In this message we shall cover more aspects of Christ in the Godhead.
First Corinthians 15:45b says, “The last Adam became a life-giving Spirit.” Undoubtedly, the last Adam here is Christ in the flesh. This last Adam became the life-giving Spirit through the process of resurrection. First Corinthians 15 deals with resurrection. Because Christ as the last Adam became the life-giving Spirit through resurrection, He is now the life-giving Spirit.
According to 1 Corinthians 15:45, the first man Adam became a living soul, and the last Adam became a life-giving Spirit. Adam became a living soul through creation with a soulish body. Christ became a life-giving Spirit through resurrection with a spiritual body. Adam as a living soul is natural; Christ as a life-giving Spirit is resurrected. First, in incarnation He became flesh for redemption (John 1:14, 29). Then in resurrection He became a life-giving Spirit for imparting life (John 10:10). As the life-giving Spirit in resurrection, He is ready to be received by His believers. When we believe into Him, He enters our spirit, and we are joined to Him as the life-giving Spirit to become one spirit with Him (1 Cor. 6:17). In this way our spirit is made alive and resurrected with Him.
Acts 2:17 and 21 indicate that if we call on the name of the Lord Jesus, we receive the Spirit. This is a matter not of doctrine but of experience. If you consider your experience, you will realize that when you believed in the Lord Jesus, called on Him, and received Him, you received the Spirit.
Very few Christians have seen that Christ in resurrection is the life-giving Spirit. Some who lack the proper spiritual vision even oppose us when we say, according to the Bible, that Christ as the last Adam became the life-giving Spirit. Andrew Murray, however, understood something concerning this and wrote about it in his masterpiece, The Spirit of Christ, in the chapter entitled, “The Spirit of the Glorified Jesus.” The Spirit of the glorified Jesus is actually the Lord Jesus Himself in resurrection and in glory. When He entered into resurrection, He became the Spirit who gives life. This life-giving Spirit is the essence to germinate a new creation. The germinating element of the new creation is the resurrected Christ as the life-giving Spirit.
Traditional theology opposes the truth that Christ has become the life-giving Spirit. In the opinion of some this is heretical. Actually, it is a truth found in the depths of the Word of God.
First Corinthians 15:45 is a great verse. The Spirit in this verse is actually nothing less than Christ, the Triune God, in resurrection. The life-giving Spirit is the processed Triune God. God has passed through the process of incarnation, crucifixion, and resurrection. Now in resurrection He is the life-essence to germinate the new creation. We have become the new creation germinated by Christ as the life-giving Spirit.
Some who oppose the truth that Christ is the life-giving Spirit try to make an issue of the fact that 1 Corinthians 15:45 does not use a definite article before “life-giving,” that this verse speaks of a life-giving Spirit and not of the life-giving Spirit. However, the crucial matter here is not whether the article is definite or indefinite; it is the clear mentioning of the life-giving Spirit. The modifier “life-giving” makes the denotation definite. Christ in His resurrection became a Spirit that gives the divine life, the eternal life. Do the opposers believe that there are two Spirits who give the divine life, the Holy Spirit and the life-giving Spirit? It is heretical to teach that there are two life-giving Spirits, two Spirits who give life. It is truly according to the divine revelation in the Scriptures to say that Christ, the last Adam, became a life-giving Spirit.
To say that the last Adam became the life-giving Spirit is similar to saying, according to John 1:14, that the Word became flesh. Notice that there is no article before the word “flesh.” Would it make any difference if this verse said, “The Word became the flesh”? In either case, flesh or the flesh, the meaning is the same. In the same principle, the lack of the definite article is not crucial in 1 Corinthians 15:45. The vital matter is the life-giving Spirit. In the Godhead Christ is the life-giving Spirit.