The New Testament is a history of the grace of God as the incarnation of the Triune God in His Trinity processed and consummated. We need to realize that Christ changed in His form twice. Christ was originally just God. John 1:1 says, “In the beginning was the Word,...and the Word was God.” Then verse 14 says that this Word became flesh. As God He was changed in form to become a man in the flesh. First Corinthians 15:45b says, “The last Adam became a life-giving Spirit.” The last Adam was Christ in the flesh. Christ was God, and then He became flesh to be the last Adam, and this last Adam became a life-giving Spirit. The first change in form was the incarnation. The second change in form was His becoming the Spirit.
Christ has two ministries: the earthly ministry and the heavenly ministry. Christ’s earthly ministry was carried out by Him in His flesh to the point of His resurrection. From His incarnation to His resurrection was thirty-three and a half years. That was the work Christ did in His flesh to be with His disciples, to be among them. At the end of His earthly ministry, He told the disciples He could only be among them and with them until the day when the Spirit of reality would come. He said, “In that day you will know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you.” In the flesh He was with the disciples, but He could not be in them. He needed to become the Spirit to be in them (cf. John 14:16-20).
In His earthly ministry in the flesh, only half of His work was completed. He needed to finish the second half of His work by becoming the life-giving Spirit. Paul mentioned repeatedly in his writings that Christ is in us. Galatians 2:20 says that we have been crucified with Christ and that it is no longer we who live but Christ who lives in us. Paul also said that Christ is being formed in us (4:19) and making His home in us (Eph. 3:17). This is Christ not only in the Spirit but also as the Spirit.
The Spirit is the consummation of the Triune God. The Father is embodied in the Son, and the Son is the Spirit. Thus, the Spirit is the totality, the aggregate, of the Triune God. He is the consummation of the Triune God. The consummation of the Triune God is the life-giving Spirit. The life-giving Spirit is the pneumatic form of Christ, so the life-giving Spirit is the pneumatic Christ. The pneumatic Christ is the Spirit who is Christ. In Romans 8:9-11 the Spirit of God, the Spirit of Christ, Christ Himself, and the indwelling Spirit are interchangeably used. These are not four persons but one person. The Spirit of God is the Spirit of Christ, the Spirit of Christ is Christ Himself, and Christ Himself is the life-giving Spirit dwelling in us to impart the Triune God into our being.
Today’s theology in Christianity is far short of this divine revelation. We are fighting a battle. Pray for us. My burden to live on this earth is on the one hand, to put out the crystallization-study of the critical words of the New Testament. On the other hand, it is to expose the shortages of the theology in Christianity.
The New Testament is a history of God’s grace, and grace is the incarnated Triune God. In the first step the Triune God became a man in the flesh through His birth by a human virgin as grace coming to be among men for the accomplishment of redemption. In the second step the last Adam, as the embodiment of the Triune God, became the life-giving Spirit through His death and resurrection as grace entering into man for the impartation of the processed and consummated Triune God into the believers, to be the source, element, and essence of the Body of Christ, which will consummate in the New Jerusalem as the glorious enlargement and expression of the processed and consummated Triune God in eternity.
Grace is the incarnated Triune God. John 1:17 says that grace came and the law was given. The law cannot come, but grace can come because it is a living Person. Romans 5 even says that grace reigns (v. 21). Actually, in the entire universe, God is the One who reigns. This shows that grace is the incarnated Triune God. In the incarnation of Christ, grace came. That was the initiation of grace into the New Testament age coming to be among men for the accomplishment of redemption. Christ accomplished redemption starting from His incarnation to His resurrection. He did all this, not in the Spirit but in His flesh. The New Testament does say that Christ died in His flesh, but no verse says that Christ died in His Spirit. Christ has two ages. The first age is the age of His life in the flesh from His incarnation to His resurrection. The second age is the age of His being the Spirit from resurrection to eternity. Within this Spirit there is the element of Christ’s uplifted and designated humanity.
In the second step the last Adam, as the embodiment of the Triune God, became the life-giving Spirit through His death and resurrection. This is clearly mentioned in 1 Corinthians 15:45b. This is Christ as grace entering into man. Christ came in the flesh, but at that time there was no possibility for Him to enter into His disciples. He could only be among them. Before His death and resurrection, He gave a long message to His disciples in John 14—16. In John 14 He told the disciples that He could be among them but that He had no way to enter into them in the flesh. They would have to wait for another Comforter, who is the Spirit of reality. John 14:16-20 unveils that this Spirit of reality is the realization of Christ, Christ Himself.
After giving this message to His disciples, He was arrested, judged, and then sentenced to death and crucified. That was the end of Christ’s life in the flesh. After a short time, He resurrected with His body. He left the fine linen which wrapped His body, but He did not leave His body of flesh in the tomb. His body was transformed into a spiritual body. So 1 Corinthians 15:45b says that the last Adam changed to become a life-giving Spirit. This life-giving Spirit today is Christ Himself, the pneumatic Christ.
Christianity has never made it clear that Christ has two ministries: the earthly ministry and the heavenly ministry. The earthly ministry was carried out by Christ in His flesh mainly that He might die for us for the accomplishment of redemption. He is now carrying out His heavenly ministry as the life-giving Spirit to impart God into us as life for our enjoyment.
The New Testament teaches God’s eternal economy which is the New Testament economy. The entire twenty-seven books of the New Testament, from the first chapter of Matthew to the last chapter of Revelation, are the New Testament revelation. This revelation is the apostles’ teaching, which is mainly of three apostles: John, who wrote the Gospel of John, the three Epistles of John, and Revelation; Paul, who wrote fourteen Epistles; and Peter, who wrote two Epistles. Their teaching is called the apostles’ teaching.
The New Testament economy, the New Testament revelation, which is the apostles’ teaching, implies some main things. The first main thing is the incarnation of God to be a man. Matthew 1 tells us this. Then this incarnated God lived on earth among men for thirty-three and a half years. The four Gospels record this human living. Then He passed through death, resurrection, and ascension. All these five points—incarnation, human living, death, resurrection, and ascension—produce the church. There is an issue that comes out of God’s incarnation, human life, death, resurrection, and ascension. Thus, on the day of Pentecost the church was produced, and the church is the Body of Christ. This Body of Christ is the house of God, the kingdom of God, and the bride of Christ. The church, the Body of Christ, the house of God, the kingdom of God, and the bride are one thing, an aggregate, which consummates in the New Jerusalem.
When we speak of the gospel, we mean the New Testament economy. This New Testament economy implies Christ’s incarnation, human living, death, resurrection, ascension, and the issue of these five steps, which is the church as the Body of Christ, the house of God, the kingdom of God, and Christ’s bride, which will consummate in the New Jerusalem. This is the New Testament economy, which is the New Testament revelation and the apostles’ teaching.