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Scripture Reading: Lev. 2:4; 1 Cor. 6:17; Rom. 8:4-6, 16
There is a mystery revealed in the Scriptures that we can never comprehend fully. This mystery, which is revealed to us throughout the entire Bible, is the mingling of God with man. Among Christians today the term mingling, particularly as it relates to the mingling of God with man, is rarely used. This term was adopted by us from Leviticus 2:4, which says, “When you present an offering of a meal offering baked in the oven, it shall be of fine flour, unleavened cakes mingled with oil or unleavened wafers anointed with oil.” In the Scriptures oil signifies the Holy Spirit of God, and fine flour signifies the human nature—particularly that of Christ. Hence, in Leviticus 2:4 we see the mingling of the Holy Spirit with the human nature. This is the mingling of God with man.
The relationship between God and man in its highest aspect is one of mingling. Indeed, God’s intention and desire is to mingle Himself with us. However, this thought may be rather difficult for us to realize. According to our natural thought, God is God and man is man—He is our Creator and we are His creatures. We have always believed that we as God’s creatures could only worship, serve, and fear Him. Unless we have received revelation, we have perhaps never had the thought that God mingles Himself with man. While it is true that the Scriptures speak concerning the worship of God, many people are preoccupied with this matter according to their natural concept. If we read the Scriptures carefully without any human concepts or ideas about the nature of our fellowship with God, we will realize that God’s intention has much more to do with our being mingled with Him than it does with our outwardly worshipping Him.
In the previous chapter, we pointed out that after God created man, He came to man not as the high and glorious God to be worshipped but as the tree of life to be eaten. In the natural mind the thought that God’s intention is to be partaken of by us as food does not exist. Before I saw this picture as a revelation, my thought had always been that God is so glorious, high, great, and holy, and we as men must worship, serve, and, at the very most, love Him. God’s intention is not mainly that He would be worshipped by man; His intention is that man would take Him as food. The entire Bible speaks of this. In the Scriptures both the first and last pictures that reveal the relationship between God and man show us that God is to be partaken of by us. The first picture in the Scriptures that shows us the relationship between God and man is that of God making Himself available as the tree of life to be partaken of by man (Gen. 2:9). The last picture in the Scriptures is the same—the tree of life growing on both sides of the river of water of life, which flows from the throne (Rev. 22:1-2). These pictures show us that God’s intention is that He would be mingled with us. Just as our food is mingled with us through our eating and digestion of it, in order for God to fulfill His intention of being mingled with us, He must be eaten by us.
This is not my word; it is the word of the Lord Jesus Himself. He tells us in John 6 that He is the bread of life, which came down out of heaven (vv. 48, 51). In verse 57 the Lord tells us, “He who eats Me, he also shall live because of Me.” In this verse the Lord Jesus tells us emphatically that we can eat Him. While it is true that the Lord’s word bears some symbolic meaning, the word eat is very strong and definite in its meaning. Because the Lord is bread, we have to eat Him and take Him as food. Not only so, in chapters 4 and 7 the Lord tells us that if we are thirsty, we can come to Him and drink Him as the living water (4:14; 7:37). According to John 1:12-13, to believe into the Lord simply means to receive Him. Throughout the Gospel of John, the Lord constantly tells men to believe into, that is, to receive, Him (8:24; 9:35; cf. 10:25-26; 14:1; 17:20). The way we receive the Lord is the same way we receive food and water—eating and drinking. God is in the form of food so that He can be eaten and digested by man to become man’s element.
I am burdened to share these things with you because the truth and mystery of the entire Word of God is centered on the mingling of God with man. If you do not see the mingling of God with man, it will be difficult for you to understand the mystery of the Scriptures. God is love (1 John 4:16), yet how do we enjoy God’s love and express it to others? The only way is to be mingled with God. Without mingling with God, we can never enjoy God’s love in a subjective way, and we can never share God’s love with others. God is also light (1:5). The way that we enjoy God and allow God’s light to shine through us is by being mingled with God. The mingling is the key to unlocking the mystery of the relationship between God and us.
God is in Christ, Christ is the Spirit, and the Spirit is in us to do the work of mingling God with us (Col. 2:9; 2 Cor. 3:17; Rom. 8:11). The more the Holy Spirit works within us, the more we are mingled with God. First Corinthians 6:17 says, “He who is joined to the Lord is one spirit.” The expression one spirit indicates the mingling of the Lord as the Spirit with our spirit. Our spirit has been regenerated by the Spirit of God (John 3:6), who is now in us (1 Cor. 6:19) and is one with our spirit (Rom. 8:16). This is the realization of the Lord who became the life-giving Spirit through resurrection (1 Cor. 15:45; 2 Cor. 3:17) and who is now with our spirit (2 Tim. 4:22). This mingled spirit is often referred to in Paul’s Epistles, as in Romans 8:4-6. This is the mingling of two persons—God and us—into one.
Jesus Christ is the mingling of God with man. When He was on this earth, He was both man and God—He was the God-man. Even today, He is both a genuine man and the very God. God cannot be separated from Him. Once tea is mingled with water, wherever the water is, the tea is also. Just as tea is mingled with water, so also God is mingled with humanity in Christ. Wherever Christ is, God is as well. Stephen’s word in Acts 7 proves that even after His ascension into heaven, the Lord Jesus is not only God but also a man: “Behold, I see the heavens opened up and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God” (v. 56). There is a man in the heavens who is the embodiment of God. Before Christ was born in Bethlehem, God and man were separate. At the incarnation, however, God and man were joined as one in Christ. God is no longer merely God—He in Christ is mingled with man. It is here that the belief of Christians differs from the Jewish belief. According to the Jews, God is merely God (Elohim); Christians believe that this God is not only God but also God incarnated to be a man. Like the Jews, we believe that God is the Creator and the Lord. But unlike them, we believe that Jesus Christ is the Lord. The Lord God and the Lord Jesus are not two Lords but one. Christ Jesus the Lord is the Creator God incarnated to be mingled with man. The Lord Jesus Christ is a man who, on the day of His ascension, was exalted to heaven and established by God to be the Lord. Acts 2:36 says, “Let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God has made Him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you have crucified.” If Christ were merely God, there would be no need in the Bible for such a verse. However, since Christ is a mingling of God and man, He in His humanity needed to be made the Lord and Christ.
In speaking of Christ being a mingling of God with man, we are not implying that a third nature was produced. Incarnation brought divinity into humanity and made them one entity, but neither divinity nor humanity was changed in nature. No; divinity remains divinity, and humanity remains humanity. This is illustrated by the mingling of oil with fine flour in the meal offering. The oil and the flour are mingled together to form one entity with two natures. However, each nature remains separate and complete. The oil does not lose its nature, and the flour does not change its nature. Nevertheless, the oil and the flour are mingled together to produce one entity. This entity is not a third nature, something that is neither oil nor flour. Rather, it is a complete entity with two natures, the nature of oil and the nature of flour. This is an illustration of incarnation bringing divinity into humanity, making them one, and causing them to live as one.
The Lord Jesus Christ was the first mingling of God with man, and everyone who has been reborn and regenerated is a reproduction of Christ as a mingling of God with man. Christians are simply the mingling of God with man. A thorough realization of this vital point will solve all the problems in the Christian life, for every part of the Christian life is in reality a part of the mingling of God with man.
It is crucial to realize that Adam in his pre-fallen state was not a mingling of God with man. After Adam was formed of the dust of the earth, he was only a creature of God—he was not the mingling of God with man. However, if Adam and Eve had eaten of the tree of life, which was the manifestation of God, then they would have been mingled with God. After God created man, God presented Himself in the form of the tree of life to be partaken of by man. However, Satan came in, frustrated man from eating of the tree of life, and tempted him to take the tree of the knowledge of good and evil instead. As a result, the tree of life was closed to man by God with cherubim and a flaming sword (Gen. 3:24). This means that the God who is life to man was closed off from man by His glory, holiness, and righteousness. Unless the requirements of God’s glory, holiness, and righteousness were met, the way for man to touch God as life would remain closed. This, in type, is the veil that separated us from God (Exo. 26:31; Rom. 3:23; cf. 1 Cor. 6:11; Rom. 3:10). Christ’s death met all the requirements of God’s glory, holiness, and righteousness, and as a result, the veil in the temple was rent, and the way to contact God as life was opened (Matt. 27:51; Heb. 10:19-20). Because He opened the living way, we can boldly come forward in the blood of Jesus to contact God as our life directly.
The God with whom we are mingled is the Triune God Himself—the Father, the Son, and the Spirit. The Father is the fountain, the Son is the spring, and the Holy Spirit is the stream (Psa. 36:9; John 4:14; 7:37; 2 Cor. 13:14; Rev. 22:1). Not only is God flowing out for us to drink Him as the Spirit; He also created a spirit within us (Zech. 12:1). Consequently, when God as the Spirit flows into us, He flows into our spirit and mingles with our spirit as one spirit. First Corinthians 6:17 testifies of this mingling: “He who is joined to the Lord is one spirit.”
After forty years of studying the Bible, I can say with assurance that if we do not realize the mingling of God with man, we can never understand the Scriptures thoroughly. The key to all the parables, types, prophecies, admonitions, teachings, doctrines, and truths in the Bible is the mingling of God with man. Without this key, even if we seemingly understand the Bible, our understanding is superficial. We cannot understand the Bible deeply until we touch the mingling of God with man. Because this is the key, it is possible to see this mingling in any part of the Scriptures. For example, 1 Corinthians 3:16 says, “Do you not know that you are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?” The temple of God is the mingling of God with man. The temple itself, humanity, is the container, and the One who comes into the temple to dwell there, God Himself, is the content. Hence, the real meaning of the temple of God is the mingling of God with man. By this we can see that the key to unlocking the Bible is the mingling of God with man.
In order to participate practically in the mingling of God with man, we must know how to exercise our spirit and deny our soul-life. Genuine spirituality and the mingling of God with man can be realized by us only in the spirit; they cannot be realized in the soul. Nevertheless, most Christians are taught and trained to exercise their mind; rarely are they taught how to exercise their spirit. As a result, although people may understand doctrines, they may not know how to enter into the experience of these doctrines in their spirit. Take for example the matter of taking Christ as our food and drink. Although some may understand this matter as a teaching or doctrine in the mind, very few know how to exercise their spirit to eat and drink Christ practically. Hence, we must learn how to exercise our spirit, which God has formed within us. The exercise of the spirit is not mere doctrine; it is the practical way to eat and drink Christ and thus be mingled with God.
The way to exercise our spirit is to deny our self—the natural mind, emotion, and will. In our daily life we constantly encounter situations that expose our need to deny the self and exercise the spirit. If you are a man from China, you were raised in a certain way and have a particular way of doing things. Another brother, however, may be from the United States and consequently does things the American way. If you and the American brother are in the self and have to coordinate to do something, there will be friction. In your emotion you will not be happy with the other brother, and in your mind you will not agree with some of the things he does. If you are to take Christ as your life, you cannot go along with your emotion and mind. If you cling to your natural mind and emotion, that is an indication that you are still living by your natural life and are not taking Christ as your life. You must deny the self, including the mind, emotion, and will. It is good in such situations to declare to the self, “I am a reborn person. Christ dwells within my spirit, and He is my life. Mind, I will not live by you. Emotions, I will not go along with you. Christ lives in my spirit, and I will go along with my spirit.” This is to deny the self and reject the natural life. In so doing, you give the Holy Spirit within your spirit an opportunity to take over, saturate, and renew your mind, emotion, and will, transforming them from being natural to being Christ’s. When we turn to our spirit, the Holy Spirit strengthens us into our inner man to reject the natural life.
My burden is not to give you more knowledge and doctrine; my burden is to help you know how to exercise your spirit, where God and man are mingled. There are two ways to live our lives. The first is to merely imitate what the Lord did. The second is to receive Him as our life and then let Him live in us. It is one thing to imitate Christ; it is another thing entirely for this very Jesus to come into us, mingle with us, and be our life. It is impossible for us to do what He did and be what He was by imitation. Even if such an imitation were somehow possible, it would be a false imitation. The outward imitation of Christ is not the genuine Christian life. The real Christian life is one of mingling with Christ by both exercising our spirit to eat and drink Him and denying the self. This is the practical way to live in the mingling of God with man.
