In these messages we will cover a great and profound matter, the divine Spirit with the human spirit in the Epistles, from Romans through the book of Revelation. The Epistles come after the four Gospels and the Acts. The Gospels are a full record of the Lord Jesus Christ—who He is, what He did, what He accomplished, and what He attained. After this, the Acts gives us a record of the spread, the propagation, of this Christ, which is the church as the Body of Christ. In the four Gospels we have the Head, and in the Acts we have the Body, the propagation and continuation of the Head. After this, the twenty-two books from Romans to Revelation present a full definition, explanation, and revelation of the wonderful and mysterious economy of God.
First, we must see not only who Christ is but what He is. The New Testament tells us that Christ is God Himself. John 1:1 says, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” Then 4:24 says, “God is Spirit.” Therefore, Christ as God Himself was Spirit. According to who Christ was, we may say that He was God, but according to what Christ was, we must say that He was Spirit. From the beginning He was Spirit, because He was God Himself who is Spirit. Then verse 14 of chapter 1 says that one day the Word became flesh. Man is flesh just as God is Spirit. By incarnation this very Christ, who was God Himself as Spirit, became flesh as a man. Now, according to who Christ is, we must say that Christ is both God and man, but according to what Christ is, He is both Spirit and flesh. Christ is God, and He is man. Since God is Spirit and man is flesh, Christ is both Spirit and flesh. God became man, and Spirit became flesh.
Christ as God became a man, and Christ as Spirit became flesh because man needed an offering with blood for the purpose of redemption. Man was lost and fallen, so he needed redemption. Only by an offering with blood is it possible for us to be redeemed. Christ as the Spirit had to become flesh in order to be the offering with blood to shed for our sins. John 1:29 says, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” If Christ were only Spirit and had not become flesh, He could not have been the Lamb of God. We need to highlight verses 1, 14, and 29 of the first chapter of John in our Bibles. Then when we open to John 1, we will immediately see these three phrases: the Word was God, the Word became flesh, and behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world. Christ as God Himself became a man, and as Spirit He became flesh, in order to be the Lamb of God to take away all our sins so that we may be redeemed.
However, Christ did not come only for redemption. In the same Gospel, verse 10 of chapter 10 is the word of Christ Himself: “I have come that they may have life and may have it abundantly.” This was the further purpose of Christ’s coming. The first chapter of this book tells us that in the beginning Christ was the very God, but He became flesh to be the Lamb of God to redeem us. However, redemption is not the goal. It is only a procedure for the goal. The goal is that we may have life. For this purpose, Christ took two steps. The first step was to become flesh so that He might be the Lamb of God for redemption, but since He could not be life to us simply as the Lamb of God in the flesh, there was the need of another step. After accomplishing redemption, He took the further step to become the Spirit who gives life (1 Cor. 15:45b; 2 Cor. 3:6, 17).
In eternity past Christ was God, and one day He became flesh, a man, to accomplish redemption. When He went to the cross in His flesh, He was not yet the life-giving Spirit. He was the Lamb of God with flesh to bear the sin of the world and to shed His blood for the cleansing of sin. There at the cross He died as a man in the flesh, accomplishing a full redemption for us sinners in order to solve all the problems between us and God. Because we were fallen, we needed to be redeemed, and because we had become dirty, we needed to be cleansed. This He accomplished by being the Lamb of God who died in the flesh on the cross. This is wonderful, but it is not the goal. It is only the process, the procedure, to reach the goal. The goal is to give us life.
How could Christ give us life and be life to us? It is by means of another step. After being crucified, He was laid in a tomb, and then He resurrected from the dead. In this resurrection He became something else. In His incarnation as God, He became flesh, but now in His resurrection as a man, He became the life-giving Spirit. First Corinthians 15:45b says, “The last Adam became a life-giving Spirit.” We should not only underline this passage but also highlight it and circle it. This verse is vital, living, and basic. It is of great importance, but it has been missed by most Christians today. The last Adam, who is Christ in the flesh as a man, became a life-giving Spirit. This is the Spirit who gives life. Thus, we have the two steps which Christ took, incarnation and resurrection.
We must emphasize this for the sake of the young believers, because today in Christianity many important matters have been neglected. There are many teachings telling people what to do and what not to do, but the vital, living items concerning the life of Christ are mostly missed. In the first step of incarnation Christ became flesh to be the redeeming Lamb, and in the second step of resurrection He became the life-giving Spirit. The Lamb is for redemption, and the Spirit is for life.