In order for the Lord Jesus to come into us as the life-giving Spirit, it was necessary for Him to go through a lengthy process. In the life-giving Spirit, the all-inclusive extract of Christ, there is not only the essence of what Christ is, but also the element of the process through which He has passed. The Lord did not merely come to dwell among man. He lived on earth for thirty-three and a half years, experiencing a great many things. He was born of a virgin and grew up in a normal, human way. Eventually, He went to the cross to be pressed in order to release the Spirit as His extract.
Today the regenerating Spirit is the extract of the all-inclusive Christ. As such an extract, this Spirit comprises the divine element with the divine attributes and the human element with all the human virtues. This Spirit includes the element of the Lord’s wonderful life of expressing God. The Spirit also includes the element of the rescued, restored, recovered, improved, polished, sanctified, strengthened, empowered, and uplifted human virtues. Have you ever realized this? The all-inclusive life-giving Spirit contains the element of the Man-Savior’s uplifted human virtues.
Believers as well as unbelievers have a natural concept concerning how the Lord Jesus saves us. For example, a Christian may say, “Oh, what a problem I have with my temper! I can’t do anything about it. I have no choice except to lose my temper. Lord, help me!” After calling to the Lord for help this one may expect the Lord to stretch forth His hand from the heavens and help him.
Some Christians actually do not believe that Christ lives in us; they believe that He is merely on the throne in the third heaven. Nevertheless, even they will pray for the Lord to help them. How do they think the Lord will help them? Their understanding of the Lord’s help may be not only natural but even superstitious.
The New Testament reveals that the crucified, resurrected, and ascended Christ is the indwelling Spirit. We need to realize this when we are tempted to lose our temper. You may say, “Lord, help me,” or you may simply say, “Lord!” If you consider your experience, you will realize that when you call on the Lord’s name, something moves within you and even mingles with you. This is the life-giving Spirit moving in you and mingling with your spirit.
Of course, there is nothing wrong with asking the Lord to help us. But this kind of prayer can distract us from the indwelling Spirit. If we pray in this way, we may expect the Lord’s help to come from the third heaven and may feel that we need to wait for His help to arrive. But when we call on the Lord’s name, realizing that He is the life-giving Spirit dwelling within us, we shall sense Him moving in us and mingling with us. We experience this because the One who moves in us and mingles with us is the life-giving Spirit as the extract of the all-inclusive Christ. Simply by calling on the Lord’s name we can sense the mysterious, all-inclusive extract moving in us.
The Spirit as the extract of Christ contains the element of the highest standard of morality. As the Spirit moves within us, the element of the highest human virtues also moves in us. The Lord does not rescue us from our temper by doing something miraculously as the ascended One on the throne in the heavens. Instead, He rescues us by moving in us and mingling Himself with us as the One who indwells us. If we turn to Him as the One in our spirit and call on His name, He will move in us with all His elements. In this way He saves us.
What we are saying concerning the Lord’s saving us by moving in us as the Spirit is not a superstition. Just as taking medicine is not superstitious, so experiencing the moving of the Spirit in us is not superstitious. When a person takes medicine, that medicine will work in him to kill germs. This is not an outward killing, the attempt to kill the germs by doing something outwardly. On the contrary, this is an inward killing, a killing that results from taking a prescribed dose of medicine. In a similar way, the all-inclusive Spirit contains the element of the Lord’s all-inclusive death, and by this element the spiritual germs in our being are terminated.
The all-inclusive life-giving Spirit also has the element of germination. The Spirit contains this element because in the Spirit there is the element of Christ’s resurrection. Resurrection overcomes every form of death. Because death cannot hold the element of resurrection, death cannot hold the Spirit. Hallelujah for the element of resurrection in the all-inclusive Spirit!
Whether or not we understand the elements in the all-inclusive Spirit, it is nonetheless a fact that these elements have been born into us through the Spirit. When we were born of our parents, we were born with the human elements. In like manner, on the day we called on the name of the dear, all-inclusive One, the all-inclusive Spirit came into us, and we were born of Him. Now He with all His elements dwells within us.
The first step in the reproduction of the God-man is that we be reborn of the pneumatic Christ in our spirit with His divine life and nature. I like the term “pneumatic Christ.” Since the Spirit in John 3:6 is the extract of the all-inclusive Christ, He is actually the pneumatic Christ. In this verse the Lord Jesus does not speak of being born of the Spirit of God or of the Holy Spirit; He speaks of being born of the Spirit. The Spirit introduces us to the pneumatic Christ.
What is the pneumatic Christ? The pneumatic Christ is Christ after resurrection being the life-giving Spirit. We have been born of the pneumatic Christ in our spirit with His divine life and nature.