After the Spirit descended upon the believers, He filled them outwardly. Acts 2:4 says, “They were all filled with the Holy Spirit.” The Greek word for filled in this verse is pletho (also used in 4:8, 31; 9:17; 13:9; Luke 1:15, 41, 67), denoting an outward filling. According to its usage in Acts, pleroo denotes the filling of a vessel within, as the wind filled the house inwardly in 2:2, and pletho denotes the filling of persons outwardly, as the Spirit filled the disciples outwardly in 2:4. The disciples were filled (pleroo) inwardly and essentially with the Spirit (13:52) for their Christian living, and were filled (pletho) outwardly and economically with the Spirit for their Christian ministry. The inward filling Spirit, the essential Spirit, is in the believers (John 14:17; Rom. 8:11), whereas the outward filling Spirit, the economical Spirit, is upon them (Acts 1:8; 2:17). Every believer in Christ should experience both aspects of the Holy Spirit.
The outward filling of the poured-out Spirit was the ascended Head’s baptizing of His Body into the Spirit. On the day of Pentecost the Jewish believers, the first part of His Body, were baptized; in the house of Cornelius the Gentile believers, the second part of His Body, were baptized in the same way (10:44-47). By these two steps He baptized once for all His entire Body into the Spirit (1 Cor. 12:13).
The fact of the baptism in the Spirit was accomplished on the Body of Christ once for all, whereas the experiences of the baptism in the Spirit are shared by individual believers numerously at different times and in different places. In fact, we, the saved ones, all were baptized in the Spirit on the day of Pentecost and in the house of Cornelius. However, in experience, we receive the baptism in the Spirit at different times and in different places-each at his own time and in his own place. For example, Peter and the one hundred twenty disciples in the early days were filled with the Holy Spirit outwardly on the day of Pentecost. They did not have just that one experience, but later still continued to have experiences of the outward filling of the Holy Spirit (Acts 4:8, 31). Another example was Paul. After Paul’s conversion on the road to Damascus, it was not until three days later that Ananias was sent by the Lord to lay hands on him that he might be filled with the Holy Spirit outwardly. Later, he again experienced the outward filling of the Holy Spirit (13:9). We all need to see this glorious fact and remove all causes and hindrances that prevent us from experiencing this fact. If so, we can claim it by faith and experience it that the Holy Spirit may fill us outwardly.
In 2 Corinthians 3:6 the apostle Paul said, “Who has also made us sufficient as ministers of a new covenant, ministers not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.” Letter here means the written code of the law. The Spirit is the Spirit of the living God, with whom the apostles ministered Christ into the believers. The apostolic ministry for the New Testament is not of dead letters, like the Mosaic ministry for the Old Testament, but of the living Spirit, who gives life. The letter of the law only requires of man but is unable to supply man with life (Gal. 3:21). Because of man’s inability to fulfill the requirements of the law, the law kills man (Rom. 7:9-11). The Spirit, the ultimate expression of the processed Triune God, imparts the divine life, even God Himself, into the believers and the apostles, making them ministers of a new covenant, the covenant of life. Hence, their ministry is one constituted with the Triune God of life by His life-giving Spirit.
Therefore, the apostles became ministers of the new covenant not by human knowledge or natural effort but by the Spirit as the constituting element. There was a real spiritual constitution within them, and this constitution was of the Spirit. As a result, they became servants of the new covenant to minister this covenant. The Spirit who works in us today is the Spirit of the new covenant ministry that gives life. Within this Spirit there are many divine elements, which not only transform us but also constitute us the new covenant ministers. As the divine element is being dispensed into us by the Spirit, He works in us to transform us and becomes the element that makes us sufficient ministers of the new covenant.
Not only is the Spirit the element for the apostles to be the sufficient ministers of the new covenant, but the Spirit is the element of the ministry of the New Testament itself. Second Corinthians 3:8 says, “How shall the ministry of the Spirit not be more in glory?” The ministry of the Spirit is the apostolic ministry of the new covenant, a covenant of the living Spirit, who gives life. The ministry of the new covenant is not merely a matter of our work or preaching or teaching. It is a matter of spiritual constitution, a constitution of the Spirit with the divine life and the divine truths. Such a constitution makes us sufficient, competent, as ministers of the new covenant. Hence, we need to experience the divine life and know the divine truths by the Spirit in the fellowship of the Triune God.
In 2 Corinthians 3:7 and 8 Paul presents a strong contrast between the ministry of death and the ministry of the Spirit. The Old Testament ministry was a ministry of death; the New Testament ministry is a ministry of life embodied in the Spirit. The essence of the Spirit dispensed into us is life. Without the Spirit there is no source of life; neither is there the element or sphere of life. The Spirit, who is of life, is the element of the New Testament ministry. In every aspect and in every way the New Testament ministry dispenses Christ into us as the life-giving Spirit.
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