When I was young, many things in the Bible bothered me, one of which is in John chapter three. Although this chapter is so elevated, speaking about the rebirth, it seemed to me that suddenly, beginning at verse 22, it became rather low. Verse 22 says, “After these things, Jesus and His disciples came into the land of Judea; and there He stayed with them and baptized.” When I read this verse as a young man, I thought that there was no need for it. It seemed to me that such a record was unnecessary. I felt the same about verse 23, which says that John was baptizing in Aenon near Salim because there was much water there. I was also bothered by verse 24, which says that John had not yet been thrown into prison. I asked, “What is all this about? After the mention of heavenly and spiritual things, why are things such as imprisonment mentioned?” The reason for this appears in verse 26. “And they came to John and said to him, Rabbi, He who was with you across the Jordan, of whom you testified, behold, He is baptizing and all are coming to Him.” Why did John include all of these verses? Simply for the purpose of exposing the tail of the fox. What is this tail? It is the matter of who will have the crowd and the following. Today people’s attitude is, “This is one who follows me. All of these are my following. Why should some of them go to you?” What we find today was also present in the time of John the Baptist.
John’s reply begins in verse 27. “John answered and said, A man can receive nothing unless it has been given him from heaven. You yourselves testify of me that I said, I am not the Christ, but I have been sent before Him” (vv. 27-28). If I had been there, I would have said to John, “Brother, if this is the case, you should go home and not baptize anymore. Since the One of whom you testified is now baptizing, you should stop your baptizing. If you continue to baptize, you will surely be cast into prison.” John was good, but he was not clear. The problem was that after Jesus came upon the scene, John was still there. John should have withdrawn and allowed the Lord Jesus to occupy the whole scene. There should have been only one main figure, not two. When I was young, I did not understand why John was cast into prison. Later I came to realize that he was put into prison because he did not withdraw from the scene.
Nevertheless John said, “He who has the bride is the bridegroom; but the friend of the bridegroom, who stands and hears him, rejoices with joy because of the bridegroom’s voice. This joy of mine therefore is made full. He must increase, but I must decrease” (vv. 29-30). Most Christians, especially most of the Christian teachers, misinterpret verse 30. What does it mean for Christ to increase and for you to decrease? It means that you must withdraw from the scene and from having the following and allow Christ to be the only figure on the scene and to have all the following. All the following should go to Christ; none of it should go to John the Baptist or to anyone else. Since John did not make this matter clear to his disciples, they were jealous on his behalf. When John’s disciples saw that all the people went to Jesus, they were unhappy. They seemed to say, “Why do these people not follow our teacher, but they go to Jesus?” Do you see the point? If John had withdrawn from the scene, there would have been no problem. If he had told all of his disciples to go to the Lord Jesus, no longer accepting a following for himself, there would have been no difficulty.
However, in answering his disciples John made the matter clear to them that he was not the Christ, or the bridegroom who came for the bride; he was only the friend of the bridegroom. He told them clearly that Christ was the bridegroom who came for the bride. People should not follow him; they should follow Christ so that He might have His bride.
John wrote his gospel under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. By his words we can see that all the regenerated followers of Christ are His increase. The increase in verse 30 is the bride in verse 29, and the bride there is a living composition of all the regenerated people. This means that in this chapter on regeneration, regeneration is not only to bring the divine life into the believers and annul the satanic nature in their flesh, but also to make them the corporate bride for Christ’s increase. The last two points, to annul the serpentine nature in the believers and to make them the bride of Christ, are both fully developed in John’s writing of Revelation. The book of Revelation mainly reveals how Satan as the old serpent will be fully eliminated (Rev. 20:2, 10), and how the bride of Christ as the New Jerusalem will be fully produced (Rev. 21:2, 10-27).
Although most Christians are familiar with regeneration in John 3, very few see that each regenerated person should be a part of the increase of Christ, which is His bride. Regeneration is for the increase of Christ. It is for the producing of the bride. Regeneration is for you to be a part of the bride of Christ. John 3 is a chapter of regeneration for the increase of Christ. Many Christians only see regeneration itself. They do not see the purpose of regeneration. Is regeneration just for you to have eternal life? No! It is for something more. Regeneration is for us to be built into the bride, which is the increase of Christ.
Originally we all were little serpents with a serpentine nature. By regeneration, the serpentine nature has been terminated. We saw this clearly in the last message. Furthermore, in regeneration we all have been germinated with the divine life. Since our serpentine nature has been terminated and since we have been germinated with the divine life, we are all a part of the bride. Are you a serpentine person or are you a part of the bride of Christ? We are parts of the bride! We are parts of the increase of Christ.
The Gospel of John is a book about the increase of Christ. Christ as the bridegroom needs a bride. He came for this purpose. He came for His increase. How will He obtain His increase? By entering into us and making us a part of Himself. We all are parts of Christ. As parts of Christ composed together, we are the bride of Christ, His increase. Both salvation and regeneration are for this purpose, for the bride as the increase of Christ.
The bride of Christ is the increase of Christ. All of the reborn people are the increase of Christ, and this increase is the bride which becomes the counterpart of Christ. The bride is the church, the composition of all the regenerated people. All those who are regenerated are composed together as the corporate bride to match Christ. Without regeneration, Christ cannot have a bride as His increase.
The bride as the increase of Christ is like Eve who was the increase of Adam. When Adam was first created, he was single — a so-called bachelor. In Adam’s single state, there was no increase. After God took a rib out of Adam and built a woman with it, this woman was married to Adam (Gen. 2:21-24). Once she was joined to Adam, she became the increase of Adam. Adam then had an increase and was no longer single.
Christ also was single, and so He made a bride to be the increase of Himself. But who is the increase, the bride, of Christ? Only those who are regenerated with Him as life. Through regeneration we possess the divine life of God which is Christ Himself, thus becoming members of the corporate bride of Christ. Later, the same writer, in the book of Revelation, says that the bride of Christ, the bride of the Lamb, is the New Jerusalem (21:2, 9-10). What is the New Jerusalem? Again, it is the composition of all those who have been born again through the regeneration of the Spirit. If you have been regenerated, you are part of the increase of Christ, a member of the corporate bride of Christ, which is the church today and which will consummate in the New Jerusalem in the future.
How can we become the increase of Christ? We repeat once again that the increase of Christ is produced through regeneration. For example, when we were born of our parents, we were the increase of Adam. Do you realize that Adam is increasing every day? Have you ever thought of how large Adam is today? About six thousand years ago, when Adam was alone in the garden of Eden, he was single, a bachelor. However, down through the generations, Adam has acquired many descendants. All his descendants are his increase. Today, counting only the living ones, Adam has increased to about three billion people. Adam has increased to be such a big Adam. Praise the Lord that Christ is increasing also. But He is not increased by our first birth. Our first birth is for the increase of Adam; our second birth is for the increase of Christ. When you have a child, that is another person for the increase of Adam. However, you must thank the Lord for another possibility: this once-born one may also be born again for the increase of Christ. Potentially, all of your children can be born again into the increase of Christ as well as into the increase of Adam.
Are you the increase of Adam, or are you the increase of Christ? Formerly, we had to say that we were just the increase of Adam. Now, thank the Lord, we are the increase of Christ through regeneration. However, we must also make sure that we live, walk, and do things, not by the life of Adam, but by the life of Christ. As long as we live by our human life, we are merely the increase of Adam. It is only as we live and walk by God’s divine life that we are the increase of Christ. Then we shall be the bride as the counterpart of Christ.
As a wife is one flesh with her husband, so we are one spirit with Christ (1 Cor. 6:17). As the wife is the increase of the husband, so we, as His bride, are the increase of Christ. Due to the fact that we have Christ as life through the second birth, we are the increase of Christ. Therefore the ultimate result of regeneration is that Christ has a bride as His increase. Christ is increased through regeneration because by regeneration He is reproduced in us. We, the regenerated people, are His reproduction.
Eve could be the increase of Adam because she was constituted with the rib of Adam and became one flesh with Adam, a part of Adam. In the same principle, we can be the increase of Christ because we are spiritually constituted with the life of Christ and have become one spirit with Him, a part of Him. As Eve came out of Adam and returned to be one with Adam, thus becoming Adam’s increase, so we also have come out of Christ and will return to be one with Him, thus becoming His increase. This increase is just His reproduction in us through regeneration. All the people who participate in this reproduction are given to Christ by God.
We must let Christ increase. We all must decrease. The entire following must go to Him. If all of today’s Christian preachers and leaders would say, “Lord, let my following be Yours that You may increase and that I may decrease,” there would be no problem. Some people seem to say, “He must increase, and I must decrease, but I must hold my following.” As long as you hold your following, you will never decrease and He cannot increase. The increase or the decrease all depends upon the following. To whom does the following belong? This is the problem today: every preacher has his own following. Many think that we are the same as they are because, according to their concept, every worker must maintain his following. When we say that we do not keep a following, they do not believe us. May the Lord have mercy upon us. We need His mercy not to keep a following under our hand. If we do, sooner or later, we shall be cast into prison. Let the following go to Him. He must increase, and we all must decrease.
John 3:31-36 bothers many translators of the Bible. They do not know where to place these verses. One version even puts them in another place. Some translators have argued whether these words were spoken by John the Baptist, by the Lord Jesus, or by John, the writer of the gospel. Several suppositions have been made. But, by the Lord’s mercy, we have come to see that these verses should be where they are, because they continue what has transpired up to verse 30.
Verse 30 says that Christ must increase and that we all must decrease. Why? Because Christ is unlimited and all-inclusive. These verses reveal an unlimited Christ. He was the little Jesus who was born in a manger and raised in Nazareth in the house of a poor carpenter. He had no outward beauty or attractiveness and He was very limited. Nevertheless, He is all-inclusive, immeasurable. He is higher than the heavens and broader than the universe. He is everything, and everything is for Him. Let us read these verses and see what they unfold of the immeasurable Christ. “He who comes from above is above all; he who is of the earth is of the earth and speaks of the earth. He who comes from heaven is above all. What He has seen and heard, of this He testifies, and no one receives His testimony. He who receives His testimony has sealed that God is true. For He whom God has sent speaks the words of God, for He gives the Spirit not by measure. The Father loves the Son, and has given all into His hand. He who believes in the Son has eternal life; but he who disobeys the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him.” These verses reveal that the Christ in whom we believe is unlimited and immeasurable.
Christ by then was a person on earth physically. But He was One coming from above. He was on earth, but His source was above. So, He is above all.
As Christ is a person from above, so He is also from heaven. Heaven is above earth. He was on earth, yet His source was heaven.
Christ is above all. In this portion of the Word, the word “all” does not mainly mean all things or matters, but all people. Christ is above all people, especially John the Baptist. At that time, John was in a position of rivalry with the Lord Jesus. Both Jesus and John accepted disciples. In the eyes of John’s disciples, John was on the same level as the Lord Jesus. But that was not right. Therefore, verse 31 tells us that Christ is the One who is above all. He is above you, me, and everyone else.
Christ was from heaven; yet while He was on earth He was still in heaven (3:13). He is universal; He is immeasurable.
Verse 34 says, “For He whom God has sent speaks the words of God, for He gives the Spirit not by measure.” In this verse we see two things: the Lord Jesus ministers the words of God to His people, and He gives the Spirit to God’s people without measure. Some versions render this verse incorrectly, saying that God the Father gives the Spirit to the Son without measure. However, if you study the best manuscripts, you will see that it means that the Son gives the Spirit without measure to God’s people. The Lord Jesus ministers the living Word and the immeasurable Spirit.
In the local churches we need just two things — the living Word and the immeasurable Spirit. Today, as the Head of the church, Christ is still ministering these two things. I believe that He has especially burdened us with the ministry of the living Word. Although we speak the Word, it is not we who minister the Word. We speak, but He ministers. He ministers His rich Word in our speaking. He is the divine speaker and the divine dispenser. He ministers the rich Word and dispenses the living Spirit without measure. He is the One who ministers the living Word to nourish all of His members. He is the One who dispenses the Spirit into all His members in order that they might function in a full way. No one else can do this. He is the all-inclusive Spirit and the all-inclusive Christ. He is unlimited.
In these last days the Lord is going to vindicate His way by means of the rich Word and the living Spirit. Where is the Lord? He is wherever there is the rich Word and the living Spirit. Nothing else can be considered as signs of the Lord’s presence. If we meet without the riches of the Word and without the livingness of the Spirit and yet claim to meet in the name of the Lord, our claim is meaningless. It is vanity. There is no confirmation, no reality, to back up what we say. There is no need for us to claim that we are the church. As long as we have the rich Word and the living Spirit, that is the vindication that we are the church. Where the Lord Jesus is, there you will find the rich Word and the living Spirit.
People often talk and argue about the church. Eventually, most of the people who talk and argue about the church are afraid to say anything about it. They just shut their mouths and become unwilling to even use the term church. They say, “Don’t talk about the church. The church is a troublesome thing.” It is difficult for people to say what is right or wrong as far as the church is concerned. What is the church? The church is Christ increasing and all the leaders decreasing. Whenever you see that the leaders are increasing and that Christ is imprisoned, that is not the church. The church is something in which Christ is continually increasing and the leadership decreasing.
The church is the Body of Christ. We know that the ointment of the high priest was poured upon his body and flowed down to his skirt (Psa. 133:2), indicating that the rich, living Spirit is not a matter of gift or miracles, but a matter of the anointing in life (Psa. 133:3). In the church, Christ, as the all-inclusive Head, gives the Spirit of life without measure. I like to hear the saints praying freely. But what would happen if the Head withheld the anointing and we still tried to pray? If He recalled the anointing, although we might try our best to pray, we would be unable to pray in a living way. We could only pray in a very dry and formal way. In these days I have been watered by listening to the prayers of the saints because those prayers have been filled with the anointing. This anointing comes from the all-inclusive Head. As long as we have the anointing, we are the Body. The ointment was poured out upon Aaron’s garments, meaning that it was poured upon the Body of Christ. If we have to arrange ahead of time for people to pray in a certain meeting, that is an organization, not the Body. An organization does not need the anointing, the immeasurable Spirit. A meeting which is filled with prayer from beginning to end would be a proof of the presence of the Head, proving that the whole Body is under the anointing of His immeasurable Spirit. There would be no need for someone to ask us to pray for two and a half hours, for that would be our doing, not the doing of the Head. Where is the church? Who are the church? What is the church? Where the Spirit is, there is the church.
Another sign of the church is the Word. If you read the book of Acts, you will see that in the early days of the church there were the Spirit and the Word. But it was not the Word in black and white letters. In Acts the church had the living Word, the Word full of life, light, anointing, and watering. The church has the living and instant Word, the Word that the Lord speaks today. Where there is the living Word, there is the church.
Praise the Lord that since the day that He raised us up, His holy Word has been open to us in a living way. As the days go by, I believe that the Word will open to us more and more. We do not need the outward things, because the presence of the Lord is in the church. His living Spirit and His living Word are in the church. This proves where the church is and it also testifies that the Head of the church is the unlimited Christ.
It is blasphemy to keep a following under our control. All the following must go to Him. The more we let go of our following, the more the Bible will be open to us, and the more the anointing will be on the Body. Brothers and sisters, now is the time that the Lord is going to vindicate His way on the earth, not only in this country, but throughout the world. His divine Word will be open to His Body more than ever before. And the anointing of the Spirit will be intensified sevenfold (Rev. 1:4). The all-inclusive Christ, the living Word, and the intensified Spirit will vindicate the way of the church. Otherwise, it is difficult for people to know who, where, and what is the church.
Hallelujah, we are regenerated people! We have been regenerated for His increase. His increase is for the all-inclusive Christ. John chapter three has three main points: regeneration, the increase, which is the bride of Christ, and the all-inclusive Christ.
The Father loves the Son (3:35). The Son is the object of the Father’s love. In love, the Father has made the Son to be above all and to be all in all. The Son’s all-inclusiveness is a matter of the Father’s love.
Verse 35 also says that the Father has given all into His hand. Again the “all” here does not mainly mean all things or all matters, but all people. The Father has given all people to the Son. The Father never gave anyone to John the Baptist. He has given all His chosen people to His Son. None of the chosen people of God belong to John the Baptist or to any Christian worker. John and all the Christian workers should not accept any of the people of God. God the Father has given all His elect to the Son. Everyone must go to Him. He is above all, and over all. All have been given to Him. All must be under His hand.
Verse 36 says, “He who believes in the Son has eternal life.” In John 3 we see both the Person and work of Christ. All that He is and all that He does is for us to be saved and regenerated that we might be His bride as His increase. Oh, He is such a wonderful One and He has accomplished such a marvelous work! Therefore, we must believe in Him. By believing in Him we receive the forgiveness of God and have the divine life, which is the eternal life. By believing in such a One, we receive God’s forgiveness, the release from God’s condemnation through His redemption, and eternal life, the uncreated life of God, through the Spirit’s regeneration. Thus, we are born of God and are delivered from the evil power of Satan and translated into the kingdom of God. Otherwise, we shall remain poisoned by Satan and continue under the condemnation of God which will eventually bring His wrath to us. Formerly, we were serpents poisoned by Satan, the enemy of God, and condemned already under the judgment of God. But now, thank the Lord, by His death and resurrection, we have been saved and regenerated to be parts of His bride. Therefore, we are His increase, His reproduction, which is His bride, His counterpart.
If anyone disobeys this Christ, he will remain under the wrath of God unto perdition. But we are not the disobeying ones, but the believing ones. We shall never perish. We have been saved from God’s condemnation and from Satan’s serpentine nature and we have been regenerated with God’s eternal life to be the bride of the all-inclusive Christ as His universal increase.
