In this message and in the message following we shall consider the reproduction of the God-man. As we shall see, the reproduction of the God-man requires that we be reborn of the pneumatic Christ in our spirit, that we be transformed by the pneumatic Christ in our soul, and that we live Christ as the God-man.
After living a wonderful and excellent life, the Man-Savior went to the cross and died. Then in His resurrection He became a life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45). How did Christ become a life-giving Spirit in His resurrection? Notice that we are not asking why He became a life-giving Spirit, but how, in what way, He became a Spirit. The answer to this question is that the Man-Savior became a life-giving Spirit with a wonderful, all-inclusive qualification. The Lord Jesus was both God and man. For thirty-three and a half years He lived the life of a God-man; that is, He lived a human life by the divine life for the expression of God. After living this kind of life, He died on the cross as the all-inclusive One.
Whenever a living thing dies, the death of that thing corresponds to its nature. For example, a dog dies a dog death. Likewise, an ant dies an ant death, and a fly dies a fly death. This principle also applies to human beings. An unknown person may die an insignificant death, but a great person dies a great death. The Lord Jesus was the all-inclusive One; therefore, He died an all-inclusive death. After His all-inclusive death, the Lord was resurrected by God. It was in this condition with such a qualification that He became a life-giving Spirit.
The life-giving Spirit is actually an extract of the all-inclusive Christ. As we have pointed out elsewhere (see The Fulfillment of the Tabernacle and the Offerings in the Writings of John, p. 2), an extract may be defined as liquid extracted from a plant or other organic matter and that contains its essence in concentrated form. A synonym for extract is “spirit,” which is the essence of a substance extracted in liquid form. Wine, for example, may be regarded as an extract, or spirit, of grapes. Whenever we extract the essence of a particular substance, we get the spirit of that substance. Furthermore, an extract of something will always include the essence, elements, and substance of that thing. Suppose, for instance, that we have the extract of an orange. This extract will comprise the essence, the elements, the nature, and the substance of that orange. In a similar way, the all-inclusive life-giving Spirit comprises all that Christ is, all that He went through, and all that He accomplished, attained, and obtained.
Many Christians do not realize that the Spirit is the all-inclusive Spirit. In Philippians 1:19 Paul speaks of “the bountiful supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ.” Here Paul does not speak of the bountiful supply of the Spirit of God, but of the bountiful supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ. In Philippians 1:19 the Spirit of God has become the Spirit of Jesus Christ. This is “the Spirit” mentioned in John 7:39. This is not merely the Spirit of God before the Lord’s incarnation, but the Spirit of God, the Holy Spirit with divinity, after the Lord’s resurrection, compounded with the Lord’s humanity, human living under the cross, crucifixion, and resurrection.
What is your understanding of Jesus and of Christ? Jesus is both the complete God and a genuine man. He is the Word who became flesh. In John 1:1 and 14 we see that the Word that was in the beginning with God and that was God became flesh. As the God-man, Jesus was the complete God with the true divine nature and with excellent divine attributes, and a genuine man with a real human nature and with perfect human virtues.
Who, then, is Christ? Christ is the God-anointed Jesus passing through the process of incarnation, human living, crucifixion, and resurrection. In resurrection Jesus Christ became an extract of Himself, and this extract is the life-giving Spirit. Because this life-giving Spirit is the extract of the all-inclusive Christ, this Spirit also is all-inclusive.
Christ’s becoming the life-giving Spirit is related to the reproduction of the God-man. How can the God-man be reproduced? The answer to this question is that the God-man is reproduced by the all-inclusive Spirit. Seeing this, we now need to find out in what way the God-man is reproduced by the all-inclusive Spirit.