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Scripture Reading: John 4:24a; Gen. 1:2b; Judg. 3:10; Luke 1:35; Matt. 1:18; Acts 16:6-7; Rom. 8:9; Phil. 1:19b; Exo. 30:23-25, 26-33; 1 John 2:20, 27; 2 Cor. 1:21; Luke 4:18; John 7:38-39; Rev. 22:1, 17a; 1 Cor. 6:17; Gal. 5:16, 25; Rom. 8:4b
In this chapter we want to see that the Christian life is the living of the processed Triune God as the consummated Spirit in the believers. If we know God only in an objective way, we will not know that God is the processed Triune God as the consummated Spirit. But if we have the subjective experience of God as the Spirit, we know that today God is the processed God.
We may have the assurance that God is our Father and that the Spirit indwells us. But how can the Triune God be our Father and how can the Spirit indwell us? Today we Christians have God as our Father and the indwelling Spirit because of the processes through which the Triune God passed in order to be dispensed into us.
The Triune God — the Father, the Son, and the Spirit — passed through the processes of incarnation and human living. In order for God to be our Father and for the Spirit to be the indwelling Spirit, the Triune God needed to be incarnated and live on the earth for thirty-three and a half years. Then He had to pass through death on the cross. If He had not died for our sins on the cross, how could God be our Father and how could the Spirit come to dwell in us? There would be no possibility of this.
The Lord went further to pass through the fourth process, the process of resurrection. On the morning of His resurrection, He told one of His lovers, “Go to My brothers and say to them, I ascend to My Father and your Father, and My God and your God” (John 20:17). After Christ’s resurrection His Father became the Father of us, the believers. On the evening of the day of His resurrection, He breathed into the believers and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit” (v. 22). He dispensed Himself as the Spirit into them after being processed through incarnation, human living, death, and resurrection. Through Christ’s resurrection God is now our Father, and the Spirit is indwelling us.
Our Father is the processed Triune God, and the indwelling Spirit is the consummated Spirit. John 7:39 says that the Spirit was not yet because Jesus had not yet been glorified. Before Jesus’ glorification in His resurrection (Luke 24:26), the Spirit was not yet; that is, He was not yet consummated, not yet completed. For the Spirit of the Triune God to come into us, there was the need of a consummation. He needed to be consummated to become the life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45b), that is, the pneumatic Christ. Then this pneumatic Christ, this life-giving Spirit, could become the indwelling Spirit within us.
The Christian life is to live the processed God as the consummated Spirit. This is according to our experience. What is the difference between us and the unbelievers? The difference is that we, the believers, have Someone within us. Who is this One within us? He is the processed Triune God as the consummated Spirit. The Triune God has been processed to be the consummated Spirit to live in us, the believers in Christ.
John 4:24 says that God is Spirit. Spirit here refers to the substance of God’s being.
The Spirit of God in Genesis 1:2b refers to God in His move. Without being the Spirit, God cannot move. When God is moving, He is the Spirit. When a young man runs in a race, he becomes an athlete. The young man and the athlete are one person. When this young man does not exercise, he is just a young man. But in his running, in his move, he is an athlete. In like manner, God in His move is the Spirit.
The Spirit of Jehovah is a particular expression, a particular divine title, ascribed to God in His relationship with man (Judg. 3:10). The title Jehovah is used frequently throughout the entire Old Testament, because the Bible is a book concerning God’s relationship with His chosen people.
The Holy Spirit is God in sanctifying, separating man unto Himself (Luke 1:35; Matt. 1:18). In the Old Testament the title the Holy Spirit is not used. The title the Spirit of His holiness is used in Psalm 51:11 and Isaiah 63:10-11. The Holy Spirit as a divine title was used when Christ came to be incarnated. This indicates that Christ’s coming in His incarnation is to get people sanctified, separated unto God. After Christ’s incarnation God sanctifies us, separates us, by coming into us and by bringing us into Him to mingle us together with Him. In this way man is fully sanctified unto God to be holy.
The Spirit of Jesus is the Holy Spirit, the Spirit who separates us unto God, becoming the Spirit of the incarnated Jesus (Acts 16:6-7). The Spirit of God, the Holy Spirit, has become the Spirit of Jesus. Today people talk much about following Jesus and imitating Jesus. But without the Spirit of Jesus, how could we imitate Jesus? Without the Spirit of Jesus, we would be like lifeless robots in the Christian life. What makes us human beings is our human life and our human spirit. I have a human spirit, so I am a man. The animals do not have a spirit. The human spirit makes us particular. In the same way, because we have the Spirit of Jesus, this makes us Christians. This makes us particular people. The Spirit of Jesus is the Spirit of the man Jesus with humanity so that we may live the proper human life and endure its sufferings. By the Spirit of Jesus we share the Lord’s humanity and its suffering strength.
The Spirit of Christ is the Spirit of God becoming the Spirit of the resurrected Christ (Rom. 8:9). By the Spirit of Christ, we partake of His resurrection life, His resurrection power, His transcendency, and His reigning authority.
The Spirit of Jesus Christ is the Spirit of the processed and consummated Triune God becoming the all-inclusive Spirit of the incarnated Jesus and the resurrected Christ (Phil. 1:19b). To experience the Lord’s humanity, we need the Spirit of Jesus. To experience the power of the Lord’s resurrection, we need the Spirit of Christ. In his suffering the apostle Paul experienced both the Lord’s suffering in His humanity and the Lord’s resurrection. Hence, the Spirit to him was the Spirit of Jesus Christ, the compound, all-inclusive, life-giving Spirit of the Triune God.
The Spirit of God has been compounded. This is typified by the compound ointment in Exodus 30:23-25. This ointment is a compound of olive oil with myrrh, cinnamon, calamus, and cassia. The olive oil signifies the Spirit of God with divinity, myrrh signifies Christ’s death, cinnamon signifies the sweet effectiveness of Christ’s death, calamus signifies Christ’s resurrection, and cassia signifies the fragrant power of Christ’s resurrection. The one hin of olive oil also signifies the unique God, and the four spices of the plant life signify man, the creature of God. This, of course, refers to the humanity of Jesus, or to the man Jesus. Thus, the compound Spirit is the Spirit of God compounded with Christ’s divinity, humanity, death and its sweet effectiveness, and resurrection and its fragrant power. The one hin of olive oil compounded with four kinds of spices becomes a compound ointment for anointing.
Myrrh was used in ancient times to reduce the suffering of death. Cassia was a repellent used to repel snakes and insects. The power of Christ’s resurrection is a real repellent. When you live in His power of resurrection, the devil and all the demons will flee away. We can have this experience when we are enjoying the infilling and the outpouring of the Spirit of Christ. When we are filled with the Spirit of Christ, we have the resurrection.
It was with the compound ointment that the tabernacle and all its utensils and Aaron and all the priests were anointed (Exo. 30:26-33). Psalm 133 refers to this anointing ointment. Isaiah 61:1 says, “The Spirit of the Lord Jehovah is upon Me, / Because Jehovah has anointed Me.” In Luke 4:18 the Lord Jesus quoted this verse, showing that the anointing of Christ was by the Spirit. This can help us to realize that the anointing ointment signifies the anointing Spirit. Second Corinthians 1:21 says that God has anointed us, and 1 John 2:20 and 27 say that we all have received the divine anointing, the all-inclusive anointing, which teaches us in everything. The compound Spirit with all His ingredients (elements) becomes the anointing ointment for the anointing of all the things and persons that are of God and for God. The tabernacle with its furniture and the priests were of God and for God, so they were all anointed. Today the church with the saints has been anointed by this compound Spirit.
By all this we can see that the compound ointment in Exodus 30 is a type of the compound Spirit. God as the Spirit is typified by the one hin of olive oil, and this God has been compounded with Christ’s divinity, humanity, with His death and its sweet effectiveness, and with His resurrection and its fragrant power. Today all these elements are in the compound Spirit. When we are filled with the Spirit, we have the deep feeling that we have been crucified. Furthermore, when we are filled with the Spirit, we have the deep feeling that we are resurrected. This tells us that within the filling Spirit are Christ’s death and Christ’s resurrection.
The Spirit today is an all-inclusive drink (1 Cor. 12:13; 10:4). This can be compared to a drink composed of water, tea, lemon, honey, and salt. This drink is a “compound” drink, a compound of five elements. When we drink this all-inclusive drink, we receive the elements of water, tea, lemon, honey, and salt. Likewise, when we drink the all-inclusive Spirit, we receive all His elements into our being. This all-inclusive Spirit is God processed and consummated. He is the consummated Spirit as the consummation of the Triune God.
Ultimately the Spirit of God is simply “the Spirit” (John 7:38-39; Rev. 22:1, 17a). The Spirit is the consummated Spirit of the processed and consummated Triune God as the consummation of the Triune God. Before the glorification of Jesus, the Spirit was not yet. But after Christ’s resurrection, the Spirit of God became “the Spirit,” the Spirit of the incarnated, crucified, and resurrected Jesus Christ. In Revelation 22:17a the Spirit and the bride speak together as one person. The Spirit here is the ultimate consummation of the Triune God.
In Romans 8:4 Paul says that we need to walk according to the spirit. The spirit here refers to the mingled spirit, which is the divine Spirit and our human spirit mingled together as one spirit (1 Cor. 6:17). Thus, the consummated Spirit of the processed and consummated Triune God indwells and has been mingled with our spirit.
Revelation 22:17a speaks of the Spirit and the bride. This is the processed and consummated Triune God becoming one with the regenerated and transformed tripartite believers as the Body of Christ to be the universal couple for the expression of the Triune God in the redeemed and uplifted humanity (1 Cor. 6:17).
The Christian life is that the believers in Christ have the processed and consummated Triune God as the substance of their spiritual being for their living in their daily walk (Gal. 5:16, 25; Rom. 8:4b). The processed and consummated Triune God as the consummated Spirit is our spiritual being. We live by the Triune God, walk by the Triune God, and do everything according to the Triune God.
Thus, we can see that the Christian life is the living of the processed Triune God as the consummated Spirit in us. This consummated Spirit includes Christ’s divine and human person, Christ’s death, and Christ’s resurrection. All the elements of Christ’s person and work are compounded in this one consummated Spirit who is the consummation of the processed Triune God. He is triune; we are tripartite. He has been processed and consummated, and we have been regenerated and are being transformed. Eventually, He and we become a universal couple, and this universal couple will be the New Jerusalem for God’s corporate expression for eternity. This is our Christian life.
