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Scripture Reading: John 4:24; 1 Cor. 15:45; 2 Cor. 3:17; Rom. 8:6, 9-11
According to my knowledge and experience, Romans 8 is the most crucial chapter in the Bible. The entire Bible reveals God’s economy and His eternal purpose to dispense Himself in His Trinity into human beings, who were created by Him with three parts—spirit, soul, and body. The account in Genesis makes it clear that God’s purpose in the creation of the universe was to gain man so that He could work Himself into man to make man His corporate expression. God continued to work for this purpose from Genesis 1 throughout the Old Testament. It would seem that God, who is all-powerful and can create simply by speaking, would do a quick work to accomplish His purpose. However, with man things do not go easily or smoothly. When anything is put in our hands, there will be trouble. Therefore, on one hand, the thirty-nine books of the Old Testament show us God’s eternal desire, but on the other hand, these books give us a clear picture of the many hardships, problems, troubles, frustrations, and distractions that took place with man.
In the New Testament God came in the person of His Son, Jesus Christ. Through incarnation God came to man, came into man, and became one with man. Christ was a unique, wonderful person. He was born as a child in a manger in Bethlehem, yet His name is called Mighty God (Isa. 9:6). Jesus was a man full of humility. He was raised in a carpenter’s family in a despised city. Outwardly, He was a man, yet inwardly, He was God. After living on the earth for thirty-three and a half years, He died on the cross not as a martyr but to redeem each one of us, to cleanse us of our sins, and to terminate the entire old creation, including our old man. He passed through death and entered into resurrection. In resurrection He became a life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45). From that time onward He was not only the Creator, the Redeemer, and the Savior but also the Life-giver. Because Christ as the life-giving Spirit indwells us, we live by Him and even live Him (Phil. 1:21). Thus, He and we have become one.
The church is the great, corporate oneness of Christ with all His believers. The significance of the church is God and man mingled together as one. God is dispensing Himself into His redeemed people to make them His corporate expression on the earth. This oneness will last for eternity. Today as the church, this oneness has not been fully completed but is still in the process. One day this oneness will finish passing through the process, and in eternity it will be a great city, the New Jerusalem. The New Jerusalem is the ultimate consummation of the oneness of God and man, a great mingling of God with His redeemed people.
Although we have seen a complete view of the divine revelation in the Bible, we must not be satisfied with mere mental knowledge or doctrinal understanding. To carry out the corporate oneness, which is the church and will become the New Jerusalem, there is the crucial need of Romans 8. We can never be in the oneness practically if we neglect Romans 8. Just as man’s daily physical eating is necessary for man’s existence and the fulfillment of God’s purpose, the experience revealed in Romans 8 is necessary for every genuine believer in Christ.
Romans 8 is a deep and rich chapter. Verse 2 says, “The law of the Spirit of life has freed me in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and of death.” Even this one verse contains several crucial points—the Spirit of life, the law of the Spirit of life, being in Christ Jesus, being freed, and the law of sin and of death. Verse 9 says, “You are not in the flesh, but in the spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. Yet if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not of Him.” Two important terms are found in this verse—the Spirit of God and the Spirit of Christ. We need to consider why Paul uses these terms interchangeably. Verse 10 says, “If Christ is in you, though the body is dead because of sin, the spirit is life because of righteousness.” This kind of expression is very mysterious. It is difficult to understand, explain, and apply this kind of speaking. Verse 11 says, “If the Spirit of the One who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who indwells you.” Here another expression is used to describe the Spirit. Thus, Paul uses four expressions in Romans 8 to describe the Spirit—the Spirit of life, the Spirit of God, the Spirit of Christ, and the Spirit of the One who raised Jesus from the dead. Together these four expressions refer to the Triune God as life.
John 4:24 says, “God is Spirit.” First Corinthians 15:45 says that the last Adam, who is Christ the Son, became a life-giving Spirit in resurrection. Thus, the entire Triune God is the Spirit. Furthermore, the Spirit is the application of the Triune God. God is triune for a purpose. The Father is the source, the origin, the initiation; the Son is the course, the expression; and the Spirit is the application. The Father and the Son are applied to us by the Spirit. The Spirit comes to us with the Son (John 14:16-18), and the Son comes with the Father (8:29). Therefore, all three come together. The Father, the Son, and the Spirit are distinctly three, but They are not separate, for They coexist and coinhere eternally. To coexist is to exist simultaneously, at the same time, and in the same place. To coinhere means to exist within one another. The Triune God’s coinherence is plainly revealed in the Bible (John 14—17). In John 14:11 the Lord said, “I am in the Father and the Father is in Me.” This shows that the Father is in the Son, and the Son is in the Father. Moreover, the Father and the Son are in the Spirit, and the Spirit is in the Father and in the Son. Thus, when the Spirit comes to us, the entire Triune God comes. When the Spirit is applied to us, we receive not only the Spirit but also the Son and the Father. We receive the Spirit with the Son and with the Father. For this reason, we can say that the Spirit is the application of the Triune God.
Though there is much electricity in a power plant, there must be a way for the electricity to be applied to buildings in a city far away. Electricity is conveyed through a wire. In the wire the electricity becomes a current. Actually, the current and the electricity are not two different things. The current of electricity is electricity in motion. Similarly, the Spirit is God applied to our being.
Once wires have been installed in a building, there is no need to petition the power plant for electricity to be applied to the building. There is only the need to switch on an appliance for the current of electricity to be brought into the building. The moment we believed in the Lord and called on His name, the Spirit entered into our being. Since that time, the Triune God has been installed in us. When the Spirit reached us at the time of our believing, the Father and the Son came with Him. Now that the Triune God as the Spirit has been installed in us, there is no need to fast and pray or petition God to receive the Spirit. Whenever we need the Spirit, we can simply “switch on” by calling, “O Lord Jesus!” After sincerely calling on the Lord a few times, we will feel comforted, encouraged, refreshed, watered, strengthened, uplifted, and nourished within because we have touched the Spirit. Romans 8:15 shows that we can also cry, “Abba, Father!” for God to be applied to our being as the Spirit.
The Spirit is for the dispensing of the Triune God. The Old Testament generally corresponds to God the Father, the four Gospels correspond to God the Son, and the books from Acts to Revelation correspond to God the Spirit. In the Old Testament God the Father, as Jehovah Elohim, reached people through His Spirit. Hence, we see titles such as the Spirit of God and the Spirit of Jehovah (Num. 24:2; 1 Sam. 10:10; Judg. 3:10; 6:34; 11:29). In the four Gospels Jesus the Son reached people outwardly; He could reach people inwardly only by the Spirit (John 20:22). In the third section God the Spirit is altogether for application, for reaching man. In the Epistles Christ has become the Spirit. Many great teachers say that in the Epistles Christ is identical with the Spirit, that Christ and the Spirit are one. This fact is plainly revealed in 1 Corinthians 15:45, which says, “The last Adam became a life-giving Spirit,” and in 2 Corinthians 3:17, which says, “The Lord is the Spirit.” Eventually, in the last book of the Bible the Spirit becomes the sevenfold intensified Spirit (Rev. 1:4). The entire Bible reveals that the Triune God must be the Spirit in order to reach people and dispense Himself into them. Today we are in the stage of the sevenfold intensified Spirit, who is the application of the Triune God, the Triune God reaching us. Today the sevenfold Spirit is within us as the ultimate expression of the Triune God and as the application and reaching of the Triune God.
Romans 8:9 and 11 reveal a threefold Spirit. Verse 9 mentions the Spirit of God and the Spirit of Christ. According to verse 11, the Spirit is also the resurrecting Spirit. Everything that the Spirit does in us is to resurrect us. Just as He resurrected Jesus from the dead, He also resurrects us. Due to the fall, every part of our being was dead before we were saved. When we received the Lord, the Spirit resurrected our spirit, making our spirit life (v. 10). Since that time, He has been resurrecting our soul—our mind, will, and emotion (v. 6). Eventually, He will resurrect our mortal body (v. 11).
As believers, we are living, but we are not wholly living. Our spirit is living, yet our body, mind, will, and emotion remain dead. We need the resurrecting Spirit to impart life into our mind, emotion, and will and even into our mortal body to resurrect us wholly. Our mind may be living in a dead way. For instance, our mind may be very active and remember many worldly things, but we may not remember basic facts about the Bible. If we take the excuse that we do not know what to speak or how to function in the meeting, this indicates that our mind is dead. Likewise, our emotion may be fervent to love things other than the Lord. When we receive something worth a great sum of money, our emotions may rejoice. On the other hand, we may not adequately value the Bible and the ministry. This indicates that our emotions are living in a dead way. Similarly, we may complain that we are too tired to attend the meeting and insist that we need to stay home to rest. However, when we stay home, we may find that we have energy to do many things. This shows that our body also is living in a dead way. When the Spirit is truly working within us, we may not have the strength to do other things, but our mortal body will be energized and enlivened when we come to the meeting. Today the Spirit is resurrecting us.
We need to realize that we have a rich, powerful, and all-sufficient Spirit indwelling us and must pay our full attention to Him. We should not be distracted by our background or what we are by nature, culture, religion, and habit but only care for the Spirit. By doing this, we open the way for the Triune God to infuse us with all that He is as the Father, the Son, and the Spirit. By continually receiving the Triune God’s dispensing, we will be infused with Him and live a life that expresses Him. We will live, walk, and have our being according to the Spirit.
