According to verse 26, Christ gave Himself up for the church so that “He might sanctify her, cleansing her by the washing of the water in the word.” After the Lord Jesus gave Himself for us in the flesh, He was resurrected and in resurrection became the life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45). As the life-giving Spirit, He is the speaking Spirit. Whatever He speaks is the word that washes us. The Greek word rendered word in verse 26 is not logos, the constant word, but rhema, which denotes the instant word, the word the Lord presently speaks to us. As the life-giving Spirit, the Lord is not silent; He is constantly speaking. If you take Him as your person, you will discover how much He desires to speak within you. Idols are dumb, but the indwelling Christ is always speaking. No one who takes Christ as his life and his person can remain silent. On the contrary, he will be constrained by Christ to speak. As I minister to the Lord’s children, I experience Christ speaking within me.
In John 6:63 the Lord Jesus said, “The words which I have spoken unto you are spirit and are life.” The Greek word rendered words here is also rhema, the instant and present spoken word. This differs from logos, the constant word, as in John 1:1. As the speaking Spirit, the Lord is speaking the rhema to us. Whatever He speaks is spirit.
If day by day there is no speaking of the Lord within us, it is an indication that there is some problem within us. If there is no speaking, no rhema, then in our practical experience the Spirit is absent, for the Lord’s speaking actually is the Spirit. As long as we have the Lord’s present word, we have the Spirit, the life-giving Spirit. We cannot separate Christ as the life-giving Spirit from His speaking. His presence consists in His speaking. How can we know that Christ as our person is present with us? We know it by His speaking. If we do not have His speaking within us, we do not have His presence. But if we turn to Him, to mean business to take Christ as our life and our person. His speaking will begin again. His speaking is the living word. the living word is the Spirit, and the Spirit is our wonderful Christ Himself. How practical, subjective, intimate, and real He is as the speaking Spirit!
This Spirit is the water that washes us. The more the Spirit speaks, the more we are washed, cleansed. Every time He speaks within us we should experience cleansing.
This cleansing is a metabolic cleansing that removes what is old and replaces it with what is new. How different this is from some type of outward cleansing! It is by the inward, metabolic cleansing that we have transformation. By the metabolic cleansing that comes from the speaking of Christ as the life-giving Spirit, we are truly changed, transformed.
Because such an inward transformation is taking place within us, there is no need for outward correction in the church life. God’s way in His economy is not to change us outwardly. His way is for Christ to give Himself up for us and then to come into us as the life-giving Spirit. In a very practical sense, the Lord’s presence is one with His speaking. Whenever He speaks, we realize His presence within us. This speaking of the life-giving Spirit within is the water that cleanses our inner being. This cleansing water deposits a new element into us to replace the old element in our nature and disposition. This metabolic cleansing causes a genuine change in life. This change is what we mean by transformation. Outward correction has no value. What the church needs is the inward metabolic cleansing that comes from allowing Christ as the life-giving Spirit to be our life and our person.
In verse 26 we have Christ not in the stage of the flesh, but in the stage of the life-giving Spirit. As we have pointed out, the life-giving Spirit is the speaking Spirit. Christ’s speaking is the Spirit; it is the very presence of the life-giving Spirit. If we honor the speaking of the Spirit within us, the Spirit’s speaking will become the water that cleanses, purifies, sanctifies, and supplies us with the element of Christ. This element replaces and discharges our old element and brings about genuine transformation. In this way we are purified and sanctified; in this way we also experience the practicality of the church life.