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Scripture Reading: 1 Cor. 15:45; Rom. 8:2; John 14:16-17; 15:26; 16:13; 1 John 5:6; Acts 16:7; Rom. 8:9; Phil. 1:19; 2 Cor. 3:17-18; Exo. 30:22-31; 1 John 2:20, 27; 2 Cor. 1:21; Rom. 8:4-6, 16; 1 Cor. 6:17; Rev. 1:4; 4:5; 5:6; Exo. 25:31, 37; Zech. 4:2, 10; 3:9; John 7:39; 1 Pet. 1:2; Rev. 22:17a
In the previous chapter we saw five aspects of the Spirit. In this chapter we want to go further to see eleven more aspects. Whenever we speak concerning the Spirit, this involves the study of the Divine Trinity. In studying the Divine Trinity, I would recommend chapters 7 and 8 of Elders’ Training, Book 3: The Way to Carry Out the Vision. There are two main points in the study of the Divine Trinity. One point refers to the one God, and the other point refers to the three of the Godhead. The word triune means “three-one.” On the one hand, God is one yet three. On the other hand, God is three yet one. We may say that God is three in person but one in essence.
In the last chapter we talked about the words element, substance, nature, and essence. Another word used in relation to the Trinity is hypostasis. This anglicized Greek word is actually composed of two Greek words—hupo meaning “under” or “below” and stasis meaning “substantial support.” This word refers to the three substances of the Divine Trinity. The Father, the Son, and the Spirit are the three hypostases, or substances, of the Divine Trinity.
A Latin word used to equal hypostasis in the theological study of the Trinity was the word persona. Persona is where we get the English word person. In the study of the Divine Trinity, Bible teachers say that God is three persons in one essence. Regarding the three of the Triune God, theologians have used the Greek word hypostasis, the Latin word persona, and the English word person. These words refer to God being three.
The Triune God is also one in essence. The Greek word ousia refers to the essence of the substance. A table made of wood has wood as its substance, and within this substance is the essence. The Latin word for essence is essentia. The Triune God is three hypostases in one ousia. In other words, God is three persons in one essence. The persons should not be confused, and the essence should not be divided. The three are one in essence. This is why we can say that when the Son comes, the Father comes, and when the Son and the Father are here, the Spirit is also here. Since one is here, all of the three are here because in essence, They are one.
We have to be careful, however, when we use the word person to describe the three of the Godhead. W. Griffith Thomas, the founder of Dallas Theological Seminary, indicates that we may borrow a word like person to define the Trinity because our human language is inadequate, but if we press the term person too far, it will lead to tritheism. It is safer to say that God has three substances but only one essence. I hope that this discussion of these terms will help us in our understanding of the Divine Trinity. Now we want to fellowship concerning more aspects of the Spirit.
According to 1 Corinthians 15:45, the Spirit is the life-giving Spirit, and Christ became this life-giving Spirit in His resurrection. The life-giving Spirit has the ability to give us life. The Spirit is moving, working, and living in us to impart life into us. The life-giving Spirit is now working and moving in the being of the believers. The Spirit is the life-imparting Spirit, working to give life to our whole being.
The Spirit of life is the pneumatic Christ in resurrection as the Spirit of the divine life to His believers. The term the Spirit of life is used only once in the New Testament—in Romans 8:2. The Spirit is not only the life-giving Spirit but also the Spirit of life. The Spirit of life is the reality of life, for this Spirit contains the element of the divine life. Actually, the Spirit Himself is life. Therefore, with the Spirit of life, we have the riches of the divine life.
In John 14:6 the Lord Jesus said that He is the way, the reality, and the life. This shows us that life and reality are related. Reality is life, and life is reality. The reality of our person, of our being, is our human life. Likewise, the reality of God is the divine life. The Spirit of life is the Spirit of reality.
The Spirit of reality is the Spirit of what God is, has, and does. In other words, the Spirit of reality is the Spirit of God’s being, of God’s possession, and of God’s doing. In John 14:16 and 17 the Lord said, “I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Comforter, that He may be with you forever, even the Spirit of reality, whom the world cannot receive, because it does not behold Him or know Him; but you know Him, because He abides with you and shall be in you.” When the Lord referred to “another Comforter,” He was saying that this Comforter was Himself in another form. He was a Comforter in the flesh, but in resurrection He became the Spirit, who would be another Comforter. This Spirit is the Spirit of reality, who is the reality of Christ. He is the real Christ, the real Jesus.
John 15:26 and 16:13 also refer to the Spirit of reality. In John 16:13 the Lord Jesus said that the Spirit of reality would guide us into all the reality. In 16:15 He said, “All that the Father has is Mine; for this reason I have said that He receives of Mine and will declare it to you.” All that the Father is and has is the Son’s, and all that the Son is and has is received by the Spirit. Then the Spirit declares all of this to us to be our portion. The Spirit of reality makes everything of the Triune God ours.
In the sense of worship, God is three-in-one. But in the actual, daily life experience of the believer who is enjoying the Lord, the three-in-one God is one with the believers. The Father, the Son, and the Spirit are three-in-one, and They are one with the believers, including you and me. This is because we are in Christ, the embodiment of the Triune God, and He is in us. In our worship, we worship the three-in-one God. We worship the Father, the Son, and the Spirit as one God. We worship our God, who is three-in-one. But in our Christian experience the three-in-one God is one with us. This is because we are one with the Father, one with the Son, and one with the Spirit. We are all one in the Triune God in one essence. All of us are in the same divine essence because we all have received the divine nature. Second Peter 1:4 says that we all became partakers of the divine nature. Within the divine nature is the divine essence. As we have seen, essence is more intrinsic than nature.
We are one with the Triune God because the Spirit of reality makes God real to us. In whatever Christ is, in whatever He has, and in whatever He has done, He is one with us. Therefore, His experiences have become our history. We were crucified with Him (Gal. 2:20). His crucifixion is our history. We have also been resurrected with Him (Eph. 2:6). Whatever He is, is ours; whatever He has, is ours; and whatever He has done, is ours. We have passed through all the processes that our Triune God has passed through because we are in Him. Even humanly speaking, we may say that the experiences of our forefathers are our history. When a person’s great-grandfather came to the United States, that person came with him and in him. Hebrews 7 tells us that when Abraham paid tithes to Melchizedek, Levi also paid them because he was in the loins of his father when Melchizedek met him (vv. 9-10). Levi, as a great-grandson of Abraham, offered something to Melchizedek before he was born because he was in Abraham. We can also say that before we were born, we were crucified, buried, and resurrected with Christ through the Spirit. Without the Spirit, there is no linking between us and the Triune God. The Spirit of reality is the linking between us and the Triune God, making us one with the Triune God in experience.
Acts 16:7 says, “When they had come to Mysia, they tried to go into Bithynia, yet the Spirit of Jesus did not allow them.” The Spirit of Jesus is a particular expression concerning the Spirit of God and refers to the Spirit of the incarnated Savior who, as Jesus in His humanity, passed through human living and death on the cross. This indicates that in the Spirit of Jesus there is not only the divine element of God but also the human element and the elements of His human living and His suffering of death. Such an all-inclusive Spirit was needed by Paul in his preaching ministry, a ministry of suffering among human beings and for human beings in the human life. The Spirit of Jesus is the reality of Jesus in His suffering humanity. If we do not have this Spirit of Jesus, Jesus will not be real to us. But today Jesus is real to us because we have the Spirit of Jesus as the reality, the realization, of Jesus.
In Romans 8:9 Paul speaks of the Spirit of Christ. The emphasis of the Spirit of Jesus is upon humanity and the capacity for suffering. But the emphasis of the Spirit of Christ is upon the resurrection and the imparting of life. The Spirit of Christ is the Spirit of the resurrected and life-giving Christ. By the Spirit of Christ we can partake of the power of His resurrection, identified with Him in the transcendency of His ascension and in the authority of His enthronement. By the Spirit of Christ we partake of His resurrection life, His resurrection power, His transcendency, and His reigning authority.
Philippians 1:19 speaks of the bountiful supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ. Because the Spirit of Jesus has particular reference to the Lord’s suffering, and the Spirit of Christ to His resurrection, the Spirit of Jesus Christ is related to both suffering and resurrection. The Spirit of Jesus Christ is the Spirit of the Jesus who lived a life of suffering on earth and of the Christ who is now in resurrection. In his suffering Paul experienced both the Lord’s suffering in His humanity and the Lord’s resurrection. Hence, to Paul the Spirit was the Spirit of Jesus Christ, the compound, all-inclusive, life-giving Spirit of the Triune God. Such a Spirit has and even is the bountiful supply for a person like Paul who was experiencing and enjoying Christ in His human living and resurrection.
The Lord Spirit is the Lord who is the Spirit and the Spirit who is the Lord (2 Cor. 3:17-18). Second Corinthians 3:18 speaks of the Lord Spirit. According to the context of 2 Corinthians 3, the Lord is Jehovah God. According to the New Testament, Jehovah God is altogether embodied in Jesus Christ. In Matthew 1 the Lord Jesus was given two names. Jesus was His God-given name, and Emmanuel was the name called by man. Jesus means “Jehovah the Savior.” Emmanuel means “God with us.” Je in the name Jesus is the short form of Jehovah. El in the name Emmanuel means “God” in Hebrew. Therefore, in the two names given to the Lord, there are Jehovah and God. In Jesus is Jehovah, and in Emmanuel is God. Thus, Jesus is Jehovah God. This Jehovah God is the Lord both in the Old Testament and in the New Testament.
Second Corinthians 3 unveils how this Lord, who is the embodiment of Jehovah God, is now the Spirit. Therefore, He has a compound title—the Lord Spirit. The Lord Spirit may be considered a compound title like the Father God and the Lord Christ. This title signifies that Jehovah God, who is the Lord, is now the Spirit. We are being transformed into Christ’s image from glory to glory as from the Lord Spirit.
The Lord Spirit is for our transformation. Whenever we call “O Lord,” we get the Spirit. We can be transformed by calling “O Lord” again and again throughout the day. When we call “O Lord,” the Spirit comes. In the whole universe there is only one Lord. Among all the founders of great religions, not one is called the Lord. The only one who is called the Lord is Jesus. When we call “O Lord,” we get the Spirit, the Lord Spirit. This Spirit is the transforming Spirit. The way to deal with our temper is to call “O Lord Spirit.” If we are quick persons, how can we have a change? We need to call “O Lord Spirit.” If a quick person called “O Lord Spirit” again and again for two weeks, he would be slowed down. The Lord Spirit changes us, transforms us. He transforms us into the image of the resurrected and glorified Christ from glory to glory.
The compounded Spirit is the compound Spirit typified by the compound ointment (Exo. 30:22-31). An ointment is composed of some elements compounded with oil. In the old edition of the Newberry Bible, there is a footnote in Exodus 30 that says the anointing oil refers to the Holy Spirit. The Newberry Bible was put out by the open Brethren. The Lord went on to show us that the Spirit, typified by the ointment, is a compound Spirit. The Brethren saw that the anointing ointment in Exodus 30 is the Holy Spirit, but they did not see that this Holy Spirit, as typified in Exodus 30, is a compound Spirit. This Spirit is compounded with a number of elements.
The compound ointment is composed first of a hin of olive oil. Then four spices are added to the oil. These spices, or elements, are myrrh, cinnamon, calamus, and cassia. When these four elements are blended with the oil, they become a compound ointment. The one hin of olive oil is compounded with four elements. The number one refers to the unique God, and the number four refers to the creatures. Among the creatures, man takes the lead, so we can say that the number four refers to man. Man is typified by the four spices of the plant life. The compounding of the four spices with the oil signifies that man and God are compounded together.
Flowing myrrh refers to the sweet death of Christ. His death is a positive death. The only death in the whole universe that is positive is Christ’s death. The death of Christ is sweet.
Sweet cinnamon typifies the sweet effectiveness of Christ’s death. The positive death of Christ signified by myrrh is very fragrant, full of cinnamon. Cinnamon adds flavor and sweetness to food. If we are not experiencing Christ’s death, our life is not very sweet. When a husband and wife quarrel, that is not sweet. How can they neutralize such a situation? They need to put the death of Christ into their marriage life. Then their marriage life will be sweet. If a person does not have the cross in his daily life, it will be hard to get along with him. The sweet death of Christ needs to be added to our daily life.
The third element added to the oil is sweet calamus, which signifies the power of Christ’s resurrection. Calamus is a reed that grows in a marsh or a muddy place. Even though it grows in a marsh, it is able to shoot up into the air. According to the sequence of the spices, calamus signifies the rising up of the Lord Jesus from the place of death. The Lord was put into a marsh, into a death situation, but in resurrection He rose up and stood up.
Cassia signifies the flavor of the power of Christ’s resurrection. In ancient times cassia was a repellent to insects and snakes. Only the power of the resurrected Christ can repel all the evil “insects” and especially the old serpent, the devil.
In the compound ointment there are five hundred shekels of myrrh, two hundred fifty shekels of cinnamon, two hundred fifty shekels of calamus, and five hundred shekels of cassia. In between the five hundred shekels of myrrh and the five hundred shekels of cassia are two items of two hundred fifty shekels. These two added together form one unit of five hundred shekels. Eventually, we may say that there are three units of five hundred shekels in the compound ointment. The middle unit is split into two parts. This is very meaningful. Among the three of the Trinity, the Son, typified by the second unit of five hundred shekels, was “split,” crucified, on the cross. The three units of five hundred shekels typify the Triune God, and the Triune God went to the cross in the second person of His trinity, in the Son.
The four spices plus the oil are five elements. The five hundred and two hundred fifty shekels also involve the number five. The number five signifies responsibility. This means that the compound Spirit is the One who bears all responsibility. Without this ointment anointing us, we cannot do anything for God. We cannot be responsible for anything pertaining to God. But with this anointing Spirit, we surely have the capacity to bear any kind of responsibility for God’s service.
The compound Spirit is the consummation of the processed, compounded Triune God. This Spirit is for anointing. Everything that is related to God’s worship, to God’s service, must be anointed by this compound Spirit. The compound ointment was used to anoint the tabernacle with all its furniture, the altar with all its utensils, the laver with its base, and the priests (vv. 26-30). The function of the holy anointing oil as a compound ointment is to sanctify the things of God and the men of God, separating them from anything common and making them most holy for God’s service.
The word anointing is used in the New Testament. First John 2:20 says that we have received the anointing, and verse 27 says that this anointing will teach us concerning all things. Paul tells us in 2 Corinthians 1:21 that it is God who has anointed us and that God has attached us to Christ, the anointed One. Since we have been attached to Him, His anointing becomes ours. We are under the anointing of Christ.
The anointing is the moving of the compounded, ultimately consummated Spirit. The compound Spirit is moving within us, anointing us. When the ointment anoints us, all the elements of the ointment become our portion. Anointing can be compared to painting. Paint is a compound, a kind of ointment. When something is painted, the elements of the paint are applied to it. We are being anointed, painted, with the compound ointment, and all the elements of this ointment are being applied to our inward being. This anointing is taking place within us day by day.
The mingled spirit is the divine Spirit mingled with our human spirit (Rom. 8:4-6, 16; 1 Cor. 6:17). It is hard for Bible teachers to discern whether Paul is talking about the divine Spirit or our human spirit in Romans 8. Actually, Paul is talking about the mingled spirit. When Paul tells us to walk according to the spirit in Romans 8:4 and to set our mind on the spirit in verse 6, he is referring to the mingled spirit. To signify the mingled spirit, we may put a small letter s within a capital letter S. Romans 8:16 says that the Spirit witnesses with our spirit. The two spirits are working as one. First Corinthians 6:17 says that he who is joined to the Lord is one spirit. How wonderful it is that we are one spirit with the Lord! We are joined to the Lord, who is the Spirit, and we are one spirit with Him.
The seven Spirits are the sevenfold Spirit, typified by the seven lamps of the lampstand (Rev. 1:4; 4:5; 5:6; Exo. 25:31, 37; Zech. 4:2, 10; 3:9). Matthew 28:19 says that we need to baptize the nations into the name of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. When Revelation 1:4 and 5 speak of the Divine Trinity, the Spirit is referred to as “the seven Spirits who are before His throne.” By comparing Revelation 1:4 and 5 with Matthew 28:19, we can realize that the seven Spirits are just the Holy Spirit. The seven Spirits are the Spirit of God because They are ranked among the Triune God in Revelation 1:4 and 5.
The seven Spirits are before the throne of God. The throne of God is for God’s move in His administration, in His government. We may also say that the throne is for God’s move in His economy. The word economy means “arrangement, household administration, or household government.” The seven Spirits actually are the one Spirit of God who is sevenfold for God’s move to carry out God’s administration. As seven is the number for completion in God’s operation, so the seven Spirits must be for God’s move on the earth. In essence and existence, God’s Spirit is one; in the intensified function and work of God’s operation, God’s Spirit is sevenfold.
Revelation 4:5 says that the seven lamps of fire burning before the throne are the seven Spirits of God. These lamps are the seven lamps of the lampstand. In the tabernacle in the Old Testament, there was a lampstand. In existence it was one lampstand, but in function it was seven lamps. Revelation tells us that the seven lamps are the seven Spirits. Based on this, we may say that the lampstand signifies the Triune God. The gold as the nature refers to the Father. The form of the lampstand refers to the Son as the very form. The seven lamps refer to the Holy Spirit as the expression.
Revelation 5:6 tells us that the seven Spirits of God are the seven eyes of the Lamb. Christ as the Lamb of God for our redemption has seven eyes. Some say that the Father, the Son, and the Spirit are separate. This is absolutely wrong. How could a person’s eyes be separated from him? The Holy Spirit is the eyes of Christ. Zechariah 4:10 tells us that these seven lamps are the seven eyes of the Lord. Then Zechariah 3:9 says that these eyes are the seven eyes of the stone. This stone is Christ.
Eyes are for observing and searching. Christ as the redeeming Lamb has seven observing and searching eyes for executing God’s judgment on the universe to fulfill God’s eternal purpose, which will consummate in the building up of the New Jerusalem. Therefore, in Zechariah 3:9 He is prophesied as the stone, which is the topstone (4:7) with seven eyes for God’s building. These seven eyes are the “seven Spirits of God sent forth into all the earth” (Rev. 5:6), running “to and fro on the whole earth” (Zech. 4:10).
The Spirit is the consummated Spirit as the consummation of the processed Triune God (John 7:39; 1 Pet. 1:2; Rev. 22:17a). Genesis 1:2 says that the Spirit of God brooded upon the surface of the waters. At the end of the Bible, Revelation 22:17 refers to “the Spirit.” This verse mentions the Spirit and the bride. The Spirit is the consummation of the processed Triune God, and the bride is the consummation of the transformed tripartite man. The processed God marries the transformed man. The husband is triune, and the wife is tripartite. They match each other. The Triune God has been processed, and the tripartite man will have been transformed. God was processed by putting on man’s nature, and man was transformed by partaking of God’s nature. God took man’s nature to get processed, and man took God’s nature to get transformed. Man and God are married in their nature. God’s nature becomes man’s nature; man’s nature becomes God’s nature. The conclusion of the entire sixty-six books of the Bible is the marriage of a couple. This couple is the processed Triune God and the transformed tripartite man.
John 7:39 says that “the Spirit was not yet, because Jesus had not yet been glorified.” Jesus was glorified when He was resurrected (Luke 24:26). When Jesus was crucified and resurrected, He was glorified and the Triune God was consummated. After resurrection and in resurrection the Lord Jesus came back to the disciples and told them to baptize people into the Triune God—the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. The name of the Triune God was not revealed so completely until the resurrection of Christ was accomplished. It is in the resurrection of Christ that Christ became the life-giving Spirit, who is “the Spirit.”
First Peter 1:2 also mentions “the Spirit.” It says that we were chosen “according to the foreknowledge of God the Father in the sanctification of the Spirit unto the obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ.” The Spirit’s sanctification carries out the selection of God the Father so that we may receive God the Son’s redemption. The sanctification of the Spirit separates us from the world so that we may enjoy God’s full salvation. This Spirit is the consummated Spirit as the consummation of the processed Triune God.
