When Christ preaches such a gospel by Himself as the life-giving Spirit, and when we hear and accept such a gospel, what do we receive? The main thing we receive is the life-giving Spirit. Most Christians do not realize this. Do not think when we receive the gospel we mainly receive forgiveness of sins or justification. The main thing we receive by accepting such a gospel is the Spirit. Suppose an unbeliever says, “Lord Jesus, thank You. You are my Savior, and I accept You. Lord, come into my heart.” Immediately, Christ the Preacher, as the Spirit, will enter into that one, and he will receive the Spirit. Therefore, verse 18 speaks concerning the Spirit: “For through Him we both have access in one Spirit unto the Father.” Now we have the Spirit and are in the Spirit, and the Spirit brings us to the Father, the source.
Chapter two of Ephesians tells us that God loved us, enlivened us, raised us up, and seated us in the heavenlies to make us His poem, His masterpiece. The God who did this is the Father as the source, acting through a channel, Christ the Son. In the foregoing message we pointed out that when the Son came; He came in the Father’s name (John 5:43); He came with the Father (John 8:29; 16:32); the Son was even called the Father (Isa. 9:6). The Father is the source who planned all things, and the Son is the means, the course, who accomplished the Father’s purpose. Christ became the channel in which and the means by which God enlivened us, raised us up, and seated us in the heavenlies.
Ephesians 2 reveals God as the Father and Christ as the Son. After His death and resurrection, Christ the Son came as the Spirit to preach the gospel. When the Spirit came, He came with the Father (John 15:26 and note 261) in the Son’s name (John 14:26). That means when the Spirit came, the Son came. Therefore, when the Son comes to preach the gospel to us, the Spirit also comes. When we receive the Son in His preaching, we receive the Spirit. The Spirit then brings us back to the Father through the Son. This is marvelous! The Father came to us through the Son in the Spirit, and now the Spirit brings us back to the Father through the Son. Through this wonderful two-way traffic we enjoy the threefold dispensing of life by the Triune God.
The first issue of the divine dispensing is that we are fellow-citizens of the saints and members of the household of God (v. 19). Also, the Gentile believers are being built together with the Jewish believers upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets with Christ as the cornerstone (v. 20). Such a building has the wonderful Christ as the joining cornerstone. This building is growing into a holy temple in the Lord, a holy dwelling place of God (v. 21). This indicates that the holy temple is a living building, for a physical building does not grow. In order to enlarge a material structure we need to build something further. But the church as God’s building grows because it is organic. The church grows by life-dispensing. The threefold God—God the Father, Christ the Son, and the Spirit—is dispensing Himself into us as life and as our life supply. As long as He is dispensing Himself into us, we are nourished and we grow. He dispenses, and we grow. This is the building of the church into a temple.
Actually, the word “temple” here should be translated sanctuary, meaning the central part of the temple in the Lord. Such a sanctuary is God’s dwelling place in our spirit (v. 22). The church life today is in our spirit. Practically speaking, when you are out of your spirit, you are out of the church. If you are not in your spirit, although you may be in the meeting, you are not in the church in a practical way. The church life is in our human spirit. We must always turn to our spirt, exercise our spirit, and walk according to our spirit. We should not be out of our spirit nor have our being apart from our spirit. We must walk, live, act, and have our being in our spirit. When we exercise our spirit in this way, we are in the church. This is for God’s dispensing of Himself into us as life so that we may grow in the church. Both God’s dispensing and our growing are in the spirit.