LESSON SEVEN – CHRIST IS THE SPIRIT

1 Cor. 15:45b — The last Adam became a life-giving Spirit.

2 Cor. 3:17 — The Lord is the Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.

Jesus Christ is the Son of God and the Savior of mankind. He came into the world almost two thousand years ago and lived on earth as a genuine man. His life was a perfect human life that exemplifies the highest standard of morality. After thirty-three and a half years of sinless human living, He was nailed to the cross to take away the sin of all mankind (John 1:29). We will see what happened after He accomplished the wonderful work of redeeming mankind.

THE RESURRECTED CHRIST AS THE SPIRIT LIVING WITHIN OUR SPIRIT

The Bible says that Christ went into death for three days, but He did not remain there. On the third day He resurrected spiritually and physically (1 Cor. 15:3-4). The abundant witnesses to His resurrection, who saw and talked and walked with Him, are a strong testimony to a historical fact that has remained unshaken for the past two thousand years (vv. 5-7). Socrates died; Napoleon died; Alexander the Great died; Karl Marx died; and Mohammed, Buddha, and Confucius all died. But Jesus Christ is alive! His tomb is an empty tomb, and He lives within the spirits of millions of people today.

The best way to understand the Spirit is by way of illustration. Consider the air around you. It is everywhere and is available to everyone. Whether you are in the East or in the West, in a closed room or at the market place, the air is always with you. The Bible compares the Spirit to air. In fact, the word for Spirit in Greek is pneuma, which can also be translated “breath” or “wind.” On the evening of the Lord’s resurrection, He came to His disciples and did something rather strange to them: He breathed into them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit” (John 20:22). The divine breath that He breathed into the disciples was just Himself in resurrection as the life-giving Spirit.

THE SPIRIT MAKING OUR LIFE MEANINGFUL AND FULL

When Christ was living on earth, He was not fully available to the disciples. When He was in Galilee, He could not be in Jerusalem. He was limited by time and space. He could not be present with all the people all the time.

There is nothing more simple than breathing. A person may not understand many deep mysteries, but as long as he is a human being, he can breathe. Breathing is the most universal ability; any living creature can breathe. Christ has made Himself so available that anyone can receive Him and experience Him.

Human beings are like a rubber tire, and the Spirit is like the air. Many people live with “flat tires” in their lives; they are depressed and plod along life’s journey in a bumpy way. What we need is the heavenly air—the life-giving Spirit of Christ. When we have Him, our ride will be smooth, and we will be filled with the heavenly pneuma!

Through the Spirit we have love, light, truth, joy, power, and all the attributes of God. If we do not have the Spirit in us, our lives will be full of darkness, weakness, and suffocation. But the Spirit applies the Triune God to us and makes our life meaningful and full.

EXPERIENCING ALL THAT GOD IS BY CALLING ON THE LORD’S NAME

When a person believes in the Lord Jesus, the Spirit comes into this person and lives within him. Second Timothy 4:22 says that the Lord Jesus Christ is with our spirit. We do not need to go to heaven to find God, and we do not need to make any pilgrimage on earth to touch Him. The most holy place is now in our spirit. When electricity is installed in a house, all that a person has to do is to turn on the switch. Today, the Spirit is “installed” in this universe—Christ has accomplished all the work, and as the life giving Spirit, He is now everywhere. Whenever we call on the Lord’s name, our spirit is “switched on,” and we can experience all that God is.

We can explain the mystery of the Spirit by yet another illustration. One day in the summer I bought a watermelon from the market. The melon was large, and I perspired a lot in bringing it home. My intention was to eat and digest that melon. In order to do this, first I had to cut the melon into slices. To make it even easier to receive the melon, I then squeezed the melon slices into melon juice. That big melon became so enjoyable to me through the melon juice. Originally, God was in heaven. He can be illustrated by the big, uncut melon. One day He became a man and was crucified on the cross. Through His crucifixion He was “cut into slices.” But the process did not stop there; after His death He resurrected and was transformed into the form of the Spirit. This is like squeezing the melon slices into melon juice. The Spirit is like the juice of the melon. Through this process God became accessible to us. Today, the God whom we worship is not the “uncut” God. He is a “processed” God. In other words, He has passed through a process to become the life-giving Spirit. Now we do not need to sweat and struggle to reach Him; He has become so enjoyable and accessible to us.

BEING ABLE TO FREELY DRINK OF THE SPIRIT

In the Gospel of John, at the end of the greatest religious festival of that day, Christ stood up and said that if any man was thirsty, he could come to Him and drink (7:37). Then Christ said, “He who believes into Me, as the Scripture said, out of his innermost being shall flow rivers of living water” (v. 38).…Here the Spirit is likened to “rivers of living water.” This living water was not there at the time Christ spoke these words, because He had not been processed through His death and resurrection. But after His death and resurrection, the process was completed, and today the Spirit as the living water is here. Now we can freely drink of the Spirit. This living water fully quenches our inner thirst. (Christ Is Spirit and Life, pp. 1-9)

References: Christ Is Spirit and Life; CWWN, vol. 27, “The Normal Christian Faith,” ch. 4; CWWL, 1983, vol. 1, “The Five Great Mysteries in the Bible,” chs. 3, 4

O LORD, THOU ART THE SPIRIT NOW

Experience of Christ— As the Spirit – 493

• O Lord, Thou art the Spirit now
  That gives us life and quickens us,
  With all Thy riches strengthening,
  O how divine and glorious!

• O Lord, Thou art the Spirit now
  That with Thy power liberates;
  And by Thy liberation true
  The law of life now regulates.

• O Lord, Thou art the Spirit now
  That transforms us and saturates,
  And to Thine image true conforms
  And with Thy light illuminates.

• O Lord, Thou art the Spirit now
  Who in my spirit makes His home;
  He mingles with my spirit too,
  And both one spirit thus become.

• Lord, teach me how to exercise
  My spirit now to contact Thee,
  That in Thy Spirit I may walk
  And live by Thy reality.