In resurrection Christ is the Lord Spirit: “We all with unveiled face, beholding and reflecting as a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, even as from the Lord Spirit” (2 Cor. 3:18). The Lord Spirit may be considered a compound title like the Father God and the Lord Christ. This expression strongly proves that the Lord Christ is the Spirit and that the Spirit is the Lord Christ. The previous verse says that the Lord is the Spirit, and this verse definitely speaks of Christ as the Lord Spirit.
It is in resurrection that Christ is the Lord Spirit. When He was in the flesh, He was not called the Spirit. But when He entered into resurrection, He became in resurrection the life-giving Spirit, and in resurrection He is called the Lord Spirit.
The image in 2 Corinthians 3:18 is the image of the resurrected and glorified Christ. The “same image” means we are being conformed to the resurrected and glorified Christ, being made the same as He is (Rom. 8:29).
Christ’s being the Lord Spirit is for our transformation. We are being transformed into Christ’s glorious image, and this transformation is a matter of dispensing.
Transformation is not merely an outward change. An outward change does not require the addition of the divine life element. But if we are to be transformed into the image of Christ, the divine life element must be added into us. The divine element is added into us by God’s dispensing. God is dispensing His element into us so that we may have transformation and not merely an outward change. Transformation is a metabolic change, and for this we need God’s dispensing. We must have the dispensing of the Triune God into us. Day by day we need to have contact with the Dispenser, the One who dispenses Himself directly into our being. When we have contact with Him and stay in the organic union with Him, we shall enjoy His dispensing of Himself into us. This is all by Christ as the Lord Spirit that we may be transformed into His image from glory to glory.
In resurrection Christ is in the believers. Three verses that say definitely that Christ is in us are Romans 8:10; Colossians 1:27; and 2 Corinthians 13:5. Romans 8:10 says, “If Christ is in you, though the body is dead because of sin, yet the spirit is life because of righteousness.” The preposition “in” here is most remarkable. Christ, the wonderful One, is actually in us. In order for Christ to be in us, He must be the Spirit. According to the context, Christ dwells in us as the Spirit.
Concerning Christ in resurrection being in the believers, Colossians 1:27 says, “To whom God willed to make known what are the riches of the glory of this mystery among the nations, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.” According to the book of Colossians, the Christ who is in us is the portion of the saints (1:12), the image of the invisible God (1:15), the Firstborn of all creation (1:15), the Firstborn from among the dead (1:18), the One in whom all God’s fullness dwells (2:9), the mystery of God’s economy (1:25-27), the mystery of God (2:2), the reality of all positive things (2:17), and the constituent of the new man (3:10-11). What a Christ we have within us! This indwelling Christ is the life-giving Spirit in resurrection. As the Spirit, Christ now is in our spirit (2 Tim. 4:22) to be one spirit with us (1 Cor. 6:17). As the life-giving Spirit mingled with our spirit, He is our life and our person (Col. 3:4; Eph. 3:17).
In 2 Corinthians 13:5 Paul says, “Test yourselves whether you are in the faith; prove yourselves; or do you not recognize yourselves that Jesus Christ is in you, unless you are disapproved?” To test is to determine our condition; to prove is to qualify our status. Paul tells the Corinthians to test themselves whether they are in the objective faith (Acts 6:7; 1 Tim. 1:19). If anyone is in the objective faith, he surely has the subjective faith and believes in Christ and the entire content of God’s New Testament economy. Paul specifically asked the Corinthians whether they recognized that Jesus Christ was in them. As long as a believer realizes that Jesus Christ is in him, he is qualified, approved, as a genuine member of Christ. Second Corinthians 13:5 is another verse revealing the fact that in resurrection Christ lives in the believers.