The Man Jesus is Raised "Life-making Spirit."
When Jesus rose bodily from the dead, John's Gospel tells us how his disciple Thomas doubted that he had risen. But when he finally saw Jesus he said, "My Lord and My God."1 Thomas had said is the context of seeing and believing.2 We are here to be reminded of Jesus' earlier teaching about seeing and believing. Jesus had taught that to see him was to see the One who had sent him, the Father.3 And again he taught his disciples that to see him, Jesus, was to see the Father.4 And then Jesus explained that the manner in which they seen the Father is by the works he had done from the Father who was in him.5 It was the Father at work in Jesus.6 But now in his resurrection glory the Father was not just dwelling inside Jesus, the Father was in Jesus bodily. The Father was at work making Jesus' resurrection body immortally alive and in glory. The Father had clothed the man Jesus with his glory, His own divine nature, His own Holy Spirit. And so now where the man Jesus is, the Father also is, because he is bodily clothed in His Father's Spirit.
Thomas actually said, "The Lord of me and the God of me." In the Greek language, if you wanted to refer to one person, you would say, "The Lord and God of me."7 But Thomas did not say this. He used the language which Greek speakers used when they wanted to refer to two people, "The Lord of me and the God of me."8 And so true to Jesus' teaching to him, Thomas no longer doubted but affirmed Jesus' earlier teaching to him, "If you have seen me you have seen the Father." And indeed, the Father was present right there before Thomas in Jesus' glorified body which was clothed in the glory of the Father, the Holy Spirit of his Father." We must also remember that what Thomas finally believed was the Jesus was alive and had risen from the dead. Thomas refused to believe Jesus was risen unless he saw the wounds in his hands and side. His confession affirms that he really believed it was Jesus standing before him and that Jesus had risen. Jesus had taught him, "In that day, you will know that I am in my Father." Thomas knew, Thomas confessed.
Jesus rose from the dead. He was a man crucified in weakness but who now lives out of the power of God.9 He was put to death in the flesh but made alive in the Spirit.10 Paul explains what the resurrection body is like.11 Jesus rose in a "Spiritual Body."12 The crucified man became "Life-making Spirit."13 Angels are spirits and so they are immortal and cannot die.14 Jesus explained that those who are worthy of the resurrection and the age to come cannot die anymore because they are like the angels and sons of God being sons of the resurrection.15
"Flesh and blood" cannot inherit the Kingdom of God.16 Our bodies must be changed, not replaced, but changed.17 God breathed the neshamah of life into the formed dust He called Adam and then that dust, Adam, became a living soul.18 A soul is by definition dust which is alive, dust which breathes.19 A soul is dust which is kept alive by a life-breath spirit.20 But describing the resurrection body, Paul tells us how the first man, the dust of the earth, became a living soul but the last Adam, Jesus, became "Life-making Spirit."21 A living soul is "flesh and blood" which cannot inherit the Kingdom of God. To enter the Kingdom of God we cannot be flesh and blood, that is, we cannot be living souls. Rather we must be something else; we bodies must be changed. Our earthly bodies, these living souls, this flesh and blood, must be changed to inherit the Kingdom of God. We cannot inherit the Kingdom of God bearing the earthly image; we can only enter if we bear the heavenly image.22 They must become heavenly bodies, Spiritual bodies.23 We souls of dust who are kept alive by a life-breath spirit within us, must be changed so that our bodies themselves are life-making, immortal, eternal. And the way this happens is that our bodies must become Spiritual bodies, bodies which are life-making or life-giving and the only way that can occur is if these selfsame bodies become united with the Holy Spirit, our bodies becoming one with the Spirit of God, a new creation, a new kind of being, a new kind of humanity, immortal, heavenly, eternal, Spiritual.
Paul explained that the resurrection body is a body which has been clothed.24 And when the resurrection body is clothed man is not found naked.25 He says that the perishable body is clothed with the imperishable; the mortal body is clothed with immortality.26 The Holy Spirit is life;27 the Spirit is life-making28 and it is the Holy Spirit which enclothes the resurrection body. The resurrection body is that which is clothed and swallowed up, consumed, by the Spirit of God. Death, the mortal body, is swallowed up in victory, mortality swallowed up by Life, that is, consumed by the Spirit, the power of life.29 This is all colorful language to describe how the mortal dead body is consumed by the Holy Spirit which gives Life. And this is what makes the human body a "Spiritual Body" and "Life-making Spirit." Spirit and the physical body, the two become one new creation without horizon. Jesus' risen body is not body and Spirit but Spiritualized body, a Spiritual body, a divinized body. For this reason, Paul tells us that the Lord Jesus IS the Spirit.30 The resurrection body is a new creation, a new kind of humanity, an immortal humanity, divine humanity, and it is for this reason the risen Jesus is termed the second and last Adam, the heavenly man as opposed to the earthly mortal man.31
God the Father is spirit, Holy Spirit.32 Our Holy God is Holy Spirit. His divine nature is Spirit. People are filled with the Spirit of God and the Spirit is the fullness of God, the fullness of deity dwelling in them.33 And because Jesus' resurrection body is a Spiritual body, a body characterized by the Spirit of God the Father, a body clothed in the Father's deity, the Holy Spirit, we read that all the fullness of deity dwells in the risen man Jesus bodily.34 His crucified and resurrected body is clothed in divinity, deity, the divine nature of God, the Holy Spirit. In this way, the risen man Jesus is the image of God.35 God is spirit; Holy Spirit, and the risen man Jesus is also "Life-making Spirit"; "the Lord is the Spirit." And we are even now being transformed into the very same image36 and when we are raised from the dead we will bear the image of the heavenly man who is "Life-making Spirit."37 The resurrection body is a glorified body, a body of glory and so we also read that the risen man Jesus is the radiance of God's glory.38 It is God's glory because it is God the Father's Spirit which clothes the resurrection body and glorifies that resurrection body, God's Holy Spirit, God's divine nature. The resurrection body is the inheritance of God's divine nature, the Holy Spirit, and this is the inheritance of all the servants of God. It is what makes one a true son, a true child of God.39 To be a true son one must share their Father's nature. And so even now, the servants of God are given the Holy Spirit in their hearts as a pledge of the inheriting the divine nature of the Holy Spirit.40 Those who are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God.41 And in this way, the Spirit testifies to our spirit that this is really who we are: children of God, partakers of the divine nature,42 those who will inherit the Spirit of God in the resurrection of the body. So we who have the Spirit dwelling in us have the fullness of God dwelling within us, the fullness of deity, the fullness of deity that now dwells in the risen Jesus the firstfruits, Jesus the firstborn son. We have the Spirit of Jesus Christ,43 the Spirit of God's Son,44 the Spirit the man Jesus dwelling in us, the first divinized man. Jesus is a man with a new human nature, a divine humanity, a humanity that is characterized by the Spirit, a Spiritual body. He is "Life-making Spirit." "The Lord is the Spirit." And now the man Jesus who rose into glory comes to dwell in our hearts.
Until this very day at the reading of the old covenant the same veil remains unlifted, because the veil is removed in Christ. But to this day whenever Moses is read, a veil lies over their heart but whenever a person turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit.... we do not preach ourselves but Christ Jesus as Lord. (2 Corinthians 3:14-4:5).
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NOTES:
1. John 20:28.
2. John 20:25-2,29.
3. John 12:44-45.
4. Hebrews 1:4.
5. John 14:10
6. See Acts 2:22
7. Granville Sharp First Rule of Greek Grammar. This particular rule has absolutely no value without demonstrating that a Greek speaker would speak differently and use a different sentence construction if he wanted to rather refer to two persons and not one. Hence, Granville Sharp was compelled to show that Greek speakers were in the habit of using a different sentence structure to refer to two persons instead of one.
8. Granville Sharp Sixth Rule of Greek Grammar.
9. 2 Corinthians 13:4.
10. 1 Peter 3:18.
11. 1 Corinthians 15:35.
12. 1 Corinthians 15:44.
13. 1 Corinthians 15:45; cf. 2 Corinthians 3:17.
14. Luke 20:36.
15. Luke 20:35-36.
16. 1 Corinthians 15:50.
17. 1 Corinthians 15:51-52.
18. Genesis 2:7.
19. At Genesis 2:7 the dust itself becomes a living soul. The Hebrew word nephesh implies the idea of a "breather."
20. James 2:26.
21. 1 Corinthians 15:45.
22. 1 Corinthians 15:45-50.
23. 1 Corinthians 14:44,48-49.
24. 1 Corinthians 15:53-54; 2 Corinthians 5:2-4.
25. 2 Corinthians 5:3; see Revelation 3:18; 16:15; 19:8 (cf. Matthew 22:12). The idea here is that God work in his servants by the Spirit in them and the works that they do are worked in the Holy Spirit.
26. 1 Corinthians 15:53-54.
27. Romans 8:10-11.
28. John 6:63.
29. 1 Corinthians 15:54; 2 Corinthians 5:4; 13:4 (cf. Romans 1:4).
30. 2 Corinthians 3:17 (the preceding context and following context make it quite clear that the 'Lord" here is Jesus. See especially verse 4:5.
31. 1 Corinthians 15:45-49.
32. John 4:24; cf. Matthew 10:20; Luke 4:18 (cf. Matthew 12:28). Jesus is anointed by his Father's Holy Spirit. Also notice at Luke 1:35 that the Father conceives Jesus by His Holy Spirit.
33. Ephesians 4:24; Colossians 2:10.
34. Colossians 2:9; see 1:19.
35. 2 Corinthians 4:4; Colossians 1:15; Hebrews 1:3.
36. 2 Corinthians 3:17-18. Continue reading to 4:4.
37. 1 Corinthians 15:45,49.
38. Hebrews 1:3.
39. Luke 20:36; Romans 8:14-25.
40. 2 Corinthians 1:22; 5:5; Ephesians 1:13; 4:30; see also Romans 8:23-25.
41. Romans 8:14.
42. 2 Peter 1:4.
43. Romans 8:9; Acts 16:6-7; Philippians 1:19.
44. Galatians 4:6; cf. Romans 8:14-25 esp. 8:15.
