FROM A LOWER TO A HIGHER FORM
Stated in a simple and brief way, Jesus was God incarnated to be a man. Then He was crucified and resurrected. By crucifixion and resurrection, He was transfigured from a lower to a higher form. For example, suppose we have a seed with life in it. The form is low, but if the seed is sown in the earth, it grows, through decay and death, from a lower degree to a higher (see 1 Cor. 15:37, 42, 43). It was a seed, but now it has become a flower. The form of the seed is lower, while the stage of the flower is much higher. It was the same with Jesus when He was in the flesh before His crucifixion. His form was low, but by His crucifixion and resurrection, His form became higher, yet it still remained the same nature. The nature and essence was the same, but the form was different. He was flesh before His crucifixion, and He was still flesh after His crucifixion (Luke 24:39), but the form had changed. He did not through death and resurrection relinquish His flesh. He still retained the flesh, but in a higher, resurrected form. Then from this resurrected and ascended Jesus, the Spirit of Jesus came forth. Whatever is in Jesus, and whatever He has obtained and attained, are now all in this Spirit of Jesus.
Suppose we have a teapot full of tea from which we pour a cup of tea. Obviously, whatever is in the teapot will be exactly the same as what is in the cup. The tea in the cup is the same as that in the teapot. The Spirit of Jesus came forth from the very resurrected and ascended Jesus. By this we realize that today the Spirit of Jesus has not only the divine essence, but also the human essence of Jesus. There is not only divinity, but also humanity. We must consider who this “Me” is in Jesus’ words: “If anyone thirst, let him come to Me and drink.” It is not just the divine Person. It is a man. Hence, when we come to Jesus to drink of Him, we come to drink of this man. We drink not only of His divinity, but even the more of His humanity. Tea has an abundance of water in it; but we do not call it water, we call it tea.
THE NATURAL CONCEPT
I am afraid that many of us still think that whenever we come to Jesus to drink of Him, we drink of Him only as a divine Person. Few Christians today have the concept that when they drink of Jesus, they are not only drinking of a divine Person, but also of a human being. They are not drinking only of the divinity of Jesus, but even the more of His humanity.
I have seen many who have received the so-called Pentecostal experience with the manifestation of gifts. The strange thing was that in their daily life there was no flow of life. In the meetings, they spoke frequently in tongues and exercised many of the gifts, but when they were in their homes, the flowing of life was missing. For many years I have been observing this situation. Of course, concerning those who love the world and do not care for the Lord’s interest, it is understandable that they do not have the flow of life. But what is the reason why those who are so much in the manifestation of the gifts do not have it? I believe the answer is in John 7. To have the flow of life, we all must drink of the humanity of Jesus. We must drink not only of the Spirit of God, but of the Spirit of an exalted Person, the Spirit of an exalted Man. Our understanding is that we drink only of the Spirit of God, but this is not adequate. If we drink only water, we are still short of tea. Today we need to drink some “tea.” We need to drink of the humanity of Jesus. We need to drink of the resurrected and ascended man, Jesus. He is not only the Spirit of God, but also the Spirit of Jesus. The bountiful supply is not of the Spirit of God, but of the Spirit of Jesus Christ (Phil. 1:19).
(Christ as the Reality, Chapter 12, by Witness Lee)
