The Lord Jesus is a unique, wonderful person, because He is both God and man. When He was on the earth, the multitudes were attracted to Him because He exhibited a divinely human life among them. Not only did the works of His divine power appeal to the masses, but also His human compassion and sympathy touched them. It would seem regrettable that He died and left the earthly realm, for the earth has never been blessed with so gracious a person as Jesus Christ. But He is also unique and wonderful in that He rose from the dead. He lives today, still in full possession of His divine nature and His human nature. Only now, He is no longer limited to a slice of time two thousand years ago and to a narrow stretch of land along the Jordan River in Palestine. All that He is has now been made available eternally and universally through the Spirit, for, as the Bible says, this ultimate man, this “last Adam became a life-giving Spirit” (1 Cor. 15:45). The life-giving Spirit is the glorified, unique and wonderful Jesus made available as life to man. The life that the Spirit gives is the divine and human life of the glorified Jesus. Prior to His death and resurrection, we humans could only gaze in awe at this marvelous Jesus. But now through His death and resurrection we can receive His element within us and partake of all He is. What is so appealing about this Jesus can now become our very life, for He is available to us through the Spirit of the glorified Jesus.
In the Gospel of John the Lord Jesus once cried out, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink. He who believes into Me, as the Scripture said, out of his innermost being shall flow rivers of living water. But 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” (7:37-39). Thirst is indeed the best description of the human condition. Our lives are spent in dissatisfied longing that drives us to feats of greatest accomplishment and acts of deepest depravity. Thirst greatly motivates human endeavor. But the Lord’s promise to the thirsty is not simply a drink that quenches but more than that, an overflow of virtue that proceeds from our innermost being. This outflow of virtue, which satisfies man’s longing, is simply the Spirit of the glorified Jesus within us. In these verses, the apostle John says that “the Spirit was not yet, because Jesus had not yet been glorified.” (This is the exact translation of the Greek original of this verse, although some versions improperly render “was not yet given.”) Of course, the Spirit of God is eternal and had been in existence before the Lord spoke this word. So what is referred to here is not simply the Spirit of God, who as the divine Person possesses the divine nature. Here the Spirit refers to the Spirit of God who now possesses the glorified human nature of the Lord Jesus as well. While the Spirit of God, possessing only the divine nature, has existed eternally, “the Spirit,” possessing both the divinity and humanity of the Lord Jesus Christ, did not come into being until Jesus had been glorified through His death and resurrection. It is through “the Spirit” that our thirst can be more than quenched; indeed, “the Spirit,” bearing to us the divinity and humanity of Christ Jesus, becomes a source of living water within us, flowing forth as rivers to all around us.
Because the Lord Jesus has become the Spirit, the New Testament variously designates the Spirit as the Spirit of Jesus or the Spirit of Christ or the Spirit of Jesus Christ. The designations are not insignificant, for they indicate various aspects of the glorified Jesus coming to man as the Spirit. In Acts 16:7 we read that the Spirit of Jesus prevented the apostles from traveling to certain parts in their gospel work. In this context the Spirit is called the Spirit of Jesus because He bears the humanity, human living, and death of Jesus to His believers. In our Christian walk we surely need His perfect humanity, His spotless human living, and the suffering strength He acquired in His effective death. In Romans 8:9-11 the apostle Paul speaks of the Spirit of Christ giving life to our mortal bodies. Here the Spirit is called the Spirit of Christ because the divinity and resurrection of Christ are made real to us by Him. In Philippians 1:19 He is called the Spirit of Jesus Christ, indicating that He is the source of the bountiful supply to the believers. The Spirit of Jesus Christ is compounded with His humanity and death and with His divinity and resurrection. Hence, all that the Lord Jesus Christ is, is now available for us and for our situation because the Lord is now the Spirit (2 Cor. 3:17).
The Spirit of the glorified Jesus is also called the Spirit of life (Rom. 8:2) because He bears to us the Lord’s divine and human life. Our most urgent need is an eternal life. We humans have life, but it is a transient life. It is marred by sickness and the constant threat of death. In the Bible death is called the last enemy (1 Cor. 15:26), because beyond all enemies that we struggle with, death is the ultimate enemy. Only an eternal life can defeat death, and the Lord’s life is such a life. In fact, He Himself is this life. He is not only the eternal life (1 John 5:20) but also the resurrection life (John 11:25), the life that has not only passed through death but even conquered it. We who believe in Christ can enjoy Him as our life and life supply because He is now the Spirit of life. When we receive Him by faith, we receive Him as the Spirit of life that gradually frees us from death (Rom. 8:2).
The Lord Jesus is marvelous in His divinity and humanity, but because of His death and resurrection He possesses even more virtue that we human beings need. He alone passed through death and overcame it, and the victory of His resurrection is invested in His Spirit. This death-conquering virtue makes Him not merely the Spirit of life but even more the life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45). He does not merely possess the resurrection life but gives the resurrection life to His believers that they also may be conquerors of death. By indwelling us as the life-giving Spirit, Christ is fulfilling in us the promise of the Bible concerning death: “Death, the last enemy, is being abolished” (1 Cor. 15:26).
When the Lord Jesus was on the earth, He enjoyed the Spirit in two particular aspects. First, because He was conceived and born of the Holy Spirit (Matt. 1:20; Luke 1:35), He had the Spirit as His essence within. Second, the Spirit was upon Him as His power and authority (Matt. 3:16; 12:28). When Jesus was glorified through His death and resurrection and He became “the Spirit,” these two aspects of the Spirit became available to us as well. On the night of His resurrection, the Lord Jesus appeared to His disciples and breathed into them the Holy Spirit (John 20:22); this brought the Spirit into them as their life essence. Then, fifty days later, on Pentecost, the Spirit descended upon them, to vest them with power and authority (Luke 24:49; Acts 2:4). We who believe in Christ receive the Spirit in these two aspects: inwardly He is our life, and outwardly He is our power and authority. The aspects of the Spirit that Jesus enjoyed in His earthly life have been made available to us through the Spirit of the glorified Jesus.
Jesus Christ is certainly the most wonderful person in the universe, and all that He is, is available to us through His Spirit. When we repent of our sins and believe in Christ, we receive the Spirit of the glorified Jesus, who bears to us all that Christ is.