First Corinthians 15:45b says, “The last Adam became a life-giving Spirit.” The Lord Jesus was God, the Word who was God from the beginning. This Word became flesh to be the last Adam. He was incarnated and had blood and flesh to be our redeeming Lord. If He had not been incarnated, being without blood and flesh, He could not die for us and even more He could not shed His blood for us. Praise the Lord, He had flesh and blood so that He could die for us and shed real human blood to redeem us from sin! Praise the Lord, this is what the last Adam accomplished for us! Then He rested, and people buried Him in a new tomb hewn in the rock. After God finished the work of creation, He rested. Now again the Lord rested after accomplishing the work of redemption on the cross.
Not long after His death on the cross, the Lord resurrected. At the time He was raised from the dead, He was like a grain that had died in the earth and grown up in a different shape. This shape is a life shape, a life-giving shape. First Corinthians 15, which is a chapter on resurrection, speaks of a grain being sown into the ground and growing into another shape. Then it speaks of the last Adam as such a grain resurrecting from the dead to become a “tender sprout,” which is the life-giving Spirit. After a grain is sown into the earth, it dies and then grows up to be a tender sprout. This tender sprout supplies life so that the wheat can become fully grown and bear fruit a hundredfold.
The Lord said, “Unless the grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it abides alone, but if it dies, it bears much fruit” (John 12:24). We are the “much fruit,” the many grains. He became the life-giving Spirit to impart life into us as the many grains. When we as the many grains are joined together, we become one bread, one Body, which is the church. Therefore, the issue of His death and resurrection as the one grain is the church. The church is produced by Christ in His becoming the life-giving Spirit. This life-giving Spirit is signified by the tender sprout. Once the tender sprout grows up, it begins to impart life. As a result, many grains are brought forth to become the Body of Christ, the church. If you see this light, you will then realize that the theology taught in Christianity concerning the Trinity is very shallow. Christian teachers speak about the Lord and the Holy Spirit as if the two were unrelated. However, if you see the light in 1 Corinthians 15, you will realize that Christ and the Spirit are related and that They are two yet one. When Christ was the last Adam, He walked, stayed, and lived with the disciples. After passing through death and resurrection, He became the life-giving Spirit. This life-giving Spirit is “the Spirit” in the New Testament. Before Christ’s death and resurrection, the Spirit was not yet, as mentioned in John 7:39. However, after His death and resurrection, there was the Spirit. Today, the fact that we can be regenerated and become the many grains to be the Body of Christ is a result of the dispensing of life by the life-giving Spirit.
In John 14 the Lord Jesus told the disciples not to be troubled by His going; rather, they should rejoice because in not more than seventy-two hours, He would come again. However, when the Lord came back He was no longer that seed. When He came again, He had become the tender sprout, which is the life-giving Spirit. When He came back, He entered into the disciples. At this time He was not only among them but was even in them. However, whether the Lord could spread in them, whether He could abide and expand in them, depended on whether they were willing to abide in the Lord. Therefore, in the next chapter He said, “Abide in Me and I in you” (15:4).
It is by our abiding in the Lord that we give the Lord the opportunity to spread Himself within us. When we abide in the Lord, the Lord abides in us. For example, if someone brings me to his house, when I go, I can only say that I am “in” his house. Whether I can remain there hinges totally on whether he welcomes me. If you invite me over for a meal, it will take two and a half hours at the most to finish the meal. Afterward you can rightfully say, “It is late; please go home to rest.” Whether or not I stay depends on your attitude. Therefore, in John 14:23 the Lord said, “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word, and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make an abode with him.”
In John 14, it is first “in” and then “abide.” Verse 20 says, “In that day [that is, the day of the Lord’s resurrection] you will know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you.” Here the word is only “in” and not “abide.” But in verse 23 there is the thought of abiding—to “make an abode.” Today Christians often speak about the Lord being in them. They treasure His being in them. However, the Bible shows us that the Lord’s being in them is the initial stage; first it is “in” and then “abide.” First, He is in you, and then if you love Him, He will abide in you. The Lord has come, and He is in you to be with you. However, if you do not love Him, how can He abide in you? If you love Him and keep His word, then His Father and He will come to you to abide with you. Whether or not the Lord abides with you depends upon your attitude and response. You should have the response that you love Him and keep His word. The One you love is the Lord Jesus, and the words that you obey are His words, but it is amazing that eventually the Father comes because of your love. Are They—the Father and the Son—two or one? The Lord Jesus never said that He and the Father are two. He said, “I and the Father are one” (John 10:30). Here it does not say that the Lord and the Father are united to be one. In the Gospel of John we cannot see that the Lord and the Father are joined, united, to be one. Rather, the Gospel of John shows us again and again that the Lord and the Father are one.
John 14 shows us that first there is “in,” and then there is “abide.” In chapter fifteen, the Lord Jesus explained this with an illustration. He said, “I am the vine; you are the branches” (v. 5). With respect to the life within, the branches are abiding in the vine. The branches’ abiding in the vine is the condition for the vine’s abiding in the branches. It is not that the vine abides in the branches and then the branches can abide in the vine. The vine’s abiding in the branches is not the requirement for the branches’ abiding in the vine. Rather, the branches’ abiding in the vine is the requirement for the vine’s abiding in the branches. After His death and resurrection, the Lord became the life-giving Spirit, and in John 20 He came to breathe into the disciples, saying, “Receive the Holy Spirit” (v. 22). From that time on, the Lord was in them.
Today the Lord is truly in us. However, whether the Lord can abide in us depends on our response. Do we love Him? Do we cooperate with Him? Is it what He says that counts, or what we say? If what we say counts, then it is finished. If what He says counts, then it is wonderful. If we love Him and keep His word, His Father will come with Him not only to be in us but also to abide in us.