After He was crucified, the Lord was laid in a sepulcher. That day was a real Sabbath day. He rested because His work was finished. The Jews had argued with Him about the keeping of the Sabbath. They were critical of Him because He did not keep the Sabbath according to their regulations. But He told them that He worked because the Father was working (John 5:16-17). At that time the work had not yet been accomplished. However, when He was on the cross, He said, “It is finished!” He finished the work that the Father had sent Him to do. So when they put Him into the tomb, He could really rest. The work was done. That was the real keeping of the Sabbath. Of course, that was also a kind of death. But death cannot hold the resurrection life (Acts 2:24). The life rose up from the dead.
The resurrection is quite a strange and mysterious matter. There are many among the so-called modernistic Christians who argue against it. But Paul makes it all very clear in 1 Corinthians 15: “But some man will say, How are the dead raised up? and with what body do they come? Thou fool, that which thou sowest is not quickened, except it die: and that which thou sowest, thou sowest not that body that shall be, but bare grain, it may chance of wheat, or of some other grain: but God giveth it a body as it hath pleased him, and to every seed his own body” (vv. 35-38).
To Paul, anyone that argues against the resurrection is a fool. To all the scientists, the scholars, the modernistic theologians, Paul would say, “Thou fool.” Just look around you. Every day resurrection is before you. One little tomato seed demonstrates resurrection. It is so yellow and dry; it seems to be nothing. But when you sow that seed into the earth, it dies. That, however, is not the end. Life breaks through, and eventually there are many colorful and tasteful tomatoes. With the seed, there was no juice, no tomatoes. But by sowing the seed into the earth we get a lot of juice and tomatoes. This is resurrection. How could anyone argue against the fact that by Christ’s death and resurrection He became something more. Look at the tomato seed. If you sow it, it dies, and then it grows. And it grows into something more. But still it is the tomato. The tomato seed had no form, taste, or beauty. But in resurrection, the form, the taste, and the beauty all come forth.
Jesus was a little man. He was that little seed sown into the earth. He died there, but He rose up in another form. He still had a body, but now this body is spiritual (1 Cor. 15:44). It is just as a tomato seed, which has a body before it is sown into the ground. But when it grows up, it changes into another body, and there is a big difference. When Jesus died on the cross and was buried, He had a body. But when He was resurrected, His body was much different. Today Jesus is no more like the seed of the tomato. He is like the tomato—so colorful, tasteful, delicious, and full of nourishment. Hallelujah! This is resurrection.
Praise the Lord that today Jesus is no more simply a seed. As the seed on earth, He was sown into death (John 12:24). Then through death, He grew up into something more; He became the life-giving Spirit. This is why Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians 15:44-45, “It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body. And so it is written, the first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam became a life-giving Spirit.” By resurrection Christ was made the life-giving Spirit. So now He “is the Spirit” (2 Cor. 3:17).
In the beginning, Christ was God. Then He was made flesh as a seed to be sown into death. Then by resurrection, He became the life-giving Spirit. We all need to see this point. In today’s Christianity, not many do see that Christ was made the life-giving Spirit. Christ as the embodiment of God was firstly made flesh, and secondly He was made the life-giving Spirit. In the beginning He was God. But as God He became flesh in order to accomplish redemption for us. Then He became the life-giving Spirit in order to impart life into us and indwell us. He was made flesh for our redemption. He became the life-giving Spirit to be our life.
By our natural birth in Adam, we had nothing but sin, and instead of life, we had death. But praise the Lord! Christ was made flesh to take away our sin. Then He was made the life-giving Spirit to impart His life into us. Now we can realize that our Christ is not only God who became flesh, but also flesh who became the life-giving Spirit. He was God, He became flesh, and as flesh He became the life-giving Spirit. When He was God, He was our Creator. When He became flesh, He became our Redeemer. And now, having become the life-giving Spirit, He is our life and our content.
We all must be very clear that Christ is now the life-giving Spirit. We do have some strong verses to confirm this point. First Corinthians 15:45 says that the last Adam was made the life-giving Spirit. From the previous verses in this chapter we can realize that this was brought about through His death and resurrection. We have considered the seed sown into the earth and growing up in another form as a picture showing us how Christ was in the flesh and how by death and resurrection He became something more. This something more today is the life-giving Spirit. Hallelujah! This is why Paul says in 2 Corinthians 3:6, “The letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.” He continues in verse 17 by saying, “Now the Lord is that Spirit,” the life-giving Spirit. It is the Spirit that gives life, and now the Lord is that Spirit. It is by this life-giving Spirit that we are daily being transformed into His image from glory to glory. “But we all, with unveiled face beholding and reflecting as a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, even as from the Lord Spirit” (2 Cor. 3:18, Gk.).
Therefore, we must all realize that today our Christ is the God-Redeemer-Life-giving Spirit Christ. The Jewish people have God in a sense, but they do not have Christ. So many Christians have the God-Redeemer Christ, but they do not realize the God-Redeemer-Life-giving Spirit Christ. But praise the Lord that we have such a Christ today! Our Christ became flesh to become our Redeemer, and then He was made the life-giving Spirit to impart His life into us. This is the Christ that we have today.
I realize that I am using some new terms. When we have seen some new things we need some new terms. When something new is discovered in science, new terms are needed to describe it. The dictionaries are continually growing with words. The English dictionary today has many more words than it did one hundred years ago. This is because there have been many more discoveries. It is the same with the spiritual things. There are many things which have never been discovered, but gradually, in these past years, the Lord has been unveiling some of them to us. For these new discoveries we need some new terms.
Do you think that God was God, and that Christ in the flesh was merely Christ in the flesh? And do you think that the life-giving Spirit is someone else, so that there are three separate ones? Do you believe that God was God in the heavens, and that the Redeemer is someone else by the name of Jesus who came in the flesh to die on the cross for our sins? And do you believe that there is a third, separate from the other two, who is the Holy Spirit? I can tell you that by my experience I gradually discovered that God became flesh to become my Redeemer on the cross, and my Redeemer on the cross is just the life-giving Spirit within me. This is not something that I was taught in a doctrinal way. This is something that I came to realize by my experience of the indwelling Christ.
For some time I simply did not know to whom I should address my prayer. Should I pray to the Father, to Christ, or to the Holy Spirit? I was taught by the Brethren that we should address our prayer only to the Father or to the Lord, never to the Spirit. I was convinced by them, but the more I prayed and the more I experienced the Lord within me, the more I could not tell who was who. At one time I thought I was quite clever and I would pray, “My Father, my Lord, my Holy Spirit.” But after I did this for awhile, I felt that was really not so clever. It simply did not go along with my experience.
I realize that many of us have the teaching of the Trinity, and I am not arguing against that teaching. But let me say a word. We should never be bothered by our teaching. Teaching is always in the mind, but we must learn to care for the experience of the indwelling Christ in our spirit. Many times we think one thing in our mind, but our experience in our spirit is something else. We should not stay in our mind. We must be in our spirit. Whatever is in the mind is not so true or so real. And it is very hard to relate to something in the mind. But we can relate to something that is real in our spirit. If we are going to experience the indwelling Christ, we must realize that Christ today is the very God who became our Redeemer, and is now the life-giving Spirit who is indwelling us. Hallelujah! This is our Christ. Our Christ is a God-Redeemer-Life-giving Spirit Christ. He is our Lord, and He is indwelling us in order to take over our whole being.