Through the revelation in the New Testament we can clearly see that God’s intention is that we experience Him subjectively. In order for us to experience God subjectively He became the life-giving Spirit. The term life-giving Spirit joins together the Spirit and life. God joined life to the Spirit that we may experience Him subjectively. Since He is the life-giving Spirit, we can receive Him and also enjoy Him, and the result is that the church is produced. Therefore, our subjective experience of God is a matter in the Spirit and life, and the issue is the church.
In this message I would like to fellowship with you about a certain matter. This matter has been clearly and thoroughly revealed in the New Testament but totally obliterated in traditional Christianity. In other words, there is a basic revelation in the New Testament that traditional Christianity has not seen. What is this revelation? In order to speak about this matter, I must use utterance that has not been used before in Christianity.
We all know that before the Lord Jesus was incarnated, God was God. He was the eternal God and the perfect God. At that time God being only God did not have humanity in Him; He had only divinity. He had not gone through death. God in Himself did not need to pass through death; therefore, He did not go through death or resurrection. These are three great points: there was no humanity in God; God had not passed through death; nor had God risen from the dead. He was the eternal and perfect God.
However, one day this God in eternity came into time to become a man, putting on human nature. He was God, but He put on man. He was God, but He entered into man. He was God, the eternal God, the perfect God, yet He joined Himself to man to be mingled with man as one. From that day onward in the universe there was One on the earth who was not only God but also man; there was One who was not only man but also God. In this One, God and man became one. In this One, God was there, and also man was there. If you say that He was God, you are absolutely right; if you say that He was man, you are also absolutely right. You can say that He was God yet man and also that He was man yet God. At this time God was no longer merely God; God had become man. He was a God-man. In Him there was the human element and the human nature. In Him there was not only divinity but also humanity.
Not only so, after He lived for thirty-three and a half years in His humanity, one day He willingly walked into death. Apparently this One who was God yet man, Jesus Christ, was killed through crucifixion by men. In reality He walked into death of His own volition. He had the absolute authority to reject death. The whole world is destined to die. No one dies willingly; rather, man dies because he is a captive of death. When a man dies, he is captured by death. Only Jesus Christ, this One who was God yet man, died not because He was captured by death but because He walked into death willingly. He entered into death, passed through death, took a thorough look at death, overcame death, and conquered death. Then He walked out of death. This is resurrection.
When He was incarnated, He put on human flesh and human nature. As He went into death and came out of death, this humanity which He had put on went through a “process.” This process caused His humanity to be uplifted, to be transformed. As a result, after His resurrection, even though He still had a human body and human nature, His body was no longer the same as before. Prior to resurrection, His body was a body of humiliation; after resurrection, it became a body of glory. Prior to resurrection, His body was under limitation; after resurrection, it was not under any limitation.
We know that before the Lord’s resurrection, when He was in Galilee, He could not be in Jerusalem. His body was under limitation. However, after resurrection, He was not under any limitation. He had a body that no one could understand. He could be in Jerusalem and in Galilee simultaneously. His body was truly glorious and without limitation. We all know the record in John 20. On the evening of the Lord’s resurrection, the disciples were gathered together. While the doors were closed, suddenly the Lord came and stood in their midst with His resurrected body. This is truly a mystery. We cannot understand it, but we believe.
The Lord Jesus was resurrected, and He possessed a resurrected body that was physical yet without limitation. This body was not limited physically; it was not limited either by time or by space. Today He is such a Spirit. This Spirit is the life-giving Spirit. This is the Spirit of the God who was incarnated, who went through human living on earth, and who went through death on the cross for us sinners. This is the Spirit of the One who put on human flesh in order to shed His blood on the cross for the redemption of our sin. This is also the Spirit of the One who through His death on the cross nullified death for man and destroyed the devil, the one who has the power of death. Thus, He dealt with sin, death, and Satan. His death on the cross terminated every negative matter in the universe.
After He accomplished everything, He entered into the tomb, into Hades, and rested for three days. There He did not decay nor was He damaged; He merely rested for three days. After His rest, He came out, overcoming death, Hades, the authority of darkness, and the tomb. By this time He had become God who was “processed.” Theologians may say they have never heard this term before. Whether or not you have heard it before, I ask you according to the facts, did the God who became the life-giving Spirit go through a “process”? Yes, He went through incarnation, entered into death, was buried, and came out of the tomb and Hades. Is this not a process? Before incarnation God was God, but He had not been processed. After incarnation, death, and resurrection, He was processed.
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