In this message I have the burden to speak a word concerning God's intention to build Himself in Christ into us. God desires not mainly to do things for us but to work Himself into our being.
Although there is no time element with God, nevertheless He has, in the course of time, gradually, bit by bit, released His revelation to man. For instance, He revealed something to Job that He had not revealed to Adam, Abel, Enosh, or Noah. God revealed to Job that what He wants is a man who has God, not a man of uprightness, integrity, and perfection. God seemed to be saying, "Job, you should forget about your integrity, your perfection, and your uprightness. You do not need these things—you need Me." God revealed to Job that his unique need was God Himself, but He did not reveal to him anything concerning building.
When God appeared to Abraham, He promised to give him two things—the good land and a seed. The good land and the seed both typify Christ. This indicates that, in typology, God would give Abraham Christ as the good land and also give him Christ as the seed, the real Isaac. The genealogy of Christ in Matthew 1 speaks of Christ as "the son of Abraham" (v. 1). Isaac is a type of Christ as the son of Abraham, the One who inherits the promise and blessing God gave to Abraham (Gen. 22:17-18; Gal. 3:16).
According to Paul's interpretation in Galatians 3, both the good land and the seed are the Spirit. The blessing of the gospel is the promised Spirit (vv. 8, 14). The land signifies Christ, the seed signifies Christ (v. 16), and eventually Christ became the life-giving Spirit. Thus, in verse 14 Paul says, "In order that the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles in Christ Jesus, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith." The physical aspect of the blessing that God promised to Abraham was the good land (Gen. 12:7; 13:15; 17:8; 26:3-4), which was a type of the all-inclusive Christ. Since Christ is eventually realized as the life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45; 2 Cor. 3:17), the blessing of the promised Spirit corresponds to the blessing of the land promised to Abraham.
When we believe in Christ, God gives us His Spirit. The life-giving Spirit is the reality of the resurrected Christ, the very Christ in resurrection. The Spirit is the good land, and the Spirit is also the seed.