The Spirit of Jesus is the Spirit of incarnation, humanity, human living, and crucifixion. In particular, it is the aspect of the Spirit that includes the Lord’s sufferings. The entire life of the Lord Jesus from birth to burial was a life of suffering. He was born in a manger, an indication that He would live a life of suffering. Shortly after He was born, He became a refugee. That was part of His sufferings. When His family returned to the holy land after fleeing to Egypt, it was not possible for them to stay in Judea. They had to live in Galilee, in the despised city of Nazareth. The title “the Spirit of Jesus” implies the Lord’s sufferings in His human life. The extract of the Lord’s human life is included now in the Spirit of Jesus.
The Spirit is also the Spirit of Christ, the Spirit of Jesus Christ, the Spirit of life, the life-giving Spirit, and the Lord Spirit. The Spirit of Christ includes the element, the extract, of Christ’s resurrection. The Spirit of Jesus Christ includes incarnation, humanity, human living, suffering, crucifixion, and resurrection. The Spirit of life is the reality of the divine life. Christ is both life and the Giver of life. The Spirit is both the Spirit of life and the life-giving Spirit. As the life-giving Spirit, the Spirit has the ability to impart life to us. The title “the Lord Spirit” implies the ascension and lordship of Christ. Today the man Jesus Christ is the Lord of all. The reality of His lordship is in the Spirit. When we contact the Spirit, we touch the element of the Lord’s ascension and lordship.
The Spirit is also the Spirit of grace. This aspect of the Spirit is related to the enjoyment of the Triune God, for the Triune God is Himself our grace. Hebrews 10:29, a very important verse, speaks of both the sanctifying blood and the Spirit of grace.
Eventually, in the book of Revelation, the Spirit is called the seven Spirits. The title “the seven Spirits” indicates that the Spirit has been intensified sevenfold. This Spirit intensifies all the elements of the Spirit: He intensifies divinity, the Trinity, incarnation, crucifixion, the power of resurrection, the essence of reality, the imparting of the divine life, and grace as our enjoyment.
Ultimately, the Spirit of God is the Spirit. As we have pointed out, the Spirit is a totality, an aggregate, of all the elements of all the titles of the Spirit. Hence, the Spirit is the all-inclusive Spirit.
The Spirit of glory in 1 Peter 4:14 is the Spirit of expression. In his First Epistle, Peter refers to the Spirit only three times. He speaks of sanctification of the Spirit, of the Spirit of Christ, and the Spirit of glory (1:2, 11; 4:14). In our Life-study of 1 Peter we pointed out that Peter even had the boldness to indicate that the function of the Spirit of Christ is not only with the New Testament believers, but was also with the prophets in the Old Testament.
In God’s economy a fact is one thing, and the accomplishment of the fact is another. For example, the accomplishment of the Lord’s crucifixion occurred approximately nineteen hundred years ago. But long before the incarnation, even from the foundation of the world, the fact of the crucifixion of Christ existed in the sight of God. From God’s point of view, everything, including the death of Christ, is eternal. What God cares for is the fact, rather than the accomplishment of the fact in time. Consider the divine fact of God’s selection. God the Father selected us before the foundation of the world. But this fact still had to be accomplished in time.
Peter’s brief writing concerning the Spirit indicates that the sanctifying Spirit is the Spirit of Christ who indwells us. Peter does not say anything about Christ being in us. There is not a word in his Epistles concerning the indwelling of Christ. One verse indicates that the Spirit of Christ is in us. If the Spirit of Christ was in the Old Testament prophets, then how much more is this Spirit in us?
Last, Peter mentions the Spirit of glory. The context of this reference to the Spirit is the saints’ experience of suffering and persecution. To the suffering saints, the Spirit was not only in them as the indwelling of the divine element, but the Spirit was also upon them as glory. This is true of any genuine martyr. I have already told you of the case of the young woman who was martyred during the Boxer Rebellion in China. A young man who saw her, later testified to me that she was shining with glory. He told me that her face was full of light. This light was the shining of the Lord’s glory. The Spirit of glory surely was upon her.
Years ago I was told about a missionary who was martyred. This missionary had written a poem which says that the face of every martyr is like the face of an angel, and the heart of every martyr is like the heart of a lion. I would also say that with every genuine martyr there is the shining of the Spirit of glory. The Spirit of glory is the indwelling Spirit, the Spirit of Christ and the Spirit of grace, becoming the glory shining upon the believers.