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Scripture Reading: 2 Cor. 3:3-6
In 3:3 Paul says, “Being manifested that you are a letter of Christ ministered by us, inscribed not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God; not in tablets of stone, but in fleshy tablets of the heart.” Here Paul speaks of a letter of Christ ministered by the apostles. Such a letter is written, inscribed, with the Spirit of the living God. All those who are co-workers and leading ones in the churches must look to the Lord for His mercy and grace in order to carry on the work of writing Christ into the saints. Instead of merely teaching doctrines to others or only teaching the Bible, we must do the unique work of writing living letters of Christ.
If we would inscribe Christ into others, we must first have Christ in our experience. If we do not have Christ in an experiential way, then with what shall we write a letter of Christ? We shall, of course, have nothing with which to write. If we try to do any writing, it will be like trying to type with a typewriter that has a dry ribbon. One day I was typing and discovered that nothing was on the paper. Then I learned that the ribbon was completely dry. There was no ink on the ribbon to transfer the letters to the paper. I use this to illustrate the fact that in order to write a living letter of Christ, we must first have the experience of Christ ourselves.
Living letters of Christ are written with the life-giving Spirit of the living God. The life-giving Spirit is the heavenly ink. If we would have this kind of ink, we need to experience Christ and be filled with Christ. This means that we must be thoroughly saturated with the life-giving Spirit. If we are persons full of Christ, saturated with the life-giving Spirit, we shall have the riches of Christ to use in writing Christ into others. We shall also have the life-giving Spirit of the living God as the heavenly ink. The ink is the Spirit, the essence of the ink is Christ, and we are the pen.
Any kind of ink must have a particular essence. Ink is different from plain water. It is not possible to write a letter using only water. There must be a certain substance added to the water to make ink. Praise the Lord, the heavenly ink is the Spirit, and the essence of this Spirit-ink is Christ with all His riches. To have this ink in our experience, we must enjoy Christ, possess Christ, be filled with Christ, be saturated with Christ, and be covered with Christ.
Others should always find us in Christ. In Philippians 3:9 Paul speaks of being found in Christ. He wanted to be found by others in Christ, not in anything other than Christ. Paul did not want to be found in himself, in his culture, or in his particular way of living.
We also should aspire to be found in Christ, to be one with Christ, saturated with Christ, and even constituted of Christ and reorganized with Him. Then, being anointed with the Spirit and filled with the life-giving Spirit, we shall have the Spirit as the ink to write Christ into others. Then as we speak to others, we shall spontaneously write upon them with the life-giving Spirit of the living God. The element of the riches of Christ will be infused into them, imparted into their being. In this way, Christ will be inscribed into them. To write Christ into others in this way is truly to live Christ for the church.
The title of this message is “Competent of Christ as the Alphabet to Write Living Letters with the Life-giving Spirit of the Living God.” This title refers to the Triune God: Christ, the life-giving Spirit, and the living God. First, we are competent of Christ, the Son. Because we are competent of Christ, we may write living letters with the life-giving Spirit. Thus, we have the Son and the Spirit. These living letters are of the living God, that is, of the Father. Hence, in the writing of living letters, we have the experience of the Trinity in a real way.
The pure revelation of the Trinity in the Bible is very different from the tritheistic concept of the Trinity held unconsciously by some Christians today. In certain fundamental groups the believers are taught that the Father, the Son, and the Spirit are separate and distinct Persons. Actually, this is tritheism, the belief that the Father, Son, and Spirit are three Gods. Of course, hardly anyone would teach explicitly that the Father, Son, and Spirit are three Gods. However, some believers hold this concept subconsciously and unconsciously.
Several years ago certain ones put out a written statement in which they said that the Father, Son, and Spirit are three distinct and separate Persons. In our rebuttals we pointed out that the three of the Triune God are distinct, but They are not separate. As a result, some of them are careful not to use the word separate with respect to the three of the Trinity.
It is heretical to teach that the Father, the Son, and the Spirit are separate. According to the Bible, it is impossible to separate the Father from the Son, or the Son from the Spirit. In John 14:10 the Lord Jesus said, “Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father is in Me? The words which I speak to you, I do not speak from Myself; but the Father Who abides in Me, He does His works.” The Lord’s word here clearly indicates that the Father and the Son are inseparable. In verse 11, the Lord went on to say, “Believe Me that I am in the Father and the Father in Me.” Here we have not only the coexistence of the Father and the Son, but also Their coinherence. The three of the Godhead — the Father, the Son, and the Spirit — are both coexistent and coinherent. We all should be familiar with the terms coinhere, coinherence, and co-inherent.
The Father, the Son, and the Spirit all exist at the same time. This is coexistence. Furthermore, the Father exists in the Son and the Spirit; the Son exists in the Father and the Spirit; and the Spirit exists in the Father and the Son. This is coinherence. Therefore, if we would have a proper understanding concerning the Trinity, we must recognize not only the coexistence of the Father, Son, and Spirit, but we must also believe in Their coinherence.
We do not believe in tritheism; rather, we believe in the Triune God. The word “triune” means three-one. It is composed of two Latin roots: tri-, meaning three and -une, meaning one. Hence, triune is three-one. We are not able to understand how God can be triune, that is, three-one. This eternal, divine mathematics is beyond our ability to understand. Nevertheless, according to the divine mathematics, God is three-one.
This matter of God’s being triune may be illustrated by the fact that the Bible speaks of the Spirit of God and also of the seven Spirits. Is God’s Spirit one or seven? Perhaps the best answer is to say that the Spirit of God is seven-one or one-seven. On the one hand, we all know that God’s Spirit is uniquely one. On the other hand, in the book of Revelation, where we have the ultimate and consummate revelation of the Triune God, we read of the seven Spirits. Revelation 1:4 and 5 say, “Grace to you and peace from Him Who is, and Who was, and Who is coming, and from the seven Spirits Who are before His throne, and from Jesus Christ.” The seven Spirits here undoubtedly are the Spirit of God, for They are ranked among the Triune God in these verses, mentioned between the Father (the One who is, who was, and who is coming) and the Son, Jesus Christ. In substance and existence, God’s Spirit is one. In the intensified function and work of God’s operation (signified by the number seven), God’s Spirit is sevenfold. In Revelation 4:5 and 5:6 we also read concerning the seven Spirits.
However, in the Nicene Creed composed in A.D. 325 at the Council of Nicea held under Constantine the Great, there is no mention of the seven Spirits of God. At the time that council was convened, seven books of the New Testament, including Revelation and Hebrews, had not yet been officially recognized as authoritative. Perhaps this is why the Nicene Creed says nothing regarding the seven Spirits. This is one reason we say that the Nicene Creed is not complete. Other Christians may go by the decrees of the councils and follow the creeds, but we follow the entire Bible, the pure Word of God. It is a serious and significant matter to battle for the truth revealed in the Word of God.
We have pointed out that some Christians unconsciously believe not in the three-one God, but in three Gods. Others try to explain the Trinity by saying that the three Persons are one in essence, but separate in person; that is, in substance they are one, but in units they are three. This can be compared to saying that three coffee tables are one in substance, or essence, since all are made of the same kind of wood, but are different in shape. Are there three coffee tables or one? Certainly there are three. This illustration indicates that to speak of the Trinity in this way is to teach tritheism.
Many believers unconsciously hold to the concept of three Gods. We believe in the unique God, who is triune. In writing living letters with the life-giving Spirit, we experience the three-one God. We are competent of Christ, we write letters with the Spirit, and this Spirit is of the living God. Hallelujah, this is the Triune God!
Have you ever noticed that the description of the Father in Ephesians 4:6 implies the Triune God? This verse says, “One God and Father of all, Who is over all and through all and in all.” This indicates that even the Father Himself is threefold. The phrase “above all” denotes the Father as the source; the phrase “through all,” the Son as the course; and the phrase “in all,” the Spirit as the indwelling One. Therefore, this threefold description of the Father as above all, through all, and in all implies the Triune God.
Traditional, fundamental theology has become a systematized or systematic theology. Many Christians admire such a systematic theology. However, I cannot agree with systematic theology, because the divine revelation in the Bible cannot be systematized. To systematize the divine revelation is like trying to systematize a living organism.
If you try to systematize any living thing, that thing will die. Can you systematize your physical human life? Can you systematically arrange your mind, emotion, will, soul, heart, conscience, and spirit? Do you know where your soul is? Can you locate your mind or your spirit? Can you say where your psychological heart is? If we are honest, we shall admit that we cannot locate these parts of our inner being. If we are not able to systematize our own finite being, then how can we presume by our limited human mentality to systematize the unlimited, infinite God? This is ridiculous! I believe it was Augustine who said that to try to analyze the Triune God is like using a dipper to measure the ocean.
Instead of trying to systematize the Triune God, we should simply believe whatever the Bible reveals concerning Him. Although we cannot systematize God, we can be competent of Christ to write living letters with the Spirit of the living God. This means that in our experience we enjoy the Triune God in writing living letters.
We are living letters of Christ. Paul was one who wrote such letters. Now we must follow him also to inscribe Christ into others and thereby to compose living letters of Christ. Wherever we go, we should write Christ into others. People are tired of theology and religion. Their need is to have Christ inscribed into them. Let us pray that many of us will go forth to write living letters with the life-giving Spirit of the living God.
