II. LIFE BEING CHRIST
God is life. This is wonderful. But how can we fallen sinners contact and receive God to be our life? God knows how. He comes to us in His Son Jesus Christ. The Bible further reveals to us that God became flesh, which is Christ (John 1:1, 14). Since Christ is God (Heb. 1:8), He has the life of God in Him (John 1:4), therefore, He is also life (1 John 5:12). He said many times that He is life (John 11:25; 14:6) and that He came to earth that we may have life (John 10:10). Therefore, we who have believed and received Him have Him as our life (Col 3:4).
[Just as life is God Himself, so also life is Christ. Just as having life is having God Himself, so also having life is having Christ. Just as to live out life is to live out God Himself, so also to live out life is to live out Christ. Just as life is not different in the least from God, likewise life is not different in the least from Christ. Just as a slight deviation from God is not life, likewise a slight deviation from Christ is not life. For Christ is God being life. It is through Christ and as Christ that God is manifested as life. Hence, Christ is life and life is Christ.]
Without Christ, we do not have God nor do we have life (Eph. 2:12; 1 John 5:12). By receiving Christ, we receive God as our life. Then all the riches of God that are in Christ become ours to enjoy every day.
III. LIFE BEING THE HOLY SPIRIT
After seeing that Christ, the embodiment and manifestation of God is life, we may ask where Christ is today and how can we contact Him and receive Him as life?
[Although Christ is life, it is difficult for Christ to give you life. Who gives life? It is the Spirit that gives life (John 6:63; 2 Cor. 3:6). Christ is life, but it is the Spirit who gives us Christ as life. Without the Spirit Christ may be life, but Christ as life cannot be given to us. By being the Spirit Christ is imparted into us as life. Today, after being processed, the very Christ is the life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45b). Never forget that Christ is the very God, Jehovah the Savior, God with us. Christ is God. This Christ, after being processed, is now the life-giving Spirit. We have to enjoy Him in His fullness as such a Spirit.
After the Lord Jesus said He was life in John 14:6, He made known to His disciples not only that He and God are one (vv. 7-11), but also that the Holy Spirit and He are also one (vv. 16-20). In verses 16 and 17 the Lord referred to the Holy Spirit as “He,” but in verse 18, He changed the pronoun from “He’’ to “I.” By changing the “He’’ to “I’’ the Lord was saying that “He’’ is “I.” This reveals that the Holy Spirit He spoke of in verses 16 and 17 is He Himself. From verses 7 to 11 He showed us that He is the embodiment of God—He is in God, and God is in Him. Hence, His being life means that God is life. From verses 16 to 20, He further revealed that the Holy Spirit is His embodiment, His other form; and when His physical presence leaves us, this Spirit of reality who is Himself as another comforter comes into us and abides with us. This Spirit living in us and abiding with us is just He Himself living in us as our life that we may live. These two passages therefore show us that it is by God being in Him and Him being the Holy Spirit that He is life. God is in Him as life, and He is the Holy Spirit as life.]
First Corinthians 15:45 says, “The last Adam became a life-giving Spirit.’’ The last Adam is the Lord Jesus who was crucified to end the fallen adamic race. In His resurrection, He became a life-giving Spirit; therefore, all that Christ has received from the Father is now in the Spirit. This Spirit is called the Spirit of life in Romans 8:2. As the Spirit of life He is able to free us from the law of sin and death. He is also life in our spirit, may be life in our mind, and is able to give life to our mortal body (Rom. 8:10, 6,11).
[The way to have life is the Spirit. The way to be saved in His life is the Spirit. The way to reign in life is the Spirit. The way to walk in newness of life is the Spirit. The way to be sanctified in life is the Spirit. The Spirit is the way. Life belongs to the Spirit, and the Spirit is of life. These two are actually one. We can never separate life from the Spirit, nor the Spirit from life. The Lord Jesus Himself said, “The words that I speak unto you, they are Spirit, and they are life’’ (John 6:63). In this word the Lord Jesus connects the Spirit and life. If we have the Spirit, we have life; if we do not have the Spirit, we do not have life. If we walk in the Spirit, we walk in life, but if we do not walk in the spirit, we do not walk in the newness of life. Thus, the way to experience the divine, eternal, uncreated life is the Spirit.]
(Lesson Book, Level 4: Life—Knowing and Experiencing Life, Chapter 2, by Witness Lee)
