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: (2008 ITERO-F, msg. 4)
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. (2008 ITERO-F, msg. 4)
B. In resurrection Christ became the pneumatic Christ, the Christ who is the all-inclusive, compound, life-giving Spirit—1 Cor. 15:45b: (2008 ITERO-F, msg. 4)
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. (2008 ITERO-F, msg. 4)
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. (2008 ITERO-F, msg. 4)
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: (2008 ITERO-F, msg. 4)
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. (2008 ITERO-F, msg. 4)
2. This second becoming of Christ is complicated because it includes divinity, humanity, Christ’s death, and Christ’s resurrection—cf. John 1:14. (2008 ITERO-F, msg. 4)
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. (2008 ITERO-F, msg. 4)
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: (2008 ITERO-F, msg. 4)
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: (2008 ITERO-F, msg. 4)
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. (2008 ITERO-F, msg. 4)
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. (2008 ITERO-F, msg. 4)
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: (2008 ITERO-F, msg. 4)
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. (2008 ITERO-F, msg. 4)
2. The reality of resurrection is Christ as the life-giving Spirit—John 11:25; 20:22; 1 Cor. 15:45b. (2008 ITERO-F, msg. 4)
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. (2008 ITERO-F, msg. 4)
C. We may experience the all-inclusive, compound, life-giving Spirit as the unique blessing of the new covenant—Gal. 3:14: (2008 ITERO-F, msg. 4)
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. (2008 ITERO-F, msg. 4)
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. (2008 ITERO-F, msg. 4)