Search
Scripture Reading: 1 Cor. 15:45b; John 20:22; 3:5-6, 15, 36a; Rom. 6:3, 5; 1 Cor. 6:17; Rom. 8:9-11; 2 Tim. 4:22; Eph. 3:16-17; Col. 1:18a; Eph. 5:30; 2:15; Col. 3:10-11
The secret of experiencing Christ is first to receive three revelations. The first is the revelation of Christ’s person, and the second is the revelation of Christ’s work. These two revelations have been adequately covered in the previous chapters. In this chapter we come to the third revelation—the revelation concerning the believers’ organic union with Christ. This organic union is the most crucial aspect of the secret of experiencing Christ. For us to experience Christ and enjoy Him, we must see a clear vision concerning our organic union with Him.
The Bible first reveals to us the person of Christ, and then it reveals to us the work of Christ. After these two basic revelations the Bible reveals to us the organic union that we have with Christ. In one of the first four books of the New Testament, the Gospel of John, we see an illustration of the vine with all the branches. Then in the following twenty-three books, from Acts through Revelation, what is revealed is mainly this organic union. Paul’s fourteen Epistles especially focus on this one thing. The more we read Romans, 1 and 2 Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, and Colossians, the more we can realize that Paul had seen a full revelation and that he had a full knowledge concerning this revelation, which unveils to us our organic union with Christ.
The most wonderful reality in the Christian experience is that all the believers in Christ are united with Him in the way of life. The union of the believers with Christ is not by organization but by life; hence, this union is organic. The word organic denotes that this union is absolutely a matter of life.
A good illustration of this organic union is our physical body. Our body has many members, but all the members are organically united into one body. The uniting factor is life. When the body dies, after a certain number of days all the members will be separated and scattered. When life is in the body, all the members are organically united together, but when life is gone, all the members eventually become disunited, detached. The members of the body are united together not by organization but by a living, crucial, and vital factor—life. We the believers in Christ are one with Him because of such a living, uniting factor. For this reason we refer to our union with Christ as an organic union. In this chapter I would like to impress you with the fact that we have such an organic union with Christ.
Christ is wonderful in His person, and He is excellent in His work. In His person He is both the complete God and the perfect man. In His work He did everything that is needed for the fulfilling of God’s purpose, and He did everything that is needed for our benefit. Whatever He is and whatever He has done is altogether for one thing: that He could be united to us organically. This wonderful organic union is very much neglected by most Christians today. Today’s Christianity has become a religion, a religious organization, full of teachings, doctrines, ordinances, and practices, a religion which neglects the matter of life. Many Christians preach Christ and teach Christ in an objective way, making Him an objective Redeemer and an objective Savior. In their concept and realization Christ is in the third heaven, not within them. They may be right to a certain extent in an objective way, but surely they are wrong in relation to the subjective reality. Today in the Lord’s recovery the Lord is recovering this neglected matter of the believers’ organic union with Christ.
The Bible is a wonderful book. It is wonderful not only in revealing Christ’s person and work, but it is even more wonderful in its revelation of this organic union. In the Old Testament there are thirty-nine books, and in the New Testament there are twenty-seven. In the four Gospels we cannot see a full revelation of this organic union. However, the organic union is strongly stressed in John 14 through 17. The central thought and focus of John 14 through 17 is this organic union. In chapter 15 the Lord Jesus illustrated this organic union by saying that He is the vine and we, the believers in Him, are all the branches of this vine. Between the vine and the branches there is an organic union.
In John 15 we see the vine with all the branches, but we do not see that all the branches have been grafted into the vine. Originally, we, the believers in Christ, were not united to Christ. According to the picture in Romans 11:17 and 24, we were branches of a wild olive tree. But when we believed in the Lord Jesus, we were saved and we were regenerated. In regeneration we received a new life, and this new life made us alive. This new life also grafted us into Christ. We who formerly were branches of a wild olive tree have all been regenerated and made alive, and we all have been grafted into the cultivated olive tree, which is Christ with God’s chosen people given to Him as His members. Originally, we were not branches in Christ, but we have been grafted into Christ. By our natural birth we were not branches of Christ, but through regeneration we were cut off from the wild olive tree and were grafted into the cultivated tree, which is Christ with His members as the divine organism to express the Triune God. Now between Christ, the cultivated tree, and us, the grafted branches, there is an organic union. This grafted life between the grafted branches and the cultivated tree is the best illustration of our organic union with Christ.
After passing through the first four major processes of incarnation, human living, crucifixion, and resurrection, Christ in His resurrection became a life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45b). This wonderful man is the complete God and also the perfect man. Furthermore, He has done everything for God and for us. Eventually, in His resurrection He became a life-giving Spirit. This life-giving Spirit is the extract of His person and His work. In making a medicine we may collect a number of elements from various plants, flowers, roots, and trees and combine them together. We may then process these elements further and extract the crucial essence of each element to formulate the most effective medicine. This medicine may be a liquid, or it may be in the form of pills. In one drop of that liquid or in one pill, we have the extract of many elements. This extract may be called the spirit of all those elements. In this extract is the crucial essence of all the elements. After passing through all the processes in His humanity, Christ as the last Adam became a life-giving Spirit. This life-giving Spirit can be considered as the extract of Christ in His person and His work. In this life-giving Spirit, or in this extract, we have divinity, humanity, human living, the effectiveness of Christ’s all-inclusive death, and the power of Christ’s resurrection. The ascension of Christ is also included in this life-giving Spirit.
In His resurrection Christ became such a life-giving Spirit in order that He might enter into His believers (John 20:22). Today, anywhere on this earth, wherever and whenever a person calls on the name of the Lord Jesus, believes in Him, and receives Him as his Savior, this life-giving Spirit immediately enters into him. This means that Christ as the life-giving Spirit enters into His believers. Have you believed in the Lord Jesus? Have you called on His name and received Him? If so, you should realize that He has entered into your innermost being. He is the almighty God, the almighty Creator, and He became a perfect man. As such a One, He accomplished everything. He died for us, He was buried, and He was resurrected. In His resurrection He was transfigured into the life-giving Spirit. Now this life-giving Spirit is not restricted by anything. He is not limited by time or by space. He is everywhere, He is present, and He is now. In the morning, at noon, in the evening, or at midnight, He is always now, and He is always present. He is present with you just like the air. Wherever you go, there is air. Air is always now, and air is always present. Whenever you open your mouth, air gets into you. Often you are unconscious of the fact that the air has entered into you. This is why Romans 10:8 tells us that Christ as the living Word is near you, even in your mouth and in your heart.
I do not deny that Christ is great. On the one hand, He is still on the throne in the third heaven (8:34; Col. 3:1). There in the third heaven He is the Lord of all and the Administrator of the entire universe. He is the great God and the great Lord. Yet, on the other hand, He is the Spirit. As the life-giving Spirit, He is everywhere. Whenever we call on Him, He enters into us. Now He is within us. Hallelujah for this!
As the life-giving Spirit, Christ has regenerated the believers in their spirit (John 3:5-6). Doctrinally, it is difficult to explain how Christ, after entering into us, regenerates us in our spirit. However, in experience it is simple. When a sinner repents, confesses his sins, believes in the Lord Jesus, and calls on His name, at that very moment Christ as the life-giving Spirit enters into his spirit to enliven his dead spirit, that is, to regenerate him in his spirit. Immediately such a person becomes alive, happy, and joyful. He cannot explain what has happened to him, but he is rejoicing. He may continue to repent of his sins for the remainder of the day. A great change has taken place in his life. This sinner has been saved. He has been regenerated, and he is now a Christian. I believe that many of us have had this kind of experience. This is what it means to be saved, to be regenerated, and to be converted.
Through their believing in Christ and their being baptized into Christ, the believers have been brought into an organic union with Christ (vv. 15, 36a; Rom. 6:3, 5). When we believed in Christ and were baptized into Him, an organic union took place in our being. This organic union, which took place at our believing in Jesus, has united us to Christ. In other words, this union has grafted us into Christ, who is the vine tree. It is by such a transaction that we have been made branches of Christ. Hallelujah, we are believers in Christ, and we are branches grafted into this wonderful, universal vine tree! This is the organic union.
The believers’ regenerated spirit and Christ who is the life-giving Spirit are joined to be one spirit (1 Cor. 6:17). This is wonderful. We, the believers in Christ, all have a regenerated spirit. Our spirit was dead, but through believing in Christ it has been made alive (Eph. 2:1, 5). Now we all have within us our own spirit, which has been regenerated and made alive. At the same time Christ as the life-giving Spirit is within our spirit. These two spirits are joined to be one spirit. This is a most mysterious and wonderful thing. Most Christians today have no concept of this mysterious and wonderful reality. But in the Lord’s recovery this is stressed day after day. That our spirit is joined to Christ, the life-giving Spirit, as one spirit is a most crucial and vital matter. This is the ultimate consummation of the organic union that we have with Christ. No union could be more intimate than this union.
The realization that we are one spirit with Christ will cause us to be beside ourselves with joy. Such a realization may cause us to shout, “Hallelujah, we are one spirit with the Lord!” Many times I have been asked how I, as an elderly man, could be so active and so energetic. My secret is that I am one spirit with the Lord. Today many toys are made to operate by electricity. It is electricity that makes them so active. Because we are one spirit with Christ, we have the heavenly, divine electricity energizing us continually. How we need to realize our organic union with Christ and live in this reality!
Christ as the life-giving Spirit indwells the believers in their spirit. First, as the life-giving Spirit, Christ regenerated us in our spirit. Now He dwells in our spirit (Rom. 8:9-11; 2 Tim. 4:22). It is a wonderful fact that Christ is not only in us, but He also dwells in us.
For a person to dwell in a room means that he occupies it and fills it with his activities. Moreover, a person accomplishes many of his intentions in his own home. Although I have a very adequate office in which to do my work, I do not like to work there; rather, I like to work in my home. While I am dwelling in my home, I work. The Lord Jesus today only has a home; He does not have an office. His home is His office. The Lord’s office is within us. Many of us may realize that the Lord Jesus has made us His home, but not many realize that, as the Lord’s home, we are also His office.
The Lord Jesus not only dwells in us as His home, but He also works within us. He is carrying out all His work within us. Because He has many things to do within us, He is working in us twenty-four hours a day. We all need to realize that today the Lord Jesus indwells us, making us His home and also His office. He is working within us as His office. What a wonderful thought this is! Our Lord dwells in us, and while He dwells in us, He works. He has made us His home and His office as well. This is the organic union that we have with Christ. We all need to know Christ in such a living way.
Christ is making His home in the believers’ hearts through the Spirit’s strengthening them into their spirit, that is, into their inner man (Eph. 3:16-17). The strangest thing, and also the sweetest and most enjoyable thing, is that within us, the believers in Christ, there is always a kind of strengthening. Continually, both day and night, we are being strengthened from within. It is this inward strengthening that enables us to say, “Lord Jesus, I love You. Lord, occupy me and fill me up. I desire to be possessed and taken over by You. I want to be fully occupied by You. Lord, I simply want to be one with You.” We fail to realize that this strengthening has a direction, that is, that Christ would make His own home in our entire being. By this inward strengthening, gradually we will say, “Lord Jesus, fill me with Yourself and possess me in my mind, my emotions, and my will. Fill and possess me in every part, in every avenue, of my inward being.” This is to allow Christ to make His home in our whole being. This is the fullness of the organic union that we have with Christ, a union in which we are fully united with Christ in an organic way.
Eventually, Christ as the Head of the Body (Col. 1:18a) and the believers as the members of the Body (Eph. 5:30) are joined together to be the great, universal new man (2:15; Col. 3:10-11). In the organic union Christ becomess the Head of the universal new man, and we the believers all are the members of this great, universal new man. He is the Head, and we all are the members. He and we, we and He, are organically united together to be one complete and perfect universal new man. In such an organic union we live together with Him, move together with Him, and work together with Him. Christ and we have only one purpose, one goal, and one aim. This is the ultimate consummation in full of our organic union with Him.
