Because of the influence of culture, tradition, religion, philosophy, morality, ethics, customs, and habits, whenever we read the Bible, we are affected by all these things in our background. As a result, we think that the Bible teaches us concerning all these things. Superficially, much of the Bible does deal with these things which relate to human behavior. It does speak of how husbands and wives should treat each other. It also talks about how parents and children should get along with one another. The Bible talks about humility, and it also talks about love, forbearance, patience, and other similar virtues. The Bible does not annul ethics and morality, nor does it reject culture and teachings. But these are not the focus of the Bible. Some think that if these are not the focus of the Bible, then the focus must be God’s love to man, His mercy, forbearance, lovingkindness, and so forth. Surely the Bible also talks about all these things, but they are still not the focus.
Hymns, #501 can be considered a masterpiece in our hymnal. It extracts the focus of the Bible from the New Testament and describes it fully.
Verse one of this hymn says:
O glorious Christ, Savior mine,
Thou art truly radiance divine;
God infinite, in eternity,
Yet man in time, finite to be.
Then verse two says:
The fulness of God dwells in Thee;
Thou dost manifest God’s glory;
In flesh Thou hast redemption wrought;
As Spirit, oneness with me sought.
This hymn does not speak of the love of God or of the grace of God. It does not talk about God’s mercy or lovingkindess. Rather, it speaks of the fulness of God and the glory of God.
The phrase “As Spirit, oneness with me sought” speaks of the focus of the Bible. This focus is the Triune God, the Creator of the universe, the eternal God, who came one day to the earth to become a finite man. He accomplished redemption in the flesh, and on the cross He terminated sin, the world, darkness, the self, the flesh, and everything of the old creation. Then in resurrection He became the life-giving Spirit. When we believe in Him, He enters into us to have an organic union with us. In this way this life-giving Spirit becomes one with us.
This union is not a union like one hand holding another hand. It is a union comparable to the grafting of a branch into a tree. Romans 11:24 says that we are the wild olive branches that have been grafted into the cultivated olive tree. The cultivated olive tree is Christ, and the wild olive branches are we the sinners. Without passing through the redeeming death of Christ, we and Christ can never be grafted together. It is through the death and resurrection of Christ that He became the life-giving Spirit to enter into us and to have an organic union with us.
Verse three of Hymns, #501 says:
All things of the Father are Thine;
All Thou art in Spirit is mine;
The Spirit makes Thee real to me,
That Thou experienced might be.
All that the Father has is the Son’s, and all that the Son is, is in the Spirit (John 16:13-15). This Spirit is the ultimate expression of the Triune God. The Bible explains in detail how all that belongs to the Father is inherited by the Son, and how all that the Son is, is in the Spirit. Hence the Spirit becomes the reality of the Son, and the Son is the expression of the Father. In this way, the Son is the manifestation of the Father, and the Spirit is the realization of the Son. Today this Spirit has entered into our spirit to become our reality. The result is that our spirit is organically joined to His Spirit, and His story becomes our history.
As descendants of the Chinese race we are spread today throughout the whole world. In the early days our ancestors crossed a vast span of land. When they did this, we also crossed over together with them. Hence their story is our history. In the same way, all that the Lord Jesus has passed through—His incarnation, human living, crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension—has become our experience by His being joined to us.
Verse four continues:
The Spirit of life causes Thee
By Thy Word to transfer to me.
Thy Spirit touched, Thy word received,
Thy life in me is thus conceived.
Today this Spirit enters into our spirit to make His history our experience. But that is not all. By the word of the Bible He is making Himself real to us. Whenever we come to read the Lord's Word, we touch this Spirit, and He becomes our supply.
Verse five says:
In spirit while gazing on Thee,
As a glass reflecting Thy glory,
Like to Thyself transformed I’ll be,
That Thou might be expressed thru me.
Every time we come to the Lord, it is a matter of the spirit. We must forget about our culture and forget about teachings. We must drop our religion and philosophy, and we must drop our ethics, our morality, and all our customs and habits. Of course, this does not mean that we can indulge ourselves in whatever we desire. It means that we should forget all these things and turn to our spirit. In spirit we should worship and behold the Lord, as a mirror reflecting the Lord’s glory.
I was born in northern China, but when I went to Shanghai, I did not reflect the North, and when I came to the West, I did not reflect the East. What I reflected was Christ. On the one hand Christ is in the heavens; on the other hand He is in our spirit. As long as we will turn to our spirit, we can contact Him and enjoy Him, as a mirror reflecting His glory. The result is that we are transformed into His image, and He is expressed through us.
Verse six continues:
In no other way could we be
Sanctified and share Thy vict’ry;
Thus only spiritual we’ll be
And touch the life of glory.
Today we have only one way—the way of the spirit. The Triune God, the Creator of the universe, who was incarnated, died on the cross, and rose from the dead, is now the life-giving Spirit. This Spirit is the ultimate expression of the Triune God. He is also the consummation of the Triune God. He has entered into the spirit of us who have believed and is now being mingled with us as one spirit. Now we should walk according to this mingled spirit and live a daily life that is inseparably attached to this spirit.
Unfortunately, many people read the Bible as if they are wearing a pair of colored eyeglasses. They read into the Bible many things of culture, teachings, ethics, morality, religion, philosophy, customs, and traditions. As a result, they do not receive any light from the Bible. Even many seminary students are coming to the Word in this way. They come with their colored eyeglasses. I hope that the Lord will be merciful to us all, so that we may all remove our colored glasses to read the Word of God solely with our God-created spirit.
The last verse of Hymns, #501 says:
Thy Spirit will me saturate,
Every part will God permeate,
Delivering me from the old man,
With all saints building for His plan.
This mingled spirit is in you saturating and permeating your whole spirit, soul, and body. The result is that your whole being will be filled with the Triune God, so that in every part of your being you will see God. In this way, every part of your being will be saturated with God, and you will be delivered from the natural self and be built together with all the saints to become God’s habitation.
Ephesians 2:22 says, “In whom you also are being built together into a dwelling place of God in spirit.” Only when we are all living in spirit, worshipping in spirit, beholding and reflecting His glory in spirit, and being transformed in spirit will it be possible for God to have a way. And only then will it be possible for us to be built together in spirit to become the dwelling of God.