THE SECOND PART: A BIRD’S-EYE VIEW OF THE NEW TESTAMENT
The Full Ministry of Christ in the Stage of Inclusion
Message Two—Becoming the Life-giving Spirit
Scripture Reading: John 20:22; 1 Cor. 15:45b; 2 Cor. 3:17; Gal. 3:2, 5
I. We need to see that, in the stage of inclusion, the resurrected Christ is the pneumatic Christ—Christ as the all-inclusive, compound, life-giving Spirit—1 Cor. 15:45b; 2 Cor. 3:17; 1 John 2:27:
A. The Gospels end with a record regarding the resurrected Christ who has become the all-inclusive, compound, life-giving Spirit—John 20:19-22.
B. In resurrection Christ became the pneumatic Christ, the Christ who is the all-inclusive, compound, life-giving Spirit—1 Cor. 15:45b:
1. Because Christ is now the pneumatic Christ, the Spirit, He can dwell in us, and we can receive the dispensing of the processed and consummated Triune God—the Father embodied in the Son and the Son realized as the Spirit—John 14:7-20.
2. If we experience and enjoy Christ as the pneumatic Christ, the all-inclusive Spirit, we will be able to experience and enjoy the all-inclusive Christ revealed in the Gospel of John—1:4, 14, 29, 51; 3:14, 29; 10:11; 11:25; 14:6.
C. The pneumatic Christ as the life-giving Spirit is the all-inclusive, compound Spirit typified by the compound anointing ointment in Exodus 30:23-25—1 John 2:27:
1. The actual compounding of the Spirit took place in Christ’s resurrection when Christ as the last Adam became the life-giving Spirit—1 Cor. 15:45b.
2. This second becoming of Christ is complicated because it includes divinity, humanity, Christ’s death, and Christ’s resurrection—cf. John 1:14.
3. Because complications are involved in Christ’s second becoming—His becoming the life-giving Spirit—we may use the word inclusion in speaking of the second stage of the full ministry of Christ.
II. We need to experience the resurrected Christ as the pneumatic Christ—Christ as the all-inclusive, compound, life-giving Spirit—7:39; 14:17; 20:22; Acts 16:7; Rom. 8:9-10; Phil. 1:19; Gal. 3:2, 5, 14:
A. We may experience the all-inclusive, compound, life-giving Spirit as the divine and mystical realm for us to enter—John 14:10-11, 16-20:
1. The divine and mystical realm into which we may enter is actually not simply the divine and mystical realm of the Triune God but the divine and mystical realm of the consummated Spirit and the pneumatic Christ—7:39.
2. When we enter into the realm of the consummated Spirit and the pneu-matic Christ, we have divinity, the humanity of Christ, the death of Christ with its effectiveness, and the resurrection of Christ with its repelling power; everything is here in this realm—20:22; 1 John 2:27.
B. We may experience the all-inclusive, compound, life-giving Spirit as the reality of the Triune God, the reality of resurrection, and the reality of the Body of Christ—John 14:17:
1. The reality of the processed and consummated Triune God is the Spirit of reality—v. 17; 15:26; 16:13; 1 John 5:6.
2. The reality of resurrection is Christ as the life-giving Spirit—John 11:25; 20:22; 1 Cor. 15:45b.
3. The Spirit of reality makes everything of the processed and consummated Triune God as reality in and for the Body of Christ; without the Spirit there is no Body of Christ, no church—John 16:13-15; Eph. 4:4.
C. We may experience the all-inclusive, compound, life-giving Spirit as the unique blessing of the new covenant—Gal. 3:14:
1. We have received the greatest blessing, which is the Triune God—the Father, the Son, and the Spirit—as the processed, all-inclusive, life-giving Spirit dwelling in us in a most subjective way for our enjoyment.
2. Since the all-inclusive Christ, who is typified by the good land promised to Abraham, is realized as the all-inclusive life-giving Spirit, the Spirit as the realization of Christ in our experience is the good land as the source of God’s bountiful supply for us to enjoy—Gen. 12:7; 13:15; 17:8; 26:3-4; Col. 1:12; 2 Cor. 3:17; Gal. 3:14.
Ministry Excerpts:
TO BECOME THE LIFE-GIVING SPIRIT
The second great thing accomplished by Christ in the stage of His inclusion was that He became the life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45b). In His resurrection, not only was He begotten to be the firstborn Son of God, but also as the last Adam in the flesh He became the life-giving Spirit. Christ’s being the last Adam means that after Him there is no more Adam. In Christ, Adam was ended. In resurrection Christ as the last Adam in the flesh became the life-giving Spirit.
The Last Adam (Christ in the Flesh) Becoming a Life-giving Spirit
First Corinthians 15:45b says, “The last Adam (Christ in the flesh) became a life-giving Spirit.” First, in His incarnation, Christ became flesh for accomplishing redemption. Then in His resurrection, Christ, the last Adam, became the life-giving Spirit for dispensing life.
This Life-giving Spirit “Was Not Yet” before the Resurrection of Christ— the Glorification of Christ
John 7:39 says, “…for the Spirit was not yet, because Jesus had not yet been glorified.” In my youth, when I read this portion of the Word, I wondered why “the Spirit was not yet.” Had not the Spirit of God already been there for a long time? Does not Genesis 1:2 say that the Spirit of God was moving upon the face of the waters? Then in the Old Testament, in God’s relationship with man, the Spirit of Jehovah is mentioned (Judg. 6:34; Isa. 61:1). At the beginning of the New Testament, in the conception of the Lord Jesus, the Holy Spirit came (Matt. 1:18, 20). The Holy Spirit in Greek is also “the Spirit, the holy.” The word holy here indicates that the Spirit can make the common people holy. Therefore, Mary, a common virgin, brought forth a son named Jesus who was called the holy thing (Luke 1:35). Thus, according to the holy Scriptures and the facts, had not the Holy Spirit been there? Why is it that John 7 says that the Spirit was not yet because Jesus had not yet been glorified, that is, had not yet been resurrected?
After many years of study, I became clear that indeed Jesus was glorified when He was resurrected (Luke 24:26). Before He was resurrected, that is, before He was glorified, the Spirit of God was not the life-giving Spirit. Before the resurrection of Christ, the Spirit of God could move upon the face of the waters, could contact people, and could sanctify people, but He could not impart life into people, because He was not yet the life-giving Spirit. The title the Spirit of life was not mentioned until Romans 8:2. Therefore, prior to the resurrection of Christ, the Spirit was not yet means that there was not yet the life-giving Spirit.
Christ Being Transfigured into the Life-giving Spirit in His Resurrection
Christ, the Son of God as the second of the Divine Trinity, after completing His ministry on the earth, became (was transfigured into) the life-giving Spirit in His resurrection. In the previous stage Christ was a man in the flesh, but after He had entered into resurrection, He was transfigured into a life-giving Spirit.
This life-giving Spirit is signified by the water that flowed out of the pierced side of Jesus on the cross (John 19:34). The four Gospels all give a record of the death of the Lord Jesus, but only John tells us that blood and water flowed out from His pierced side. The blood signifies redemption, and the water signifies life-imparting. Christ as the life-giving Spirit is signified by the water.
Furthermore, through His death on the cross, Christ released the divine life that was confined in the shell of His humanity and dispensed it into His believers to make them the many members which constitute His Body (John 12:24). When Christ was in His flesh, His divine life was held and confined in the shell of His flesh. This can be illustrated by a grain of wheat. Unless the grain of wheat is sown into the ground and dies, the life within the grain is confined within its shell. But when the grain is sown into the ground and dies, the shell of the grain is broken and the life within is released.
This Life-giving Spirit Being the Pneumatic Christ
This life-giving Spirit, who is the pneumatic Christ, is also called the Spirit of life (Rom. 8:2), the Spirit of Jesus (Acts 16:7), the Spirit of Christ (Rom. 8:9), the Spirit of Jesus Christ (Phil. 1:19), and the Lord Spirit (2 Cor. 3:18).
Here, we are speaking about “the pneumatic Christ,” not “the spiritual Christ.” “The pneumatic Christ” means that Christ is the Spirit. When I first came to the United States, I began to speak concerning Christ as the Spirit. That stirred up a strong opposition from some in Christianity, and they called me a preacher of heresy. However, up to this day I am still speaking about this, and the more I speak, the more I have to speak. Consequently, they can no longer say that I am preaching heresy, because this is an important truth in the Bible which no one can refute.
Today the truth concerning the pneumatic Christ has spread to many countries in the world, the most evident of which is Russia. The brothers from Russia told me that on the previous Lord’s Day they had a joint Lord’s table in Moscow with an attendance of over seven hundred people. In that gathering it was purposely arranged not to let the American brothers or the Chinese brothers do anything or say anything. From the beginning to the end the Russian saints served in the entire meeting in every great or small thing. Within a few years after the Lord’s recovery spread to Russia in 1991, the Russian saints have grown in life and truth. A brother, after seeing their meeting, said, “They are exactly like all the people in the Lord’s recovery.” This is truly the Lord’s doing.
This pneumatic Christ, who is the Spirit of life, the Spirit of Jesus, the Spirit of Christ, the Spirit of Jesus Christ, and the Lord Spirit, supplies our needs in every way that we may gradually grow in His life and nature unto maturity. (How to Be a Co-worker and an Elder and How to Fulfill Their Obligations, msg. 2)
THE SPIRIT HAS BECOME THE CONSUMMATED SPIRIT,
CHRIST HAS BECOME THE PNEUMATIC CHRIST
The Bible unveils the fact that the Spirit has become the consummated Spirit. Because many Christians have not seen the revelation in the Bible concerning the consummated Spirit, they need to be reeducated. Some may say, “God is the same from eternity; He has never had any change.” However, the Bible clearly reveals that God, who is Spirit, became flesh (John 1:14). Was that not a change? Furthermore, the last Adam in the flesh became the life-giving Spirit. Was that not also a change? First, God changed in that, through incarnation, He became flesh, and then He changed again in that, in resurrection, He became the life-giving Spirit, and this Spirit is the consummated Spirit. I hope that those who are under the influence of old, traditional theology will be willing to learn what the Bible, our highest authority, reveals concerning the consummated Spirit.
The Bible reveals also that Christ has become the pneumatic Christ. In eternity Christ was God as the Spirit, but then He became flesh. Romans 1:3 and 4 say that He “came out of the seed of David according to the flesh” but that He “was designated the Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness out of the resurrection of the dead.” The title the Spirit of holiness refers to Christ’s divinity, His divine essence. First Peter 3:18, speaking of Christ’s crucifixion, says that He was, on the one hand, “put to death in the flesh, but on the other, made alive in the Spirit.” The crucifixion put Christ to death only in His flesh, not in His Spirit as His divinity. His Spirit as His divinity did not die at the cross when His flesh died; rather, His Spirit as His divinity was made alive, enlivened with new power of life. Thus, while He was dying in His humanity and even after He was buried, His Spirit as His divinity remained active.
His Spirit as His divinity was working to resurrect His humanity, to uplift it, and to bring it into divinity so that His humanity could be born of God. According to Acts 13:33 it was in resurrection that God begot Jesus to be the Son of God. He was therefore begotten to be the firstborn Son of God by having His humanity uplifted into divinity and even brought into the divine sonship. Simultaneously, He became the life-giving Spirit and thereby became the pneumatic Christ.
We have seen that the Spirit has been consummated and that Christ has become the life-giving Spirit, the pneumatic Christ. Thus, we may now speak of the divine and mystical realm of this consummated Spirit and of this pneumatic Christ. What a marvelous realm this is!
We have pointed out that the three of the Divine Trinity are self-existing, ever-existing, and coinhering, and as such the Father, the Son, and the Spirit are a divine and mystical realm. With the Triune God Himself as a mystical realm there are no “complications,” but in the divine and mystical realm of the consummated Spirit and the pneumatic Christ there are a number of “complications,” all of which are blessings to us.
God wanted us to be in Him. If He were merely the Triune God without Christ’s humanity, death, and resurrection, and we could enter into Him, we would find the Father, the Son, and the Spirit, but nothing of humanity, death, and resurrection. However, when we enter into the divine and mystical realm of the consummated Spirit and the pneumatic Christ, we have not only divinity but also the humanity of Christ, the death of Christ with its effectiveness, and the resurrection of Christ with its repelling power. Everything is here in this wonderful realm.
THE DIVINE AND MYSTICAL REALM OF THE CONSUMMATED SPIRIT AND THE PNEUMATIC CHRIST
At this juncture, let us consider what is revealed in John 14 concerning the divine and mystical realm of the consummated Spirit and the pneumatic Christ. Verse 1 says, “Do not let your heart be troubled.” In what realm are we troubled? We are troubled on earth, in the world (16:33), in the physical realm.
In this verse (14:1) the Lord Jesus went on to say, “Believe into God, believe also into Me.” Here the preposition into is very important. We should believe not only in God and in Christ, but we should believe into God and into Christ. Our heart is troubled because we are in the world, and the way for this trouble to be solved is for us to enter into Christ by believing into Him. Here we can see two realms: the physical realm—the world where all the troubles are—and the mystical realm of the Triune God, the Father, the Son, and the Spirit, where peace is.
In 16:33 the Lord Jesus said, “These things I have spoken to you that in Me you may have peace. In the world you have affliction, but take courage; I have overcome the world.” Here again we see both the physical realm (“the world”) and the mystical realm (“Me”).
Chapters fourteen, fifteen, and sixteen of John are a section. At the beginning of this section the Lord Jesus indicated, in 14:1, that He intended to speak something to help us to believe into Him. We should not think that believing into Christ is a simple matter. If He had not died on the cross to take away our sins, to crucify our flesh, and to terminate our old man, and if He had not resurrected to become the life-giving Spirit, there would be no way for Him to come into us and to bring us into Him.
If we had been there when the Lord Jesus spoke about believing into God and into Him, we might have said, “Lord, I want to enter into You. Tell me how to believe into You.” As the following verses reveal, for us to enter into Him He had to die and be resurrected to become the life-giving Spirit, that we may receive Him by believing into Him and calling, “O Lord Jesus.”
John 14:2 tells us that in the Father’s house are “many abodes.” These abodes are the believers, the members of the Body of Christ. Every believer is an abode, as affirmed in verse 23.
In the latter part of verse 2 the Lord Jesus said, “I go to prepare a place for you.” The words I go mean “I die.” By saying “I go” He was speaking about His death in a mystical way.
In John 14:3 the Lord Jesus continued, “And if I go and prepare a place for you, I am coming again and will receive you to Myself, so that where I am you also may be.” Here He spoke of both His going and His coming. “I am coming” is a present continual, indicating that when the Lord Jesus spoke these words He was already coming. While He was speaking, He was preparing to enter into resurrection. “I go” is to die and “I am coming” is to be resurrected. Before He died He knew that He would come back. Here His going and His coming, His death and resurrection, are referred to in a mystical way.
In this verse the Lord Jesus said, “I…will receive you to Myself.” If we had been there, we might have said, “Lord, will You not receive me into the Father’s house? Why do You say that You will receive me to Yourself?” The answer to such a question is that the Father’s house is just Christ Himself.
The Lord Jesus went on to say, “And where I am going you know the way” (v. 4). Then Thomas said, “Lord, we do not know where You are going; how can we know the way?” (v. 5). According to verse 6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way and the reality and the life; no one comes to the Father except through Me.” Here the Lord did not say, “No one comes to the Father’s house”; He said, “No one comes to the Father.” To come to the Father is to come to the Father’s house, for the Father is the house. The phrase except through Me reveals that we can come to the Father as the house only through Christ as the way.
In the next verse the Lord Jesus said, “If you had known Me, you would have known My Father also; and henceforth you know Him and have seen Him.” When Philip heard this he said, “Lord, show us the Father and it is sufficient for us” (v. 8). Verses 9 and 10 continue, “Jesus said to him, Have I been so long a time with you, and you have not known Me, Philip? He who has seen Me has seen the Father; how is it that you say, Show us the Father? Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in Me? The words that I say to you I do not speak from Myself, but the Father who abides in Me does His works.” Here we see that the Son’s speaking was actually the Father’s speaking, the Father’s working by abiding in Him. This is altogether mystical.
We have emphasized the fact that the Triune God is a divine and mystical realm. As revealed in the first part of John 14, the Son is in the Father, and the Father is in the Son. In verses 16 through 18 we have a word not only concerning the Father and the Son but also concerning the Spirit: “I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Comforter, that He may be with you forever, even the Spirit of reality, whom the world cannot receive, because it does not behold Him or know Him; but you know Him, because He abides with you and shall be in you. I will not leave you as orphans; I am coming to you.” The first Comforter was Christ in the flesh, and the other Comforter is the Spirit of reality. The “He” who is the Spirit of reality in verse 17 becomes the “I” who is the Lord Himself in verse 18. This means that the Christ who was in the flesh went through death and resurrection to become the life-giving Spirit, the pneumatic Christ. This is not merely spiritual—it is mystical. We cannot say that the Spirit of reality is spiritual and the Christ who was in the flesh was not spiritual, for when He was in the flesh Christ the Son was surely spiritual. What we need to see here is not something that is spiritual only but something mystical. Praise the Lord that, as believers in Christ, we are now in the divine, mystical realm of the consummated Spirit and the pneumatic Christ! (The Divine and Mystical Realm, msg. 3)