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In this lesson we shall continue to see the joining of the believers to the processed Triune God.
God the Father is the source of the divine Trinity, God the Son is the embodiment of the processed Triune God, and God the Spirit is the ultimate consummation of the processed Triune God. The Spirit, in whom the complete divine Trinity is consummated, is the processed, compound, all-inclusive, life-giving, indwelling, sevenfold intensified, consummated Spirit. Having received Him essentially and having been baptized into Him economically, the believers are organically joined to God the Spirit.
To receive God the Spirit essentially is to receive Him for our existence, being, life, and living. On the night of His resurrection the Lord Jesus came back to His disciples and breathed into them that they might receive the Holy Spirit essentially (John 20:22) as the Spirit of life (Rom. 8:2), the life-giving Spirit whom He had become in resurrection, to be their life and the essence of the new creation (1 John 5:12; 2 Cor. 5:17). Having heard the gospel and having believed in the crucified Christ, the believers have received this all-inclusive, life-giving Spirit. This Spirit enters into them and lives in them to be the essence of their divine life, nature, and being.
John 14:16-17 says, “And I [the Son] will ask the Father, and He will give you another Comforter, that He may be with you forever; even the Spirit of reality...He abides with you and shall be in you.” It is pointed out here that the Spirit will come to indwell the believers, be joined to them, and be with them forever. The Spirit in the believers is the Spirit of reality who causes the reality of the divine Trinity and of all the divine things to be realized in them.
All that the Father is and has is the Son’s (John 16:15; Col. 2:9), and all that the Son is and has is received by the Spirit (John 16:14). Hence, the entire Triune God—the Father, Son, and Spirit—is realized in this Spirit. When this Spirit enters into the believers, the Triune God is realized in them and mingled with them to become their life and their essence. This Spirit of reality is the reality of all the divine things, such as life, light, love, grace, and power. It is through Him that these divine things may be realized in the believers to be their experience and enjoyment. Hence, John 16:13 says, “But when He, the Spirit of reality, comes, He will guide you into all the reality.” When the Spirit of reality enters into the believers to be joined to them, He will guide them into the reality of the divine Trinity and of the divine things.
The Spirit is also the Spirit of life (Rom. 8:2). Life is the intrinsic essence of the divine Trinity. When the Spirit enters into the believers, He imparts the eternal life of God into them to be their life. The word life is used four times in Romans 8:1-11. Verse 2 mentions the Spirit of life; verse 6 says that the mind set on the spirit is life; verse 10 says that our spirit is life because of righteousness; and verse 11 says that the indwelling Spirit will give life to our mortal bodies. This unveils a fourfold life. First, life is the Spirit. Then the Spirit comes into the believers’ spirit to make their spirit life. Furthermore, the Spirit spreads from their spirit into their mind to make their mind life. Finally, the Spirit imparts this life even into their mortal bodies to make the body of sin a body of life. The focus of this fourfold life is the indwelling of the Spirit of life in the believers’ spirit. This Spirit of life will spread from their spirit into their mind and throughout their whole soul, even reaching their body. Eventually, their whole being will be filled with the Spirit of life, that is, filled with the Triune God.
The Spirit is also the anointing ointment in the believers to anoint them (2 Cor. 1:21; Heb. 1:9b; 1 John 2:20, 27). The Spirit is not dormant in the believers; rather, He is always in motion and active. His moving, His action, is a kind of anointing to add more of the elements of the Triune God into them. The more this anointing ointment anoints them, the more the divine elements increase in them and the more the Triune God is united with them. The Spirit’s adding the divine elements into them by anointing them is like someone’s painting a piece of furniture. If he continues to paint, eventually that piece of furniture will be completely saturated with the paint, and the entire piece of furniture will bear the color of the paint.
It is also in this way that the Spirit’s anointing causes the Triune God to be mingled with the believers. The Triune God Himself is both the Painter and the paint; the believers are like pieces of furniture. It pleases God to be mingled with them that they may be filled with His elements. Therefore, He has become the Spirit to be the anointing ointment continually anointing them until they are filled with His elements. When paint is applied to furniture, there is no interaction between the two. However, when the Spirit as the anointing is added into the believers, He is mingled with them as one.
The compound Spirit as the anointing is typified by the holy anointing ointment in Exodus 30. The holy anointing ointment was made by mingling four spices with a hin of olive oil. This blending made the oil into a fragrant ointment. Olive oil signifies the Spirit of God. Flowing myrrh smells sweet but tastes bitter, and in the Bible it is used mostly for burial. Hence, it signifies the precious death of Christ. Cinnamon has a distinctive flavor and is used as a spice in cooking. Thus, fragrant cinnamon signifies the sweetness and effectiveness of Christ’s death. Calamus is a reed which grows out of a marsh or muddy place and shoots high into the air. Hence, calamus signifies the precious resurrection of Christ. Cassia was used in ancient times as a repellent to drive away insects and snakes. Cassia thus signifies the power of Christ’s resurrection. These four spices compounded with a hin of olive oil became the holy anointing ointment.
In the compounded ointment there were a hin of olive oil and four spices. In the Bible the number one signifies the unique God, and the number four signifies the creatures. Hence, the holy anointing ointment signifies the mingling of divinity with humanity. The first and the fourth of the spices were each of five hundred shekels. Five hundred signifies full responsibility. The second and third of the spices were each of two hundred fifty shekels. Hence, with the four spices there were three complete units of five hundred shekels. These three complete units signify the Triune God, and the middle unit divided in half signifies that the Second of the Godhead was split through death. The entire picture signifies that the Triune God has passed through death and that in resurrection He is mingled with humanity to bear the full responsibility.
Today the Spirit, who is typified by the holy anointing ointment, is the Triune God processed to become the all-inclusive compound Spirit. In this Spirit we can see divinity, humanity, the death of Christ, the sweetness and effectiveness of Christ’s death, the resurrection of Christ, and the power of His resurrection. Now this all-inclusive compound Spirit is anointing us with all His riches as the ointment.
The Spirit is also the seal in the believers (2 Cor. 1:22a; Eph. 1:13; 4:30). A seal is a mark. The believers’ being sealed with the Spirit means that God has put the Spirit into them as a seal to mark them out, indicating that they are God’s possession. Furthermore, a seal has an image. When the believers are sealed with the Spirit, they bear the image of God. Therefore, they are like God and they express God. The Spirit as the seal comes into the believers once for all, but the sealing of the Spirit is a continuing process. The believers have been sealed with the Spirit unto the redemption of God’s acquired possession (Eph. 1:14), that is, the redemption, the transfiguration, of the believers’ body. The Spirit’s sealing is His continual moving within the believers. It begins in their spirit and it spreads into their mind, emotion, and will. Eventually even their body will be sealed, saturated, with the Spirit. Thus their entire being will be sealed with the Spirit and completely joined to the Spirit as one.
The Spirit is also the pledge in the believers (2 Cor. 1:22b; 5:5b; Eph. 1:14). In God’s economy the believers are an inheritance to God, and God is an inheritance to them. For the believers to be God’s inheritance, they need the sealing of the Spirit. Moreover, because God is their inheritance, they also need the pledging of the Spirit. The Greek word for pledge also means foretaste, guarantee, token payment guaranteeing the full payment, a part payment in advance. The Spirit as the pledge of the believers’ inheritance is not only a guarantee, guaranteeing that God and all that belongs to God are their eternal portion, their inheritance, but He is also a foretaste of what they will inherit of God. In ancient times, the Greek word for pledge was used in the purchase of land. The seller gave the buyer a sample of the soil from the land being purchased. This indicates that the Spirit is the sample of what we shall inherit of God.
The Spirit as the anointing in the believers imparts God’s elements into them; as the sealing He forms the divine elements into an impression that the believers may express God’s image; and as the pledging He gives them a foretaste as a sample and guarantee of the full taste of God. These three matters—the anointing, the sealing, and the pledging—are actually three aspects of one thing. First the believers are anointed, then they are sealed, and then they have the pledge as a guarantee. Hence, they can be completely mingled with the Triune God and be one with Him.
The Spirit is also the firstfruit (Rom. 8:23) in the believers that they may have a foretaste of all that the processed Triune God is. Foretaste indicates two things: first, that the enjoyment is fresh; and second, that there will be a fuller enjoyment in the future. Today the believers’ experience and enjoyment of the Spirit, regardless of its measure, is but a foretaste. At the Lord’s coming they will enjoy the Triune God in full; that will be the harvest. Today the believers’ enjoyment of the foretaste may differ in measure, yet the nature is the same. By having a foretaste of the Spirit as the firstfruit, the believers can participate in and enjoy the processed Triune God.
The Spirit is the blessing promised by God to Abraham for all the nations of the earth (Gal. 3:14), to be experienced and enjoyed by the believers as the foregoing items. The Spirit actually is God Himself processed in His Trinity through incarnation, human living, crucifixion, and resurrection for the believers to receive as their life and their everything. This is the focus of the blessing of God’s promise. The physical aspect of the blessing God promised to Abraham was the good land (Gen. 12:7; 13:15; 17:8; 26:3-4), which was a type of the all-inclusive Christ, whereas the spiritual aspect is the Spirit. Since Christ is eventually realized as the all-inclusive, life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45; 2 Cor. 3:17), the blessing of the promised Spirit corresponds to the blessing of the promised land. Hence, the Spirit, whom the believers have received, is the fulfillment of the promise of God’s New Testament economy and the sum total of God’s promised blessing.
The believers’ being joined to God the Spirit is of two aspects. On the one hand, they have received Him inwardly and essentially; on the other hand, they have been baptized into Him outwardly and economically. For the believers to be baptized into Him economically is for them to be baptized in the Holy Spirit (Mark 1:8b; Acts 1:5b; 11:16b) to receive Him as the Spirit of power for their spiritual work and function. The Holy Spirit as the Spirit of power was poured out economically first on the day of Pentecost to baptize the Jewish believers in the Spirit (Acts 2:4), and then in the house of Cornelius to baptize the Gentile believers in the Spirit (Acts 10:44-45). By these two steps all the believers of the Lord Jesus, in all times and in all places, have been baptized once for all in the Spirit and into one Body (1 Cor. 12:13). This matter has been accomplished once for all; it is an accomplished fact.
The believers have been baptized into the Holy Spirit as the Spirit of power (Acts 1:8a; Luke 24:49b). The Holy Spirit is not only in them as the Spirit of life essentially, but also upon them as the Spirit of power economically. They have the Spirit of life in them that they may have the Lord’s life with its supply and sustenance; they also have the Spirit of power upon them that they may testify of the Lord and preach Him as the gospel. Therefore, the believers not ‘only need to be joined to God the Spirit essentially as the Spirit of life, but they also need to be joined to Him economically as the Spirit of power.
The believers’ being baptized into the Holy Spirit economically and receiving Him as the Spirit of power is their having the Holy Spirit poured upon them (Acts 2:18, 33b; 10:45). God has poured out the Holy Spirit upon men outwardly. This matter is mentioned only twice in the New Testament, in Acts 2 and in Acts 10. In Acts 2 the Holy Spirit was poured out upon the Jewish believers on the day of Pentecost; in Acts 10 He was poured out upon the Gentile believers in the house of Cornelius. This was Christ’s baptizing the Jewish believers and the Gentile believers into the Holy Spirit. Hence, it is an accomplished fact that the Holy Spirit has been poured out upon the believers, that is, that the believers have been baptized in the Holy Spirit. Now, by faith the believers may apply and experience the outpouring of the Holy Spirit and be joined to Him.
The believers’ receiving the Holy Spirit economically is their having the Holy Spirit fall upon them (Acts 1:8a; 8:16-17; 19:6a). Concerning this matter, Acts presents five cases. Two of them are for the accomplishment of the baptism in the Holy Spirit. These are the cases which took place on the day of Pentecost and in the house of Cornelius. The other three, the cases of the Samaritan believers, Saul of Tarsus, and the twelve believers in Ephesus, are considered extraordinary, needing some members of the Body of Christ to identify them with the Body by the laying on of hands. Besides these five cases, in many cases of conversion, such as the three thousand and the five thousand, there is no mention of the believers’ receiving the Holy Spirit economically—the Holy Spirit’s falling upon them—because in all these cases the believers were brought into the Body of Christ through their believing in a normal way. Hence, they all should have received the Holy Spirit’s falling upon them economically in a normal way through their believing into Christ that they might be joined to the Holy Spirit as one.
The Holy Spirit’s being poured out upon the believers, His falling upon them, is to clothe them (Luke 24:49), to be joined to them. Concerning the Spirit of life, we need to breathe Him in as the breath; concerning the Spirit of power, we need to put Him on as the uniform that we may have the authority to carry out God’s New Testament economy.
The foregoing points show us clearly that the Holy Spirit’s coming to us is of two aspects: the inward aspect and the outward aspect; the essential aspect and the economical aspect; the aspect of life and the aspect of power. Hence, our experience of being joined to the Holy Spirit is also of two aspects: the inward and the outward. We must not stress the Holy Spirit’s inward aspect of life while neglecting the Holy Spirit’s outward aspect of power. Neither should we respect the outward Holy Spirit of power while ignoring the inward Holy Spirit of life. We must attach equal importance to both the essential aspect and the economical aspect; we must stress both the inward aspect and the outward aspect; we must have both the Spirit of life and the Spirit of power. The believers should maintain such a normal condition.
The believers are joined to God the Spirit by receiving Him essentially and being baptized into Him economically. On the one hand, when the believers receive Him essentially, they receive Him into them that He may live in them for their existence, being, life, and living. He is in them as the Spirit of reality that they may have the reality of the divine Trinity and of the divine things realized in them: as the Spirit of life continually imparting into them God’s eternal life until their whole being is filled with the Spirit of life; as the anointing ointment, typified by the holy anointing ointment in the Old Testament, anointing all the riches of the processed Triune God into them that they may be filled with His elements; as a seal to mark them out as God’s possession and to impress them with the image of God that they may be like God and may express Him; as the pledge, the foretaste, guarantee, and sample, to guarantee that God and all that belongs to God are their eternal portion; as the firstfruit for them to have a fresh foretaste of all that the processed Triune God is and for them to expect a fuller enjoyment in the future; and as the blessing of God’s promise, which is the fulfillment of the promise of God’s New Testament economy. On the other hand, when the believers are baptized into Him economically, they are baptized in the Holy Spirit for their spiritual work and function. As the outward Spirit of power He has been poured out upon them, falling upon them, to clothe them that they may testify of Christ and preach the gospel to carry out God’s New Testament economy.
