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Scripture Reading: Eph. 4:4a; 1:23; 12, 1 Cor. 12:13
In these chapters we will consider the one Body and the one Spirit. We all know that in Ephesians 4 there are two great matters: one is the Body, and the other is the Spirit. Because in the church many of you have received much help and have had many experiences, you know what I am talking about when I speak of one Body and one Spirit. However, if someone in today’s Christianity were here and heard these terms, one Body and one Spirit, he may ask, “There are thousands of bodies here. How can there be only ‘one Body’? And what kind of spirit is the ‘one Spirit’? Does this refer to man as ‘the spirit of all creation’ or perhaps to a kind of cure-all?” If such a one thinks in this way and begins to roll his eyes, the speaker on the platform is not able to continue his message. This is truly the case.
However, the Lord is always with the spirit of the speaker. While I am speaking, in my spirit I can understand your situation. Even though you have no outward expression to tell me whether you are opposing my words or receiving them joyfully, I know your considerations. The spirit of the speaker is very sensitive. I do understand that you need some foundation in order to understand what the Body and the Spirit are, of which we are speaking here.
On your side, your heart should be pure, your spirit open, and your entire being ready to receive. If this is the case, then there will be a deep calling unto deep between you and me. The things within me will be able to flow out, and also the things within you will be able to flow out. In this way what should be released will be released.
Ephesians 4:4a speaks of “one Body and one Spirit.” Is it correct to say “one Spirit and one Body?” Absolutely not, because in this verse Body is mentioned first. According to our understanding, we may ask, “Is the Spirit not greater and higher than the Body?” Yes, the Spirit is higher. Then why is the Body mentioned first and the Spirit second? This is because the topic of Ephesians 4 is not the Spirit but the Body. In other words, the entire book of Ephesians with all its six chapters is particularly on the Body. The Body is the subject, and the Spirit is the content of the subject. This is why chapter 4 speaks first of the Body and then of the Spirit. The Body and the Spirit are two great matters.
Before the day of Pentecost recorded in Acts 2, and before the resurrection and ascension of the Lord Jesus, did the Body exist in the universe? No, because at that time the church was not yet there. The Body is the church. Before the day of Pentecost there was no church, so there was no Body. We speak of one Body and one Spirit. It is very clear that the Body was not there before Pentecost, but before Pentecost and before the resurrection and ascension of the Lord Jesus, was “the Spirit” there? No, for John 7:39 says, “This He said concerning the Spirit, whom those who believed into Him were about to receive; for the Spirit was not yet, because Jesus had not yet been glorified.” The Spirit of God was there, but “the Spirit” was not yet.
To explain this we can use the illustration of making tea. If I have only a cup of plain water without any tea in it, I can say, “At this time the tea is not yet.” There is water, but there is no tea yet. If I put tea leaves into the water, and after a minute or two the element of the tea has dissolved into the water, then there is tea. Five minutes ago there was water but no tea; now there is not only water but also tea.
Before the Lord Jesus resurrected and ascended, the Spirit of God was there, but we may compare Him to plain water. Then what is the “tea”? Figuratively speaking, the tea is the Lord Jesus in His humanity passing through death, entering into resurrection, being glorified, and being exalted. At this juncture, the whole process of the Lord Jesus being mingled with the Spirit of God was completed, just as tea is mingled with plain water. Thus, before the Lord Jesus was resurrected, the Spirit was not yet. This is not my view; this is what John 7:39 says. Furthermore, this verse explains why the Spirit at that time was not yet. It was because Jesus had not yet been glorified.
When was the Lord Jesus glorified? He entered into glory when He resurrected. The record in Luke 24 tells us that after His resurrection and before His ascension, when He met the two disciples on the road to Emmaus, the Lord told them, “Was it not necessary for the Christ to suffer these things and enter into His glory?” (v. 26). This proves that when He resurrected, even though He had not yet ascended, He had already entered into His glory.
What does it mean for the Lord Jesus to be glorified? Originally, the Lord Jesus was the God of glory, but in His incarnation He put on humanity. The flesh and the humanity that He had put on did not have a single bit of glory; in this sense, they were like our own flesh and humanity. But the God of glory, or we can say the glory of God, was within Him. Then one day He was crucified and broken on the cross, He was buried in the grave, and He came out of death; this was the time of the release of the glory within Him. Furthermore, His body, which had passed through incarnation, death, and burial, now was fully saturated with His glory to become completely transformed, transfigured, and uplifted. Thus, after His resurrection He bore a transformed, transfigured, and uplifted human body and human nature. At that time the humanity He had put on entered into glory. “The Spirit was not yet, because Jesus had not yet been glorified”; this means that at that time His physical body, His humanity, had not yet entered into God’s glory, but after He rose from the dead, this man, Jesus the Nazarene, entered into glory, and His body, His humanity, that He had put on, entered into glory. At this time the Spirit came into being.
Ephesians 4:4 says, “One Body and one Spirit.” This Spirit is “the Spirit.” Spirit here does not refer merely to the Spirit of God; Spirit refers to “the Spirit.” If I pour plain water on a white handkerchief, it will not leave any stain of color, and the handkerchief will remain white. If, however, I pour tea on a white handkerchief, it will leave a round yellow mark. Before the Lord Jesus died and resurrected, the Spirit of God was purely the Spirit of God without the element of humanity or the uplifted humanity, without the sweet death of the Lord Jesus, and without the power of His resurrection. There was only one element — divinity. After the Lord Jesus resurrected, however, the elements of His humanity, His death, and His resurrection all entered into the Spirit of God, and from that time on, the Spirit of God became “the Spirit.” This is why the term the Spirit is used throughout the New Testament. However, because the translators of the Chinese Bible were afraid that people would not understand the meaning of the term the Spirit, they translated it as “Holy Spirit” even though they noted that the word holy was not in the original. Moreover, they lost the word the in their translation. They thought the word the was unimportant, never realizing that this word is crucial. “The Spirit!” Thus, one Body and one Spirit.
If we want to see the Spirit, we must consider the holy anointing ointment in Exodus 30. The holy anointing ointment was made of olive oil (typifying the Holy Spirit) compounded with four kinds of spices. These four kinds of spices typify the Lord’s humanity, His death, and His resurrection. After these four spices were compounded into the olive oil, the olive oil was no longer only oil; it was an ointment. This holy anointing ointment typifies the Spirit. If you consider the Spirit only in the New Testament, you will not see many details, but when you look at the Old Testament type, you can see the details. One hin of olive oil was compounded with four kinds of spices. In addition, there are details concerning the measure of the four spices: The first kind and the last kind are of five hundred shekels each, while the middle two are of two hundred fifty shekels each. Added together they equal a total of three units, each unit of five hundred shekels, indicating three units of responsibility. This signifies the Triune God, of whom the second was broken.
This holy anointing ointment as the Spirit is a great topic. Do not think that I am exaggerating; over the past fifty years the Lord has led us to progress in our knowledge of the truth. I would like to give you an example to show the importance of the Spirit. Up until 1938 or 1939, whenever Brother Watchman Nee spoke on Romans 6, he emphasized “reckoning” according to the light that we had up to that time. We “reckon” ourselves dead, and we “reckon” ourselves alive. He translated into Chinese a hymn written by A. B. Simpson, the founder of The Christian and Missionary Alliance. That hymn says, “Let us reckon, reckon, reckon...Let us reckon ourselves to be dead to sin...Let us reckon ourselves as alive in Him” (Hymns, #692).
In the summer of 1935, Brother Nee came to Chefoo, my hometown, and spoke a message in which he gave an illustration. He said that three persons were walking along the top of a wall. The first one was Fact, the second was Faith, and the third was Experience. Whenever Faith did not look to either side or to the back but kept going on, constantly looking at Fact, then Experience would not have a problem but would follow after him. But whenever Faith wavered and turned back to look at Experience, they all fell off the wall. Therefore, he said that we must have reckoning faith. The Lord Jesus already died on the cross and already crucified our flesh. These are facts, good news of great joy. Today you should have faith welling up in you because of God’s word. This faith does not look from side to side or to the rear but always gazes at the fact. When you keep looking by faith, the experience will follow, and that experience is the experience of death.
Brother Nee’s speaking was powerful, and we were very moved when we heard it. However, when we tried to put it into practice, we simply could not reckon ourselves dead. Before we tried to reckon ourselves dead, our flesh seemed to be sleeping; once we tried to reckon ourselves dead, it woke up and became more living. Between 1935 and 1938 Brother Nee frequently spoke on this topic, and from 1935 we tried to learn how to reckon ourselves dead, but year after year we were unable to do it. This continued until 1939 when Brother Nee returned from Europe and unexpectedly released a message in a meeting in Shanghai. That message was so different from what he had spoken before that it shocked me, yet it was a great help to me.
He said that the fact of our co-death with Christ that we see in Romans 6 can be experienced only in the Spirit found in Romans 8. You can never have the experience of the fact of being crucified with Christ in Romans 6 unless you are in the Spirit in Romans 8. In other words, it does not depend on your believing or reckoning; it depends only on your being in the Spirit. Without Romans 8 you can never have the experience of Romans 6. Romans 6 can only be a fact to you; it can never become your experience unless you live in the Spirit in Romans 8. At that time I wondered whether Brother Nee’s present speaking was different from his previous speaking. It seemed to be different, but it was not truly different; it was a word of experience.
We need to reckon; Paul also reckoned. Nevertheless, we should not merely reckon in our mind without living in the Spirit. For example, your wife may provoke you, and you may be about to lose your temper. You will then feel that you must reckon yourself dead; you must reckon that the “I” who loses his temper has been crucified on the cross, and you must reckon him dead. But I must tell you that before you finish your reckoning, the devil may come to taunt you by saying, “You cannot make it to reckon yourself dead.” Then you give up reckoning, and your temper comes out. We have all experienced this.
Hence, it is not a matter of reckoning but a matter of living in the spirit and walking according to the spirit, that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the spirit (v. 4). The mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the spirit is life and peace (v. 6). When Brother Nee released this message, I received much help, and I had a turn in my knowledge of the Spirit. From that day on I knew that, strictly speaking, any word of preaching that does not have the Spirit is useless. This is because the word preached is like a prescription, but a prescription must be filled by the pharmacist before it can be useful. If you do not get the medicine, a prescription from the most famous doctor will be useless. The word is like the prescription, and the Spirit is like the medicine. It is not the prescription but the medicine that works. The high preaching cannot save you, but the Spirit can save you. Therefore, we all need this Spirit.
However, at that time I had not yet seen the different aspects of the Spirit, that this Spirit today is not only the Spirit of God but also the Spirit of Jesus, the Spirit of the One who suffered death in crucifixion. This Spirit is also the Spirit of Christ, the Spirit of the One who rose from the dead. This Spirit is also the Spirit of Jesus Christ, that is, the all-inclusive Spirit. The Spirit’s moving within us is the anointing mentioned in 1 John 2, which is typified by the holy anointing ointment in Exodus 30.
By the Lord’s grace, I can boast to you that the words I am speaking to you have not come at all from study in my mind. I can testify that every point was learned through my personal, painful experience. The conclusion is that we must have the Spirit. If you are not in the Spirit, every word of preaching will be empty and ineffective, but if you are in the Spirit, the reality will be there. You will see that it is a matter of one Body and one Spirit.
Now we may speak something concerning the one Body. When I was young, I heard the preaching of the fundamentalists, and I also read their books. They said that the New Testament employs many figures of speech to portray the church, such as a wife and a body. They also said that this does not mean that the church is actually a wife or a body but that the church is only likened to a wife or a body. At that time I listened to what they said and felt that it was logical, but gradually I discovered in my experience that the church as a body is not merely a figure of speech; the church today is indeed the Body. The New Testament does not say that the church as a body is a figure of speech. Rather, it says that we who are many are one Body. We are one Body!
When I was young, I often listened to an old English missionary preaching his favorite sermon: Love one another. Sometimes he would even discontinue coming to the Lord’s table for a period of time because he felt that we were not loving one another and that we would have to love one another before we could break the bread. I heard the teaching of loving one another many times. But, brothers and sisters, today it is not simply a matter of loving one another. You must also know that we are members one of another. Let me use our body as an illustration. Suppose that the arms do not love the shoulders and the hands do not love the arms, or suppose that the arms regret being under the shoulders and the hands lament being under the arms. The Lord may say, “It is too late for regrets, because the hand is the hand and the arm is the arm. Whether you like it or not, you are what you are. It is not up to you; rather, it is according to My arrangement.”
I do not believe that there are two people on earth today who can love each other until eternity without ever at some time disliking each other. Even, which husband and wife who truly love each other can testify that he or she has never found the other unlovable? I can testify that in one day my feelings can change many times: at six in the morning I may feel that my wife is lovable, while ten minutes later I may feel that she is unlovable, but after fifteen minutes I will love her again. Thus, loving one another is not very reliable. The Bible speaks not only of loving one another but also of being members one of another. Those who love one another are members one of another; those who do not love one another are still members one of another. Even if they gnash their teeth, the fact remains that they are still members one of another; there is no alternative. According to the way of the worldly people, if a husband and wife do not love each other, they get a divorce, but the hand and the arm can never be divorced. Today we not only love one another; we are also members one of another.
We must see what the church is. The church is the Body, and there is only one Body. You need light and revelation to see that the church is the Body. On the earth today there is Christianity, but that is not the Body. There are those who love the Lord, but that is not the Body. There are those who are well-cultivated, but that is not the Body. There are those who pursue spirituality, but that is not the Body. What the Lord wants today is not your spirituality or your cultivation; He wants the Body. There is only one Body. Brothers and sisters, I can assure you that, unless there is a substantial expression of the Body, the Lord Jesus will never return. The Lord said, “I come quickly,” but He has not yet returned. Why? Because the Body is not here; because the Body has not yet been manifested on the earth.
In conclusion, I am very happy to see many young working people in the Taipei district, and I would tell you that your responsibility is great. In addition, almost all the ones from Southeast Asia who have come to attend this conference and training are young people. This is a good sign, and I would like to say also to you that your responsibility is great. Since the gospel has been preached all over the earth today, it is hard to find a city that is without the gospel. There are thousands, tens of thousands, even millions of Christians on the earth, yet there is no Body. There are tens of thousands of Christians on the island of Taiwan, but with the exception of the small expression in the Lord’s recovery, you cannot see the Body among any group of Christians. You can talk to them about the Holy Father, the Holy Son, and the Holy Spirit, and they will understand you, but if you talk to them about “the Spirit,” they will not understand. Therefore, brothers and sisters, we must pray for the day to come when our eyes will be opened and we will know what the Spirit is and what the Body is. We must bear a testimony on the earth and in the universe that there is only one Body. One Body and one Spirit — we must bear this testimony. We should not testify only in a big city such as Taipei, but we should also go to testify this in the towns and small cities with a population of ten thousand or twenty thousand. One Body and one Spirit — how glorious this is!
I hope that one day on the island of Taiwan, there will be a lampstand in each of the three hundred sixty large and small cities and towns. Perhaps some localities will have only twenty, thirty, or fifty brothers and sisters, but every town and every city will have a golden lampstand bearing the same testimony — one Body and one Spirit. That will be splendid! That could be the day of the Lord’s coming.
I believe that today this testimony is on your shoulders, and you must bear this testimony as you return to your localities. You need to testify to this. You should not merely preach the gospel to get people saved; neither should you merely bring people to know life and understand the Bible. Rather, all of you must testify that there is one Body and one Spirit. We all live by this Spirit, and we all are the one Body.
