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The Lord Jesus told us that He is the resurrection and the life (John 11:25). The life that was in Him, contrary to the life that we were born with, is a life that cannot be terminated. The Jews foolishly sought to kill Him in order to be rid of Him (5:16, 18; 7:1), not realizing that death only released His life in multiplication. Satan’s strategy, in instigating the Jews to kill Jesus, backfired. Rather than terminating His life, death afforded it the opportunity to reproduce. Consider how many millions of people died from the time of Adam to the time of Christ. Though for them death meant the end, for Christ it meant the release and multiplication of His life (see Luke 12:50; John 12:24).
Before we consider how far-reaching the resurrection is, let us answer some questions.
Question: May I ask about the Lord’s table? It seems that we partake of it in a bold way, yet 1 Corinthians 11 says to examine ourselves lest we partake unworthily, not discerning the Lord’s body. What is the proper way to come to the Lord’s table?
Answer: Whenever we come to the Lord’s table, we first have to be clear that it really is the Lord’s table. If it does not signify the oneness of believers, it is rather a table of division. Some denominations will not allow you to partake of their “communion” unless you have been immersed by them. Since such a table does not comprise all believers, it is not the Lord’s table. To partake of it is to eat to your own judgment.
You also must examine whether you are sectarian. If you have a problem with any of the saints, you should not partake of the Lord’s table until you thoroughly deal with it. The context of those verses shows that we must beware of any divisiveness. If the table is divisive in its testimony, or if you yourself are divisive in your relationship to the saints, you must not partake. When there is no division — that is, when the table is the table of oneness and when you have no problem with any member of the Body — you are free to partake.
Question: You have sometimes said that we should avoid friendship. What is the difference between a friend and one we are built with? How do we know whom to open up to when we need to fellowship about a matter?
Answer: Fellowship is a matter of the whole Body. Friendship is a matter of personal affection. Affection easily arises among human beings when we are together for a short time. This is typified by honey, which was forbidden in the meal offering (Lev. 2:11); what is needed is salt (v. 13), which kills personal affection. Salt typifies the killing of the cross of Christ. Do not allow affection to spring up and lead to friendship. Affection sooner or later leads to corruption. Friendship has its seat in our emotions; fellowship is in the spirit (Phil. 2:1).
For all these years that I have been in the Lord’s recovery, I have had no friends. However intimate the fellowship may be between a brother and me, it does not become a friendship; no personal affection is involved.
Learn to turn from your friendship in the emotion to the fellowship in your spirit.
As for the matter of being built up, the real building is based upon growth, not upon physical or emotional nearness. A physical building stays put because it is lifeless, but we often move from place to place. If we are built in, wherever we go we will have no problem with the saints, up to the measure of our growth. The building is related to our growth. Reject any thought that it involves some “flow,” attaching you to this one or that one.
Question: Why do some saints get baptized more than once?
Answer: How we are baptized is not a problem in the church life. As long as we believe in the Lord Jesus, we are saved and members of the Body. This qualifies us to be members of the church. Of course, the Word clearly says that after we believe, we are to be baptized. There is no profit in getting involved in further discussion than this.
Question: How do we deal with our vain, loose talk? If we repent of it, do we still have to give account of it on the judgment day?
Answer: If we see the vision that the Christian life is in our spirit, all vain talk will be over. When we turn to our spirit, there will be no gossip or other loose talk.
Whatever sin we commit, if we repent from our heart and ask for forgiveness, the blood cleanses, and we are not called to account for it at the judgment.
You are probably aware that three Greek words are translated “life” in the New Testament. Bios denotes the life of our physical body; psuche, the soul or the soulish life; and zoe, the uncreated, eternal life, which we did not have until we received the Lord Jesus. The zoe life is in our spirit. The presence of these three kinds of life within us makes us complicated and is the source of conflicts. Bios may feel tired, but psuche may want to go to a concert to listen to music. Each expects the other to go along with its feeling. Zoe proposes that they cease their disagreement and go to the meeting instead; then bios will rest, and psuche will have satisfaction, not with music but with the Lord Jesus.
Zoe is not a condition or a thing but a person, Jesus Christ Himself. “He who has the Son has the life [Gk., zoe ]” (1 John 5:12). This life is the resurrection life.
Resurrection, symbolized by frankincense (Lev. 2:15), is precious in the eyes of God. It is even sweeter than the cross, which ushers it in. It is dearer than the incarnation, which was such a pleasure to God because He thus became one with man. Resurrection gives God more pleasure than did the creation of man and of the earth, even though these were a delight to Him and are the object of His love.
In resurrection Christ is revealed to us. In resurrection God is now energizing us both to will and to do His good pleasure. In resurrection we will all be glorified and be the sons of God in manifestation. The ultimate consummation of resurrection will be the New Jerusalem in the new heaven and the new earth in eternity.
Let us see how the Gospel of John leads into resurrection. This Gospel opens by referring to God as the Word who was in the beginning. Then verse 14 tells us that “the Word became flesh.” John ushers us out of eternity, where the Word was, and into time, where the Word became flesh. This One, who dwelt among us, “full of grace and reality,” was the supreme attraction to His disciples for the three and a half years He was with them. Then He told them that He was going away (13:33; 14:2). What He really meant was that He would become something further. As the Word, He had become flesh. Now He was to become the Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45).
Even as early as the third chapter of John, the thought begins to change from the flesh to the spirit. When Nicodemus came to converse with Him, the Lord’s reply was, “Unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit” (vv. 5-6). Nicodemus could interpret the need to be born again only in a physical way, but the Lord said that the one born of the Spirit is like the wind, making a sound but not visible. Notice this turn here from the physical to the spiritual.
Chapter 6 of John further points us to the Spirit. The Lord said that He was the living bread. “If anyone eats of this bread, he shall live forever; and the bread which I will give is My flesh, given for the life of the world” (v. 51). The Jews, like Nicodemus, took His words literally, in a physical sense, and could not figure out how this man could give them His flesh to eat. The Lord explained this “hard word” about eating His flesh and drinking His blood to His disciples in verse 63 by again turning them to the Spirit: “It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing; the words which I have spoken to you are spirit and are life.” He meant that what He would give them to eat was not the meat of His physical body; that meat, “the flesh,” was of no avail. What was in store for them was Himself as the Spirit.
John 14 continues directing the disciples away from the flesh and toward the Spirit: “I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Comforter, that He may be with you forever, even the Spirit of reality...you know Him, because He abides with you and shall be in you. I will not leave you as orphans; I am coming to you. Yet a little while and the world beholds Me no longer, but you behold Me; because I live, you also shall live. In that day you will know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you” (vv. 16-20). If you study these verses carefully, you will see that “another Comforter” is simply the Lord Himself coming back as the Spirit of reality. He said, “I am going to the Father” (v. 12) and then “I am coming to you” (v. 18). The One who was coming was the very One who was going away. Not only the Spirit of reality “shall be in you” (v. 17); in that day the disciples would know “that I am...in you” (v. 20). The Spirit of reality and I clearly refer to the same person.
Do you realize that the Spirit is the reality of Christ? When you have the Spirit, you have Christ. When you call on the name of the Lord Jesus, the Spirit comes. By calling “Lord Jesus,” you have the person of Jesus, who is the Spirit.
The Lord’s earthly life lasted thirty-three and a half years. After that period of time He was ready, by undergoing death and resurrection, to become the Spirit. The last Adam, the One who was the Word become flesh, in resurrection became a life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45).
On the evening of the very day He was resurrected, He came back to the disciples as the Spirit. Though the disciples had the doors shut for fear of the Jews, Jesus somehow appeared in their midst. In this new form He did not need to come in through the door. After talking with them and showing them His hands and His side, “He breathed into them and said to them, Receive the Holy Spirit” (John 20:22). Here is the last Adam in resurrection, as the life-giving Spirit being breathed into the disciples.
The resurrection mentioned in the New Testament is this very resurrected One. He is both God and man. While He was on this earth, He lived in humanity by God. Then He entered into death. With Him man and all creation passed through death. His death was all-inclusive. Likewise, He brought us all with Him into resurrection.
Noah and the ark typify this all-inclusive death and resurrection. Noah, his family, and all the creatures entered the ark, which represents Christ. The ark and all those who were inside then passed through the death waters. When the ark landed on the mountains of Ararat (Gen. 8:4), all those who were within also came to rest there. In typology this is Christ in resurrection. Not only did Christ enter into resurrection; all those included in Him — mankind and all creation — did also.
The resurrection into which Christ entered through death is the all-inclusive Spirit. These words may seem strange, but some verses may help to make the meaning clear. When the Lord spoke of “rivers of living water” flowing out of those who came to Him and drank, “this He said concerning the Spirit, whom those who believed into Him were about to receive; for the Spirit was not yet, because Jesus had not yet been glorified” (John 7:37-39). We know that Jesus was glorified when He was resurrected. What Spirit is this that “was not yet” before the resurrection?
The anointing ointment described in Exodus 30:23-25 (see chapter 8) is a picture of this very Spirit. Before the death and resurrection of Christ, the Spirit of God was in type only the olive oil. But now the olive oil has four spices added to it, making it a compound ointment. What are these four spices that have been compounded into the Spirit of God? They represent the humanity, death, and resurrection of Christ. This enriched Spirit is the resurrection, the endless and indestructible life. Our life has an end, but the resurrection life is an endless life. This indestructible life is the all-inclusive Spirit, the Spirit of God compounded with the death, resurrection, and humanity of Christ. This compounded Spirit is the Lord Jesus today.
Where is this One who is the resurrection and the all-inclusive Spirit? Jesus Christ today is in our spirit (2 Tim. 4:22). Romans 8:16 says, “The Spirit...with our spirit.” The Spirit is not with our mind or with our heart but with our spirit. This very One, who is the endless, indestructible life, is in our spirit.
How can you identify your spirit? It is the part of you that is still there after you deduct your mind, your emotions, and your will. Suppose, for example, you are deciding whether to go to the meeting. Your mind says no; it is tired of meetings. Your emotions are not in favor of going either; they choose to go along with the mind. Your will is also in agreement with the mind and emotions that you should not go. Even your heart declares that it wants to rest and joins the others in voting to stay home. Now, if you deduct the feelings in your mind, emotions, will, and heart, you will sense that there is yet another part of you welling up to say that it would like to go and asking you to disregard the opinions of your mind, emotions, will, and heart. This is your spirit.
Here is another illustration. Suppose there is a brother whose ways do not appeal to you. Your emotions say, “I cannot stand him.” Your will says, “His manner is obnoxious.” Your mind says, “I have no use for such an illogical person.” Your heart says, “The less I see of him, the better.” But after you subtract all these negative reactions, there is still a part within that says, “There is something about him that I like. I cannot despise and disregard him.” Do you see how your spirit is distinct from your emotions, will, mind, and heart?
The Spirit with our spirit! Here is the Christian life — victory, sanctification, the Lord’s presence, and all that He is. Romans 8:4 tells us that we are not to walk according to flesh but according to spirit. The mind set on the spirit is life and peace (v. 6). When we walk according to this Spirit with our spirit, God is pleased.
