LESSON THREE – THE CONSUMMATED SPIRIT

John 7:39 — But this He said concerning the Spirit, whom those who believed into Him were about to receive; for the Spirit was not yet, because Jesus had not yet been glorified.

THE CONSUMMATION OF THE SPIRIT IN THE NEW TESTAMENT

At the beginning of the New Testament, when Christ was to be conceived and born, the Holy Spirit is mentioned for the first time (Matt. 1:18, 20). Christ’s conception and birth were altogether by the Holy Spirit. Here the Holy Spirit is strongly stressed. Christ was conceived of this Spirit, and He was born through this Spirit.

The Lord lived on the earth for thirty years; then He ministered for three and a half years. He was born of the Spirit, and He worked through the Spirit of God. Then in John 7, near the end of His three-and-ahalf-year ministry, He called the thirsty ones to come to Him and drink, and He said that they would have rivers of living water f lowing out of their innermost being (vv. 37-38). The apostle John says that the Lord spoke here concerning the Spirit—not the Spirit of God or the Holy Spirit but the Spirit—whom the believers were about to receive; “for,” John says, “the Spirit was not yet.” The Spirit of God was there in Genesis 1, and the Holy Spirit was there in Matthew 1. Why, near the end of the Lord’s ministry on this earth, does John tell us that the Spirit whom the believers were about to receive “was not yet”?

This Life-giving Spirit Being the Spirit, Produced through and in Christ’s Resurrection

In…The Spirit of Christ,…Andrew Murray wrote that “the Spirit of God as poured out at Pentecost was indeed something new.” According to Andrew Murray, this Spirit, who is the Spirit in John 7:39, is something more than the Spirit of God, the Spirit of Jehovah, the Spirit of the holiness of God, and the Holy Spirit. Even with the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of God had not been wholly consummated; that is, He had not been completed in full. The Spirit was not consummated until the glorification of Christ. According to Luke 24:26, the glorification of Christ was His resurrection. When Christ entered into resurrection, He was glorified. His divine nature with the divine life in Him was released. Christ’s glorification was like the blossoming of a f lower. When a f lower blossoms, it is glorified; all the contents of its life and nature are released and expressed. The contents of Jesus Christ are just God with His holy nature and holy life. Before His death and resurrection these contents were concealed in the shell of Christ’s humanity. Once during the three and a half years of His ministry, on the Mount of Transfiguration, three of Christ’s disciples saw Him transformed, or transfigured, before their eyes. All of a sudden His face shone like the sun, and His garments became as white as the light (Matt. 17:2). That was His glorification, but it lasted only a short time. When He entered into resurrection, He was wholly glorified by releasing God with God’s nature and God’s life from within Him. Until that time the Spirit was not yet. It was at that time that the Spirit was produced. First Corinthians 15:45b tells us that “the last Adam [Christ] became a life-giving Spirit.” This life-giving Spirit is the Spirit, produced through and in Christ’s resurrection.

By Passing through All the Processes the Triune God Being Consummated as the Life-giving Spirit

By passing through all the processes— incarnation, human living, the all-inclusive death, and the all-releasing resurrection— the Triune God, the God in the Divine Trinity, was consummated as one Spirit, that is, the life-giving Spirit. This life-giving Spirit is the totality of the consummated Triune God. This is the clear revelation in the New Testament. First, God became a man. That man was Jesus Christ, who is the God-man in the f lesh. He was God, but one day He put on man. Thus, He became both divine and human, having put the f lesh upon Him. When He was crucified, He brought this man, that is, His humanity, to the cross and died there to terminate humanity. Then He resurrected to bring His humanity into divinity. Through this  resurrection  His humanity was made divine (Rom. 1:4), and He was born to be the firstborn Son of God (Acts 13:33; Rom. 8:29). Such a One, in His resurrection and with His resurrection, became the life-giving Spirit. This  Spirit is the consummation of the Triune God. (CWWL, 1994-1997, vol. 1, “Living a Life according to the High Peak of God’s Revelation,” pp. 185-187)

THE APPLICATION OF GOD’S ECONOMY BEING WITH THE CONSUMMATED SPIRIT

We need to take a deeper look at the consummated Spirit. This is the main point that I want to fellowship.…Genesis 1 refers to the Spirit of God, but that was not the consummated Spirit; the Spirit of Jehovah and the Holy Spirit were not the consummated Spirit either. It was after the resurrection of Christ that the consummated Spirit of the Father, the Son, and the Spirit were revealed. This Spirit is different from the Spirit of God in Genesis, the Spirit of Jehovah in the Old Testament, and the Holy Spirit in Matthew 1. This Spirit is the consummated Spirit. God’s economy has been accomplished, and now it needs to be applied. The application is with the consummated Spirit—not merely the aggregate Spirit but the ultimately consummated Spirit.

The Life-giving Spirit Being the Consummated Spirit

Very few in Christianity today have seen this matter; rather, some do not fully believe in what 1 Corinthians 15:45b says: “The last Adam became a life-giving Spirit.” This, however, is a word in the Bible that we have to believe. Thank the Lord that He has clearly revealed all these points, one by one, to us all these years. Today the life-giving Spirit is the consummated Spirit. Hence, John 7:39 says that the Spirit was not yet, because Jesus had not yet been glorified in resurrection. Obviously, the Holy Spirit was there, and the Spirit of God also was there in Genesis 1, so how could it be that the Spirit was not yet? This is because at that time there was only the old creation without the new creation, for Christ was not yet resurrected. Then, at the commencement of the new creation in the resurrection of Christ, the Spirit came into being. That which was originally the Spirit of God has become the Spirit in the resurrection of Christ. This is referred to in 2 Corinthians 3:17: “The Lord is the Spirit.” The Spirit, who is revealed to us in 2 Corinthians 3, is carrying out the work of transformation in the believers. We are being transformed because we have the Lord as the Spirit within us. This is why 2 Corinthians 3:18 says that we are being transformed into the same image as the Lord, even as from the Lord Spirit. (CWWL, 1994-1997, vol. 1, “A General Outline of God’s Economy and the Proper Living of a God-man: A Fellowship with the Elders from Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Malaysia,” pp. 503-505)

THE SPIRIT AND THE BRIDE SAYING, “COME!”

Eventually, as the consummated Spirit, He becomes the Spirit to be the reality and realization of the pneumatic Christ and the consummation of the processed and consummated Triune God to be one with the bride of the Lamb (Christ) to proclaim the coming of Christ.

Revelation 22:17 says, “And the Spirit and the bride say, Come! And let him who hears say, Come! And let him who is thirsty come; let him who wills take the water of life freely.” In this verse the title the Spirit indicates that everything of the Triune God has been processed and consummated. Now as the Spirit He brings the Triune God into us to be one with us as the bride. This consummated Spirit has joined Himself to the bride. Hence, at the end of Revelation the Spirit and the bride speak together, saying, “Come!” (CWWL, 1993, vol. 3, “Blending Conference Messages concerning the Lord’s Recovery and Our Present Need,” pp. 124, 136)

References: CWWL, 1994-1997, vol. 1, “Living a Life according to the High Peak of God’s Revelation,” ch. 3; CWWL, 1994-1997, vol. 1, “A General Outline of God’s Economy and the Proper Living of a God-man: A Fellowship with the Elders from Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Malaysia,” ch. 2; CWWL, 1993, vol. 2, “Blending Conference Messages concerning the Lord’s Recovery and Our Present Need,” ch. 6

NOW THE TRIUNE GOD HAS COME TO DWELL WITHIN

Fullness of the Spirit— As the Indwelling Spirit – 1113

• Now the Triune God has come to dwell within
  As the wonderful Spirit in us.
  We are mingled with the Lord, we’re one with Him
  As the life-giving Spirit in us.

Oh, He’s the wonderful Spirit in us,
He’s the wonderful Spirit in us!
God is in the Son, the Son’s the Spirit now —
He’s the wonderful Spirit in us!

• “Abba Father” is the cry from deep within
  From the wonderful Spirit in us.
  ‘Tis the Spirit of the Son who cries to Him
  As the life-giving Spirit in us.

• Jesus Christ the Lord is living now in us
  As the wonderful Spirit within.
  He has been transfigured, we enjoy Him thus,
  As the life-giving Spirit within.

• Now the Spirit of reality is here
  As the wonderful Spirit within.
  Now the things of Christ are all so real and clear
  By the life-giving Spirit within.

• We will all stir up this gift that’s deep within
  As the wonderful Spirit in us.
  When we call “Lord Jesus” how our spirits spring
  With this life-giving Spirit in us!