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Romans 8:9 says that since the Spirit of God dwells in us, we are in the spirit, and therefore, we are of Christ. Philippians 3:10 says, “To know Him [Christ] and the power of His resurrection.” This verse implies that only by knowing the power of resurrection can we know Christ. In 2 Corinthians 5:16 Paul says, “So then we, from now on, know no one according to the flesh.” Even though the apostle had known Christ according to the flesh, he no longer knew Christ in that way. The apostle Paul confessed that before his salvation he had known Christ according to the flesh, not according to the spirit, but now he knew Him so no longer.
In the Bible we see two principles that are related to Christ. One is the principle of incarnation, and the other is the principle of death and resurrection. Only when we know the principles of incarnation and of death and resurrection can we know Christ in a thorough way. If we do not know what incarnation and what death and resurrection are, our knowledge of Christ will be strictly doctrinal and will not have much impact on us. Only by knowing these two principles of incarnation and of death and resurrection can our knowledge of Christ be of life, not of doctrines, and be subjective, not merely objective.
What is the principle of incarnation? The principle of incarnation is God coming into man. This is something that is truly of the Spirit and that requires the Holy Spirit to thoroughly shine in us so that it may become our inward vision. The incarnation of the Lord is to bring God into man. Before the Lord Jesus was born, God could not enter into man because He had not been incarnated. God’s entering into man began with the incarnation of the Lord Jesus. Hence, in the Old Testament there was no such thing as God entering into man because at that time incarnation had not yet begun, and God and man had not yet been mingled together.
Incarnation began with the birth of the Lord Jesus, but did incarnation stop at that time? The answer is no. Not only was the birth of the Lord Jesus incarnation, but every time someone is saved, that is also incarnation. When you and I repented and believed in the Lord, we received the Lord Jesus into us. That was incarnation happening once again.
The birth of the Lord Jesus was the beginning of incarnation in the universe. Since that time, incarnation has been occurring again and again, time after time, and day after day. Ever since the birth of the Lord Jesus, which was the first time God came into man, there have been many other times in which God has come into man. What is the story of our salvation? Our salvation is the story of God coming into man. Every person’s salvation is a story of God coming into man. This is the principle of incarnation.
Therefore, we need to see that the first principle concerning Christ is incarnation—God coming into man. Do we have this principle in us? Are we incarnated people? The fact is that all of us saved ones have this principle in us. Through our believing in Him and receiving Him, the Lord Jesus entered into us. Thus, we became incarnated people. Strictly speaking, those who have not passed through incarnation have not been saved. Hence, we have to say from our heart, “Thank and praise the Lord! The principle of incarnation that is in Christ is also in us.” Incarnation is God coming into man. As those who have been saved, God has come into us. We all have the story of incarnation on us and in us.
The second principle concerning Christ is the principle of death and resurrection. What is the meaning of death and resurrection? Incarnation is God entering into man, and death and resurrection are man entering into God. If we want to know Christ, we have to know these two principles. Christ is God entering into man, and Christ is also man entering into God. God entering into man and man entering into God are the two principles concerning Christ, the two stories of Christ. Everything that Christ went through is included in these two principles. Through incarnation He as God came into man to become man. Then through death and resurrection He entered into God again. Through incarnation and through death and resurrection He accomplished and passed through what He had to accomplish and pass through. These two principles embody everything that relates to Christ and also what God is doing throughout the ages. The work that God wants to do is to work Himself into man and man into Himself so that God and man, man and God, would be mingled as one.
We all have the principle of incarnation in us, but do we have the principle of death and resurrection? As saved ones, we all have God mingled with us, and we have the assurance to say that God has entered into us and is touching us all the time. We also can testify to people that we have God in us and that God is dwelling in us. In 1936 I was living in Tientsin, and one day I was praying in my room, preparing to give a message on the Holy Spirit’s dwelling in us. After I prayed, I had the feeling that it was so glorious to have God dwelling in me. I wanted to run through the streets, telling everyone that I had a wonderful person—God—in me.
All the saved ones have the feeling that God is in them, but some may have a weaker feeling, and others may have a stronger feeling. Every genuinely saved person has a mysterious story in him. Even though he may not be able to explain it, within him there is a mystery, a story, that only he himself is able to feel. This mystery is that God is in him. Thus, every saved one has the principle of incarnation. However, Christ has more than just the principle of incarnation within Him. In Christ there is not just a one-way traffic but a two-way traffic, a coming and a going. Christ came in His incarnation, and He went in His death and resurrection. His coming is God’s entering into man, and His going is man’s entering into God. His coming is His incarnation, and His going is His death and resurrection. Therefore, when we remember the Lord at the Lord’s table, we have to praise the Lord that He not only came through incarnation but also went through death and resurrection.
In preaching the gospel, most people speak much about the Lord’s coming but not about His going. The Lord Jesus Himself said, “I tell you the truth, It is expedient for you that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Comforter will not come to you; but if I go, I will send Him to you” (John 16:7). When the Lord mentioned His coming, He simply touched on it lightly. He said that the Son of Man had come to seek and to save that which was lost (Luke 19:10). When He mentioned His going, however, He stressed it very much. The Lord’s going was expedient for us. If He had not gone, the Holy Spirit would not have come. In John 14, 15, and 16 the word going is very significant. The Lord Jesus is not only the Lord who came but also the Lord who went. His coming was His incarnation, and His going was His death and resurrection.
We already know that we all have the principle of “coming,” that is, the principle of incarnation in us, but do we have the principle of “going”? Do we have the principle of death and resurrection in us? The principle of death and resurrection is to bring man to the heavens, to bring man into God. The Lord has now come into us, and His life has passed through death and resurrection. Thus, the One who dwells in us is the God of death and resurrection. When we are joined to Him, we are joined to His death and resurrection, so we also have the principle of death and resurrection. Objectively, we have died and were resurrected, but subjectively, we have not completely died and been resurrected.
According to the objective aspect, when Christ died and was resurrected, we also died and were resurrected. But according to the subjective aspect, we seldom have the experience of death and resurrection. When we were saved, the principle of incarnation took place in us, and God truly dwelt in us. Now all our experiences, history, and progress should be in the principle of death and resurrection. The principle of incarnation took place in us when we were saved, but now all our spiritual experiences, history, and progress hinge on the principle of death and resurrection.
Every saved one experiences regeneration when God entered into him. What is regeneration? Regeneration is God coming into man. Thus, incarnation already took place in us in our salvation. From the time of our salvation, our experience, progress, and spiritual story depend on the principle of death and resurrection. Hence, the story of a Christian is exactly the same as the story of Christ. The stories of Christ are the stories of incarnation and of death and resurrection, that is, the stories of God entering into man and man entering into God. These are also our stories—the stories of incarnation and of death and resurrection, of God entering into man and man entering into God.
What are death and resurrection? Death and resurrection are man’s entering into God. All our experiences after salvation are to bring us into God. So what does it mean to have “death” in us? We have already said that for us to know Christ, we must know His death and resurrection and the power of His resurrection. All that Christ had was brought through death—His mind, His emotion, His will, His actions, and even the life of God in Him were brought through death. Everything that He had was brought into death to pass through death. With us, the principle is the same. Everything that we have must be brought through death. If you say that you have the principle of death and resurrection, then I would ask you if everything you have has been brought into death. Has everything you have passed through death? Some people may be deep in their experience of this, but others may be more superficial. Some may experience this principle in a partial way, but others may experience it in many ways. Regardless of how we experience this, none of us have fully passed through death. Not until we are raptured will we have fully passed through death and resurrection.
We need to know Christ according to these two principles. In His incarnation He brought God into man, and through His death and resurrection He brought man into God. All of us saved ones have some experience of incarnation because we have God in us. However, we still need to experience death and resurrection. We need the experience of our mind, emotion, will, and everything being brought into death and passing through death so that through the principles of incarnation and of death and resurrection we may have a living knowledge of Christ, a knowledge that is subjective and of life.
