THE LIBERATING SPIRIT
Second Corinthians 3:17 says, "And the Lord is the Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom." The freedom mentioned here is the freedom, the liberty, from the letter of the law under the veil (Gal. 2:4; 5:1). The Spirit liberates us from the written code, the written regulations. The Judaizers knew the teachings and doctrines of the Old Testament, but these became layers of veils to them. They knew a lot, but they did not see anything.
We need an unveiled face to see the glorious Christ. What we need today is not more knowing but more seeing. We need to be liberated from the bondage of the deadening, blinding written code. Some of us have been overloaded with biblical knowledge. We need to be unloaded and emptied so that we can freshly receive Christ Himself in the newness of His living presence. When we have an unveiled face, we are liberated from religion, old doctrines, and traditions to behold and reflect the living Christ.
THE TRANSFORMING SPIRIT
As we behold Christ face to face, we mirror Him, and we are being transformed into His image from one degree of glory to another degree. This is altogether from the Lord Spirit (2 Cor. 3:18). Thus, we have the liberation and the transformation.
First Corinthians tells us that Christ became a life-giving Spirit, but it does not tell us how He gives life. The details are in 2 Corinthians. The life-giving is the anointing, the sealing, the pledging, the writing, the ministering of Christ, the liberating from the bondage of religion and legal doctrines, and the transforming into the Lord’s image. Transformation is not an outward change but an inward, metabolic change by the discharge of our old element and the infusion of the Lord’s new element.
THE TRANSMITTING SPIRIT
Second Corinthians concludes with Paul saying, "The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all" (13:14). This is not a benediction but a transmission. Love is the source, the fountain; grace is the course, the spring; and the fellowship is the river, the flow, to transmit all that Christ is with all the fullness of God into us. God is love, and this love is being transmitted as grace to us by the Spirit who is the Transmitter. All that God is as love is in Christ. Love is embodied in grace. Love is something in the heart, but grace is the expression of love. Grace comes out of love, and this grace is being transmitted into us by the Spirit. Love, grace, and fellowship are not three separate entities, but one thing in three stages. God is in Christ, and Christ is the Spirit. Christ is God’s embodiment, and the Spirit is Christ’s reality. The Spirit is the transmission of Christ, who is the embodiment of God. Second Corinthians concludes with the transmitting, communicating, and flowing Spirit.
May the Lord have mercy upon us. We need the experience of the Spirit which Paul spoke of in 2 Corinthians. We need the anointing Spirit, the sealing Spirit, the pledging Spirit, the writing Spirit, the life-giving Spirit, the ministering Spirit, the liberating Spirit, the transforming Spirit, and the transmitting, flowing Spirit.
(The Experience of Christ as Life for the Building Up of the Church, Chapter 9, by Witness Lee)
