In addition, Christ died on the cross as a grain of wheat, sown into man’s heart. This is the seventh aspect. As a grain of wheat, He died to release the divine life and to enliven God’s redeemed ones, to produce many grains that can be blended together into a loaf to be offered to God. This loaf is the very church, the Body of Christ (1 Cor. 10:17).
All of us need to see such a vision. Christ died on the cross as at least seven items: as the Lamb of God, as a Man in the flesh, as the last Adam, as a creature, as a serpent in form, as the Peacemaker, and as a grain of wheat. On the negative side, He died to terminate all the negative things, and on the positive side, He died to release the divine life to produce the church. This is our vision.
After such an all-inclusive death, Christ entered into resurrection. In His resurrection He became a life-giving Spirit, who is the very consummation of the Triune God. The life-giving Spirit is the germinating Spirit because to give life is to germinate. Not only did Christ become the life-giving Spirit to impart life to all of His believers, but also in resurrection He became the firstborn Son of God to bring forth many sons of God to be His many brothers (Rom. 8:29). This is a crucial point in our vision concerning Christ.
Concerning the Spirit, we have seen that He is the Spirit of God in God’s creation (Gen. 1:2), and that He is also the Spirit of Jehovah in God’s relationship with man (Judg. 3:10). In God’s creation, He is the Spirit of God, and in God’s relationship with man, He is the Spirit of Jehovah.
In the initiation of God’s New Testament economy, the Spirit is the Holy Spirit. The birth of John the Baptist and the birth of Jesus Christ are the initiation of God’s New Testament economy. In this initiation, the Spirit is the Holy Spirit with whom the forerunner of God’s New Testament economy, John the Baptist, was filled (Luke 1:15) and of whom the Savior, Jesus Christ, was conceived and born (Luke 1:35; Matt. 1:18, 20). Jesus was also anointed with this Holy Spirit to live and to minister to carry out a part of the New Testament ministry (Luke 3:22).
In the glorification (i.e., resurrection, Luke 24:26) of Jesus, the Spirit is “the Spirit” (John 7:39). We have seen that in God’s creation, He is the Spirit of God; in God’s relationship with man, He is the Spirit of Jehovah; in the initiation of the New Testament economy, He is the Holy Spirit; and in the glorification of Jesus, He is the Spirit. Here the Spirit is the consummation of the processed God who has passed through incarnation, human living, death and resurrection. From this point onward, He is called the Spirit of Jesus in Acts 16:7, the Spirit of Christ in Romans 8:9, the Spirit of Jesus Christ in Philippians 1:19, the Spirit of the Lord in 2 Corinthians 3:17, the Spirit of God in Romans 8:9, and the Spirit of life in Romans 8:2. The Spirit, after Jesus’ glorification, became a compound Spirit as indicated by all these titles: the Spirit of God, the Spirit of the Lord, the Spirit of Jesus, the Spirit of Christ, the Spirit of Jesus Christ, and the Spirit of life. This all-inclusive, compound Spirit is compounded with Christ’s deity, His humanity, His human life, His all-inclusive death and its effectiveness, His resurrection and its power, and His ascension and its exaltation, including the enthronement, the crowning with honor and glory, the headship, the lordship, and the kingship. Therefore, in this compound Spirit there are all the elements of Christ’s divinity, humanity, human life, death with its effectiveness, resurrection with its power, and ascension with its exaltation. All these are the ingredients of this compound Spirit.
Therefore, the Spirit is the consummation of the processed Triune God, and He is all-inclusive. He is a compound of God, of man, of human living, of the all-inclusive, redeeming, terminating, and life-releasing death with its effectiveness, of the germinating resurrection with its power, and of the ascension with its exaltation. He is not only the consummation of the processed Triune God, but also the consummation of whatever the processed Triune God has achieved, attained, and obtained.
In the book of Revelation, the Spirit becomes the seven Spirits (1:4; 3:1; 4:5; 5:6). The Spirit is not essentially seven. Essentially, He is only one, but economically, He is seven. Eventually, in God’s economy and in His function, He becomes the sevenfold intensified Spirit. In essence, the Spirit is uniquely one, but in function, in economy, He is seven. In Revelation it is not a matter of the essence, but it is a matter of the function, of the economy. Economically speaking, the Spirit is intensified sevenfold. Without such a vision we cannot reconcile the two aspects, the Spirit being one and the Spirit being seven. However, with a clear vision concerning the difference between the Spirit essentially and the Spirit economically, the Lord has given us the way to reconcile the two sides of the truth.