Living In and With the Divine Trinity, by Witness Lee

HAVING THE RESURRECTED CHRIST LIVING IN US

To live with the Divine Trinity is to have the resurrected Christ living in us (Gal. 2:20b). The apostle Paul declared two wonderful things. In Galatians 2:20 he declared that he was crucified with Christ and that it was no longer he who lived, but Christ lived in him. In Philippians 1:21 he declared that to him to live was Christ. On the one hand, he lived Christ, and on the other hand, Christ lived in him. The Christ who lived in him was the resurrected Christ, the Christ in resurrection.

HAVING THE SPIRIT OF GOD HOUSING IN US

To live with the Divine Trinity is also to have the Spirit of God housing in us (Rom. 8:9-11). Romans 8:9 speaks of the Spirit of God dwelling in us. The word for "dwells" in this verse also means to house, to reside. The indwelling Spirit is housing in us. This means that we have the Spirit of Christ in us (v. 9), the pneumatic Christ in us (v. 10), and the resurrecting God in us (v. 11). Such a housing of the Spirit with the pneumatic Christ and the resurrecting God, gives life even to our mortal bodies (v. 11).

Romans 8:9-11 reveals the living we have with the Triune God. The Triune God is a housing factor to impart life into our entire tripartite being—into our spirit, our mind, and our body. When the Spirit of God houses in us, we have the Spirit as the firstfruit (v. 23). The firstfruit of the Spirit means that the firstfruit is the Spirit. When we live with the Divine Trinity, we have the Spirit as the firstfruit, which means that we have the Spirit as our enjoyment.

BY THE LAW OF THE SPIRIT OF LIFE

We live with the Divine Trinity by the law of the Spirit of life (Rom. 8:2). The law of the Spirit of life referred to by Paul in Romans 8 is not the law in letters but a natural principle. There are natural principles that operate in the universe. These principles are laws, such as the law of gravity. If we drop something, it will fall to the ground because of the gravitational factor. Gravity is a spontaneous power and a natural principle. It is amazing that nearly two thousand years ago the apostle Paul saw the law of the Spirit of life. He was not a scientist, yet he understood the laws in nature and in the divine realm. The law of the Spirit of life is a natural power. It is a natural force just like the law of gravity. A plane is able to overcome the law of gravity by a higher law, which we may call the law of aerodynamics. We have a higher law within us, and this law is the law of the Spirit of life.

This law is a triune person. When the Father, the Son, and the Spirit move in us, They are the law. The law of the Spirit of life within us is the moving Triune God. When the Triune God is moving within us, there is a spontaneous force, a spontaneous power, to carry out something. However, there are some obstacles within us that prevent Him from going further. Thus, He is stopped. This is why this law, the moving Triune God, needs the cross to cross out all the obstacles. The killing of the cross brings in another law to annul all the obstacles. Romans 8:13 reveals that if we cooperate with the indwelling Spirit to put all the deeds and activities of our body to death, we will have the law of the Spirit of life working within us without any obstacles. Then we will live.

This law of the Spirit of life is the spontaneous working of the Divine Trinity—the Spirit of God, the Spirit of Christ, and Christ (Rom. 8:9-10). This law frees us from the law of sin and death (v. 2b). The law of the Spirit of life is God, and the law of sin and death is the devil. The devil, Satan, is another law. We have two laws within us. In our first birth, our natural birth, Satan was brought into our being as the law of sin and death. In our second birth, our regeneration, the Triune God was brought into us as the law of the Spirit of life. The law of the Spirit of life frees us from the law of sin and death.

Furthermore, this law of the Spirit of life imparts life into our spirit, mind, and body (Rom. 8:10, 6, 11). This issues in peace (v. 6). This is not the outward peace in our circumstances but the peace within us, in our inner being. If we Christians do not have the inner peace, this is an indicator that we are wrong. This means that the law of the Spirit of life has no way to work in us. As long as we have peace in the depths of our inner being, that is a positive indicator that the law of the Spirit of life, the Triune God—the Father, the Son, and the Spirit—is working in us. We live with the Divine Trinity by the law of the Spirit of life. This is our enjoyment of the Triune God.

(Living In and With the Divine Trinity, Chapter 10, by Witness Lee)