Scripture Reading: John 3:5-6, 8, 14-16, 29-30, 31-36
In the previous chapter we saw that the unlimited Christ is from above, that He is above all, that He is loved by the Father, that He has been given all things by the Father, that He was sent by God, and that He speaks the word of God. Let us now go on to consider some other characteristics of this unlimited Christ.
John 3:34 says of the unlimited Christ, “He gives the Spirit not by measure.” In what way does the unlimited Christ give us the Spirit? He gives us the Spirit by speaking the word of God. However, some Christians think that the way to receive the Spirit is to fast and pray for a period of time. But this practice may lead to emptiness instead. I can testify that the way of fasting and praying to receive the Spirit was not effective for me. What is the proper way to receive the Spirit without measure? It is by receiving the rhema of God. We can testify that if we handle the Word of God rightly and digest it in our spirit, we will be filled with the Spirit of God. This is real in our experience.
The unique way for us to become the universal increase of the unlimited Christ is to receive the Spirit and be filled with the Spirit. The more we have of the Spirit, the more we will be Christ’s increase. This increase begins with our regeneration, and it consummates with our being filled with the immeasurable Spirit.
We need to learn not merely to read the Word or study it but also to eat it. We must learn to receive the Word of God into our spirit and digest it there. This is to enjoy the Word of God in our spirit. Many of us can testify that when we enjoy the Lord in this way, we are filled with the immeasurable Spirit.
In the past a number of us were influenced, distracted, or misled by the concept that we need to fast and pray for a period of time in order to suddenly receive the Spirit. The genuine filling of the Spirit is by taking the Word of God in a proper way through the exercise of our spirit. We will not experience the filling of the Spirit by merely studying the Word in order to stimulate our mentality. That is not the right way to handle the Word of God. As we read the Word, we need to exercise our spirit. We need to exercise our spirit to receive God’s written Word so that it may become the present, spoken word to us. Then we will have the word within us as spirit and life to us. In this way the all-inclusive Spirit will be given to us by the unlimited Christ.
Many of us can testify that as we are filled with the immeasurable Spirit through eating the Word, we realize that the Giver of this Spirit is the unlimited Christ. Christ Himself is unlimited, and the Spirit He gives to us is immeasurable. Therefore, our enjoyment of Christ and the Spirit becomes eternal. We enjoy eternal life, and this life produces the universal increase of the unlimited Christ. I hope that we all will see this clearly.
Through the Word we receive the Spirit, and when we have the Spirit, we have eternal life. This understanding corresponds to what is revealed in John 6:63, where the Lord says that the words He speaks are spirit and life. This indicates that when we have the rhema, the living, spoken word, we also have the Spirit and life. Therefore, in this chapter we have the speaking of the word of God, the giving of the Spirit without measure, and the imparting of eternal life to those who believe into Christ. Verses 15, 16, and 36 all say clearly that those who believe into Christ the Son have eternal life. The unlimited Christ is the One who gives eternal life to His believers.
The unlimited Christ has the bride as His universal increase. This universal increase, Christ’s bride, is the aggregate of all those who have been regenerated. It is a living composition of all regenerated human beings. This is the bride as the universal increase of the unlimited Christ.
How can we become parts of the bride as Christ’s universal increase? This is possible only as we receive the rhema of God so that we may be filled with the life-giving Spirit. If we receive the word and are filled with the Spirit, we will enjoy eternal life. The result is that we become the bride, the universal increase of the unlimited Christ.
Let us now consider the immeasurable Spirit. The word immeasurable not only denotes the sphere of the Spirit but also denotes the contents and nature of the Spirit. The immeasurable Spirit is immeasurable in sphere. It is immeasurable also in contents and in nature, that is, in what the Spirit is. The immeasurable Spirit is actually the all-inclusive compound Spirit typified by the compound ointment in Exodus 30:23-25. (For the details concerning this, see Life-study of Exodus, Messages 157 to 166.) The immeasurable Spirit as the all-inclusive compound Spirit is not simply the Spirit of power or the Spirit of life. This immeasurable Spirit is actually the consummate expression of the Triune God.
The immeasurable Spirit is beyond our understanding. It is beyond our ability to speak concerning this all-inclusive Spirit. We simply do not have the utterance adequate to describe this immeasurable Spirit. We know that culture gives rise to words and terms in language. We do not yet have the spiritual culture necessary to have the language adequate to describe fully the immeasurable, all-inclusive Spirit.
The immeasurable Spirit is the life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45b). In resurrection Christ became a life-giving Spirit for imparting life. As the life-giving Spirit, He is ready to be received by those who believe into Him. When we believe into Him, He enters our spirit, and we are joined to Him as the life-giving Spirit. In this way we become one spirit with Him (1 Cor. 6:17).
Today some oppose the truth that Christ in resurrection is the life-giving Spirit. They say that as Adam became a living soul through creation, so Christ became a living Spirit through resurrection. However, they deny that the life-giving Spirit in 1 Corinthians 15:45 is the Holy Spirit who gives life. However, they admit that the Holy Spirit gives life. This is an improvement over the concept that the Holy Spirit is simply an instrument or power and not a person. But Paul says that the last Adam, Christ in the flesh, became not only a spirit but a life-giving Spirit. This does not denote merely the spirit of Christ as a being. Christ, of course, does have a spiritual being. In the Gospel of Mark we are told that when Christ was on earth, He perceived matters in His spirit (2:8). Furthermore, when He was dying on the cross, He committed His spirit to God the Father (Luke 23:46). We also know from the book of 1 Peter that after Christ was crucified and before He was resurrected, He went in Spirit to Tartarus to proclaim God’s victory (3:18-19). Before He was resurrected and while His body was still in the tomb, Christ went to Tartarus in His living Spirit as His divinity to make such a declaration. In 1 Corinthians 15:45b Paul says that Christ as the last Adam became the life-giving Spirit. Christ became the life-giving Spirit in His resurrection. The Spirit of Christ, who went to Tartarus after Christ’s death and before His resurrection, could not give life. But the life-giving Spirit, who Christ became in resurrection, is identical to the Holy Spirit who gives life (2 Cor. 3:6).
Do you believe that there are two divine Spirits who give life? The belief in two life-giving Spirits is contrary to the truth. In 1977 I put out a booklet entitled What a Heresy — Two Divine Fathers, Two Life-giving Spirits, and Three Gods! In this booklet we point out that according to 1 Corinthians 15:45, the last Adam, who is Christ, became a life-giving Spirit. Some twist this verse, saying that it speaks of “a life-giving Spirit,” not “the life-giving Spirit.” But besides the Holy Spirit who gives life, is there another Spirit who gives life? To say that there are two Spirits giving life is to teach a great heresy. Whether the article is definite or indefinite, the last Adam, who is Christ Himself, became a Spirit who gives life. At this point we must refer to John 6:63, where the Lord said, “It is the Spirit who gives life.” In this chapter the Lord Jesus said that He was the bread of life to give life to people. Eventually, He indicated that in order to be life as the bread of life, He must be the Spirit, for it is the Spirit who gives life. Furthermore, 2 Corinthians 3:6 says, “The letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.” Is not the Spirit in this verse the Holy Spirit? Can we say that besides this Holy Spirit who gives life there is another Spirit who gives life? No, we should not say this.
A second way of twisting 1 Corinthians 15:45 is to say that the life-giving Spirit here is not the Holy Spirit but the spirit of Christ as a person. Those who twist the verse in this manner say that just as we have a spirit, so Christ also has a spirit. Then they proceed to say that the Spirit here is the spirit of Christ, not the Holy Spirit. Certainly, the Spirit in this verse is the Spirit of Christ. But do you believe that besides the Holy Spirit there is another Spirit who is the Spirit of Christ? To put the matter another way, do you believe that besides the Spirit of Christ there is another Spirit called the Holy Spirit? I do not think that anyone with an enlightened understanding would believe this.
Those who twist 1 Corinthians 15:45 in this manner may not know that the Holy Spirit today is not only the Spirit of God but also the Spirit of Christ (Rom. 8:9) and even the Spirit of Jesus (Acts 16:7). Romans 8:9 testifies that the Spirit of God today is the Spirit of Christ, and Philippians 1:19 testifies that the Spirit of Christ is also the Spirit of Jesus Christ. In his book The Spirit of Christ, in a chapter entitled, “The Spirit of the Glorified Jesus,” Andrew Murray says that after Christ’s ascension the Holy Spirit did not come as before. In the Old Testament He came only as the Spirit of God but after the resurrection and ascension of Christ, the Spirit came not only as the Spirit of God but also as the Spirit of the man Christ. Furthermore, John 7:39 says that prior to Christ’s death and resurrection this Spirit was “not yet.” However, the Spirit of God was already there. Today the Holy Spirit is not only the Spirit of God but also the Spirit of Christ. This Spirit, who is the Spirit both of God and of Christ, is the life-giving Spirit. After His resurrection, through His resurrection, and in His resurrection, Christ became such a life-giving Spirit. Undoubtedly, this is the life-giving Holy Spirit.
Paul was careful in writing 1 Corinthians 15:45. He did not say, “The last Adam became a spirit.” He added the modifier, life-giving, saying, “The last Adam became a life-giving Spirit.” This modifier leaves no ground for argument. Who is the Spirit who gives life? Do you believe that besides the Holy Spirit, there is another divine Spirit who gives life? The truth is that there is only one divine Spirit, the Holy Spirit, the life-giving Spirit, the Spirit of Christ, who gives life. The immeasurable Spirit in John 3 is the very life-giving Spirit in 1 Corinthians 15:45.
The Bible is profound, but what is conveyed in the ancient creeds is incomplete and too simple. For example, the ancient creeds do not speak of the seven Spirits, a very important matter in the New Testament. In the last book of the Bible, the book of Revelation, the seven Spirits are spoken of emphatically (1:4; 3:1; 4:5; 5:6). However, there is no mention of the seven Spirits in any of the ancient creeds. Because these creeds are not complete, some Christian groups declare that the only creed they hold to is the Bible. We would follow them to make the same kind of statement. We do not have any creed except the Bible. Because no creed is complete, we take the entire Bible as our only creed.
The all-inclusive Spirit, the immeasurable Spirit, is also the pneumatic Christ (2 Cor. 3:6, 17-18; Rom. 8:9-11). I did not originate this term. It has been used by others, including one writer in Kittel’s Theological Dictionary of the New Testament. When we describe the Christ who lived on earth, we may speak of Christ in the flesh. The term pneumatic Christ refers to Christ as the Spirit. Due to the traditional teaching concerning the Trinity, some regard the Spirit as a person separate from Christ and then go on to speak of Christ being in the Spirit. Although it is commonly understood that the phrase Christ in the flesh refers to Christ Himself while He was on earth, not many understand the term Christ in the Spirit to mean that Christ is the Spirit. This has made it necessary for certain teachers to adopt the term pneumatic Christ to denote the Christ who is the Spirit. Because of the influence of tradition, if we speak of Christ in the Spirit, others may think that Christ is separate from the Spirit. They do not realize that Christ is the Spirit.
The word pneumatic means “spiritual.” However, if we use the term spiritual Christ instead of pneumatic Christ, there may be misunderstanding.
Nowhere in the New Testament are we told that Christ, or the Son, is in the Spirit. The Bible does say that the Father is in the Son and that the Son is in the Father (John 17:21). But in the New Testament we do not have the thought that Christ is in the Spirit. Rather, the New Testament reveals that the resurrected Christ became the Spirit. Second Corinthians 3:17 says, “The Lord is the Spirit.” This is the pneumatic Christ, the very Christ who in resurrection has become the life-giving Spirit.
In recent years I have read a number of books that point out that in Christian experience the resurrected Christ is identical to the Spirit. This is not a matter of theological doctrine; it is a matter of spiritual experience.
The immeasurable Spirit is actually the application of the unlimited Christ. When the unlimited Christ is applied to us, appreciated by us, and enjoyed by us, He is the immeasurable Spirit. Furthermore, this immeasurable Spirit is the eternal life.
In chapter 3 of John eternal life is mentioned three times (vv. 15, 16, 36). Eternal life is the divine life, the life of the eternal God. This life is eternal in time, space, essence, function, and power.
This eternal life is the very essence of the Triune God becoming the element of the universal increase of Christ, which is the eternal expression of the Triune God. I would encourage you to dwell on this matter. Eternal life is the essence of the Triune God becoming the element of the church, the bride, and the bride is the universal increase of Christ. For eternity this will be the expression of the Triune God.
