In John 7 we see that the Lord Jesus, the God-man, attended the Feast of Tabernacles. On the last day of the feast, the great day, He stood and cried out, saying, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink. He who believes into Me...out of his innermost being shall flow rivers of living water” (vv. 37-38). In the next verse John, the author of this Gospel, gives a word of explanation: “But this He said concerning the Spirit, whom those who believed into Him were about to receive; for the Spirit was not yet, because Jesus had not yet been glorified” (v. 39). We need to pay special attention to the words the Spirit was not yet. The Spirit of God was there from the beginning, in creation; the Spirit of Jehovah had come again and again to help the people of Israel in their troubles; and the Holy Spirit had been active in the incarnation. How could John say that the Spirit was “not yet”? Yes, the Spirit was there as the Spirit of God in Genesis, as the Spirit of Jehovah in Judges, and as the Holy Spirit in Matthew and Luke, but the Spirit-the Spirit as the compounded and consummated Spirit-was “not yet” in John 7:39 because at that time Jesus had not yet been glorified. The man Jesus was glorified in resurrection (Luke 24:26). Thus, the Spirit was “not yet” until Christ’s resurrection. In resurrection Christ, the last Adam in the flesh, became the life-giving Spirit, the Spirit that gives life (1 Cor. 15:45b).

Now we can see something concerning the history of the consummation of the Spirit. Although the Spirit already was the Spirit of God, the Spirit of Jehovah, and the Holy Spirit, the Spirit that gives life was “not yet” in John 7 because the Lord Jesus had not yet passed through death for man’s sin and had not yet entered into resurrection. On the contrary, at the time of John 7 He was still in the flesh and could not enter into people to be their life. But in resurrection Christ became the life-giving Spirit, and now He can come into the believers to impart life to them.

In resurrection the Spirit of God was mingled with Christ’s humanity, with His death and its effectiveness, and with His resurrection and its power. The issue of this mingling is the compound, consummated Spirit.

The Bible unveils the fact that the Spirit has become the consummated Spirit. Because many Christians have not seen the revelation in the Bible concerning the consummated Spirit, they need to be reeducated. Some may say, “God is the same from eternity; He has never had any change.” However, the Bible clearly reveals that God, who is Spirit, became flesh (John 1:14). Was that not a change? Furthermore, the last Adam in the flesh became the life-giving Spirit. Was that not also a change? First, God changed in that, through incarnation, He became flesh, and then He changed again in that, in resurrection, He became the life-giving Spirit, and this Spirit is the consummated Spirit. I hope that those who are under the influence of old, traditional theology will be willing to learn what the Bible, our highest authority, reveals concerning the consummated Spirit.

The Bible reveals also that Christ has become the pneumatic Christ. In eternity Christ was God as the Spirit, but then He became flesh. Romans 1:3 and 4 say that He “came out of the seed of David according to the flesh” but that He “was designated the Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness out of the resurrection of the dead.” The title the Spirit of holiness refers to Christ’s divinity, His divine essence. First Peter 3:18, speaking of Christ’s crucifixion, says that He was, on the one hand, “put to death in the flesh, but on the other, made alive in the Spirit.” The crucifixion put Christ to death only in His flesh, not in His Spirit as His divinity. His Spirit as His divinity did not die at the cross when His flesh died; rather, His Spirit as His divinity was made alive, enlivened with new power of life. Thus, while He was dying in His humanity and even after He was buried, His Spirit as His divinity remained active.

In John 12:24 the Lord Jesus referred to Himself as a grain of wheat: “Unless the grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it abides alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.” When He fell into the earth as a grain of wheat, death began immediately. But as His “shell” was dying, the divine life within Him was growing. From this we see that while the Lord Jesus was dying, He was also growing. Without this kind of action, He could not have been resurrected.
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