Scripture Reading: 1 Cor. 15:45b; John 1:14, 29; 20:22; Acts 16:7; Phil. 1:19b
Ⅰ
In incarnation Christ became flesh for redemption; then in resurrection He became a life-giving Spirit for imparting life—John 1:14, 29; 10:10b; 1 Cor. 15:45b; Rom. 8:10, 6, 11:
A
The life-giving Spirit is the reality and life pulse of Christ's resurrection—1 Cor. 15:3-45.
B
The last Adam became the life-giving Spirit through the process of resurrection— v. 45b:
１
Resurrection was a process to bring forth the life-giving Spirit—John 14:17-19; 20:22.
２
Christ's resurrection was His transfiguration into the life-giving Spirit in order to enter into His believers—1:14; 1 Cor. 15:45b.
３
As the life-giving Spirit in resurrection, He is ready to be received by His believers—John 20:22:
ａ
When we believe into Him, He enters our spirit, and we are joined to Him as the life-giving Spirit to become one spirit with Him—1 Cor. 6:17.
ｂ
In this way our spirit becomes life—Rom. 8:10.
ｃ
In resurrection Christ comes to us as the Spirit, the pneumatic Christ— John 20:19-22.
C
The life-giving Spirit is the essence to generate a new creation; through the proc-ess of resurrection, the last Adam, the man who ended the old creation, became the life-giving Spirit, the germinating factor of the new creation—2 Cor. 5:17.
D
The title the life-giving Spirit indicates that the Spirit is living, moving, and work-ing in us to impart life to our whole being—Rom. 8:2, 6, 10-11.
E
Through and in His resurrection, Christ as the last Adam became the life-giving Spirit to enter into His believers to flow out as rivers of living water—John 7:37-39; Rev. 21:6; 22:17.
F
The life-giving Spirit is the Spirit of Jesus Christ, comprising all the elements of Jesus' humanity with His death and Christ's divinity with His resurrection, which become the bountiful supply of the unsearchable Christ for the support of His believers—Acts 16:7; Phil. 1:19b.
G
The life-giving Spirit is the Lord Spirit, the pneumatic Christ, for the metabolic transformation of the believers and for the growth and building up of the Body of Christ—2 Cor. 3:17-18; 1 Cor. 3:6, 9b, 12a; Eph. 4:16b.
H
The life-giving Spirit is a compound Spirit, typified by the compound anointing ointment with its ingredients—Exo. 30:23-25; 1 John 2:20, 27:
１
The life-giving Spirit has humanity as well as divinity and also the element of human living—Acts 16:7.
２
All the elements of God's process have been compounded into the life-giving Spirit—John 1:14, 29; 3:14; 12:24; 20:22.
３
When we speak of the life-giving Spirit, we need to remember all the elements that have been compounded into this Spirit—humanity, human living, death, and resurrection.
I
The life-giving Spirit is nothing less than Christ, the Triune God; actually, the life-giving Spirit is the totality of the processed Triune God—1 Cor. 15:45b; Gal. 3:14.
J
Apart from the resurrected Christ becoming the all-inclusive life-giving Spirit, God cannot be enjoyed by us—2 Cor. 13:14.
K
Without Christ being the life-giving Spirit, we cannot experience anything of God in His economy—1 John 5:6; John 16:13; 1 Cor. 15:45b; 2:10; 6:17.
Ⅱ
The life-giving Spirit is the totality of all that Christ is as the all-inclusive One—1:2, 9, 24, 30; 2:7-8; 3:11; 5:7-8; 10:3-4; 11:3; 12:12; 15:20, 23, 47, 45b:
A
First Corinthians unveils the Christ who is the portion of all believers and into whose fellowship we have been called—1:2, 9:
１
Christ is God's power and God's wisdom as righteousness, sanctification, and redemption to us—vv. 24, 30.
２
Christ is our glory for our glorification; He is the Lord of glory—2:7-8.
３
Christ is the unique foundation of God's building—3:11.
４
Christ is our Passover and unleavened bread—5:7-8.
５
Christ is the spiritual food and the spiritual drink flowing out of the spiritual rock—10:3-4.
６
Christ is the Head and the Body—11:3; 12:12.
７
Christ is the firstfruits, the second man, and the last Adam—15:20, 23, 47, 45b.
B
As such an all-inclusive One, Christ is now the life-giving Spirit, the totality of all that He is for our experience and enjoyment—v. 45b.
Ⅲ
Grace in 1 Corinthians 15:10 is the resurrected Christ becoming the life-giving Spirit to bring the processed Triune God in resurrection into us to be our life and life supply so that we may live in resurrection:
A
This grace is the processed and consummated Triune God becoming life and everything to us—1 Pet. 5:10; 2 Cor. 8:9; Heb. 10:29.
B
Apart from the Triune God being processed in Christ, He cannot be enjoyed by us as the grace of God; the grace of God is altogether a matter in resurrection.
C
The grace that motivated the apostle and operated in him was a living person, the resurrected Christ as the life-giving Spirit—John 1:17; Gal. 2:20-21; cf. 1 Cor. 15:10.
Ⅳ
The processed and consummated Triune God as the all-inclusive life-giving Spirit is dwelling in us to resurrect every part of our being and to make us one with Him so that we, His believers, may live in resurrection and express Him—2 Cor. 13:14; 3:17-18.