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Scripture Reading: John 1:14; 1 Cor. 15:45b; Exo. 30:23-25; Rev. 5:6
In this chapter we will begin to consider the three stages of Christ, that is, the three periods of the history of what Christ is — incarnation, inclusion, and intensification. Many believers in Christ know something about the first stage of Christ’s history, the stage of incarnation, but they know very little, if anything, about the second and third stages, the stages of inclusion and intensification.
Christians have paid a great deal of attention to the matter of incarnation. Every year at Christmas so many believers celebrate the Lord’s incarnation; however, not many realize what the intrinsic significance of the incarnation is. Through incarnation Christ as God became flesh. John 1:14 tells us that the Word, who is the very God, became flesh.
In His resurrection the Christ who had become flesh through incarnation became the life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45b). Christ, therefore, has had two becomings. The first becoming is seen in John 1:14 — the Word became flesh. The second becoming is seen in 1 Corinthians 15:45b — the last Adam (Christ in the flesh) became the life-giving Spirit. From our study of the Bible we have found out that Christ’s second becoming in resurrection is no less important than His first becoming in incarnation. As we will see, Christ’s becoming the life-giving Spirit in resurrection involves something that we may designate by the word inclusion.
Christ’s becoming flesh through incarnation was rather simple, for it involved just two parties — the Holy Spirit and a human virgin (Luke 1:26-27, 30-32, 35). Christ’s becoming the life-giving Spirit, on the contrary, was not simple, for it involved and included divinity, humanity, Christ’s death with its effectiveness, and Christ’s resurrection with its power. In and through Christ’s resurrection six things were compounded together to become the life-giving Spirit, which is God’s anointing ointment (1 John 2:20, 27).
The Bible tells us that God has anointed us with His Spirit (2 Cor. 1:21; Luke 4:18). However, God has anointed us not merely with the Spirit of God (Gen. 1:2) nor with the Spirit of Jehovah (Judg. 3:10; 6:34) nor with the Holy Spirit (Matt. 1:18, 20); rather, God has anointed us with the life-giving Spirit, the Spirit who gives the divine life to fallen humanity. Thank the Lord that we all have been anointed by and with this compound life-giving Spirit!
The compound life-giving Spirit is typified by the anointing ointment in Exodus 30:23-25. Without these verses in Exodus 30, it would be difficult for us to understand how the life-giving Spirit has been compounded with God, man, Christ’s death, Christ’s resurrection, the effectiveness of Christ’s death, and the power of Christ’s resurrection.
I am very thankful to the Lord for opening up the details of Exodus 30:23-25 to us in His recovery. When I was with the Brethren, I was taught only that the holy anointing ointment in Exodus 30 refers to the Spirit. This was the only help I received from them regarding these verses. Through the years I have spent much time on these few verses, considering every point, even every word. Each detail was like a piece of a jigsaw puzzle. Eventually, I was able to put all the puzzle pieces together, and I saw a marvelous picture of the compound Spirit.
The anointing ointment in Exodus was a compound of one main item — a hin of olive oil — compounded with four kinds of spices: myrrh, cinnamon, calamus, and cassia. To be sure, the one hin of olive oil signifies God. The number one signifies God, and the number four (four spices) signifies man as God’s creature. In particular, here the number four signifies the incarnated Christ as a human being. Myrrh signifies Christ’s death, and cinnamon signifies the sweet effectiveness of Christ’s death. Calamus is a reed that grows in a marsh or muddy place, shooting upward toward the sky; thus, calamus signifies Christ’s resurrection. Cassia is a kind of bark used as a repellent to repel snakes and insects. Therefore, cassia signifies the power, especially the repelling power, of Christ’s resurrection.
With the anointing oil in Exodus 30, we also have the number three (signifying the Triune God), seen in the fact that the quantity of the spices involved three units, each of five hundred shekels: myrrh — five hundred shekels; cinnamon — two hundred fifty shekels; calamus — two hundred fifty shekels; and cassia — five hundred shekels. The second unit of five hundred shekels was split into two parts, each of two hundred fifty shekels. These two parts typify Christ, the middle of the Divine Trinity, who was “split,” wounded, on the cross. Here we see not only the Trinity (signified by the three units of five hundred shekels each) but also the Christ who was wounded on the cross (signified by the splitting of the second unit of five hundred shekels into two halves of two hundred fifty shekels each). How marvelous is this type!
Furthermore, with this compound ointment we also see the number five, formed in two ways: by adding one hin of olive oil and four spices and in the five hundred shekels. In the Bible the number five signifies responsibility. For example, the Ten Commandments were written on two tablets, with five commandments on each tablet, and the ten virgins in Matthew 25 are divided into two groups of five. Five is composed of four plus one, with the number four signifying man as God’s creature and the number one signifying God. From this we can see that the number five signifies God added to man to give us the ability to bear responsibility. In the compound Spirit we have the ability to bear responsibility.
What we have in Exodus 30 is the compound ointment as a type of the compound life-giving Spirit. The actual compounding of the Spirit took place in Christ’s resurrection. It was in resurrection that the very God embodied in Christ and mingled with His humanity was compounded with Christ’s death, the effectiveness of Christ’s death, Christ’s resurrection, and the power of His resurrection to produce the compound Spirit. This compounding was a matter of inclusion, for in the compound life-giving Spirit six items are included. Hence, the life-giving Spirit may be called the all-inclusive Spirit, the Spirit who includes divinity, humanity, the death of Christ and its effectiveness, and the resurrection of Christ and its power.
Whereas the incarnation was an objective matter, this inclusion is subjective to us and applicable to us in our experience. According to John 20:22, in the evening of the day of His resurrection the Lord Jesus came as the compound Spirit and breathed into the disciples, saying, “Receive the Holy Spirit.” Because the disciples were the representatives of the Body, we all were present when the Spirit was breathed into them. At that time the Spirit was breathed into the whole Body. Just as the arm may receive an injection for the benefit of our physical body, so the disciples in John 20 received the Spirit for the whole Body of Christ. As a part of the Body, those disciples represented the Body in receiving the inclusion, in receiving the compound Spirit. Because we can experience Christ in the stage of inclusion in such a subjective way, in this stage He is more applicable to us than He was in the stage of incarnation.
Not too long after the church was formed, it became degraded. The church should issue in the Body of Christ, but regrettably, as the Epistles reveal, the church gradually became degraded, even at Paul’s time. Because of this degradation, the compound life-giving Spirit was intensified sevenfold to become the sevenfold intensified Spirit (Rev. 1:4; 5:6). This sevenfold intensified Spirit is for the overcoming of the degradation of the church and the producing of the overcomers so that the Body of Christ can be built up in a practical way to consummate the New Jerusalem, which is the unique and eternal goal of God’s heart’s desire.
From the foregoing we can see the history of Christ in three stages: incarnation, inclusion, and intensification. In the first stage — incarnation — Christ was the Christ in the flesh. In the second stage — inclusion — Christ is the pneumatic Christ, the life-giving Spirit. Now in the third stage — intensification — Christ is the sevenfold intensified Spirit. We need to know Christ in all three stages. If we know the three stages of incarnation, inclusion, and intensification, we will truly know the Bible.
