Part 5 of 14

The Essential Spirit - The Mystery of Christ

 

Paul explains that the “mystery of Christ,” which the ascended Christ revealed to him directly (Gal 1:12), is the key to understanding God’s “eternal purpose that He purposed in Christ Jesus” (Eph 3:11).

Ephes. 3:4-5, 8-11 Whereby, when ye read, ye may understand my (Paul’s) knowledge in the mystery of Christ 5Which in other ages was not made known unto the sons of men, as it is now revealed unto his holy apostles and prophets (Paul, Barnabas, etc.) by the Spirit; …⁸Unto me (Paul), who am less than the least of all saints, is this grace given, that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ; ⁹And to make all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the world hath been hid in God, who created all things by Jesus Christ: ¹⁰To the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known by the church the manifold wisdom of God, ¹¹According to the eternal purpose which he purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord:

The mystery, which Paul refers to in verses 4 and 9 above, is the coming of Christ again, but now as “the life-giving Spirit” (1Cor 15:45), into every believer’s human spirit.

Paul is explicit in defining the subjective aspect of the mystery in Col 1:26-27.

Col. 1:26-27 Even the mystery which hath been hid from ages and from generations, but now is made manifest to his saints: ²⁷To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory:

This indwelling of Christ’s “Spirit of life” applies to all believers, both Jews and Gentiles alike, who believe the Pauline “gospel of the grace of Christ” (Rom 1:16). The Jew and the Gentile are now on an equal footing, without distinction, in “the body of Christ.” They then are “neither Jew nor Gentile,” but now “one in Christ” (Gal 3:28). Before being placed into “the body of Christ,” Paul says both the Jew and the Gentile were counted as being among the “none righteous” (Rom 3:10). Each now is of the “new creation” (2Cor 5:17) in Christ – “the body of Christ” Himself. 1 Cor. 12:13 For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free; and have been all made to drink into one Spirit.

This dispensing of Christ’s Spirit into the believer’s spirit is critical to God’s plan because it is only the “Spirit of life in Christ” indwelling the believer that lifts the created man to become a child of the “most high God,” having been birthed of His Spirit-loins. Each one of us now in “the body of Christ” has been conceived of God’s Seed (Greek, sperma), which is Christ (see “seed” 1Pet 1:23, Gal 3:16).

Jesus could not have indwelled any man so long as He was alive physically on the earth. Thus, God purposed that Jesus would be processed, via death and resurrection, in order to redeem man and become “the life-giving Spirit,” to enable Him to indwell every believer’ human spirit (1Tim 4:22a, 1Jn 4:13, John 3:6, 1Cor 6:17). 1 Corinthians 6:17 (KJV)  But he that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit.

The change in God’s Spirit-form provides man with redemption and the Spirit of Christ to indwell man as that man’s new life. Unless Jesus was incarnated and crucified, we could not have redemption; unless Jesus rose from the dead as “the life-giving spirit,” we could not receive of His “spirit of life.” Receiving God’s “spirit of life in Christ Jesus” is what changes a man from his fallen, old, serpentine self. We were born into this world with Satan’s Sin-seed in our flesh (John 8:44) … but now by Christ’s death on the cross we become a free, and by Christ’s resurrected life in us, we become a rebirthed literal child of God (Rom 8:14).