Regarding our experience of Christ in resurrection, we may use the term “the pneumatic Christ.” Although we do not like to speak of the spiritual Christ, we like the expression “the pneumatic Christ.” This expression indicates that Christ is the Spirit who gives life. The pneumatic Christ is actually the life-giving Spirit Himself, not in a doctrinal way but in an experiential way. Throughout the centuries, a number of Christian teachers have said that in our experience Christ is identical to the Spirit. Doctrinally this is difficult to explain; however, experientially we know that Christ is the Spirit living in us.
According to the New Testament, both Christ and the Spirit live in us. Do we, then, have two living in us or one? The best answer to this question is to say that the One who lives in us is the pneumatic Christ, the Christ who is the life-giving Spirit.
Christians often say, “Our Christ is living; we have a living Christ.” But many believers do not realize that this living Christ is the Christ in resurrection and the Christ who is resurrection. In John 11:25 the Lord Jesus said, “I am the resurrection.” Here we see that Christ Himself is resurrection. The very Christ who is now in resurrection is the resurrection itself.
The New Testament charges us to walk by the Spirit (Gal. 5:16, 25). To walk by the Spirit simply means to walk in resurrection. In order to experience this, we need to deny ourselves so that Christ may live in us. If we die, Christ lives. Christ lives in us by our dying.
Now that Christ lives within us, we are intimately involved with Him. We may say that He and the believer become one “seed.” You are the shell, and He is the life within the shell. The shell needs to die so that the life within it may live. Therefore, when we die, Christ lives. We die to live Him, and He lives by our dying.
This word about Christ’s living in us as a result of our dying may be called a “heavenly logic” or a “spiritual philosophy.” This kind of philosophy is much better than any natural, human philosophy. Our philosophy is that we die so that Christ may live in us. According to this heavenly logic, Christ lives through our dying.
Christ living in us through our dying is a matter of resurrection. Paul says, “To know Him and the power of His resurrection” (Phil. 3:10). We cannot know Christ without knowing the power of His resurrection, because the very Christ we live today is resurrection. Resurrection is the pneumatic Christ who is the life-giving Spirit.
More than forty years ago, Brother Nee told us that the reality of resurrection is the Spirit. Although he did not explain much what it means to say that the Spirit is the reality of resurrection, I was deeply impressed by his word. I was also troubled by it and said to myself, “How can we say that the Spirit is the reality of resurrection?” After years of study and experience, I can testify that resurrection, the pneumatic Christ, and the life-giving Spirit are one. This Christ is the resurrection, and this resurrection is the life-giving Spirit.
Because the Spirit is the reality of resurrection, we need to walk according to the Spirit. When we walk according to the Spirit, we walk in resurrection. When we walk by the life-giving Spirit, we walk with the living Christ, and this living Christ is the Christ in resurrection.