When I was young I could not understand how Paul could say that the Corinthians were “called saints.” The condition of the church in Corinth was poor, and this book describes the negative things that were among the Corinthians. It seems that even the name “Corinthians” is negative. Nevertheless, Paul could address these Corinthians as saints. In themselves they were Corinthians, but in Christ they were saints.
What we have in 1:2 is the matter of being in Christ positionally. We should never despise our position in Christ. God has put us into Christ, and this makes it possible for us to experience the divine dispensing of the Divine Trinity. When we are in Christ, many positive things can be dispensed into us.
In 6:11 Paul says, “And these things were some of you; but you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God.” In this verse washing, sanctifying, and justifying are not by the blood in an objective way, as in 1 John 1:7, Hebrews 10:29, and Romans 3:24-25. These are the subjective washing of regeneration as in Titus 3:5, the subjective sanctifying by the Spirit as in 1 Peter 1:2, and the subjective justifying in the Spirit as here. All these items of God’s salvation take place in us in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, that is, in the Person of the Lord, in organic union with the Lord through faith, and in the Spirit of God, that is, in the power and realization of the Holy Spirit. First, we are washed from sinful things; second, we are sanctified, separated unto God; and third, we are justified, accepted, by God.
In 6:11 the name of the Lord Jesus actually denotes His Person. Hence, to be in the name of the Lord Jesus is to be in Christ. As we have seen from 1:2, this is a positional matter. However, to be sanctified in the Spirit is dispositional. When God put us into Christ, Christ’s Spirit came into us. Now we are sanctified not only in Christ; we are also sanctified in His Spirit.
To be put into Christ is a once-for-all matter. But to be sanctified by the Spirit is a lifelong matter. At the very moment we called on the name of the Lord Jesus, we were put into Christ. In this way we are now sanctified in Christ. Because God has put us into Christ, Christ’s Spirit has entered into us and has become the sanctifying Spirit within us. Now this Spirit is sanctifying us all the time, and will continue to sanctify us during our entire life. Therefore, today we are still under the sanctifying work of the Spirit.
The sanctifying of the Spirit is actually the dispensing of the Spirit into us. This means that sanctifying is equal to dispensing.
We may use the simple process of making a cup of tea as an illustration of the sanctifying work of the Spirit of God. First we have a cup of plain water, and then we put a tea bag into the water. Little by little, the tea in the bag is dispensed into the water. Through the dispensing of the element of tea into the water, the water becomes tea. We may say that the water is “teaified” through this process of dispensing.
In making tea, we use boiling water, and then we stir up the water once the tea bag has been placed into it. This stirring up of the hot water causes more dispensing. The tea comes out of the tea bag and enters into the water to teaify it. This may be used as an illustration of the divine dispensing.
In our experience with the Lord, at times we may become cold. This coldness causes the divine dispensing to slow down. If we put a tea bag into cold water, it will be difficult for the tea to enter into the water. In like manner, it is difficult for God to dispense Himself into us when we are cold. For this reason He may use those in our family to “heat us up.” God may also use our situation at work or school to deal with our coldness and to make us burning for Him. Furthermore, He may use the saints in the church to stir us up. All this is a help to the divine dispensing. Then the element, color, flavor, and even essence of the divine tea will be dispensed into us. This dispensing is the sanctifying work of the Spirit.
Have you ever heard that sanctifying is a matter of dispensing? Through our experience we have come to realize that the Holy Spirit is the sanctifying Spirit. This Spirit dispenses His element into us, and this dispensing of the Spirit is the sanctifying work of the Spirit. Therefore, the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit is simply to dispense His element and essence with His “flavor” and “color” into our being to make us “tea.” As a result, we become a good drink to the Lord and to others.
If you consider your experience, you will see that from the time you began to love the Lord Jesus, this divine dispensing has been taking place within you. At times you may have become cold; however, you were not able to remain in your coldness. Actually, it is not difficult to be burning for the Lord. On the contrary, it is difficult for us to be cold. Which is easier in your experience—to be cold or hot? From my experience I can testify that it is much easier to be hot than cold.
The real danger is that we may become lukewarm. Concerning this, the Lord Jesus rebuked the church in Laodicea, saying, “I know your works, that you are neither cold nor hot; I wish you were cold or hot. So because you are lukewarm and neither hot nor cold, I am about to vomit you out of My mouth” (Rev. 3:15-16). The Lord also told the Laodiceans to be zealous, boiling (Rev. 3:19, Gk.).
We do not want to be either cold or lukewarm—we want to be hot, boiling. In order to make us burning for His dispensing, the Lord may use certain people or certain matters in our environment to heat us up and stir us up. God knows how to make us hot so that the dispensing of the sanctifying Spirit may work in us effectively. God makes us hot so that Christ, the heavenly tea, may be dispensed into our being.
This dispensing concerning which we have been speaking is for the existence of the church. The existence of the church depends on the divine dispensing of the Divine Trinity. This means that the church’s existence depends on God as the source, Christ as the sphere and element, and the Spirit as the application with the divine nature. Hence, through the divine dispensing of the Divine Trinity the church comes into existence.