Part
4 of 14
The
Essential Spirit - Why Man Need’s Christ’s Resurrected “Spirit
of life”
We can see God’s
intention by typology or figurative study of Genesis. Adam and Eve were
placed in the garden with “trees” to eat from, including a tree called “the
tree of life” (Gen 2:9),
which is figurative of Christ’s life. God intended that Adam and Eve take the
life of that tree into their being by eating of it to gain
Christ’s innately righteous essential life. They never did eat of “the
tree of life.”
Adam and Eve ate
of the “tree of the knowledge of
good and evil” rather than eat of and receive life
from “the tree of life.” By
deception of the Serpent, Eve and Adam chose to eat of the forbidden tree of
“knowledge.” They did this in an effort to become independently “wise”
(Gen 3:6); to become as gods, and thereby independent from God. They
believed what the Serpent said, “you
shall become as gods, knowing
good and evil” (Gen 3:5).
Scripture reveals
that Adam never did eat of “the
tree of life.” God blocked the
way to this tree (Gen 3:24) after their disobedience.
The “tree of life” was a
shadow of Christ’s as life (Zoë,
spirit life). Jesus said He is the real “tree
of life” as the “vine”
(John 15:5) whose life is to flow
to and within every branch. We are His branch believers. Thus, from the very
creation of mankind, man was intended to receive the added element of the
life of God that is in Christ.
A Change in
God’s Spirit
Many Christians site Malachi
3:6 For I
am the Lord, I change not…They
say, “God does not change.” Yet,
the Scripture is clear that God has changed His form two (2) times, seen as
follows.
1.
God’s first change in form came when Jesus, who is the
fullness of the Godhead bodily (
Col
2:9), was incarnated into a human body that He received from His physical
mother, Mary.
John
1:14 And the
Word (Jesus Christ) was
*made flesh, and dwelt among
us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the
Father,) full of grace and truth.
The
word “made” here is better
translated “became.” We
will see this “made (became)”
once again here in Point #2, in God’s second form change.
2.
A second vital change in the form of God occurred when
Jesus Christ rose bodily from the dead and “became
the life-giving spirit” (1Cor 15:45). Paul writes “now
the Lord is the Spirit” (2Cor 3:17b)
Actually,
the resurrected Christ as “Spirit
of life in Christ Jesus” brought into the Godhead a change that
forever marks God as a changed
Spirit. This change in God’s Spirit occurred when Jesus of Nazareth,
“the
son of man” according to
His humanity, was now elevated, being “declared
the Son of God.”
Romans 1:3-4 Concerning his Son Jesus Christ our Lord, which
was made of the seed of David according to the flesh; 4And
declared to
be the Son of God with power, according to the spirit of
holiness, by the resurrection
from the dead: By
this declaration, the Godhead
now includes all that is of Jesus’ by His human experience of birth,
suffering, death and resurrection. All that Jesus of Nazareth experienced in
being processed to become “the
life-giving Spirit, is now included in the Godhead, forever.
Referring
the Jesus, Paul writes of this change in God’s Christ-form. 2
Cor. 3:17a Now the Lord is
that Spirit.
1 Cor. 15:45
... the last Adam (Christ)
was made (became)
a quickening (life-giving)
spirit.
Jesus became “the
life-giving Spirit,”
such that He, as the Spirit-Seed of the Father, could now bring created men
to a rebirth, to become the literal “many
son’s”
of God (Heb 2:10). Each then may become the expression of the Christ’s
Spirit-life that now is their new essential spirit-life (Col 3:4a).
This
change in God’s Christ-form to Spirit is the key to “the
eternal purpose that He purposed in Christ Jesus” (Eph 3:11). God’s
own Spirit is “the spirit” in
all created mankind …but now,
God has changed Jesus’ form to Spirit, to become “the
Spirit of life in Christ Jesus.” Jesus, now as “the
Spirit of life,” is available to indwell “as
many as receive Him” (John 1:12), making each one a literal birthed
child of God the Father.
