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Scripture Reading: 1 John 5:6; 6, Rom. 8:11b, 10; 11, 2 Cor. 4:16; Col. 2:12; Eph. 2:6a; Phil. 3:10; 2 Cor. 4:10; 12:9; 13:14; 1 Cor. 15:10, 45b, 58
In this chapter we have come to one of the most mysterious matters in the Bible — the resurrection of Christ. First, God Himself is resurrection. This was why the Lord Jesus, when He was about to resurrect the dead Lazarus, told Martha that He is the resurrection (John 11:25). He is not only life but also resurrection. In the entire universe, apart from God, apart from Christ, there is no resurrection. God is resurrection. God is a mystery, and this mystery is resurrection. Then this mystery eventually became the consummated Spirit.
For many years I did not have much understanding of what resurrection is. I received much teaching concerning Christ’s death, but I did not have a full realization of Christ’s resurrection. But today I can tell you that resurrection is a threefold mystery. God, resurrection, and the Spirit are the constituents of this threefold mystery. Resurrection originates with God and is consummated in the all-inclusive, life-giving, compound Spirit.
The consummated Spirit is the reality of the resurrection of Christ. The resurrection of Christ can be realized and experienced only in the Spirit. Without the Spirit, we cannot know the resurrection. Resurrection is a person. Resurrection is God. God passed through the processes of incarnation, human living, crucifixion, and resurrection to become the life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45b). The Spirit is the consummation of God as the resurrection.
Today if the Spirit were taken away from us, we would no longer be Christians (Rom. 8:9b). Furthermore, if the Spirit were taken away from the Bible, the Bible would become a book just of dead letters. It would become merely a storybook with no reality. The reality of the Bible is the Spirit as the consummation of resurrection, and resurrection is the embodiment of the processed God.
In our Christian experience, we experience the Spirit daily, but due to the lack of adequate teaching among today’s Christians, we do not realize that our experience of the Spirit is our experience of the resurrection of Christ. Today there are a number of people who talk about how to be filled with the Spirit. But if we do not realize that the Spirit is the resurrection, we cannot have the adequate experience of the Spirit. As long as we experience resurrection, that is the real experience of the Spirit, both essentially and economically.
Christ breathed the Spirit into the disciples (John 20:22), and He poured out the Spirit upon the disciples fifty days later (Acts 2:1-4). This was after His resurrection. Before His resurrection there was no possibility of having the essential Spirit entering into our being and no possibility of having the economical Spirit poured out upon us. Both of these matters took place based upon the fact that resurrection was consummated. It was the resurrection of Christ that made the Spirit available and applicable. His entering into us as the essential Spirit is for life, and His being poured out upon us as the economical Spirit is for power; these two aspects of the Spirit are the parts of the reality of the resurrection of Christ.
Acts is a book of the testimony of the resurrection of Christ. Acts mentions clearly that the disciples were witnesses (1:8), witnessing of the resurrection of Christ. Today, Christians preaching the gospel stress the death of Christ. But the early apostles, like Peter and Paul, stressed the resurrection of Christ in their preaching of the gospel. Of course, they also spoke of the death of Christ, but this death is not the consummation. The consummation is resurrection.
Resurrection is the Spirit, and the Spirit is the processed and consummated Triune God. God, Christ, and Christ’s death and resurrection have been compounded into this one compound Spirit, who is the very reality of Christ’s resurrection.
Resurrection is a person, because Christ said that He is the resurrection. Life and light are also a person. Christ said that He is the life (John 14:6) and the light (8:12). Love is also a person. The Bible says that God is love (1 John 4:8, 16). But no verse says that Christ is death. We can say Christ’s death, using the possessive case, because death is not the consummation. The consummation is resurrection. The processes through which the Triune God passed consummated in resurrection. Thus, resurrection is the very consummated God.
We must have a clear view of the resurrection. God is the resurrection, the resurrection is the compound Spirit, and the compound Spirit is the consummated God. This view of the resurrection is according to the divine revelation of the Holy Bible.
The Christian life is a life in Christ’s resurrection. To know the Spirit, we have to know resurrection. Resurrection is the Triune God consummated to be the life-giving Spirit. We are not able to understand such a deep and high mystery, the mystery of resurrection, but we can experience resurrection. We do not even understand our human life, but we can experience this life daily. When we eat food, we take in many nourishing elements and vitamins that we do not understand, yet we can enjoy them. We do not know what human life is, but we can surely enjoy this life.
Who can fully understand the Triune God? We cannot understand the Triune God, but He is available for us to experience and enjoy. Nearly every morning my first prayer is somewhat like this: “Thank You, Lord, for the peace. Thank You for the safety. Thank You for Your presence. Thank You for Your cleansing. Thank You for Your forgiveness. Thank You for Your preserving of my health.” This is a simple prayer, but through this simple prayer, I enjoy the Triune God and I am filled with the Spirit. I have been enjoying the Triune God for close to seventy years. I cannot deny that there is a God, because day by day I enjoy Him as resurrection.
The God whom we contact is resurrection. When we contact God, resurrection functions in us, and everything is under our feet. When resurrection functions in us, we are full of joy, full of peace, full of rest, full of praising, and full of rejoicing. When we are experiencing the Spirit as resurrection, all the negative things are on the cross, in the tomb, and under our feet.
Human life is full of troubles, worries, and all kinds of sorrows. We can rid our being of these things only by our God who is resurrection, which is the Spirit. The Spirit kills, and the Spirit also resurrects. This is because Christ’s killing death and His uplifting resurrection are compounded in the compound Spirit, whom we are enjoying. As we enjoy the compound Spirit, we are experiencing the inner killing and the inner resurrecting. As long as we have this killing plus the resurrecting, we have God. Killing plus resurrecting is God. God moves in us, works in us, functions in us. He gives us Himself as patience, peace, and power to endure sufferings. He gives us Himself as everything we need to live the Christian life.
God is mysterious, resurrection is mysterious, and the compound Spirit is also mysterious. The Bible has much to say about these three items, but they are mysterious to the uttermost. Even though they are so mysterious, they are real in our daily experience in the Christian life.
We need to experience the Spirit’s application of Christ’s resurrection and its power all the time. The full-time trainees need to enter into this experience in their limited environment. Five sisters may live in one apartment unit. In this apartment each of them has to do everything carefully. Otherwise, they can offend one another. This apartment is like a small “tomb” to them. To be in the full-time training is a suffering, but in this suffering there is joy and peace. If we try to escape from the environment that God has arranged for us, we will not have joy and peace. When we stay in this limited environment, we can experience resurrection.
In order to experience resurrection, we also need to be limited in our speaking. The more we gossip, the more resurrection is gone. The more we gossip, the more there is no Spirit in our experience. To experience the Spirit as the reality of resurrection, we need to turn to our spirit to pray, praise, sing, or talk to God. The title of Psalm 18 indicates that this psalm was David’s conversation with God, his talk to God. We need to talk to God and consult with Him. After ten minutes of talking to God, we will be on fire and full of the Spirit as the reality of resurrection.
The Spirit is the reality of Christ’s resurrection and its power, with which the Spirit has been compounded (1 John 5:6).
The Spirit compounded with Christ’s resurrection and its power indwells our spirit (Rom. 8:11) to dispense Christ’s resurrection and its power, not only to our spirit and soul (vv. 6b, 10; 2 Cor. 4:16) but also to our mortal body (Rom. 8:11; 2 Cor. 4:11).
We should cooperate with the resurrecting Spirit to recognize that we have been resurrected with Christ (Col. 2:12; Eph. 2:6a) and to pursue the power of the resurrection of Christ (Phil. 3:10a). Paul said that he wanted to know Christ and the power of His resurrection. This power will conform us to Christ’s death (v. 10b; 2 Cor. 4:10, 16).
The more we die, the more Spirit we have. The more we die, the more we are in resurrection. The more we die, the more the divine attributes, such as peace, joy, light, life, and love, will be with us to be the content of our human virtues. This is the Christian life, and this is the great mystery of godliness (1 Tim. 3:16). Godliness is the living out of the Triune God, the very manifestation of the Divine Being in our flesh.
We need to be people who are occupied with the Triune God, with the consummated Spirit, and with the resurrection. We need to be “crazy” Christians who are filled with the Spirit inwardly and outwardly. We should be fully in resurrection. What is resurrection? Resurrection is the processed, consummated Triune God as the compound Spirit.
Christ’s resurrection with its power in the life-giving Spirit is the sufficient grace of the processed and consummated Triune God (2 Cor. 12:9; 13:14; 1 Cor. 15:10, 45b, 58). We may also say that the Spirit as the realization of Christ’s resurrection and its power is the sufficient grace. The sufficient grace is the compound Spirit as the reality of resurrection.
First Corinthians 15 proves this. This is a long chapter of fifty-eight verses on Christ’s resurrection. In this chapter Paul presents a rebuttal to those who say there is no resurrection (vv. 12-19). In verse 10a Paul also says, “But by the grace of God I am what I am.” Grace here is the resurrected Christ as the life-giving Spirit. Paul goes on to say, “I labored more abundantly than all of them, yet not I but the grace of God which is with me” (v. 10b). Paul labored more abundantly than all the apostles by the grace which operated in him. The grace of God with him was the consummated Spirit, the consummation of the Triune God.
In verse 58 Paul says, “Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your labor is not in vain in the Lord.” We should not be dismayed or disappointed. Instead, we should labor. We need to labor, not by our self, not by our power, not by our strength, and not by our capacity but by the compound, all-inclusive Spirit who is the reality of the divine resurrection, which is the Triune God Himself. Then our labor will never be in vain. This is the walk and the work of the Christian life. Actually, our work is our walking, our living.
Some people wonder when I will retire. I will retire only when I go to be with the Lord. This is because I have something within me making me “crazy.” The Triune God, the resurrection, and the compound Spirit are my enjoyment. This is the experience of the grace of Christ, the love of God, and the fellowship of the Spirit being with us (2 Cor. 13:14). The consummated God, the resurrection, and the all-inclusive, consummated Spirit are our portion in the divine fellowship.
