First Corinthians 10:4 says, “All drank the same spiritual drink; for they drank of a spiritual rock which followed them, and the rock was Christ.” The spiritual drink here refers to the living water which flowed out of the cleft rock (Exo. 17:6) and that typifies the Spirit as our all-inclusive drink (John 7:37-39; 1 Cor. 12:13). The Spirit as symbolized by the spiritual drink is the ultimate issue of the Triune God. This drink quenches our thirst and satisfies our being. In our Christian life we should all drink the same spiritual drink; we should not drink anything other than the all-inclusive Spirit.
In Hebrews 1:9, Matthew 25:3-4, 8-9, and Luke 10:34 the Spirit of God is symbolized by the oil. The oil is simply of one single element, symbolizing that the Spirit of God was merely of the element of divinity. It is with this Spirit that God has anointed Christ.
Another symbol of the Spirit is the compound ointment (2 Cor. 1:21; 1 John 2:20, 27). According to the type in Exodus 30, a hin of olive oil was compounded with four spices to produce the holy anointing oil, the holy ointment. In typology oil signifies the Spirit of God, and the compound ointment, the oil blended with four spices, signifies the Holy Spirit, the compound Spirit. Through a compounding process the oil became an ointment and was used to anoint the tabernacle and everything related to it. The priests also were anointed with this holy ointment. Before Exodus 30 this compound was “not yet,” but after Exodus 30 such an ointment was definitely in existence. In like manner, before Christ was crucified, resurrected, and glorified, the Spirit as the all-inclusive life-giving Spirit was not yet (John 7:39). But through the process of Christ’s crucifixion and resurrection the Spirit of God, typified by the oil, became the compound Spirit, typified by the ointment.
The four spices used to make the ointment in Exodus 30— myrrh, cinnamon, calamus, and cassia—typify respectively the effectiveness of Christ’s death, the sweetness of His death, the power of His resurrection, and the fragrance of His resurrection. Before Christ’s crucifixion and resurrection, the Spirit of God did not have these four elements. But after Christ’s resurrection these elements were compounded into the Spirit of God, and the Spirit of God became the Spirit, the compound Spirit symbolized by the compound ointment (see Life-study of Exodus, Messages 157-163).
In this compound ointment we have the Triune God signified by the numbers one and three (one hin of olive oil; three complete units of five hundred shekels—Exo. 30:23-25) and humanity signified by the number four (four spices). We also have the death of Christ, the effectiveness of Christ’s death, the power of Christ’s resurrection, and the flavor of His resurrection. This compound ointment is a picture of today’s compound Spirit. Before the Lord’s crucifixion and resurrection, the Spirit of God was not a compound. He had merely divinity, nothing else. But after the Lord’s resurrection this Spirit of God was compounded with humanity, the death of Christ, the resurrection of Christ, the effectiveness of Christ’s death, and the effectiveness of His resurrection. This all has been compounded into one ointment which today is the Spirit. Before Christ’s resurrection the Spirit of God, but not the compound Spirit, was in existence. After the Lord Jesus was crucified and resurrected, the compound Spirit came into being. On the day of Christ’s resurrection the Spirit of God became the compound Spirit. In the compound Spirit there are many items: divinity, humanity, the effectiveness of Christ’s death, and the power of Christ’s resurrection.
In 2 Corinthians 1:21 Paul says, “He who firmly attaches us with you unto Christ and has anointed us is God.” First John 2:20 says that we have an anointing from the Holy One, and verse 27 says that this anointing abides in us. “Christ” is the anglicized form of the Greek word Christos, which means the anointed One. The Greek word for anointing is chrisma. Because we have been attached by God to Christ, the anointed One, we are spontaneously anointed with Him by God. Christ has been anointed with the divine ointment, and the ointment that is upon Him now flows in us. This is pictured in Psalm 133, which says that the anointing oil flows from the head of Aaron to his beard and even to the skirts of his priestly robe. This indicates that Christ has an abundance of the anointing oil. God has poured the ointment upon Him. Through that anointing Christ has received the ointment, and eventually He, the anointed One, became the anointing One. In fact, He has even become the anointing. When He entered into us as the anointed One, He became the anointing One in us. Actually, the anointing that dwells in us is the anointed One becoming the anointing One and also the anointing.
God’s intention is to work Himself into us as our life and our everything to make us His counterpart for His expression. In order to accomplish this, it was necessary for God to pass through the process of incarnation, human living, crucifixion, and resurrection. When He entered into resurrection, He became the compound, all-inclusive, life-giving Spirit. This Spirit is actually Christos, the anointed One, becoming the life-giving One. When we believed in the Lord Jesus, we received Him into us. The One we received is the anointed One, who through death and resurrection has become the anointing One. Furthermore, this anointing One is the all-inclusive, indwelling Spirit. As soon as we believed in Him, He as the Spirit entered our spirit. Now He is within our spirit to anoint us, “paint” us, with the element of the Triune God. The more this “painting” goes on, the more the element of the Triune God is transfused into our being. Today we all are under the anointing of the compound Spirit with Christ’s divinity, humanity, all-inclusive death, and wonderful resurrection. This is the Spirit as the compound ointment.
(Conclusion of the New Testament, The (Msgs. 079-098), Chapter 4, by Witness Lee)