Message 163
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Scripture Reading: Exo. 30:23-30; 1 John 2:18-27; 4:1-3, 6; Rom. 8:16; 1 Cor. 6:17; Gal. 5:22-24; Rom. 8:13
We have seen that the compounded ointment is a type of the compound Spirit. In this message and in the two messages following we shall first consider the ingredients of the compound Spirit, and then we shall consider the function of the compound Spirit. Actually, our main concern will be with the function. But in order to understand the function of the compound Spirit, we need to see the ingredients of this Spirit. Knowing this will also help us to understand 1 John 2:18-27.
If we read 1 John 2:18 through 27 carefully and consider the context, we shall see that John speaks of the anointing in relation to dealing with the Antichrist. Verse 18 clearly says, “Young children, it is the last hour, and even as you heard that antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have come; whereby we know that it is the last hour.” Then in verse 19 John goes on to say that these antichrists “went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have remained with us; but they went out that they might be manifested that they all are not of us.” After this, in verse 20, John says that we the believers have an “anointing from the Holy One.” This indicates that John’s word concerning the anointing has something to do with his warning concerning Antichrist.
John’s Gospel and Epistles were written at a time when different heresies concerning the Person of Christ were creeping in. According to one of these heresies, it was claimed that Christ was divine, but it was denied that He was human. According to this heretical teaching, Christ was God, but He was not a man. This is a heresy related to Christ’s humanity. According to another heretical teaching, Christ was human, not divine; it was claimed that He was a man, but not God. This is a heresy with respect to Christ’s deity. Therefore, these two heretical schools represent two extreme positions.
In his Gospel John declares that the Word, which is God, became flesh (1:1, 14). The word “flesh” in John 1:14 no doubt refers to Christ’s humanity. The Word is God, and this Word became flesh, a man. This reveals that Christ is both God and man. All genuine Christians confess that Jesus Christ is both God and man. Throughout the centuries, a number of great teachers have used the term “God-man” to express the fact that Christ is God and man. He was God before incarnation, but through incarnation He became a man. Therefore, after His incarnation, Christ was both God and man, the God-man.
First John 2:20 and 27 speak of the anointing typified by the compound ointment in Exodus 30. The anointing in these verses is a sign that has its source in the type of the anointing oil in Exodus 30. The anointing oil was a compounded ointment, an ointment containing a number of elements. The basic element was olive oil. We may use today’s oil-based paint as a simple illustration of the compounded ointment. The basic element of this kind of paint is oil, and to this oil other ingredients or elements are added. In the same principle, to the basic element of olive oil the four spices were added to produce a compounded ointment. This compounded ointment was formed by blending olive oil with four spices. It is very helpful for us to know all the elements of this compound and what they signify.
The Spirit of Christ is the fulfillment of the type of the compounded ointment. The Spirit of Christ is the compound Spirit, and this Spirit is the all-inclusive life-giving Spirit. If we understand the ingredients of this Spirit, we shall be able to understand the function of the compound Spirit. As we shall see, the function of the Spirit is to anoint us. This is the reason 1 John 2:20 and 27 speak of the anointing.
What are the ingredients, the elements, that constitute the compound Spirit? The first element is the only God, the unique God, signified both by the olive oil itself and also by the quantity of olive oil, a hin. In Hebrew measurement, a hin is a complete unit. In this sense, a hin can be compared to a pound as a complete unit of sixteen ounces. A hin is, therefore, a Hebrew expression signifying a complete unit. The one hin of olive oil in Exodus 30 signifies the only God, the Creator (1 Tim. 1:17; Rom. 16:27; Exo. 30:24).
One hin of olive oil as the base of the compounded ointment signifies the unique God as the base of the compound Spirit. This understanding is logical and meaningful. We believe in God, but not in the simple way of the Jews. Instead, we believe in God according to the complete revelation of the New Testament. In the New Testament God is no longer merely God with the single element of divinity, for He has been mingled with other elements.
Consider again the blending of the spices with the olive oil to produce the compounded ointment. First, the olive oil was of one element. But after it was compounded, or blended, with four kinds of spices, it no longer had just a single element. It had become a compound of five elements. Of these five elements, one — the oil — is the base, and the others — the four spices — are the ingredients for compounding. This indicates that in the Old Testament the Spirit of God was of one element, and that element was the unique God, the Creator. However, the New Testament reveals that a process of blending, of compounding, has taken place. This process involved Christ’s incarnation, human living, crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension. After passing through this process of blending, compounding, the Spirit of God is no longer simply the Spirit with one element. Now He is the compound Spirit. However, this Spirit still has the unique God as the base. This base, the one God, is typified by the hin of olive oil.
In the compound Spirit we also have the Triune God, the Father, the Son, and the Spirit. Perhaps you are wondering how it is possible to see the Triune God typified by the compounded ointment. In this ointment the Triune God is typified by the three units of the measure of the four spices (Exo. 30:23-24). In the compounded ointment there were five hundred shekels of myrrh, two hundred fifty shekels each of cinnamon and calamus, and five hundred shekels of cassia. Although there were four spices, there was a total of three units of five hundred shekels in measure. But how can we apply this to the Triune God? The first unit is five hundred shekels of myrrh. However, the second unit of five hundred shekels is split in half: two hundred fifty shekels of cinnamon and two hundred fifty shekels of calamus. The third unit is five hundred shekels of cassia. Notice that it is the second unit, the middle one, that is split into two parts. Surely this points to the Second of the Triune God, the Son, and to His crucifixion.
The greatest teaching in the Bible is that of the Trinity of the Godhead. According to the Hebrew language, the first time God is mentioned in the Bible (Gen. 1:1), the word Elohim is used. The name Elohim, meaning God, is in the plural. This is a hint of the Trinity. Furthermore, we are told in Genesis 1:26 that when God was about to create man, He said to Himself, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness.” This is another indication that God is triune. However, it is not, of course, a clear revelation of the Trinity. We have such a clear revelation in Matthew 28:19, where, after His resurrection, the Lord Jesus gave this charge to His disciples: “Go therefore and disciple all the nations, baptizing them into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” Here we have one name for the Three of the Godhead, for the Father, the Son, and the Spirit.
In John 14, 15, and 16 the Lord Jesus revealed the Trinity of the Godhead to His disciples. To a certain extent, He even defined His relationship to the Father and the Spirit. In John 14:8 Philip said to the Lord, “Lord, show us the Father and it suffices us.” Seemingly surprised at Philip’s request, the Lord replied: “Am I so long a time with you, and you have not known Me, Philip? He who has seen Me has seen the Father. How is it that you say, Show us the Father?” (v. 9). The Lord seemed to be telling Philip, “You have been seeing Me all these years, and still you ask Me to show you the Father? Philip, if you have seen Me, you have seen the Father.” Then the Lord Jesus went on to say, “I am in the Father, and the Father is in Me” (v. 10). At that time the disciples must have become at least somewhat clear concerning the Son and the Father.
In John 14:16 and 17 the Lord Jesus went on to say to the disciples, “And 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.” A little later the Lord said to them, “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word, and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make an abode with him” (v. 23). If I had been one of the disciples, I might have asked the Lord, “How can You and the Father come to us and make an abode with us?” Actually, the answer to this question is the Lord’s word concerning the Spirit of reality abiding in the disciples, not only among them. The Lord seemed to be saying here, “The Spirit of reality will come not only to be among you, but also to be in you. When He comes to be in you, that will be My own coming to be in you. I shall not leave you orphans. I am coming to you. My going is My coming back. In that day you will know that I am in My Father, that you are in Me, and that I am in you. Don’t think that the Father and I are two. No, We are one.”
The disciples heard the words recorded in John 14 several weeks before they were given the charge in Matthew 28:19. In that verse the Lord told the disciples to baptize the nations into the name of the Father, the Son, and the Spirit. We know from John 14 that the Lord had already spoken to them concerning the Father and the Spirit. We can see from John 14 and Matthew 28 that before the ascension of the Lord, the Trinity was fully revealed to the disciples. In Matthew 28:19, the Father, the Son, and the Spirit are three, yet there is one name. The disciples were commanded to baptize the believers into the name, not the names, of the Father, Son, and Spirit. Therefore, in this verse the Trinity is revealed.
Returning to the three units of five hundred shekels each in the compounded ointment, we see that it was the middle unit that was split in half. This signifies the putting to death of the Lord Jesus on the cross. The cutting into two pieces of the second unit of five hundred shekels points to the death of Christ. The fact that it was the middle unit, signifying the Son, that was split is a strong indication that these three units of five hundred shekels signify the Trinity. The first unit signifies the Father; the second the Son, who was cut, was put to death, on the cross; and the third, the Spirit. Therefore, the three units of the measure of the spices signify the Triune God. To have this understanding of the three units is to decipher the heavenly language in Exodus 30.
Next in the ingredients of the compound Spirit we have man, the creature of God. This, of course, refers to the humanity of Jesus, or to the Man Jesus. When some hear that man, the creature of God, is an ingredient of the compound Spirit as typified by the compounded ointment, they may say, “There is nothing said here about man. How can you say that man as the creature of God is an ingredient in the compounded ointment?” This answer is that man is typified by the four spices of the plant life (Exo. 30:23-24).
The number four in the Bible signifies God’s creation. A strong proof of this is the four living creatures in Ezekiel and Revelation. In Revelation 4 John explicitly mentions four living creatures. Which of these living creatures is the leading one? The leading one among the four living creatures has the face of a man. This indicates that man is the leading one of God’s creation, a fact that corresponds to Genesis 1. Although God created man last, God made him to be the head over creation. God gave man the dominion to rule all His creatures. In Exodus 30 man is signified by the four spices.
Let us now consider two verses in the New Testament related to the humanity of Christ. John 19:5 gives a word uttered by Pilate shortly before the Lord was crucified: “Then Jesus came out, wearing the thorny crown and the purple garment. And he said to them, Behold, the man!” First Timothy 2:5 says, “For there is one God and one Mediator of God and men, the Man, Christ Jesus.” This word was written by Paul after the Lord’s ascension. Paul’s statement reveals that even after His crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension, the Lord Jesus is still a man.
However, many Christians have the concept that Christ was a man only from the time of His incarnation until the time of His burial. Then, according to their understanding, after His resurrection He was no longer a man. Perhaps you held this concept before you came into the Lord’s recovery. Others may never have given this matter serious thought. They may have been satisfied to believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, the Savior, and the Redeemer, and that, since His resurrection, He is now in the heavens.
Once a brother, a seminary graduate, told me how surprised he was when he first sang the following words from a hymn on the exaltation of Christ (Hymns, #132):
Lo! in heaven Jesus sitting,Christ the Lord is there enthroned;As the man by God exalted,With God’s glory He is crowned.
He hath put on human nature,Died according to God’s plan,Resurrected with a body,And ascended as a man.
Lo! a man is now in heaven As the Lord of all enthroned;This is Jesus Christ our Savior, With God’s glory ever crowned!
The brother told me that he was greatly surprised by what this hymn says concerning the fact that the Lord is still a man even after His ascension. He said, “I graduated from a leading seminary, but I never heard that the Lord Jesus on the throne is still a man and that He still has the human nature.”
We should be very clear regarding the truth that Jesus Christ is still a man. He still has His human nature. It is a very serious matter not to believe this. Therefore, we all must realize that Jesus Christ, our Redeemer, is today both God and man. He was a man from the time of His incarnation until His crucifixion. This was the reason Pilate declared, “Behold, the man!” But even after His resurrection and ascension, the Lord is still a man. For this reason, Paul tells us in 1 Timothy 2:5 that there is one Mediator between God and men, the Man, Christ Jesus.
The unique God, the Triune God, and the Man, Christ Jesus, are all elements of the compound Spirit. We shall consider the other ingredients in the next message.
