Let us take Galatians 1 as another example of how to read the Bible. In the beginning of Galatians, Paul says, “Who [Christ] gave Himself for our sins that He might rescue us out of the present evil age according to the will of our God and Father” (v. 4). What Paul means in this verse is that Christ died for our sins to accomplish redemption that He might rescue us not out of sin, as is commonly thought, but out of the evil age. The evil age here refers particularly to the religious world. Then Paul continued to say that the gospel he preached was received through a revelation (v. 12). This is in contrast to the teachings of religion, which come from tradition. Galatians 6:14-15 proves that the evil age denotes the religious world. The second half of chapter one also proves this. In verses 13 and 14 Paul says, “For you have heard of my manner of life formerly in Judaism....And I advanced in Judaism beyond many contemporaries in my race, being more abundantly a zealot for the traditions of my fathers.” Judaism is a religion, and one receives this religion by receiving its traditions.
The gospel preached by Paul was received through revelation and not through tradition. Paul said, “It pleased God...to reveal His Son in me” (vv. 15-16). The focus of the revelation that Paul received was Christ, the Son of God. Hence, Galatians clearly shows us that Christ is versus religion. It is a fact that Christ died for us that we might be delivered from the religious world. However, how can we be delivered? How does Christ rescue us? His death alone was not enough to deliver us. He needed also to be resurrected. Through His death and resurrection Christ became the life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45b). When this life-giving Spirit, who is the living Christ, is revealed in us, He rescues us out of religion. The living Christ comes into us not by tradition and heredity but by revelation. Christ is versus religion. The center, the focus, of the revelation that we receive from God is the living Christ.
How do we know that Christ is the living Christ? We know this because He can enter into us and be revealed in us. The living Christ, who is revealed in us and is versus religion, rescues us from the religious world. How does He come into us? He comes into us not through our heritage or tradition but through revelation—God reveals His Son in us. Religion is a matter of tradition; Christ is a matter of revelation. This is a summary of Galatians 1.
In order to study the Bible in this way, you must learn a secret—to practice continuously. You should not be afraid of your shortages in learning or in training, and you should not say that you are not well educated or adequately trained. You must simply grasp every opportunity to practice, and you must continuously endeavor to learn to speak. If you do this, you will do well. You should not be afraid of your lack in studying the Bible. You should be afraid only of pretending that you have thoroughly studied the Bible when you have not. If you pretend in this way, it is as if you are hanging yourself. In every training meeting there is a testing. During these tests, you should not be afraid but should actively participate. This is a training. If you do not answer properly, and I criticize you, this will profit you more than your personal Bible reading. In addition, everyone else will receive help as well. When you sacrifice yourself and receive criticism, everyone will receive benefit, but the one who will receive the most benefit is you. You should not think to yourself, “If I speak, the first time I speak I must speak so well that everyone will be greatly impressed. If I am unable to do this, I will not speak at all.” If you were able to speak in such a way, then you would not need this training.
The secret to being trained is to be unafraid of making mistakes, of failing, of falling short, and of having your weaknesses exposed. If you write a composition perfectly, when your teacher reads it, you will not benefit. However, if your composition is written poorly and your teacher adjusts it, you will have the opportunity to learn a great deal. The more mistakes you make, the more you will learn. In the same way, when you are in the training, you have to try your best to expose your mistakes so that you can receive the benefit. Do not expect to speak excellently. Good students are those who intentionally hide their talents and knowledge and allow their weak points to be manifested so that they can receive instruction from their teachers. When I was young, I learned English very well. Later when I went to an English college founded by some Americans, I could have almost taught the teachers, so the principal agreed that I could be exempt from taking English classes. Since you come here to be trained, unless you think that you are better than your teachers and can be exempt, you have to learn in a serious way.
In this message we want to see something further concerning the filling of the Holy Spirit. From the very beginning of the Lord’s recovery among us, we have paid much attention to the filling of the Holy Spirit. We have been enlightened to see that there is more to the Holy Spirit than what is taught in Christian theology. We see that the Spirit is the ultimate expression of the processed Triune God. In this ultimate expression, there is divinity, humanity, human living, Christ’s all-inclusive death and its effectiveness, resurrection and its power, ascension, and descension. The Holy Spirit is an all-inclusive, compound, life-giving, and consummated Spirit. Therefore, the Spirit is exceedingly rich.
In the past even though we spoke so much about the filling of the Holy Spirit, it seemed that the saints were not paying much attention to this matter. Last year when I came back to Taiwan, I noticed that you all had learned to speak about the essential Spirit and the economical Spirit. However, although you pay attention to the essential Spirit and the economical Spirit, you are still not filled with the Spirit. Hence, you lack the experience of the Spirit both essentially and economically. You have to know that regardless of how true it is that the Spirit has an essential aspect and an economical aspect, if you are not filled with Him, He cannot be the Spirit in you essentially nor the Spirit upon you economically. To experience the Spirit essentially and economically requires you to be filled with the Spirit.
In the table of contents of our hymnal, the first category is the blessing of the Trinity, the second is the worship of the Father, the third is the praise of the Lord, and the fourth is the fullness of the Spirit. In the category on the fullness of the Spirit, more than half of the hymns were written by me. There is a hymn in the Chinese hymnal that says that everything related to the relationship between God and man depends upon the Spirit. The strangest thing is that although I have given you such wonderful assets, no one has made use of them. Even my co-workers do not use these things in their work. I am afraid that a person can get saved and be among us for a long time and yet never hear a message about the filling of the Holy Spirit. The truth concerning the filling of the Holy Spirit is like a smoking flax among us. This is a great loss. Therefore, we must fan this fire into flame.