V. TO WALK BY THE SPIRIT AND
ACCORDING TO THE SPIRIT IS TO BE
A PERSON IN CHRIST’S RESURRECTION
To walk by the Spirit (Gal. 5:16, 25) and to walk according to the spirit (Rom. 8:4) is to be a person in Christ’s resurrection. Everything we do should not be in our natural life but in resurrection.
VI. TO LIVE BY THE SPIRIT IS THAT NOT I
AS THE NATURAL MAN LIVE BUT
THAT CHRIST IN HIS RESURRECTION LIVES
Galatians 2:20 says, "I am crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me." This verse shows that to live by the Spirit means that not I as the natural man live but that Christ in His resurrection lives. "No longer I" means that I died. "But it is Christ" means that now Christ as the resurrection lives in me.
VII. THIS KIND OF LIVING OF OURS
IN CHRIST’S RESURRECTION IS ALTOGETHER
THE MOVE OF GOD IN MAN, SO IT BECOMES
THE HISTORY OF GOD IN OUR DAILY LIFE
Philippians 2:13 says that God operates in us. God is operating all the time in us in the way of resurrection. It is only when we live in resurrection that God operates. If we do not live in resurrection the operation of God in us is quenched. When we live, not in the natural life or in the fallen flesh, but in the resurrection of Christ, God operates in us.
VIII. THIS MEANS THAT GOD LIVES IN OUR LIVING
THAT WE MAY BECOME HIM IN ALL HIS ATTRIBUTES
AS OUR VIRTUES FOR HIS MANIFESTATION
If we do things in resurrection in a good order, many virtues will be exhibited, and those virtues are the expression of the divine attributes. Thus, what we do will be a manifestation of God in the flesh. First Timothy 3:15-16 says God is manifested in man’s flesh. This does not mean merely that God was manifested for a while in His incarnation. This means that all the time in the church life, God is manifested in the flesh. Even though we are in the flesh, we do not live by the flesh. We live in and by resurrection, so God lives in our living that we may become Him in all His attributes as our virtues for His manifestation.
When the Lord Jesus was on this earth, He acted in the attributes of God to have His virtues expressed. That expression of His virtues was the manifestation of God in the flesh. Outwardly, people saw Him as Jesus from Nazareth, but He was God manifested in the flesh. We saw that after the feeding of the five thousand, there were many leftovers. If they would have been left there as a mess, this would have been a poor testimony. But after all the leftovers were picked up, everything was clean and in order. That was the virtue of the One who is resurrection. When the Lord left the things in the tomb in good order, this was also a testimony of His resurrection.
When we exercise our spirit to do things in good order, this is a display of our Christian virtues. These Christian virtues are expressions of the divine attributes and are the manifestation of God in the flesh. This is God’s move, God’s living in man, so this living becomes God’s history.
(The Move of God in Man, Chapter 7, by Witness Lee)
