In the previous chapter we saw that our human spirit within us is the recipient or receiving organ for us to receive God in Christ. John 4:24 says, “God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit.” In this verse two spirits are mentioned. The first word Spirit begins with an uppercase S and the second spirit, with a lowercase s. This indicates that the first Spirit is the Spirit of God, even God Himself, and the second spirit is not the Spirit of God but our spirit. God is a Spirit, and we also have a spirit within us. Human beings are made of three parts: spirit, soul, and body (1 Thes. 5:23). According to John 4:24, if we wish to worship God, who is Spirit, we must worship Him in our spirit.
In order to contact anything that is physical, or material, in substance, we need to use the right organ. For instance, in order to substantiate color, we should not exercise our ears, for the ears are the wrong organ. We should exercise our eyes, our sight. Likewise, we can substantiate the sound of voices by exercising our ears, and we can substantiate odors by exercising our nose. In contacting anything, we need to use the right organ; otherwise, we cannot substantiate the substance.
God is Spirit. This means that the substance of God is Spirit. Hence, we need to consider what organ we should use to substantiate God. We certainly cannot substantiate God by thinking, that is, by using our mind, for the more we think, the more it seems that God is absent. God created a spirit within us for the very purpose that we may contact Him, receive Him, and substantiate Him (Gen. 2:7; Zech. 12:1). We are vessels made for God (Rom. 9:21-23). A vessel differs from an instrument. The latter is a tool, whereas the former is a container. We are vessels, and we have seen clearly that we need to contain God. God is the content, and we are the container. Just as our stomach is the proper organ for us to receive, store, and digest food, our spirit is the right organ for us to receive God, contain God, and even store God. The spirit within us, that is, our human spirit, not the Holy Spirit, is the place in us where God the Spirit dwells. Therefore, our spirit is the dwelling place of God the Spirit (Eph. 2:22). For this reason, in John 4:24 the Lord Jesus tells us clearly that God is Spirit and that if we are going to contact Him and worship Him, we must do this in our spirit. Our spirit is the right organ for us to contact God.
Romans 8:16 says, “The Spirit Himself witnesses with our spirit that we are children of God.” This verse also mentions two spirits. The first is the Holy Spirit, and the second is our human spirit. Moreover, this verse proves that the Holy Spirit works together with our spirit and that the Holy Spirit is in our spirit. In fact, the Holy Spirit of God is one with our spirit, for 1 Corinthians 6:17 says, “He who is joined to the Lord is one spirit.”
Based on John 4:24, Romans 8:16, and 1 Corinthians 6:17 we see clearly that our spirit is the proper organ for us to receive and contain God. God is Spirit; hence, we must contact and worship Him in our spirit. The Spirit of God witnesses with our spirit; this means that He works together with our spirit. Thus, the Holy Spirit and our spirit mingle together as one spirit, and we are one with the Lord in the spirit. Apart from our spirit, we cannot be one with the Lord. The Lord is the Spirit, we have a spirit, and these two spirits mingle together, with the result that we are one with the Lord. We are one with the Lord in our spirit, not in any other part of our being. We must recognize that God has created a spirit for us and within us so that through this spirit as a receiving organ, we may receive Him into us. The Holy Spirit is dwelling in our spirit; thus, our spirit is the residence and dwelling place of the Holy Spirit. This is the revelation of the Holy Scriptures concerning the two spirits.
The subject of this book is the relationship of God with man in His new creation. In the first two chapters we saw clearly what God is and what man is. We pointed out that the God whom Christians worship is the Triune God, a God of three persons, who is mingled with man. In this God there is divinity as well as humanity. In this God there are the Father as the source, the Son as the expression, and the Holy Spirit as the transmission (2 Cor. 13:14). There is also the mingling of God with man. Moreover, according to Isaiah 9:6, the Son is the Father, because the Son is called Eternal Father, and according to 2 Corinthians 3:17, the Lord, who is the Son, is the Spirit. The Son was incarnated to be a man, who is Christ Jesus the Lord (Luke 2:11), and even today He is the Son of Man in the heavens (Matt. 26:64; Acts 7:56). How wonderful it is that the God whom we Christians serve and worship today is the Triune God mingled with man. We have also pointed out that man is a vessel created in the image of God with three parts: the body as a container to contain the soul; the soul as the being, the very person, the self; and the spirit as the organ to receive God.
Now that we have seen what God is and what man is, the third thing we need to see is what God’s new creation is. It is correct to say that the church is the new creation, or even that the Body of Christ, the expression of Christ, is the new creation. However, we must realize that in its fundamental meaning the new creation is man mingled with the Triune God-man.
As Christians, we believe in and serve a God who is the Triune God mingled with man. He is the Son, yet He is called the Father. Moreover, He is the Spirit, and He is mingled with man. When the Triune God with the human nature mingles Himself with a group of human beings, the issue is the new creation. The new creation is composed of many created men who have received this Triune God-man into them and are being mingled with Him as one.
We have seen clearly that the very God whom we have received is the Son, who is called the Father, who is the Spirit, and who is incarnated as a man. Man is a soul with a body as a container and a spirit as a receiver to receive this God. The part of man that receives God is the human spirit. God, who is the Son, who is called the Father, who is the Spirit, and who is mingled with man, is now dwelling in our human spirit. Therefore, in simple terms, the new creation is the Triune God-man who has mingled Himself with us in our spirit. The old creation, in contrast, consists of many things that were created by God but do not have God in them and do not have God mingled with them. The new creation is something very different; it is God Himself as the Father, the Son, and the Spirit, with the human nature, mingled with us, the creatures; it is a mingling of human beings with the Triune God-man.
In order to prove this by the Scriptures, we must first consider John 3:3-5. Verse 3 says, “Jesus answered and said to him, Truly, truly, I say to you, Unless one is born anew, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” To be born anew means to have a new beginning, a new source, and a new origin. Verse 4 continues, “Nicodemus said to Him, How can a man be born when he is old? He cannot enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born, can he?” The elderly Nicodemus thought that to be born anew meant to go back into his mother’s womb and to be born from there again. The Lord told him in verse 5, “Unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.” In order to understand the meaning of being born of water and the Spirit, we need to consider the background of the Lord’s word. The Lord was speaking with Nicodemus, who was a Pharisee. Before that time the Pharisees had gone to John the Baptist, who told them that he came to baptize in water, but One would come after him who would baptize them in the Holy Spirit (Matt. 3:11). One of the Pharisees, Nicodemus, then came to see the Lord, and the Lord referred to the word spoken by John. When a person repented at the preaching of John the Baptist, he was baptized by him. This means that he was buried; he was terminated. To be born of water simply means to be put to an end and buried. To be born of water is the negative aspect. In the positive aspect, we must be born of the Spirit in order to have a new beginning. The old man is finished and buried, and we have a new beginning through the Holy Spirit.
In the same principle, when we repent and believe in the Lord Jesus today, the first thing the church does is baptize us, which means that it gets rid of us. In the past, whenever the church had a baptism, I would tell people, “You must understand what we are doing today. We are having a funeral to bury people, to get rid of the old man.” On the positive side, we are born not only of water but also of the Spirit. The Holy Spirit has come into us to impart Christ as life so that we can have a new beginning, a new source, a new origin, and a new course. This is what it means to be born anew.
Therefore, we must see that because the old man has been buried, he is finished, he is dead, and the old course is over. The Holy Spirit has come in to impart something new for us to have a new beginning, source, course, and origin. This new beginning, source, course, and origin are nothing other than Christ, that is, God in the Son as the Spirit—the Triune God—mingled with man. This very God comes into us as a new beginning, a new source, a new course, and a new origin. Everything old is finished, put to an end, and buried.
Formerly, we did not have God or Christ within us. We were simply empty persons, having nothing of Christ, God, or the Holy Spirit. But one day we repented to God, confessed our sins, and opened ourselves to Him. We realized that we had been crucified with Christ on the cross. At that very moment the Triune God—God in the Son as the Spirit—came into us to dwell within us. From that time onward we realized that we were more than mere men. We had God, Christ, and the Holy Spirit within us.