Incarnation brings God into man, and death and resurrection bring man into God. It is easy for people to comprehend that incarnation is God’s coming to be a man, but most people do not truly understand the matter of death and resurrection. What is death, and what is resurrection? Death is the cross. Every time we mention the Lord’s death, we understand it to mean the Lord’s crucifixion. The cross of the Lord is His death. Whenever we experience the Lord’s death, we experience the Lord’s cross. In other words, without the cross there is no death of the Lord. Where there is the Lord’s cross, there is the Lord’s death, and whoever has the Lord’s death has the Lord’s cross. When we speak of experiencing the Lord’s death, we imply the experience of the Lord’s cross. The experience of the cross is the experience of death.
We may already have a clear and accurate knowledge regarding the Lord’s death, but we still may not comprehend or be able to explain the Lord’s resurrection. In John 11 the Lord said to Martha in person, “I am the resurrection and the life” (v. 25). This word tells us that the Lord Himself is the resurrection and that resurrection is the Lord. However, the Lord’s flesh was not the resurrection, and thus, He had to pass through the cross. Before passing through the cross, He was in the flesh; after passing through the cross and entering into resurrection, He became the Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45b; 2 Cor. 3:17).
The Lord’s flesh was not the resurrection, but when He became the Spirit, His whole being became the resurrection. Hence, the Lord’s being the resurrection today implies His being the Spirit. If He were not the Spirit, He would not be the resurrection. In other words, resurrection is the Spirit, and the Spirit is the reality of resurrection. Apart from the Spirit there is no reality of resurrection.
John 7:39 says, “For the Spirit was not yet, because Jesus had not yet been glorified.” The glorification of Jesus was His resurrection. In the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, He became the Spirit. The Spirit is the embodiment of resurrection. This means that resurrection is wrapped up in the Holy Spirit and embodied in the Holy Spirit. In other words, the resurrection of the Lord Jesus is realized in the Holy Spirit. Everything of resurrection is in the Holy Spirit. In Acts 2:32-33 Peter said, “This Jesus God has raised up, of which we all are witnesses. Therefore having been exalted to the right hand of God and having received the promise of the Holy Spirit from the Father, He has poured out this which you both see and hear.” This indicates that after the Lord Jesus resurrected and received the Holy Spirit from God, He poured out the Holy Spirit.
Everything of resurrection is in the Holy Spirit, and everything that is in resurrection can come into us in the Holy Spirit. In the Lord’s resurrection, all the things in resurrection come into us through the Holy Spirit. In John 14:2 the Lord said that He had to go. This meant that He had to go to suffer death. Then He said that He would come again (v. 3). His coming again was His resurrection. His going was His death, and His coming was His resurrection. However, His coming again was as the Holy Spirit. His going was His death, and His coming again was His resurrection as the Spirit. His coming as the Holy Spirit was His coming in resurrection. He brought resurrection into the Holy Spirit, and He Himself is the resurrection.
Verse 19 says, “Yet a little while and the world beholds Me no longer, but you behold Me; because I live, you also shall live.” The two instances of the word live in this verse convey the story of resurrection. After the Lord’s resurrection He came into us as the Holy Spirit. He is living in resurrection, and because He lives in us, we live, and we also live in resurrection. The Lord’s resurrection is altogether realized in the Holy Spirit, and the resurrected Lord is the Holy Spirit. Apart from the Holy Spirit, there is no resurrected Lord, and similarly, apart from the Holy Spirit, there is no realization of the resurrection of the Lord. The resurrected Lord and the Lord’s resurrection are both in the Holy Spirit. When we touch the cross, we touch death, but when we touch the Holy Spirit, we touch resurrection. Hence, the cross is the Lord’s death, and the Holy Spirit is the Lord’s resurrection.