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Scripture Reading: Gen. 1:26-27; Eph. 4:24; Rev. 4:3a; 21:11, 18a; Gen. 2:7; Zech. 12:1b; Job 32:8a; Prov. 20:27a; John 3:6b; Rom. 8:16; 2 Tim. 4:22; Rom. 1:9
We all realize that the Bible is consistent, but what makes it consistent? How does the Bible begin, develop, and end? Some may say that Christ makes the Bible consistent. This kind of reasoning, though, is too superficial. In this chapter we will open up the “gold mine” of the Bible and excavate the gold that is buried deep inside it. The Bible, like every object, has two sides — the inside and the outside. For example, the surface of this podium is dark brown. However, on the inside its color is the color of wood. In order to see the color inside, we must get below the surface.
The first mention of man in the Bible links man with the image of God. In Genesis 1:26 God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness.” Genesis 1 tells us that in His creation God created numerous things over a period of five days. During those five days He created everything by speaking. God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light (v. 3). He said, “Let there be an expanse,” and there was an expanse (vv. 6-7). Psalm 33:9 says, “He spoke, and it was; / He commanded, and it stood.” However, on the sixth day God held a conference of the Godhead. He said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness.” Prior to creating man, He created the heavens, the earth, and a myriad of items. However, these items were not His central purpose. His central purpose is fixed on man. God wants man to be His expression, so He created man according to His image. Hence, man is like a photograph of God. This photograph is God’s picture, God’s reprint, and God’s expression.
Some of us may have heard or read numerous messages on this matter. However, regardless of how many times we have heard it, we still may not understand it because this matter does not exist in our natural concept. In the Scriptures there is the principle of first mention. According to this principle, the first mention of a matter in the Scriptures sets the principles of that particular matter for the entire Bible. The first mention of man in the Bible says that man was created according to the image of God; that is, man is God’s expression, God’s reprint, and God’s manifestation. This is the principle. If you were to ask me why man was created, I would answer, “Man was created for God’s expression.” This is why man is like a photograph of God and a reprint of God. Obviously, those who do not believe in God and the Scriptures could not utter such a statement, and I believe that even many of those who have been in Christianity for years may not be able to utter it. We must see that the Bible reveals that God wants man to be His reprint. If nine hundred of us were to gather together, we would all look similar to each other. This is because we are all reprints of one original copy. Every one of us looks like God. Not one among us looks like a cow. Every one of us is a reprint of God to express God. This is what the Bible tells us at the beginning.
The Bible shows us that in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth and that on the first day He created one thing, on the second day He created another, and so on. After the heavens, the earth, the sun, the moon, the grass, the trees, and various creatures had been created, God said, “Let Us make man in Our image.” This is God’s central purpose, and this is the central thought that can be seen consistently throughout the Scriptures. God’s intention is for man to be like Him and to express Him.
At the end of the Scriptures in Revelation 21 and 22, a city appears. This city is not a physical city that is built up with material stones. It is a spiritual symbol describing an entity composed of redeemed, regenerated, and transformed people. It is a city of living people. This city is a living city built with living people as living stones. Each stone has the name of a person written on it, one stone bearing the name of Peter, another stone bearing the name of John, and so on. Hallelujah! We are all stones.
What is the purpose of this city? The wall of the city is a hundred and forty-four cubits in height, and every stone in the wall is jasper (21:17-18a). Furthermore, the city is full of God’s glory (v. 11). What do these jasper stones signify? Revelation 4 reveals that God, who sits on the throne, is like a jasper stone in appearance (v. 3). John saw God sitting on the throne with the likeness of a jasper stone. Therefore, the fact that the wall of the city shines brightly like a jasper stone signifies that the city is the expression of God. God is first manifested on the throne and will eventually be manifested in the entire city.
This is the principle seen consistently throughout the Scriptures. The beginning of the Bible says that God created man so that man may be like Him. The end of the Bible says that God’s redeemed, regenerated, and transformed people have corporately become like Him.
What is in the middle of the Scriptures? In the Bible there is something called the old man and also something called the new man. Genesis 1 concerns the old man created by God, and Ephesians 4 concerns the new man. Ephesians 4 shows us that the new man, which is the church, was created according to God (v. 24). The old man was created according to the image of God, so the new man was also created according to the image of God (Col. 3:10). The ultimate manifestation of the new man in Ephesians 4 is the city, New Jerusalem, at the end of Revelation. The New Jerusalem is the aggregate of the new man and the ultimate manifestation of the new man. Therefore, in the beginning of the Bible man is the expression of God, in the middle of the Bible man is the expression of God, and also at the end of the Bible man is the expression of God. The Scriptures consistently show us that God desires to be expressed and that He does not want to be expressed merely through Himself. He wants to be expressed through man.
This expression is not individual but corporate. In the beginning when God created Adam, He did not create only one person. Rather, He created mankind. Adam was not an individual man but a corporate man, that is, mankind. Millions of Adam’s descendants were included in him. Thus, God did not merely create an individual man; He created a corporate man. God does not want to be expressed merely through an individual. His desire is to have a corporate expression.
We often speak about the ground of the church. In order to see the matter of the ground of the church, we do not have to wait until Revelation 1. The ground of the church is already implied in Genesis 1:26. How can we say this? We can say this because in the beginning when God created man, He did not create two individuals. If He had created two individuals, there would have been two grounds on which to stand. In the beginning God created only one man. Genesis 5:2 says, “Male and female He created them...and called their name Adam, on the day when they were created.” The male was named Adam, and the female was also named Adam. God did not create two persons. He created only one man. You may argue, saying that God created a male and a female. This is correct, yet the male and the female were just one person. From God’s viewpoint, He created only one man.
We may have been born in the twentieth century, but when were we created? Were we created or born? We were all first created and then born, because when Adam was created, we also were created. Adam, Abel, Paul, and we were all created at the same time. The only difference is that Abel and Paul were born earlier than we were. We were created at the same time but born at different times. This shows us that we are all on the same ground.
In Genesis 9, due to Satan’s infiltration and man’s fall, nations were formed. These nations typify today’s denominations. However, in Acts on the day of Pentecost, people who had come to Jerusalem from different nations and who spoke different dialects were gathered together. There in Jerusalem, many of them received grace and the divine life and therefore were built together to become one new man. This new man is the church, which is for the expression of God.
The Scriptures consistently show us that the main thought in the Bible is that God wants man to express Him. Perhaps you may say that the Bible shows us that God wants us to worship Him, to serve Him, and to work for Him. The Bible certainly mentions these things, but you cannot find them in the first two chapters of Genesis. There is no thought of worshipping God, serving God, or working for God in these chapters. The only thought seen in them is that man was created in the image of God for His expression. Suppose I am a photograph of you, and as your photograph I begin to worship you, serve you, and work for you. You would think, “What a foolish picture! Everything it is doing is nonsense. I do not want my picture to worship me, serve me, or work for me. I just want my picture to express me in a clear way.”
We must see that the consistent purpose, the central purpose, of God is not for us to worship Him, serve Him, or work for Him but for us to express Him. What God requires of the church in Taipei is not our zeal, devout worship, or successful service. Rather, God desires that people would see God when they come to Taipei. Every church needs to realize this. This is not a matter of our zeal, diligence, or devout worship but of our expressing God. When people come to our meetings, they should be able to declare that God is truly among us.
Degraded Christianity has deviated from the lofty goal and eternal purpose of God to being concerned merely with worshipping God, serving God, and working for God. Perhaps some would argue, saying, “Did Paul not tell us to worship God? Did he not tell us to serve God?” He certainly did, but we must realize that the worshipping, serving, and working for God spoken of by Paul are for the expression of Christ. We may be using the same terms as Paul, but our understanding of those terms may be different. The worshipping, serving, and working for God spoken of by Paul may not be what we think they are. If we would read through Paul’s Epistles, we would see that what Paul meant by worshipping God, serving God, and working for God was to live out Christ and to live Christ in the presence of men.
The church is the new man, which is a photograph of God. God intends to have a photograph, a reprint, of Himself in this universe. When God Himself is reprinted, that reprint is the church. There are many different aspects of the church, and one of them is the church as the reprint of God. The church is a corporate picture of God. It is like a picture of God taken by God Himself. God has no intention for this picture to worship Him, serve Him, and work for Him. His only intention is that this picture would manifest Him in a clear and definite way so that when people see the church they would see Him. If people were to ask you, “Where is God?” you could say, “Come and see — God is in the church.” If they were to ask, “What does God look like?” you could say, “When you see the church, you see God.” In the early days those in the church in Jerusalem may have said, “O Jews! Do you want to know God? Then come and see the church. What your fathers passed on to you and what you learned from them was only the law in doctrine. Today, however, what is being expressed in the church in Jerusalem is the Lord Himself. The church in Jerusalem is a reprint of God.” Can we say the same today? If we cannot say this, we are off.
The Scriptures show us that when God rebuked and judged His people, He often rebuked them not so much for their sins and evil doings but for being zealous in serving Him without expressing Him. Consider the seven epistles in Revelation. In the first epistle written to the messenger of the church in Ephesus, the Lord said, “I know your works and your labor and your endurance...and you...have borne all things because of My name and have not grown weary. But I have one thing against you, that you have left your first love...I am coming to you and will remove your lampstand out of its place, unless you repent” (2:2-5). What did the Lord mean? The Lord seemed to be saying, “You do not express Me. You care for works, for endurance, and for many other good things but not for Me. Since you do not care for Me, I do not care for you either.”
Our situation is often the same. For fifty years I could not change my concept. I constantly had the desire to work for God. I thought I was called by God, so I served God, worked for God, and worshipped God. We all have the same concept. Perhaps we may say to ourselves, “My prayers have not been devout enough, so today I will try to be more devout.” However, God does not care for our devoutness, no matter how devout we are or how devout our prayers are. What then does God want? God wants us to express Him. If we have a sorrowful countenance, we have the expression of a beggar, not the expression of God. Perhaps we may think to ourselves, “Everyone around me is so careless. I am the only one who is careful. I never dare to say anything or make any move, lest I sin against God.” Others’ carelessness may not be worth anything, but in God’s eyes, neither is our carefulness worth anything. People cannot see God in their carelessness; neither can they see God in your carefulness. God is not expressed through either of you because both of you are covered by a veil. The veil covering them is like a thin bridal veil, but the veil covering you is like a thick cow skin. Your piety is worthless, because when people see you, all they see is a sorrowful countenance. This is not what God wants. What God wants is to be expressed through us. Your sorrowful countenance will not lead people to salvation. Only the light of the expression of God through us will cause people to touch God.
In order to express God we must exercise our spirit. As humans, we have a spirit. In the beginning God created man in a particular way. God first used the dust of the ground to make a body as a frame, and then He breathed His breath into man (Gen. 2:7). The Hebrew word for breath here is also translated as “spirit” in Proverbs 20:27. There it says, “The spirit of man is the lamp of Jehovah.” The same Hebrew word is translated as “spirit” in one place and as “breath” in another place. This proves that the breath that God breathed into man is related to the spirit of man. Man has been constructed in a special way. He has a spirit within him.
To illustrate this matter, let us consider a radio. A radio consists of a box on the outside and a device on the inside that is able to receive radio waves. If the device were removed, there would be no way for the radio to receive the radio waves that are in the air. The inward device is a special kind of construction. Similarly, each one of us has an invisible, intangible spirit within our visible, tangible body. We may already know this, but we may not know it in a thorough way. For many years I did not see that the spirit of man is as important as the heavens and the earth. Zechariah 12:1 says that Jehovah stretched forth the heavens, laid the foundations of the earth, and also formed a spirit within man. The heavens, the earth, and man are mentioned together. The heavens are for the earth, the earth is for man, and man is for God. Since God is Spirit, man must have a spirit within him. As Spirit, God is like the radio waves in the air — hard to describe or ascertain, yet very real. Man is for God. Therefore, man must have a spirit in order to contact God as Spirit. This is why Zechariah says that God created the heavens, the earth, and a spirit within man. What was the purpose of this? The purpose was for God to obtain a vessel in this universe that could contain Him and be His expression. The spirit of man is not only an organ to contact God but also a vessel to contain God. We may use the stomach as an illustration. The stomach is a vessel to contain food. Furthermore, it can digest the food that we eat and absorb and transport its nutrients to every part of our body. Just as we have a physical stomach, we also have a spiritual stomach in us — our spirit. Not only can our spirit contact God, but it can also store and contain God within. Furthermore, this spirit can assimilate and convey God to every part of our being.
Regrettably, many Christians simply do not understand the matter of the spirit. Most of the time we do not live in the spirit in our family life. Even in our meeting life, we still may not know how to use the spirit. In our meetings we may know how to use different methods, but we may not know how to use the spirit. Many of us may think that shouting in the meetings is the release of the spirit, yet we may not realize that shouting can become an ordinance, a method. If we shout and cry loudly but do not know our spirit, then whatever we do is still a method. Formerly we may have had meetings in an old way. This way was not of the spirit. Now we may have a new way. This way, however, is also not of the spirit. Actually, it is not difficult to have a proper meeting. The difficulty is that we do not have the right understanding, and we do not practice using our spirit. When we come to a meeting, we may have a set of routines — praying, singing, reading the Scriptures, giving a message, testifying, sharing, and fellowshipping. However, we may not prepare our spirit before coming to the meeting. We may even act like we do not have a spirit. We know how to use our eyes to look at things around us and also how to use our mind to think about certain matters; however, we may not know how to exercise our spirit. Formerly we may have been silent in the meetings, and currently we may shout in the meetings. However, if we do not exercise our spirit, there is no difference between the two. If you shout without using your spirit, then I cannot say Amen to your shouting, and if you do not exercise your spirit while you remain silent, I cannot say Amen to your silence. The problem is that in our meetings we often shout and cry without using our spirit. Outwardly we may shout and cry, yet inwardly our spirit may not be touched. Therefore, God is not expressed in our meetings.
Our normal practice should be to prepare and exercise our spirit before we come to the meeting. Once we exercise our spirit, we will forget about our thoughts. Once we exercise our spirit, we will forget about our feelings. In fact, once we exercise our spirit, we will forget about everything, even about who we are. If we forget about everything to this extent, we will be almost completely in the spirit. Our spirit will be stirred up, and once we come to the meeting and sit down, the spirit of all those who are present will also be stirred up without our having to shout or cry.
We need to pray for the Lord’s mercy. Almost everything that we are practicing today has become a religious practice. Christianity has turned the truths that are in the Scriptures into something of religion. For example, the Bible tells us to bear the cross. The bearing of the cross as seen in the Bible, however, can be carried out only in the spirit. When we are truly living in the spirit, we are bearing the cross. If we try to bear the cross without living in the spirit, we will be practicing a form of asceticism, which in principle is almost the same as Hinduism. A husband might say, “I know my wife is a cross given to me by the Lord, so I have to bear this cross.” A wife might say, “My husband was given to me by the Lord, and I cannot ask for a divorce. This must be a cross from the Lord, so I will bear it. The Lord also gave me several children, so I have a big cross plus several little crosses.” This is not what the Bible says regarding bearing the cross. Rather, the Bible says that we need to live in the spirit. If we have children, we need to live in the spirit, and if we do not have children, we also need to live in the spirit. If our children are obedient, we need to live in the spirit, and if they are disobedient, we still need to live in the spirit. As long as we live in the spirit, we will spontaneously bear the cross. To bear the cross is to deny our self and to give up our own choice. How can we deny our self? How can we allow the Lord to make choices for us? The only way is to live in the spirit.
If we would read the New Testament again, we would realize that in essence the New Testament teaches us simply to live in the spirit and to walk according to the spirit. The Bible never requires us to bear the cross while gnashing our teeth. We may even misunderstand the matter spoken of in Romans 6:11 concerning reckoning ourselves dead to sin. According to this verse, it is proper for us to reckon ourselves dead to sin. However, in our experience the more we reckon ourselves dead, the harder it is for us to die. This is because we may be trying to experience Romans 6 without having Romans 8. Romans 8 tells us to walk according to the spirit, to live in the spirit (v. 4). If we do not live in the spirit, although we may practice to pray more, we will still be practicing a kind of self-mortification or asceticism, which we can do for only so long. The Christian living is a living in the spirit. Only when we live in the spirit can we pray without ceasing. The secret of the Christian life is to live in the spirit.
To live in the spirit is not to engage in religious worship, religious service, or religious work. To live in the spirit is to let Christ fill and saturate us until He permeates our whole being and is thereby expressed through us. It is not a matter of husbands being able to love their wives or of wives being able to love their husbands. Rather, it is a matter of living in the spirit and allowing Christ as the life-giving Spirit to permeate our entire being and to express God through us. This is the overcoming life of a Christian, the family life of a Christian, and the church life of a Christian. This is the reality of the church. The reality of the church is to live in the spirit. The spirit that we are referring to is not merely the Holy Spirit but is our created and regenerated spirit. Today we need to forget about our thoughts, feelings, and everything else. We need to turn to our spirit and pay attention to being in our spirit. Most people pay attention to their mind and their feelings, but very few people pay attention to being in the spirit. We all need to be absorbed with being in spirit. We may not know what it is to bear the cross, but we should know what it is to follow the spirit. We may not know what it means to pray and to fast, or we may not know what it means to be humble and to be patient. However, we should know how to follow the spirit. When we follow the spirit, we have humility and patience, and we spontaneously bear the cross. Once we follow the spirit, all things are ours.
May the Lord open our eyes so that we may see the consistent truth in the Bible and see that the way to live in this truth is to live in the spirit. It was in our spirit that we were regenerated, and it is in our spirit that the Spirit of God is with us. It is in our spirit that the all-inclusive Christ dwells, and it is in our spirit that we enjoy His grace. It is in our spirit that we have His presence, and it is in our spirit that we have light, life, and truth. Everything is in our spirit.
