Romans 8:9-11 says, “But 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, though the body is dead because of sin, the spirit is life because of righteousness. And if the Spirit of the One who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who indwells you.” This portion mentions three times that the Spirit of God dwells in us.
The work of God throughout all the generations has been to reach one goal, to mingle Himself with man and, through this mingling, to work in man to the extent that man becomes exactly the same as He is. Through His incarnation, God put His life into man that man would have the divine nature. Then through His death and resurrection, He brought His humanity into Himself, mingling humanity with His divinity. God’s goal to mingle Himself with man is accomplished entirely through His Spirit.
God is Spirit. Thus, in order for Him to enter into man, He had to create a spirit in man (Zech. 12:1). Man’s spirit is a vessel to contain God and an organ to contact Him (2 Tim. 4:22; John 4:24). The human spirit receives the Spirit of God and interacts with His Spirit, and the two become one (Rom. 8:16; 1 Cor. 6:17). Man’s contact and relationship with God are altogether not in the mind, emotion, or will but in the spirit. The Lord Jesus told us that God is Spirit and that those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truthfulness (John 4:24). Our worship of God does not depend on any outward place; it is the same here or there, inside or outside. What is crucial is our spirit. Because God is Spirit, we must contact Him in spirit.
For the Spirit of God to enter into our spirit, Christ had to pass through incarnation, death, and resurrection. Christ’s incarnation brought God into man, and Christ’s death and resurrection brought man into God. This coming and going of Christ brought God into man and man into God. Christ who died, resurrected, and ascended is God with the human nature and man with the divine nature. He is God yet man and man yet God. Divinity and humanity have been completely mingled within Him as one.
Today in the universe, the ascended Christ in the heavens is the prototype of God’s goal. God’s goal in the universe is to mingle Himself with man, and the resurrected and ascended Christ is God mingled with man. Divinity and humanity, humanity and divinity, are mingled within Him. The mingling of divinity and humanity within Him is the mystery of this resurrected and ascended Christ. Hence, today He is in the heavenlies as the prototype and model of God’s goal. In addition to being the prototype of God’s goal, after resurrecting and ascending, Christ sent the Holy Spirit (15:26). As the Holy Spirit, He comes into all those who believe in Him (14:15-18). Just as He passed through incarnation, death, and resurrection to bring God into man and bring man into God, now as the Holy Spirit, He is doing the work of incarnation in us—bringing God into us—and the work of death and resurrection in us—bringing us into God. From the time of our salvation, this principle of incarnation is applied to us.
After we are regenerated, the work of the Holy Spirit in us is to bring us through death and resurrection so that we will be mingled with God. God is in Christ, and Christ is in the Holy Spirit. Christ is not only God’s mingling with man but also man’s mingling with God. This model of mingling is entirely accomplished in the Holy Spirit, and as the One who accomplished this model of mingling, the Holy Spirit is sent out. No matter where a person may be, as long as his spirit is open to God and desires God, the Holy Spirit will visit Him by “looking at him.” God’s visiting us by looking at us is the way in which He cares for us. This is carried out through the Holy Spirit and is the work of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is the eyes of the Lamb, which are sent forth into all the earth to look at those who are on the earth.