In the foregoing message we pointed out that God’s purpose is to obtain the church by dispensing Himself into man and making Himself one with man. In order to dispense Himself into man, God must be triune, the Father, the Son, and the Spirit. Furthermore, man must be in God’s image and have a spirit to receive God and assimilate Him. One day, the Son of God, the embodiment of the Father, became a man. Passing through human living, crucifixion, and resurrection, He became the life-giving Spirit. As the Spirit, He comes into us and mingles with our spirit. Through this process there is brought into being a hybrid life, an entity composed of the mingling of the divine life with the human life. This is the church.
God is no longer the unprocessed God, but the processed God. He has accomplished everything necessary to come into us as the life-giving Spirit. Now we must believe in Him and call on the name of the Lord Jesus. When we do this, the life-giving Spirit comes into our spirit, and the mingling of the divine life and the human life takes place within us. This mingling produces the church.
The book of Ephesians contains the fullest revelation of the Triune God in the Scriptures. For example, in chapter three Paul speaks of the fullness of God (Eph. 3:19), the riches of Christ (Eph. 3:8), and the power of the Spirit (Eph. 3:16). The fullness implies that the riches of all that God is become His expression. Colossians 2:9 says that the fullness of God dwells in Christ bodily. This means that Christ is the embodiment of the fullness of God, the embodiment of all that God is. When the fullness of God is embodied in Christ, there are the riches of Christ. The riches of Christ are realized through the power of the Spirit. Hence, Christ is the embodiment of God’s fullness, and the Spirit is the realization of Christ’s riches. To have the fullness of God, we must have Christ. Furthermore, to enjoy the riches of Christ, we must have the Spirit.
In the Gospel of John, the Spirit is called the Spirit of reality. The Spirit of reality makes real to the believers all that the Son is and has. Embodied in the Son is all that the Father is and has, and all that the Son is and has is revealed as reality to the believers through the Spirit (John 16:14-15). For example, Christ is life. However, if we do not touch the Spirit, we cannot have this life. But as we touch the Spirit, we experience the reality of Christ as life. In like manner, Christ is light. But if we do not contact the Spirit, we cannot be enlightened by Christ. When we contact the Spirit, we enjoy the reality of Christ as light.
Today our Triune God is the all-inclusive Spirit. Do not regard the Spirit as something other than Christ, nor think of Christ as separate from God the Father. No, the Father, the Son, and the Spirit are one. This is the reason that we refer to God as triune, as three in one. No one can adequately define the Trinity. God the Father is in God the Son, and God the Son has become the Spirit who gives life. For the sake of the church, the fullness of God is embodied in Christ that the riches of Christ may be made real to us through the Spirit. The more we contact the Spirit, the more we enjoy Christ’s riches. Eventually we shall be filled unto all the fullness of God and be fully mingled with the Triune God.
In 2:18 all Three of the Triune God are mentioned: “For through Him we both have access in one Spirit unto the Father.” Through Christ the Son we have access in one Spirit unto the Father. How wonderful! Notice that this verse does not say that we have access unto the Spirit. It speaks of access unto the Father. The Spirit is unto us, whereas we are unto the Father. The Father came to us in the Son, and the Son came into us as the Spirit. Now through the Son the Spirit brings us unto the Father. This is for the dispensing of the Triune God into us so that the church may come into existence. Once again we see that the church is produced by the mingling of the Triune God with humanity.
The dispensing of the Triune God into man is altogether related to the Spirit. The processed God as the all-inclusive life-giving Spirit is waiting for our spirit to respond to Him and to cooperate with Him. To be saved is not merely to understand the gospel. It is to open ourselves from the depths of our being to respond to the Spirit. When we call on the name of the Lord Jesus, we must call from our spirit, from the depths of our being. If we do this, we shall be saved, even if we do not adequately understand the gospel.
Consider the case of Saul of Tarsus on the way to Damascus (Acts 9). He was saved by saying the words, “Who art Thou, Lord?” At the time he was saved, Saul was not so clear about the gospel, nor even about the Lord Jesus. However, simply by saying the words, “Who art Thou, Lord?” he was captured by the Lord. This shows that to be saved is not mainly a matter of understanding the gospel, but of contacting the life-giving Spirit, who is the processed God waiting for an opportunity to come into us. Contacting the life-giving Spirit is much like breathing. The important thing is not to understand the air, but to breathe the air into us. By breathing in the air, we receive all the benefits of the air.
This principle applies to our whole Christian life. Take holiness as an example. We become holy not by learning the doctrine of holiness, but by contacting the Spirit who Himself is the essence of holiness. The doctrine of holiness is not holiness itself. Holiness is a living Person, the processed God as the life-giving Spirit. It is possible to know the doctrine of holiness without having the reality of holiness. The way to be holy is to contact the life-giving Spirit. We may read a book on holiness, but have nothing of holiness as a result of our reading. However, if we spend the same amount of time calling on the name of the Lord as we would reading that book, we shall certainly experience God’s holiness.
In the book of Ephesians there is great emphasis on the mingled spirit, the human spirit mingled with the divine Spirit. Ephesians 1:17 says, “That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the full knowledge of Him.” There is disagreement among scholars concerning the translation of the Greek word for spirit in this verse. Some insist on capitalizing the word spirit, because they think that the spirit here is the Holy Spirit. Others believe that the spirit here must refer to the human spirit. Actually, the spirit in this verse is our regenerated spirit indwelt by the Spirit of God. It is the human spirit mingled with the Holy Spirit. Such a spirit is given to us by God so that we may have wisdom and revelation to know Him and His economy. Without the Holy Spirit, our spirit cannot be a spirit of wisdom and revelation. But as soon as the Holy Spirit is mingled with our spirit, our spirit becomes a spirit of wisdom and revelation.
In 2:22 Paul again refers to the mingled spirit: “In Whom you also are being built together into a dwelling place of God in spirit.” Translators differ about this verse also, with some arguing that the spirit here is the divine Spirit and others, that it is the human spirit. Actually, it is the mingled spirit, the believers’ human spirit indwelt by God’s Holy Spirit. God’s Spirit is the indwelling One, not the dwelling place. The dwelling place is our spirit. God’s Spirit dwells in our spirit. The Holy Spirit is, therefore, the indwelling One, not the indwelt One. The dwelling place of God is in our spirit, the human spirit mingled with the Holy Spirit.
In 3:5 Paul says that the mystery of Christ “has now been revealed to His holy apostles and prophets in spirit.” The spirit here is once again the mingled spirit. When our spirit is mingled with the divine Spirit, our spirit becomes the organ in which the mystery of Christ is revealed.
In 3:16 Paul speaks of the inner man. The inner man is our regenerated spirit. The only way man’s spirit can be regenerated is through having the Spirit of God come into it. Hence, the inner man in this verse also denotes the human spirit mingled with the Holy Spirit.
Ephesians 4:23 says, “And are renewed in the spirit of your mind.” Some say that the spirit here cannot be the human spirit because this is the renewing spirit. However, the spirit here must be the human spirit because it is the spirit of the mind. The spirit in this verse is the regenerated spirit of the believers mingled with the indwelling Spirit of God. Such a mingled spirit spreads into our mind and thus becomes the spirit of our mind. The human spirit can be the renewing spirit only by being mingled with the Holy Spirit. On the one hand, the spirit here is the spirit of the mind, but, on the other hand, it is the renewing spirit. This indicates that it is a matter of the mingled spirit. The human spirit, not the Holy Spirit, is the base.
In 5:18 Paul exhorts us to be filled in spirit. Certainly he means that we should be filled in our spirit with the Holy Spirit.
In 6:18 Paul charges us to pray at every time in spirit. According to the context, the spirit here also refers to the human spirit mingled with the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is the Word which we are to take in spirit by prayer.
The Triune God has been fully processed to become the life-giving Spirit. As such a Spirit, He is near, present, and available. But He is holy, and we are sinful. How can this holy God be close to us? The answer is found in the fact that the element of redemption is included in the all-inclusive Spirit. The enemy, Satan, realizes this. If Satan would tell God that He has no right to be near sinful people, the blood of Jesus Christ would immediately testify against him. Before Christ’s incarnation, the Spirit of God could not be so close to fallen mankind as now because there was not yet the element of redemption in the Spirit. The effectiveness of Christ’s redemptive death, typified by the offerings in the Old Testament, is now in the life-giving Spirit. Perhaps not until we are in the New Jerusalem shall we fully understand what this Spirit means to us. Praise Him that this Spirit is the processed God, near, present, available, and ready for us to enjoy. Whenever we call on the name of the Lord Jesus, we receive the Spirit. The reason for this is that the Spirit is the reality of Christ.
In 1:13 Paul says, “In Whom you also, hearing the word of the truth, the gospel of your salvation, in Whom also believing, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of the promise.” The seal here is the life-giving Spirit. By coming into us, the Spirit sealed us. According to 1:14, this seal is the pledge, the earnest, the guarantee, the foretaste, of our inheritance. The full taste will simply be the full portion of the Triune God. Today the life-giving Spirit gives us a foretaste of the Triune God as our portion.
In 4:30 we see that the crucial matter is for us not to grieve the Spirit. Rather, we must always please Him. If the Spirit in us is not happy, we shall have difficulty. The most important thing in our Christian life is to take care that we do not grieve the Spirit. If you are faithful in this matter, you will be an outstanding Christian.
According to 2:18, through Christ we have access in one Spirit unto the Father. When the Spirit comes into us, He spontaneously brings us back to the Father. In this Spirit we are truly one. This oneness is the proper church life. Hence, the church is the oneness in the Triune God of all those who have been mingled with the Triune God.
The depth of the book of Ephesians is in these verses that speak of the mingled spirit. The church is the mingling of the Holy Spirit as the processed God with humanity. This is greater than spirituality, holiness, or victory. As long as we are in this oneness, we are surely spiritual, holy, and victorious. Our goal should be nothing less than this oneness. If we are in this oneness, what need have we to seek spirituality or holiness or victory? By being in this marvelous oneness we have all this and much more.
