O Christ, He is the fountain

Have you received Him? To what extent? In what way? "Of His fullness we all received, and grace upon grace" (1:16). How much have you received of His fullness? It is vaster than an ocean, but you may have received only four ounces! Paul mentions these limitless dimensions of Christ in Ephesians 3:18-19. His fullness is eternally wide. The concept of the hymnwriter is too small:

And to an ocean fulness,
His mercy doth expand.
Hymns, #206

His fullness far exceeds any global measurement. An ocean is a poor comparison! Who can measure the breadth and length and height and depth of the fullness we received? And we received grace upon grace.

If our spirit had only been made alive, that would simply have been a kind of recovery. What happens, though, is not only a recovering but a regenerating, a life-imparting, because the Holy Spirit brings Christ Himself into us. The Greek word in Ephesians 2:5 translated as quicken in the King James Version means "to give life." In every language there is a shortage, and in English this word is a problem for translators. In English we can use the noun eye as a verb, as in Hymns, #206, which says, "The Bride eyes not her garment." In Chinese the word life is both a noun and a verb. If it were possible, in English also we should use the word life as a verb. The Holy Spirit comes to "life" us. Thus, "to put life into us" is the correct meaning of the Greek word in verse 5, which has zoe—the divine, eternal life—as its root, as does the phrase life-giving Spirit in 1 Corinthians 15:45. When the Holy Spirit comes, He comes in as the Spirit of life to life us. When we are "lifed," we are not only "quickened," but we also have the Triune God within us as our life. In this way we are regenerated. We are born once more not of flesh but of the divine Spirit, that is, of God Himself. Hence, we are born of God. What is regeneration? Regeneration is to be born again of God, to have God Himself in Christ through the Spirit as the divine life, which has come into us in addition to the life which we received through our parents.

God's dealing with His redeemed people through the Trinity was for the purpose of keeping them in the enjoyment of His riches through His divine dispensing. Without the Angel of Jehovah, Jehovah had no way to go with them in their midst. For Jehovah to be with His people, there was the need of the Angel. Today without Christ, God has no way to be with us. Furthermore, the cloud and the pillar of cloud were necessary for God to come to His people and stay with them. Similarly, today the Spirit, the pneumatic Christ, enables God to come to us and stay with us so that we may enjoy His presence. The crucified Christ as the cleft rock is our standing and hiding before the manifested God. Hymns, #298 says, "On Christ, the solid Rock, I stand; / All other ground is sinking sand." Hymns, #206 says, "I stand upon His merit; / I know no other stand." Because the crucified Christ, Christ in His death, is our standing and our hiding, we can communicate with and contact God. The merciful and governmental God and the rebellious, stiff-necked people can be brought together only through the Angel, the pillar of cloud, the cleft rock, and the hand of Jehovah, which typify Christ as God's sent One, the pneumatic Christ, Christ in His death, and Christ as the covering in God's manifestation. Because of the operation of the Trinity in this way, we now enjoy God's continual presence. Moreover, He manifests Himself to us, and we see Him in a hidden way. We have a standing and a hiding, a covering. This all-inclusive care of the Divine Trinity is for the purpose of His remaining with us to dispense Himself for our enjoyment.