Third, verse 22 speaks of the pledge. The pledge is the proof, guarantee, and down payment that all that God is, is our portion. The seal means that we belong to God, and the pledge guarantees that God belongs to us. The seal declares that we are God’s, and the pledge declares that God is ours. God has given us the Holy Spirit within as a down payment of our future enjoyment. The Holy Spirit within us today is the firstfruit and foretaste of our enjoyment of Him, guaranteeing that God will give us the full enjoyment. God has anointed His ingredients into us, and He has sealed us with Himself as a mark. In addition, He has put the Holy Spirit within us as a down payment, a guarantee, and a deposit to ensure that all that God is, is our portion. This is the work of the Holy Spirit within us. The anointing, the sealing, and the pledging are all for the purpose of transforming us. The more God anoints us, the more He seals us, and the more we enjoy the pledging Spirit, the more we are transformed.
Chapter 3 reveals the Spirit in five aspects. First, verse 3 says, “Since you are being manifested that you are a letter of Christ ministered by us, inscribed not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God; not in tablets of stone but in tablets of hearts of flesh.” The Spirit here is the writing Spirit to write Christ into us, and our heart is the tablet for the inscribing Spirit. We are the living letters, and the “story” written on these letters is Christ. Moreover, the writer of these letters is the Spirit through the apostles, and the ink also is the Spirit. The indwelling Spirit is continually writing something of Christ upon our heart.
Christ today has come into our spirit, but He may not yet be written on our heart. Our heart mainly surrounds our spirit, being composed of our mind, emotion, and will, in addition to our conscience. Therefore, for the Spirit to write Christ on us as living letters means that He writes Christ into our mind, emotion, and will; that is, the Spirit takes our whole heart as the tablet for inscribing Christ. As He does this, we become a complete epistle of Christ, and people can read Christ upon us. When people “read” our mind, emotion, and will, they will say, “Every bit of this person is Christ. His thought is Christ, his love is Christ, and even his hating is Christ (Rev. 2:6). Moreover, his deciding is also Christ. His deciding to keep something is Christ, and his deciding to reject it also is Christ.” I am afraid that sometimes people cannot read Christ upon our mind, emotion, and will. When they read our heart, they may read only our car or our bank account. What is written on our mind, emotion, will? Has Christ been written on, that is, wrought into, our heart?
To inscribe Christ in our heart is the work of the transforming Spirit within us. The transforming Spirit is waiting for the opportunity to write Christ into our mind, emotion, and will to make us complete epistles of Christ. The indwelling Spirit, who is the transforming Spirit, is doing the work of writing in us, but we need to give Him our cooperation. We must let Him have the free course to write something into our mind, emotion, and will.
Verse 6a goes on to say, “Who has also made us sufficient as ministers of a new covenant, ministers not of the letter but of the Spirit.” As ministers of the word today, we must be the good writers of Christ into others. This means that we must minister Christ to people to cause those who listen to our message to become the living epistles of Christ. Ministers not of the letter but of the Spirit indicates that the Spirit here is the ministering Spirit to minister, to write, Christ into us. Verse 8 also speaks of “the ministry of the Spirit.”
Verse 6b continues, “For the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.” Here the Spirit is the life-giving Spirit to always impart life into us. Life includes satisfaction; to be satisfied means that we are full of life. Life also includes strength; to be weak means that we are short of life, but to be full of strength means we are full of life. In addition, to be in the light and full of light means that we are full of life, but to be in darkness means that we are short of life. When we have rest, comfort, and peace, that also means that we have life, but to be short of these indicates that we are short of life. The life-giving Spirit always ministers life and the life supply to us.
Verse 17 says, “And the Lord is the Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.” The Spirit in verse 17 refers to the Spirit who gives life in verse 6. In verse 17 the Spirit is the liberating Spirit, liberating us from every kind of bondage, particularly from the bondage and veiling of the law. By the work of this liberating Spirit we are released from any kind of covering and bondage. We have been liberated. However, we still need to give Him the ground, the opportunity, and the free course to do His liberating work. This verse says, “Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.” This means that He must be with us and He must have the ground in us. If He is not with us, we do not have freedom; if He does not gain the ground in us, we cannot obtain freedom. On the other hand, if the ground in us is His, the freedom is ours. He is the liberating Spirit, liberating us from every kind of bondage, suppression, oppression, and occupation, but we must give Him the ground in us.