The Body of Christ: The Spirit of truth in the Body of Christ

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John 15:26 says "When the Advocate comes, whom I will send to you from the Father-the Spirit of truth who goes out from the Father-he will testify about me". Truth is therefore in the Spirit, as the Father and Son are realised in the truth in the Spirit. This allows a realisation of what the Father and Son are. God in the word which is engaged with in Spirit is light, and the Son is life. This light and life become real to us through the Spirit- we need the Spirit to have the light of the Father and the life of the Son. 

The Spirit of truth is therefore present in every divine thing, crucial amongst these the truth of eternal life. Because the Spirit is truth it is God, the Son and eternal life. Apart from the Spirit of truth eternal life is empty, the Spirit of truth being the truth of God, the Son, eternal life, grace and every divine matter. Because the Spirit is the truth of the divine and spiritual realities the Spirit is the Spirit of truth.

To be in the truth of the Spirit, is to have the reality of resurrection, the Spirit of truth bringing with it resurrection power. To be in the Spirit of truth brings with it experience of the Trinity and the communicable divine attributes. Without the Spirit of truth this is empty terminology, the Spirit of truth is for experience not just doctrine. This can be seen in John 16:13 which says "but when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all the truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come". In God's process the Spirit therefore receives what the Father and Son have, the indwelling Holy Spirit within man being the revelation of truth. The Father is therefore the source, the Son the expression and the Spirit the communication. The reality of God as Triune is therefore in the Spirit- all accomplishment, all obtained and attained- is now dwelling within man.

This indwelling Spirit works in the believers, guiding the believers to the reality of the Triune God and all things divine. The Spirit of truth guides to justification, holiness, love- bringing us to the truth and experience of all these things. All things spiritual must therefore be in the Holy Spirit, any experience which comes without the guidance of the Holy Spirit not being a spiritual truth. Our mind, emotion and will alone cannot have spiritual truth, only what the Holy Spirit guides us into being spiritual truth. Truths of the mind, emotion and will are therefore shadows of the Spiritual truth- existing by God's grace but not persisting in his presence. The Spirit is therefore the Divine Trinity which reaches us, the Spirit of truth which is engaged with becoming the believer’s reality, the indwelling Spirit guiding the believers to the reality of the Triune God.

Through the Spirit, the reality of the Divine Trinity is communicated into the believer. This communication of the processed Triune God means that his riches are dispensed into us. This makes the Triune God the essence of our being. Many philosophers investigate essences, and the essence of something is absolutely necessarily true of it, few have come to the truth concerning man’s true essence though. The Spirit is therefore the ground for our experience and enjoyment of the Triune God- this is higher than anything mere philosophical thought can offer.

The church is therefore dependent upon the spirit. The church is the body of Christ and the Spirit as the essence of the Triune God has become the essence of the body of Christ. The body therefore has the ability to supply the divine life, by its containing the humanity of Jesus. The Spirit of truth is therefore the foundation of the Body of Christ as it brings reality to the body in its indwelling consummation of the Triune God in man. 

The Spirit of Truth makes the processed Triune God a reality in the Body of Christ. This entails that the body of Christ is deified- bringing with it love, light, holiness, and righteousness. This is deification and was very prominent in the early Church, Church Father Athanasius claiming that God become man that man might become God (in life and nature but not in the Godhead). It is the Spirit of truth joined with our human spirit that allows for this deification of the Body of Christ, turning to our spirit, setting our mind on the spirit and walking according to the spirit, resulting in individuals and the corporate body being deified. This is a high truth of the Bible and will give us new experience and growth in life when realised and applied.

 As the Spirit is the essence and substance of the Body, the church as the Body of Christ must be essentially and substantially the Spirit. If there is no Spirit in church meetings one cannot have the reality of the body life, it is just a human meeting, the church reduced to a social organization. Christian's often degrade the church by making it a part of the world by linking the church to the state or certain political movements or ideologies. This is not the reality of the Body of Christ and has led to rightful objection from atheists of Christians interfering with worldly affairs. The church as the Body of Christ must be in the world but not of it- such a practice will give us a greater experience and love of God and avoid the corruption that comes from the world.
Jesus must be the pattern for the Christian's life. According to the Gospels, Christ's life is the shining light, which is the expression of God. Christ walked in the shining of the divine light and in the expression of God. The Body of Christ must have such a reality of expression of God and light if we are to be in the New Man. Colossians 3:11 says "here there is no Gentile or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave or free, but Christ is all, and is in all". informing us that in the new man there is no natural person. However, the new man begins with the new birth in our spirit "Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit"-John 3:6. We need to see the development from our new birth to the one new man where Christ is all and in all.  Our living should not be according to the law, taking of responsibility, or according to society, but according to the reality in Jesus. If we would live in such a way, we should not reason according to right or wrong, instead, we should consider the various aspects of our daily life according to the reality as it is in Jesus. Such a life is the aligning of the human will with the divine will, acting only by turning to the Lord and being wholly reliant on him. This will lead to a wonderful community in the church, and this is the corporate life of the new man.











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