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Scripture Reading: Rom. 6:5, 13; 8:11; Acts 2:33, 36; Eph. 1:20-22.
We have seen that God and everything of God, that is, all that God is, has, has passed through, has accomplished, and has attained, are all stored in the Holy Spirit and have entered into us through the Holy Spirit. Hence, if we want to touch God and everything of God, we must touch the Holy Spirit, because God Himself and all that He has accomplished have been aggregated in the Holy Spirit.
When we touch the Holy Spirit, we live in resurrection, and only when we are living in resurrection will we have various spiritual experiences. These spiritual experiences are spiritual reality. In other words, we have spiritual reality when we are in resurrection and have spiritual experiences. There are at least five elements in the Holy Spirit—the divine element, the human element, the element of death, the element of resurrection, and the element of ascension. Although death, resurrection, and ascension are three elements, they are connected together as one. Just as we cannot separate death from resurrection, so we cannot separate resurrection from ascension. Most Bible readers know that death is closely connected to resurrection and that resurrection is closely followed by ascension. It is impossible to have resurrection without ascension; ascension and resurrection are connected. Thus, death, resurrection, and ascension are closely connected.
Romans 6 speaks particularly about the death of Christ, but when Christ’s death is mentioned, resurrection is also mentioned. Verse 5 says, “If we have grown together with Him in the likeness of His death, indeed we will also be in the likeness of His resurrection.” Once we mention death, we have to mention resurrection, because resurrection and death are connected. This means that all those who experience the death of Christ are those who are raised from the dead. The living of such ones is the living of those who are raised from the dead. Thus, the issue of the death in chapter 6 is man being brought into resurrection.
Then chapter 8 shows that resurrection is in the Holy Spirit. This chapter particularly speaks of living in the Holy Spirit and shows that to live in the Holy Spirit is to live in resurrection. Verse 9 says, “If indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you.” This Spirit is the Spirit of the One who raised Jesus from the dead, the Spirit of resurrection (v. 11). Hence, when we live in the spirit, we live in resurrection. It is the Spirit of resurrection who raised us up and who not only resurrected our spirit but also brought our whole being into the spirit. In other words, the Spirit of resurrection not only causes every part of our soul to be in the spirit, but one day He will even give life to our mortal bodies.
Therefore, we have to see that Romans 8 talks about the Holy Spirit and resurrection and that the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of resurrection. We can see that chapter 8 follows chapter 6. Chapter 6 speaks of death, and chapter 8 speaks of resurrection. The death in chapter 6 is connected to the resurrection in chapter 8. Thus, death and resurrection are closely connected to each other. We cannot touch Christ’s death without touching Christ’s resurrection. If we touch Christ’s death, we are in Romans 6, and at the same time, we are also in the resurrection in Romans 8. Death and resurrection are closely connected to each other.
Resurrection is connected to death, and resurrection is also connected to ascension. We cannot find a place in the entire New Testament that mentions only ascension without mentioning resurrection. Ascension is not a particular topic in the New Testament but resurrection is, and resurrection is connected to ascension. Resurrection includes ascension. Take the book of Acts for instance. Does this book speak of resurrection or ascension? Did the apostles testify concerning resurrection or ascension? Strictly speaking, Acts is a book on the testimony of the Lord’s resurrection. The apostles said that they all were witnesses of the resurrection of Jesus (2:32). Although their testimony was a testimony of resurrection, no other book in the New Testament talks about ascension more clearly than Acts.
In Acts 2 we see how the apostle Peter mentioned the matter of ascension, the whole story of ascension, and the condition of ascension. However, when Peter spoke of ascension, he connects it to resurrection. Ascension is not something independent of resurrection but something dependent on resurrection. Ascension is not its own topic, but resurrection is its own topic, and ascension is a section within the topic of resurrection. Here we clearly see that where there is resurrection, there is ascension and that it is impossible to have resurrection without ascension. In the New Testament resurrection is always connected to ascension.
Ephesians 1 talks about the power of Christ’s resurrection (vv. 19-20). This resurrection power raised Christ from the dead and seated Him at God’s right hand in the heavenlies, far above all rule and authority and power and lordship and every name that is named not only in this age but also in that which is to come. This shows us that resurrection brings in ascension and that ascension is connected to resurrection. No one can separate resurrection from ascension.
From this we see that death, resurrection, and ascension are joined together as one. Hence, we can say that there are three main elements in the Holy Spirit—the divine element, the human element, and a “triune” element—the element of death, resurrection, and ascension.
These three main elements in the Holy Spirit are actually five elements—the divine element, the human element, the element of death, the element of resurrection, and the element of ascension. The Bible mentions many times that the Lord is God, man, and resurrection, but it does not say that the Lord is ascension. Therefore, of the five elements of the Holy Spirit, the Lord occupies three—He is God, man, and resurrection. Moreover, 2 Corinthians 3:17 says, “The Lord is the Spirit.” The Lord is God, man, resurrection, and the Spirit. Hence, in the Spirit there are God, man, and resurrection. Before the incarnation God was God, having no human element, but after His incarnation the story of His being God and man began in Bethlehem. At that time He was not only God but also a man. He was a God-man.
When this God-man was on the earth, did He have the element of resurrection in Him? This is a big question in theology. Did the Lord’s resurrection life and power exist before His resurrection or after His resurrection? What is the basis of resurrection? Resurrection is according to life and comes from life. For instance, before a flower seed is planted into the soil, there is life within the seed, but does it have the element of resurrection within? Strictly speaking, it does not yet have the element of resurrection within.
Before the Lord’s resurrection He had the resurrection life and power within Him, but He had not yet accomplished the matter of resurrection. In John 11:25 He said, “I am the resurrection.” This is what the Lord said before His crucifixion and death, but immediately He continued by saying, “[I am] the life.” Then in chapter 12 He said that unless the grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it abides alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit (v. 24). Had the Lord been resurrected at that time? The resurrection life was in the “grain of wheat,” but the fact of resurrection had not yet been accomplished. It is not until the seed is planted into the ground and grows out from the ground that resurrection is accomplished. This is the expression of life, and the expression of life is resurrection.
From this we see what life and resurrection are. Before the seed is planted into the ground, it has the life of resurrection, but it does not have the resurrection of life. It is only after the seed is planted into the ground and grows out that it has both the life of resurrection and the resurrection of life.
Before incarnation God had only one element, which was God Himself. After His incarnation He not only had the divine element but also the human element. At that time, because the Lord had not yet died through crucifixion, there was no resurrection. Although He had the resurrection life in Him, the fact of resurrection had not yet been accomplished in Him. After He was raised from the dead, the element of resurrection was added into Him in addition to His divine and human elements. Then there were not only the elements of God and man in Him but also the element of resurrection.
According to God’s original intention, He wanted to mingle with man. Hence, He became flesh, obtaining the human element in addition to the divine element. At that point God had already worked Himself into man, accomplishing the purpose of mingling Himself with man. Why was there a need for the element of resurrection? The reason is that the incarnation of God was only a one-way mingling of God and man. Man had not yet entered into God and been mingled with God. In other words, incarnation put God in the same position as man, but God and man, man and God, had not been fully mingled together. It was only after resurrection that God was fully mingled with man.
When you were saved, your salvation was in the principle of incarnation, which is the bringing of God into man. When you were saved, incarnation took place in you, and God came into you. However, at that moment, was there any mingling between God and you, or you and God? Strictly speaking, according to the principle of incarnation, in our salvation God and man were not mingled together. Instead, God and man were just put together. This may be likened to people baking bread or cakes at home. They first put water into the flour. At this time the water and the flour have merely been put together but not mingled together. After putting the water into the flour, the next step is to mix, blend, and knead them together. At this time the water truly becomes mingled with the flour and the flour with the water. The two—the water and the flour, the flour and the water—are mingled together.
Incarnation brought God into the same position as man. The two were put together but were not fully mingled together. In His thirty-three and a half years of human living, the Lord Jesus was God who had put on man and was living a human life on the earth. God simply came and stayed where man was. Strictly speaking, God and man were not fully mingled together. While the Lord Jesus was living on the earth, His living was the living of the incarnated God. In those thirty-three and a half years, especially in the last three and a half years, the Lord’s living, strictly speaking, was not the full living of the mingling of God and man because He had not yet resurrected. At that time God had entered into man, but man had not yet entered into God. This is one side of the matter.
On the other side, the last three and a half years of the Lord’s living were truly a living of the mingling of God and man. Thus, there are two aspects. On the one hand, the Lord’s living was not the living of the mingling of God and man because the Lord had not yet died and resurrected, and man had not yet entered into God. The incarnation of the Lord brought God into man, but He had not yet died and resurrected and had not yet brought man into God. We can only say that God was living a life in man. Apparently, He first lived on the earth and then died. On the other hand, in reality He died first, and then He lived. At the beginning of His last three and a half years, He was baptized. Baptism put Him to death. When He came up from the water, He was a person of resurrection and was already mingled with God. His living in the last three and a half years on the earth was a living of man being mingled with God.
Our Christian living is a living in which we first die then live. We died at the time of our baptism. When we believed in the Lord, God entered into us. This is incarnation. From then on, God’s goal is to share one living with us, a living of man being mingled with God. Only when man is mingled with God can God be mingled with man. However, if man wants to live a life of being mingled with God, he must die. When we believe in the Lord, the first thing we must do is to be baptized. Romans 6 says that through baptism we died and were raised with the Lord (vv. 3-4). A genuine Christian living is one in which man is mingled with God and in which God mingles with man. Without resurrection there is no mingling of God and man.
Strictly speaking, incarnation put God and man together but did not fully mingle God and man as one. What kind of procedure can accomplish this matter of mingling God together with man? Only resurrection can. Incarnation simply put God and man in one place but did not fully mingle God and man, man and God, together. It was after resurrection that man entered into God, and God fully mingled with man. God and man were then fully mingled as one. In other words, when we were saved, there was only incarnation in us. There was only Emmanuel—God with man. God and man, man and God, were not yet mingled as one. It was not until the day when man had the element of resurrection that man and God, God and man, were mingled as one. At that time God was not only with man, but God was mingled with man as one.
This shows us that the Holy Spirit’s coming into us is for the purpose of mingling God and man together as one. The Holy Spirit possesses both the divine element and the human element, and in addition to the divine and human elements, there is also the element of resurrection. There are the three main elements in the Holy Spirit—the divine element, the human element, and the element of resurrection. When the Holy Spirit enters into us, He brings God into us, and He also mingles into us the human element, Christ’s resurrected humanity. Thus, we may be noble people, because the divine element and the uplifted humanity have been brought into us. Furthermore, there is another element, the element of resurrection. This element includes both death and ascension. Where there is resurrection, there is death, and where there is resurrection, there is ascension. These three elements are one, and their totality is resurrection. All these elements have entered into us through the Holy Spirit so that we may be mingled with God in resurrection.
When you contact someone who is living in the Holy Spirit and is filled with the Holy Spirit, you will sense the flavor of God. However, this is not enough. You should also be able to sense the flavor of man in him. All those who are filled with the Holy Spirit know how to be men of the highest standard. A person who is genuinely filled with the Holy Spirit has the flavor of God, the flavor of man, and the flavor of resurrection. He is not snobbish or puffed up but full of love. The more a person is filled with the Holy Spirit, the more he has the human appearance and the human flavor. Not only are the flavors of God and man in him, but the flavor of resurrection is also in him. He is mingled with God. Only in resurrection can man be mingled with God.
What is the flavor of resurrection? We all know that following resurrection is the heavens and before resurrection is death. There are two kinds of death in the Bible—one comes from Satan, and the other comes from God. The death that comes from Satan is from Adam and causes us to perish. The death that comes from God is from Christ and causes us to be saved. In other words, the death that comes from Adam causes us to perish, but the death that comes from Christ causes us to receive life. The death in Genesis 2 is a negative death, a perishing death, but the death in Romans 6 is a positive death, a life-receiving death. Many Christians pray unceasingly and even fast and shed tears in order to obtain the death in Romans 6 because they regard such a death as good and precious.
This good and precious death deals with everything in us that is against God, incompatible with God, opposed to God, and of the world, human affections, the self, and the soul-life. When we say that such a death is in a person, we mean that the world, sin, human affections, corruption, and the soul-life have been eliminated and terminated in him. Suppose someone speaks ill of a brother to his face, but that brother does not lose his temper. He remains silent without having to suppress his reaction or exercise patience. This is a sign of death. Such a person lives in resurrection and has the sign of death in him.
Moreover, many times we are able to see the condition of the heavens and savor the taste of the heavens in the saints. Once we see them, we know that they are living in resurrection because we sense the realm of the heavens—a realm that is clear and filled with authority—and we see the mingling of God and man in them. The reality of the mingling of God and man is possible only in the Holy Spirit. However, it is not sufficient to say that this reality is in the Holy Spirit. We must also say that the reality of the mingling is in resurrection. There is no resurrection outside of the Holy Spirit. Resurrection is in the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is resurrection, and resurrection is the Holy Spirit. A person who is filled with the Holy Spirit surely has resurrection in him.
Hence, we can see that a person who is in resurrection surely has two signs—the sign of death and the sign of the heavens. In other words, a person who is in resurrection has the death of the cross as a mark and the condition of the heavens as a sign. Death rids us of anything that is incompatible with God. If we have death, we will not have anything in us that is incompatible with God. The heavens refer to everything in us that is compatible with God. If we have the condition of the heavens, we certainly are those who are compatible with God.
Death is a mark on the negative side, but the heavens are a sign on the positive side. Death is the deliverance from the old creation, but the heavens are the entrance into the new creation. Death delivers us from the old creation, the world, and everything that is of man—which is corrupted, fallen, of human affection, and fleshly. The heavens cause us to enter into the heavenly sphere and to be mingled with God. Therefore, when we see a person who has both death and the heavens in him, we know that he is living in resurrection. To live in the Holy Spirit is to live in resurrection. In the living of such a person, we see the mingling of God and man.
Death is not an independent process but must be experienced in resurrection. Ascension is also not an independent process but must be experienced in resurrection. Some people do not know resurrection, yet all the time they ask for death. Ultimately, they are not able to die, because there is no experience of death apart from resurrection. Only when we are in resurrection can we experience death. The death in Romans 6 can only be experienced in Romans 8. The death in chapter 6 is merely a fact. By itself, it cannot become our experience in Christ. It is in chapter 8 that death becomes our experience in the Holy Spirit and in resurrection. In the same way, we can experience ascension only in resurrection. We cannot pursue the experience of ascension outside of resurrection.
Hence, the experience of death is in resurrection, and the experience of ascension is also in resurrection. Resurrection is the totality of all the Christian experiences. Paul said that he wanted to know the resurrection of Christ (Phil. 3:10), but he did not say that he wanted to know Christ’s death or ascension. Rather, he said that he wanted to know the power of His resurrection. If he knew resurrection, he would be conformed to the Lord’s death. As long as he knew resurrection, he would be able to experience death and ascension, because death and ascension are in resurrection. Where is resurrection? Resurrection is in the Holy Spirit. Where is the Holy Spirit? The Holy Spirit is in our spirit. Where is our spirit? Our spirit is in the innermost part of our entire being, deeper even than our soul.
There was once a brother who heard the doctrine of dying and ascending with Christ and was deeply touched. After he went home, he was unable to eat anything, so he knelt down to fast and pray. He cried with sorrow and said, “I have been a Christian for so many years. Why do I not have any experience of death or the heavens?” After he wept, he rose up to read the Bible and looked for all the portions that speak of the heavens and death, and he tried his best to comprehend and understand them. Then he knelt down to pray again, “O Lord, please grant me the taste of death and the taste of the heavens.” Do you think this way would work?
This may be likened to listening to lovely music from another person’s radio and then going back home to cry and plead for the music again. Will the music come out automatically? Some people said that after the brother in the story above went home to cry and plead, the Spirit came to him. We cannot say that such a thing did not happen, but this is not the proper way that is revealed in the Bible. In another story a brother testified that from the time he was saved, he became a completely different person in the Holy Spirit. Then another brother admired him, wishing that he could also become a completely different person. So he went to pray and pursue after this. Later, he changed himself by talking in a softer voice and doing things in a slower way, seemingly becoming a different person. However, his effort lasted only for three days, and on the fourth day he became exhausted. Eventually, on the fifth day he failed. Some people, after reading spiritual publications and listening to spiritual doctrines, have a desire to practice accordingly and therefore go to pray. However, this is useless. Even the prayer of confession, if it is not in the spirit, may not be profitable, because many times it is the soul that is functioning. We may repent, confess, pursue, and admire merely in our soul. It may be merely the soul that cries, pleads, thinks, and loves. Hence, what matters is not how a certain thing is done but whether we do it in our spirit or in our soul.
We should stop many of our prayers and thoughts because they may be the activities of our soul. Many people who are used to using their soul have no way to cease from their soul. They are very zealous, they attend every meeting, and they pray long prayers in every meeting, but they cannot touch their spirit. Therefore, those who are zealous should not be too zealous, and those who are not zealous should be more zealous. We must learn not to be carried away in excitement. Rather, we must learn to cease from our emotion, from all the imaginary thoughts in our mind, and from all our high thoughts about ourselves. If we can cease from our soul, this will be a great deliverance. We have to learn to be silent and to turn to our spirit. There we will be able to touch the Holy Spirit and experience all the spiritual reality.
Spiritual experience does not depend on our effort or our running but on our turning to the spirit. This is our unique responsibility. Today God is in our spirit. If we want to contact and touch God, the only way is by turning to our spirit. We do not need to spend an enormous amount of effort to stop our mind, emotion, and will. As long as we turn to our spirit, we will spontaneously touch the Spirit. When we touch the Spirit, that is, when we touch God, we will obey the sense within us. If we always obey the sense, we will live in the spirit and in resurrection. Then the experiences of both death and ascension will be ours, and we will have all the spiritual reality.
