In this message we shall continue to consider the revelation of the mystery of Christ, which is the church.
In the Gospel of Matthew Christ twice revealed the church to the first group of the apostles, revealing the church in its universal aspect (16:18) and also in its local aspect (18:15-20). However, when the Lord Jesus was on earth, He could not reveal the deeper and more profound aspect of the church to those earliest apostles. In John 16:12 and 13 He said to them, “I have yet many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. But when He, the Spirit of reality, comes, He will guide you into all the reality; for He will not speak from Himself, but whatever He hears He will speak; and He will disclose to you what is to come.” This indicates that the Lord had something further in His heart to tell the disciples; however, at that time they were not able to comprehend it. Therefore, He told them that they would have to wait until He sent the Spirit of reality to reveal to them the deeper aspects of the church. From this we see that the revelation of the mystery of Christ is first by Christ and then by the Holy Spirit.
In John 14:26 the Lord Jesus says, “The Comforter, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and remind you of all things which I said to you.” Here we see that the Father sends the Spirit in the Son’s name. According to John 5:43, the Son came in the Father’s name. For the Son to come in the name of the Father means that the Son comes as the Father. The principle is the same with the Father’s sending the Spirit in the Son’s name. According to 14:26, the Father sends the Spirit, but He sends the Spirit in the name of the Son. Therefore, the Spirit comes in the Son’s name because the Spirit and the Son are one (2 Cor. 3:17). Just as the Son does not come in His own name but comes in the name of the Father, so the Spirit does not come in His own name but comes in the name of the Son. This means that although the Spirit is here, He is not here in His own name but in the Son’s name. Furthermore, the Son is here in the Father’s name, not in His own name. Therefore, when the Spirit is here, the Son is here, and when the Son is here, the Father is here. This means that when the Spirit comes, all three of the Triune God-the Father, the Son, and the Spirit-come with the Spirit. This is the Triune God reaching us as the Spirit to reveal the church as the mystery of Christ.
According to 14:26, the Spirit will teach us all things, and according to 16:13, He will guide us into all the reality. The Spirit of reality guides the believers into all the reality of the Triune God and of all divine matters. The Spirit receives all that is of the Son in order to disclose it to the believers. Regarding this, the Lord Jesus says, “He shall glorify Me, for He shall receive of Mine and shall disclose it to you. All that the Father has is Mine; therefore I said that He receives of Mine and shall disclose it to you” (16:14-15). All that the Father is and has is embodied in the Son (Col. 2:9), and all that the Son is and has is revealed as reality to us through the Spirit. Therefore, the Spirit of reality reveals to the believers all that the Son is. This means that our understanding of the Son is by the Spirit, who has received whatever the Son is and then reveals this to us.
The Father, who is the source, the origin, has many riches. Whatever the Father has is the Son’s, and what the Son has is received by the Spirit. Since what the Spirit receives is disclosed or transmitted to us, we become the destination. The Father is embodied in the Son, the Son is transfigured to be the Spirit, and the Spirit is the reaching of the divine Trinity to us. Therefore, we are the destination of the Triune God. All that the Triune God is and has has been disclosed and transmitted to us. Because we are organically united to the Spirit, that is, organically united to the processed Triune God, whatever He is and has now is our portion as our reality. Therefore, as the Spirit receives all that the Son has and unveils it to us, the revelation of the mystery of Christ, the church, is completed.
Referring to the things which God has prepared for those who love Him, Paul says in 1 Corinthians 2:10, “God has revealed them to us through the Spirit; for the Spirit searches all things, even the depths of God.” The depths of God refer to the deep things of God, which are Christ in many aspects as our eternal portion, foreordained, prepared, and given to us freely by God. These have never arisen in man’s heart, but they are revealed to us in our spirit by God’s Spirit.
God reveals the deep and hidden things to us through the Spirit, for these things have not been seen by man’s eyes, heard by man’s ears, nor have they come up in man’s heart (1 Cor. 2:9). This means that man has no idea concerning them, no thought of them. They are altogether mysterious, hidden in God, and beyond human understanding. But God has revealed them to us through the Spirit.
To have something revealed to us is different from being taught about that thing. To teach is related to our mind; to reveal, to our spirit. To realize the deep and hidden things God has prepared for us, our spirit is more necessary than our mind.
First Corinthians 2:10 says that the Spirit searches all things, even the depths of God. The Greek word rendered “searches” includes active research and implies accurate knowledge not in discovering but in exploring. The Spirit of God explores the depths of God concerning Christ and shows them to us in our spirit for our realization and participation. The life-giving Spirit is moving and searching within us to impart the riches of Christ, including the revelation of the church as the mystery of Christ, into our being.
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