We have seen clearly that the relationship between God and us depends on the law that God puts into us. This is based on Hebrews 8:10, which says, “For this is the covenant which I will covenant with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will impart My laws into their mind, and on their hearts I will inscribe them; and I will be God to them, and they will be a people to Me.” The law mentioned here is not the law in letters written on outward tablets of stone, but the law of life in spirit written in our hearts. Romans 8:2 says, “The law of the Spirit of life has freed me in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and of death.” The law that has freed us is the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus, and this law of life is of four great items: the Spirit, life, Christ, and Jesus.
We have also seen that the law of life is nothing other than Christ Jesus Himself as life to us (Col. 3:4). Christ is the embodiment of God, and He enters into us as the Spirit of life (2 Cor. 3:6b, 17). If He were only God, the Savior, and the Lord to us, there would be no need for Him to enter into us. In order to be life to us, He must come into us. Furthermore, as life to us, He can never be merely an objective Savior; He must be very subjective. Nothing is more subjective to us than our life.
Nothing outside of us can be life to us. For anything to be life to us, it must be in us subjectively and mingled with us as one. Anything that is not within us and mingled with us as one could never be our life. In order to take some bread as the life supply to our body, we cannot simply admire it and keep it in our pocket. We need to take it in and then digest it to make it the constituent of our body. Once we have digested the bread, it will be mingled with us and become our life supply. It will be subjective to us to such an extent that it becomes our constituent, a part of our being. This is the meaning of Christ being life to us. When the Lord Jesus said, “I am the bread of life” (John 6:35), it indicated that His intention was to enter into us and be digested by us to become the constituent of our inner man.
In John 6:51 the Lord Jesus said, “I am the living bread,” and in verse 57 He said, “He who eats Me, he also shall live because of Me.” We can eat the Lord because He is bread to us. This signifies that we must take Him as our life supply, feed on Him, and feast on Him. We need to eat more of Him so that we can digest Him and He can mingle Himself with us to become the very constituent of our life. It is thus that we may live by Him. This is very subjective. Do you realize that the Lord Christ whom you have received as your Savior and life is subjective to you? Day by day He is not only living within you but also mingling Himself with you and becoming a part of your being. This is wonderful, yet it is nevertheless very real.
I can testify that the Christ whom I have received as my Savior and life is real and available to me. He is more “handy” to me than even the air. Water is more available than food, and air is more available than water. Because Christ is within us as life to us, He is even more available than the air that we breathe.
Life is not a simple matter. For instance, when it is sown into the ground, a small seed will grow and blossom, producing green leaves and beautiful flowers. These all come out of the small seed because there is life in that seed. Consider what kind of life Christ is. This life is nothing less than God Himself. As a seed, Jesus has within Him a wonderful life, a life that is the almighty, infinite, all-inclusive, and omnipotent God. This life is now within us.
Furthermore, this life is the light of men (John 1:4). It shines within us all the time. This life is also a law, a regulating element that regulates us within continually. Since the time that we received Christ as our Savior, we have experienced something within us living, shining, and regulating all the time. This is the life that is Christ Himself. He is the life, and the life is both the light and the law. This eternal, divine, uncreated life, which is God Himself in Christ as the Spirit, is the living law, the law of life, regulating us within.
In Philippians 1:19 the apostle Paul, who was in prison suffering persecution for Christ and the gospel, said, “For I know that for me this [referring to the situation related to Paul’s imprisonment] will turn out to salvation through your petition and the bountiful supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ.” We should note that Paul did not speak of the bountiful supply of the Spirit of the almighty God,but of the bountiful supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ. The Spirit of Jesus Christ is the Spirit of God, but with something added.
In this verse Paul said that his imprisonment, suffering, and persecution would turn out to salvation for him. This would be through the bountiful supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ. W. J. Conybeare, in his translation of the New Testament, tells us that the word supply here in Greek is a special word. In ancient times among the Greeks, a group of people who danced and sang to entertain people was called a chorus. The leader of a chorus was called the choragus; he was responsible to take care of all the needs of the group. Whatever they needed, this leader was responsible to supply. Paul used the word choragus to denote the all-inclusive, bountiful supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ, who is indwelling Christ’s believers to supply them with whatever they need. With this Spirit there is an all-inclusive, bountiful supply that will fully meet our need.
This Spirit is indeed the Spirit of the eternal God, who is the Triune God—the Father, the Son, and the Spirit. However, before Christ’s incarnation, this Spirit had only the element of divinity. One day the Son of God, who is the embodiment of the complete Triune God, was incarnated to be a man, to enter into man and put man upon Himself. As a genuine man, He lived a human life on this earth for thirty-three and a half years. Hence, with Him there is the human life, humanity, in addition to the divine life, divinity. At the end of His human life He entered into death and passed through death. He remained in death for three days and then resurrected from death (1 Cor. 15:3-4; Acts 2:24). Thus, with Him there are also the elements of death and resurrection.
With resurrection there is also glorification. When Christ was resurrected, He was glorified as well (Luke 24:26, 46). His resurrection was His glorification. This can be illustrated by a seed that is dry and brown in color, without any beauty or glory. When it is sown into the earth, it dies and then begins to grow. We may say that the seed is buried and then resurrected. When the plant that grows out of the seed blossoms, the seed is glorified. According to John 12:24, Christ in His humanity was like a seed, a grain of wheat, sown into the earth. He died and was buried for three days. Then He rose from the dead and was glorified in His resurrection (v. 23).
After being glorified, Christ ascended into heaven (Acts 1:9-11) and was enthroned and made both Lord and Christ (2:36). Soon afterward, on the day of Pentecost, He came down to man as the outpoured Spirit. There is a difference between the Holy Spirit who descended at the time of Christ’s incarnation and the Holy Spirit who descended on the day of Pentecost. When the Holy Spirit came down for the incarnation of God in humanity (Matt. 1:18, 20; Luke 1:35), He was merely the Spirit of God with no other elements. But when He came down upon man at Pentecost, He was the Spirit of Jesus Christ, who includes the elements of God, man, human living, the effectiveness of death, the power of resurrection, glorification, ascension, and enthronement. All these elements are included in the one Holy Spirit, who is the Spirit of God and the Spirit of Jesus Christ. Such an all-inclusive Spirit may be considered to be an all-inclusive dose. Many medicines are made by combining a number of different elements into one dose. When we take this dose, we receive all its elements. The bountiful supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ is an all-inclusive dose that contains all the elements required to meet our need in full.