In 2:20 Paul goes on to say, “I have been crucified with Christ, and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live in faith, the faith of the Son of God, Who loved me and gave Himself for me.” Here we see that the very Christ who had been revealed into Paul now lived in him. The two, Christ and Paul, had one life and one living.
This oneness of life and living can be illustrated by the grafting of a branch from one tree into another tree. The tree and the branch which has been grafted into it share one life and have one living. Paul and Christ lived such a wonderful grafted life. What we have here is not an exchanged life, the exchange of the human life for the divine life, but a grafted life, the grafting of the human life into the divine life. In this grafted life we and Christ are one. How marvelous! There are no words adequate to describe it. This grafted life is the life and living which are according to God’s New Testament economy.
In 3:2 Paul asks the Galatian believers, “Did you receive the Spirit by the works of law or by the hearing of faith?” In chapter one Paul speaks of the Son of God revealed in him and in chapter two, of Christ living in him. But now he suddenly changes the term and refers to the receiving of the Spirit. This indicates that the very Son of God revealed in us and Christ who lives in us is the Spirit we have received by the hearing of faith. Do not make the mistake of considering the Son of God, Christ, as separate from the Spirit. According to the traditional theology of the Trinity, the Father, the Son, and the Spirit are three separate Persons. When we teach from the Scriptures that Christ is the Spirit, we are condemned and charged with heresy.
We cannot adequately explain the Trinity in a doctrinal way. But from our experience we know that the Son of God is Christ and that Christ is the Spirit. Whenever we say, “Lord Jesus,” the One we receive is the Spirit. The fact that the Spirit comes whenever we call on the name of the Lord Jesus indicates that Christ and the Spirit are one. For this reason, when we call on the name of the Lord Jesus, we receive the Spirit. This proves that the Spirit is the very Person of Jesus Christ. Just as when we call on the name of a certain person, the person, not the name, responds, so when we call on the name of the Lord Jesus, the Spirit comes. We know from our experience that there never has been a time that we have called, “O Lord Jesus,” when Jesus responded and the Spirit did not respond. Without exception, whenever we called on the name of the Lord Jesus, it was the Spirit who came.
Galatians 1 and 2 are concerned with revelation and speak of the Son of God revealed in us and Christ living in us. But when we turn to experience, as seen in 3:2, we realize that the One we receive is the Spirit. The Spirit is the very Person of Christ, the Son of God.
Receiving the Spirit does not take place once for all. Like breathing, it is a lifelong matter. This is the reason that in 3:5 Paul uses the present tense, saying, “He therefore Who is supplying to you the Spirit and doing works of power among you, is it by the works of law or by the hearing of faith?” Here Paul does not say that God supplied the Spirit or that He shall supply the Spirit; he says that God is supplying the Spirit. Because God is continually supplying the Spirit, we need to receive the Spirit continually.
Galatians 3:27 says, “For as many as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ.” How wonderful! On the one hand, Christ has been revealed in us and is now living in us; on the other hand, Christ has been put upon us. We have Christ both within and without. He is our center and also our circumference, our inside as well as our outside. Inside, we have Christ, and outside we also have Christ. Christ is our inward content and also our outward expression. This Christ whom we experience in such a way is the Spirit.
In chapter four we see that Christ has redeemed us so that we may receive the sonship (v. 5). Moreover, because we are sons, “God sent forth the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, Abba Father!” (v. 6). In a foregoing message we pointed out that we became sons of God through a process of conception and birth. The Spirit entered into us not like water poured into a bottle, but through a very real conception and birth. We have actually been born of the Spirit. The Spirit entered into us through a process of divine conception leading to a marvelous birth. Through this process of conception and birth, the Spirit has been wrought into our being organically. This organic union took place within us when we were regenerated. Now we have the Spirit in a way that is truly organic and subjective.
Because we have been joined to the Spirit organically, there is now no way to separate the Spirit from our spirit. For example, after the food we eat has been digested and assimilated metabolically, it can no longer be separated from us. In like manner, now that the Spirit has come into us organically, He cannot be separated from us nor we from Him. Praise the Lord that the Spirit of sonship has entered into us and that we have been born of the Spirit to become sons of God!