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Scripture Reading: John 3:6b; 6:57b; 14:19; 1 Cor. 15:45b; 2 Cor. 3:17; 2 Tim. 4:22; 1 Cor. 6:17; Rom. 8:4; Gal. 2:20; Phil. 1:19-21a
In the previous chapter we briefly covered the matter of being born to live. After our regeneration we live because of the Lord. In this chapter we will go on to see the matter of living with the Lord.
Living with the Lord is truly a mysterious matter. It is incredible that we human beings, especially sinners, can live with the Lord, who is divine and holy. This matter has been fully revealed and thoroughly explained in the Bible; moreover, it may be considered to be the center of the entire New Testament, and it is also a transparent truth. However, we do not have this concept when we come to read the Bible. On the contrary, we have many other concepts that are inaccurate, such as our natural concepts, our moral concepts, our religious concepts, and our cultural concepts. It is difficult for anyone to be freed from these four kinds of concepts. Our natural concept is that man should do good. Moreover, our religious concept is that man should do good to please God and to glorify God so that he may worship God in peace. Regarding our cultural concepts, we know that whether people are from the East or from the West, they have their own culture and are very much influenced by their own culture. In addition, we have our moral concepts. People from every land are required to be moral and to keep moral standards in all human relationships. Thus, every one of us, young or old, has accumulated many old concepts. This is like wearing a pair of colored glasses; when we come to read the Bible, our natural, old concepts not only influence us but also veil us from seeing the true color, the center, and the fundamental revelations of the Bible. Instead, we see only the superficial things of the Bible.
In this chapter we want to have an in-depth look at the Bible, and in particular we want to see the central matter in the New Testament. The central revelation in the Bible tells us that the Triune God — the Father, the Son, and the Spirit — has a move, a work, in two great steps. First, He accomplished redemption for us. We were sinners — corrupted, fallen people. As such, we deserved death and perdition, and we were utterly condemned and rejected by God. However, since God had chosen us, He could not abandon us. Therefore, the first step of His work was to accomplish redemption for us that He might rescue us, the fallen men, and solve the problem of our sins. He also justified and cleansed us completely that we might receive His redemption.
However, this is not the consummation; it is only the beginning. Therefore, God still has to carry out the second step of His work, that is, to work Himself into us. This is a mystery. God wants to work Himself into us; He does not want simply to give us something that is of Himself. He does not impart His life to us without coming into us Himself; rather, He works Himself into us to be our life. This life is God Himself. He comes into us to be our life, expecting that we will take Him as our life. We might think that God wants us to take Him as life and live by Him as life merely because He does not want our life, that He wants only His life because our life is bad, wicked, and corrupt. We cannot say that this thought is wrong, but it is not altogether accurate, and it is not up to the standard. We must realize that even if our life were clean, sinless, and perfect, God would still need to and want to come into us to be our life.
When God created man, He created man in His image and according to His likeness. Then man was completely like Him, not in inward substance but in outward appearance. This likeness in outward appearance refers not so much to the physical appearance but to the manifestation of virtues. God is love, so He created us with a loving heart; He is light, so He created us in such a way that we like to be in the light; He is holy, so He created us with a nature that dislikes to be associated with evil elements and desires to be transcendent and uncommon; and He is righteous, so He created us with a nature that demands justice and uprightness. God is love, light, holiness, and righteousness; therefore we, who were created by Him, are the same as He is in our psychology, nature, desire, and taste.
Everyone knows that it is right to love and wrong to hate. If you love someone, you will feel happy; if you hate someone, you will feel contempt. No one likes to do the things of darkness; everyone delights to do the things of light. Therefore, whenever we do anything of darkness, we try to hide ourselves, and whenever we do anything of light, we feel free to make a display. Although we may not know what holiness is, we all like to behave properly and not improperly. We all like to be transcendent and outstanding instead of being associated with evil elements. We also have an inner desire to be fair, just, and righteous. These are human virtues. These virtues are simply images that are without content. The content of these virtues is God. Our love is only an outward form; its content is God’s love. We may use a glove as an illustration. A glove is made according to the form of a hand, but if the glove is not filled with the hand, it is empty. The glove by itself is empty; when you put your hand into the glove, the glove has its content, its inner reality.
When God created man, His intention was to put Himself into man. From the time that He put Himself into us, we have had Him in us as our content. Now our love has reality, and our light has content; we are truly sanctified, and our conduct is fair, just, righteous, and upright. All these virtues are full of reality and content. Furthermore, this reality and content are altogether organic.
In the whole universe God’s plan, God’s desire, God’s eternal purpose, God’s divine goal, is to work Himself into us. However, before He could work Himself into man, man became fallen and corrupted; therefore, God had to redeem man. This redemption was not the goal but the procedure for Him to work Himself into man. Today, in their reading of the Bible for the study of the truths, many Christians stop at this step — God’s redemption. They see only that we were fallen and corrupted, yet God became flesh to be our Savior by dying and shedding His precious blood for us on the cross. Therefore, we do not need to pay any price or do any work; to be saved we only need to repent and open ourselves to receive the salvation of the cross. We then are forgiven of our sins, cleansed from our defilement, and cleared of all charges against us. Consequently, the problems between us and God are solved; we are justified by God and reconciled to God. Now we are saved and will never go to hell, and one day we will go to heaven. This is the understanding of most Christians concerning God’s salvation.
However, the Bible does speak not only about the first step of God’s work, that God Himself became flesh to die for us. The Bible also tells us that God has a second step in His work. We have already seen that John 1 says that in the beginning was the Word and the Word was God and that this God who was the Word in the beginning became flesh and tabernacled among us, full of grace and reality. Then it says, “Behold, the Lamb of God” (v. 29). These things are believed and received by most Christians. Many preachers also speak and preach these things as their central message. They tell people that God so loved the world that He sent His beloved Son to become flesh, to be a man, that this man was the Lamb of God who took away the sin of the world, and that if we confess that we are sinners and if we repent and receive this Savior, our sins will be forgiven, we will be reconciled to God, and we will even have fellowship with Him in peace. This is right, but it is not God’s final goal; it is only the procedure for God to reach His goal. The goal of God is that after He has redeemed and cleansed us, He enters into us to be our life and become our nature and everything. The result is the union and mingling of God and man.
First Corinthians 15:45b tells us that the last Adam, who is the Lord Jesus, the incarnated Word, after passing through death and resurrection, became a life-giving Spirit in resurrection. We know that the main subject of 1 Corinthians 15 is resurrection. Because some in the church in Corinth did not believe in resurrection, the apostle Paul corrected them and revealed to them the truth of resurrection. In this revelation Paul pointed out in particular that an important thing happened in resurrection: the last Adam, who became flesh and died for us on the cross, became a life-giving Spirit. In the context of 1 Corinthians 15:45 we see that Paul used an illustration when he referred to the matter of resurrection. He said that when a grain of wheat is sown into the earth, although apparently it dies, in actuality the life within does not die. The outward form of the grain dies and the shell decays, yet the life within grows. This growing is its resurrection. Once it is resurrected, it takes another shape, by which many grains are brought forth. This is the story of resurrection.
“This the secret nature hideth, / Harvest grows from buried grain” (Hymns, #482). No one can dispute this. The last Adam, the incarnated Jesus, lived on the earth for thirty-three and a half years, and then He died on the cross and was buried. People thought that He was finished. Little did they know that when they killed and buried the Lord Jesus, like a farmer who sows grain into the soil, they afforded Him the best opportunity to be resurrected. In this resurrection He took another form and became a life-giving Spirit.
It is a pity that today’s Christianity neither sees this matter nor pays attention to the second half of 1 Corinthians 15:45. This is not an insignificant verse; it is as important as John 1:14. The Word became flesh, and the last Adam became a life-giving Spirit. The word became in these two verses is the same word in Greek. Moreover, this verb became in Greek denotes an action with a goal. This means that it is not a light move; it is an important action with a goal. Thus, the Lord Jesus took two important actions: first, He became flesh, and second, He became a life-giving Spirit.
He became flesh to be the Lamb for the redemption of sins. If He did not have flesh and blood, He could not make redemption for our sins. Therefore, John the Baptist said, “Behold, the Lamb of God” (John 1:29). This shows us clearly that the Lord became a man with blood, flesh, skin, and bones; therefore, He could die for us human beings, who also have blood, flesh, skin, and bones. The blood He shed was genuine human blood; in the eyes of God He is the Lamb. Therefore, Colossians 1:15 says that He is the Firstborn of all God’s creation. Our Lord is the first of all the created things. If He were not created, He would not have flesh and blood; if He did not become a real man, a genuine man, He would not have blood and therefore could not have redeemed us.
The Lord Jesus was incarnated with blood and flesh. Hebrews 2 tells us that He Himself partook of blood and flesh, which were things created. In the time of the apostles, there was a group of people called the Docetists, who said that the Lord Jesus was not a real man and that His body was not a real body but a phantom. The name Docetist was derived from the Greek word meaning “to seem, to appear to be.” John wrote 1 John 4 to refute this heresy. He said, “Every spirit which confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God, and every spirit which does not confess...is not of God; and this is the spirit of the antichrist” (vv. 2-3). Today there are some who call themselves fundamentalists yet say that the Lord Jesus is not a creature. If you say that the Lord Jesus is not a creature, you do not confess that the Lord Jesus has come in the flesh. Are you not then a Docetist? The Lord Jesus became a man, a creature; this does not mean that in becoming a creature He ceased to be the Creator. The fact is that He was God who became man and yet He was still God. He is God; thus, He is the Creator. He became a man; thus, He is a creature.
In the early 1960s when I was in Taipei, there was a so-called co-worker among us who did not believe that the Lord Jesus is still a man in the heavens today. Many Christians today also do not believe this. They believe that the Lord Jesus was a man only when He was in the flesh, and He was a man until He died on the cross, but after His burial He ceased to be a man. Thus, in His resurrection He did not have the human nature and was no longer a man. The fact is that today the Lord Jesus is still a man. In 1 Timothy 2:5 the apostle Paul refers to Him as “the man Christ Jesus.” Today He is the man, the Mediator of God and men. Not only so, after He was resurrected from the dead, He came into the midst of His disciples, appearing to them in His resurrected body for them to see and touch. This indicates that His resurrected body was a real entity and not a phantasm. He said to Thomas, “Bring your finger here and see My hands, and bring your hand and put it into My side” (John 20:27). Therefore, we can say that after His resurrection the Lord Jesus was still a man with flesh and bones.
The first step the Lord Jesus took was to become flesh. As the Creator, He became a creature; this was God becoming man. As such a man, He was the Lamb of God who could shed pure and genuine human blood for the redemption of the human race. Then He took a second step; that is, He died and was resurrected, and in His resurrection He became the life-giving Spirit. In the first step, as God, He became a man — the last Adam; in the second step, the last Adam became a life-giving Spirit. The teachers of traditional theology say that the three of the Triune God — the Father, the Son, and the Spirit — are separated and independent of one another. Based on this they would dare not say that the Lord Jesus became the life-giving Spirit in resurrection and that this Spirit is the Holy Spirit, because if they say that this Spirit is the Holy Spirit, then the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are not separated.
Actually, they do not need to be afraid to preach in that way. They should not divide the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit in such a precise way. Revelation speaks of the Spirit of God as the seven Spirits, who are the seven eyes of the Lamb (5:6). Traditional theologians cannot explain this. They say that the Son and the Holy Spirit are separated, but the Bible says that the Holy Spirit is the eyes of the Son; in other words, the third of the Triune God is the eyes of the second. Not only so, in the evening of the day of resurrection, the Lord Jesus came to His disciples. He breathed into them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit” (John 20:22). This shows us that the Holy Spirit is the holy breath. The Holy Spirit received by the disciples was the breath breathed out by the Lord Jesus. Some may say that this was just a sign and not a reality, that the Lord Jesus did not really breathe into them for them to receive the Holy Spirit, that this was just a demonstration. Even if you could consider this matter of breathing into the disciples as a demonstration, there is no way to demonstrate the seven Spirits of God being the eyes of the Lord Jesus as the Lamb, as stated in Revelation.
Traditional theology of Christianity pays much attention to the Apostles’ Creed, which was formulated in A.D. 325 under Constantine the Great. In that creed there is no mention at all of the seven Spirits. This shows that the Apostles’ Creed is not complete. In history, at least three big groups of Christians officially declared that they want only the Bible and not the Apostles’ Creed: the Brethren, the Southern Baptists, and the Church of Christ. I am afraid that some among us who are still under the influence of the old concepts may think that it is heretical to say that the Lord Jesus had genuine blood and genuine flesh, because it would then mean that He was a real man, a creature. For this reason they cannot fully accept the statement that the Lord Jesus is the Firstborn of all creation. Regardless of whether people accept this fully, partially, or even not at all, I have to be honest and present to you the pure word of the Lord.
Furthermore, J. N. Darby’s translation of the Bible is very clear about the Lord being the Spirit. Second Corinthians 3:6 says, “The Spirit gives life,” and verse 17 says, “And the Lord is the Spirit.” A note in J. N. Darby’s translation indicates that verses 7 through 16 are a parenthesis; thus, verse 17 directly follows verse 6: “The Spirit gives life,” and “the Lord is the Spirit.” This linking of the Spirit with the Lord strengthens what is said in 1 Corinthians 15:45, that the Lord in His resurrection became the life-giving Spirit. Moreover, 2 Corinthians 3:17 shows us that these two — the Lord and the Spirit — are one, yet They are also two. Verse 17a says that “the Lord is the Spirit,” whereas 17b says that “where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.” The former says that the Lord is the Spirit, indicating that the Lord and the Spirit are one, while the latter says, “The Spirit of the Lord,” indicating that the Lord and the Spirit are two. This is just like John 1:1, which says, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God.” Therefore, the Word and God are two. Then the verse goes on to say, “The Word was God,” so the two are one. Hence, we say that God is triune; He is three yet one. Otherwise, we would have three Gods. Today many Christians and Christian teachers subconsciously have three Gods in their thinking and hearts.
The Bible shows us that the Lord Jesus, who was God, took two big steps for the accomplishment of God’s purpose. The first big step was that He was incarnated to be a real man with flesh and blood in order that He might be our Redeemer for the redemption of our sins. Then He took the second big step in His resurrection to become the life-giving Spirit. Today the Lord Jesus in whom we believe is not only the One who became flesh but also the One who died and resurrected. The Lord Jesus in whom we believe is the One who became flesh, who shed His blood for the redemption of sins, who died and was resurrected, and who dispenses life. When we believed into Him, first our sins were forgiven and we were redeemed, and second, He came into us. This is not only a doctrine; this is our experience. When you repent, confess your sins, pray, and believe in the Lord Jesus, you not only have peace within but have the forgiveness of sins so that the problems between you and God are resolved. After that you will feel that there is One who has come into you.
The Lord has surely come into you. However, if the Lord were not the Spirit, how could He come into you? Today there are some who say that the Lord is in heaven and not in us and that He is so great and man is too small to contain Him. Therefore, they say that the Lord is not in us but rather that He has a representative, the Holy Spirit, who is representing Him within us. This is truly to twist the Bible. Nowhere in the Bible does it say that the Holy Spirit is the representative of the Lord Jesus. Rather, the Bible says that the Lord is the Spirit. Furthermore, throughout the centuries many of the spiritual writings that are of value also clearly state that in the experiences of Christians Christ and the Holy Spirit are just one.
Now we have seen that the Lord Jesus was God. He became flesh for the accomplishment of redemption; He died and was resurrected for the dispensing of life that He might work Himself into us. Regardless of how wrong some theology is and how negligent some people are in reading the Bible, the fact is that everyone who repents, confesses his sins, and believes in the Lord Jesus by calling on His name has the Lord Jesus in him. No one can deny this. This Lord Jesus is in us; there is not a representative, but rather He Himself is in us. The Lord Jesus is “He who descended out of heaven, the Son of Man, who is in heaven” (John 3:13). Not to mention after His death and resurrection, even when He was in the flesh, He was on earth as in heaven.
We must not consider the Lord Jesus with our small brain; we must consider Him only according to what the Bible says. On the one hand, Romans 8:34 clearly says that today the Lord Jesus is in heaven at the right hand of God. On the other hand, verse 10 of the same chapter says that Christ is in us. These are two aspects of the Lord Jesus. We can use electricity as an illustration. There is electricity in this building, and there is also electricity in the electric power plant. They are not two electricities but one electricity. Our Lord, who is boundless, was resurrected from the dead and became the life-giving Spirit. Therefore, John 7:38-39 says that out of the innermost being of those who believe into Him will flow rivers of living water. This He said concerning the Spirit, whom those who believed into Him were about to receive, but the Spirit was not yet. At the time the Lord Jesus spoke this word, the life-giving Spirit was not yet, because the Lord had not yet been resurrected from the dead and had not yet been glorified. In other words, at the time He was resurrected from the dead and was thus glorified (Luke 24:26), He became the life-giving Spirit. This is the biblical truth.
The Lord Jesus is not only our Redeemer but also our life-giving Spirit. Therefore, today by our believing in Him, our sins have been forgiven, and we have been reconciled to God; at the same time, by our believing in Him, He is in us. If the Lord were not the Spirit, how could we enter into Him? Because He is the Spirit, the life-giving Spirit, we entered into Him when we believed into Him. Therefore, 1 Corinthians 1:30 says that it is God who put us in Christ. By our believing into Him, we have entered into Him, the pneumatic Christ, and He has also entered into us.
Now this Redeemer has become the life-giving Spirit. When we believed into Him, God forgave us of our sins, and this life-giving Spirit entered into our spirit to regenerate our spirit. Therefore, John 3:6 says, “That which is born of the Spirit is spirit.” To be regenerated in our spirit means that we have another life; the divine life entered into us in addition to the life that we have in our flesh. Thus, we were born twice and have two lives. The first time, we were born of the flesh of our parents, so we have the life of the flesh. The second time, we were born of the Spirit of God in our spirit, so we have the life of the Spirit. Our Lord, who is the life-giving Spirit, dwells in our spirit. Therefore, 2 Timothy 4:22 says, “The Lord be with your spirit.” If our Lord Jesus were not the Spirit, how then could He be with our spirit? Obviously, this is not an allegory but a factual statement, proving that today our Lord dwells in the spirit of those who have been saved. Furthermore, 1 Corinthians 6:17 says, “He who is joined to the Lord is one spirit.” If the Lord Jesus were not the Spirit and if we did not have a human spirit within, how then could we be one spirit with the Lord? Now we surely know that we have a human spirit within, and this spirit in us has been regenerated. Not only so, as the Spirit, the Lord Jesus has entered into our spirit to dwell in our spirit. Thus, the two spirits became one spirit. All these matters have been neglected in Christian theology.
The key to having a proper spiritual experience is realizing the fact that two spirits have become one spirit — the Spirit became one with our human spirit. Romans 8:4 says that we must walk according to the spirit. Authorities among Bible translators, particularly J. N. Darby, pointed out that it is difficult to say whether the word spirit in this verse denotes the Holy Spirit or our human spirit. In reality, it denotes the regenerated spirit indwelt by the Holy Spirit. Therefore, spirit in Romans 8:4 refers to the spirit that is two spirits becoming one spirit. It is also what we usually call the mingled spirit. Strictly speaking, we cannot find a verse in the New Testament that tells us to walk according to the Holy Spirit. Galatians 5:16 tells us to walk by the Spirit, who mingles with our spirit to become one spirit. Second Timothy 4:22 says, “The Lord be with your spirit.” This spirit is also the spirit that is two spirits becoming one spirit. This is why 1 Corinthians 6:17 says, “He who is joined to the Lord is one spirit.” Therefore, it is basic for us Christians, the children of God, to walk according to this spirit, that is, the two spirits becoming one spirit.
Dear brothers and sisters, we all must live according to this spirit, the spirit that is two spirits becoming one spirit. When you live in this way, you are living with the Lord. In my youth I heard messages on living with the Lord, although at that time what I heard was mostly on walking with the Lord and not so much on living with the Lord. Noah walked with God, and Enoch also walked with God. At that time I really treasured this, and I kept searching for the way to walk with the Lord, but I could not get an answer. Then gradually I saw that today we are higher than Enoch; we do not co-walk but co-live. We live with the Lord. Co-walking is outward, whereas co-living is inward. This is what the Lord said, that in that day, the day of His resurrection, He would live, and we also would live (John 14:19). The Lord and we are two lives becoming one life and two spirits becoming one spirit. Two lives have become one life, and two spirits have become one spirit. The Lord Jesus said, “I am the vine; you are the branches” (15:5). The branches abide in the vine, the vine abides in the branches, and they bear fruit together. This is co-living. This is very mysterious and all too glorious!
The result of our living with the Lord is that we live out Christ, and thus Christ is always magnified in our body. It is not a matter of outward right or wrong; rather, it is a matter of our living Him in the spirit, in the one mingled spirit. This is what God wants today, and this is today’s Christian life. The Christian life is neither religious nor moral; it is neither natural nor cultural. The Christian life is a life that is lived out of the two spirits becoming one spirit. When we speak, we speak out of this mingled spirit. When we do things, we do them out of this mingled spirit. Our going or not going to a certain place also comes out of this mingled spirit. This is to walk according to the spirit.
Although we do not stress morality, Paul says that when we walk according to the spirit, we spontaneously fulfill the righteous requirements of the law (Rom. 8:4). Although we do not pay much attention to so-called ethics, when we walk according to the spirit, our ethics will be the highest. The husband will love his wife even more, and the wife will subject herself to her husband even more. At this point, it is not we who are in subjection or we who love; rather, it is the Lord who lives out of us as our subjection and our love.
This is God’s living in us, and this is also our living out God. These two spirits becoming one spirit is the greatest mystery in the universe; it is something incomprehensible to the human mind. However, we praise and thank the Lord that because God took these two great steps — becoming flesh in order to accomplish redemption for us and resurrecting from the dead in order to dispense Himself into us to be our life — we all have become Christians who have the mingled spirit and who live with the Lord. Hallelujah, we can live with Him!
