VII. BY HIS RESURRECTION POWER
CHRIST CONQUERING DEATH
AND COMING OUT OF DEATH
THAT HE MAY DIE NO MORE
By His resurrection power (Phil. 3:10a), Christ conquered death and came out of death that He may die no more (Rom. 6:9). From the day of His resurrection, Christ is no longer subject to death.
VIII. THE BELIEVERS OF CHRIST BEING RAISED UP
WITH CHRIST IN HIS RESURRECTION
The believers of Christ were raised up with Christ in His resurrection (Eph. 2:6). We have seen that Christ’s resurrection has two aspects. First, He Himself rose up from the dead. The verb here is in the active voice. Second, He was raised up by God from the dead. The verb here is in the passive voice. But we do not have two aspects, two voices, to our resurrection. We did not rise up from the dead, in the active voice. Instead, we were raised up by God, in the passive voice.
IX. IN SUCH A RESURRECTION
THREE MARVELOUS MATTERS TRANSPIRED
A. Christ as the Last Adam
Being Made a Life-giving Spirit
In such a resurrection three marvelous matters transpired. The first matter is that Christ as the last Adam, that is, as the last man in the flesh, became a life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45b). This is a great truth in the Bible!
In 1977 we fought for the truth concerning the Triune God. We published a booklet entitled What a Heresy—Two Divine Fathers, Two Life-giving Spirits, and Three Gods! Some at that time were saying that there were two Fathers—the Father in the Gospels and the Father in Isaiah 9:6 who is called the Father of eternity. They said that the Father in Isaiah 9:6 is not the holy Father in the Trinity. Instead, according to them, to say "the Father of eternity" is similar to saying that Edison is the father of electricity. But there is not another Father in addition to the Father in the Godhead. It is heretical to say this. They also said that the life-giving Spirit in 1 Corinthians 15:45b does not refer to the Holy Spirit. But besides the Holy Spirit who gives life, is there another Spirit who gives life? Of course, there is not. The Holy Spirit is the Spirit who gives life (2 Cor. 3:6b), the life-giving Spirit.
We have spoken the truth concerning Christ being the Spirit in many messages. I am happy to hear the saints at the Lord’s table praise the Lord for becoming the life-giving Spirit. This shows that we have received the spiritual education of this divine truth. In our hymnal, there are also a number of hymns which speak of Christ being the Spirit (Hymns, #490, 491, 493, 539).
(The Christian Life, Chapter 7, by Witness Lee)
