Prayer: Thank You, Lord, for this gathering again. Thank You that You have brought us back to Your Word. Lord, we trust in Your inspiration, in Your anointing, in Your infusion. We have no trust in ourselves. Do cleanse us with Your precious blood that we may enjoy the full anointing. Lord, do shine upon Your Word, and shine from within us. And give us understanding; give us wisdom; give us the expression; give us the utterance. We need You; we all need You. Lord, do grant us Your presence, Your anointing, Your self, that we might touch You once more and be touched by You. Cover us, Lord. Amen.
In this chapter we need to spend more time on Romans 8:9-14. Many crucial points are covered by these six verses. The Triune God is covered very clearly and very strongly in these few verses. Also, in these few verses the inward part of our being, our spirit, is covered. Our outward part, our body, is also covered. There is also our self, that is, our being. Our spirit is not our being, nor is our body our being. Our spirit is our inner organ, and our body is our outer organ. Every human being has these two organs. The inner organ, our spirit, is for us to contact God Himself. The body, our outer organ, is for us to contact the physical world.
Of course, the pronoun you in these verses indicates your being, your person. This person is just your self, your soul. Although the word soul is not mentioned in these verses, there is the word you. “You” is your being, your soul. So there is the very being, you, with the inner organ, the spirit, and the outer organ, the body. This is man’s entire being. This is the tripartite man—spirit and soul and body (1 Thes. 5:23). The pronoun you in Romans 8:9-14 signifies the soul, especially referring to your will and to your mind and to your emotion. These are the components, the parts, of your soul. Have you ever noticed that in these verses both the spirit and the body are mentioned as organs? When verse 13 says that you put to death the practices of the body, it means that your mind and your will and your emotion all have to be exercised to put to death the practices of your body. All three parts of your being must be exercised in this way.
The problem with most of us concerning the spiritual life is this: either we are at the north pole, or we are at the south pole. When we say that we trust in the Lord, we feel we do not need to do anything. In the past I told you that we have to cease from our effort. That is right, but there is also another side. Many times we have mentioned that in the entire universe, nothing can exist without two sides. Even a very thin piece of paper has two sides. But when we come to the spiritual life, it is easy for us to take just one side and forget about the other side.
Then you might consider that you need to exercise your self. But to exercise your self is one thing; to have your mind, will, and emotion exercised is another thing. To say that you need to exercise your self is active. But to say that you need to have your mind, will, and emotion exercised is equal to being saved and to being empowered. This is active-passive.
The problem always lies here and even hides here. You have to realize that in God’s salvation, He saves, but you need to be saved. He is willing to save, yet if you are not willing to be saved, you cannot receive the salvation. It is not that God is going to save a piece of driftwood. That would be altogether up to Him, because the driftwood does not have a will, a mind, or emotions. But you and I have a will, a mind, and emotions. God is willing to save, but we are not willing to be saved. We have no appetite and no desire to be saved.
Good preaching is always to stir up the appetite to be saved. The good speaking many times is just to stir up your hunger, to stir up your thirst, to stir up your interest. Even among those in attendance at this Perfecting Training, the degree of the appetite differs. Some may have the highest appetite, and others may not have any appetite. If you have no appetite, this training cannot help you. Actually, it does not depend upon the training; it depends upon your appetite. If your appetite is higher, you will get more help. If you do not have any appetite, regardless of how many times you would attend the meetings, you will get little help. This is a matter having two sides: God is willing to save you. But are you willing to be saved? We must see these two sides.
Have you noticed that verse 11 says that the resurrecting God gives life? Verse 11 says, “If the Spirit of the One who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who indwells you.” When a pronoun is used, it needs an antecedent. In this verse the pronoun He is used, but without an antecedent. Who is “He”? It seems that it should be the Father. If you use the word Father, it seems very clear. But Paul does not use the word Father. Nor does he use the word Son. He simply uses the pronoun He. He is the One who gives life to us.
When you come to verse 13, however, the pronoun changes to you: “If you live according to the flesh, you must die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the practices of the body, you will live.” Verse 11 says that He gives life, and verse 13 says that you put to death. Do not consider that for Him to give life is one thing, and for you to put to death is another thing. These two things are just like the two sides of a piece of paper. The two sides refer to one thing. When He gives life, you put to death; when you put to death, He gives life.
The object of both of these sentences is your body. He gives life to your body, and you put your body to death. By reading just the letters, it may seem that these are two things. But in your experience these are not two things. These are just one thing. When you put your body to death, God gives life to it. When God gives life to it, you put it to death. What is this? This is the mingling of God with you. This indicates that you are one with God. According to doctrine, it may seem that these are two different things, but according to experience, these are one thing.
Verse 11 speaks of “the One who raised Jesus from the dead.” This verse refers us to the Trinity in a very practical way. The Spirit, the Father as the One who raised, and Christ Jesus Himself are all three mentioned. According to letters, you have the three: the Spirit of the One who raised Jesus from the dead. But according to your experience, there is only one. If then the three are one, whom do you experience? The Spirit? Or Jesus? Or the One?
You have to realize that the spiritual experience is too fast for you to analyze in this way. Even as the circulation of the blood is very fast, so the spiritual experience is also very fast. It does not wait for you to analyze it. It goes too fast. But you also have to realize that in the study, in the research, in your laboratory, it does have to be recorded in this way. Romans 8 may be considered as a record of Paul’s research. In the record of Paul’s research, you have a sentence that proceeds slowly: “If the Spirit of the One who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you,” but the spiritual experience of this matter goes very fast. Who then gives life? It is the Three-one who gives life. To say that the Father who raised Jesus from the dead gives life to our body through the Spirit is a record of the research. You may read it slowly, but when you come to the experience, it happens very fast.
He gives life, and you put to death. When you put to death, it does not mean that you put to death by your will. It does not mean that it is simply your intention and your purpose and your desire. But you must be such a person with a strong will and with an emotion that is absolutely for this and with a mind that understands the matters concerning the Triune God and concerning you, the tripartite man. As such a one, you put to death. It would be difficult for a new believer to experience verse 13 in a full way. Whoever would experience verse 13 in a full way must have a strong will to cooperate with the life-giving God; he must have a very hot and burning emotion aspiring all the time to put his body to death, and he also must be one who knows the things concerning the Triune God and the things concerning the tripartite man.
After verse 13, verse 14 begins with the word for. Of course, verse 14 is related to the sonship. This indicates that the verses leading up to verse 14, which involve the Triune God and the tripartite man, are related to the sonship. Verses 9 through 13 are concerning the matter of producing matured sons, of bringing forth the sonship.
Now we need to spend more time to see some of the crucial points in verses 9 through 13. The first crucial matter in these verses is the indwelling, or the residing, Spirit. Verse 9 says, “You are not in the flesh, but in the spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. Yet if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not of Him.” We may also translate the word dwells as “resides.” Reside is even stronger than dwell. This is a very great matter. You are such a small being, yet in you there is another One residing. Even up until today, perhaps Paul was the only other Christian who ever paid adequate attention to this matter: that in you as a tripartite man, as a human being, another One is residing. We know this doctrinally, but we have not paid adequate attention to the fact that there is such a One residing in us.
Some Christians today teach that Jesus Christ is in the heavens, not in you. They say that He has a representative in us, the “Holy Ghost.” And they argue with us because we are so strong in sounding the trumpet that Christ lives in us. We have to say that not only does Christ live in us, but He is also being formed in us, and He is making His home in us (Gal. 2:20; 4:19; Eph. 3:17). These are strong, clear words from the Bible.
I am afraid, though, that we may not realize adequately in a practical and living way that a wonderful One is now residing in us. Paul says, “If indeed the Spirit of God dwells [or resides] in you.” The first thing these few verses stress is the residing Spirit. And today under God’s enlightenment we have seen that this residing Spirit is just the ultimate expression of the Triune God, who, after being processed, has become our life and our everything. This is the residing Spirit. It is not just a “Ghost.” It is the ultimate expression of the processed Triune God. Surely in verse 11, when Paul uses the phrase the Spirit of the One who raised Jesus from the dead, it does not indicate a ghost. It indicates the ultimate expression of the processed Triune God. Why does Paul use such a long and complicated composition? Because his intention is to show us that this Spirit is not so simple. This is the Spirit of the One who raised Jesus from the dead. The Spirit is such a Spirit. Now the Spirit is the very expression, the ultimate expression, of the processed Triune God.
Jesus was raised up. Even this short sentence implies much. Jesus implies incarnation. Without incarnation how could Jesus have come into being? In the universe Jesus is a special name. In the entire human history Jesus is extraordinary. Even the calendar on this earth is the calendar of Jesus. This year, 1982, is the year of Jesus. Even Gog and Magog, or Russia, and even China—these atheistic nations—use the calendar of Jesus. If you use the calendar of Caesar, you become a Roman. If you use the calendar of a czar, you become a Russian. But if you use the calendar of Jesus, you become Jesus’ people. The entire world today is under the calendar of Jesus. Jesus is wonderful! If there had been no incarnation, how could Jesus have come into being?
Furthermore, if there had not been such a human living of thirty-three and a half years, how could you have a complete Jesus? Today our Jesus is complete and even completed. He was incarnated, and He lived on this earth, not for three and a half hours but for thirty-three and a half years.
Then He was raised. Jesus implies incarnation and human living. Raised implies death and resurrection. If He were not put to death, how could He be raised? So the little word raised implies both death and resurrection. Who did all this? The One! There is One in the universe who did this. You have to realize that it is not just the Father but the One! Just to say the Father is not adequate. The One is very implicative. The One implies a lot. In the universe there is such a One! You have to realize that in the whole universe there is such a One who raised up, and this dear One is not merely in the heavens; this dear One today is within you as the residing One. He is not only the One who raised Jesus, but He is also the One who resides in you. The raising One is now the residing One.
When Paul says, “The Spirit of the One who raised Jesus,” he indicates that the One who raised and the Jesus who was raised both are one with the Spirit. The Spirit who resides in you does not reside in you just by Himself. He resides in you with the One who raised and with the One who was raised. When you have the residing One, you also have the Father and the Son. When you have the residing One, you have the ultimate expression of the Triune God who has been processed through incarnation, human living, crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension. Today such a One is the Spirit who resides in you.
Many believers still consider that the Holy Father is in the heavens, and the Son is there with Him, and His Holy Spirit is now working in us. If you still hold this kind of concept, whether intentionally or unintentionally, you have no way to get into the real experience mentioned in Romans 8. You could never get to chapter 12. You could never get into the realization of the Body life because you still are not matured in the sonship. You need a full realization of the Triune God within you. Such a full realization of the Triune God will mature you in the sonship.
Paul’s repetition in 8:11 is to impress us that while the Spirit is residing in us, the Triune God is within us. The One who did the raising up is in you, and the One who was raised up is also in you. Both of them are now the residing Spirit. The residing Spirit is comprised of the raising One and the One raised up. This realization makes a big difference. This realization would make it easy for you to put the practices of your body to death. You would have a kind of habitual living of all the time putting the practices of your body to death. Then while the putting to death of the practices of the body is going on within you, the life giving would be there. The life would flow and even flood in.
The Spirit today is the life-giving Spirit. But you would have to admit that you do not have much experience of the life giving. You may have a doctrine concerning the life-giving Spirit, but you do not have much of the actuality of the life giving itself. Why? Because you are short of the putting to death. And you are short of the putting to death because you do not realize that the Spirit residing in you today is a composition of the raising One and of the One raised up. He is now the raising One, and He is now also the One raised up. He is both. Both are included in Him, and now He is residing in you. If you realize this, there would be a spontaneous putting to death all the time.
So first of all, these verses stress the residing Spirit of the Trinity. Second, these few verses stress the matter of the life giving. This One gives life not only to your spirit, not only to your mind, but also even to your body. The third thing that these verses stress is the matter of your putting to death. There are three parties with three things: there is the residing of the Spirit, there is the giving life by the One who raised Jesus from the dead, and there is the putting to death by you. You have to put these three things together. When you put these three things together, you have the leading of the Triune God. This leading will mature you into the sonship.
