In 2 Corinthians 3:3 Paul says, “Inscribed not with ink”; he does not say, “Inscribed not by ink.” It is important that we pay careful attention to Paul’s use of the preposition with. The word with indicates that the spiritual ink, the Spirit of the living God, is an essence, an element, used by the one doing the inscribing or the writing. This preposition indicates that the Spirit is neither the writer nor the instrument used for writing; rather, the Spirit is the essence, the element, the substance, used in writing. The Spirit of the living God, who is the living God Himself, is not an instrument, such as a pen, but an element, the heavenly ink used in writing, with which the apostles minister Christ as the content for the writing of living letters that convey Christ.
The ministry of the apostles is to write letters with the life-giving Spirit as the essence. The more the apostles minister to us, the more they impart into us the element of the life-giving Spirit, just as the more we write on the paper, the more ink is added to the paper. In 2 Corinthians 3:3 Paul does not view the Spirit as a person, an instrument, or a power. Rather, the Spirit is the essence used for inscribing living letters of Christ.
Our ministry in the local churches must be a ministry of inscribing. It should not be mere teaching. If we only teach others, the divine essence will not be inscribed into them. Teaching does not require any essence; however, inscribing does require an essence, just as writing with a pen requires ink. Likewise, we must have the divine essence in order to inscribe it into the being of the saints. On the one hand, the Spirit as the processed Triune God is the essence inscribed into our being. Because this essence has been inscribed into us, we cannot remain the same. Transformation is taking place within us. On the other hand, through our ministry of the word, we should inscribe the divine essence into others so that, although they may not remember the points of the message, what has been inscribed into them of the divine essence will never be erased.
The ministry of inscribing is unique, and the essence used for inscribing is also unique. Peter did not do one kind of inscribing with one kind of essence, and Paul, a different kind of inscribing with a different kind of essence. No, the apostles were not divided; neither were they divisive. Rather, they all practiced the same inscribing with the same essence. Therefore, the unique inscribing must be with the unique essence, the Triune God as the Spirit. The term the Spirit, as used in the New Testament, is very meaningful. The Spirit denotes the processed Triune God to be the all-inclusive life-giving Spirit.
In Genesis 1:2 we read of the Spirit of God. Elsewhere the Old Testament speaks of the Spirit of Jehovah (Judg. 3:10; 1 Sam. 10:6). In the New Testament the term the Holy Spirit is used (Luke 1:35; 3:22). Then in Acts 16:7 we read of the Spirit of Jesus; in Romans 8:9, of the Spirit of Christ; and in Philippians 1:19, of the Spirit of Jesus Christ. In Romans 8 we are charged to walk according to the spirit (v. 4). In the New Testament the emphasis is not on walking in the Holy Spirit or in the Spirit of God; the emphasis is on walking according to the spirit. Finally, at the end of the Bible in Revelation 22:17, we read of the Spirit and the bride. Thus, the Bible ends with a word not about the Spirit of God, nor about the Holy Spirit, but about the Spirit. The Spirit in Revelation 22:17 is the processed Triune God.
We should not regard the Spirit as being separate from God. In 2 Corinthians 3:17 Paul goes on to say, “The Lord is the Spirit.” In the same verse Paul also speaks of “the Spirit of the Lord.” The Spirit is the Lord, and the Lord is the Spirit. In like manner, the Spirit of the living God is actually the living God Himself. When Paul says that the apostles inscribed a letter with the Spirit of the living God, this does not mean that the Spirit of the living God is only the Spirit and not God Himself. The Spirit of the living God is God. The living God is the Triune God, the One who has passed through the process of incarnation, crucifixion, and resurrection and has now been consummated in the life-giving, life-imparting, and life-dispensing Spirit. With this Spirit the apostles inscribed upon the saints to make them a letter of Christ written by them.
The Spirit is the writing Spirit, and we are the letters of Christ. The Spirit is the ink for writing Christ into us. As the divine ink, the Spirit is the Spirit of the living God. There should be something living within us all the time as evidence that Christ is being written into every part of our inner being. If we are under the Spirit’s writing, we have the deep sense of being living within. Christ is being written into us with the spiritual ink, the Spirit of the living God. This makes us a letter of Christ. We are under the writing of the Spirit of the living God, and He is engraving Christ into us.
If we are persons full of Christ, saturated with the life-giving Spirit, we will have the riches of Christ (Eph. 3:8) with which to write Christ into others. We will also have the life-giving Spirit of the living God as the heavenly ink. The ink is the Spirit, the essence of the ink is Christ with all His riches, and we are the pen. To have this ink in our experience, we must enjoy Christ, possess Christ, be filled with Christ, be saturated with Christ, and be covered with Christ. Others should always find us in Christ. In Philippians 3:9 Paul speaks of being found in Christ. He wanted to be found by others in Christ, not in anything other than Christ. Paul did not want to be found in himself, in his culture, or in his particular way of living. We also should aspire to be found in Christ, to be one with Christ, saturated with Christ, constituted of Christ, and reorganized with Him. Then, being anointed with the Spirit and filled with the life-giving Spirit, we will have the Spirit as the ink to write Christ into others. Then as we speak to others, we will spontaneously write upon them with the life-giving Spirit of the living God. The element of the riches of Christ will be infused into them, imparted into their being. In this way, Christ will be inscribed into them. To write Christ into others in this way is truly to live Christ for the church.
The more we speak for the Lord, the more Christ is written into us. It is in this way that we become ministers of the word. The ministry comes out of the inward writing of Christ with the Spirit as the writing ink. This writing Spirit is the life-giving Spirit.
The Spirit is the ink, and the content of the ink is Christ with His person, work, and attainments. This heavenly ink is a compound of all the elements of Christ. The more we are inscribed with this ink, the more we have the elements of Christ dispensed into us. Then we become a letter of Christ with Christ as our content.
In order to be a letter of Christ inscribed with the Spirit of the living God, we must first be captured by Christ. If we have not been captured by Christ, we cannot be inscribed with the Spirit of the living God. To be captured by Christ means that our emotions, intentions, and desires are subdued and captured. Then the Spirit has a free way to write on us whatever He wants to write of Christ. Christ has been put into us (Col. 1:27) as the Spirit (2 Cor. 3:17). He is within us to write the elements, the riches, of Christ into our whole being, but if we are rebellious in our mind, emotion, and will, there is no way for the Spirit of Christ to write something of Christ into our being. He is waiting for us to be willing to be captured by Christ. If we are conquered, defeated, subdued, and captured by Christ, we will afford the Spirit a free way to write Christ into us.
The inner working of the indwelling Christ is an inner writing. The Spirit of the living God is within us waiting for an opportunity to write something of Christ into our being, into our inward parts. Until we are willing to be captured by Christ, the Holy Spirit can write nothing of Christ into us. Christ is in our spirit (2 Tim. 4:22), but He may not have occupied our mind, emotion, and will. We have Christ within us, but we may be rebellious in our mind, emotion, and will. We need to be defeated, conquered, and subdued, not doctrinally but practically in our mind, emotion, and will. When we are truly subdued by Christ, the Holy Spirit, who is the Spirit of Christ within us, will have the opportunity, the free way, to write something of Christ gradually into our being so that Christ is inscribed into every part of our inner being with the Spirit of the living God to make us His living letters.
To read and to study the Word is mainly to feed and nourish our inner man, not merely to acquire the knowledge of the letter (Jer. 15:16; 1 Tim. 4:6; 2 Cor. 3:6). No matter how much knowledge we receive from the Bible, if we are not subdued by Christ and being inscribed with the Spirit of the living God, we can do nothing for the Lord in a way which truly builds up His Body. If we would build up His Body, we must first be defeated. Then we will continually be under the inner writing of the Spirit. There will be a writing, an inscribing, of Christ taking place within us, not by the letter of knowledge in our mind but by the living Spirit in our spirit and from our spirit into our heart. Some element of Christ will be inscribed, wrought, into the inward parts of our being. Something of Christ will be inscribed into our mind, our emotion, and our will so that our whole person, our whole being, will become a letter of Christ. Then we will become a minister with a ministry, not merely a gifted person with a gift. God will then accomplish His economy through us as captives and as living letters of Christ.
Whatever has been revealed in the Scriptures needs to be inscribed into us, not merely by our studying of the Word or our reading of the Bible but by our being willing to be captured by Christ. To be a minister with a ministry that builds up the Body of Christ is not a matter of receiving better teachings or certain help from hearing messages but a matter of Christ inscribing Himself into us in a living, real, and practical way.
If a great deal of the Spirit has been inscribed into our being, we will not always need to function outwardly in church meetings. Sometimes we simply need to let others read us. If in the meetings there are none who have Christ written into them, we will have the sense that the meeting is empty. But if there is even one who has Christ inscribed into him, the meeting will be enriched. Such a one does not need to say anything or do anything. Simply by being present he enriches the meeting, because a great deal of Christ has been written into him by the living Spirit.
We should have the consciousness that while we are ministering to the saints, we are inscribing Christ into their hearts, and they are receiving more of the Spirit as the ink. When we receive the Spirit as the ink, all the elements compounded in the Spirit—Christ’s divinity, humanity, human living, death, resurrection, and ascension—are added into our being. All these elements are compounded in the divine ink, and the divine ink as the divine element is applied to us by the servants of the Lord.
Our burden is not to preach the gospel or teach the Bible but to write living letters of Christ. If we are to be this kind of writer, we must be one who is constituted with the Triune God. Then, we will not be the one actually doing the writing; the God who has been constituted into us will be the real Writer. He as the Writer will inscribe Himself into the believers.
The function of the ministry of the new covenant is to inscribe living letters of Christ, and the competency, the qualification, of this ministry is God Himself. The writer of these living letters is actually not Paul; the writer is the God who has been constituted into Paul’s being. Therefore, God is not only the Writer; He is also the “ink,” the substance or element, of what is written. This means that God is writing Himself into His chosen people. The result of this writing is a constitution of the Triune God into His people. Thus, the Writer is God, the writing substance is God, and the issue, the result, is also God. The processed Triune God as the all-inclusive life-giving Spirit is both the Writer and the writing substance. In the writing of living letters of Christ, the Spirit is the substance that is inscribed into us.