After making it clear to His disciples that He is both the Son and the Father, He told them something more. He said, "I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Comforter, that He may be with you forever, even the Spirit of reality, whom the world cannot receive, because it does not behold Him or know Him; but you know Him, because He abides with you and shall be in you. I will not leave you as orphans; I am coming to you. Yet a little while and the world beholds Me no longer, but you behold Me; because I live, you also shall live. In that day you will know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you" (John 14:16-20). It was as if the Lord said, "Now I am among you, but My intention is to get into you. As the Son, I can be here among you, but I cannot be within you. So I need to become the Spirit of reality. I will come as the Spirit to abide with you and be in you because you are My container and I am your content. The only way I can be in you is by being the Spirit." The very "He" who is the Spirit of reality in verse 17 becomes the very "I" who is the Lord Himself in verse 18. The Lord said, "He...shall be in you...and I in you" (vv. 17, 20). This means the Lord said that He is I, and I am He. He is the Son, He is the Father, and He is also the Spirit.
What is your Jesus? Is He only the Son? Is He only the Savior? Is He only the Redeemer? Is He only the Lord? You have to say, "Hallelujah! He is everything!" He is all in all. He is the Father, the Son, the Spirit, the Redeemer, the Savior, the Lord, God, and man. He is Wonderful. We should never try to systematize the Bible. John 1:1 cannot be systematized. This verse says that in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God. It seems that the Word and God are two distinct entities because One is with the Other. But then it goes on to say, "The Word was God." Are the Word and God one or two? All we can say in a "foolish" way is "Wonderful!" Is Jesus the Son or the Father? "Wonderful!" Is Jesus the Son or the Spirit? "Wonderful!"
First Corinthians 15:45b says, "The last Adam became a life-giving Spirit." The last Adam was God incarnated to be a man. Christ is not only the second man (v. 47) but also the last Adam. After this last Adam, there is no more Adam. The last Adam was composed of divinity plus humanity. Man was created as the first Adam, and this first Adam became fallen. Then God promised that the seed of woman would come to bruise the head of the serpent (Gen. 3:15). The seed of woman is the last Adam, and this last Adam was a child, born of a virgin. This child was the seed of the woman, yet He was begotten of the divine Spirit (Matt. 1:18, 20). With this child there was humanity plus divinity. The last Adam was not just a man, nor just God Himself. The last Adam was God mingled with man. He was something divine mingled with something human.
This last Adam lived on the earth physically, spiritually, and psychologically for thirty-three and a half years. He was crucified by being nailed on the cross. He died there for our sins. Then He was buried and was resurrected. He was like a grain of wheat sown into the earth, dying, and coming up in resurrection (John 12:24). In Christ's resurrection He was transfigured in His form to become the life-giving Spirit. This, in brief, is the history, the all-inclusive story, of the last Adam.
Thus, the last Adam includes God incarnated, the seed of woman, and the child begotten of the Holy Spirit and born of a human virgin. The last Adam also includes the human life of Jesus on earth for thirty-three and a half years, His burial, and His resurrection. The last Adam includes redemption and the impartation of the divine life into human beings. This all-inclusive last Adam became a life-giving Spirit.
Today the very Jesus who was the last Adam is the life-giving Spirit. Why is He the Spirit? Because He has to come into our spirit. Only the Spirit can come into our spirit. Nothing is capable of getting into your spirit except the life-giving Spirit. Jesus today is such a life-giving Spirit.
Some of you may wonder why I talk about this so frequently. It seems that I cannot stay away from 1 Corinthians 15:45b --"The last Adam became a life-giving Spirit." We need to realize that for eternity we cannot stay away from this one verse. In the New Jerusalem there is a throne out of which proceeds a living river (Rev. 22:1). That river is the life-giving Spirit. The life-giving Spirit will be the ever-flowing river of life. This river is Jesus, our God and our Redeemer. In eternity you will see the last Adam in the form of the life-giving Spirit.
We are vessels, containers, who should desire to be filled up by Jesus. And what is Jesus? Jesus is the life-giving Spirit. We have been taught that Jesus is the Savior, the Redeemer, and the Lord. This is absolutely right, but we all have to realize that this very Jesus who is our Redeemer, Savior, and Lord is the life-giving Spirit.