Scripture Reading: 1 John 1:1-2; John 15:5, 7-8; Col. 3:16; 1 John 2:14b; Rev. 1:2-9; 19:13
In the foregoing message we pointed out that the word of life is the embodiment of the living God. Now we shall go on to see that the word of life is identical to the living Christ. The Word is both the embodiment of the living God and identical to the living Christ. First John 1:1 and 2 say, “That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, of the Word of life; (for the life was manifested, and we have seen it, and bear witness, and show unto you that eternal life, which was with the Father, and was manifested unto us).” These verses indicate that the word of life is the Son of God, Christ. Therefore, the word of life is identical to the living Christ.
The Triune God is mysterious, far beyond our comprehension. To say that God is triune means that He is three-one. The English word triune is derived from the Latin tri-, meaning three, and -une, meaning one. Hence, the word triune does not actually mean three-in-one; it means three-one.
Language is intimately related to culture and expresses various aspects of culture. However, in man’s culture there is nothing which is three-one. But God, the mysterious, invisible One, is triune; He is three-one. The expression three-one is not that of an earthly language, but of a divine, heavenly language.
John 1:1 says, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” In this verse one clause says that the Word was with God, whereas another clause declares that the Word was God. To say that the Word was with God would seem to indicate that the Word and God are two. But to go on to say that the Word was God indicates that the Word and God are one. Are the Word and God one or two? We may say that they are two-one, even though there is not such an expression in our language because there is not such a fact in our culture. However, we need a divine language to express the divine reality.
Today many fundamental Christians claim that the Father, the Son, and the Spirit are three separate Persons. However, according to the Bible, we may say that the Father, Son, and Spirit are distinct, but They definitely are not separate. The Lord Jesus said, “I am in the Father, and the Father is in Me” (John 14:10). How, then, can the Father and the Son be separate? He also said, “He who has seen Me has seen the Father” (John 14:9). How, then, can the Son be a separate Person from the Father? Furthermore, the use of the Greek preposition which means “from with” in the Gospel of John (para) is very significant. The Lord Jesus, the Son, is not only from God, but also with God. While He is from God, He is still with Him (John 6:46; 8:16, 29; 16:32). Likewise, the Spirit was sent not only from the Father but from with the Father (John 15:26). This indicates that when the Spirit comes from the Father, He comes with the Father. Therefore, although the Father, Son, and Spirit are distinct, They cannot be separate. The Three of the Godhead are inseparable. Although They are three, They are truly one. In fact, They are three-one.
According to the Bible we have the unique God, who is called the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Matthew 28:19 indicates that the Three of the Godhead have just one name. This verse speaks of baptizing believers into the name of the Father, Son, and Spirit. Here we have a three-one name. This is a divine fact, although our language is not adequate to express it.
Many Christians today, perhaps unconsciously, hold to tritheism, the belief in three Gods. The traditional teaching of the Trinity has a tendency toward tritheism. But we do not believe in tritheism; we believe in the revelation of the Triune God according to the Bible.
Concerning the Godhead, many portions of the Word are rather puzzling. For example, Hebrews 1:2 says that God has spoken to us in the Son. But according to verse 8, the Son is addressed as God. Furthermore, speaking of God, verse 9 then uses the expression “Your God.” According to grammar, this must mean the God of God. How are we to understand this? It certainly is mysterious. Verses such as these indicate that we need to be delivered from the natural, traditional, and religious way of understanding the Bible.
It is crucial for us to realize that, having passed through the various steps of a process, the Triune God today has become the Spirit. John 7:39 says, “The Spirit was not yet, because Jesus was not yet glorified.” Although the Spirit of God has always been in existence, this verse nevertheless says that the Spirit was not yet. The expression “the Spirit” here denotes the Triune God — the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit — processed to become the all-inclusive life-giving Spirit. This Spirit is all-inclusive because it includes not only divinity, but also humanity, human living, crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension. It includes all the three-one God is, has, and has accomplished and attained. Therefore, the Spirit is the totality of all the three-one God is, has, and has accomplished and attained.
It is even more difficult to define the Word than it is to define the Spirit. In the New Testament, the Son of God is called the Word. Revelation 19:13 says of Him, “His name is called The Word of God.” In the past we have pointed out that for Christ to be the Word of God means that He is the definition, explanation, and expression of God. However, this understanding is not adequate. We must go on to see that the New Testament indicates that the Word is the Spirit. The Lord Jesus said, “The words which I have spoken unto you are spirit and are life” (John 6:63). Furthermore, Ephesians 6:17 even identifies the Word as the Spirit. Hence, the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit, the Spirit, and the Word are one in a very mysterious way.
In the previous message we pointed out that the Spirit is the consummation of the process through which the Triune God has passed. We also indicated that the Word is the consummation of God’s speaking. But why is the Word the Spirit and the Spirit, the Word? I admit that this matter is very difficult to understand and explain.
As a help to our understanding, we may use the striking of matches as an illustration. Matches are made of phosphorus. Hence, a match is the embodiment of phosphorus. As such, in a very practical way it is identical to phosphorus. This means that the match is phosphorus and phosphorus is the match. Applying this illustration to the Bible and the Spirit, we may compare the Bible to the match and the Spirit to phosphorus. Furthermore, because a match is made of phosphorus and is the embodiment of phosphorus, it makes phosphorus available to us. The Triune God today is the Spirit, and the Spirit is embodied in the Word. Although it is rather difficult for us to handle the Spirit, we can easily carry a Bible. Just as we have phosphorus by having a match, so we have the Spirit by having the Bible.
However, even though the Word is the embodiment of the Spirit, many Christians do not contact the Word through the Spirit. To use the illustration of the match, when these believers strike the Word, the “match” does not light, even though they may love the Bible very much. If we want to light a match, it is not adequate merely to love the match. We need to strike the match in a proper way. In the same principle, if we would contact the Spirit embodied in the Word, we need to “strike” the “match” of the Word by exercising our spirit.
Suppose someone tried to light a match by analyzing it or by exercising his emotion to express his love for it. This indeed would be useless, even foolish. To light a match does not require that we analyze it or love it. We simply need to strike it in a proper way, and it will suddenly burst into flame. In like manner, if we want to contact the Spirit through the Word, we should not merely analyze the “match” of the Word or express our affection for it. Once again I say we need to “strike” the Word in the proper place, and that place is our spirit. Seminaries and Bible schools, however, instruct believers to analyze the “match” or to love it. They do not emphasize the way to “strike” it.
If we would “strike” the “match” of the Word, we must learn to exercise our spirit. Do not use your mind or emotion to strike the Word. The Word will only light up in our experience if we strike it in our spirit. This is the reason we need to exercise our spirit to pray when we come to the Word of God. This is to pray-read the Word.
Many believers throughout the centuries had the practice of praying with the Word of God. Although they did not use the term pray-reading, they nonetheless had the fact in their experience. One of those who practiced praying the words of the Bible was George Whitefield, a contemporary of John Wesley. George Whitefield’s practice was to pray the New Testament in Greek while on his knees. This was the secret of his power and spirituality. George Whitefield pray-read the word of life. To pray the Word is to use our spirit to “strike” the Word.
I have been reading and studying the Bible for more than fifty years. When I was a young man, I loved the Word of God and was ambitious to know it thoroughly. However, I only knew to read the Bible with my eyes and my mind. Then someone encouraged me not only to read the Word, but also to meditate on it. I began to spend time to ponder the Word, to consider it, to dwell on it. This was somewhat helpful. I was also helped by reading George Mueller’s autobiography. According to Mueller, we should not only read the Bible and meditate on it, but also pray over it. In his autobiography Mueller does not say that we should pray the Word; however, he does say that after reading a certain portion we should pray. For example, if we read a verse concerning love, we should then pray regarding love. Likewise, we should pray concerning repentance when reading about repentance in the Word. This practice of praying immediately after reading a verse is similar to pray-reading. George Mueller’s autobiography was very helpful, and I began to read the Bible and pray according to his practice. Often I actually prayed with the pure word of the Bible, making a certain verse my prayer to the Lord. In effect, I was pray-reading.
Although I had adopted the practice of praying while reading the Word, I did not yet know how to exercise the spirit. From brother Watchman Nee I received help in this matter. Brother Nee emphasized the necessity of exercising the spirit. He said that when we speak to others, especially in giving a message, we need to send forth our spirit by exercising it. He pointed out that if we use a certain part of our being while speaking to others, we shall touch the same part in them. For example, if we use our mind, we shall touch the mind of others. If we speak from our emotion, we shall touch others in their emotion. If we would touch others’ spirit, Brother Nee told us, we must use our spirit.
Because man is fallen, his spirit is dormant, whereas the mind and the emotion of the soul are extremely active. With men the mind is active; with women, it is the emotion which is active. The most idle and dormant part of the being of fallen man is the spirit. Even after we have been saved and regenerated, our spirit may remain idle and dormant. When certain sisters pray, they may pray by the emotion instead of by the spirit. As they pray to the Lord about their problems, they may weep. If they exercise their spirit instead of the emotion, they will pray in a very different manner about their problems. Instead of crying, they may say, “Lord, I thank You and praise You for all my troubles. I thank You, Lord, for my circumstances.”
Although we may be very strong in our mind, emotion, or will, our spirit may be weak, idle, and dormant. Our mind, emotion, or will may react immediately to things. Our spirit, however, may be very slow to respond. Our spirit may even be dormant when we come to the Bible, whereas other parts of our being, especially the mind, may be extremely active. In reading the Bible, we may have very little exercise of the spirit.
If we fail to exercise our spirit in reading the Word, we fail to “strike” the “match” in our spirit. As a result, the “phosphorus,” the Spirit embodied in the Word, does not ignite. If we want to experience the phosphorus embodied in the match, the Spirit embodied in the Word, we need to exercise our spirit to pray-read the Word. Then we shall strike the match in the right place and experience the fire in the Word. We can testify that by taking the Word in the proper way, exercising our spirit, we experience the burning in our spirit.
In the Bible light is one with life, life is one with love, love is related to holiness, and holiness, to righteousness. When all these are put together, we have power. These divine attributes — light, life, love, holiness, righteousness, and power — are actually the Triune God Himself coming to us as the Spirit through the Word. When we contact the Triune God as the Spirit through the Word, we experience Him as our light, life, love, holiness, righteousness, and power. This is Christ in our experience. Experiencing Christ in such a subjective way, we spontaneously live Him.
The word of life is not only identical to Christ; it is identical also to these divine attributes. From experience we can testify that whenever we strike the Word with our spirit, we have light. The word of life becomes light to us in our experience. Furthermore, the Word becomes life, including love, holiness, righteousness, power, strength, and might. This is the word of life being identical to the living Christ and also to the various attributes of the Triune God.
We should not regard the Bible simply as a book of theology revealing who God is, what God is, and what God wants us to do in order to contact Him. The Bible is not just an objective revelation of God and His requirements. The Bible should also be the tree of life for us to eat. To us the Bible may be either a book of knowledge or a book of life, either the tree of knowledge or the tree of life. The tree of knowledge brings death, but the tree of life brings the divine life supply. I can testify that in the past I acquired a great deal of knowledge by approaching the Bible as the tree of knowledge. The result was that I was deadened, even killed, by the Bible in black and white letters. This is according to Paul’s word, “The letter kills” (2 Cor. 3:6). The Scripture in letters can kill. This comes from taking the Bible as the tree of knowledge. But if we exercise our spirit to feed on the Word, the Bible will become in our experience a book of life, even the tree of life. We shall then be supplied with life through every verse. Many Christians have been killed by the Bible in dead letters. What they need is not more doctrine, but the life of the Spirit. They need to come to the Bible as the tree of life.
I can testify that I am living and energized because I receive the life supply from the Word as the tree of life. The Word is the embodiment of the very Lord whom I love. Because I love Him, I contact Him through the Word, which is identical to the Lord Himself. Two verses in John 15 indicate this. In verse 4 the Lord Jesus says, “Abide in Me and I in you.” But in verse 7 He says, “If you abide in Me and My words abide in you, ask whatever you will, and it shall come to pass to you.” Notice that in verse 4 it is the Lord who abides in us, whereas in verse 7 His words abide in us. This indicates that the Lord’s words abiding in us are equal to the Lord Himself abiding in us. If we do not have His words abiding in us, it will be difficult for us to experience Him abiding in us. The Lord is abstract, but His word is concrete.
We need to contact the Word not only with our mind, but also with our regenerated spirit. When we exercise our spirit to contact the Word, the Word becomes identical to the Lord Himself in our experience. Then the Word is living, energizing, and filled with the divine attributes of light, life, love, holiness, righteousness, and power. By taking the Word in this way, we live Christ.
I have no doubt that Paul’s life was a life of living Christ. He could say, “To me to live is Christ” (Phil. 1:21). He also charged us to let the word of Christ dwell in us richly (Col. 3:16). As we have pointed out, the word dwell in Colossians 3:16 means to inhabit, to house itself, in us. To let the word of Christ house itself in us is to let the Word saturate our whole being. Eventually, when in our experience the Word, Christ, and the Triune God are mingled together as one, we live Christ. We have a life full of the divine virtues of light, life, love, holiness, righteousness, and power. This is the proper Christian life.
