In this chapter we want to continue to see how Christ as the Spirit can be our enjoyment. In particular, we want to see how the exercise of our heart is crucial for our enjoyment of Christ.
We have pointed out that the Spirit of God is in our spirit. Romans 8:16 says that the Spirit witnesses with our spirit, and 1 Corinthians 6:17 says, “He who is joined to the Lord is one spirit.” These two verses prove that the Holy Spirit is working in our spirit.
We also need to see the move of the Spirit in our heart. Galatians 4:6 says, “And because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, Abba, Father!” Romans 5:5 says that “the love of God has been poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.” These verses tell us that the Spirit is moving in our hearts. Ephesians 3:17 says that Christ is making His home in our hearts, and 2 Corinthians 4:6 says that God is the One who shines in our hearts.
Second Corinthians 1:22 says that God has “sealed us and given the Spirit in our hearts as a pledge.” Ephesians 1:14 says that the Holy Spirit is the “pledge of our inheritance,” and 2 Corinthians 5:5 says that God “has given to us the Spirit as a pledge.” The pledge is the down payment, guarantee, earnest, or foretaste. The first part of the payment is the foretaste of all the payment. In ancient times the Greek word for pledge was used in the purchasing of land. The seller gave the purchaser some soil from the land as a sample. Hence, a pledge, according to ancient Greek usage, is also a sample. The Holy Spirit is the sample of what we will inherit of God in full.
Romans 8:23 says, “And not only so, but we ourselves also, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan in ourselves, eagerly awaiting sonship, the redemption of our body.” The thought in this verse is also that the Holy Spirit has been given to us for our enjoyment. Today the Spirit is the firstfruits of the coming harvest, the foretaste of our full enjoyment of God. We have not enjoyed the main part yet. The main part is the harvest. Today we just have the foretaste and enjoy the firstfruits. Hebrews 6:4 says that we are those who have “been enlightened and have tasted of the heavenly gift and have become partakers of the Holy Spirit.” Again we see that Christ as the Spirit is given to us for us to enjoy.
Because the Spirit is for our enjoyment, He is involved with our heart. Romans 5:5 shows that our enjoyment of the Spirit is a matter of love in the heart. The Spirit’s working is in our spirit, but the Spirit for our enjoyment is in our heart. Our spirit is not an enjoying organ but a working organ. The enjoying organ is the heart. Thus, the spirit is the working organ to receive and contact God for our heart to enjoy Him. We contact God with our spirit, but we love and enjoy Him with our heart.
There is a big difference between the spirit and the heart. Ezekiel 36:26 says that we have been given a new spirit and a new heart. We can say that he who is joined to the Lord is one spirit but we cannot say that he who is joined to the Lord is one heart. Our spirit is a receiving and contacting organ, and our heart is a loving and enjoying organ. We receive and substantiate psychological and physical things-such as music, scenery, thoughts, and ideas-through the organs of the soul and the sensory organs of the body. But we receive the spiritual things of God by our spirit as an organ and enjoy all these spiritual things by the heart. We have received Christ as the living Spirit into our spirit for us to enjoy in our heart.
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