The Processed and Consummated Triune God

The Consummated Spirit as the Reality of the Person and Work of Christ

In our discussion of Christ becoming the life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45; 2 Cor. 3:17) or of the processed Triune God in Christ being consummated as the Spirit, we in no way intend to annul the intrinsic distinction between the Son and the Spirit. The Son became the Spirit, yet the Son by no means ceases to exist. Christ is now the Spirit in the sense that the consummated Spirit in God’s economy functions to apply to the believers all that the Son is and has wrought. So related are the Son and the Spirit, in fact, that Paul speaks of the Spirit of His Son (Gal. 4:6), the Spirit of Jesus (Acts 16:7), the Spirit of Christ (Rom. 8:9), and the Spirit of Jesus Christ (Phil. 1:19).

The Spirit in its working was found to be in effect the equivalent of Jesus Christ…where the possession of the Spirit of Christ is clearly regarded as tantamount to an indwelling of Christ Himself… “the Lord, the Spirit,” (i.e. Christ in the power of His glorified Life) are viewed as being in practice the same. Men who lived within a short space of time after the Ministry, the Ascension, and the Pentecost realized that where the Spirit was Christ was, and what the Spirit wrought was wrought in fact by Christ. Even in the words spoken by His Spirit through the prophets they recognized the voice of Christ.

—Henry Barclay Swete (New, 301)

Some may suppose that Christ’s incarnation, human living, death, and resurrection are merely historical events that bear little if any present and practical significance. Nevertheless, the thought of the New Testament is much different. Through the consummated Spirit, all of Christ’s person and work, including all His achievements and attainments, are borne and communicated to His believers. Hence, we not only believe in Christ and in His work objectively, but we also experience Him and His work subjectively through the application of the consummated Spirit.

Experiencing God Coming into Man

The Christian experience commences with regeneration, when believers receive the life of God (John 3:16), the nature of God (2 Pet. 1:4), and are thus born anew to become children of God (John 1:13). We are born of the Spirit (John 3:6); specifically, of the consummated Spirit. Our regeneration actually parallels Christ’s incarnation, when God initially entered into man. Hence, the miracle of incarnation can be said to recur with every believer’s regeneration, as effected by the consummated Spirit.

Experiencing Christ’s Human Living

In His human living, Christ expressed all of the rich divine attributes, such as love, light, righteousness, holiness, mercy, and compassion through His human virtues. Similarly, He expects His believers to live by His divine life, which they received in regeneration (Rom. 1:17), that through them, God may have an enlarged and expanded expression in Christ. Having seen this vision, the apostle Paul realized that it was no longer he who lived, but Christ who lived in him (Gal. 2:20). To him, to live was Christ (Phil. 1:21). Yet without the Spirit, who is the reality of Christ (John 16:13-14), no one can possibly live Christ. Only through Christ’s indwelling the believers (2 Cor. 13:5) as the Spirit (Rom 8:11) is it possible for human beings to live Christ. For this reason, the New Testament charges the believers to mind the things of the Spirit (Rom. 8:5), to be led by the Spirit (Rom. 8:14), to live by the Spirit, and to walk by the Spirit (Gal. 5:16, 25).

Experiencing Christ’s Death

The effectiveness of Christ’s death is also communicated to us by the consummated Spirit. The apostles often spoke of the believers experiencing the death of Christ: being crucified with Christ (Gal. 2:20), being crucified to the world (Gal. 6:16), crucifying the flesh (Gal. 5:24), dying to sin (1 Pet. 2:24), being conformed to His death (Phil. 3:10), being put to death for Jesus’ sake (2 Cor. 4:11), even of dying daily (1 Cor. 15:31). But the secret to experiencing the death of Christ subjectively lies in Romans 8:13: “If by the Spirit you put to death the practices of the body, you will live.” The Spirit operates to convey to us the reality of Christ’s death, which is applied to our fallen sinful being whenever we experience the Spirit.

Experiencing Christ’s Resurrection

Paul preached the resurrection of Christ not only as the objective gospel, but also as it related to His own experience. He spoke of being in the likeness of Christ’s resurrection (Rom. 6:5). Furthermore, in the desperate and depressing confines of a Roman prison, he sought to know and experience the power of Christ’s resurrection (Phil. 3:10). Once again, the reality of Christ’s resurrection is found only in the Spirit. Romans 8:11 reflects Paul’s experience of the resurrection of Christ: “And if the Spirit of the One who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who indwells you.” Thus, God, who raised Christ from the dead, now applies this resurrection life to the believers through His Spirit who indwells them. Moreover, this consummated Spirit is the reality of Christ, who Himself is the resurrection (John 11:25).

In reading the Bible, one can’t help marveling not only at the revelation of the wonderful God, His wisdom, His plan, His promises, and His attributes, but also at the revelation of Christ, His perfect humanity, His innumerable fine human virtues, His work of redemption, and His death-defeating resurrection. Thankfully, the Bible also unveils that the Triune God has been processed and consummated so that all of God, all of Christ, and all of Christ’s work are now communicated and applied to His believers by the consummated Spirit, that they may not merely marvel objectively, but may also share in and experience subjectively all of God’s being and work.