The main items mentioned in the Scripture reading above are God, Christ, the Spirit, and life. These four items are mysterious, abstract, invisible, and intangible. God is mysterious. We have never seen God or touched God. Christ also is mysterious, abstract, and invisible. Although the Spirit is in us, we have never seen the Spirit. Life is perhaps the most abstract item. Even our physical life is quite mysterious. We know that we have life and are alive, but we cannot see our life. God, Christ, the Spirit, and life are all real yet mysterious and abstract. Because these four items are invisible, unbelievers even consider them to be matters of superstition.
All believers can testify that God is in them, Christ is in them, the Spirit is in them, and life is in them. All these wonderful, mysterious, excellent, abstract, and intangible things are in us, but we cannot show them to others. However, God, Christ, the Spirit, and life are all embodied in the word of God in the Bible, which is solid and tangible. The word in the Bible is the very embodiment of these four mysterious things. God is mysterious, but He is embodied in His word. God’s word is the very embodiment of God. I recently spoke with the unbelieving mother of a Jewish brother. She made excuses for not believing in the Lord, asking, “Where is Jesus? I believe God exists, but where is God?” Eventually, I said, “Please promise me that you will do one thing: from today on read a few chapters from the Bible every day.” She immediately answered, “I promise you; I will do it.” By making this promise she was caught. I said, “Before you finish reading the Bible, you will receive something.” If we read the Bible, we will receive God, for God is embodied in His word.
The Bible is not a common writing. The Bible is altogether different from a magazine or a newspaper. Whenever we come to the Bible, even before we open it, we have a sensation that we have come into the presence of God. This is not a psychological matter, for we cannot reproduce this sensation when coming to a secular magazine or newspaper, no matter what we do. Whenever we come to the Bible, however, we sense that we are immersed in the presence of God because the word is the embodiment of God. God, Christ, the Spirit, and life are all in God’s word.
We need to realize that God, Christ, the Spirit, and life are actually all one. Christ is God (Rom. 9:5; John 1:1; Heb. 1:8; 1 John 5:20), the Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45b; 2 Cor. 3:17), and life (John 11:25; 14:6a). Moreover, the Spirit is life (Rom. 8:2). The burden in this chapter is to see something concerning the word of God in the Bible, for the word is the embodiment of these four mysterious items—God, Christ, the Spirit, and life.
When I recently heard the speaking of some saints, I realized that some consider that life is liberation. They think that the more we are liberated from bondage and legality, the more life we have. However, according to this concept, the birds have more life than we do, for we are not as liberated as the birds. For instance, when we drive, we are limited and bound by the road, traffic, and the police. It is wrong to think that to be liberated is to have life. Life is not a condition or a situation. Life is a person. Through excessive interpretation of the Bible, Christians often lose sight of the simple realities. First John 5:12 clearly says, “He who has the Son has the life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have the life.” The birds are much more liberated than we are, but they do not have the divine life, the eternal life, which is Christ Himself.
The life we speak of is not a condition or situation. A mistaken, damaging concept has crept into the Lord’s recovery that life is the condition of being released by shouting and jumping. If this were true, spectators at sporting events would have more life than we do, for they jump, shout, and are fully released. Although spectators at sporting events shout and jump a great deal, they do not have life. They have a perishing life, but they do not have the divine life. We need to see what life truly is. Life is not shouting, jumping, or being released. Life is a person—the Lord Jesus Christ. We may not be shouting or jumping, but as long as we have Christ, even if we are sleeping, we are full of life.
The wonderful person who is life, Jesus Christ, is composed of two natures and two wonderful facts. These two natures are divinity and humanity, and these two facts are His all-inclusive, all-accomplishing death and His excellent resurrection. Christ, who is the divine, eternal life, is an eternal, infinite person composed not only of God and man but also of His death and resurrection. Christ is an all-inclusive person. If we receive Him, we receive God, the highest humanity, Christ’s all-inclusive, all-accomplishing death, and His resurrection. By receiving Christ, we receive divinity, humanity, a positive, life-releasing death, and a germinating resurrection.