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Scripture Reading: 1 Cor. 15:3-4, 22, 36-38, 44-45, 50-54; 2 Cor. 3:6b, 17-18
We have seen the seven steps that God has taken in Christ to fulfill His purpose. The most mysterious step is the sixth, the indwelling. It is the most strategic step in accomplishing God’s project. God’s intention is to work Himself into us so that we may have Him as our life, our person, and our content. Then, as His Body, we will be His expression.
To accomplish this, God first of all became incarnated. He mingled Himself with man. Then, as a man in the flesh, He was put on the cross. Satan’s thought was to put Him to death, but Satan did not realize that by the cross all the negative things in the universe were terminated. Sin, self, the old man, the soulish life, the human fallen nature, the world, Satan, the demons, and all negative things were ended on the cross of Christ.
After the Lord was crucified and buried, He rested on the Sabbath day (John 19:31). He had finished everything on the cross and declared, “It is finished” (v. 30). Then He rested in the grave to keep the Sabbath. But on the first day of the next week (20:1) He arose from the dead. That was a new beginning. His death was a termination of the old creation, and His resurrection was the germination of the new creation. Then, by His ascension, He was inaugurated into His position of Lord of all. He was fully authorized to be the Savior (Acts 5:31), the King of kings, the Lord of lords, and the Head over all things. He was officially put into such a position.
After ten days He descended as the Spirit to put all God’s chosen people into Himself. This was the baptism. It was accomplished once and for all on the day of Pentecost (ch. 2) for the Jews and at the house of Cornelius (ch. 10) for the Gentiles. We were all baptized then and made members of His Body (1 Cor. 12:13).
Now the Lord dwells in us. He has to indwell us in order to transform us. However, transformation is not a once-for-all matter. This is something that takes a lifetime. Every day the indwelling Christ is transforming us. His indwelling means His transforming. The purpose of the indwelling is to work Christ into our whole being. We need many messages to develop all the things related to the matter of the indwelling.
After His transforming work, the Lord will come back, and that will be the advent. At that time He will transfigure our body. We have a spirit, a soul, and a body. Our spirit is the organ by which we contact and receive God. Our soul is our very being, and our body is formed to contain our being. When we believe in the Lord, He comes into our spirit to regenerate our spirit. By this He starts His indwelling within our spirit. Then by His indwelling, He spreads from our spirit to transform our being, which is our soul. This is the working of Christ into our being in order to transform every part of our soul (Rom. 12:2). Then the Lord will return to transfigure our body into His glorious form (Phil. 3:21). At that time all three parts of our entire being will be exactly the same as He is (1 John 3:2). Then we will express Him in a corporate way for eternity.
Most Christians know something of the incarnation of Christ. They also know something of the death, resurrection, ascension, and second coming of Christ. Many are confused about the baptism of Christ, but we cannot go into this matter at this time. We would suggest that you obtain a copy of the booklet The Baptism in the Holy Spirit. Some Christians are clear about this matter. But very, very few Christians know something in an experiential way of the indwelling of Christ. The indwelling of Christ is the inner life. Even some so-called deeper-life Christians have never realized much of the indwelling of Christ. But if we do not realize and experience the indwelling of Christ, there is no way to enter into the deeper life. The deeper life is not speaking in tongues or some kind of manifestation of the gifts. It should be the indwelling of Christ. Christ comes into our spirit, and by His indwelling, He is working every day to saturate every part of our being with Himself. This is the deeper life, and this is the inner life. It is indeed sad that today the most strategic matters of Christian experience are fully missed by most Christians.
When Christ came, He was the very embodiment of God. “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God” (John 1:1). Christ is God. Some so-called Christians today do not confess that He is God. But anyone who does not confess that Christ is God is not our brother. All real Christians must confess this. Without Christ and outside of Christ we simply cannot find God. “In Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily” (Col. 2:9). God is in Christ, and Christ is the manifestation of God (1 Tim. 3:16; Heb. 1:3).
Christ was God in the beginning, but He became something else. “The Word was God...And the Word became flesh and tabernacled among us” (John 1:1, 14). God became flesh. Spiritually speaking, the term flesh is not positive. God did not create flesh; God created a man. Man in the beginning was not flesh. It is not until Genesis 6 that we read that man became flesh (v. 3). This was something that resulted from the fall. Man was man, but due to the fall he gradually became rotten and corrupted. This condition of man is called by the Bible, flesh. So we see that the flesh is not glorious. It is a term denoting fallen and corrupted man.
In John 3:14 we are told that the bronze serpent lifted up on a pole was a type of Christ. When the people of Israel were wandering in the wilderness, they rebelled against God. Therefore, they were poisoned by serpents, and many were dying. When Moses prayed for them, God told him to raise up a bronze serpent, and whoever looked at the bronze serpent would be healed (Num. 21:4-9). The bronze serpent was only a serpent in form, not in nature. It did not have the poison of the serpent but only the form. This was a type of Christ. He was lifted up on the cross just like the bronze serpent. In the eyes of God, Christ was a serpent on the cross, but only in form. He did not have the serpent nature. Thus, Romans 8:3 tells us that Christ was in the likeness of the flesh: “That which the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God, sending His own Son in the likeness of the flesh of sin and concerning sin, condemned sin in the flesh.” He was only in the likeness of the flesh. He had only the form, not the poison. In our flesh there is the poison of the serpent, but in His flesh there is no poison.
Christ became flesh in form because at the time of His incarnation man was fallen and corrupted. Man had become flesh, so He also became flesh (Heb. 2:14) but only in form. If He had not become flesh, He could never have been a man. Then He could not have been the Lamb of God to shed His blood for the sins of the world (John 1:29).
So we see that the very God became flesh. Hallelujah! God became flesh, and His name was called Jesus. Jesus was God in the flesh. He lived on the earth some thirty-three years, and eventually He went to the cross in the flesh to take away all sins and to terminate every negative thing. He did a wonderful job in the flesh. Ephesians 2:15 tells us that in His flesh He even abolished all ordinances: “Abolishing in His flesh the law of the commandments in ordinances, that He might create the two in Himself into one new man, so making peace.”
All things were terminated by Him in the flesh. We should not do anything in the flesh today, but He did many things in the flesh. He bore our sins in the flesh. He died for you and me in the flesh. He terminated all negative things in the flesh. He abolished all the ordinances in the flesh. In the flesh He destroyed the devil who has the might of death (Heb. 2:14). God became flesh to accomplish all these things.
God created everything, but Satan sought to poison God’s creatures, especially man. And he did it by injecting himself into man. He thought that he had poisoned man, but he did not know that he was trapped. After Satan came into man and made man the flesh, God came into this flesh and used it as an instrument to destroy Satan (v. 14). He put this flesh upon Himself and went to the cross to crucify this flesh. By doing this, God terminated all the old creation. He terminated Satan, you and me, and every negative thing. He did this in the flesh.
After He was crucified, the Lord was laid in a tomb. That day was a real Sabbath day. He rested because His work was finished. The Jews had argued with Him about the keeping of the Sabbath. They were critical of Him because He did not keep the Sabbath according to their regulations. But He told them that He worked because the Father was working (John 5:16-17). At that time the work had not yet been accomplished. However, when He was on the cross, He said, “It is finished!” He finished the work that the Father had sent Him to do. So when they put Him into the tomb, He could really rest. The work was done. That was the real keeping of the Sabbath. Of course, that was also a kind of death. But death cannot hold the resurrection life (Acts 2:24). The life rose up from the dead.
The resurrection is quite a strange and mysterious matter. There are many among the so-called modernistic Christians who argue against it. But Paul makes it all very clear in 1 Corinthians 15: “Someone will say, How are the dead raised? And with what kind of body do they come? Foolish man, what you sow is not made alive unless it dies; and what you sow, you do not sow the body that will be, but a bare grain, perhaps of wheat or of some other of the rest. But God gives it a body even as He willed, and to each of the seeds its own body” (vv. 35-38).
To Paul, anyone who argues against the resurrection is a fool. To all the scientists, the scholars, and the modernistic theologians, Paul would say, “Foolish man.” Just look around you. Every day resurrection is before you. One little tomato seed demonstrates resurrection. It is so yellow and dry; it seems to be nothing. But when you sow that seed into the earth, it dies. That, however, is not the end. Life breaks through, and eventually there are many colorful and tasteful tomatoes. With the seed, there was no juice, no tomatoes. But by sowing the seed into the earth, we get a lot of juice and tomatoes. This is resurrection. How could anyone argue against the fact that by Christ’s death and resurrection He became something more. Look at the tomato seed. If you sow it, it dies, and then it grows. And it grows into something more. But still it is the tomato. The tomato seed had no form, taste, or beauty. But in resurrection, the form, the taste, and the beauty all come forth.
Jesus was a little man. He was that little seed sown into the earth. He died there, but He rose up in another form. He still has a body, but now this body is spiritual (v. 44). It is just as a tomato seed, which has a body before it is sown into the ground. But when it grows up, it changes into another body, and there is a big difference. When Jesus died on the cross and was buried, He had a body. But when He was resurrected, His body was much different. Today Jesus is no more like the seed of the tomato. He is like the tomato — so colorful, tasteful, delicious, and full of nourishment. Hallelujah! This is resurrection.
Praise the Lord that today Jesus is no more simply a seed. As the seed on earth, He was sown into death (John 12:24). Then through death, He grew up into something more; He became the life-giving Spirit. This is why Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians 15:44-45, “It is sown a soulish body, it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a soulish body, there is also a spiritual one. So also it is written, ‘The first man, Adam, became a living soul’; the last Adam became a life-giving Spirit.” By resurrection Christ was made the life-giving Spirit. So now He “is the Spirit” (2 Cor. 3:17).
In the beginning, Christ was God. Then He became flesh as a seed to be sown into death. Then by resurrection He became the life-giving Spirit. We all need to see this point. In today’s Christianity not many see that Christ became the life-giving Spirit. Christ as the embodiment of God first became flesh, and second He became the life-giving Spirit. In the beginning He was God. But as God He became flesh in order to accomplish redemption for us. Then He became the life-giving Spirit in order to impart life into us and indwell us. He became flesh for our redemption. He became the life-giving Spirit to be our life.
By our natural birth in Adam, we had nothing but sin, and instead of life, we had death. But praise the Lord! Christ was made flesh to take away our sin. Then He became the life-giving Spirit to impart His life into us. Now we can realize that our Christ is not only God who became flesh but also flesh who became the life-giving Spirit. He was God, He became flesh, and as flesh He became the life-giving Spirit. When He was God, He was our Creator. When He became flesh, He became our Redeemer. And now, having become the life-giving Spirit, He is our life and our content.
We all must be very clear that Christ is now the life-giving Spirit. We do have some strong verses to confirm this point. First Corinthians 15:45 says that the last Adam became a life-giving Spirit. From the previous verses in this chapter we can realize that this was brought about through His death and resurrection. We have considered the seed sown into the earth and growing up in another form as a picture showing us how Christ was in the flesh and how by death and resurrection He became something more. This something more today is the life-giving Spirit. Hallelujah! This is why Paul says in 2 Corinthians 3:6, “The letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.” He continues in verse 17 by saying, “And the Lord is the Spirit,” the life-giving Spirit. It is the Spirit who gives life, and now the Lord is that Spirit. It is by this life-giving Spirit that we are daily being transformed into His image from glory to glory: “We all with unveiled face, beholding and reflecting like a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, even as from the Lord Spirit” (v. 18).
Therefore, we must all realize that today our Christ is the God–Redeemer–life-giving-Spirit Christ. The Jewish people have God in a sense, but they do not have Christ. So many Christians have the God-Redeemer Christ, but they do not realize the God–Redeemer–life-giving-Spirit Christ. But praise the Lord that we have such a Christ today! Our Christ became flesh to become our Redeemer, and then He became the life-giving Spirit to impart His life into us. This is the Christ that we have today.
I realize that I am using some new terms. When we have seen some new things, we need some new terms. When something new is discovered in science, new terms are needed to describe it. The dictionaries are continually growing with words. The English dictionary today has many more words than it did one hundred years ago. This is because there have been many more discoveries. It is the same with the spiritual things. There are many things that have never been discovered, but gradually, in these past years, the Lord has been unveiling some of them to us. For these new discoveries we need some new terms.
Do you think that God was God, and that Christ in the flesh was merely Christ in the flesh? And do you think that the life-giving Spirit is someone else so that there are three separate ones? Do you believe that God was God in the heavens and that the Redeemer is someone else by the name of Jesus who came in the flesh to die on the cross for our sins? And do you believe that there is a third, separate from the other two, who is the Holy Spirit? I can tell you that by my experience I gradually discovered that God became flesh to become my Redeemer on the cross, and my Redeemer on the cross is just the life-giving Spirit within me. This is not something that I was taught in a doctrinal way. This is something that I came to realize by my experience of the indwelling Christ.
For some time I simply did not know to whom I should address my prayer. Should I pray to the Father, to Christ, or to the Holy Spirit? I was taught by the Brethren that we should address our prayer only to the Father or to the Lord, never to the Spirit. I was convinced by them, but the more I prayed and the more I experienced the Lord within me, the more I could not tell who was who. At one time I thought I was quite clever, and I would pray, “My Father, my Lord, my Holy Spirit.” But after I did this for awhile, I felt that was really not so clever. It simply did not go along with my experience.
I realize that many of us have the teaching of the Trinity, and I am not arguing against that teaching. But let me say a word. We should never be bothered by our teaching. Teaching is always in the mind, but we must learn to care for the experience of the indwelling Christ in our spirit. Many times we think one thing in our mind, but our experience in our spirit is something else. We should not stay in our mind. We must be in our spirit. Whatever is in the mind is not so true or so real. And it is very hard to relate to something in the mind. But we can relate to something that is real in our spirit. If we are going to experience the indwelling Christ, we must realize that Christ today is the very God who became our Redeemer and is now the life-giving Spirit who is indwelling us. Hallelujah! This is our Christ. Our Christ is a God–Redeemer–life-giving-Spirit Christ. He is our Lord, and He is indwelling us in order to take over our whole being.
