If Christ were not the life-giving Spirit, who is as available as breath or air, how could He be in us? If Christ were not the spiritual breath, the heavenly air, how could He be our life? Christ is in the heavens, and we are on the earth. How could something in the heavens be our life? If anything is to be our life, it must be in us.
In the beginning of this Gospel we see the Word expressing and explaining God. But this Word was made flesh in order to accomplish redemption and remove all the barriers that God may come into man. Now He is not only the Word, but also the Word plus the flesh-God plus man.
But this is not all. He must come into man in order to be his life. How can He do this? There is no other way but to be resurrected and be made a life-giving Spirit, just like breath or air. The air fills the whole earth. Wherever we go, the air is waiting for us to breathe it in.
This is the Gospel of John. This book eventually brings us to the point of this wonderful Christ being so available, even like the air that we breathe. It is very easy for Him to get into us, because He is the air. Since He is the breath, we may simply breathe Him in. Now in this spiritual breath we have God, man, incarnation, crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension. Everything is included in this heavenly air. It is wonderful and so all-inclusive.1
The way to experience God begins in John chapter four. In verse 24 the Lord said, “God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truthfulness.” To worship God is to contact God, to enjoy God, and to partake of all He is. Worshipping God is a matter of taking God into us. It is not merely objective, but also subjective. This is proved by the fact that in this chapter the Lord speaks, on the one hand, about worship and, on the other hand, about drinking the living water (v. 14). If we put verses 14 and 24 together, we shall see that to drink of the living water is to worship God. Moreover, worshipping God by our spirit and in our spirit is the real drinking of the living water, which is God Himself. God Himself is the Spirit, and this Spirit is the living water. We drink this living water by worshipping God. Hence, drinking of God and worshipping Him are synonymous. We all must drink the very God, who is the living water, the Spirit.
Another aspect of the way is unveiled in chapter six. In verse 48the Lord said, “I am the bread of life,” and in verse 57 He said, “He who eats Me, he also shall live because of Me.” The way is not only to drink God as the living water, but also to eat Christ, the embodiment of God, as the living bread. The Lord’s word about eating Him was offensive to the religious people, and they could not bear it (v. 60). In verse 63 the Lord said to His disciples, “It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing; the words which I have spoken to you are spirit and are life.” The Lord seemed to be saying, “I am the bread of life. But I can be dispensed into you as your life supply only through the living Word. This living Word is the Spirit.” Thus, we must not contact the living Word as the black and white letters; we must contact the living Word as the living Spirit by exercising our spirit. Thus, the way to experience Christ is to contact the very God, who is the Spirit, and to eat and drink of Him.
If we truly contact the Lord and eat and drink of Him, we shall have the overflow spoken of in 7:37 and 38. On the last day of the Feast of Tabernacles Jesus stood and cried out, saying, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink. He who believes into Me, as the Scripture said, out of his innermost being shall flow rivers of living water." What an overflow! Whoever believes in Him will have an overflow of rivers of living water. The water the believers take in of Christ will become overflowing rivers.
If you have such an overflow, could you help but love the Lord? Could you still live in sin and continue to love the world? This would be impossible. There is no need to strive to overcome sin and the world. There is not even any need to try to love the Lord. In fact, there is no need for us to do anything. Because we realize that the Triune God has been wrought into our being, and that we have been constituted with His riches and have become parts of Him, something naturally and spontaneously will flow out of us.2
Home | First | Prev | Next