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In these messages on the Spirit we shall cover the Spirit’s person, symbols, attributes, coming, and work. We shall begin by considering the various aspects of the person of the Spirit.
The divine title “the Holy Spirit” is a new revelation in the New Testament. This title is not used in the Old Testament. (In Psa. 51:11 and Isa. 63:10-11 “the Holy Spirit” should be translated “the Spirit of holiness.”) This divine title is first used when God came in to prepare a forerunner of the Lord Jesus (Luke 1:15) and a human body for Christ (Luke 1:35). This indicates that the Holy Spirit is related to the incarnation of God.
Spirit denotes the nature of God, the nature of God’s person, and holy denotes an attribute of God’s nature. God’s nature is holy. Incarnation is a matter of bringing God’s nature into man. God desires to make His chosen people holy in the divine nature so that they may be holy even as He is holy.
To be holy is distinct from being common. The Holy Spirit in God’s incarnation makes man distinct from being common as God is distinct in His holy nature. Hence, what was born through God’s incarnation was a “holy thing” (Luke 1:35), and this holy thing is Jesus our Savior, who is intrinsically distinct from anything common, as God in His holy nature is distinct. The Holy Spirit, of whom the holy Jesus (Acts 3:14) was conceived and born as mentioned in Matthew 1:18 and 20, will make the believers of the holy Jesus intrinsically holy as He is holy in the divine nature. Eventually, all these believers will consummate in the holy city, the New Jerusalem (Rev. 21:2).
Luke 1:15 says that John the Baptist would be filled with the Holy Spirit even from his mother’s womb. The Holy Spirit is the first divine title ascribed to the Spirit of God in the New Testament. It was at the time for the initiation of the gospel of God, to prepare the way for the Savior’s coming and to prepare a human body for Him, that this divine title of God’s Spirit was used. The preparing of the way for the Savior’s coming required that His forerunner be filled with the Holy Spirit so that he could separate the people unto God from all things other than God, making them holy unto Him for His purpose. The preparing of the human body for the Savior required that the Holy Spirit impart the divine nature into humanity, making man holy for the carrying out of God’s plan of redemption. Therefore, the Lord Jesus was conceived of the Holy Spirit with the divine essence (Luke 1:35) in a human virgin, who “was found to be with child of the Holy Spirit” (Matt. 1:18). That which was begotten in her was of the Holy Spirit (v. 20). Although Christ was born of Mary (Matt. 1:16), He was a child of the Holy Spirit. The birth of Christ was directly of the Holy Spirit. His source was the Holy Spirit, and His element was divine.
Many verses in the New Testament speak of the Holy Spirit. Luke 3:22 tells us that the Holy Spirit descended upon Christ in bodily form as a dove, anointing Him for His ministry. In Matthew 12:32 we have a word concerning speaking against the Holy Spirit, a word that indicates that if a sinner blasphemes the Holy Spirit, the Spirit will have no ground to work upon him to cause him to repent and believe in the Lord Jesus. According to John 20:22, the Lord Jesus on the day of His resurrection breathed into the disciples and told them to receive the Holy Spirit. This is the receiving of the Holy Spirit as life essentially. Later, in Matthew 28:19, the Lord charges the disciples to baptize people “into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” In Acts 1:2 we see that the resurrected Christ gave command to the apostles through the Holy Spirit. Then in Romans 15:16 Paul says that in his ministry the offering of the nations might be acceptable, having been sanctified in the Holy Spirit. Because Christ had been wrought into them, becoming their element, the nations became an offering saturated with Christ and permeated with His divine essence.
The title “the Spirit of God” is quite common. It is used in Genesis 1:2, which says that the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. In nature God is Spirit (John 4:24), and in the Triune Godhead the last is the Spirit (Matt. 28:19). The Spirit of God is God Himself for our experience and enjoyment. God the Father is the source, God the Son is the course, the expression, and God the Spirit is the reaching and the application (2 Cor. 13:14). Therefore, the Spirit of God is God reaching us and applied to us as our portion. Regarding the Spirit of God there are two crucial points: first, that the Spirit of God is actually God Himself; second, that the Spirit of God is God reaching us and being applied to us.
Matthew 3:16 and 12:28 mention the Spirit of God. After the Lord Jesus was baptized, the Spirit of God descended as a dove upon Him. Although He already had the Spirit of God within Him, He still needed to have the Spirit of God upon Him for His ministry. In Matthew 12:28 the Lord says, “If I by the Spirit of God cast out demons, then the kingdom of God is come upon you.” The Spirit of God is the power of the kingdom of God. Where the Spirit of God is in power, there the kingdom of God is, and there the demons have no ground. Wherever the Spirit of God exercises His authority over the opposing situation, that is the kingdom of God.
In Romans 8:9 Paul speaks of the Spirit of God dwelling in us, and in verse 14, of the sons of God being led by the Spirit of God. We should not understand the title the Spirit of God to mean that the Spirit is something from God. In the New Testament phrases such as the love of God and the life of God mean that love and life are God Himself. In the same principle, the term the Spirit of God means that the Spirit is God. Hence, for us to be indwelt and led by the Spirit of God means that we are indwelt and led by God Himself.
The Spirit of the Father (Matt. 10:20) is the flow of the Father that flows with the Father as the source into the Father’s children for their intimate enjoyment of Him. Hence, the Spirit of the Father is the fellowship between the Father and His children.
Referring to times of persecution, the Lord Jesus says in Matthew 10:20, “You are not the ones speaking, but the Spirit of your Father is the One speaking in you.” Here we see that the Father’s Spirit deals with the opposers’ persecution. Therefore, we should learn to face persecution not in ourselves but to turn to our spirit, believing that the Father’s Spirit is with us and that He will deal with the opposers and the persecutors. We should trust in Him, let Him lead us and allow Him to do the speaking.
The Spirit of the Lord (Luke 4:18; Acts 5:9; 8:39; 2 Cor. 3:17) refers to the Spirit of Jehovah (Judg. 14:6). The name Jesus in the New Testament is equal to Jehovah in the Old Testament. Hence, the Spirit of Jehovah is the Spirit of the Lord in the New Testament sense. For this reason, 2 Corinthians 3:17 speaks of the Spirit of the Lord. Actually, the Spirit of the Lord is the Lord Himself.
As revealed in the New Testament, the Spirit is the reality of God the Father and the Lord. This means that without the Spirit God is not real to us. Likewise, without the Spirit of the Father we do not have the reality of the Father, and without the Spirit of the Lord we do not have the reality of the Lord. Only when we have the Spirit do we have the reality of God the Father and the Lord.
Galatians 4:6 says, “Because you are sons, God sent forth the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, Abba, Father!” God’s Son is the embodiment of the divine life (1 John 5:12). Hence, the Spirit of God’s Son is the Spirit of life (Rom. 8:2). God gives us His Spirit of life because we are His sons. As sons of God we have the position with the full right to participate in the Spirit of God’s Son, who has the bountiful supply of life.
The Triune God is producing many sons for the fulfillment of His eternal purpose. God the Father sent forth God the Son to redeem us from the law that we might receive sonship (Gal. 4:4-5). He also sends forth God the Spirit to impart His life into us that we may become His sons in reality. In order for us to enjoy God’s sonship, we need the Spirit. Apart from the Spirit, we cannot be born of God to have the divine life. Once we have been born of the Spirit, we need the Spirit in order to grow in life. Without the Spirit we cannot have the position, right, or privilege of sonship. All the crucial points regarding sonship depend on the Spirit. Without the Spirit sonship is vain, an empty term. But when the Spirit comes, the sonship is made real. The Spirit of the Son of God, therefore, is the reality of sonship. The Spirit of the Son makes the divine sonship real to us in our daily living.
We should not think that the Spirit of the Son is separate from the Son. Actually, the Spirit of the Son is another form of the Son. The One who was crucified was Christ, but the One who enters into the believers is the Spirit. First He came as the Son under the law to qualify us for sonship and to open the way for us to share in the sonship. But after He finished this work He became in resurrection the life-giving Spirit and comes to us as the Spirit of the Son. The Spirit of the Son of God vitalizes the sonship and makes it real in our experience. Today our sonship depends on the Spirit of God’s Son.
In Romans 8:9 Paul speaks of the Spirit of Christ. The Spirit of Christ is related to the Lord’s death and resurrection. The Spirit of Christ is the Spirit of the One who passed through death and entered into resurrection. The Lord’s death was an all-inclusive termination, and His resurrection was an all-inclusive germination. The Spirit of Christ, therefore, is the totality, the aggregate, of the all-inclusive Christ with His all-inclusive death and resurrection. Because we have this Spirit in us, we have the all-inclusive Christ and His all-inclusive termination and germination.
The Spirit of Christ is the reality of Christ, Christ Himself in reality. Because the Spirit is the reality of Christ, we may say that this Spirit is the pneumatic Christ. By the Spirit of Christ we partake of Christ in His resurrection life and power, His transcendency, and His reigning authority.
First Peter 1:11 tells us that the Old Testament prophets were “searching into what or what manner of time the Spirit of Christ in them made clear, witnessing beforehand the sufferings of Christ and the glories after these.” In the New Testament revelation the Spirit of Christ denotes the Spirit after Christ’s resurrection (Rom. 8:9-11). Before Christ’s resurrection, the Spirit that is not only the Spirit of God but also the Spirit of Christ was “not yet” (John 7:39). The Spirit of Christ is the Spirit of God constituted through and of the death and resurrection of Christ for the application and impartation of Christ’s death and resurrection to the believers. Although the constitution of the Spirit of Christ is dispensational, constituted dispensationally through and of Christ’s death and resurrection in New Testament times, His function is eternal because He is the eternal Spirit (Heb. 9:14). This can be compared to the cross of Christ: its event was accomplished at the time of Christ’s death, yet its function is eternal. Hence, in the eternal sight of God, Christ was slain from the foundation of the world (Rev. 13:8). In Old Testament times, to the prophets who were seeking out and searching out the sufferings and glories of Christ, the Spirit of God, as the Spirit of Christ, made the time and the manner of time concerning Christ’s death and resurrection clear.
Acts 16:7 says, “When they had come down to Mysia, they tried to go into Bithynia, and the Spirit of Jesus did not allow them.” The interchangeable use of the Spirit of Jesus with the Holy Spirit in Acts 16:6 reveals that the Spirit of Jesus is the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is a general title of the Spirit of God in the New Testament. The Spirit of Jesus is a particular expression concerning the Spirit of God and refers to the Spirit of the incarnated Savior who, as Jesus in His humanity, passed through human living and death on the cross. This indicates that in the Spirit of Jesus there is not only the divine element of God but also the human element and the elements of His human living and His suffering of death as well. Such an all-inclusive Spirit was needed by Paul in his preaching ministry, a ministry of suffering among human beings and for human beings in the human life.
Just as the Spirit of Christ is the reality of Christ, so the Spirit of Jesus is the reality of Jesus. If we do not have the Spirit of Jesus, Jesus will not be real to us. But today Jesus is real to us because we have the Spirit of Jesus as the reality, the realization, of Jesus.
In Philippians 1:19 Paul says, “I know that for me this shall turn out to salvation through your petition and the bountiful supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ.” The Spirit of Jesus Christ is the Spirit mentioned in John 7:39. This is not merely the Spirit of God before the Lord’s incarnation but the Spirit of God, the Holy Spirit with divinity, after the Lord’s resurrection, compounded with the Lord’s incarnation (humanity), human living under the cross, crucifixion, and resurrection. The holy anointing ointment in Exodus 30:23-25, a compound of olive oil with four kinds of spices, was a full type of this compound Spirit of God, who is now the Spirit of Jesus Christ. Here the Spirit is not the Spirit of Jesus as in Acts 16:7, nor the Spirit of Christ as in Romans 8:9, but the Spirit of Jesus Christ. The Spirit of Jesus is mainly for the Lord’s humanity and human living; the Spirit of Christ is mainly for the Lord’s resurrection. 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 Paul experienced both the Lord’s suffering in His humanity and the Lord’s resurrection. Hence, to Paul the Spirit was the Spirit of Jesus Christ, the compound, all-inclusive, life-giving Spirit of the Triune God. Such a Spirit has and even is the bountiful supply for a person like Paul who was experiencing and enjoying Christ in His human living and resurrection. Eventually, this compound Spirit of Jesus Christ becomes the seven Spirits of God, who are the seven lamps of fire before His throne to carry out His administration on earth for the accomplishment of His economy with the church, and who are the seven eyes of the Lamb for the transfusing of all that He is into the church (Rev. 1:4; 4:5; 5:6).
Because the Spirit of Jesus has particular reference to the Lord’s suffering, and the Spirit of Christ, to His resurrection, the Spirit of Jesus Christ is related to both suffering and resurrection. The Spirit of Jesus Christ is the Spirit of the Jesus who lived a life of suffering on earth and of the Christ who is now in resurrection. The Spirit of Jesus Christ is the reality of the One who lived on earth in humanity and of the One who resurrected from among the dead and who is now both in the heavens and dwelling in the believers and who will be the center of God’s economy for eternity. The reality of such a Jesus and such a Christ is the Spirit of Jesus Christ.
In the New Testament the Spirit is also called the Lord Spirit (2 Cor. 3:18). The title “the Lord Spirit” may be considered a compound title like the Father God and the Lord Christ. This expression proves strongly that the Lord Christ is the Spirit and the Spirit is the Lord Christ.
After His resurrection and in His resurrection the Lord became the pneumatic Christ. The pneumatic Christ is identical to the Spirit. This is why 2 Corinthians 3:17 says, “The Lord is the Spirit.” Today in resurrection the very Christ, our Lord, is identical to the Spirit who gives life. The Lord, the pneumatic Christ, is the Spirit, and the all-inclusive, life-giving, compound, processed, and consummated Spirit is actually the Lord Himself. Hence, there is no way to divide the Lord from the Spirit or to separate the Lord from the Spirit, for the Lord and the Spirit are one. Therefore, the Spirit is even called the Lord Spirit.
Second Corinthians 3:3 says, “Being manifested that you are a letter of Christ ministered by us, inscribed not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God.” The Spirit of the living God is the reality of the living God. How do we know that God is living? We know that God is living because we have the Spirit as the reality of the living God. Since we have the Spirit of the living God, we have the living God in His reality.
When Paul says that the apostles inscribed a letter with the Spirit of the living God, this does not mean that the Spirit of the living God is only the Spirit and not God Himself. No, the Spirit of the living God is God. The living God here is the Triune God, the One who has passed through the process of incarnation, crucifixion, and resurrection and has now been consummated in the life-giving, life-imparting, and life-dispensing Spirit. With this Spirit the apostles inscribed upon the saints to make them a letter of Christ written by them.
