In this message we shall cover more aspects of the person of the Spirit.
In the New Testament the Spirit is also called the life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45). The Spirit of God has been processed through Christ’s death and resurrection to consummate in the life-giving Spirit. Apart from such a process, there would not be a way for the Spirit of God to become the life-giving Spirit. Today the Spirit, who is the reality of God, the Father, the Lord, the Son of God, Christ, and Jesus, is the life-giving Spirit for imparting life into the believers. When we believed in Christ, He came into us as the life-giving Spirit, and we became one spirit with Him (1 Cor. 6:17).
The title “the life-giving Spirit” indicates that the Spirit is moving, working, and living in us to impart life into us. The life-giving Spirit is now working and moving in the being of the believers. The Spirit is the life-imparting Spirit, working to give life to our whole being.
The term “the Spirit of life” is used only once in the New Testament-in Romans 8:2. The Spirit is not only the life-giving Spirit but also the Spirit of life. The Spirit of life is the reality of life, for this Spirit contains the element of the divine life. Actually, the Spirit Himself is life. Therefore, with the Spirit of life we have the riches of the divine life.
The way to have life is the Spirit. Life belongs to the Spirit, and the Spirit is of life. These two are actually one. We cannot separate life from the Spirit, nor the Spirit from life. The Lord Jesus Himself said, “The words which I have spoken unto you are spirit and are life” (John 6:63). Here the Lord connects the Spirit and life. If we have the Spirit, we have life. If we do not have the Spirit, we do not have life. Thus, the way to experience the divine, eternal, uncreated life is the Spirit of life.
The New Testament reveals that Christ is life (John 11:25), even our life (Col. 3:4). However, Christ can be life to us only in the reality of the Spirit. Hence, it is actually the Spirit of life who is life to God’s chosen people. The Triune God as the Spirit of life makes sinners into sons of God who become the living members of the Body of Christ.
The Spirit is also the Spirit of grace (Heb. 10:29). This aspect of the Spirit is related to the enjoyment of the Triune God, for the Triune God is Himself our grace. For the Spirit to be the Spirit of grace means that the Triune God in the Son as the Spirit becomes our enjoyment. The Spirit is the reaching of the Triune God to us. The Son could not come into us until He had become the Spirit. He was among the disciples, but He needed to go through death and resurrection to become the life-giving Spirit (John 14:16-20). Then He was able to breathe Himself as the Spirit into the disciples for their enjoyment (John 20:22).
As the Spirit of grace, the Spirit is the reality of grace. In the New Testament expressions such as the Spirit of life and the Spirit of grace indicate that the Spirit is life and grace. To partake of the Spirit of grace is to partake of the Spirit as grace. If we do not have the Spirit, we cannot have grace. The reality of the divine grace we receive is the Spirit of grace.
The title “the Spirit of grace” also indicates that the Spirit is gracious. The Spirit we have received is a gracious Spirit, not a legal Spirit. The fact that the Spirit is gracious is indicated by Zechariah 12:10, which speaks of the outpouring of the Spirit of grace and supplication.
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