THE HOLY SPIRIT IN US BEING CHRIST
Not only is Christ embodied in the Word, but He is also realized as the Spirit. He Himself told us that the Holy Spirit, who is the Spirit of reality, would abide with us and be in us (John 14:17). Strictly speaking, the Holy Spirit’s coming into us is Christ’s coming into us (v. 20). Some people testify that the Holy Spirit in them gives them comfort, and others say that the Holy Spirit in them gives them knowledge. Having comfort and knowledge is good, but it is not good enough. The central purpose of the Holy Spirit’s being in us is to reveal Christ. He leads us and comforts us that we may know Christ. If we merely receive His leading and comfort without seeing or knowing Christ, something is still missing in the leading and comfort we are receiving, because the Holy Spirit in us is Christ.
For example, consider the following story. There was once a diamond that was put into a nice box. Then someone saw the nice box, and he took it away. Eventually, however, because this person did not realize that he had a diamond, he threw it away and kept only the box. Many people are like this. They receive the guidance and the enlightenment of the Holy Spirit without receiving Christ. What is the reason for this? It is because they think that the Holy Spirit in them is only for enlightening and leading them. They do not see that the central purpose of the Holy Spirit’s entering into them is that through leading, enlightening, and other kinds of work they may know Christ and gain Christ. Hence, whether it is reading the Word or receiving the leading of the Holy Spirit, God’s only purpose is that we may gain Christ. If we receive the leading without gaining Christ, the leading that we receive is in vain.
However, how can we see Christ in the Word? How can we know Christ by the sense of the Spirit? These are truly difficult questions. We will not be able to see Christ in the Word, know Christ by the sense of the Spirit, and therefore solve all our problems merely through a few words of explanation. Here, we can only point out the way. In principle, whenever we read the Bible, we should receive revelation. However, because we have too many of our own views, opinions, and ideas we often cannot see any revelation when reading the Bible. The biggest hindrances to our receiving revelation when reading the Bible are our views, opinions, and concepts. We saved ones all have the Holy Spirit within us. In principle, we all should know Christ because the Holy Spirit is within us revealing Christ to us. Yet many of us do not know Christ because of the problem of our own views and ideas. These are frustrations to the Holy Spirit. Our views and opinions hinder us from knowing Christ.
Here we have to mention two passages. One is Matthew 16, which speaks of the cross of Christ, and the other is John 11, which is concerning the power of Christ’s resurrection. In both cases the Lord encountered human frustrations. For instance, one day the Lord Jesus told His disciples that He must go to Jerusalem to be crucified and suffer death. This truly was a revelation. This matter of the Lord’s crucifixion was originally hidden, but that day the Lord Jesus revealed this hidden matter to the disciples. The disciples should have understood this. Instead, the Lord encountered someone who had his own opinion. This one’s opinion was a good opinion, an opinion of love, yet it was a human opinion. We all should remember the story at the end of Matthew 16. The Lord Jesus told His disciples that He must go to Jerusalem to be crucified and suffer death. Then right after the Lord finished speaking, Peter came in and said, “God be merciful to You, Lord! This shall by no means happen to You!” (v. 22). The Lord Jesus had revealed His crucifixion to the disciples, but Peter did not understand. Was it because he did not love the Lord that he did not understand the Lord’s word? It was not that he did not love the Lord but that he loved the Lord so much that he expressed his opinion. He took the Lord aside and told the Lord that this would by no means happen to Him. This prevented Peter from seeing the revelation of the cross.
(The Path of Our Growth in Life, Chapter 5, by Witness Lee)
