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Book messages «Life Messages, vol. 2 (#42-75)»
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How the Lord became the Spirit

  Scripture Reading: John 1:14; 7:39; 1 Cor. 15:45b; 2 Cor. 3:17a; Rom. 8:16; Phil. 1:19b; Exo. 30:22-26

Mistranslation due to misunderstanding

  In the New Testament there is a term that has been largely overlooked by biblical scholars and ordinary readers as well. That term is the Spirit. A number of times in the original Greek the definite article is used with the word Spirit. Sometimes the is translated literally, but other times it is blurred over. In the Chinese version 2 Corinthians 3:17, for example, is correctly rendered, “The Lord is the Spirit.” However, quite often instead of translating the Spirit literally, the word Holy is added, along with three dots to indicate that the word was not in the original. This was done with Romans 8:16, for example; the Spirit Himself is rendered “Holy Spirit” in the Chinese.

  This same verse has another inaccurately rendered word in the Chinese version. Rather than saying “with our spirit,” as it is in Greek, the rendering is “with our heart.” The scholars who did the Chinese translations were well versed in Greek and Hebrew. There were seven translators, most of them British and American, assisted by well-qualified Chinese scholars. Generally speaking, the translation is an excellent one. The literary style and the sentence structure leave little to be desired. What the translators lacked, however, was an accurate knowledge of spiritual things. It would be a serious error, physiologically speaking, if we used heart when we were referring to the lungs. In referring to our psychological makeup, it is no less important to differentiate between our spirit and our heart.

  This distinction between the spirit and the heart is clear in the Old Testament. Ezekiel 36:26 says, “I will also give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you.” The heart and the spirit are clearly two different entities. We should not use the two terms interchangeably.

  In John 4:24 the Chinese translation again shows the lack of spiritual understanding on the part of the translators. Instead of going along with the Greek and saying that God is to be worshipped “in spirit,” the Chinese version has heart-spirit. The Greek word for spirit is pneuma; for heart, it is cardia. We need to maintain the scriptural distinction in their usage.

  Over thirty years ago, one day in Shanghai I sat down with Brother Nee and asked, “Brother Nee, what is heart-spirit?” He replied, “Heart-spirit! There is no such thing any more than there can be a heart-lung. The heart is the heart, the spirit is the spirit, and the lung is the lung. These are all separate organs. They cannot be mixed up.”

  Please be assured that the New Testament books we have translated are not an effort to alter the meaning of the original. Our object is to make the translation as accurate as possible. It takes a great deal of research and consideration to select the right words. We have in hand over forty different English translations of the Bible. Before we decide how to translate a certain word, we check the different ways it has been translated already. Many differing opinions are revealed by the various translations. We also have numerous reference books, such as lexicons, concordances, and word studies, that help us arrive at our translation. We further study the usage of the word in question. How was the word used in ancient times? What is its modern usage? How is it used elsewhere in the New Testament? To all these considerations we add our understanding of spiritual matters. Then we make our decision as to how the word will be translated.

Experienced workers versus language theorists

  Accurate translation requires more than a knowledge of the two languages in question. There must be an understanding as well. Suppose, for example, you have a doctorate in language. You are asked to translate a manual for a computer you have never seen before. You read the manual and understand all the words, but you still have no idea how to make the computer work. The technical terms mean nothing to you. You need the help of the one who is experienced in operating the machine. He may not be very familiar with the manual, but he knows the machine. If you and he work together, you can come up with quite an accurate translation of the manual.

  Those seven Western scholars are like the one asked to translate the manual. Their educational background, both in the biblical languages and in Chinese, was superior. Their Chinese assistants were also scholars in their own right. In spite of such rich literary knowledge, however, they did not know “the machine” they were working with.

  We are the simple workers. Though lacking their background, we have been operating this machine for more than fifty years. When we looked at the “manual” they put out, even while appreciating their scholarship, we laughed at some of their renderings. From our experience we knew that Romans 8:16, for example, must refer to the spirit, not the heart. We were forced to track down the meaning of the original. This meant learning a little Greek. We began to check the reference works too and found out that the Greek word in Romans 8:16 is pneuma. Then we looked up the word heart, as in 2 Corinthians 3:15: “A veil lies on their heart.” We found out that this word is cardia. It is inadmissible to translate these two different words as though they mean the same thing. In scholarly background and literary style we cannot match those who did the Chinese version, but by the Lord’s grace, as far as experience is concerned, we have been touching this machine for many years and are more or less familiar with how it works.

John 7:39

  Another example of a problem verse is John 7:39: “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.” The Chinese translation of this verse again adds Holy before the word Spirit and, like the King James Version, has “was not yet given.”

  At the time of the incarnation, the angel told Mary that the Holy Spirit would come upon her (Luke 1:35; cf. Matt. 1:20). If the Holy Spirit came upon Mary, why thirty-three years later was the Holy Spirit “not yet”? Again, the translators of the Chinese Bible betrayed their inadequate understanding of the Spirit; because of their unfamiliarity with the machine, they misunderstood the manual and therefore mistranslated some of the terms. Christ was speaking of the Spirit; it was the Spirit who was not yet, because the Lord had not yet been resurrected.

  To some of you these words may sound strange. Are not the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit three in one? What does the term the Spirit mean? Am I adding a fourth one to the Trinity? Or, am I saying that there were only two in the Trinity until the resurrection? By no means! Thirty years ago we saw this light concerning the Spirit. We saw that when the Lord Jesus arose from the dead, He became the Spirit. The Scripture clearly tells us that the last Adam, who is the Lord Jesus, became a life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45). Surely this Spirit cannot be one thing and the Holy Spirit another.

  For many years I was groping to come to an understanding of this matter of the Spirit and particularly of John 7:39. To change the translation of the Bible because we do not understand it is inexcusable. Even with the correct translation, however, I still was not clear. The Bible is God’s revelation; it is to be expected that we would find some parts hard to grasp. To know the Bible only from a literary or linguistic point of view is to remain in ignorance of its true content. For many things in the Bible, we need God’s enlightening. Rather than lean to our own understanding, we must seek to experience what the Word says. Year after year I would keep asking the Lord, What is this matter of the Spirit? Why does the Word say, “The Spirit was not yet”?

The anointing ointment

  Finally, I realized that we have a clear picture of this distinction between the Spirit and the Spirit of God in the Old Testament. To comprehend an abstract term like the Spirit is not easy, but by means of this picture I was greatly helped.

Spices added to the oil

  I came in my reading to Exodus 30, where Moses was commanded to make an oil of holy ointment (vv. 22-26). The ointment, I read, was made of a hin of olive oil with four spices added to it. Oil, as I had known for many years, is a type of the Holy Spirit (Psa. 45:7; Isa. 61:1). When the four spices were mingled with the oil, it became a compound ointment, no longer plain oil. We could say that before the spices were blended in, the ointment “was not yet”; there was only the olive oil. It dawned on me that here was a picture of how the Spirit of God became the Spirit. How excited I was to see this! Before the Lord’s death and resurrection, the oil of the Spirit of God lacked the myrrh of Christ’s death and the cinnamon of its sweetness; it lacked the calamus of His resurrection and the cassia of its sweet flavor. When the Lord in resurrection became the Spirit, these elements of death and resurrection were added to the Spirit of God. Do you see how much richer this ointment is than the plain olive oil?

  Believers throughout the generations have been deprived of an adequate understanding of the Lord as the Spirit, of the Holy Spirit, and of the Spirit of God. The Father and the Son, it was generally believed, were persons. Until over a century ago, however, the Spirit was commonly regarded as only a power or an instrument or an influence, rather than a person. In Romans 8:16 and 26 the King James Version has “the Spirit itself” rather than “the Spirit Himself.” To translate this pronoun as neuter is an indication that the translators did not regard the Spirit as a person.

  After the Lord’s resurrection, the Spirit of God became the Spirit. Besides being referred to as the Holy Spirit, new terms are used from this point on: a life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45), the Spirit of Jesus (Acts 16:7), the Spirit of Christ (Rom. 8:9), and the Spirit of Jesus Christ (Phil. 1:19). The Spirit of God, or the Holy Spirit, today is the Spirit of Jesus Christ, the One who was incarnate, who died, and who was resurrected.

A bountiful supply

  This enriched Spirit, Philippians 1:19 tells us, has a supply. The word supply in Greek is difficult to translate; it is more accurate to render it “bountiful supply.” In ancient times the Greeks had singing groups, whose leader was required to furnish the singers with whatever they might need, whether food, drink, clothing, or musical instruments. From him came “the bountiful supply.” When Paul wrote this word, he was in a Roman prison. He said that he would be saved through the bountiful supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ. Whatever he needed, this Spirit would supply.

  Let us go back to the anointing ointment. One of its spices was myrrh, which denotes the death of Christ. Cinnamon, another of the spices, refers to the fragrance of that death. Calamus, the third spice, is a reed that grows out of muddy places. It typifies the Lord’s resurrection. Cassia, the last spice, belongs to the same family as cinnamon and speaks of the fragrance of the resurrection. In ancient times it was used as a repellant, especially for snakes. In the resurrection there is no place for Satan, the old serpent; he and his demons are repelled.

  This ointment, with all its spices, is to be our bountiful supply in our daily life. In it are found patience, humility, love, wisdom, and holiness. The sweetness of the spices will chase away all the demons.

The measure of the spices

  Notice the amounts and proportions of the spices: myrrh, five hundred shekels; cinnamon, two hundred fifty shekels; calamus, two hundred fifty shekels; and cassia, five hundred shekels.

  If we combine the middle two measures, we have three units of five hundred shekels. This is a picture of the Trinity, with the second One split on the cross. Four, the number of the spices, is the number of man. The three of the Trinity and the four of man are mingled together, making the number seven, an addition of God and man in time (as, for example, the seven churches in Revelation). In eternity the mingling of God and man is represented by the number twelve, the multiplication of three and four. This is the number repeatedly used for the New Jerusalem (twelve gates, twelve foundations, twelve fruits).

The Lord becoming the Spirit

  In the Old Testament there was only the Spirit of God or the Spirit of Jehovah. The Holy Spirit as a divine title is not used until the Lord Jesus became flesh (Luke 1:35; Matt. 1:20). In Psalm 51:11 and Isaiah 63:10 and 11, the three places in the Old Testament where the King James Version has “Holy Spirit,” the translation should be “the Spirit of Your holiness” and “His Spirit of holiness.”

  God was alone in eternity. Then “in the beginning” He created. In the fullness of time He became incarnate. After His thirty-three and a half years of human living, He was crucified and buried. Three days later He was raised from the dead and ascended to the heavens, where He was crowned with glory and honor, made Lord and Christ, and became the Head. After all this came the day of Pentecost, when He descended and entered into man. Those who were thus regenerated formed a corporate entity, the church.

  God was no longer alone. He was now one with man. The lengthy process that God went through paved the way for Him and man to be one. Every step was needed. Without creation, man would not have existed. Without the incarnation, man could not have been saved and brought back to God. Without the years of human living, God in Jesus of Nazareth would not have tasted the common lot of man. Without the cross, He would not have solved the problem of sin and terminated the old creation. Without the resurrection, He would not have become Head of the new creation and the life-giving Spirit. Without the ascension, He would not have received the glory, lordship, and headship. All these were the necessary steps for Him and man to be one.

  When He descended as the Spirit, in Him were God, man, human living, death, the sweetness of that death, resurrection with its fragrance and its power, ascension, glorification, enthronement, lordship, and headship. This enriched Spirit is called the Spirit of Jesus, mainly referring to Him in His humanity (Acts 16:7), and the Spirit of Christ, mainly referring to Him in resurrection (Rom. 8:9-11), and then the Spirit of Jesus Christ as the all-inclusive Spirit (Phil. 1:19).

  The Spirit is no longer only olive oil but a compound Spirit, a compound ointment, anointing us (1 John 2:27). The anointing is the moving of the ointment. This rich Spirit, incorporating both divinity and an uplifted humanity as well as all the experiences of Christ, is now our portion. This is the Spirit who is with our spirit. The two spirits become one. The outcome is a corporate man, the new man, the church, enjoying this bountiful supply.

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