We have seen from the last message that Galatians is a book on the indwelling Christ. In the first part of the book, Paul speaks much about Christ. But from the middle of the book, he begins to speak about the Spirit. By reading this book carefully, we see that whatever has been accomplished on the cross, and all that the Lord has obtained and attained, is mentioned as the work of Christ. But when Christ is experienced by us, Paul changes from Christ to the Spirit. When Paul speaks about the objective work of the Lord, he speaks of the work of Christ. But when he speaks of experiencing the subjective Christ, he speaks of the Spirit. This shows that we should not consider Christ and the Spirit as two separate beings. Christ and the Spirit are one all-inclusive divine being. When we speak of His work on the cross, His accomplishment of redemption, His resurrection, and our being baptized into Him, we speak of Christ. But when we go on to speak of the practical experiences of Christ, we change from Christ to the Spirit. Christ is the One who has accomplished everything for us, and the Spirit is the One we are now experiencing. This is why in the book of Galatians Paul first mentions Christ, but then speaks of the Spirit.
The blessing of God promised to Abraham was the Spirit. “That the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ; that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith” (Gal. 3:14). The Jewish people thought and still think that God’s promise to Abraham was something material. But actually, God’s promise to Abraham was simply to give Himself to His chosen ones. God has no intention to give us anything but Himself. Paul said in Philippians 3:8 that everything besides Christ is dung. This means a kind of garbage or refuse. If God would give us anything but Christ, we would be cheated. This is why God, in the process of giving Himself, becomes Christ. And when this Christ is realized by us in an experiential way, He is the Spirit.
What is a real blessing? To go to heaven is not the real blessing. Even heaven, were it empty of God, would be vain. Some consider a good wife or a good husband as a blessing. It may be a temporary blessing, but consider how much trouble your husband or wife has brought you. It is altogether a mixture. Trouble always mingles with blessing. Others expect their children to be a blessing. In a sense there is some blessing, but with much trouble.
What I mean is this. Our marriage, our family, our degree, our wealth, our fame, our health, and many other things could never be a real blessing to us. The real blessing is just God Himself. And how could God be given to us? How could He be realized and experienced by us as our daily enjoyment? There is no other way but by His being the Spirit.
We have mentioned before how God had to be processed in order to dispense Himself into us as our enjoyment and experience. The Spirit we are experiencing today is just the processed God. Christ is the very God within the process, and the Spirit is the very God who has been processed to become our experience. In eternity past, He was merely God, but when He came into the process, He became flesh (John 1:1, 14) who is Christ in the flesh. Christ is God in the process. After the process, He becomes our experience as the processed God, who is the very Spirit (2 Cor. 3:17). Today we not only have God and Christ, but also the all-inclusive Spirit, who is the processed God as our experience and realization.
So in the book of Galatians, Paul first mentions Christ, and then the Spirit. The Spirit was first of all promised. God promised the blessing of the Spirit to Abraham. This promised Spirit is now being ministered as a fulfillment of God’s promise. “He therefore that ministereth to you the Spirit....” (Gal. 3:5). Paul said that he ministered the Spirit to the Galatian believers. All ministry must be a ministry that ministers the Spirit to others. Regardless of how much is said in meetings, if nothing of the Spirit is ministered into people, the meetings are altogether vain. We have all had the experience, after attending many church meetings and conferences, of coming home and finding it difficult to remember what has been said. Yet regardless of how little we remember what was spoken, still something is within us. We can forget about the teachings, but we cannot forget the Spirit that has been ministered into us. On the other hand, we have also gone to a kind of service where a good speaker gave an eloquent sermon, yet when we came home, there was nothing left within us. When we come to a meeting that ministers the Spirit to us, we may forget what we have heard doctrinally, yet we still have something within us—it is the processed God as the Spirit that has been ministered into us.