Thursday

Related Verses
Gal. 3:2
2 This only I wish to learn from you, Did you receive the Spirit out of the works of law or out of the hearing of faith?

Rom. 10:17
17 So faith comes out of hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.

Gal. 3:27
27 For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ.

Gal. 4:6, 29
6 And because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, Abba, Father!
29 But just as at that time he who was born according to the flesh persecuted him who was born according to the Spirit, so also it is now.

Heb. 12:2
2 Looking away unto Jesus, the Author and Perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down on the right hand of the throne of God.

Rom. 3:22
22 Even the righteousness of God through the faith of Jesus Christ to all those who believe, for there is no distinction;

2 Cor. 4:13
13 And having the same spirit of faith according to that which is written, “I believed, therefore I spoke,” we also believe, therefore we also speak,

Related Reading
Day after day we see more of the Lord Jesus. [First], God, on His side, is revealing; [second], we, on our side, are receiving. In our receiving, we receive Christ as the Spirit out of the hearing of faith (Gal. 3:2). The Spirit whom we receive is the indwelling, life-giving, compound, sevenfold intensified Spirit. We need to receive Christ as such a Spirit. 

In Galatians 3:2 the word faith means belief, referring to what we believe in. We have received Christ out of our hearing of the belief. The Christian belief is Christ Himself in His person and His redemptive work. Christ’s person and Christ’s work together constitute our belief. (CWWL, 1991–1992, vol. 1, “The Central Line of the Divine Revelation,” p. 458) 

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When we preach the gospel, we preach this belief, that is, the person of Christ and the redemptive work of Christ…As [the listeners] are hearing of the person and work of Christ, something rises up within them, that is, a believing. By hearing, we believe. Romans 10 says that faith comes out of hearing, hearing comes out of preaching (vv. 14, 17), and preaching comes out of being sent (v. 15). Recently, I received a letter from a dear brother who had just returned from a trip to Eastern Europe to visit Czechoslovakia, Poland, and Hungary. The impression I received from this report is that there is the need for the preaching of what we believe. Those countries need our young people to go there to teach the people our belief, our faith…But where are the people who will go? The Lord said to Isaiah, “Whom shall I send? Who will go for Us?” (Isa. 6:8). Would you answer, “Lord, I am here. I will go”? You do not need to care for your living. Jesus will feed you…If you would go there and take care of just ten people, I believe that in half a year you would bring all these ten to the Lord and into the truth. 

The third way in the book of Galatians to receive, experience, and enjoy the all-inclusive Christ as the all-inclusive life-giving Spirit is by being born according to the Spirit and by being given the Spirit of God’s Son into our hearts (4:29b, 6)…This being born surely refers to our regeneration. Our regeneration was according to the Spirit; that is, it was accomplished according to the Spirit within us. 

[Fourth], we receive, experience, and enjoy the all-inclusive Christ as the all-inclusive Spirit also by putting on Christ through the baptism that puts us into Christ (3:27). To put on Christ is to be clothed with Christ. We were once naked, without any covering. To be naked is a shame. However, at the time we believed and were baptized, something was put on us to clothe us. We were clothed with Christ through baptism. Matthew 28:19 says, “Go therefore and disciple all the nations, baptizing them into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” We baptize people not only into water but also into the Triune God. In so doing, we put Christ upon them; we clothe them with Christ through baptism. 

Baptism puts us into Christ. When we go to preach the gospel, we need to have the full realization that when we baptize people, we are putting them not only into water but also into the consummated, processed Triune God. We should tell them, “From today onward you are no longer naked; you are clothed and covered with the processed, consummated Triune God.” This is the way to receive, experience, and enjoy the all-inclusive Christ as the all-inclusive life-giving Spirit, who is the aggregate of the all-embracing blessing of the full gospel of God. (CWWL, 1991–1992, vol. 1, “The Central Line of the Divine Revelation,” pp. 458-461) 

Further Reading: Life-study of Galatians, msg. 4