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Scripture Reading: 1 Cor. 15:45b; 2:10, 12, 14; 3:16-17; 6:11, 17, 19-20; 7:40; 12:13, 4, 7-11
In this chapter we come to the second Epistle of the New Testament, 1 Corinthians. In the first Epistle, the Epistle to the Romans, there is the Spirit of life. In this first Epistle to the Corinthians there is the life-giving Spirit. The very Christ whom we see in the four Gospels is now the “pneumatic Christ,” the all-inclusive Spirit, in the Epistles. First Corinthians 15:45 says, “The last Adam became a life-giving Spirit.” The last Adam is seen in the four Gospels, and the life-giving Spirit is seen in all the Epistles. Therefore, the very Christ as the last Adam in the Gospels is now the pneumatic Christ as the all-inclusive Spirit.
In the two sections of the Gospels and the Epistles in the New Testament, we see the same person in different aspects. In the four Gospels we see this person as the Son with the Father by the Spirit. In the Epistles there is the same person becoming the Spirit as the Son with the Father. In every book of the New Testament, we see the same person. We do not have two Saviors, two Redeemers, two life-giving Spirits, two Masters, or two Lords. Our God is uniquely one. We have only one Redeemer, one Savior, one life-giving Spirit, one Master, and one Lord. What we see in the twenty-seven books of the New Testament is altogether just one wonderful, all-inclusive, excellent, marvelous person.
Do not think that in the four Gospels there is Christ, and in the Epistles there is the Spirit who is separate from Christ. We must realize that essentially Christ and the Spirit are one, but economically They are two. Eventually, They are a wonderful, unique, and excellent person; economically, this person was Christ, the last Adam, in the four Gospels, and He is now the pneumatic Christ, the Spirit, in the Epistles. As Christ in the four Gospels, He accomplished incarnation, He passed through human living, He died an all-inclusive death, and He entered into resurrection. By all these steps He accomplished an all-inclusive redemption in God’s economy. After accomplishing the redemption of God, He became the life-giving Spirit, not to remain on the cross but to come into our being, to stay with us, remain in us, and mingle Himself with our being to be our life, our life supply, and our everything in order to make us humanly divine and divinely human, thoroughly mingled with the Triune God in God’s economy.
We have seen that the Spirit of life is unique. This title is used only once in the New Testament — in Romans 8:2. The life-giving Spirit is also unique. This same type of expression, of course, is used a few times in the New Testament. John 6:63 refers to “the Spirit who gives life.” Second Corinthians 3:6 says, “the Spirit gives life.” First Corinthians 15:45, however, is the only place in the New Testament that specifically speaks of the “life-giving Spirit.” The One in Romans who is the Spirit of life is the life-giving Spirit in 1 Corinthians. The title the Spirit of life does not convey any thought that He is moving and working. The title the life-giving Spirit, though, indicates that the Spirit of life is moving, working, and imparting life.
In John 6 there are two expressions concerning Christ — the bread of life (v. 35), and the living bread (v. 51). When I was young, I was very much bothered by these two expressions and asked myself what was the difference between them. The bread of life refers to the nature of the bread, which is life; the living bread refers to the condition of the bread, which is living. For example, the physical bread in a breadbasket is not the living bread. This is the bread of life. However, when we eat some of this bread and it gets into our stomach, immediately the bread is living in our stomach to nourish us, to impart the life element into us, and to distribute all kinds of vitamins into our being through our blood vessels. After being eaten, the bread of life becomes the living bread that lives, moves, and works in us.
The Spirit of life denotes that the element of the Spirit is life. On the other hand, the life-giving Spirit denotes the same Spirit moving, working, and living in us to impart life into us. This does not mean that in Romans the Spirit of life does not work, but the stress in Romans is different. The stress in 1 Corinthians is that the Spirit of life is now working within every member of Christ. The Spirit of life is working and moving in the being of the believers; it is the life-imparting Spirit, and its work is to give life to our being.
The life-giving Spirit is searching Christ as the depths of God (2:10, 12, 14). When anything is searched, that thing is stirred up and cannot remain calm. Without the life-giving Spirit, Christ is everything to you but in a calm situation. You may have the all-inclusive Christ, but the Christ in you may be nearly nothing to you because He is so “calm” within you. There is the need of someone who is so active and so living to come to search, to stir up the Christ within you. This Someone is the life-giving Spirit.
First Corinthians unveils to us that the very Christ, who is the portion of all believers and into whose fellowship we all have been called, is all-inclusive. He is first our portion, our fellowship (1:2, 9). He is God’s power and God’s wisdom as righteousness, sanctification, and redemption to us (vv. 24, 30). He is our glory for our glorification (2:7; Rom. 8:30); hence, He is the Lord of glory (1 Cor. 2:8). He is the depths (deep things) of God (v. 10). God is mysterious enough, yet with this God, there are the depths. Christ is the depths of this most mysterious God. He is the unique foundation of God’s building (3:11). He is our Passover (5:7), the unleavened bread (v. 8), the spiritual food, the spiritual drink, and the spiritual rock (10:3-4). Christ is the moving rock, the following rock, which followed the children of Israel. He is the Head (11:3) and the Body (12:12). In chapter 15 of 1 Corinthians we see that Christ is the firstfruits (vv. 20-23), the second man (v. 47), and the last Adam (v. 45). Because Christ is the first, the second, and the last, He is everything. As such a One, Christ became the life-giving Spirit (v. 45), the aggregate of all the foregoing items. The all-inclusive Christ, with the riches of at least nineteen items, is totaled in the life-giving Spirit. God has given such a One to us as our portion for our enjoyment.
The main work of the life-giving Spirit is to search Christ, to stir up Christ within us, concerning these nineteen items. Christ is our wonderful portion for us to enjoy. The Spirit who gives life is searching Christ to stir up this Christ in our love, pursuit, and experience of Him. This searching is still going on to show us and to bring us into the realization of Christ as our portion, our wisdom, our power, our righteousness, our sanctification, and our redemption. The Spirit would do some further searching to show us that Christ is the Lord of glory, the depths of God, the foundation, the Passover, the unleavened bread, the spiritual food, the spiritual drink as the living water flowing out of the cleft rock, and the spiritual rock following us all the time. This searching is still going on to further show us that Christ is the Head, the Body, the firstfruits, the second man, and the last Adam. Christ is the first, the second, and the last, indicating that He is everything to us. This is the searching by the life-giving Spirit to stir up Christ in our realization of Him and to show us every item of what He is.
The best way to study the Word is to search. Do not merely read or study the Bible but search the depths of God, Christ. Today this Christ is hinged on the life-giving Spirit. The life-giving Spirit is the hinge, and Christ is altogether wrapped up with this Spirit. He is the life-giving Spirit moving and searching within us. By this searching, He imparts the riches of Christ into our being.
Christ as the life-giving Spirit is dwelling in the believers, who are the temple of God (3:16-17). This is altogether heavenly language. On this earth there is not a religion telling people that their God dwells in them. Even the Jewish religion, which was founded according to the Old Testament, never tells others that God dwells in His people. Only the New Testament, God’s New Testament economy, tells us that our God as the consummation of the Triune God, the all-inclusive life-giving Spirit, dwells in us. In the entire universe only One can dwell in us in a positive sense, and He does dwell in us in this sense — as the life-giving Spirit, the consummation of the Triune God. This is marvelous! Nothing can compare with the indwelling God. We should all boldly declare that we are the richest people on earth! Nothing in this entire universe can dwell in us in the way that He does. The consummation of the Triune God, who is the life-giving Spirit, dwells in us and counts us as His temple. Christ as the life-giving Spirit is our indwelling treasure (2 Cor. 4:7).
The life-giving Spirit is also washing and sanctifying the believers (1 Cor. 6:11). Every house, every building, needs some washing and needs some cleaning. All the peoples on this earth practice cleaning their houses to some degree. Even the church as the temple of God today needs the washing, and the life-giving Spirit does this washing.
The beginning of our church life experience was a honeymoon. After the honeymoon some “dirt” began to accumulate little by little, requiring the need of some cleaning. When we first came to the church life, this was our honeymoon, and everything was so pleasant. The church life was wonderful to us. After a while, though, when our church life honeymoon was over, we began to consider that the church life was not really that good. You might have said, “I considered the elders as the top angels when I came into the church life, but now — aha.” This kind of thought shows that now you need the cleaning and you need the washing. When you turn to the spirit, the Spirit cleanses and washes away your “aha.” If you do not turn to your spirit for one week, many “ahas” will pile up inside you. This will cause you to be unable to pray. You may even think that you should not go to the meetings. You may not want to go to the meetings because in the meeting you will see a certain brother whom you feel unpleasant about. All of this is dirt. Therefore, you need the washing, and you need the cleaning. If you would turn to your spirit and pray for half an hour, you would jump up and run to the church meeting. This shows that the temple of God today needs the washing. The life-giving Spirit does this washing.
Also, the life-giving Spirit joins the believer to the Lord as one spirit (v. 17). In this matter of joining, the life-giving Spirit joins us individually to the Lord as one spirit. This is a great blessing. After the washing comes the joining. Every time we are washed by the Spirit, we immediately have the sensation that we are one with the Lord. If I stay in a certain locality for only two weeks, I may feel that the leading ones in the church there are very good. If I stayed there for over half a year, however, the “aha” would begin. This “aha” separates me from the Lord. When I turn to the spirit and stay in the spirit, the life-giving Spirit washes me. Immediately after the washing, I begin to have the sensation that I am one with the Lord. The joining follows the washing. We need the washing all the time.
We must realize that there is not one elder who is so perfect that he can stand the “sharp watching” and observing of the saints. The leading ones in the church life are under a strict, thorough, and sharp watching and observing. People may look to see what kind of tie, jacket, or shoes the leading ones are wearing. All the saints are watching over the elders. Who can stand this kind of watching and observing? In the entire human race, only one man is so perfect to be able to stand the test of people’s watching and observing. This man is Jesus Christ. None of us can pass such a thorough and strict inspection. We cannot stand the watching, but we can enjoy the washing. The washing cleanses us, and the washing by the life-giving Spirit always brings us back to being joined to the Lord as one spirit.
The life-giving Spirit is occupying the body of the believers, which is the temple of God, for God’s glorification (vv. 19-20). This means that the life-giving Spirit not only remains in our spirit but even indwells and occupies our body. Many Christians do things to shame the Lord, mainly by their body. For instance, if you gamble by playing cards, you are using your body to gamble. If you go to a gambling place, you use your two feet to go there. Most of the things that are done which are a shame to the Lord are done through the body. Your body, however, should be occupied by the indwelling, life-giving Spirit. We should not let our feet and our legs take us to sinful places, but they should always take us to the meetings of the church. If this is the case, our feet will always be occupied by the life-giving Spirit. This is a glory to God. Even when we gossip, we are using our mouth, a part of our body. Gossip does not glorify God. The Spirit has to occupy our mouth; then whatever comes out of our mouth will be a glory to God. This is the life-giving Spirit’s work.
The life-giving Spirit can also saturate the believers’ opinion (7:40). As brothers and sisters pursuing the Lord, I believe that we all hate opinion. If I were to tell you that you were full of opinions, you would be offended. Paul, however, says that he has an opinion in 1 Corinthians. In 7:25 Paul says that he has no commandment of the Lord, but he still gives his opinion. After telling us his opinion in 7:40, he says, “I think that I also have the Spirit of God.” This shows that the Spirit of God was in Paul’s opinion. This is the real spirituality. We must have the Spirit of God not merely in our praying, singing, and speaking for God. Even in our opinion there must be the saturation of the life-giving Spirit. Paul was so saturated by the life-giving Spirit that even his opinion had the Spirit of God within it. The Spirit of God had penetrated and saturated his opinion. All of us can be like this.
The believers were baptized in this Spirit into one Body (12:13a). As the Spirit is the sphere and element of our spiritual baptism and in such a Spirit we were all baptized into one organic entity, the Body of Christ, so we should all, regardless of our races, nationalities, and social ranks, be this one Body. Christ is the life and constituent of this Body, and the Spirit is the reality of Christ. It is in this one Spirit that we were all baptized into this one living Body to express Christ.
The believers were also given to drink this one Spirit (v. 13b). After being baptized, we need to drink of one Spirit. Let us all be immersed in this Spirit. We need to be saturated, permeated, and soaked in this Spirit. We should always live in this reality — whatever is outside of us is the Spirit, and whatever is inside of us is the Spirit. We should all be wrapped up with the Spirit. This is the work of the life-giving Spirit.
In 1 Corinthians 12 we see the gifts, the manifestation, of this Spirit in the Body of Christ (vv. 4, 7-11). The gifts are not mentioned until chapter 12 of 1 Corinthians to show that to exercise them there is the need of the adequate growth in life and the full development of the growth of life. In this full development of life we can have the manifestation of the Spirit, the different gifts. In 1 Corinthians 12 Paul lists nine gifts as the manifestation of the Spirit: the word of wisdom, the word of knowledge, faith, gifts of healing, works of power, prophecy, discerning of spirits, tongues, and interpretation of tongues. The last manifestation of the Spirit is tongues and interpretation of tongues. The topmost manifestation of the Spirit is the word of wisdom, and next to this is the word of knowledge. Among the nine gifts of the manifestation of the Spirit, five are related to speaking — the word of wisdom, the word of knowledge, prophecy, tongues, and interpretation of tongues. The other four gifts that are mentioned are miraculous items — faith that can move mountains, gifts of healing, works of power (miracles), and the discerning of spirits. (See footnotes on 1 Corinthians 12:4-11, Recovery Version.) Of the nine gifts mentioned by the apostle Paul here, speaking in tongues and interpretation of tongues are listed as the last two because they are not as profitable as the other items for the building up of the church (14:2-6, 18, 19). This is the life-giving Spirit working within us to make us the proper, functioning members in the Body.
