Romans 8:9 says, “You are not in the flesh, but in the spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. Yet if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not of Him.” This verse speaks of the Spirit of God and the Spirit of Christ. Acts 16:7 says, “When they had come to Mysia, they tried to go into Bithynia, yet the Spirit of Jesus did not allow them.” Then aswe have seen, Philippians 1:19 says, “The Spirit of Jesus Christ.” The Spirit of God, the Spirit of Jesus, the Spirit of Christ, and the Spirit of Jesus Christ are not four different Spirits. All these are one Spirit, who is called by four differenttitles.
Please refer to the diagram on page 80. God was in eternity past, and in time He was incarnated to be a man by the name of Jesus. One day this Jesus went to the cross, and as aman He died and was buried. Following this, He was resurrected, which means that He was glorified and shown to be the very Christ of God (Luke 24:26, 46; Acts 3:13a, 15). In incarnation He became Jesus, and in resurrection He was declared to be the Christ of God. Moreover, this Christ in resurrection became the Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45b; 2 Cor. 3:17). Therefore, we have God, Jesus, Christ, and the Spirit.
The Spirit before the incarnation was simply the Spirit of God. When Jesus was on the earth, He was a man, but within Him was the reality of God. Thus, the Spirit of Jesus refers to the Spirit of the incarnated Savior who, as Jesus in His humanity, passed through human living and death on the cross. The Spirit of Jesus is the suffering, enduring, and forbearing Spirit, the Spirit of a proper human living. It is by the Spirit that Jesus was able to live a proper human life, suffering much, enduring hardships, and bearing all the persecutions. Then after His resurrection and ascension, this Jesus was designated as the Christ (Acts 2:36). Today this Christ is the Spirit, who is called the Spirit of Christ. All the foregoing terms speak of the history of the Spirit of God, who today is the Spirit of Jesus Christ.
The Spirit of God, the Spirit of Jesus, the Spirit of Christ, and the Spirit of Jesus Christ are not four Spirits but one Spirit in several stages. In the first stage, the Spirit of God was God alone. In the second stage, God became the man Jesus so that the Spirit of Jesus could be the Spirit of the incarnated Savior. In the third stage, He was designated the Christ in resurrection and ascension so that He may be the Spirit ofChrist. Taken all together, He is now the Spirit of Jesus Christ. Within Him is everything, including God, man, and the power to suffer, endure, and forbear. Within Him also there is resurrection power, transcending power, surpassing power, and overcoming power (Eph. 1:19-22). Also, within Him there is even the reality of glorification.
Acts 16 speaks of the Spirit of Jesus, not the Spirit of Christ as in Romans 8. This is because the events in Acts were a matter of suffering. The apostle Paul went out to preach the gospel, which involves suffering, hardships, and persecutions. This requires the Spirit of Jesus, who is the enduring, forbearing, suffering, and longsuffering Spirit. In order to preach the gospel, we need the Spirit of the man Jesus as the suffering power. Romans 8, however, deals with the resurrection life. In order to live out the resurrection life, we need the Spirit of Christ, who is the resurrecting, transcending, surpassing, and overcoming Spirit. We cannot interchange Acts 16 and Romans 8. It would not be right to say that the Spirit of Christ directed Paul in preaching the gospel, nor is it accurate to speak of the Spirit of Jesus in the context of Romans 8. In hardship and persecution we need the Spirit of Jesus, and to live out the resurrection life we need the Spirit of Christ.
Philippians 1:19 goes on to speak of the Spirit of Jesus Christ. At that time the writer, the apostle Paul, was in a prison, suffering yet having the expectation that he would magnify Christ. In order to suffer, he needed the Spirit of Jesus, but in order to magnify Christ, he needed the Spirit ofChrist. Paul seemed to be saying, “I am now in prison. You Philippians should not be disappointed by this. I have the Spirit of Jesus in order to suffer, endure, and forbear every kind of hardship. I also have the Spirit of Christ to release me, resurrect me, and cause me to transcend to the heavenly places so that I may magnify Christ. I do not care whether I am in life or in death, because I have the transcending, surpassing, overcoming Spirit within me. I have the all-inclusive, bountiful supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ.”
In his translation of the Epistles of Paul, Conybeare tells us that the phrase bountiful supply in Greek has a specific meaning, referring to the supplying of all the needs of the chorus by the choragus, the leader of the chorus. The choragus would supply everything the chorus needed, including clothing, food, drink, and instruments. This was the all-inclusive supply of the choragus for the chorus. Today the Spirit of Jesus Christ supplies us with everything we need. We should not consider the apostle as a mere prisoner at that time. Rather, he was part of a heavenly, spiritual “chorus” with the Spirit as his Choragus to afford him a bountiful supply. The Spirit today is not only the Spirit of God, the Spirit of Jesus, or theSpirit of Christ. He is the Spirit of Jesus Christ, the all-inclusive Spirit. Therefore, He affords us the all-inclusive bountiful supply. He is the secret for us to experience Christ.