In John 6:63 the Lord Jesus said, “The words which I have spoken to you are spirit.” The words of the Bible are not only letters but spirit. We also should recall the Lord’s word in John 4:24: “God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit.” Here the Lord points out a fundamental principle: God is Spirit, and man can only touch Him with his spirit. God is Spirit, and we can only worship Him with our spirit; we cannot worship Him with anything other than the spirit. God is Spirit, and we cannot worship Him with our mind, emotion, or will. Colossians 2:23 speaks of “self-imposed worship.” This means worshipping with the will. This is wrong because God is Spirit, and because God is Spirit, those who worship Him must worship in spirit. John 6 says that the Lord’s words are spirit. The basic principle is the same: Since the Lord’s words are spirit, we have to read them in spirit. In other words, we can only touch spiritual things with the spirit.
The Bible is not only a book with words or letters printed on pages of paper. The very nature of the Bible is spirit. For this reason, everyone who reads this book must approach it with his spirit; it must be read with the spirit. The spirit that we are referring to is the spirit of every regenerated person. We call this spirit the “regenerated spirit.” Not everyone has this spirit. Therefore, not everyone can read the Bible well. Only those who have this spirit can read the Bible well; those who do not have this spirit cannot read it well. This spirit is needed to worship God. This same spirit is needed to read the Bible well. Without this spirit, a man cannot know God. Without this spirit, he cannot know the Bible either. Perhaps we were born into a Christian family. Before we were regenerated, we probably had read the Bible already, but we did not understand it. We understood the history and facts recorded in the Bible, but we did not understand the Bible itself. This is not surprising, because God’s word is spirit. If we do not use our spirit, we cannot read this book. When can a man begin to understand the Bible? On the day he receives the Lord, he can begin to understand the Bible. From that day forward, the Bible will become a new book to him; he will begin to understand and treasure this book. Although he may not understand everything in it, he will begin to love it. He will read it daily and yearly. If he misses his reading, he will feel hungry; he will feel that something is missing in his life. When he reads God’s word this way, he will begin to understand it. He can understand it because he is now regenerated. “That which is born of the Spirit is spirit” (John 3:6). We should put John 4:24, 6:63, and 3:6 together: “God is Spirit,” “The words which I have spoken...are spirit,” and “That which is born of the Spirit is spirit.” The words in the Bible are spirit. The life which a man receives at the time of regeneration is spirit, and it takes a man with a spirit to read the words of spirit. Only then will the Bible shine within him, and only then will it become useful to him.
No matter how clever and well educated a man is, as long as he is not regenerated, this book is a mystery to him. A regenerated person may not be that cultivated, but he is more qualified to read the Bible than an unregenerated college professor. The former has a regenerated spirit, while the latter does not have such a spirit. The Bible is not understood by talent, research, or intelligence. Since God’s word is spirit, only a man with a regenerated spirit can understand it. The root, the very nature, of the Bible is spiritual. If a man does not have a regenerated spirit, he cannot understand this book; it will be a closed book to him.
The Lord Jesus said in John 6:55, “My flesh is true food, and My blood is true drink.” The unbelieving Jews were shocked at such a word. How could the Lord’s flesh be food and His blood be drink? Yet every regenerated person knows that this refers to the Son of God. He bows his head and confesses, “I derive my life from Your flesh and Your blood. Without Your flesh, I will not have life today. Without Your blood, I cannot live today. You are indeed my food.” A man with a regenerated spirit will not be bothered by the Lord’s word but will thank and praise Him instead.
The Lord said, “It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing; the words which I have spoken to you are spirit and are life” (v. 63). Here we see two realms. One is the realm of spirit, the other is the realm of flesh. In the realm of spirit, everything is living and profitable. In the realm of flesh, everything is unprofitable. One must read the Bible with his spirit and in the realm of spirit. No matter how educated, logical, and analytical a man is, he cannot understand the Bible if he does not have this spirit.
God is Spirit. We know God today because we have a spirit. When some unbelievers argue with us, we may not match them in eloquence or wisdom, and we may not be able to tell them profound teachings, but we have the confidence that we know God because we are regenerated. We have a regenerated spirit, and we can touch God with this spirit. It does not matter if we can relate the doctrine or not. The fact is that we have touched God. Unbelievers want to find out about God through analysis, synthesis, and reasoning. But even when the analysis, synthesis, and reasoning are all well founded, they will still not believe in God, because God can never be analyzed or synthesized. Job said, “Can you find out the depths of God?” (Job 11:7). No one can find out God by research. There is only one way to find out God-by the regenerated spirit. Those who touch God with this spirit will know Him right away. There is no other way except this way. In order to study the Bible, a man must have a regenerated spirit, in the same way that he must have a regenerated spirit to touch God. Suppose a man has installed an electric lamp in his house. He wants to connect the lamp to the power source, but the only materials he has are wood, bamboo, and cloth; he does not have any copper wire. Although there is power in the electric power company, that power cannot cause the lamp to shine. No matter how much cloth, bamboo, and wood he has, he cannot tap into the electricity. Another man may not have any cloth, bamboo, or wood, but he has a little piece of wire. With that little wire he can light up the lamp because the wire transmits electricity. In the same way, a man must have a regenerated spirit before he can touch God. He must have a regenerated spirit before he can touch God’s word.
Only one part within our whole being can study the Bible-our regenerated spirit. If we use any other part of our being to touch the Bible, we are doing something apart from God, and such activity will not touch anything related to Him. The Bible can either be a matter of flesh to man or a matter of spirit to him. If a man does not have a regenerated spirit, and if all he has is the flesh and things related to the flesh, the Bible will be a matter of flesh to him. If a man has a regenerated spirit, and such a spirit is functional within him, he will touch the spirit when he touches God’s word. This is not to say that the Bible can become something other than spirit. The Bible itself is always spirit. The Lord Jesus said, “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’s words are spirit. Yet they are spirit only to the believers who have believed into Him; to the unbelieving Jews His words were received as a matter of flesh. The way many people study the Bible is outrageous. The reason they do this is that they are lacking the spirit. A man cannot study God’s Word according to his own mind or intelligence. He must have this spirit before he can study God’s word.
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