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Scripture Reading: 1 John 5:11-12; 1 Cor. 6:17
In the previous chapter we said that God accomplished redemption in Christ. God became flesh and put on humanity, but not the sin associated with fallen humanity, so that He could enter into a practical union with man. In His status as a man in the flesh, Jesus Christ was put to death on the cross, bore man’s sins, and brought humanity with Him to the cross. Through His all-inclusive death He solved all the problems in the universe. He dealt with the sins committed by man and with the sin-committing man himself; that is, He dealt with man’s sinful deeds and man’s sinful nature. He also dealt with Satan and the world. Through the death of Christ on the cross, God dealt with everything that falls short of His glory and does not correspond to His righteousness and holiness so that He might be gracious to man and enable man to contact Him.
Through Christ’s death on the cross, God redeemed fallen man and released the life of God, which He desires to give to man. He caused man to turn to Him and to receive His life. Furthermore, Christ resurrected from the dead, ascended into heaven, and entered into glory with His humanity. Through His resurrection and ascension humanity was brought into God and into God’s glory; thus, redeemed man can enter into a practical union with God. Now God is fully joined with man, and man is joined with Him. God entered into humanity, and He brought humanity into Himself. Through His death, resurrection, and ascension all that God is and has can be wrought into man, and man can be brought into God; hence, God and man can be joined as one. This is marvelous and mysterious. Through His death, resurrection, and ascension Christ, who is God yet man, was glorified; He brought humanity into glory. This is the glorious mystery of God’s redemption.
Christ’s entering into glory is the proof of God’s accomplished redemption (Luke 24:26; Rom. 4:25). The person in glory in the heavens is both God and man; He is man yet God and God yet man. The resurrection of Christ from the dead signaled the accomplishment of God’s eternal plan by issuing in a person who is God mingled with man and man joined with God. This is the result that God intended to obtain in eternity past, and it is the issue of His work in time. Hence, God’s heart is full of joy.
A person who sets up a factory to mass-produce a certain product must first produce a prototype. After he has successfully produced a prototype, he can begin to mass-produce the prototype. Being able to produce a prototype is something worth cheering and rejoicing over. The resurrected and glorified Christ, who is God yet man, is the prototype of God’s redemptive work. He is the issue of God’s redemptive work. God can now work to mass-produce Christ as the prototype.
God’s redemptive work was accomplished in Christ, but He is only a prototype; He is not the mass production. God’s intention is not to gain just one person who is joined with Him but to gain myriads of people who are joined with Him. He desires to gain many who are like Christ and who are one with Him in Christ. God wants many to have all that Christ is and has so that Christ may have many brothers as His partners and may be the firstborn Son, having the first place among many brothers for the expression of God’s glory. Hence, all that Christ is and has accomplished is now in the Spirit for us to receive and obtain.
If the redemption accomplished in Christ could not have been applied to and appropriated by others, His work would have been limited to the production of only a prototype; that is, there would have been no mass production of God’s redemptive work in us. In order for there to be a mass production of Christ, He became the Spirit to be received by those who believe (1 Cor. 15:45; 2 Cor. 3:17). Therefore, after accomplishing redemption, everything of Christ was received in the Spirit to be applied to man (John 16:15).
Without Christ becoming the Spirit, the redemption accomplished by God could not reach us. The accomplishments of redemption must be in the Spirit in order to reach us. All of Christ’s accomplishments are objective facts, but they must be applied to us in the Spirit so that they can be gained and enjoyed by us as our inward, subjective experiences. Hence, God’s redemption is not merely an outward accomplishment in Christ for us; it is the salvation that God desires to inwardly apply to us in the Spirit.
The Spirit is omnipresent, invisible, and intangible; He is not limited by space, time, or matters. Everything that God has accomplished in Christ is in the Spirit in order to be applied to us. Everything that God has accomplished in Christ is in the Spirit for us to receive. God is waiting for man to receive all that He has accomplished. Therefore, when we believe and receive God’s redemption, the Spirit applies Christ’s accomplishments to us so that they become the salvation that is gained, experienced, and enjoyed by us. By believing and receiving, we appropriate God’s redemption.
Redemption was accomplished by Christ and is applied to man in the Spirit. Man needs only to believe and receive it. Formerly, according to God’s righteousness, holiness, and glory, fallen man was not permitted to contact God and could not receive His life. This is signified by the cherubim and the flaming sword, which turned in every direction to guard the way to the tree of life (Gen. 3:24). However, Christ’s redemption fulfilled the requirements of God’s righteousness, met the standard of God’s holiness, and satisfied the expression of God’s glory so that man can freely contact God and receive His life.
The requirements of God’s righteousness, holiness, and glory closed the way to the tree of life. But Christ’s redemption satisfied the requirements of God’s righteousness, holiness, and glory; hence, the way to God as the tree of life has been opened, and a new and living way has been initiated for man to boldly contact God (Heb. 10:19-22). In Christ and through Christ’s redemption man can now contact God and receive His life. God is in Christ for man to receive. By believing and receiving the Lord Jesus Christ, man can receive the life of God, the eternal life.
God’s intention was for man to receive His life, but Satan caused man to fall into sin and thus brought in various problems. Hence, God accomplished redemption in Christ to solve the problems brought in by Satan and to release His life. As a result, a person who believes in Christ receives and appropriates redemption by faith. He is forgiven of his sins and delivered from the problems brought in by sin so that he can receive God’s life. If a person desires to be freed from the problems brought in by sin and to have the eternal life of God, he must believe in the redemption that God accomplished in Christ. When we appropriate Christ’s redemption by faith, we receive the issue of His redemption; that is, we are delivered from the problems brought in by sin, and we receive the eternal life of God.
The faith that appropriates God’s redemption is not merely a matter of understanding the doctrine of God’s redemption, nor is it merely a matter of receiving the redemption accomplished by God in Christ. The faith that appropriates God’s redemption is a matter of believing into the Son of the living God and of receiving the Lord of life. God accomplished redemption for man, and His life is in Christ for man to receive. Man must believe in Christ and have a relationship with Christ by being joined by faith to Him in order to participate in redemption. Furthermore, redemption is related to the Son, and God’s life is in the Son. Therefore, man must receive Christ in order to obtain the life of God. Only by receiving Christ can man be redeemed and have the life of God. Faith delivers man from the problems brought in by sin and gives man the eternal life of God (1 John 5:10-12). This faith also enables man to obtain God’s salvation of life.
The faith that enables man to appropriate God’s redemption and to obtain God’s salvation does not depend on how much man understands the doctrine of redemption. This faith depends only on whether man receives Christ and has a living relationship, a relationship in life, with Him. Without the Son of God the doctrine of redemption is empty, dead knowledge, which cannot enable us to receive life or have the salvation of life. Life is in the Son. He alone is the Lord of life who can give life to us. Therefore, we must receive Him by faith in order to have His life and His living salvation. Without faith a person cannot be saved. A person’s salvation depends on whether he has faith. Such faith receives the Son of God.
Having faith that appropriates God’s redemption is an issue of contacting the Spirit. The redemption that Christ accomplished is made real to us when we touch the Spirit. Consequently, God sends the Spirit to move us so that we may have living faith to receive redemption. The Spirit not only brings redemption to man but also moves man to believe and receive redemption. The Spirit follows the word of the gospel of God. On the one hand, the Spirit moves man to believe in the gospel of God, and on the other hand, He brings the reality of redemption into man’s spirit. A person who is moved by the Spirit and believes in the gospel of God receives and obtains redemption by faith. This is what it means to appropriate God’s redemption in the Spirit and through the Spirit.
Only faith that comes from the moving of the Spirit, faith that comes from the Spirit and is in the Spirit, can enable man to obtain God’s salvation and to appropriate God’s redemption. The Spirit enters into man through the gospel and makes everything in God’s redemption real for man to contact and receive. The items in God’s redemption include forgiveness of sins, the vicarious death of Christ, our co-crucifixion with Him, and the release of the divine life. Unless the Spirit makes these items real to us, they are but empty doctrines. If redemption were only a matter that we need to comprehend with our mind, we would never touch the reality of redemption in our spirit. God’s redemption must become more than a doctrine to comprehend with our mind. It must become a spiritual reality that we can touch and receive in our spirit. The doctrine of redemption can affect our mind, but it cannot regenerate our spirit. Hence, the doctrine of redemption alone cannot result in our salvation. The Spirit must convert the doctrine of redemption into a spiritual reality. Only then can we obtain God’s salvation and be transformed in life from our spirit.
Our salvation does not depend on how much we understand the gospel or comprehend the doctrine of redemption. Our salvation depends on whether our spirit contacts the Spirit, and we touch the reality of redemption. Understanding the gospel and comprehending the doctrine of redemption with the mind may be likened to an outward activity of installing electric lamps. Contacting the Spirit with the human spirit in order to touch the reality of redemption can be likened to electricity flowing in the electric lamps. In order for an electric lamp to shine, it must be connected to electricity. This principle applies to believing in the gospel. A person cannot be saved if he only receives the doctrine of redemption in his mind. He must touch the reality of redemption in his spirit in order to obtain life and have salvation. Consequently, a person must contact the Spirit. The doctrine of the gospel can only give a person a dead faith, but contacting the Spirit causes man to have living faith. Knowledge of the items of the Christian faith cannot cause us to be saved. Only a living faith, a faith that is produced through contacting Christ as life, can cause us to have the salvation of life.
The goal of God’s redemption is for man to be joined with God. Hence, the issue of appropriating God’s redemption is union with God. God’s redemption dealt with sin and destroyed Satan, but these are not His goal. God’s goal is for us to obtain His life and to be joined with Him. By appropriating God’s redemption, we can receive forgiveness of sins and overcome Satan, but these are not the focus of redemption. The focus of God’s redemption is for us to obtain God’s life and be joined with Him. Redemption dealt with our sins and destroyed Satan in order to remove the obstacles and problems that frustrate us from obtaining God’s life and being joined with Him. God forgives our sins and justifies us so that we may obtain His life and be joined with Him. Therefore, although God’s redemption has done many things for us, His ultimate goal is to redeem us back to Himself so that we may be joined with Him. We can obtain many blessings by appropriating God’s redemption, but the most important item is for us to obtain God’s life and be joined with Him.
Our appropriating of God’s redemption by faith issues in our salvation. The central meaning of salvation is to obtain God’s life and be joined with Him. God’s life is in Christ, and Christ has been transfigured as the Spirit so that He may enter into us. When we contact the Holy Spirit by faith, we receive Christ, and the Spirit begins to make Christ real in us. As a result, we can obtain Christ’s life, that is, obtain Christ as life, so that we may be joined with Christ as one spirit (1 Cor. 6:17). When we obtain the life of Christ, we obtain the life of God, and when we are joined with Christ, we are joined with God.
When we are saved and joined with Christ, we can participate in all that Christ possesses. Christ’s death becomes our death, His resurrection becomes our resurrection, and His ascension becomes our ascension. Through our union with Christ, His experience becomes our history. What He is and what He has obtained become ours. In Him we have died and resurrected. In Him we are sitting in the heavenlies. In Him we are sons of God. He is one with the Father, and in Him we also are one with the Father (John 17:21). Because we are joined with Christ, we are also joined with the Father. This is the goal of God’s redemption, and this is the issue of our appropriation of God’s redemption.
