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Scripture Reading: John 1:14, 18; 6:57; 14:7-9, 16a, 17, 19-20, 23; 15:5; 17:21a, 23a; 20:22; 3:6b; 4:24
Let us now consider the Gospel of John. Although this book is familiar to us, most Christians, including many of us, do not realize what the spirit, the reality, or the essence of the Gospel of John is. Although we have released numerous messages based on this book and have spent a great deal of effort to study it, most of us who are in the churches have not realized the essence of the Gospel of John.
Most Christians’ knowledge of the Gospel of John is limited to the following points: First, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” (1:29); second, “God so loved the world” (3:16); and third, “I am the good Shepherd; the good Shepherd lays down His life for the sheep” (10:11). Some have also seen that we have received a new commandment to love one another (13:34). Others have seen that since we love one another, we should wash one another’s feet (v. 14). Still others have seen even more, realizing that the Lord is the vine, that we are the branches, and that we abide in Him and He in us (15:1, 4-5). However, most of them do not understand how we can abide in Him and how He can abide in us. They have some amount of knowledge but very little experience. Still others have seen the Lord’s prayer for oneness in John 17. As a whole, this is the extent of most Christians’ knowledge of the Gospel of John. If this is our case, this indicates that we do not realize what the essence of the Gospel of John is.
The Gospel of John mainly speaks about God. John 1:1 says, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” Hence, the Gospel of John is a book concerning God, not man. Its purpose in speaking about God is to show us that God has a heart’s desire, which is to work Himself into man. Its intention is not to teach us how to worship and serve God, how to work for God, or how to improve ourselves so that we could become noble people. There is no such thing in the Gospel of John. Among the sixty-six books of the Bible, the Gospel of John speaks exclusively concerning one thing: God intends to work Himself into man to be man’s life and life supply. Moreover, He wants to be altogether one with man. Because He desires to enter into us and to put us into Himself, we should abide in Him, and then He will also abide in us. Not only so, He and we, we and He, will live together. He will come into us to abide with us. He also wants us to live by Him and with Him.
The highest gospel is not merely concerning the forgiveness of sins and deliverance from hell so that we may receive eternal blessing. Rather, the highest gospel is that we would be saved to the extent that God and we, we and God, are completely mingled as one, having one life and one living. We were fallen sinners — wicked, degraded, evil, and desolate — yet we can have one life and one living with God. God can abide with us and live with us. Do we believe this? If we do believe this, it may be our belief in theory but not be our living. We may have been Christians for decades, yet we may have never had the deep realization that the gospel of God saves us into Him to live with Him so that He and we can have one life and one living. We may have read the Bible every day and read the Gospel of John several times, yet we may have never had this concept. What have we seen in the Gospel of John? We may have seen the sweetness of the Lord Jesus in His words, acts, and conduct. Nevertheless, regardless of how sweet He is, He is still He, and we are still we. We should read John 15:4, which says, “Abide in Me and I in you.” We should read John 6:57, which says, “As the living Father has sent Me and I live because of the Father, so he who eats Me, he also shall live because of Me.” These words are much deeper, showing us that the Lord is not only near us but is also mingled with us.
We should not treat this matter as a doctrine. Rather, we should all receive a real impression. We want to see a mysterious vision in the Gospel of John. What is a vision, and what is a revelation? If I were to cover my face with a veil, you would be unable to see my face. Thus, there would be no revelation. Revelation is like the removing of the veil to expose my face. However, if there was revelation but no light or sight, you still would be unable to see my face. You would know that something has been revealed, but you would not know what that thing was. If there was light here and you also had sight, then upon removing the veil, you would immediately see my face. My face would be a vision to you. A vision is a scene that is uncommon or extraordinary.
The Gospel of John is a book of revelation. However, we need the light to shine on the revelation, and we also need the sight to see. Therefore, we need to look to the Lord. The revelation of the Gospel of John has been opened. However, we still need the Lord’s shining, and we also need the Lord to give us spiritual sight so that we may see the scene in this book and receive a vision.
The Gospel of John is about God, who is the Creator of all things. The purpose of this book is to show how this God works Himself into man. How does God accomplish this? The best way for us to take something into us is by eating it. Does God then need to divide Himself into tiny pieces? Initially, there was no way for us to eat God, because as the Creator, God is mysterious, incomprehensible, great, and glorious. If He came to us as the Creator, we would fall down in fear and trembling. Therefore, the Gospel of John reveals that first the Word was God: “In the beginning was the Word,...and the Word was God” (1:1). What are words for? Words are for expression and explanation. In the book of John, the mysterious and hidden God is expressed as the Word. As the Word, Christ speaks forth and expresses the mysterious and hidden God. If someone does not know God, he only needs to come to Christ, who is the explanation of God. Second, God became flesh, a man (v. 14). The great and glorious God became a man so that men could draw near to Him without fear. Third, this God in the flesh was the Lamb. Man is sinful, but God is holy, and God cannot contact anything that has sin. Hence, as the Lamb of God He carried our sins to the cross and dealt with them there. On the cross He accomplished redemption by the shedding of His blood, and then He was buried. Then, something wonderful transpired, something that had never occurred in human history. After His burial He resurrected, and in His resurrection He still had a human body, but He also became the Spirit. Then He came to where the disciples were, and even though the doors were shut, He entered without knocking on the door and without anyone opening the door for Him. Actually, He did not even enter the room; He simply came and stood in their midst (20:19). His mysterious body is simply beyond our comprehension. As He was standing in the midst of the disciples, He did not preach to them or give them a teaching. Instead, He breathed into them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit” (v. 22). In this way He entered into them. God entered into the disciples to become one with them. The two — God and man, man and God — became one, having one life and one living. Through the Spirit, God can live in man, and man can live by God.
The Gospel of John clearly tells us that God is Spirit (4:24). Because He is Spirit, He can enter into man. Long before He entered into man, He prepared a spirit for man. Man has a spirit within him. This book tells us that the spirit within man needs regeneration (3:6). It needs to be regenerated with God as the divine Spirit. In this way the divine Spirit can be begotten in the spirit of man. Not only so, this book tells us that this God as the mysterious One is not only our life but also our bread of life (6:35). Hence, we can eat Him and take Him into us. However, we do not eat Him in the same way that we eat bread. The Lord said, “It is the Spirit who gives life;...the words which I have spoken to you are spirit and are life” (v. 63). This means that we need to receive the Lord’s words with our spirit. Then we will have Him, and He will be the life within us. Eventually, He said that those who eat Him will live because of Him (v. 57). We do not live by ourselves but by the Spirit whom we have received.
We must see what kind of book the Gospel of John is. It shows us that after going through the process of incarnation, death, and resurrection, God became the all-inclusive life-giving Spirit. All we need to do is exercise our spirit to receive Him. Then He enters into our spirit to be mingled with us as one spirit. He becomes our life and life supply, and we live by Him. The two — He and we, we and He — have one life, one living, and one walk.
In John 15 the Lord said, “Abide in Me and I in you” (v. 4). How can we abide in Him, and how can He abide in us? This is altogether a matter of the spirit. Because He is the Spirit, we can abide in Him, and He can also abide in us. Today we all abide in the air, and the air also abides in us. In the Scriptures air is a type of the Spirit. Furthermore, in the Old Testament air and spirit are denoted by the same Hebrew word, and in the New Testament they are denoted by the same Greek word. The Lord Jesus breathed into His disciples and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit” (20:22). It would be quite appropriate to translate the Lord’s word into, “Receive the Holy Breath.” The Spirit is the breath. Our Lord today is the holy breath. This is why today we can abide in the Lord, and the Lord can also abide in us.
If we would read the Gospel of John as someone who has never heard the gospel or has never read the Bible before, we would see something wonderful. We would see that after doing so many things, God became a wonderful Spirit, and that He has breathed Himself into us. We would also see that we have a spirit to receive Him into us. In our spirit we have been regenerated. In our spirit we can contact Him. In our spirit we can live by Him. In our spirit we can abide in Him, and in our spirit He can abide in us.
Most of us are clear about this matter. Regrettably, however, when it comes to our practical living, most of the time we do not consider the Gospel of John. For example, suppose I wake up one morning and remember the word in Ephesians that says that husbands should love their wives. I begin to pray, “Lord, I agree that husbands should love their wives, but, Lord, You know that I am weak and that I cannot love. Please help me, and as the Holy Spirit move me!” Suppose I have a very good morning watch that morning, but as a result, I am delayed and arrive ten minutes late for breakfast. As soon as my wife sees me, she says, “What is the matter with you? Where did you go? Do you not know what time it is?” Then immediately I respond, saying, “This is a cross from the Lord. I must bear the cross!” Upon hearing this, my wife becomes so angry that she scolds me and even throws chopsticks at me. “What do you mean by bearing the cross?” she asks. Then I may say within myself, “Oh, I need to receive the discipline of the Holy Spirit. I need this knife. I have many sharp places in my being. My parents did not teach me properly, so now I need my wife to teach me. Oh, I should pick up the cross! I should receive the discipline of the Holy Spirit!” Then I simply skip breakfast and hurriedly go to work while in my heart all I can think about is bearing the cross and receiving the discipline of the Holy Spirit. However, at noontime, the more I think about the situation, the angrier I become, thinking, “She should not have thrown chopsticks at me!” Then I tell myself, “It is not right to think this way. I must pray! I must be watchful and pray that I may not fall into temptation.” Therefore, I pray, “O Lord, keep me from falling into temptation!” When I return home after work, my wife is still angry with me. When she sees me, the first words she says are, “Have you had enough bearing of the cross yet? Have you learned the lesson of being disciplined by the Holy Spirit?” Sometimes the Lord allows Satan to bother us in this way.
There are different ways of looking at all our situations. We may think that all the things that happen to us are lessons from God. However, if we had the light from the Gospel of John, we would see things from another angle and realize that it is not a matter of “learning lessons.” We would see that all the things that happen to us test us as to whether we are living in the spirit or in our self. When you are truly living in the spirit, there is no need to bear the cross, to be broken, or to be disciplined by the Holy Spirit. Even if your wife were to create a big uproar, you would not be bothered but would simply live in the spirit. If your wife gave you chicken soup, you would say, “Hallelujah.” If she gave you plain water, you would also say, “Hallelujah.” You would simply be living in the spirit. If you try to bear the cross and receive the discipline of the Holy Spirit without living in the spirit, you will only stir up your wife to give you more discipline. The devil knows how to deal with us. When we resist losing our temper, the devil will bother us again and again until we cannot help losing our temper. Under the devil’s constant bothering, one day we will throw chopsticks at our wife. Then she will be happy and say, “So you also throw chopsticks! Now we are the same!” The best way to silence Satan is to live in the spirit. The best way is not pretending, being patient, “learning lessons,” or being broken. We should not know anything except to live in the spirit. Today our Lord lives in our spirit, and we should live by Him. When we are rebuked, we should live by Him. When we are embraced and kissed, we should live by Him. When we are slapped on the face, we should still live by Him.
Do not think that these are just my words. The Lord said in the Gospel of John, “He who eats Me, he also shall live because of Me” (6:57). We should live by Him, not for only twenty minutes a day but for all twenty-four hours. It should not be that when our wife kisses us, we live by Him, but when she scolds us, we endure and bear the cross. It should not be that when we go into a department store, we quickly pray and become watchful in order that we would not fall into temptation. Rather, we should live by Him when we enter the meeting hall, and we should also live by Him when we enter the department store. Whether we have John 3 in front of us or a variety of things in front of us, we should live by Him. Outwardly our situations may change, but inwardly we should always be in a condition of living by Him.
The highest teaching in the Scriptures is to live in the spirit. In the last few centuries this matter has never been released in such a clear way as it has been at this time. Pursuing holiness, pursuing victory, bearing the cross, and receiving the discipline of the Holy Spirit are all matters in the Scriptures. However, these matters are all branches. The trunk, the foundation, is living in the spirit. The reason we pursue holiness is because we do not live in the spirit. If we would live in the spirit, it would be unnecessary to pursue holiness. The reason we try to be patient and victorious is because we do not live in the spirit. If we would live in the spirit, pursuing patience and victory would be unnecessary. The reason we need to be dealt with by the cross is because we live in the self. However, if we would live in the spirit, there would be no need of dealing when we encounter the cross. The dealing of the cross is for us to live in the spirit. When we endeavor to be dealt with by the cross apart from the spirit, we are merely changing our understanding of a situation. For example, perhaps a brother has wronged us, lied about us, or offended us. At first we may be unable to get over it, but later we may think, “Now I realize that the Lord is dealing with me in this way to break me. I am a stubborn old man, and no one can do anything about me. Therefore, God has given me such a brother. Thank the Lord, my understanding has changed. I do not blame that brother anymore. Now I understand that God is using that brother as an ax to break me. Therefore, Father, I thank You. I would like to kiss the ax.” We may have a change in understanding, but we still are not living in the spirit. We may endeavor to bear the cross three times in a day, but we still do not live in the spirit for even five minutes.
God does not want us to pursue holiness, victory, the cross, or breaking. God wants to be our life so that we may live by Him. I hope that a great light would shine here to tear down all those other teachings. We do not need to learn this lesson or that lesson. We need the spirit, and we need to live in the spirit. In a sense, God does not need a person who has been broken or who has been polished. God needs a person who lives by Him. God does not need a person who lives by Him for five minutes and then stops living by Him after five minutes. God needs people who will day and night, twenty-four hours a day, live in the spirit, live by Him, and live with Him as life.
Why then does the Bible contain so many other teachings? The other teachings are tests to determine whether or not we are living in the spirit. We should not be mistaken into thinking that those teachings in the Bible are meant for us to practice. They are there to prove whether or not we are living in the spirit. The Gospel of John does not teach us to be humble, to be patient, to bear the cross, or to learn this lesson or that lesson. The main emphasis of the Gospel of John can be found in three verses: “He who eats Me, he also shall live because of Me” (6:57); “Abide in Me and I in you” (15:4); and “If anyone loves Me,...We will come to him and make an abode with him” (14:23). How can we live in Him, and how can He live in us? The only way was for Him to become the Spirit. John 15 needs Romans 8 as its continuation. Without Romans 8, it is not sufficiently clear how to abide in the Lord. To abide in the Lord is to abide in the spirit, to set our mind on the spirit, and to walk closely according to the spirit. When we walk closely according to the spirit by setting our mind on the spirit, we abide in the spirit and also let the Lord abide in us. We should not wait until trials come and then begin to pray, asking the Lord for endurance and strength in order to be able to receive the breaking. At that point it is too late to ask for help, and praying will not be of any help. The fact that we turn to the Lord only when the trials come proves that we do not live in the spirit. If we were to live in the spirit, it would not matter whether we were experiencing trials, temptations, favor, pity, or anything else. They would all be the same to us, because we would simply be living in the spirit. No matter what kind of wind would blow on us — whether our wife would lose her temper or a brother would argue with us — we would not be shaken. We would just live by our Lord and live in the spirit.
This is an exceedingly simple way. The Lord became flesh and redeemed us from our sins. Then He resurrected and became the life-giving Spirit to be received by us. When we use our spirit to receive Him, He immediately comes into our spirit to regenerate us. Furthermore, in our spirit He also becomes our life, our life supply, and even our person. He and we have one life, one living, one move, and one action. We just live by Him. We do not know what it is to love the world and what it is to not love the world. We do not know what it is to hate others and what it is to love others. We do not know what it is to be proud and what it is to be humble. We just live by Him. This is what God intends to recover in this age. For many centuries this is what He has been after but has not been able to obtain. If you speak to people about redemption, victory, holiness, the cross, and breaking, they can understand. However, when you speak to them about living in the spirit, having one life and one living with the Lord twenty-four hours a day, it seems that they understand yet do not care. After understanding, no one exercises and practices it. After reading this chapter, how many of us will exercise in this matter? Tomorrow morning when a situation arises, we may forget this chapter and try again to endure, to love our wife, or to submit to our husband. There is no effect in us, and we do not have any response, because we do not have this matter in us.
In the Bible there is one book, the Gospel of John, which specifically shows us this matter. God became flesh to be the Lamb of God who accomplished redemption. Furthermore, after His death and resurrection, He became the breath of life and breathed Himself into us. When He gets into man, the Father also gets into man. When He gets into man, the Son also gets into man. He is in man as life, as bread, as living water, as spiritual air, and as a person. Man has one life and one living with Him, thereby living Him out. This is the story of God’s relationship with man. This matter has been spoken a hundred times, even a thousand times, yet in our daily living, most of us do not practice it. We have heard many other teachings in the past, and we were willing to exercise and practice them. The only exception is the vision in the Gospel of John. It has been spoken, and we have heard it, but it has had no effect on us.
We in the church need a vision. We all need to see that it is not a matter of being holy or being victorious nor a matter of this or that. Today everything hinges on the fact that the Triune God as the all-inclusive Spirit is in our spirit to be our life and our all. We live by Him, and He and we are one — one in life and one in living. He is us, and we are Him. The vine is not only Him but also us, because we are branches of the vine. If you could go and ask a branch, “What are you doing?” it would reply, “I do not know anything. I only know to live and remain in the vine, growing leaves when it is time to grow leaves, blossoming when it is time to blossom, and bearing fruit when it is time to bear fruit. Everything depends on the natural law of life. As a branch, I just need to abide in the vine. It is that simple.”
We, however, have been so confused and mixed up because we have accumulated so many things within, such as human culture, religious concepts, ethical thoughts, and Christian doctrines. Some propose one thing while others suggest another thing. Some want to preach the gospel extensively, others desire to have more time to pray, and still others want to speak in tongues. We need to read the New Testament again. If we would read it in an unbiased way, we would bow our heads and say, “The fundamental thought, the central point, and the emphasis of the Bible is that God has become the life-giving Spirit, the all-inclusive Spirit.” He has accomplished everything. He is waiting for us to receive Him into us. We all have a spirit to receive Him, and we all can live by Him. This is not a doctrine, an exhortation, or a religious regulation. Rather, this is a living Spirit, a living person, living in us, and we are living by Him. Everything is here. If we have this, we have everything.
Some of the saints have said to me, “Brother Lee, over twenty years ago when you were training us here in Taipei, you spoke something different.” I answered these ones, “You are exactly right, but that was in 1953, and today it is 1975!” I admit that I have changed. In 1953 I learned a certain amount, but today I have learned more. The first time I went to America, I took the fastest airplane possible. It flew no more than three hundred miles per hour. It took twenty-six to twenty-seven hours to reach America, and I thought that that was very fast. Today, however, the jet planes can fly more than five hundred miles per hour, and it takes only around ten hours to fly from America to here. When I was on board a 747 jumbo jet, I felt as if I was at home. The ride was so comfortable, steady, and smooth. Would you prefer to take the 747, or would you still take the airplane built in 1946? If you would still prefer to take the out-of-date airplane, then you are very foolish. This does not mean that that kind of airplane is useless. It still has a little usefulness, but it is not as useful as the 747. In the past I spoke about pursuing holiness and pursuing victory. I gave nineteen messages on the experience of life, and every one of those messages is still valid to this day. Nevertheless, if I were to speak again, I would not need nineteen messages. I would only need to speak four words: “Living in the spirit.” Living in the spirit is sufficient. If we live in the spirit, the lusts of the flesh will not be fulfilled. If we live in the spirit, we will drop the world spontaneously.
The most simple, convenient, and excellent way is to live in the spirit. The entire Gospel of John does not emphasize anything else. It just presents verses such as, “He...shall live because of Me,” “Abide in Me,” “Because I live, you also shall live,” and, “In that day you will know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you” (6:57; 15:4; 14:19, 20). Then Romans 8 says, “Walk...according to the spirit” (v. 4). It is sufficient to live and walk according to the spirit. We need to exercise the spirit. The best way is to live in the spirit twenty-four hours a day. Then when we come to the meeting, we will be able to express something in spirit. Our spirit will have been exercised to the point that it is living and refreshing, and it will have a rich store to enable us to function in the meeting in any way that we desire. If we want to praise, there will be praise. If we want to pray, there will be prayer. If we want to minister the word, there will be the word. If we want to testify, there will be testimonies. We will not be like what we are today — not living in the spirit for most of the day and living in the spirit only when it is almost time to go to the meeting and when we must begin to prepare ourselves. This is why it is extremely difficult for us to speak anything in the meetings.
If we have seen the vision, we will see that the Lord’s way today is to work Himself into us so that we may live by Him. It is not a matter of living by Him in the mind but of living by Him in the spirit. If we would live by Him in this way day by day, our spirit would be living, flowing, and efficient. Moreover, we would be rich in experience and able to express those riches accordingly. In this way the church meetings will be delivered from ordinances. This is what we need to see today. This way is the Lord’s way, the proper way, for the preparation of His bride and for His coming back.
