Christ, who is the focus of God’s eternal purpose, said that He is the way, the reality, and the life (John 14:6). Before becoming our reality or our way, Christ must first be our life. In this chapter we will consider how Christ can be our life.
First, we need to see who Christ is. John 1:1 says that in the beginning Christ, as the Word, was God. Verse 14 says that one day this Word became flesh. This means that God Himself was incarnated to be the man Jesus. God in Christ became a man to accomplish redemption. Thus, verse 29 says, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” In order for Christ to be our life, He first needed to solve the problem of our sin, which separates us from God. Therefore, He became a man to be our Redeemer. As the Lamb of God, He shed His blood for the forgiveness of our sins; He accomplished redemption on the cross.
John 12:24 says, “Unless the grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it abides alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.” Christ came as the Lamb of God for the shedding of His blood to accomplish redemption; He came as the grain of wheat for the imparting of His life to make us His reproduction. As a grain of wheat, Christ was reproduced to become many grains through death and resurrection. The one grain is now the many grains. As the many grains, we are the reproduction of Christ. This is a crucial item of the Lord’s recovery. Although this item is emphatically revealed in the Scripture, it has been lost in today’s Christianity. Most Christians know that Christ is the Lamb of God, but few see that He is a grain of wheat. As a young person, I was convicted of my sins, and I repented and confessed to the Lord and was washed by His blood. However, when I asked how I should go on, I was told only to behave properly. Christ being the grain of wheat for life-impartation to make us His reproduction is a crucial and precious truth that has been almost entirely lost in Christianity. Because of this great lack among Christians, there is the need of recovery.
In 14:16 and 17 Christ 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.” Christ was the first Comforter; the second Comforter is the Spirit of reality. However, the Spirit of reality is not another person apart from Christ. The title the Spirit of reality indicates that whatever Christ is, is fully realized in this Spirit. In other words, the Spirit is the reality of Christ. Without the Spirit of reality, Christ could not be real to us.
When Christ resurrected, He immediately became the life-giving Spirit. We need to see that Christ took two steps, indicated by two occurrences of the word became in the New Testament. John 1:14 says that Christ as the Word became flesh. Then 1 Corinthians 15:45 says that Christ as the last Adam became a life-giving Spirit. Christ as God took a step to become a man in the flesh to accomplish redemption. After accomplishing redemption, He took another step by resurrecting to become the life-giving Spirit.
Some oppose the truth that Christ became the life-giving Spirit, saying that it is a heresy to say that Christ, who is the Son of God, is the Spirit. Nevertheless, this is what the Bible clearly reveals in 1 Corinthians 15:45. Although the indefinite article a occurs before the title life-giving Spirit in this verse, there is surely only one Spirit in the universe who can give zoe, the eternal, divine life. Whether or not we understand this, the Bible reveals that the last Adam, Christ in the flesh, became the life-giving Spirit. Furthermore, 2 Corinthians 3:17 says, “The Lord is the Spirit.” Darby’s New Translation places verses 7 through 16 within parentheses, indicating that verse 17 is a direct continuation of verse 6. The end of verse 6 says, “The Spirit gives life.” Therefore, the Lord is the Spirit who gives life. The Lord Jesus today is the life-giving Spirit.
John 7:39 says, “This He said concerning the Spirit, whom those who believed into Him were about to receive; for the Spirit was not yet, because Jesus had not yet been glorified.” As a young believer, I was troubled that this verse says, “The Spirit was not yet.” I even thought that this might be a mistake, because I knew that the Spirit of God was mentioned as early as Genesis 1:2. Then one day I read the book The Spirit of Christ by Andrew Murray. In chapter 5, entitled “The Spirit of the Glorified Jesus,” Murray says that before Jesus’ resurrection the Spirit of God had divinity but not humanity. The humanity of Jesus was added to the Spirit of God in the Lord’s resurrection. Therefore, this Spirit who possesses both divinity and humanity was not yet before Jesus was glorified in resurrection. The Spirit of God existed before Christ’s resurrection, but the Spirit that includes Christ’s humanity was not yet. In Christ’s resurrection His humanity was added to the Spirit of God.