Romans 8 concerns the all-inclusive Spirit giving life to our three parts for the goal of conforming us to the image of the firstborn Son of God. The sole function of the all-inclusive Spirit is to impart zoe, the divine life, into us. We are not born with the divine life. By birth we have only bios, the outward physical life, in our bodies, and psuche, the inward soul-life, in our souls. According to Romans 8, the divine life is dispensed into our spirit, mind, and body (vv. 10, 6, 11). God’s way is to spread from within to without. God came into our spirit as life at the time of our regeneration. From our spirit He spreads into our mind, the leading part of our soul. Then through our mind He spreads into our physical body.
Today nearly no one knows that in addition to our body and our soul, we have another organ, our human spirit. However, the Bible reveals that man is a trichotomy. Some say that the soul and the spirit are synonyms, but in 1 Thessalonians 5:23 Paul writes, “May your spirit and soul and body be preserved complete, without blame, at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.” In God’s Plan of Redemption Mary E. McDonough uses three concentric circles to illustrate man’s spirit, soul, and body. It is quite meaningful that God is triune and that we human beings are tripartite. Only the tripartite man can match the Triune God. Our spirit is the inmost part of our being. Romans 8:6 says that our mind is life, and verse 10 says that the spirit is life. The context of verse 10 indicates that the spirit here refers not to the Holy Spirit but to our human spirit. First Peter 3:4 says that there is a hidden man in our heart. The hidden man of our heart is our human spirit. In John 4:24 the Lord said, “God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truthfulness.” We must worship God, who is Spirit, with our spirit. Only spirit can worship Spirit.
Romans 8 also reveals that the ultimate consummation of the processed Triune God is the all-inclusive Spirit as the Spirit of life, the Spirit of God, the Spirit of Christ, and the Spirit of the resurrecting One (vv. 2, 9, 11). The all-inclusive Spirit brings the divine life into us, just as the current of electricity brings electricity into a building. The current of electricity is electricity itself, for the current of electricity and electricity are inseparable. Likewise, the Spirit of God is God Himself, the Spirit of Christ is Christ Himself, the Spirit of the resurrecting One is resurrection itself, and the Spirit of life is life itself. The current of electricity may also be defined as electricity in motion. Similarly, the all-inclusive Spirit is the Triune God in motion. Traditional theology does not define the Trinity in these terms, but after studying the Bible and experiencing the Spirit for over fifty years, I have the full assurance and the boldness to say that the Spirit is God in motion. When God moves to reach us, He is the Spirit. Just as electricity moves as a current from the power plant to a building and is applied to the building for all its needs, our God is in motion, reaching and energizing each of us as the all-inclusive Spirit.
The Spirit carries and transmits the divine life into us. Many Christians today emphasize spiritual gifts such as speaking in tongues, but the greatest gift is the Triune God as life. Some Christians are concerned mainly with spiritual power. However, nothing is more capable or powerful than life. When a tiny carnation seed is sown into the earth, it grows and blossoms into a beautiful flower. The life of a bird has the power to fly. Thus, life is more excellent than gifts or power.
Romans 8 concerns zoe, the highest life. The account in Genesis 1 and 2 mentions every form of life from lowest to highest. God first created the lowest life, the plant life (1:11). Next, He created the animals—first the fish, then the birds, and lastly the cattle and land animals (vv. 20-21, 24-25). After creating all the animal lives, God created the human life (vv. 26-27). Then Genesis 2:9 mentions the tree of life, signifying zoe, the divine life. We were created with the human life, and we are reborn with the divine life. Thus, all believers possess the two highest kinds of life—the human life and the divine life.
Through regeneration we have received God’s life (John 1:12-13; 3:3, 5-6). We have the life of God but not the Godhead, just as a child has the father’s life but not the father’s position. Although we do not have God’s position, we can boldly declare that we have His divine life. According to God’s economy, the believers have two statuses and two lives. We were created as humans with the human life, and we were reborn as children of God with the divine life. We are descendants of man and of God. God is our Father and our origin because we have been born of God.
By the time we were born of God, He was no longer the same as He was in Genesis 1:1. We were born of the God who created the universe, was incarnated, lived on the earth as a man for thirty-three and a half years, passed through an all-inclusive death in which He took care of all the problems in the universe, overcame death to enter into resurrection and release the divine life, and was glorified and enthroned in ascension. Because God had accomplished everything before we were born of Him, all His processes are the qualifications of our status. We were born of the processed God.
The term the processed God may be new to some of us. Some may point out that this term does not occur in traditional theology, which is based on the early Christian creeds. However, after studying and experiencing the truth in the Bible for over fifty years, I must testify that traditional theology and the early creeds are inadequate. I have experienced much more of the Triune God than the creeds afford. I am not teaching anything heretical but only the truths according to the pure and complete divine revelation in the Bible. Romans 8 unveils to us that God has passed through many processes—His work of creation, incarnation, human living, crucifixion, burial, resurrection, and ascension. After all these processes, He reached us and entered into us as the all-inclusive, consummated Spirit, referred to in the New Testament as the Spirit (John 7:39; Rev. 2:7). Genesis 1:2 mentions the Spirit of God. However, Revelation 22:17 says, “The Spirit and the bride say, Come!” Thus, the Bible begins with the Spirit of God, and it ends with the Spirit. The Spirit is the all-inclusive, ultimate consummation of the Triune God. After all His processes the Triune God is now the Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45; 2 Cor. 3:17). The Spirit is revealed in Romans 8 as the all-inclusive Spirit—the Spirit of life, the Spirit of God, the Spirit of Christ, and the Spirit of the resurrecting One.
The all-inclusive Spirit is the ultimate expression of the Triune God, and He is waiting for man to receive Him. The way to receive the Spirit is to believe in Christ. As soon as we call on the Lord and accept Him as our Redeemer and Savior, the all-inclusive Spirit enters into us, indwells our spirit, becomes one with our spirit, and imparts the divine life into our spirit. Then from our spirit He spreads into our mind to make our mind life. Through our mind He will spread into our body, saturating every part of our body with the divine life. Thus, we will become persons of the divine life.