God’s intention is not to make us good people by improving us or changing our character. The Bible reveals that God originally intended to have man express Him by working Himself into man’s being. Based on this eternal intention, God created man so that man could take God in as life, be one with God, and become God’s expression. Genesis 1:26 tells us that God made man in His image. God Himself was the mold for the creation of man. God made man in His image so that man could express Him. Although created man had the image of God, he did not have the divine life inwardly as reality. For this reason, God created man not only with a body but also with a spirit (2:7; Zech. 12:1; Job 32:8). Man’s body is an outward organ to contact the physical things, and man’s spirit is an inward organ to contact and receive God. Just as a transistor radio has a receiver that allows the radio to receive the radio waves, man has a spirit that enables him to receive God. God’s intention to enter into man can be realized because man has a spirit to receive and contain God. When man receives God through his spirit, God becomes man’s content, and man becomes God’s expression. After God created man in His image and with a spirit to contact and receive Him, He placed man before the tree of life (Gen. 2:9, 16). This is a strong indication that God wanted man to exercise his will to choose to receive God as life.
Despite such a wonderful beginning, man became fallen. From Genesis 3 on, the Old Testament records the long story of the fall. The New Testament begins with God’s coming to be incarnated. God came into man, making Himself one with man through incarnation. Outwardly, Christ was a man, a Nazarene named Jesus, but inwardly, He was God. Isaiah 9:6 prophesies of Him when it says, “A child is born to us...and His name will be called...Mighty God.” Jesus was born as a child in a manger in Bethlehem, yet He was the Mighty God. Thirty-three and a half years later, He went to the cross, where He died to redeem man from the fall. On the cross He also dealt with sin and terminated the old creation. After resting in the tomb for three days, He came out of death and entered into the realm of resurrection. In resurrection He became a life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45). Thus, the Spirit today comprises divinity, humanity, human living, crucifixion, an all-inclusive death, and the power and life of resurrection. This all-inclusive life-giving Spirit, who is the ultimate consummation and expression of the processed Triune God, is for us to receive.
On the day of His resurrection the Lord came to His disciples not to teach them but to breathe into them (John 20:22). When He breathed into them, He said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit.” Pneuma, the Greek word translated as “Spirit” here, also means “breath.” Before the Lord came to the disciples, they were in fear (v. 19), but after they saw the resurrected Lord, they became joyful (v. 25). Then the Lord disappeared. The Bible does not say that He left the disciples, because He was actually with them all the time. In a normal situation the Lord does not appear or disappear, but the Lord appeared and disappeared for a period of time after His resurrection to train the disciples to know and enjoy His invisible presence. After He breathed the Spirit into the disciples, the Lord was within them. However, because they had grown accustomed to His physical, visible presence during the three and a half years of His ministry, He had to train them to realize and practice His invisible presence.
Today we have the Lord’s invisible presence. We should not long for the Lord’s visible presence, which was a feature of the primitive age of the Lord’s earthly ministry. Actually, the Lord’s invisible presence is far more precious. Although the disciples had the Lord’s invisible presence after His resurrection, Peter soon grew impatient and led the other disciples back to their old job of fishing (21:3). Although they fished the whole night, they caught nothing. In the morning the Lord appeared to them (v. 4), but He actually had been with them all the time. Because the Lord was within the disciples as the Spirit, He was with them while they were fishing. The Lord wanted them to trust in Him for their supply, not in a human activity or profession like fishing. Thus, after the Lord helped them to catch an abundance of fish (v. 6), He invited them to come and eat a meal that He had prepared for them (vv. 9, 12-13). As long as we have the Lord, we have everything, for He can meet all our needs. The Lord thus trained the disciples to enjoy His invisible presence. Peter was put to shame, but he learned the lesson. We need to learn the same lesson.
Today the Triune God has accomplished everything—creation, incarnation, human living, crucifixion, an all-inclusive death, and resurrection. Now He is the all-inclusive life-giving Spirit, and His people simply need to breathe Him in by calling on His name, praying, or crying to Him to take Him as their life and content and become His expression. We should no longer live naturally; instead, we should live the Spirit, the processed Triune God. This is clearly revealed in the Bible, but through the past twenty centuries many Christians have lost sight of this central lane. Though all genuine believers have accepted the Lord as their Redeemer, many do not know that He is the life-giving Spirit to be the life supply to them. The Bible reveals that God is Spirit (John 4:24), that the third person of the Godhead is the Holy Spirit (Matt. 28:19), and that the second person of the Godhead, the Son of God, through death and resurrection became a life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45). Thus, the entire Triune God today is the Spirit. The Spirit is the reality of the Triune God (John 16:13).