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Scripture Reading: 2 Cor. 1:21-22; 3:3, 6, 8, 17, 18b; 13:14; Gal. 3:14; 5:16, 18, 22, 25; Eph. 2:18; 3:16 Phil 1:19
In chapter 8 we saw the functions of the Spirit in Romans and 1 Corinthians. In this chapter we want to see the functions of the Spirit in 2 Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, and Philippians.
The Spirit has the function of anointing, sealing, and pledging (2 Cor. 1:21-22; 5:5; Eph. 1:13-14; 4:30). We are being anointed with the Spirit as the compound ointment. Exodus 30 gives us a clear picture of the all-inclusive Spirit as the compound ointment. The very ointment with which God anoints us is the processed and consummated Triune God. Before being processed and consummated, God had only divinity. He did not have humanity, nor had He passed through the processes of His human living, His all-inclusive death, His resurrection, or His ascension. But today God has been processed and consummated to be the all-inclusive, compound Spirit typified by the compound ointment.
As we have seen in chapter 2, the ingredients of this compound ointment typify all the elements of Christ’s person and work, which are included in the compound Spirit. The oil of the ointment signifies the Spirit of God with divinity. The very Spirit with whom we have been and are being anointed has been compounded with God’s divinity and Christ’s humanity, human living, death, resurrection, and ascension. The Spirit as the oil, after being compounded, has become an ointment. This divine ointment, the Spirit, is the processed and consummated Triune God.
We may not have much apprehension or realization of this Spirit in our experience. But gradually, we will enter into this apprehension and realization. We will sense that the real humanity is in this compound Spirit. The more we experience the compound Spirit, the more human we will be. The humanity of Jesus is an element of the compound Spirit. Some may want to be like angels, but it is much higher to be a man for the fulfillment of God’s purpose. The angels are merely our servants (Heb. 1:14). The man Jesus with His humanity is included in the compound Spirit with which we are being anointed.
God is anointing us with Himself as the compound ointment, the divine “paint.” We need to receive coat after coat of this divine paint. This painting is the anointing. We are being painted with the all-inclusive, compound Spirit as the processed and consummated Triune God. How many “coats” of the divine paint have we received? We can realize that the apostle Paul was anointed with many coats of the divine paint, the compound Spirit. Paul was being anointed by the Spirit continually. We need to take him as our pattern by enjoying this anointing, this painting, day by day.
All that God is, all that God has, all that God has accomplished, and all that God has done, is doing, and will do are compounded in this anointing ointment. Day after day this compounded Spirit is anointing us with Himself as the ointment. The longer we remain in the Lord’s recovery, the more of God we will gain. We gain God by being anointed inwardly with Him. He anoints Himself, paints Himself, into our being. In this way we are mingled together with Him. Second Corinthians 1:21 and 22 say that God has anointed us, sealed us, and given the pledge of the Spirit in our hearts. The anointing is God applying Himself to us. God is painting us with Himself. I have been under this painting, this anointing, for about sixty-five years.
This anointing then becomes the sealing. To be sealed with the Spirit is to have the very processed, consummated Triune God as a mark upon us. The mark is God Himself as the compounded, sealing Spirit. The seal of the Spirit indicates that we belong to God, that we are God’s property, God’s inheritance, God’s asset. On the one hand, we have been sealed with the Spirit. On the other hand, this sealing of God with Himself as the compounded Spirit has not ceased. It is still going on. According to Ephesians 4:30, this sealing will last until the redemption, the transfiguration, of our body. The transfiguration of our body is the issue of the sealing of the Spirit. This sealing is going on and on within us.
This sealing is another aspect of the anointing, the painting. God’s painting us with Himself puts a mark upon us, and that mark, that seal, is God Himself. Day by day our God is still sealing us with Himself. This sealing is a kind of saturating. When a seal with ink is applied to paper, the paper is saturated with the sealing ink. Likewise, when the Spirit as the living seal is applied to us, we are also saturated with Him as the divine ink. According to Ephesians 1:13-14 and 4:30, this sealing goes on until the redemption of our body. The seal of the Holy Spirit is living and works within us to permeate and transform us with God’s divine element until we are matured in God’s life and eventually fully redeemed in our body.
The Greek preposition for unto in Ephesians 4:30 may also be translated as “for.” The sealing of the Spirit is going on within us for the redemption of our body. This means that the redemption of our body is the issue of the sealing of the Spirit. The sealing of the Spirit continually increases within us until our entire being is sealed, issuing in the redemption of our body. When the sealing of the Spirit reaches our body, our body will be redeemed and we will be raptured. Our rapture is the consummate step of God’s salvation in the divine life. The sealing of the Spirit and the redeeming are one. Whatever God seals, He redeems. As the sealing of the Spirit is going on within us, God’s subjective redemption of our being is also going on.
With the sealing of the Spirit is the pledging of the Spirit. On the one hand, we are God’s inheritance, God’s possession. Therefore, God put Himself upon us as a seal. On the other hand, God is our inheritance, our possession, our property, our real estate. We know that God is our possession because we have Him as our pledge, our guarantee. The pledge is the consummated, compounded Spirit given to us as the firstfruits. Romans 8:23 mentions “the firstfruits of the Spirit.” Today the pledge of the Spirit is the firstfruits, the foretaste, of the Spirit, and the full taste is coming. The full taste is guaranteed by the foretaste.
Paul tells the Corinthians in 2 Corinthians 3:3 that they are a letter of Christ “ministered by us, inscribed not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God.” This shows that the Spirit is for inscribing. The Spirit is not the person who inscribes but the ink with which the apostles inscribed Christ into the believers. When we write with ink, the ink is applied to the paper and becomes one with the paper. The Spirit is the ink with which the servants of God are inscribing us. This means that the divine element is being added to our being. We are receiving more heavenly, divine ink every day.
I have the consciousness that while I am ministering to the saints, I am inscribing Christ in their hearts, and they are receiving more of the Spirit as the ink. When we receive the Spirit as the ink, all the things compounded in the Spirit—Christ’s divinity, humanity, human living, death, resurrection, and ascension—are added into our being. All these elements are compounded in the divine ink, and the divine ink as the divine element is applied to us by the servants of the Lord.
According to 2 Corinthians 3:6 and 8, the Spirit has the function of ministering. This function is similar to the function of a waiter who ministers food to people. The Holy Spirit today is ministering the crucified, resurrected, and ascended Christ to us. He is the very food that the ministering Spirit ministers to us.
The ministering of Christ to us gives us life. The Spirit functions to give life. Second Corinthians 3:6b says, “The Spirit gives life.” First Corinthians 15:45b says, “The last Adam became a life-giving Spirit.” The last Adam is the person of the resurrected Christ to give life. The Spirit gives the divine life, the compounded Triune God as life, to us.
Second Corinthians 3:17 says, “The Lord is the Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.” The Spirit’s function is to be the Lord and also to free us from the veil, the covering, of the law. The veil of the law is the law itself. As long as we keep the law, the law is a veil that covers us from seeing Christ. The Spirit functions to free us from the covering of the law that we may have an unveiled face to behold Christ.
Second Corinthians 3:18 reveals that the Spirit is the transforming Spirit. The Spirit functions to free us from the covering of the law that we may have an unveiled face to look at the very Christ face to face so that we might be transformed into His image of glory. While the Spirit, who is the Lord Himself, is freeing us from the covering of the law to help us to have an unveiled face, He is also transforming us. The Spirit adds Himself to us, and this addition of the Spirit, through a divine and spiritual metabolism, transforms us into another form. When we were under the law, we were in our old being, an old and natural form. But the freeing Spirit adds the new element of the Divine Being into our being, causing a divine metabolism within us. On the one hand, the new element of God is being added to us. On the other hand, the old element of our old being is being discharged from us. Then we are transformed into the glorious image of Christ, and this transformation is “from the Lord Spirit” (v. 18).
Second Corinthians 4:13 says that we have “the same spirit of faith.” This spirit is God’s Spirit mingled with our spirit. Therefore, another function of the Spirit is to mingle Himself with the human spirit. The thought of the mingled spirit is very strong here and in Romans 8. When Paul tells us to walk according to the spirit in Romans 8:4, he is referring to the mingled spirit. Both Henry Alford and M. R. Vincent point out that the spirit of faith in 2 Corinthians 4:13 is the mingling of the Holy Spirit with our human spirit. The compounded, consummated Spirit of God today has the function of mingling Himself with the human spirit.
The Spirit has the function of fellowshipping, which implies communication. Second Corinthians 13:14 says, “The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.” According to our experience, we do not receive the love of God first. We receive the grace of Christ; then in the grace we realize the love of God. The fellowship of the Spirit is the Spirit Himself as the transmission of the grace of the Lord with the love of God for our participation.
The Spirit also functions to perfect us. Paul asks the Galatians, “Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh?” (Gal. 3:3). This verse indicates that the beginning Spirit is also the perfecting Spirit. The Spirit begins our spiritual life and also perfects our spiritual life.
In Galatians 3:5 Paul indicates that the Spirit has the function of doing works of power.
Galatians 3:14 says, “In order that the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles in Christ Jesus, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.” This verse reveals that the Spirit is the blessing of the gospel to the Gentiles. Galatians 3 talks about God’s blessing through Christ to all the Gentiles. This was a promise to Abraham, and this promise was the glad tidings, the gospel, God preached to Abraham. Actually, it was the promise God gave to Abraham, but Paul considered that promise as the gospel. God promised Abraham that through one of his descendants, all the Gentiles would be blessed. According to Galatians 3, the blessing of that promise, the blessing of the gospel God preached to Abraham, is just the all-inclusive Spirit. The all-inclusive Spirit is the very realization of Christ, who is the embodiment of the Triune God as the blessing to all the Gentiles. We have to realize that in the gospel, the main blessing, the central blessing, we have received is this all-inclusive Spirit.
The Spirit also has the function of crying, “Abba, Father!” (4:6). On the one hand, we are crying, “Abba, Father!” (Rom. 8:15), but actually, the Spirit of God’s Son is crying in our hearts.
John 3 tells us that we need to be reborn, to be born of the Spirit (vv. 5-6). Galatians 4:29 refers to being “born according to the Spirit.” We are children according to the Spirit. Such a word indicates that the Spirit is the regenerating Spirit. We all were regenerated by Him, so we became children according to Him.
According to Galatians 5:5, the Spirit is the hope-awaiting Spirit: “We by the Spirit out of faith eagerly await the hope of righteousness.” Christ’s coming is our hope. We should eagerly await Him as the hope of righteousness. The Spirit always earnestly awaits this hope. When we walk according to the indwelling Spirit, we spontaneously await the coming Lord Jesus as our hope. The indwelling Spirit has a hope-awaiting function.
The believers walk by the Spirit (vv. 16, 25b). This means that the Spirit is walking with the believers. We are walking by the Spirit, and the Spirit is walking with us.
While the Spirit is walking with us, He is fighting against the flesh (v. 17). We have a major enemy—our flesh. Who can deal with such a major enemy? Only the Spirit can deal with our flesh. The Spirit is the fighting Spirit, fighting against our flesh. He is both the fighter and the sword, the weapon for slaying (Eph. 6:17-18).
While the Spirit is walking with us and fighting for us, He is leading us (Gal. 5:18). He will never lead us to the theater, but He will always lead us to the meetings. We get to the meetings by the leading of the Spirit. We can sense the leading of the Spirit by the inward peace. When we come to the meetings, we have peace. If we went to the movies, we would not have peace. Not having peace means that the Spirit does not lead us that way.
The Spirit also has the function of bearing the fruit of virtues (vv. 22-23). The Spirit who walks with us, who fights for us, and who is leading us, helps us to bear the fruit of all kinds of human and divine virtues, such as love, joy, peace, long-suffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, meekness, and self-control (vv. 22-23).
According to Galatians 6:8, we need to sow unto the Spirit. Whatever we do in our human life is a sowing, and whatever we sow, we will reap. Whether we have the positive reaping or the negative reaping depends upon our sowing. If our sowing is in the flesh, that is negative. If our sowing is in the Spirit, that is positive. God wants us to have the positive sowing all day long. This is only possible by the Spirit.
The Spirit ushers the believers to the Father (Eph. 2:18). We have access to the Father in and by the Spirit. Therefore, the Spirit ushers us. In ourselves we do not have access to the Father. The Spirit is our access. He is our usher.
In Ephesians 3:16 Paul prays that God would strengthen us with the power of the Holy Spirit. Therefore, the Holy Spirit is the strengthening Spirit and also the empowering Spirit. His strengthening and empowering are altogether in our spirit.
Ephesians 4:3 speaks of the oneness of the Spirit. The oneness is the result of uniting. For example, the electricity in all the lamps makes them one because the inner electricity unites them together as one. We Christians are all united together as one Body by the uniting Spirit.
The Spirit functions as the essence of the Body. Ephesians 4:4 says, “One Body and one Spirit.” This indicates that the Spirit is the essence of the Body. The Body of Christ is composed of all the believers, but when all the believers are not living in the Spirit, they are not the members of the Body in actuality. But if they all live in the Spirit, they are living members of the Body. The Spirit is the essence of the Body.
According to Ephesians 6:17, the Spirit as the sword has the function of slaying. The Spirit today kills the negative things within us by slaying them. The Spirit slays our flesh and our opinion.
The Spirit within us is the supplying Spirit. Philippians 1:19 speaks of “the bountiful supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ.” The Spirit of Jesus Christ is the very realization of the incarnated, crucified, resurrected, and ascended Christ. His very person together with His incarnation, crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension are the riches of the Spirit’s supply. The Spirit supplies us with the incarnation, with the death of Christ, with the resurrection of Christ, and with the ascension of Christ.
When we are down and disappointed, the Spirit within us can supply us with ascension. If we feel dead, we can pray, and the Spirit within us will supply us with resurrection. Resurrection is typified by the calamus in the compound ointment in Exodus 30. It is a reed that shoots up out of the muddy situation into the air. We need to experience the resurrection of Christ and the ascension of Christ in the Spirit. The Spirit also supplies the killing death of Christ. We may have a negative thought about a certain brother or sister, but the indwelling Spirit supplies us with the killing of Jesus to kill this thought. If we are proud, the indwelling Spirit can supply us with Jesus as our humility. This supply causes us not to seek our own glory but to give all the glory to Him. The indwelling Spirit supplies all these things within us. When Paul wrote concerning the bountiful supply of the Spirit, he was in prison. How could he endure that kind of situation? He could endure it only by the inner supply, the bountiful supply, of the Spirit of Jesus Christ. Thank the Lord for this wonderful, bountiful supply.
The Spirit also has the function of serving. In Philippians 3:3 Paul says that we serve by the Spirit of God. We serve as priests by the Spirit of God, not by the ordinances of the law; we boast in Christ, not in the law; and we have no confidence in the flesh but in the Spirit.
