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Scripture Reading: 1 Cor. 15:45b; Rev. 21:6; 22:17c; Acts 16:7; Rom. 8:9b; Phil. 1:19b; 2 Cor. 3:17-18; Rom. 12:2b; 1 Cor. 3:6, 9b, 12a; Eph. 4:16b; Matt. 28:19b; John 14:16-17; 15:26b; 16:13; 1 John 5:6b; Eph. 2:18; 2 Cor. 13:14
We have seen that John 7:39 says, “The Spirit was not yet.” It is difficult to explain why John 7:39 says this. We saw that Jesus was anointed with the Spirit and that the Spirit was in the move of the man Jesus in His ministry to God in His last three and a half years on the earth. Furthermore, the Lord Jesus told the disciples that they would be filled with the Spirit and that the Spirit would flow out of them as rivers of living water. Then John tells us that at that time the Spirit was not yet, because Jesus had not yet been glorified. The Spirit of God was there from the beginning, but at the time the Lord spoke this word, the Spirit as the Spirit of Christ (Rom. 8:9), the Spirit of Jesus Christ (Phil. 1:19), was not yet, because the Lord had not yet been glorified.
For Jesus to be glorified was for Him to be resurrected (Luke 24:26). Before Christ was resurrected, the Spirit who would flow into the believers and flow out of them as rivers of living water was not yet. His being glorified may be likened to the blossoming of a flower. When the flower blossoms, that is its glorification. Jesus was glorified in resurrection. The Spirit flowing into and out of the believers as rivers of living water would not come into being until after Jesus’ resurrection. It was through the resurrection and after the resurrection of Jesus that the Spirit became the life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45b) to enter into the believers and flow out of them as rivers of living water.
We have seen that in the Old Testament the Spirit was the Spirit of God in God’s creation of the universe, the Spirit of Jehovah in God’s reaching of men and in His care for men, and the Spirit of holiness in God’s making His chosen people holy unto Himself. Now we come to the New Testament, which is much more important than the Old Testament.
In the New Testament the Spirit was first the Holy Spirit in two conceptions: the conception of John the Baptist, the forerunner of Christ, and the conception of Christ, which was God being born into humanity. The very God who entered into the womb of Mary was the Holy Spirit. So Matthew 1:20 says that what was born in the womb of Mary was of the Holy Spirit. This was much different from God’s creation, from God’s relationship with man, and from God’s making His people holy. This was God as the Holy One, “the Spirit the Holy,” entering into a human virgin to be born there. God was born into man. God Himself as the Holy One entered into a human virgin and stayed in her womb for nine months. Then a child came out who was named Jesus. Isaiah 9:6 says that this child is called the mighty God and the eternal Father. God was born into the womb of Mary, and Jesus was born out of Mary to be the child who is called the mighty God as the Creator in His creation and the eternal Father as the source of all the positive things.
At the end of the previous chapter we pointed out that through and in His resurrection Christ as the last Adam became the life-giving Spirit to enter into His believers to flow out as rivers of living water. The last Adam means the conclusion of humanity, the ending of humanity. There were only two Adams: the first Adam and the last Adam. The first Adam is the beginning of humanity, and the last Adam is the ending of humanity. First, we were a part of the first Adam, but now we are a part of the last Adam.
We need to see the revelation of the Bible in an intrinsic way. Let us consider the example of a big tree. There is a flowing, a current, within this big tree. That is the juice of that tree. The tree’s story does not depend upon its outward frame, but it depends upon its intrinsic flow, its intrinsic current. The Bible is the divine revelation composed of sixty-six books. There are many things covered in this book, but what is the intrinsic flow of the Bible? The intrinsic flow of the Bible is the Spirit.
The Spirit began to flow from Genesis 1:2. Right after God came to create, the Spirit began to move. That is the beginning of the very current of the Bible through its entire sixty-six books. This current is consummated in Revelation 22:17, which speaks of “the Spirit.” Thus, the flow of the Spirit began in Genesis 1:2 and will consummate in Revelation 22:17. In between these two ends of the Bible is a long current. This long current is the history of God’s move among man and within man. The history of God among man and within man is a current of the flow of the Spirit. The definition of the Spirit includes the entire history of God’s move among man and within man. If we see this, we will understand the Bible intrinsically and get the real significance of the Bible.
Now the Spirit has become the life-giving Spirit. This life-giving Spirit is a wonderful One who came into being through two “becomings.” The first becoming was God becoming a man (John 1:14). He became the last Adam and was called by the name Jesus. Then this man became the life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45b). These are two big events in human history and also in God’s history. In the history of the entire universe, nothing could be bigger than God’s incarnation. That was God becoming a man. Then after thirty-three and a half years this man became something else. He was God, He became a man, and this man became a life-giving Spirit.
In the New Testament the life-giving Spirit is referred to as the Spirit of Jesus (Acts 16:7). This title of the Spirit is concerning Jesus in His humanity, who passed through human living and death on the cross. It indicates that in the Spirit there is not only the divine element of God but also the human element of Jesus and the elements of His human living and suffering of death.
The Spirit of Christ is concerning Christ in His divinity, who conquered death and became the life in resurrection with the resurrection power, indicating that in the Spirit there is the element of divinity that became the death-conquering and the life-dispensing Spirit (Rom. 8:9b).
The Spirit of Jesus Christ refers to the Spirit, comprising all the elements of Jesus’ humanity with His death and Christ’s divinity with His resurrection, who becomes the bountiful supply of the unsearchable Christ for the support of His believers (Phil. 1:19b).
The Lord Spirit is a compound title (2 Cor. 3:18) referring to the pneumatic Christ. This is similar to the compound title the Father God. This does not mean that the Father and God are separately two. The Father and God are one. The pneumatic Christ refers to Christ as the Spirit. Christ and the Spirit are not separately two; They are one. The Lord Spirit is the pneumatic Christ.
The Lord Spirit, the pneumatic Christ, is for the metabolic transformation of the believers into the Lord’s image, from one degree of glory to a higher degree of glory (vv. 17-18). Such transformation takes place by the renewing of the mind (Rom. 12:2b), and this is for the growth and the building up of the Body of Christ (1 Cor. 3:6, 9b, 12a; Eph. 4:16b).
There are many hints in the Old Testament through which we can know that God is triune, but it is difficult to see in the Old Testament that the Triune God is the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. It is not until the end of the first Gospel in the New Testament that we see the composition of the Divine Trinity (Matt. 28:19b). The composition of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit was not clearly and completely unveiled until after Christ’s resurrection. After His resurrection, and before His ascension, He came back to the disciples and charged them to disciple the nations, baptizing them, the new believers, into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. In Acts the apostles baptized people into the name of Jesus Christ (8:16; 19:5). This means that Jesus Christ equals the Father, the Son, and the Spirit. Before the man Jesus became the life-giving Spirit, the Divine Trinity was not fully consummated.
The second of the Divine Trinity is the Son. He is the only begotten Son of God (John 3:16) and the firstborn Son of God (Rom. 8:29). Before Christ was incarnated, He did not have humanity; before His incarnation the Son was only divine. Furthermore, before His resurrection the Son was God’s only begotten Son, not the Firstborn. In this sense the second of the Divine Trinity was not fully consummated before His resurrection. He needed to pick up humanity through incarnation, and He needed to become the firstborn Son of God through resurrection (Acts 13:33). So after His incarnation and resurrection the second of the Trinity was completed, consummated.
Now we need to consider the third of the Divine Trinity—the Spirit. Before the incarnation and resurrection the Spirit was only the Spirit of God, not the Spirit of man. The Spirit of Jesus is the Spirit of man. In the Spirit of God prior to the incarnation, there was no human living, no all-inclusive death, and no element of resurrection. In other words, before the incarnation and the resurrection the Spirit of God was not compounded. It was through incarnation, human living, crucifixion, and resurrection that the Spirit of God was compounded with humanity and with Christ’s death and resurrection. So after Christ’s resurrection the third of the Divine Trinity was also consummated. After the resurrection the Spirit of God is the life-giving Spirit, the Spirit of Jesus, the Spirit of Christ, the Spirit of Jesus Christ, and the Lord Spirit. All these aspects of the Spirit are for the consummation of the Triune God. The Triune God was consummated in Christ’s resurrection, so after His resurrection the Lord came back to say that we are to baptize people into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
The Triune God has been consummated in the life-giving Spirit, the Spirit of Jesus, the Spirit of Christ, the Spirit of Jesus Christ, and the Lord Spirit. So this Spirit today is the consummation of the Triune God.
The Spirit as the consummation of the processed Triune God is the Paraclete, the Comforter, to the believers (John 14:16-17). In John 14:16 the Lord said that He would ask the Father to give us another Comforter. The Comforter is the Paraclete. The Greek word here means “advocate, one alongside who takes care of our cause, our affairs.” The Spirit who is the life-giving Spirit, the Spirit of Jesus, the Spirit of Christ, the Spirit of Jesus Christ, and the Lord Spirit is the Paraclete to us, the One who is always alongside of us to take care of our case, our affairs, and our needs.
The life-giving Spirit is the reality of the processed Triune God (v. 17a; 15:26b; 16:13; 1 John 5:6b). If we have this Spirit, we have the reality of the Divine Trinity, who is processed and consummated.
The life-giving Spirit is the reaching of the processed Triune God to the believers. If there were not such a Spirit, the Triune God would have no way to reach us. The Father is the source; the Son is the course; and the Spirit is the reaching. The Triune God reaches us through the Spirit who gives life.
The Spirit is also the believers’ access unto the Father (Eph. 2:18), the source of the Divine Trinity. For the Spirit to be the “reaching” means that He comes to us. For Him to be the “access” means that we go to Him. This is the proper communication—coming and going. This Spirit is God’s coming, and this Spirit is also our entrance, our access. Without the Spirit there is no entry, no access, for us to enter into the Triune God. For the Triune God to reach us, we need the Spirit. For us to enter into the Triune God, we need the Spirit. This Spirit is God’s reaching; He is also our entry, our access, into the Divine Trinity.
Second Corinthians 13:14 reveals that the Spirit is the fellowship of the processed Triune God with the believers for their enjoyment of the riches of the Divine Trinity. When He reaches us and we enter into Him, there is the fellowship. Then we remain in the fellowship to enjoy all the riches of the Triune God embodied in Christ.
