Christianity today has fallen into such a condition that it has become a religion. The prerequisites of any religion are doctrines or beliefs and rituals or methods. Therefore, every religion has its doctrines and its rituals. Since Christianity has fallen into religion, it also manifests this kind of condition, having doctrines on the one hand and rituals on the other hand. These two things perfectly fit man’s natural concept and taste. Man naturally delights in listening to sermons and watching ceremonies.
The Bible, however, shows us that the Lord’s salvation in us is not a religion but altogether a story of life. It is true that we need to have a considerable amount of knowledge about life, but this kind of knowledge is not for knowledge itself; rather, it is for life to exist, to grow, and to become strong. This may be compared to the fact that in today’s medical science there is nothing empty; empty theories do not exist in the medical field. Everything in the medical profession is practical, concrete, real, and applicable. Likewise, the words the Lord gives us today are not hollow; rather, they are practical and pragmatic.
However, according to our natural sentiments, we enjoy listening to doctrinal teachings, and we also like performing rituals. Yet these two things are contrary to the Lord’s life and have no place in the Bible. Although the Bible covers a great variety of things, strictly speaking, it does not contain the so-called doctrines found in today’s Christianity. The Bible is altogether an explanation of life and a guide to life. Moreover, it does not contain any methods or rituals.
Since the time of the Reformation with Luther, the reality of redemption has been recovered; there is no question about this. Today no one can take away justification by faith from Christians, because this matter has already been recovered into the Christian life. When you read the biographies of the saints in the past, you cannot deny that in the last five hundred years of church history there has been a considerable measure of life. However, we also have to admit that the matter of redemption has gradually been made doctrinal, and the knowledge and experience of life have also been turned into doctrines. Today the situation is that orthodox Christianity has turned many positive things into doctrines. In these recent years some people have made the matters pertaining to the knowledge and experience of life into doctrines, and theologians have made justification by faith into a doctrine. Many of them have the doctrine but not the reality of justification by faith. They have no experience whatsoever of justification by faith, yet they preach the doctrine of justification by faith. They have the belief but not the reality. In the same manner, there are also people who turn the matter of spiritual life into a doctrine. They preach the doctrine concerning life without having the experience of life. Thus, they have made the things pertaining to life into doctrinal matters. As a result, the things of life have nearly become theories, philosophical ideas, and mere teachings.
What is the reason for this? Let me use medical science again as an example. In modern medical science many kinds of vitamins in the food we eat were discovered and thoroughly researched. Humans have always consumed vitamins in their food, but they did not have the knowledge about vitamins. They had the reality but not the knowledge. I am afraid that today some people might have made a thorough study of vitamins, yet they might not be taking many vitamins. Thus, you can see that having the knowledge is one thing, and having the reality is another thing. The reality of vitamins is in eating and drinking. You must eat and drink. No matter how much you talk about vitamins, they will be useless to you unless you take them in. In like manner, today we need knowledge, but even more we need reality. What we are afraid of today is that the truths concerning matters such as redemption and life have become doctrines without the reality.
Where is this reality? Dear brothers and sisters, it is in the Spirit. This is the problem of Christianity today. Not to mention those Christians who have fallen into the world or those who are modernists, but even those who are fundamental and “spiritual” are lacking in the matter of the Spirit. They do not pay enough attention to the Spirit, nor do they have sufficient experience of the Spirit. What we know about the Spirit is too little, but compared to the real measure of what we have experienced of the Spirit, what we know is too much. It seems that a great part of what we have consists of knowledge and understanding and that only a small part consists of experience and reality. Therefore, I hope that I can make this matter clear to you and that at the same time I can help you make a proper turn.
Many Christians admit that the problem in reading the Bible is that it is relatively easy to find the peripheral things but not very easy to find the central matter. This may be compared to contacting a person; it is hard to perceive the life within him even though it is easy to touch his physical members. We know that without the physical members it is impossible for the life within to exist. Nevertheless, as far as man is concerned, the physical members are merely the external things; only the life within him is his center. Likewise, the Bible has its spirit, its life, its center. Like a man, the Bible needs a structure with many “members.” It has to cover many different matters because without them there is no place in which to put its life and its spirit. The Bible refers to many matters, but these things are not its life, its spirit. Rather, they are a place in which its life, its spirit, may be deposited. Because of this, when a person comes to read the Bible, it is easy for him to find the superficial things, the external things, but not easy to find the spirit within.
Let us use the Gospels as an example. Many things are written in the Gospels, but actually these four books speak about only this one thing: At His predetermined time, the triune, eternal God, the Creator of all things, entered into the created man to be mingled and united with man; then He lived on earth, and finally He entered into death and came out in resurrection to become a wonderful Spirit. Whatever we need has been accomplished in this Spirit and is included in this Spirit. Today this wonderful Spirit is like breath; He is very rich and exceedingly available. This is the essence, the spirit, the life, of the Gospels.
Nevertheless, I say again, when you read the four Gospels, you cannot easily discover their essence. You can find many stories in the Gospels, but you cannot easily detect the spirit contained in them. This may be compared to the way a person can be contacted: your ears, hair, eyebrows, hands, and feet can easily be touched, but your life cannot be touched. This is our problem in reading the Bible. Many saints throughout the centuries interpreted the Gospels, but they only talked about the external, superficial things. They did not touch the spirit within.
If we put the four Gospels together and read them with a bird’s-eye view in a quiet spirit, then we will see that the life, the essence, the kernel, of these four books is to show us that the Triune God who is in eternity actually entered into the created man to be mingled with man as one, lived the human life, went into death, and in resurrection became the Spirit. Therefore, after His resurrection, He breathed into His disciples and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit.”
Please consider again, what do the four Gospels talk about? They do not talk mainly about healing or casting out demons, nor do they only admonish us to enter into the kingdom of the heavens, nor do they talk about how to have our sins forgiven or how to be born again. I trust that you know what I mean when I say that they do not talk mainly about these things. What then do they talk about? They tell us that one day the Triune God who is in eternity, the Creator of all things, entered into man, lived on this earth, went into death, and became a wonderful Spirit. In this wonderful Spirit there are God, man, redemption, life, holiness, power, light, and love. This Spirit has everything. Therefore, at the end of the Gospels, we are told about a breath. The Triune God has passed through all the processes and has accomplished everything. Today He is breath.
When Christians read the Gospels, most of them see only that the great God, the Lord of glory, was incarnated to be our Savior, that He shed His precious blood to make atonement for our sins, and that after His death and resurrection, He ascended into the heavens and sat down at the right hand of God. We cannot say that this is wrong, but we must realize that this is not the center or the conclusion of the Gospels. The four Gospels conclude neither with Mark nor with Luke but with John. The Gospel of John does not conclude with ascension. Instead, it concludes with the breathing of a breath for the disciples to receive the Holy Spirit. It was not the Lord ascending to the throne; instead, it was the Lord becoming a breath being breathed into men.
Scripture Reading: Rom. 7:24-25; 8:1, 4-6; 12:2, 11; 14:17
In the preceding chapter we saw that the Lord who accomplished redemption is the Spirit of life today. He died on the cross to redeem us who were fallen, to enliven us who were dead, to restore us who were damaged, and to cleanse us who were defiled. In this way He accomplished redemption. This is shown in the section before Romans 5:10. From 5:10 on, the book turns from redemption to life, showing us that the redeeming Christ is the Spirit of life today. Formerly, on the cross He was doing the objective work of redemption outside of us. Today He is doing the subjective work of salvation in us. Therefore, Romans 5:10 may be considered the key to the entire book. This verse says that we were reconciled through the death of God’s Son, that is, through His work of redemption on the cross, and that having been reconciled, much more we will be saved in His life. This being saved refers to the saving work that is being carried out today by the redeeming Lord who has come into us as the Spirit of life.
Redemption is objective; salvation is subjective. Redemption has already been accomplished; salvation is still in progress. Redemption is altogether a matter of position; salvation is totally a matter of experience. Formerly He was the Redeemer; today He is the Spirit of life.
The subjective salvation by the Spirit of life in us consists clearly of five steps: setting us free, sanctifying us, transforming us, conforming us to the image of God’s Son, and blending us together to produce the Body of Christ.
As those who have been redeemed by Christ, we were forgiven of our sins, we are no longer under condemnation, and we are saved. From now on, however, we still need to have the various experiences of salvation in life. We still need the Spirit of life in us to daily set us free from sin. Of course, sin involves the flesh and the world. Therefore, to be freed from sin is to be released from the flesh and from the world that we may be delivered out of all the things that contradict and oppose God. Furthermore, the Spirit of life sanctifies us. This is not only an objective, positional sanctification but even more a dispositional sanctification. Once we are sanctified, we are transformed. This life saturates, permeates, and transforms us. As a result, we are sanctified.
Suppose you have a glass of water and a glass of orange juice. If you pour the orange juice slowly into the water, then the water will gradually turn yellow, and eventually it is “yellowed.” Originally, we were like a glass of water, and the Lord as the Spirit is like the orange juice. The more the Spirit fills us, saturates us, and permeates us, the more He sanctifies us. This sanctification is not merely carried out by His hand but by His own divine nature. This is salvation in life.
Today when those who are in Christianity talk about sanctification and holiness, they only tell people, “You should not be defiled by sin, nor should you lose your temper. Otherwise, you become unholy. You have to be gentle, proper, and well-behaved, and then you are considered holy.” This is what today’s Christianity teaches about holiness. Actually, this is not the holiness taught in the Bible. When the Bible speaks about holiness, the emphasis is not on our being cleansed but on our being made holy. In order to make us holy, God does not simply separate us by using a certain method. Rather, He saturates and transforms us completely with Himself.
After we have been set free and sanctified, we are transformed. The “water” has become “yellow.” This is not the result of adding color on the outside but the issue of a change from within. Furthermore, there is conformation, that is, being conformed to the image of God’s Son. Moreover, the Lord wants to blend us together. This is because His desire is not only to gain many precious souls or many living stones. His desire is to have a building, a Body. Therefore, it is not enough that we are transformed and conformed to His image. He also wants to build us together.
The ultimate manifestation as seen at the end of the Scriptures is not a group of separate precious stones but a holy city, New Jerusalem. It is not enough for us just to be spiritual; we need to be spiritual and also built up together. Therefore, we need to be saved from being independent. This also needs the life within us to do a saving work. The life we have is the life of the Body; the more this life grows in us, the more we will grow together as one. We are not only being coordinated and built together, but we are also growing together into one entity.
Our physical life is a body life, not a member life. If the hand is detached from the body, the hand loses its life. It is the same with the spiritual life. The salvation carried out by this life eventually will save us from being independent so that we may become one Body. Therefore, in chapter 12, the final section of Romans, we see the appearing of the one Body.
In 1 Corinthians 1 the apostle Paul tells us that God’s intention is to give Christ to us as our everything instead of giving us so many other things. There is a background to the apostle’s speaking. At that time, like the Pentecostals today, the believers in Corinth emphasized gifts and especially stressed speaking in tongues. Therefore, Paul wrote this Epistle to tell them that what God gives us is not tongues, nor gifts, nor signs, nor wonders. Rather, what God gives us is Christ, who is our portion. God has called us not into tongues, signs, or wonders but into the fellowship of His Son, Christ. The Jews require signs and the Greeks seek wisdom, but God gives us Christ to be our wisdom and our power. God also puts us in Christ that Christ may become wisdom to us. This wisdom includes righteousness, sanctification, and redemption, which refers to the transfiguration of our body in the future. None of these matters are objective; instead, they are Christ Himself. Christ Himself has become our righteousness, our sanctification, and our redemption. This means that God is working Christ into us for our participation.
The hardest thing in reading the Scriptures is that it is not easy to stay away from the non-essential items. When a person comes to read the Scriptures, he is frequently hindered by the superficial things and is thus unable to see the inner things. Generally, when Christians read 1 Corinthians, they say that chapter 1 speaks about not being divisive. Actually, this is not the focus of that chapter. That chapter is focused on Christ. Christ is our portion, and we have been called to enjoy Him. But when someone reads 1 Corinthians 1, he is easily blinded by the words concerning not being divisive; he sees division but not Christ. This may be compared to the way we look at a person; we are easily blinded by the outward appearance and are not able to see what is in his heart. Likewise, the Bible has its outward appearance, and it has also its spirit, its core. When we come to read the Scriptures, it is very easy for us to be hindered by the appearance.
First Corinthians does not speak about anything other than Christ. Chapter 1 tells us that the Jewish religionists require signs, while the Greek philosophers seek wisdom. But what God gives us is neither philosophy, nor religion, nor miraculous power, nor knowledge, nor wisdom; what God gives us is Christ Himself. Christ is the power for signs and wonders, and Christ is the highest wisdom. It is of God that we are in Christ. It is God who has put us in Christ so that Christ may become our wisdom, our method, and our way, first as our righteousness, second as our sanctification, and third as our redemption. Christ becomes everything to us from the inside to the outside, and we are thus completely mingled with Him. This is the first chapter of 1 Corinthians.
From chapter 2 on, 1 Corinthians begins to speak about how we can experience this Christ. In order to experience this Christ, first we must realize that this Christ is the Spirit and He is also in the Spirit. Second, we must know that as the Spirit He dwells in our spirit, and if we want to experience and enjoy Him, we must come back to our spirit. We must know how to return to our spirit and how to use our spirit. With these few sentences I have covered 1 Corinthians chapters 2 through 16.
However, I am afraid that after reading the book of 1 Corinthians five or six times, we may still not have such a realization. On the contrary, we can readily see that chapter 5 deals with excommunication, chapter 6 deals with lawsuits among brothers, chapter 7 deals with the matter of marriage, chapter 8 deals with the prohibition against eating the things sacrificed to idols, chapter 12 deals with speaking in tongues, chapter 13 deals with love, chapter 14 deals with the various gifts, and chapter 15 deals with the matter of resurrection. But I want to tell you, brothers and sisters, that these are still the superficial matters. You need to go beyond these superficial things to see the intrinsic matters. Simply speaking, intrinsically, this book shows us that today the Christ whom God has given to us for our enjoyment is not only in the Spirit but also is the Spirit. Furthermore, as the Spirit He is in our spirit, and if we truly want to have fellowship with Him, to enjoy Him, and to participate in Him, then we must come back to our spirit to contact Him as the Spirit. This is what chapters 2 through 16 speak about.
You may ask what my basis for saying this is. If you read chapter 2, you will find the spirit. Verse 14 in chapter 2 says, “A soulish man [that is, one who lives according to the soul and in the soul] does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him.” May I ask you, what are the things of the Spirit of God? By reading the preceding verses, you will know that they refer to the very Christ Himself. In verse 2 the apostle says, “I did not determine to know anything among you except Jesus Christ, and this One crucified.” Therefore, the things of the Spirit of God refer to Christ.
Furthermore, verses 9 and 10 say, “‘Things which eye has not seen and ear has not heard and which have not come up in man’s heart; things which God has prepared for those who love Him.’ But to us God has revealed them through the Spirit.” Again, I would like to ask you, brothers and sisters, what are the things which God has prepared for us? When I was a child, I heard an old pastor say that what God has prepared for us is heaven, a place which is so wonderful that it has not been seen by human eye or heard by human ear, nor has it ever come up in man’s heart. But now I want to ask you, brothers and sisters, what do these verses really speak about? Oh, they tell us that God has prepared Christ as everything to us! This matter is incomprehensible to a soulish man.
Verses 14 and 15a say, “A soulish man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him and he is not able to know them because they are discerned spiritually. But the spiritual man discerns all things.” Here we see that there are two kinds of men: the soulish man who lives according to the soul and the spiritual man who lives according to the spirit. Only those who live in spirit can know Christ, apprehend Christ, and enjoy Christ in spirit.
I want to take this opportunity to speak a word to the brothers who minister the word. I hope that from now on when you minister the word, you will elaborate on these matters. God has given Christ to us as our portion. Today if we want to experience this Christ and enter into His fellowship, we must realize that this is altogether a story in the spirit. Therefore, we must be in the spirit and not in the soul. First Corinthians 2:14-15 says clearly that there are two kinds of men: the soulish man and the spiritual man. The spirit is a faculty created for us by God that we may have contact and communication with Him, and it is also His vessel to contain Himself, while the soul is man himself. We must point these matters out clearly to the brothers and sisters. Do not think that speaking about these matters once or twice is sufficient. Some people cannot grasp them even after hearing them a hundred times.
I can share a testimony with you. Two or three months after I was saved, I began to read some articles concerning the distinction between the spirit and the soul. I continued to read about this matter, and when I went to Shanghai, I also listened to many messages concerning this matter, but I simply could not understand it. Moreover, I heard some brothers say that a person cannot be spiritual unless he knows how to discern the spirit. When I went home after hearing that word, I could neither sleep nor eat well because I did not know how to discern the spirit. But gradually after a few more times of listening to the messages about this matter, one day suddenly it became clear to me within. Therefore, you should not be afraid of repeating the same message, thinking that there is no need to repeat a message after it has been given. This feeling may not be accurate. It is not a matter of whether or not to repeat but a matter of whether or not the speaker is living. If you are living, your speaking will also be living.
After 1 Corinthians 1 mentions that Christ is our portion, chapter 2 immediately touches the matter of the spirit. Why? It is because Christ being our portion is basically a story of the spirit. This matter is not physical, philosophical, religious, or doctrinal. Rather, it is altogether a matter in the spirit. If you are not in the spirit but instead live in the soul, you are one whose eyes are covered. Therefore, when it speaks about how to experience Christ, chapter 2 immediately mentions the spirit. Paul speaks about Christ in chapter 2 in a marvelous way. In essence he says, “When I came to you, I only knew to speak Christ, and this Christ is what God has prepared for us, which is beyond what we can think and which requires the Spirit to explain to us.” Recall what the Lord Jesus said: “No one fully knows the Son except the Father” (Matt. 11:27). Then in Matthew 16, after Peter said to the Lord, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God,” the Lord immediately said, “Blessed are you, Simon Barjona, because flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but My Father who is in the heavens” (vv. 16-17). Therefore, unless the Spirit of the Father reveals the Lord Jesus to us, and unless the Spirit of the Father removes the veil from our eyes and shows Christ to us in our spirit, we will not be able to know Him. In order to know and experience this Christ, we must learn to not live in the soul but to live in the spirit. When we are in the spirit, we touch Him. We should not use our eyes to see Him, nor use our ears to hear Him, nor use our heart to think about Him; rather, we should use our spirit to touch Him. Therefore, we must be a person in spirit.
Now we go on to 2 Corinthians, which experientially is altogether a continuation of 1 Corinthians. In 1 Corinthians the thought of the Holy Spirit is to show us that we need to enter into the spirit to enjoy the pneumatic Christ in the spirit and to experience Christ as the Spirit of life. First Corinthians shows us that we are God’s children, God’s people, and we are saved ones, saints. However, some of us are serving in the outer court, some are living in the Holy Place, and only a very small number have entered into the Holy of Holies to enjoy God’s blessing—Christ Himself—in God’s presence. Although all are saved ones and all are “Israelites,” some are in Egypt, some are wandering in the wilderness, and some have entered into Canaan. Therefore, 1 Corinthians encourages us to be delivered not only from the flesh but also from the soul, to go on from the flesh, to pass through the soul, and to enter into the spirit and to live in the spirit. This is to enter into the Holy of Holies and enjoy the riches of Canaan in the spirit. This is the main flow of thought in 1 Corinthians. It seems that in this book there is a hidden flow, which is not so easy to be seen from the surface. If it were like a flow on the surface of the earth, it could be easily detected, but since it is a flow beneath the surface, unless you go under the earth, you will not be able to see it. Thank the Lord, we have more or less seen this.
Following 1 Corinthians, 2 Corinthians goes on to speak about how a person lives in the Holy of Holies, in the spirit. It tells us that the reason this one can live in the Holy of Holies, in the spirit, is that he has been outwardly torn down, consumed, in many ways. In the entire New Testament, there is only one place that tells us the Lord does not always answer our prayers in our times of suffering. Christianity usually teaches people that when they have some sufferings and have fallen into a difficult situation, they should simply tell the Lord, and the Lord will solve their problems and answer all their prayers. Nevertheless, 2 Corinthians 12 clearly shows us, with an illustration, that Paul had a thorn in his flesh that caused much suffering to him. He prayed three times to the Lord, asking the Lord to remove this thorn, to solve this problem for him, to save him from this suffering, but the Lord seemed to be saying, “I will not do it; I reject this prayer; I will not answer this prayer. I am letting the thorn remain there so that you can experience My all-sufficient grace. In order for you to experience that My overshadowing power is perfected in the weakness of man, I have to allow this thorn to make your weakness manifest. There must be a thorn to tear you down, to completely consume you, so that you will not come out of the Holy of Holies and turn back to yourself again. I leave this thorn in you to keep you in the Holy of Holies, to force you to live in the Holy of Holies. Therefore, I will not answer this prayer of yours.”
Brothers and sisters, this thought is contrary to the teachings of Christianity. What you usually hear in Christianity is that if you have any problem, the Lord will rescue you; if you are in hardship, the Lord will visit you; no matter what disaster happens to you, the Lord will take care of it for you. However, in the sixty-six books of the Scriptures there is a portion that tells us the Lord will not listen to this kind of prayer. Therefore, remember that in the sixty-six books of the Bible, only this one portion tells us that God wants to tear us down. Verse 16 of chapter 4 says, “Though our outer man is decaying, yet our inner man is being renewed day by day.”
Please remember that 2 Corinthians has a particular position in the holy Word. Experientially, 2 Corinthians occupies an exceptionally high position, and we may even say that it is on the peak, because in this Epistle Paul had already entered into the Holy of Holies and truly remained in the Holy of Holies. How could he enter the Holy of Holies and remain there? It is because his outer man was consumed. A thorn that came by the permission of the Lord (it was not sent but was permitted by the Lord) and that was Satan’s messenger, consumed Paul, causing him to enter the Holy of Holies.
According to our condition, we surely need some circumstances, circumstances that are not smooth or good but adverse and rough, to force us into the spirit. Please remember, when we are at ease, it is easy to get out of the spirit. We need various adverse situations to force us into the Holy of Holies.
We may say that Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, and Colossians occupy an important central position in the New Testament. Following them, 1 and 2 Timothy and Titus are near the conclusion of Paul’s Epistles. The Epistles of Paul begin with Romans and 1 and 2 Corinthians; at their conclusion are 1 and 2 Timothy, Titus, and Philemon; and in the middle are these four short books. Here we see that the sequence arranged by the Holy Spirit is very meaningful.
These four books—Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, and Colossians—form a cluster and are inseparable. Galatians shows us how we must live by Christ, who is our life. First, it pleases God to reveal Christ in us (1:15-16). Second, it is God’s pleasure to have His Son living in us (2:20). Third, it is also God’s pleasure that we put on Christ (3:27). Christ is not only inside of us but also outside of us as a garment being put on us. Fourth, we need to let Christ be formed in us (4:19). For Christ to be formed in us means that Christ is able to spread in us and to constitute Himself into every part of our entire being. At first, Christ only lives in us and is not able to extend or spread. Gradually, however, He occupies every part within us by saturating and constituting every part of our being with Himself. Therefore, He is formed in us. Fifth, the book of Galatians shows us that Christ’s living in us and being formed in us altogether depend on the Spirit. Therefore, we have to be in the Spirit, to walk according to the Spirit, and to live by the Spirit (ch. 5). We must be in the Spirit; only then are we truly letting Christ live in us, only then do we truly put on Christ, and only then are we truly letting Christ be formed in us.
Finally, chapter 6 shows us that, before God, our being circumcised or not being circumcised does not matter. In other words, neither religious rituals, religious regulations, keeping the law, nor having good behavior are anything, but being a man of the new creation, being a new creation, is what matters. To be the new creation is to live in Christ by the spirit, to experience Christ by the spirit, and to live by Christ. This is different from the general religious concept in Christianity. The religious concept is that man should improve his behavior so that he can practice good deeds, and that he has to observe certain religious rituals, religious forms, and religious teachings. If a man is able to keep all of these, then he is considered to be up to standard. However, here it says that this is not the case. What God gives us today is not religion, not even Christianity, but Christ Himself. Christ is not a religion but a living person, a life, who has been revealed in us and who is living in us. God wants us to live in Christ, to put on Christ, and to let Christ spread in us, constitute us, saturate us, and occupy us until He is formed in us. Then we should walk by Him in the Spirit. This is the book of Galatians.
However, it is a pity that when Christians read the book of Galatians, not many understand it to this extent. Many people have expounded Galatians, and of all the commentaries by Martin Luther, the one on Galatians is the most famous, which is also his masterpiece. Many consider his commentaries on Galatians as the best exposition. If you read it carefully, however, you will see that Luther did not say much about the Spirit, but instead greatly emphasized the matter of justification by faith. He should not be blamed for this because at that time what God committed to him was the matter of justification by faith. It is true that in Galatians there is justification by faith; there is no question about that. However, justification by faith is not the spirit, the life, the center, of Galatians. Justification by faith is the “skin and hair” and the “skeletal structure” of Galatians. The soul of the book of Galatians is Christ in the Spirit being our life, which results in His becoming our living and in His changing our image so that we may become altogether a new creation in Christ. This is the soul, the crux, of the book of Galatians.
Dear brothers and sisters, Galatians 3 speaks of the blessing promised by God to Abraham, and that blessing is the Spirit! Read Galatians 3 again, and you will see that the blessing that God promised to Abraham is God Himself and that the reason God can be the blessing to us who have received the promise is that He is Spirit. This God who is Spirit comes into us to be our enjoyment; hence, He is the blessing promised to us. The blessing promised by God to Abraham is that Abraham and his descendants would be able to enjoy God Himself through Christ and in Christ.
Galatians 3 is a very difficult chapter in the Holy Scriptures. Very few are able to study this chapter thoroughly. Very few have seen that the blessing promised by God to Abraham is God in Christ being our portion through the Holy Spirit, and this Holy Spirit is not separate from God but rather is God Himself. God Himself is such a living Spirit in us as our blessed portion. Today when we gain, enjoy, experience, and live in the Spirit, we enjoy the very God Himself.
Therefore, we have to say again that the crux of the book of Galatians is the Spirit. It is right that we need to know justification by faith. It is right that we need to see that on the cross the Lord Jesus satisfied the righteous requirements of God and thus accomplished the work of redemption, and we also need to see that today, when we trust in His work, we are justified. However, we must not see only this much, but we must also see that we must enjoy Christ Himself. Today this Christ is in us, and He is the Spirit, so we must come into the Spirit. We definitely have to see that Christ is the Spirit, God Himself is Spirit, and the Holy Spirit, of course, is the Spirit. The Triune God is this very Spirit. Today this Spirit is the blessing promised by God to Abraham. Today if we have this Spirit, we have this blessing. If we live in this Spirit, we are enjoying this blessing. Therefore, we must come into this Spirit. This is the book of Galatians.
Let us first take a brief look at the two books of Thessalonians. Because these two books are especially concerned about the Lord’s coming again, they mention the matter of the Spirit only a few times. In these two books there is a statement that cannot be found elsewhere in the New Testament or in any other place in the entire Holy Scriptures. This statement is in 1 Thessalonians 5:19: “Do not quench the Spirit.” In these two books there is no particular light, particular discussion, or particular revelation concerning the Spirit, but there is a very solemn charge, which is to not quench the Spirit. After the other books have spoken about the Spirit, now here is a charge, a reminder: “Do not quench the Spirit.” This word must be a reminder to us even today.
Now we come to 1 and 2 Timothy and Titus. We know that when the apostle Paul wrote these books, the churches were already in desolation, had deviated from the right track, and had lost their original form. This was the background of these writings. In addition, Bible readers acknowledge that these three books deal with the administration of the churches, and in the West some people called them the pastoral Epistles, the Epistles for the shepherding of the church. These observations are correct. The background of these books is the deformation of the churches, and the content seems to be instructing people how to administrate the churches. However, I say again, the external things of the Holy Scriptures appear to be one thing, but the core of the Holy Scriptures is another thing. This may be compared to the way the body and appearance of a person are one thing, while his soul and life are another. The external matters, the superficial matters, of these three books were written under the situation of the churches’ deformation, and they were for the administration of the churches. However, the contents, the center, the life, the soul, of these three books are still life and spirit. This is because the more the children of God are under the deformation and desolation of the churches, the more they need to know life and the more they need to live in the spirit. If we do not live in the spirit, and if we pay attention to outward, doctrinal discussions instead of paying attention to life, then the church will even more be in confusion. If we absolutely focus on life and live deeply in the spirit, then the problems, disputes, and deformation will be gone. The reason that the churches are deformed is that they have departed from life and are not living in the spirit.
In these days we have been talking about washing each other’s feet, blending with one another, loving one another, and coordinating with one another. Please consider this: If we neglect life and are not in the spirit but pay attention to doctrines and other matters, soon our coordination will collapse, and we will have problems with each other. Therefore, the central matters of the Epistles written by Paul under the decline of the church are altogether related to life. For this reason, in the two books of 1 and 2 Timothy, life is mentioned numerous times, and the spirit is also spoken of in a particular way.
Let us first look at 1 Timothy 1:3: “Even as I exhorted you, when I was going into Macedonia, to remain in Ephesus in order that you might charge certain ones not to teach different things.” If you read through 1 and 2 Timothy, you will see that different things refers to the things which were different from what the apostles preached and taught. What were the apostles preaching? The apostles preached that Christ, who is our Savior, comes into our spirit to be our life, thus issuing in the church as a great mystery. This is what the apostles preached and taught, but at that time there were certain ones who rose up to teach other things. I absolutely believe that they were teaching the law and the Old Testament. They were not preaching a strange religion or the things of other religions. Instead, they were teaching the Holy Scriptures, and their teachings were based on the Scriptures, yet what they emphasized was different from what the apostles emphasized. The apostles emphasized that Christ as our Savior and as our life produces the church as the great mystery of God, which is the house of God, the pillar and base of the truth. Another group of people were also teaching the Scriptures, but they had a different interpretation and were disputing with others. This kind of problem did not begin at the present time but had already begun in the first century.
Let us read on: “Nor to give heed to myths and unending genealogies” (v. 4a). Myths refers to the traditional things in Judaism. In the Jewish religion, besides the Old Testament Scriptures, there were many stories and beliefs handed down from the past, and people liked to listen to such things. Even today in the Catholic Church there are many such things, many legends. Unending genealogies refers to the genealogies in the Old Testament history diligently studied by the Jews. These seemingly were religious matters, and some of them were based on the Holy Scriptures, but Paul said that these were different doctrines that produced questionings rather than God’s economy, which is in faith. In the universe God has an economy, an arrangement, which is to be understood by faith. Hence, it is an economy, an arrangement, in faith. In other words, the message, the truth, that the apostle preached was God’s economy throughout the ages. This economy of God is for Christ to be our Savior and our life that we may become His members coordinated to form a Body for the expression of God Himself. This is God’s economy in our faith. In the early churches, however, some people other than the apostles were teaching the traditional things of Judaism and the genealogies of the Old Testament. However, these things only led to questionings; they did not reveal the mystery of God’s economy. Therefore, Paul asked Timothy to charge those people not to teach those things anymore.
Allow me to say this: Based on this principle, sometimes we have to stop the speaking of some brothers in the church meetings, because their speaking will produce questionings in the church, which will not edify, establish, or supply the brothers and sisters and therefore will not be helpful to the economy of God. According to this principle, there is a basis for stopping people from carelessly speaking in the church. In other words, it is not that any brother can simply speak in the church whatever messages he chooses. Not to mention if he taught idolatry; even if he were to teach other things which are apparently taken from the Scriptures, his speaking still must be stopped. The speaking must unveil the mystery of the economy of God instead of stirring up problems among the brothers and sisters.
In the United States a brother once came to us and demanded, based on 1 Corinthians 14, that in the meetings if anyone has an inspiration, he must be allowed to speak, and that if we disallow him to speak, we are not keeping the teaching of 1 Corinthians 14. Initially, this argument seems to be reasonable. Then after referring him to 1 Timothy 1:3, I asked him, “When Paul charged certain ones not to speak, was he charging them not to speak in their homes?” Of course, the answer is no; it is obvious that Paul meant that those people were not to speak in the meetings. It is true that all Scriptures were written under the inspiration of God, but we must know that the New Testament revelations are not the same as the Old Testament revelations. Whereas the Old Testament revelations are purely divine revelations without involving human experiences, the New Testament revelations are based upon human experiences. Therefore, when Paul wrote the Epistles, he had had certain experiences, and his writings were based on his experiences. First Corinthians was written in the early stage of his ministry when he felt that in the meetings the brothers and sisters can all speak. Gradually, after a few decades, when he wrote 1 Timothy in his old age, his speaking changed.
Let me give another example. In 1 Corinthians 7 Paul said that he wished that all the believers would remain unmarried even as he did, but when he wrote 1 Timothy 5, he said that he wished that the believers would be married. His speaking changed. In his early years of service he had the feeling that it was best for the believers not to marry but to be wholly for the Lord. After several decades, however, he observed that it was easy for the believers to get into trouble due to the weakness of the flesh, so he wrote another Epistle saying that it was proper for them to marry. Today we are not in the early stage or in the middle part of Paul’s ministry. Rather, we are in a time which is many years after the completion of Paul’s ministry. Therefore, we must not give undue emphasis to following the teaching in his early ministry. Instead, we should stress more his teaching in his final stage, because the teaching in the final stage was a mature teaching. This may be compared to a fruit. In 1 Corinthians the fruit was not quite ripe, but in 2 Timothy it had completely ripened. This does not mean that what he wrote in 1 Corinthians is not the word of God, just as we cannot say that because an apple has not ripened, it is not an apple.
In the same way, we are not saying that 1 Corinthians 14 should be put aside. Rather, we are saying that we should read it in conjunction with 1 Timothy 1:3. If the speakings of the brothers unveil the mystery of God, then praise and thank the Lord; of course, they all may speak. However, if someone stands up and speaks all kinds of irrelevant things, then we must advise him to stop. Today we have this situation among us. In the fellowship meetings, the brothers and sisters who have learned more spiritual lessons tend to give more consideration before they speak; they fear the Lord, and they carefully try to sense if it is of the Lord that they speak. While they hesitate, however, some of those who are very bold will take the opportunity to stand up and give a long talk. If you give such a one five minutes, he will speak ten minutes, and after that, he will still want to speak. What then should you do? This is a practical situation. Therefore, after having experiences in the churches over a few decades, Paul finally said that if some were to speak improperly in the church, they would have to be stopped.
