ROMANS 5:5-6
Romans 5:5 and 6 show the love of God [God the Father] having been poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit given to us and Christ [the Son] having died for the ungodly. The pouring out of God’s love was carried out through the Holy Spirit whom God has given to us. God has given the Holy Spirit to us, and through this Holy Spirit God’s love has been poured out in our hearts. Furthermore, Christ, the Son, died for us, the ungodly. First, the Son died for us, the ungodly. Based upon this the Spirit was given to us, and through this Spirit given to us, the love of God has been poured out in our hearts. Now we enjoy the love of God through the Holy Spirit given to us on the foundation of the death of Christ for us, the ungodly.
SECOND CORINTHIANS 1:21-22
Second Corinthians 1:21 and 22 reveal that [the Triune] God has anointed us and attached us unto Christ [the Son]. These verses also show God having sealed us and having given the pledge of the Spirit in our hearts. First, God anointed the Son in the Jordan River. Then the believers were anointed by God. Our being anointed is a continuation of the anointing of Jesus. Actually, God has only one anointing, and this anointing is the anointing of Christ. In His resurrection, the personal Christ, the individual Christ, was expanded, extended, increased, into the corporate Christ. The personal Christ was just Jesus Christ as the Head. As the Head, He was anointed when He was thirty years of age. But after His resurrection, this personal Christ was expanded, extended, increased, to be the Body of Christ, the corporate Christ. This corporate Christ includes Jesus Christ as the Head and all His members as the Body. The Head was anointed first, and the Body was anointed later, but these should not be considered as two anointings. Actually, they are two steps of the same anointing. Eventually, we must say that God has anointed "the Christ," the corporate Christ, to carry out His New Testament economy. This corporate Christ includes both the Head and the Body.
The Lord Jesus as the Head of this corporate Christ was anointed at the baptism of Jesus in the Jordan River. The Body of this corporate Christ was anointed on the day of Pentecost and in the house of Cornelius. In the entire universe there is only one anointing, and the anointing of the corporate Christ took place in two stages. All the anointings in the Old Testament were types. Aaron was anointed by Moses, and David was anointed by Samuel. All the kings and priests were anointed. They were types pointing to the unique anointing. This unique anointing covered the corporate Christ as the Head and the Body. All the Jewish believers were anointed on the day of Pentecost (Acts 1:5; 2:4), and all the Gentile believers were anointed in the house of Cornelius (10:44-47; 11:15-17). All of us believers were anointed to be the corporate Christ for the purpose of carrying out God’s New Testament economy. We are the partners of the individual Christ (Heb. 3:14a). We are partners with Christ in a divine corporation. This divine corporation is "Christ and the church, incorporated." We are not employees in this corporation but partners with Christ. This is a great universal corporation to carry out God’s eternal purpose. As the corporate Christ, we are the partners of Christ, cooperating with Him to carry out God’s New Testament economy.
The Triune God has firmly attached us unto Christ. He has attached every member of the corporate Christ to the individual Christ. He has anointed us and has made us one with the Head. We have been attached to Christ by the organic connection through the anointing oil. The anointing oil is the consummated Spirit as the consummated Triune God. He is the compound, all-inclusive, life-giving, indwelling, sevenfold, intensified, and processed Spirit. By such a Spirit we all have been attached unto Christ, the Head. We are the corporate Christ to carry out God’s great and universal will, to carry out God’s economy to build up the Body of Christ in an organic way.
For this purpose God has also sealed us and given the pledge of the Spirit in our hearts. The anointing is the sealing. Since God has anointed us with Christ, He has also sealed us in Him. The pledge of the Spirit is the Spirit Himself as the pledge. Sealing is a mark that we are God’s inheritance, God’s possession, belonging to God. The pledge is a guarantee that God is our inheritance or heritage belonging to us. The Spirit within us is the pledge, the earnest, of God being our portion in Christ.
Paul wrote his second Epistle to the Corinthians based upon this revelation of the Triune God. The Father has anointed His sons and attached them to their big Brother, the firstborn Son of God. The firstborn Son is the Head of the corporate Christ, and the many sons are the Body of the corporate Christ. By God the Father’s anointing and attaching, He has made all His sons one with His Firstborn to be a corporate Body to carry out His eternal purpose. For His purpose, the Father has sealed us and given us the sealing Spirit as an inward pledge to guarantee that God is our inheritance.
(Living In and With the Divine Trinity, Chapter 7, by Witness Lee)
