God as the indwelling life-giving Spirit

Now the Triune God has come to dwell within
As the wonderful Spirit in us.
We are mingled with the Lord, we're one with Him
As the life-giving Spirit in us.

Chorus:
Oh, He's the wonderful Spirit in us,
He's the wonderful Spirit in us!
God is in the Son, the Son's the Spirit now —
He's the wonderful Spirit in us!

"Abba Father" is the cry from deep within
From the wonderful Spirit in us.
'Tis the Spirit of the Son who cries to Him
As the life-giving Spirit in us.

Jesus Christ the Lord is living now in us
As the wonderful Spirit within.
He has been transfigured, we enjoy Him thus,
As the life-giving Spirit within.

Now the Spirit of reality is here
As the wonderful Spirit within.
Now the things of Christ are all so real and clear
By the life-giving Spirit within.

We will all stir up this gift that's deep within
As the wonderful Spirit in us.
When we call "Lord Jesus" how our spirits spring
With this life-giving Spirit in us!

Christ working to transform us

But we all with unveiled face, beholding and reflecting like a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, even as from the Lord Spirit. – 2 Cor. 3:18

Many Christians understand only that, in some mystical way, they “invited Jesus into their hearts,” they they have no real experiential knowledge of Christ dwelling in them. Yet, 2 Corinthians 3:18 says that “we all”—that is, all believers—should be “beholding and reflecting” with an “unveiled face” the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.

I know for many, many years as a Bible-studying Christian I thought that “beholding and reflecting…the glory of the Lord” somehow instead meant “studying and trying to perform according to what I saw of Jesus Christ in the scriptures.” This meant that all my efforts in this regard were centered only in my flesh mind (found in my soul).

Of course, this deficiency was caused by the all to frequent failure of traditional Christianity to even teach that man has a spirit, and that in man’s regenerated spirit is where Jesus Christ dwells with the Triune God by the Holy Spirit.

This is so short!

God really does intend us to be a vessel to contain Him as our life and our everything. Christ desires to become not only our life, but our very person. In God’s economy, He has made a way for Christ to be united and mingled with us so that He can also be working within us to transform us day by day until we are the same as He is in life, nature and expression but not in the Godhead.

Our being joined to the Lord can only take place in our mingled spirit

“But he who is joined to the Lord is one spirit.” – 1 Cor. 6:17

For many in traditional Christianity, “faith” is little more than mental assent to certain articles of belief. That is how it was for me for many, many years.

Oh, my relationship with the Lord was real enough—but it was almost entirely in my mind. I hardly knew that I had a human spirit—let alone knowing what I should do with it. I had invited Jesus into my heart and that’s pretty much where He stayed—locked away from all the rest of my being.

It is only after I learned that I had a human spirit, and how to “exercise myself unto godliness” by feeding and exercising my spirit, that I discovered with all the saints that I could be truly united and mingled with the Lord Jesus dwelling as the Spirit of reality in my regenerated human spirit. It is reality of Jesus Christ dispensed by the Father as the Spirit into my spirit that allows the joining and mingling that makes us—Him and me, me and Him—“one spirit” (1 Cor. 6:17). This is experience truly is the normal Christian life—and not the exception.

Our mutual coinherence with the Father through Christ by the Spirit

And the Lord is the Spirit…. – 2 Cor. 3:17a

In that day you will know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you. – John 14:20

That they all may be one; even as You, Father, are in Me and I in You, that they also may be in Us; that the world may believe that You have sent Me. – John 17:21

The concept of coinherence (mutual indwelling) cannot be fully comprehended by our natural mind. It is a matter of faith and must be “spiritually discerned,” as Paul writes in another place.

Coinherence is the essential state of the Triune God. That is to say, at all times in the godhead, the Father is in the Son and the Spirit; the Son is, at the same time, always found in the Father and in the Spirit; and the Spirit is at all times found in the Father and in the Son.

The Lord Jesus introduces us to something new in the coinherence relationship in the Gospel of John. He says that we “all” are not only to be made one (i.e., brought into oneness), but we “all” (17:21) are to be made one in the same way (read: “even as”) as the Father is in the Son and the Son is in the Father. We are introduced by the Lord Jesus to an expanded Trinity that brings the corporate man—the Body of Christ—into the enlargement of God and His expression.

Note: This does not mean that we are brought into the godhead to become God as an object of worship. Only God is God and there is none other like Him. Nevertheless, the scriptures are clear that by the dispensing of the life of God into the believers in Christ and by the Spirit, there is a real and expanded oneness within God into which the believers are invited to dwell.

In the illustration above we are given a small glimpse as to how this new organic oneness operates by God the Father “who is over all, through all and in all.” While God remains God in His godhead, we—the believers—are brought into this divine oneness through our mingled spirit and the divine dispensing. Jesus Christ by the Holy Spirit becomes Jacob’s ladder joining (in reality) “heaven and earth” (Gen. 28:12; John 1:51).

This is the branch abiding in the vine. This is “Christ in you, the hope of glory.” This is the mutual coinherence of the genuine believer in the Father and in the Son by the Spirit in their human spirit.

Knowing Christ in a deeper way

When Christ our life is manifested, then you also will be manifested with Him in glory. – Col. 3:4 [emphasis added]

Much like I found myself 15 or more years ago, many who have known nothing but the traditional teachings of Christianity, know Christ only as their savior and redeemer. As essential as that is, the Lord never intended for us to stop there. Else, how could Paul write to the Colossians, “When Christ our life is manifested”?

The sad truth is that Christ is not “our life”—at least not for most Christians today. I know he certainly was not for me for my first 20 or so years as a Christian. And I was considered a Bible scholar amongst my Christian peers.

Yes! We need to find our way well beyond the redeeming work of Christ to Christ as life—as our life.

“…God willed to make known what are the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of Glory.” – Col. 1:27

“Abide in Me and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you unless you abide in Me. I am the vine; you are the branches. He who abides in Me and I in Him, he bears much fruit; for apart from Me you can do nothing.” – John 15:4f

Crucial elements of the Bible–Part 9

And He subjected all things under His feet and gave Him to be Head over all things to the church, which is His Body, the fullness of the One who fills all in all. – Ephesians 1:22f

As we have been saying in this series of articles, the principle that we must apply in any interpretation of the Bible is that the centrality of the Bible is Christ and that the crucial elements of the Bible are four: Christ, the Spirit, life and the church.

In the matter of Jesus Christ, we emphasized that God intends the very person of Jesus Christ to become the believer’s life and that Christ, by the Holy Spirit, God intends Christ to be united and mingled with the believer in one spirit (I Cor. 6:17).

When we came to the matter of the Holy Spirit, we used John 7 (esp. 39) to highlight the fact that, in the economy of God, the Spirit of God has been compounded with Jesus Christ’s divinity, humanity, crucifixion and resurrection to become the compound, life-giving, indwelling, sanctifying, transforming and even the seven-fold intensified Spirit (Rev. 1:4; 4:5; 5:6, et al) dispensed into the believers.

I discussing the matter of life, we pointed out that Jesus’ redemptive work was not the end, but only the beginning. Redemption was to make man qualified to receive the very life of God—life absolute and underived. The Triune God’s eternal purpose is to dispense Himself into man as life. He does this by coming to us in Christ as the Spirit of reality to dwell in the believers as vessels for His life and His expression.

Now we come to the matter of the church—the Body of Christ.

It is in the book of Ephesians that the Spirit explicitly reveals “God’s eternal purpose.”

In [Jesus Christ] we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of offenses, according to the riches of His grace…. – Eph. 1:7

Too many in traditional Christianity stop (at least subconsciously) right there. Having found redemption and forgiveness in God, that is all with which they are concerned. All their life and thinking circle around redemption and forgiveness.

They would be like the children of Israel in Egypt at the time of the Passover. However, all they did was kill the lamb and put the blood on their doorposts. What they are missing is the eating—for it is by eating that we have life—and walking toward God’s purpose for them (for the children of Israel, that was “the promised land”).

But, Ephesians goes on from there:

“…which He caused to abound to us in all wisdom and prudence, making known to us the mystery of His will according to His good pleasure which He purposed in Himself, unto the economy of the fullness of the times, to head up all things in Christ, the things in the heavens and the things on the earth, in Him.” – Eph. 1:8-10

It is beyond the scope of this article to expound the whole verse, but clearly you see that God had a purpose “in Himself,” and this purpose was to be carried out through an “economy” (a dispensing) in time (not eternity).

Chapter 3 of Ephesians picks up this theme once again:

“…[T[o enlighten all that they may see what the economy of the mystery is, which throughout the ages has been hidden in God, who created all things, in order that now to the rulers and the authorities in the heavenlies the multifarious wisdom of God might be made known through the Church, according to the eternal purpose which He made in Christ Jesus our Lord….” – Eph. 3:9-11

Here we see plainly why we must include “the church” as one of the four crucial elements of the Bible. The church is not merely the gathering place for believers to “hang on” until we die or the Lord Jesus comes again. The church—the Body of Christ—is the very expression of God displaying His multifarious wisdom to principalities and powers in the heavenlies.

As the main grains (John 12:24) become one loaf (I Cor. 10:17), even so, through the Lord’s transforming work, the many stones become a building, the many members become “a body,” and the church ultimately becomes a city—the New Jerusalem. The church “which is His Bride” has become “a holy city… prepared as a bride” (Rev. 21:2) for the Triune God in Christ, the Lamb.

Without the church as a crucial element in the centrality of God’s purpose and in the Bible, we cannot get to the Book of Revelation chapter 22. For it is in that chapter that “the Spirit and the Bride”—speaking with one voice—say, “Come!” It is there we—as we did in Genesis—a flowing river of the water of life and the Tree of Life made available to man for all eternity as God’s dispensing into man for life and as life.

What a glorious purpose is found in God! Blessed be His Name forever more!

Crucial elements of the Bible-Part 8

When Christ our life is manifested, then you also will be manifested with Him in glory. – Colossians 3:4

In Part 7 of this series, we looked at a figure showing the spiritual “biology” of a single believer. But, since we are considering the crucial elements of the Bible—Christ, the Spirit, Life and the Church—we need to understand the spiritual “biology” that make the church a living organism as the full expression of the Triune God and not an organization.

God intention in the economy of God is to have one Body in this universe for His expression through Christ. This one Body—the Body of Christ—is composed of all those who have believed into Christ and have been joined to God through the activation of their human spirit mingled with the Holy Spirit (I Cor. 6:17).

Salvation

The believers salvation is initiated by the individual’s calling upon the Name of the Lord and is made both possible and effective by the redemptive price paid by Jesus Christ once for all through His precious blood, death and resurrection.

However, God never intended man to simply “receive Jesus into his heart” and hold Him captive there. Instead, God’s intention with man is that, beginning from man’s spirit mingled and joined to the Holy Spirit, that man’s mind, will and emotions (his soul) would be brought under the rule and headship of the divine life spreading from the spirit. God’s dispensing begins in and with the spirit of man, but man’s whole vessel is intended to contain the divine life. It is for this very reason that man was created in the image of God.

As believers joined together in Christ we are automatically joined in “the oneness of the Spirit” (Eph. 4:3), which oneness we are exhorted “to keep… in a uniting bond of peace” (with God). We are not exhorted to “create” such oneness because it is not within our power to do so.

Sanctification

Allowing the divine life to spread from our spirit into our soul and to govern our thinking (i.e., our mind), our feelings (i.e., our emotions) and our choosing (i.e., our will) is what the scriptures refer to as “sanctification.” This word is easily understood when we see the German form which, being directly translated, means: holy-making.

However, once again our traditional Christian (read: religious) understandings tend to take over and we immediately think that “holy-making” or “sanctification” mean God wants to bring us into conformity to an outward declaration of “laws” for righteousness.

The Greek word for “holy” clears this mistaken impression up for us once and for all. The Greek word is (transliterated) “hagios” or “agios” (without the initial breath-mark). This comes from two roots: the first is the negative particle “a,” which negates what follows it. We find this negative particle brought into English in several words, such as “apathy,” meaning “without feeling.”

The second root is “gios” or, more commonly brought into English as “geos.” This root is found in several English words such as “geography,” “geology,” “geometry,” and “geophysics.” You note that they all have to do with the earth.

Therefore, when we combine these roots in our English understanding we see that “holy” means “not-of-the-earth” or “not-earthly.”

But, clearly, it is not possible for us to make ourselves “not earthly.” The only way for such a transformation is by a full reliance upon, and our organic growth through, the Holy Spirit, thus being brought deeper into God. This is the meaning then of “…Holding to the truth in love, we may grow up into Him in all things, who is the Head, Christ” (Eph. 4:15a). As you can see in the diagram above, growing up into God means allowing God to work in us to bring not only our spirit, but also our soul, into the realm of Christ as our life (see Gal. 2:20, et al).

One God and Father of all… over all and through all and in all

The figure above also clearly depicts the conditions described for the “One Body” in Ephesians 4:6, showing us plainly how “One God and Father of all… is [in reality] over all and through all and in all.”

Crucial elements of the Bible-Part 7

But if Christ is in you, though the body is dead because of sin, the spirit is life because of righteousness. And if the Spirit of the One who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who indwells you.

– Romans 8:10, 11

In preceding portions of this series, we have talked about the deep significance of John 7, culminating in verse 39. How the divine human living of Jesus, who was taken bodily into heaven in His ascension, was compounded into the Life-giving Spirit before the Spirit’s being dispensed into man. This concept is made all the more clear by 1 Corinthians 15:45b, where the scriptures tell us that “the Last Adam [Jesus Christ] was made a life-giving spirit.” Once again, the reference is to His divine humanity—as the first Adam was certainly a man.

Now we continue considering Romans 8:10 and 11.

Here we see, once again, the while the scriptures declare this it is, indeed, the Christ of God who is dispensed into us (with the Father and as the Spirit), the emphasis returns saying, “the Spirit of the One who raised Jesus [emphasis on His humanity] from the dead wells in you” and gives you “life… through His Spirit.”

The Triune God and tripartite man

Before one “believes into” the Lord Jesus Christ (John 7:38), one’s spirit remains darkened and he remains “dead in [his] trespasses and sins” (Eph. 2:1). However, when the unbeliever calls upon the Name of the Lord, his spirit is made alive and by this organ His contact with God is restored for “God is Spirit and those who worship Him must worship in spirit” (John 4:24).

Believing is not simple a mental assent to some religious postulates. Real faith is a movement out of one realm and into another—”out of the [realm of the] authority of darkness” and “into the kingdom of the Son of [God’s] love” (Col. 1:13).

This joining “into” God is the receiving of the very life of God by the Holy Spirit into our human spirit. By this we join “the kingdom of God.” (There are the “animal kingdom,” the “plant kingdom,” and the “God kingdom,” each representing a distinction in life and in nature. We can talk more about this matter another time.) In this regard, Jesus employs a powerful image—the vine-tree.

The life of the vine

“I am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman,” Jesus told his disciples (John 15:1). The secret for the believer is found in verse 4: “Abide in Me and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you unless you abide in Me.”

Once we are joined to the Triune God (God the Father in Christ Jesus as the Spirit dispensed into our human spirit), we are like the vine branch abiding in the vine tree. The life of Jesus Christ, flowing by the Spirit in our spirit, is a constant supply of life to us as long as we remain connected and open to that flow.

As Romans 8:10 and 11 tell us, then, “Christ is [flowing] in you” through this life-giving connection. And, even though our flesh (our body) is still in deadness “because of sin,” yet our “spirit is life because of righteousness” (in this case, God’s righteousness to fulfill His promise to all those who call upon His Name).

“And, if the Spirit of the One who raised Jesus [in His divine humanity] from the dead [that is, the Father God] dwells in you, [then] He who raised Christ [the anointed one for this purpose] will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who indwells you.”

So, we see then, brethren, that the goal of the Triune God is the dispensing of the Holy Spirit, who brings life—both the divine life and Jesus’ divine human living—into us as His believers. This makes us truly “the children of God”—having the very life and nature of our heavenly Father—and not just “adopted children” as traditional Christian thinking would have us believe.