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I. The processed God
А. Becoming a life-giving Spirit
B. A definite process
II. Christ and the Spirit being one
III. Christ as the indwelling Spirit
IV. Christ never leaving the believers
First Corinthians 15:45b is one of the most crucial verses in the Bible. It says, "The last Adam became a life-giving Spirit." The "last Adam" refers to Christ. The word "became" implies that a process has taken place for Him to be the life-giving Spirit. Today, if you ask people who God is, some will say that He is the Creator. Others may say that He is also our Redeemer and Savior. Not many will say that God is the Spirit.
As the Spirit, God is not simple, for He is the all-inclusive life-giving Spirit. This Spirit includes divinity, humanity, human living, crucifixion, and resurrection. This Spirit is the all-inclusive compound Spirit we saw in the previous lessons.
[In eternity past God existed alone. Then, in time, He created all things. At a certain point in history, this creating God, the Creator of all, became a man. This crucial step is called incarnation. By means of incarnation, God put on man with all of creation, for man is the head of creation. The Lord Jesus, God incarnate, lived on earth for thirty-three and a half years. When He was crucified, all creation was crucified with Him. This means that not only did Christ go to the cross, but the very man God had put on Himself with the entire creation went to the cross with Him. Therefore, Christ's death on the cross was an all-inclusive crucifixion. After His crucifixion, Christ was buried in a tomb. The man and the creation which were crucified with Christ were also buried in that tomb. After three days, Christ arose from the dead in His resurrection. Through resurrection and in resurrection He became the life-giving Spirit. Furthermore, in His ascension to the third heaven, He was crowned and became the Head and the Lord over all. Then He descended upon His Body as the all-inclusive Spirit.
Because God, after completing the work of creation, passed through incarnation, human living, crucifixion, resurrection, ascension, and descension, we may speak of Him as the processed God. The diagram portrays the process through which He has passed.]
[The Process of the Divine Economy]
[Some find fault with the word "processed" and argue that it is impossible for God to be processed because He is eternal and unchanging. Although God is eternal and unchanging, He has nevertheless passed through a process. Was not incarnation a process? From eternity past until the incarnation of Christ, God did not have a body of flesh. But when He was born in a manger, He was the mighty God incarnated as a baby. According to Isaiah 9:6, the child born to us is called the mighty God....this child, God incarnate, lived in a carpenter's home for years. Imagine that the Creator of the universe lived in the home of a carpenter in Nazareth! Was that not a process? Likewise, were not the crucifixion and resurrection a process? God certainly was processed through Christ's incarnation, human living, crucifixion, and resurrection. Our God today is not a "raw" God, but a processed God. Today He is the all-inclusive life-giving Spirit.]
[First Corinthians 15:45b says that the last Adam became a life-giving Spirit. Second Corinthians 3:17 tells us that now the Lord is the Spirit. The last Adam in 1 Corinthians 15:45b and the Lord in 2 Corinthians 3:17 both refer to Christ. This indicates clearly that today Christ and the Spirit are one.]
[The One who was crucified on the cross was Christ, but the One who entered into the believers was the Spirit. In crucifixion for the believers' redemption He was Christ, but in the indwelling to be the believers' life He is the Spirit. This is the all-inclusive life-giving Spirit, who is the all-inclusive and ultimate blessing of the gospel.] [Because many are not clear concerning this, they talk about a so-called second blessing, or about receiving the Spirit apart from regeneration. When some Christians learn that another has believed in Christ, they proceed to ask him if he has received the Holy Spirit. However, to be a genuine Christian is to believe in Christ and to receive the Spirit. To be a real Christian is to believe in Christ, and to believe in Christ is to receive the Spirit. Nevertheless, those who regard Christ as separate and distinct from the Spirit may consider that it is possible to believe in Christ without receiving the Spirit. This is a serious misunderstanding!]
[When we believed in the Lord Jesus and received Him as our Redeemer, it was the life-giving Spirit who came into us. Many believers do not realize that they received the Lord Jesus not only as the Redeemer and the Savior, but also as the life-giving Spirit. When we believed in the Lord Jesus, we knew that we were sinful. Therefore, we prayed, repented, confessed, and received Him as our Redeemer. However, we were not told that He would come into us to be our life. At least I was not told this when I believed in Him. However, I later found out that after believing in Him, there was something inside me that made me happy and joyful. Sometimes I even felt like leaping. Have you not had this experience? This is the experience of Christ as the life-giving Spirit. Although we received Him as our Redeemer, He came into us not only as our Redeemer, but also as the life-giving Spirit. Today He is in us mainly as the life-giving Spirit.
If you ask believers where their Redeemer, the Lord Jesus, is, many lift up their eyes, point to heaven, and say, "He is in heaven." Rarely do you find a Christian who, when asked where the Lord Jesus is, will say with rejoicing, "Christ is in me!" If you ask me where my Jesus is, I will say, "Jesus my Redeemer is, on the one hand, in the heavens as my Lord and, on the other hand, in me as the life-giving Spirit." For this reason sometimes I am rejoicing, bubbling, and even beside myself with joy. Rejoice, Jesus Christ is the life-giving Spirit within us! Before coming into the churches, you probably never heard that the Redeemer became a life-giving Spirit. But there is a verse in the Bible telling us that the last Adam became the life-giving Spirit. It seems that those in Christianity do not have the second part of 1 Corinthians 15:45. After completing the work of redemption, Christ became the life-giving Spirit.]
John 20 is the first account of the Lord coming to the believers as the life-giving Spirit. The disciples were gathered together in an upper room with all the doors shut for fear of the Jews. Three days earlier they had seen the Lord Jesus crucified.
[Suddenly Jesus was standing among them and saying, "Peace be to you"! His words were few, but He breathed into them and said, "Receive the Holy Spirit" (John 20:22). His words could also be translated, "Receive the holy breath." A few more words, and He was gone. He came in without anyone's opening the door; He left without saying good-bye. It was not that He went away. Rather, He entered into them as the holy breath. From then on, wherever the disciples were, Jesus was also there. He was within them! Here is Christ in resurrection becoming the indwelling Spirit.]
[We can all be assured that this Christ is within us. Wherever we go, He is within. When we are happy with Him, attending the meetings, praying, and pray-reading, we may not have a strong sense that He is within. But if we go against Him, He will appear to us in a strong way. If we go to a movie or to a gambling casino, He will speak to us from within, "What are you doing here?" Our Lord is real, living, present, and within. We do not have a religion. What need have we for a religion? We have the living Christ! He is what we need and what we have.
He is real, living, and powerful, yet kind, loving, and patient. We must not think that if we offend Him, He will leave. The more we offend Him, the more He will convince us that He will never leave!]
The Lord who we should enjoy each day is no longer just in the heavens. He has gone through a great process to become the life-giving Spirit. As such a Spirit, He can come to dwell within our spirit and give life to us. The life He gives is the life of the Triune God Himself. What a Spirit we have! He is the all-inclusive, compound, life-giving, indwelling Spirit who is the processed Triune God!
The last Adam becoming a life-giving Spirit indicates that God has gone through a process. God has passed through incarnation, human living, crucifixion, and resurrection to become the life-giving Spirit. Christ comes as this Spirit to enter into the believers. This indwelling Christ is within the believers for their experience and will never leave.
