, who are weak in their outer man, into their inner man. The Father does not do this strengthening directly. He strengthens the weaker saints through the Spirit with power, and He does this strengthening according to the riches of His glory. This prepares the way, opens the way, paves the way, so that the Son can have a highway to make His home in our entire heart. In our heart there are four rooms — the room of the mind, the room of the will, the room of the emotion, and the room of the conscience. Christ wants to make His home in all these different rooms.
Christ making His home in our hearts results in our having been rooted and grounded in love. To be rooted is for growth, and to be grounded is for building. This rooting and grounding is in love. Christ makes His home in our hearts through faith, and we are rooted and grounded in love. Through faith refers to our substantiating; in love refers to embracing with a loving heart. To realize that Christ is making His home in our heart, we need faith to substantiate it. To have ourselves rooted for growth and grounded for building, there is the need of love. We need to love the Lord and also love the rooting and the grounding. We need to be those who love the Lord, who love His rooting, and who love His grounding that we may grow and be built up.
When we have been rooted and grounded in our love toward the Lord, we will be strong. We will have the strength, the power, the capability, to apprehend with all the saints the breadth, length, height, and depth of Christ and to know the knowledge-surpassing love of Christ. The breadth and length are horizontal, whereas the height and depth are vertical. These are the dimensions of Christ, which we have to experience. These dimensions make a cube, which is solid, strong, stable, unbreakable, and immovable. We need to apprehend with all the saints the dimensions of this great, universal cube — Christ. We also are made strong to know the knowledge-surpassing love of Christ. This love surpasses knowledge, yet we can know it.
Eventually, this results in our being filled unto all the fullness of God (vv. 17b-19). Unto means “resulting in,” or “issuing in.” Such an experience of Christ making His home in our hearts eventually results in our being filled to such an extent that we become the fullness of the Godhead. This fullness is the very expression of all the riches of the Triune Godhead. The living church, the actual church, the active church, the real church, is the expression of the Triune God.
Today can we see such a church in the universe? We must admit that there is not such a church today. The Triune God will not tolerate this situation. He is doing something to change this situation. This is why we need to pray for one another so that we would be strengthened into our inner man with power through the Father’s Spirit according to the riches of His glory that the Lord Jesus may have a way to make His home in our hearts. Then we will love the rooting and the grounding, and we will have the strength to apprehend the universal dimensions of Christ with all the saints. We cannot apprehend by ourselves in an individualistic way. We need all the saints to apprehend the dimensions of the Lord Jesus — the breadth, the length, the height, and the depth. We need to experience Christ as an unbreakable, stable cube. Eventually, we will know the knowledge-surpassing love of Christ, and we all will be filled unto the very fullness of the Triune God as the church according to His heart’s desire. We need to pray this prayer recorded in Ephesians 3.
To live with the Divine Trinity is to have Christ formed in us (Gal. 4:19). After Christ makes His home in our hearts, He will be formed in us. He will spread Himself from our spirit into every room of our entire inner being. Galatians speaks of God revealing His Son in us (1:15-16a). This is the first step. Then we have been baptized into Christ and have put on Christ (3:27). We have been put into Christ, taking Christ as our clothing, and now Christ takes us as His dwelling by living in us (2:20). Then Christ matures in us. For Christ to mature in us is for Him to be formed in us. He matures in us for us to be heirs (3:29) for the full enjoyment of the Triune God as our inheritance (Eph. 1:14; 1 Pet. 1:4). The Holy Spirit is the pledge of this inheritance (Eph. 1:13b-14a). Thus, the entire Divine Trinity is involved in Christ’s being formed in us.
