I. BEFORE THE CONSUMMATION OF THE SPIRIT
Now that we have covered the Word, God, and the all-inclusive Christ, we need to go on to see the consummated Spirit.
A. The Spirit of God
Before the consummation of the Spirit, He was the Spirit of God in God’s creation (Gen. 1:2). In God’s creation He was the Spirit of God brooding over the death waters.
B. The Spirit of Jehovah
He was the Spirit of Jehovah in God’s contact with man (Judg. 6:34; Isa. 61:1).
C. The Spirit of Holiness
He was the Spirit of holiness in God’s dealing with man (Psa. 51:11; Isa. 63:10-11). First God created man, then God contacted man, and then God dealt with man as the Spirit of holiness. In the Old Testament the title the Holy Spirit was not used. The Holy Spirit was first used as a divine title in the New Testament in relation to the incarnation (Matt. 1:18, 20; Luke 1:35) to make man holy. He is the Holy Spirit to sanctify the One who was born through incarnation.
II. THE ALL-INCLUSIVE, LIFE-GIVING SPIRIT
Through the processes which the Triune God has completed, the Spirit of God as the processed Triune God has been consummated into the all-inclusive, life-giving Spirit to be the following items.
A. The Spirit, Who Was Not Yet
He was consummated to be "the Spirit," who was not yet before the resurrection of Christ (John 7:39), compounded with Christ’s divinity, humanity, death with its effectiveness, and resurrection with its power to be the compound anointing ointment (Exo. 30:23-25). The Spirit was not yet at the time of John 7:39 because He had not yet been consummated by the resurrection of Christ. Before the resurrection of Christ, that is, before Christ’s glorification, the Spirit was not yet. The Spirit of God in the Old Testament was the Spirit with merely the divine element, but in resurrection He was compounded with the humanity of Christ, with His all-inclusive death and its effectiveness, and with His resurrection and its power, which repels all the negative things. He is now rich with all of these elements.
(Crystallization-Study of the Gospel of John, Chapter 8, by Witness Lee)
