BY THE GRACE OF THE LORD JESUS CHRIST
IN THE BELIEVERS’ SPIRIT
Eventually, what we see, what we believe, what we appreciate, and what we get is the grace. Grace is the resurrected Christ as our enjoyment. The closing verse of the book of Galatians says, "The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit, brothers. Amen" (6:18). By this grace we experience the resurrected Christ, who is the embodiment of the Divine Trinity. Christ, the pneumatic One, is our resurrection producing the faith for our enjoyment of Him as grace. We live in the Divine Trinity by the grace of the Lord Jesus in our spirit.
QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS
Question: We are talking about living in resurrection by denying ourselves. When we live in this way, does this cause us to grow and be transformed, or do we need to grow and be transformed before we can live in this way?
Answer: Hymn #481 in Hymns is an excellent hymn on being identified with the Lord in His death and resurrection. The first two lines of verse 2 say:
’Tis not hard to die with Christ
When His risen life we know.
This hymn was written by A. B. Simpson. All those who know the inner life love this hymn. The question that was asked is actually a question concerning whether we have death first and then resurrection, or resurrection first and then death. By the illustration of the seed being buried in the earth, we can see the sequence. The seed has life in it; life is resurrection. But without being buried in the earth, the seed will not be glorified. Being buried in the earth is equivalent to denying, rejecting, and renouncing ourselves. The multiplication of life, the glorification of life, as resurrection is by this burial, this renouncing.
The Lord came with life, but He passed through death. Then He entered into resurrection for His multiplication, His increase, His glorification. Today we can receive Him as our life, making us a seed. In order for us as the seed to express the divine life for its multiplication, increase, glorification, we need to go through the death which He has gone through. Going through His death is the conformity to His death.
We can see in Philippians 3 that Paul had Christ as life and that he lived by that life, yet he aspired to know more. He wanted to know Christ and the power of His resurrection, being conformed to His death. We have Christ as life already, yet we need to know Him more. The increased knowing of Christ and of the power of resurrection will strengthen us to pass through His death. By knowing Him more, we can be conformed unto His death. This is clearly portrayed in the book of Philippians, which is a book on the experience of Christ. The conformity to His death is the renouncing of ourselves, the denying of ourselves, the rejecting of ourselves. Rejecting, renouncing, and denying mean the same thing. When we deny ourselves, we live in resurrection.
Question: Could you share something concerning Romans 8:13, which says, "If by the Spirit you put to death the practices of the body, you will live"?
Answer: Romans 8:13 also shows us something concerning the conformity to the death of Christ. We have the Holy Spirit within us, yet there are still many negative things in our mortal body. Life can enter into our mortal body by the indwelling Spirit (v. 11). The indwelling Spirit is the reality of resurrection. This reality of resurrection, as the very inner life within us, can reach our mortal body. In order for this to happen, we have to cooperate with Him by putting every action, every deed, of our body to death. This is our cooperation with the indwelling Spirit so that we can be conformed to the death of Christ and live in and by the resurrected Christ.
(Living In and With the Divine Trinity, Chapter 9, by Witness Lee)
