Before man partook of God’s life and nature in the tree of life, he was seduced by Satan, God’s archenemy, and thus became corrupted and fell into sin. The fall of man is the greatest tragedy in the universe. Its effects are still with us today as we witness the war, injustice, poverty, crime, oppression, and sickness around us daily.
Because man disobeyed God’s word, he fell under God’s condemnation, became separated from God, was deprived from fulfilling God’s purpose, and is destined to an eternal death in the lake of fire.
Not only so, because of the fall, man was corrupted inwardly in nature. Although man was created in the image of God and thus possesses a good nature that matches God’s nature, with virtues such as truthfulness, goodness, holiness, wisdom, kindness, and valor, through man’s fall an evil nature entered into man and now wars against his good nature. Because sin is in man, he is unable to carry out his good intentions. Furthermore, man cannot escape his evil nature. The Bible says that in man, that is, in his flesh, nothing good dwells (Rom. 7:18). Man wills to do good, but he simply cannot do it.
Through the fall of man Satan as sin entered into man, corrupting his body and causing it to become the flesh, contaminating his soul so that it became the self, and deadening man’s spirit. Sin damaged man in three ways: it caused man’s spirit to be deadened; it caused man’s mind to rebel against God; and it caused man’s body to sin.
In his fallen state, man is like a damaged and untunable radio that cannot receive and play music, but rather makes meaningless noise. He is also like a beautiful and well-formed cup that has fallen into the gutter and become covered with mud. Throughout history man has tried every possible way to escape sin, only to find that good works, education, ethics, ideologies, and materialism cannot save him from sin. Man has been fully usurped by Satan and is under his control, totally helpless and unable to save himself.
Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is the Savior sent from God into the world to solve the problems of fallen and sinful men. He came almost two thousand years ago to the Middle East as the embodiment of the Triune God. The Bible says that in Jesus Christ dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily (Col. 2:9). Not only so, He is God incarnated. Hence, He is both the complete God and the perfect man. He is more than a good man, a great man, a moral man, or a holy man. He is the God-man. This God-man was nailed to the cross to accomplish the work of redemption. According to the Bible, He died as 1) the Lamb of God to take away man’s sin (John 1:29), 2) the bronze serpent to destroy God’s enemy, Satan (John 3:14-15), and 3) a grain of wheat to release the divine and eternal life of God and impart it into us (John 12:24).
Hence, God took two steps. First He became flesh, born as a man called Jesus. After living a perfect and sinless life and dying on the cross to redeem sinful man, He rose from the dead and in resurrection changed His form from the flesh to the Spirit. Hence, the Lord Jesus became the Spirit. This Spirit is called the life-giving Spirit. A crucial verse in the Bible tells us that the last Adam (Christ) became a life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45). God the Father is unapproachable. Although He came in the Son to dwell as man among men, God the Son was still not able to enter into man because He was in the form of a man with flesh and blood. By the Son’s death and resurrection, His form was changed from a physical one into a spiritual one. As the Spirit, that is, as the spiritual air that we can breathe in, Christ was able to enter into His disciples. Thus the entire Triune God—the Father, the Son, and the Spirit—reaches man. In other words, when the Triune God reaches His redeemed people, He is the Spirit.
Let us use a few illustrations to explain this. Although the sun is unapproachable in itself due to its extremely high temperature, it reaches us as rays of sunlight. The rays of the sun are the reaching of the sun to us. In other words the essence, nature, and characteristics of the sun are found and included in its rays.
We may also use the illustration of ice, water, and vapor. Although the essence of all three are two parts hydrogen and one part oxygen, their outward forms can change without altering any of their essential characteristics. Vapor may be likened to the Spirit, which is the easiest of the three forms to be received by man. The Spirit is the very divine breath or air that can be readily received and experienced by man.
Furthermore, in the modern world nearly every home has electricity installed in it. Although the source of the electricity may be a hydroelectric power plant situated on a river, the electricity reaches the homes by wires or cables. Christ the Son is the heavenly wire, coming from God the Father, the divine power plant, to bring the supply and power of the Spirit as the heavenly electrical current to us. Just as the current of electricity is the electricity itself in motion, so the Spirit of God is the flowing and reaching of God Himself to man. In other words, the Spirit transmits God Himself to us. The application of the Triune God to us is the Spirit. The Spirit is the “current” of the Triune God for us to apply; He is the Triune God in motion.
Furthermore, it is vitally important to realize that the Spirit is the entire Triune God. The Holy Spirit cannot be separated from the Son or the Father. We may easily separate the two elements of oil and water, but it is impossible to separate tea from water after the tea bag is steeped in the water.
The Holy Spirit is the ultimate consummation of the Triune God reaching us. When the Lord Jesus took the step of being transfigured into the form of the Spirit, that was the final step of His process; He could change no further, for He had reached His goal. This was His full development. We should not think that when the Holy Spirit reaches us, only He, the Third of the Godhead, comes, and the Father and the Son remain in heaven. According to the Bible, when the Spirit comes, the Father and the Son also come with the Spirit. We can say that the Father is the source, the Son is the course, and the Spirit is the flow. This is truly marvelous!
God today is the Spirit of life (Rom. 8:2). If you ask people on the street or in the shops who God is, some may say that God is the Creator, and others may reply that He is their Redeemer and Savior; however, not many will say that God is the Spirit. God is not merely the Spirit; He is the life-giving Spirit.
To be a Christian is to receive the Holy Spirit into our human spirit. Man can be likened to a radio, and the Spirit of God can be likened to radio waves. Within a radio there is a receiver. Likewise, within every man there is a human spirit as the recipient for man to receive the Spirit of God. If a radio is turned off or the receiver is not functioning properly, the radio waves will not be received by the radio. Today many human “radios” do not function because their owners do not “switch on” by exercising their spirit. People today are unable to contact God because the receiver within them, the human spirit, is out of order.
In order for us to receive and enjoy this wonderful One, we must turn our heart to God and repent. The meaning of repentance is to turn to God. Previously, we had our back toward God. Whether we were doing good or evil, we were turned away from God. In order to receive God, we must first turn to Him. We must then believe in and receive God. God requires that our heart believe and that our mouth confess. The Bible tells us that if we confess with our mouth, “Lord Jesus,” and believe in our heart that God has raised Him from the dead, we will be saved (Rom. 10:9).
The Christian life is a life bubbling with the Lord every day, all the day long. As soon as we awaken in the morning, we can call on the Lord and use the Bible to contact the Lord by praying in spirit. Since there are three hundred sixty-five mornings in a year, we can have a new beginning every morning by being revived in our human spirit. Not only can we be revived by ourselves, but it is also good to speak with others concerning what we have enjoyed of the Lord. This can be done face-to-face at home, in the market place in town, or at work in a factory.
Such a wonderful all-inclusive Spirit brings into us the divine, eternal, uncreated life of God. This life enables us to enjoy Him, experience Him, and live Him out in our daily life. Whether we are factory workers, housewives, farmers, professionals, or laborers, we can enjoy such a Spirit and live by the unsearchable riches of this divine life. May the Lord bless you and cause you to live according to God’s purpose.