First Corinthians 15:45b tells us that the last Adam, who is the Lord Jesus, the incarnated Word, after passing through death and resurrection became a life-giving Spirit in resurrection. We know that the main subject of 1 Corinthians 15 is resurrection. Because some in the church in Corinth did not believe in resurrection, the apostle Paul corrected them and revealed to them the truth of resurrection. In this revelation Paul pointed out in particular that an important thing happened in resurrection: the last Adam, who became flesh and died for us on the cross, became a life-giving Spirit. In the context of 1 Corinthians 15:45 we see that Paul used an illustration when he referred to the matter of resurrection. He said that when a grain of wheat is sown into the earth, although apparently it dies, in actuality the life within does not die. The outward form of the grain dies and the shell decays, yet the life within grows. This growing is its resurrection. Once it is resurrected, it takes another shape, by which many grains are brought forth. This is the story of resurrection.
“This the secret nature hideth, / Harvest grows from buried grain” (Hymns, #482). No one can dispute this. The last Adam, the incarnated Jesus, lived on the earth for thirty-three and a half years, and then He died on the cross and was buried. People thought that He was finished. Little did they know that when they killed and buried the Lord Jesus, like a farmer who sows grain into the soil, they afforded Him the best opportunity to be resurrected. In this resurrection He took another form and became a life-giving Spirit.
It is a pity that today’s Christianity neither sees this matter nor pays attention to the second half of 1 Corinthians 15:45. This is not an insignificant Scripture verse; it is as important as John 1:14. The Word became flesh, and the last Adam became a life-giving Spirit. The word became in these two verses is the same word in Greek. Moreover, this verb became in Greek denotes an action with a goal. This means that it is not a light move; it is an important action with a goal. Thus, the Lord Jesus took two important actions: first, He became flesh, and second, He became a life-giving Spirit.
He became flesh to be the Lamb for the redemption of sins. If He did not have flesh and blood, He could not make redemption for our sins. Therefore, John the Baptist said, “Behold, the Lamb of God” (John 1:29). This shows us clearly that the Lord became a man with blood, flesh, skin, and bones; therefore, He could die for us human beings, who also have blood, flesh, skin, and bones. The blood He shed was genuine human blood; in the eyes of God He is the Lamb. Therefore, Colossians 1:15 says that He is the Firstborn of all God’s creation. Our Lord is the first of all the created things. If He were not created, He would not have flesh and blood; if He did not become a real man, a genuine man, He would not have blood and therefore could not have redeemed us.
The Lord Jesus was incarnated with blood and flesh. Hebrews 2 tells us that He Himself partook of blood and flesh, which were things created. In the time of the apostles, there was a group of people called the Docetists, who said that the Lord Jesus was not a real man and that His body was not a real body but a phantom. The name Docetist was derived from the Greek word meaning “to seem, to appear to be.” John wrote 1 John 4 to refute this heresy. John said, “Every spirit which confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God, and every spirit which does not confess...is not of God; and this is the spirit of the antichrist” (vv. 2-3). Today there are some who call themselves fundamentalists yet say that the Lord Jesus is not a creature. If you say that the Lord Jesus is not a creature, you do not confess that the Lord Jesus has come in the flesh. Are you not then a Docetist? The Lord Jesus became a man, a creature; this does not mean that in becoming a creature He ceased to be the Creator. The fact is that He was God who became man and yet He was still God. He is God, thus He is the Creator; He became a man, thus He is a creature.
In the early 1960s when I was in Taipei, there was a so-called co-worker among us who did not believe that the Lord Jesus is still a man in the heavens today. Many Christians today also do not believe this. They believe that the Lord Jesus was a man only when He was in the flesh, and He was a man until He died on the cross, but after His burial He ceased to be a man. Thus, in His resurrection He did not have the human nature and was no longer a man. The fact is that today the Lord Jesus is still a man. In 1 Timothy 2:5 the apostle Paul referred to Him as “the man Christ Jesus.” Today He is the man, the Mediator of God and men. Not only so, after He was resurrected from the dead, He came to the midst of His disciples, appearing to them in His resurrected body for them to see and touch. This indicates that His resurrected body was a real entity and not a phantasm. He said to Thomas, “Bring your finger here and see My hands, and bring your hand and put it into My side” (John 20:27). Therefore, we can say that after His resurrection, the Lord Jesus was still a man with flesh and bones.
The first step the Lord Jesus took was to become flesh. As the Creator, He became a creature; this was God becoming man. As such a man, He was the Lamb of God who could shed pure and genuine human blood for the redemption of the human race. Then He took a second step, that is, He died and was resurrected, and in His resurrection He became the life-giving Spirit. In the first step, as God, He became a man—the last Adam; in the second step, the last Adam became a life-giving Spirit. The teachers of traditional theology say that the three of the Triune God—the Father, the Son, and the Spirit—are separated and independent of one another. Based on this they would dare not say that the Lord Jesus became the life-giving Spirit in resurrection and that this Spirit is the Holy Spirit, because if they say that this Spirit is the Holy Spirit, then the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are not separated.
Actually, they do not need to be afraid or to preach in that way. They should not divide the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit in such a precise way. Revelation speaks of the Spirit of God as the seven Spirits, who are the seven eyes of the Lamb (Rev. 5:6). Traditional theologians cannot explain this. They say that the Son and the Holy Spirit are separated, but the Bible says that the Holy Spirit is the eyes of the Son; in other words, the Third of the Triune God is the eyes of the Second. Not only so, in the evening of the day of resurrection the Lord Jesus came to His disciples. He breathed into them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit” (John 20:22). This shows us that the Holy Spirit is the holy breath. The Holy Spirit received by the disciples was the breath breathed out by the Lord Jesus. Some may say that this was just a sign and not a reality, that the Lord Jesus did not really breathe into them for them to receive the Holy Spirit, that this was just a demonstration. Even if you could consider this matter of breathing into the disciples as a demonstration, there is no way to demonstrate the seven Spirits of God being the eyes of the Lord Jesus as the Lamb, as stated in Revelation.