God has taken a number of steps to produce this organic body. Through creation, He formed a spirit within man (Zech. 12:1). Because we have a spirit, we can receive God into us. God has also accomplished the work of redemption, and eventually, He became the life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45). Now He is not only the Creator and Redeemer—He is the very pneuma, the life-giving Spirit, for us to contact Him. The moment we contact Him, He comes directly into our spirit. The entering of this Spirit into our spirit makes us part of this organic body. Now God is growing within us so that He may be expressed. This is the Lord’s desire today.
If we see that we are part of this divine organism in which God is growing and through which He is being expressed, so many things will fade away. All our religious concepts regarding worship will disappear. God does not care for our concepts; He wants to be the life growing within us that He may be expressed through us. This is the organism revealed in John 15.
We have seen that according to John 15 the preaching of the gospel is the overflow of life for the bearing of fruit. However, this is not a simple matter; rather, it is very high and profound. It is much higher than what is commonly considered the Christian life. If we would gain any understanding of what it means to bear fruit by the overflow of life, we need to see an all-inclusive picture of John’s Gospel.
This Gospel begins with the words, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” One day, the Word became flesh (1:14), and this flesh was the Lamb of God (1:29). When the Lord was crucified, He was not only the Lamb to accomplish redemption; He was also in the form of the serpent (3:14). He was lifted up on the cross that He might deal with Satan, the old serpent. In His death He was not only in the form of the Lamb and the serpent, but also in the form of a grain of wheat (12:24). As a grain of wheat, He died to produce the many grains, which include all of us. John 1:4 says, “In Him was life, and the life was the light of men.” This life was the light of life (8:12). When the Word became flesh, He was full of grace and reality, truth.
Thus far, we have ten significant words: the Word, God, flesh, Lamb, serpent, grain, life, light, grace, and truth. Christ was the Word, who was God and who became flesh. This flesh was the Lamb who was crucified for our redemption. In His crucifixion Christ was in the form of the serpent to destroy the devil, and in His death He fell into the ground as a grain of wheat to produce many grains. These many grains now have His life. This life has become their light. To them, this life is grace, and this light brings them reality.
After the Lord Jesus died, resurrected, and secretly ascended to the Father, He came back on the same day and, with a physical body, entered a closed room in a mysterious way (20:19). No scientist or scholar can explain how Christ was able to enter into that room. According to 20:22, “He breathed into them and said to them, Receive the Holy Spirit.” Apparently, this is the conclusion of the Gospel of John; actually, this Gospel has not yet been completed. The Lord’s breathing into His disciples indicates that this mysterious One, the all-inclusive One, had come into them. In John chapter twenty there is no record that the Lord left the disciples. He came, but He did not go away. After breathing into them, He did not say, “Good-bye. I will visit you again another day.” When I read this chapter as a young man, I was troubled by the fact that there is no record here telling us that the Lord went away from the disciples. Later I realized that when the Lord breathed into them, He came into them. He was no longer outside the disciples; He was within them.
In the beginning, that is, in eternity past, Christ was far away in both space and time. He existed as the Word, as God’s expression. But by the end of the Gospel of John, He has come into us in a mysterious way. Just as no one can define or explain how One with a physical body that could be touched and seen could enter into a closed room, so no one can explain how Christ indwells us. The principle is the same in each case. Christ’s indwelling is mysterious. At the beginning of this book, Christ was far away from us, but now He is within us. As far as space and time are concerned, there is no longer any distance between Him and us. He and we are one. Furthermore, Christ has made us a part of Himself. This oneness is the organism illustrated by the grapevine, the organism of the Triune God with humanity in the divine dispensation. Today we are in this organism. We all need a clear vision of this.