Scripture Reading: Job 10:13a; Matt. 1:18, 20; John 7:39; 1 Pet. 1:3; Eph. 1:22-23; Col. 3:10-11; Gen. 1:1-2; 2:7; Rev. 22:17; Gal. 3:14; 6:18; 5:25; Rom. 8:4
We have seen that the book of Job leaves us with a crucial twofold question concerning God's intention in His creation of man and in His dealing with His chosen people. In this message I would like to give a further word concerning the answer to this question, an answer which is found not in the Old Testament but only in the New Testament. This answer, given by God in His revelation, is altogether concerned with the Triune God Himself.
The New Testament unveils to us that God's intention in His creation of the universe and of billions of items including man is to work Himself into man. God wants to enter into man to be man's content and to be man's life, nature, life supply, and element. In order to do this, God had to pass through a long process.
The Bible is not written according to human logic but according to God's move. Although God did many things in the Old Testament, He did not move. Rather, from Adam to Christ, God remained in His divinity and stayed in eternity. He did not yet come out of eternity into time to enter with His divinity into man. But one day, after a period of four thousand years in which man had been tried, tested, and proved to be sinful and good for nothing, God came out of eternity and entered with His divinity into time, entering into the womb of a human virgin to join Himself to humanity. This was the first step of God's move. The second step was His being born of that human virgin to be the God-man. After staying in the womb of a human virgin for nine months, He came out of that womb, not only with divinity but also with humanity, to be a human being by the name of Jesus. This human being is extraordinary, altogether uncommon, because He is the God-man.
This dear One, this God-man who is both divine and human, Jesus Christ the Son of God, lived a genuine human life on earth. He ate and drank, He slept, He rejoiced, and He wept. According to the four Gospels, in this person we can see human virtues that expressed the divine attributes. This means that in His living the Lord Jesus achieved the greatest thing in the universe — He expressed God in His humanity.
At the end of His life on earth, the Lord Jesus went to the cross, and He died there. Christ's crucifixion accomplished the eternal redemption of God. Through His death on the cross, Christ terminated all the negative things in the old creation and even the entire old creation itself, and He redeemed the part of the old creation that God had chosen. Not only so, through that death He released the divine life concealed in His human body.
After Christ finished His work on the cross, He went to sleep and rested (although He did a number of things between His death and resurrection). Then He rose up from the dead; He resurrected. Through His resurrection He brought His humanity into divinity (Rom. 1:3-4). He was also born to be the firstborn Son of God to be the leading One of the many sons of God. In His resurrection He also became a life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45b). In other words, through death and resurrection He was consummated to be "the Spirit" (John 7:39). Furthermore, in the resurrection of Christ, all those who were chosen by God were regenerated to be the many sons of God (1 Pet. 1:3).
These many sons of God have become the members of Christ to constitute His Body, which is the church of God (Eph. 1:22b-23). This Body is the new man in the new creation, and Christ is every member of this new man (Col. 3:10-11). This Body, this new man, is a mysterious organism for the processed and consummated Triune God. Eventually, this entity will be enlarged and consummated to be the New Jerusalem as the fullness, the corporate expression, of God for eternity. In the New Jerusalem we can see the mingling of God with man, so that God and man become one corporate entity. In the New Jerusalem we can also see the divine attributes expressed through the virtues of humanity for eternity.
All these matters are involved with the Triune God. In Genesis 1 and 2 we see God as Jehovah Elohim and we also see His Spirit (1:1-2; 2:7). But at the end of the Bible, the One mentioned in Revelation 22:17 is the Spirit. Jehovah Elohim is still there, but now He is the Spirit. The name of the Spirit is Jesus Christ. When we say, "Lord Jesus, I love You," we get the Spirit. Jesus Christ is the name, and the Spirit is the person.
In the New Testament there are many divine titles, such as Father, Lord, Master, Redeemer, Savior, the Lord of all, and the King of kings. All these titles refer to the one person of the Spirit. In a certain regard, the title may be Father, and in another regard the title may be Redeemer or Savior. The point here is that all the divine titles refer, in some regard, to the person of the Spirit — the all-inclusive, compound, life-giving Spirit as the consummation of the processed Triune God.
Galatians 3:14 shows us that the Spirit is the aggregate, the totality, of the divine blessing of the gospel given to us. This blessing is all-embracing and all-inclusive. Such a blessing includes redemption, regeneration, the divine life, righteousness, justification, sanctification, transformation, and renewing.
Today in our Christian life we Christians should just deal with this Spirit. Since we have life and live by Him, we also should walk by Him (Gal. 5:25; Rom. 8:4). We should do everything and be everything by the Spirit, with the Spirit, in the Spirit, and through the Spirit. We should pray by the Spirit, read the Bible by the Spirit, love others by the Spirit, and preach the gospel by the Spirit.
Galatians 6:18 indicates that the Spirit as the all-inclusive grace is with our spirit. We must treasure the two spirits in Galatians — the divine Spirit as the aggregate of the divine blessing to us and the human spirit as the receiver, the container, the keeper, of the divine Spirit. Thus, we need to take care of our spirit, doing everything by exercising our spirit. Then we will experience the divine Spirit living in us, making His home in us, and transforming us. The divine Spirit lives in us to pray, to read the Bible, to speak God's word, to love our spouse, and to visit sinners for the preaching of the gospel. Such a living is the mingling of the processed Triune God with the regenerated tripartite man. This is the divine revelation in the New Testament as the answer to the sufferings of Job and to the great question concerning God's purpose in His creation of man and in His dealing with His chosen people.
