Then in the New Testament, in the Gospels the Lord Jesus said that He is the bread of life, the manna that came down out of heaven, for us to eat. When the time of His departure came, He established the Lord’s supper. He broke the bread and gave it to the disciples, telling them that this was His body which was being given for them and that they should take it and eat. Then He took up the cup, saying that that was His blood which was being poured out for them and that they should take and drink of it. He charged them to do this in remembrance of Him (Luke 22:19-20).
In the Epistles it is still a matter of eating, and yet again in Revelation the Lord said, “To him who overcomes, to him I will give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the Paradise of God....To him who overcomes, to him I will give of the hidden manna” (Rev. 2:7, 17). In the last two chapters of Revelation there is the greatest blessing: Those who have washed their robes have the right to come to eat of the tree of life (22:14). Furthermore, there is a call for those who are thirsty to come and take the water of life freely (v. 17). Finally, the New Jerusalem comes down out of heaven, and out of the throne in its midst the living water of life flows for people to drink, and on both sides of the living water the tree of life grows for people to eat (21:2; 22:1-2). Therefore we can say that the whole Bible is a story of eating and drinking. This is what the Bible has revealed to us.
John 1:1 says, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” Verse 14 goes on to say, “The Word became flesh.” This means the Word became a man, who was “the last Adam.” The Word was God, and God became a man of flesh, who was called the last Adam. Eventually, the last Adam became a life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45b). Thus, we can see that the life-giving Spirit is transfigured from the God who was the Word and who became flesh as the last Adam. This life-giving Spirit is God, and the last Adam is the Lord Jesus.
The Lord Jesus is the Word that became flesh, and in the eyes of God He is the last Adam. Our ancestor, Adam, as the first Adam, is the beginning of mankind; the last Adam is the ending. Mankind began with the first Adam, and it ended with the last Adam—Christ. In the eyes of God Jesus is the last one of the human race. When Jesus died on the cross, He brought the entire human race to the cross and ended it there. Through His all-inclusive death the entire human race, even the entire old creation, has been crucified. He died, was buried, and was resurrected on the third day. Thus, this last Adam became the Spirit who gives life.
We know that the statement, “The last Adam became a life-giving Spirit” is in 1 Corinthians 15, which is a chapter dealing specifically with the matter of resurrection. Concerning resurrection, Paul told us that the Lord Jesus was like a seed that fell into the ground and died and then grew out of the ground (vv. 36-38, 42-45). This is resurrection. After His resurrection, He was changed in form. This is just like a seed. When it is planted, it is a small, brownish, round object, yet when it grows, first it is a green sprout, then it grows branches and leaves, and finally it blossoms and bears fruit. All this typifies resurrection.
After Christ died on the cross and was buried, as a seed whose shell was broken, He released the divine life that was within Him, and He was changed into another form—the Spirit, the life-giving Spirit. This Spirit is the Holy Spirit and the Spirit of God. In other words, the Word who was from the beginning, the God who became flesh and who was called the last Adam, passed through death and resurrection to become the Spirit. This is the pure truth of the Bible.
This life-giving Spirit is our God, who passed through incarnation and thirty-three and a half years of human living. He tasted all the hardships of human life. Furthermore, He Himself went into death, took a tour of Hades, and walked out of it. Then, He was changed in form to become the life-giving Spirit.