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We have seen clearly that the relationship between God and us depends on the law that God puts into us. This is based on Hebrews 8:10, which says, “For this is the covenant which I will covenant with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will impart My laws into their mind, and on their hearts I will inscribe them; and I will be God to them, and they will be a people to Me.” The law mentioned here is not the law in letters written on outward tablets of stone, but the law of life in spirit written in our hearts. Romans 8:2 says, “The law of the Spirit of life has freed me in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and of death.” The law that has freed us is the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus, and this law of life is of four great items: the Spirit, life, Christ, and Jesus.
We have also seen that the law of life is nothing other than Christ Jesus Himself as life to us (Col. 3:4). Christ is the embodiment of God, and He enters into us as the Spirit of life (2 Cor. 3:6b, 17). If He were only God, the Savior, and the Lord to us, there would be no need for Him to enter into us. In order to be life to us, He must come into us. Furthermore, as life to us, He can never be merely an objective Savior; He must be very subjective. Nothing is more subjective to us than our life.
Nothing outside of us can be life to us. For anything to be life to us, it must be in us subjectively and mingled with us as one. Anything that is not within us and mingled with us as one could never be our life. In order to take some bread as the life supply to our body, we cannot simply admire it and keep it in our pocket. We need to take it in and then digest it to make it the constituent of our body. Once we have digested the bread, it will be mingled with us and become our life supply. It will be subjective to us to such an extent that it becomes our constituent, a part of our being. This is the meaning of Christ being life to us. When the Lord Jesus said, “I am the bread of life” (John 6:35), it indicated that His intention was to enter into us and be digested by us to become the constituent of our inner man.
In John 6:51 the Lord Jesus said, “I am the living bread,” and in verse 57 He said, “He who eats Me, he also shall live because of Me.” We can eat the Lord because He is bread to us. This signifies that we must take Him as our life supply, feed on Him, and feast on Him. We need to eat more of Him so that we can digest Him and He can mingle Himself with us to become the very constituent of our life. It is thus that we may live by Him. This is very subjective. Do you realize that the Lord Christ whom you have received as your Savior and life is subjective to you? Day by day He is not only living within you but also mingling Himself with you and becoming a part of your being. This is wonderful, yet it is nevertheless very real.
I can testify that the Christ whom I have received as my Savior and life is real and available to me. He is more “handy” to me than even the air. Water is more available than food, and air is more available than water. Because Christ is within us as life to us, He is even more available than the air that we breathe.
Life is not a simple matter. For instance, when it is sown into the ground, a small seed will grow and blossom, producing green leaves and beautiful flowers. These all come out of the small seed because there is life in that seed. Consider what kind of life Christ is. This life is nothing less than God Himself. As a seed, Jesus has within Him a wonderful life, a life that is the almighty, infinite, all-inclusive, and omnipotent God. This life is now within us.
Furthermore, this life is the light of men (John 1:4). It shines within us all the time. This life is also a law, a regulating element that regulates us within continually. Since the time that we received Christ as our Savior, we have experienced something within us living, shining, and regulating all the time. This is the life that is Christ Himself. He is the life, and the life is both the light and the law. This eternal, divine, uncreated life, which is God Himself in Christ as the Spirit, is the living law, the law of life, regulating us within.
In Philippians 1:19 the apostle Paul, who was in prison suffering persecution for Christ and the gospel, said, “For I know that for me this [referring to the situation related to Paul’s imprisonment] will turn out to salvation through your petition and the bountiful supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ.” We should note that Paul did not speak of the bountiful supply of the Spirit of the almighty God, but of the bountiful supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ. The Spirit of Jesus Christ is the Spirit of God, but with something added.
In this verse Paul said that his imprisonment, suffering, and persecution would turn out to salvation for him. This would be through the bountiful supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ. W. J. Conybeare, in his translation of the New Testament, tells us that the word supply here in Greek is a special word. In ancient times among the Greeks, a group of people who danced and sang to entertain people was called a chorus. The leader of a chorus was called the choragus; he was responsible to take care of all the needs of the group. Whatever they needed, this leader was responsible to supply. Paul used the word choragus to denote the all-inclusive, bountiful supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ, who is indwelling Christ’s believers to supply them with whatever they need. With this Spirit there is an all-inclusive, bountiful supply that will fully meet our need.
This Spirit is indeed the Spirit of the eternal God, who is the Triune God—the Father, the Son, and the Spirit. However, before Christ’s incarnation, this Spirit had only the element of divinity. One day the Son of God, who is the embodiment of the complete Triune God, was incarnated to be a man, to enter into man and put man upon Himself. As a genuine man, He lived a human life on this earth for thirty-three and a half years. Hence, with Him there is the human life, humanity, in addition to the divine life, divinity. At the end of His human life He entered into death and passed through death. He remained in death for three days and then resurrected from death (1 Cor. 15:3-4; Acts 2:24). Thus, with Him there are also the elements of death and resurrection.
With resurrection there is also glorification. When Christ was resurrected, He was glorified as well (Luke 24:26, 46). His resurrection was His glorification. This can be illustrated by a seed that is dry and brown in color, without any beauty or glory. When it is sown into the earth, it dies and then begins to grow. We may say that the seed is buried and then resurrected. When the plant that grows out of the seed blossoms, the seed is glorified. According to John 12:24, Christ in His humanity was like a seed, a grain of wheat, sown into the earth. He died and was buried for three days. Then He rose from the dead and was glorified in His resurrection (v. 23).
After being glorified, Christ ascended into heaven (Acts 1:9-11) and was enthroned and made both Lord and Christ (2:36). Soon afterward, on the day of Pentecost, He came down to man as the outpoured Spirit. There is a difference between the Holy Spirit who descended at the time of Christ’s incarnation and the Holy Spirit who descended on the day of Pentecost. When the Holy Spirit came down for the incarnation of God in humanity (Matt. 1:18, 20; Luke 1:35), He was merely the Spirit of God with no other elements. But when He came down upon man at Pentecost, He was the Spirit of Jesus Christ, who includes the elements of God, man, human living, the effectiveness of death, the power of resurrection, glorification, ascension, and enthronement. All these elements are included in the one Holy Spirit, who is the Spirit of God and the Spirit of Jesus Christ. Such an all-inclusive Spirit may be considered to be an all-inclusive dose. Many medicines are made by combining a number of different elements into one dose. When we take this dose, we receive all its elements. The bountiful supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ is an all-inclusive dose that contains all the elements required to meet our need in full.
Although the supply of the Spirit is bountiful and all-inclusive to meet all our needs, we still need to realize that the Spirit works within us in a quiet, gentle, normal, ordinary and human way. Even so, His working in us is very rich and powerful. A certain brother among us was born in England, but he grew up in China and was educated in the United States. Consequently, he became quite a peculiar person. One day he was saved, and the Spirit as the all-inclusive dose entered into him. On the day of his salvation this peculiar person received a particular dose, the Spirit of Jesus Christ, who entered into him and from that day forward indwelt him continually. Day by day this wonderful Spirit worked within him in a very gentle and normal way, giving him a little sense, consciousness, and registration within. One day there was an inner sense telling him to forget about his Cantonese peculiarity. Another time there was another small sense that he should give up certain things. Later, there was a little sense within him that he should offer himself to the Lord. Still later, there was a little sense within him to move to Taiwan. When he went there, he was very peculiar, constantly criticizing the church and endeavoring to adjust us. But day by day, morning and evening, little by little, something within him was illuminating, shining, and regulating him. One morning he gave up something, and the next morning he dropped something more. Although he tried to adjust us, eventually he himself was adjusted. What he experienced was not merely the Holy Spirit of God but the Spirit of Jesus Christ—the Holy Spirit of God in whom are the elements of Christ’s human nature, the effectiveness of Christ’s death, and the power of Christ’s resurrection. By his going along with the inner sense, this brother’s peculiar Cantonese nature was dealt with; it was put to death by the effectiveness of Christ’s death and was killed by the cross of Christ.
When the Spirit of Jesus Christ is moving in us, working in us, and anointing us, He gives us a little sense, a consciousness in our inner being. If we take care of this and go along with it, the Spirit will kill the “germs,” the negative things, in our being. Moreover, in this wonderful Spirit there is also the resurrection power of Christ. When we go along with the inner sense, on the one hand, we experience the killing of our peculiar self, and on the other hand, we experience the resurrection power that energizes, strengthens, and empowers us from within. We also feel glorious, and we are very much adjusted. At the same time we have the sense that we are transcendent, that we are not on the earth but in the heavens. Occasionally, we even feel that we are enthroned with the Lord.
On our part, all that is needed is to go along with the Lord, who continually works in us and anoints us within. We need to simply go along with the gentle, quiet feeling in our inner being that results from the Lord’s working in us. We should not expect anything magnificent or extraordinary, for that is not the proper way to experience Christ as life. Christ is such a wonderful Savior, yet when He as the Spirit operates in us, He does so in a very ordinary, normal, and human way. We need to be faithful to Him and realize that He is working within us in such a way. He is always patient, gentle, and quiet because now He is not only the almighty God but also a man with the human nature and the human life and with the effectiveness of death and the element of resurrection. If we are obedient and submissive to Him, day by day and moment by moment, gradually and continually, we will experience Christ and His riches, and we will grow to be a proper and normal Christian.
When you undergo certain sufferings or trials, you may pray, “O Lord, help me!” expecting the Lord to come to you in a miraculous or supernatural way. At the same time there will be a small feeling within you that you must put your trust in the Lord, that there is no need to worry about your situation or bear the burden of your trials. It is easy to doubt such a small feeling, thinking that it is just something of yourself rather than the Lord’s answer and help. However, you should realize that this little feeling is the Lord’s working within you, giving you the sense that you must trust in Him and cast the burden of your trials upon Him.
There may be occasions when you have the desire either to visit a certain person or to buy certain things, but within you there is just a little sense that it is better not to do these things. You need to go along with this sense and give up your own desire. Sometimes when you are at home, a little feeling arises within you encouraging you to pray. You should go along with this feeling and pray, opening to the Lord and seeking His mind and will concerning your prayer. You may have a little feeling to pray for a certain brother, or to pray for yourself that you may see something more of the Lord. You should simply follow this feeling within.
At other times you may be criticized by others. Criticism is always a test, even to Christians. I myself have been tested many times by this matter. To be beaten may be somewhat easy to endure, but to be criticized is very difficult to bear. However, when you are criticized, there will be a little feeling within that you should receive this kind of criticism and thank the Lord for it. You should simply go along with this feeling and say, “Lord, I thank You for this criticism. Bless those who are criticizing me.” This is to pray according to the inner sense.
The right and proper way to experience Christ as life is not in an extraordinary way but in a very normal way. Through such a simple, normal, and ordinary way, we will have a full experience of Christ. All the riches and fullness of Christ will be ours, and we will continue to grow in life. Then we will realize what the Body of Christ is and what the function of the church is to Christ.
We need to realize that it is in the law of the Spirit of life that our relationship with God is maintained, that God is our God, and that we are a people to God. In the Old Testament God gave the people of Israel the Ten Commandments as the old law. All the people of Israel had to be right with God according to those commandments. If an Israelite did many good things to help others, sacrificing what he had and even his life for them, yet broke one or more of the Ten Commandments, he was still not right with God. In the same principle, we may do many good things for others, sacrificing, working, preaching, and ministering on their behalf, but we may not be right with God according to the inner law of life.
Today the law according to which God is God to us and we are a people to God is the law of life within us, which is regulating us all the time. We must be right with God according to the inner regulating. Otherwise, regardless of how many good things we do for God or for others, He will not approve of us (Matt. 7:21-23). We need to learn the lesson that anytime, anywhere, and in any matter, if we have a little sense concerning what the Lord wants us to do, we should immediately obey and submit. If we cooperate in this way, we will see how wonderful our Christian life will be. Day by day in all the small things we need to take care of the inner feeling, the inner consciousness. This small feeling is of the wonderful Spirit. By our simply going along with the wonderful Spirit, He will possess and occupy us more and more. He will saturate us continually, and we will be transformed.
What the Lord is seeking today is some who know the inner way of life, that is, the way to experience Christ and take Him as their life in a practical, normal, ordinary, human, quiet, and gentle way. Day by day and moment by moment these people will gradually be transformed into the image of Christ from glory to glory. Furthermore, automatically and spontaneously they will be built up together and coordinated as a corporate Body to express Christ in a living way. This is the church life that the Lord is seeking today. This is the proper way for us to practice both the Christian life and the church life.
