In the previous chapter we saw that God is the Triune God who is mingled with man. This is further confirmed in Romans chapter eight. Verses 9-10a of this chapter say, “You are not in the flesh, but in the spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. Yet if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not of Him. But if Christ is in you...” These verses mention the Spirit of God and the Spirit of Christ interchangeably, indicating that the Spirit of God is the Spirit of Christ. Furthermore, Christ is mentioned interchangeably with the Spirit of Christ, indicating that the Spirit of Christ is Christ Himself. These three titles—“the Spirit of God,” “the Spirit of Christ,” and “Christ”—refer to one person, because the Spirit of God is the Spirit of Christ, and the Spirit of Christ is Christ Himself. These three are one Spirit, for Christ is God (9:5) and Christ is the Spirit (2 Cor. 3:17). Verse 11 in Romans 8 continues, “If the Spirit of the One who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who indwells you.” In verses 9 through 11 there are actually four different titles: the Spirit of God, the Spirit of Christ, Christ, and the Spirit. Actually, these titles refer not to four different persons but to one person.
As Christians who have received the Lord Christ as our Savior, we must know two things. The first is that the One whom we have received as our Savior is not only God but also a man. He is a God-man, man as well as God and God as well as man. Because God is the Triune God, our Savior is also a Triune God-man. Moreover, we have pointed out that this Savior whom we have received is God mingled with man. He was mingled with man before we received Him. It is not that after we receive Him, He becomes God mingled with man. On the contrary, two thousand years ago He was already mingled with man. Before He was incarnated, He was only God, but through His incarnation He became God mingled with man. He died on the cross, resurrected from the dead, ascended to the heavens, and was poured out as the Spirit not only in the divine nature but also in the human nature. Therefore, now He is not merely God but God mingled with man. It is wrong to think that the time when God mingled with man was when we received Him as our Savior and that before then He was only God. A very long time before we received Him, He was mingled with man already.
We have seen that the Savior whom the gospel of God brought to us is not only God Himself but also God mingled with man, a God-man who has become our Savior. Yet many people are not clear concerning this. They have received Christ, who is God mingled with man, but they think that it is only God whom they have received. When we received the Lord Jesus, we might not have apprehended or understood that the Lord, the Savior, whom we had received is not only the almighty God but also a man. He is a God-man, the very God mingled with man. On the one hand, He is the mighty God; on the other hand, He was a human child who was born to us but was called Mighty God (Isa. 9:6). Today Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord, is not merely God but God mingled with man. Within Him there is the divine nature as well as the human nature.
The second thing that we should know as Christians is that the Spirit whom we received from God is not only a Spirit of the divine nature but also a Spirit of the human nature. The Holy Spirit, after the Lord’s ascension, came down as the Spirit of God as well as of man, the Spirit not only with the divine nature but also with the human nature. Within Him there is divinity and also humanity. Therefore, the God whom we Christians worship is the Triune God mingled with man, the Triune God-man.
Having seen what God is, we must now see what man is, that is, what it is to be human. Genesis 1:26-27 says, “God said, Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness....And God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him.” Man was created in the image of God. Although man himself is not the image of God, he was created according to God’s image. Every person has an image. A person’s photograph is a picture that is according to his image. Mankind is a “photograph,” a picture, of God. However, since God is invisible, how could the invisible God have an image, and what is this image? The answer is found in Colossians 1:15 and 2 Corinthians 4:4, which clearly tell us that Christ is the image of God. An image is an expression. Without an expression, a person cannot be known by others. We know a person by his expression, and his expression is his image. Christ is the image of God because it is through Christ, by Christ, and in Christ that God is expressed. Without Christ, no one has ever seen God; it is Christ who has expressed God and declared Him. Therefore, John 1:18 says, “No one has ever seen God; the only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him.” Christ is the expression of God, and Christ is the image of God. Because man was created in the image of God and the image of God is Christ, man was created according to Christ. Thus, man is a “photograph” of Christ.
It is possible that we have been a Christian for years but have never realized that we are a “photograph” of Christ because we were created in the image of Christ and according to Christ. If we study Genesis 1:26-27 carefully, we will see that verse 26 speaks of “Our image” and verse 27 of “His own image.” His own image refers to Christ, who is the image of God. Human beings were created according to Christ.