As believers in Christ, we are serpentine people who are in the process of becoming the universal increase of the unlimited Christ by the immeasurable Spirit with the eternal life.
Hallelujah, Christ came to die for us as the bronze serpent, and He also died as the Lamb of God, as a Man in the flesh, as the last Adam, as the Firstborn of all creation, as the Peacemaker, and as the grain of wheat! Wow, Christ’s death is really all-inclusive and all-terminating!
Christ died for us as the Lamb of God (John 1:29); He is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. Sin here includes our sinful nature and the sins in our conduct; Christ died for us as the Lamb of God to take away our sin.
Christ died as a Man in the flesh; in John 1:1, 14 we see that the Word became flesh, and in 1 Pet. 3:18 we are told that Christ was put to death in the flesh. When He went to death, the flesh was put to death; this is good news! No matter how we feel and what we think of our flesh, the fact is that the flesh has been crucified on the cross!
Christ died as the last Adam; in 1 Cor. 15:45 we are told that Christ as the last Adam became a life-giving Spirit. As the last Adam, Christ terminated Adam, and He terminated everything that is adamic. As the last Adam, Christ was a Man in the old creation; our old man has been crucified with Him (Rom. 6:6) so that we no longer live in the old man but in the new man!
Christ died as the bronze serpent (John 3:14-16; Num. 21:4-9; John 12:31; Heb. 2:14). He became in the likeness of men and was made sin for us on the cross, terminating sin and the devil through the cross.
Christ went to the cross as the Firstborn of all creation (Col. 1:16); when He died, He terminated the entire old creation.
Christ died as the Peacemaker (Eph. 2:14-15); when He died, He made peace between the Jews and the Gentiles. When Christ died on the cross, He took the law of the commandments in ordinances and nailed it to the cross so that we can have peace with God and peace with one another. We can have peace with God and with man because Christ is our peace, and all our ordinances have been nailed to the cross.
Finally, Christ died as a grain of wheat (John 12:24) so that the shell of His humanity may be broken and the life within Him would be released in resurrection to produce us as the many grains for His glorification! Hallelujah!
Based on all these we can say that Christ’s death is eternal and all-inclusive, for through His death sin, sins, the flesh, the old man, Satan, the world, the old creation, and the ordinances were all dealt with, and the divine life with its riches were released to be imparted into us! Praise the Lord for His all-inclusive death on the cross!
Nine Aspects of the Unlimited Christ who is being Increased in us by the Immeasurable Spirit
In John chapter three we can see at least nine aspects of the unlimited Christ; this unlimited Christ wants to gain a universal increase by giving the immeasurable Spirit.
First, the unlimited Christ is from above, that is, from the heavens (John 3:31). On one hand Christ was in the flesh, and the flesh is from earth, but within Him there was a part that was from above, from the heavens.
Second, the unlimited Christ is above all; because He is unlimited, all-inclusive, and universal, while He was on earth, He was still in the heavens (v. 13).
No one has ascended in the heaven except He who has descended out from heaven, the Son of Man, who is in heaven. Somehow this unlimited Christ was both on earth and in the heaven at the same time; He was among men, but He was also above all, for He was in the heavens.
Third, the unlimited Christ is loved by the Father, and only in Christ can we enjoy the love of God the Father (v. 35).
Fourth, the unlimited Christ has been given all things by the Father; the Father gave the Son all things, including us – we are all given to Christ by God (v. 35; 1 Cor. 3:21-23). The entire universe has been given to the Christ whom the Father loves; He’s the unique recipient of the Father’s love and gifts.
For us to enjoy God’s love, we need to be in Christ; for us to participate in what God gives us, we also need to be in Christ. All things are ours and we are Christ’s; when we’re in Christ, we inherit all things together with Him.
Fifth, the unlimited Christ was sent by God (John 3:34; 6:46); Christ is God’s ambassador, God’s sent One, and He owns all things. Hallelujah for this unlimited Christ!
Sixth, the unlimited Christ sent by God speaks the words of God (John 3:34; 6:63). He speaks the words of God to impart life to us; the words that He speaks are Spirit and are life.
The words that the Lord speaks to us today in a personal and intimate way are the embodiment of the life-giving Spirit, for they give us life. When we exercise our spirit to receive the words of God, the life-giving Spirit imparts life into us, and we receive the Spirit who is life.
This is how the unlimited Christ gains an universal increase in humanity – by the exercise of our spirit so that we may receive the divine life embodied in the word of God.
Seventh, the unlimited Christ gives the Spirit not by measure (John 3:34). How does the unlimited Christ give us the immeasurable Spirit? It is by speaking the word of God to us.
When we exercise our spirit and receive the Word of God by means of all prayer and petitions, we handle the word of God rightly and digest it in our spirit, and we are filled with the Spirit of God.
This is the way for us to become the universal increase of the unlimited Christ – by receiving the immeasurable Spirit and being filled with the Spirit. The way the unlimited Christ gains His universal increase in man is by giving the Spirit without measure by speaking the words of God.
The more we have of the Spirit, the more we will be the increase of Christ; this increase begins with our regeneration and it consummates with our being filled with the immeasurable Spirit.
We all must learn to not merely read the word of God or study it but also eat it and digest it. Through the Word of God we receive the Spirit, and when we have the Spirit, we have eternal life; the unlimited Christ is the One who gives us His eternal life to make us His increase.
Eighth, the unlimited Christ gives eternal life to His believers (John 3:15-16, 36; 6:63). When we believe into Him – when we repent for being serpentine in our nature and believe into the Lord, taking Him as our sin offering, we receive the eternal life; we not only not perish, but we have eternal life!
Ninth, the unlimited Christ has the bride as His universal increase (John 3:29-30). The bride of Christ is Christ’s universal increase; it is the aggregate of all those who have been regenerated.
Christ’s increase, His bride, is a living composition of all regenerated human beings; the bride is the universal increase of the unlimited Christ. Amen!
For us to become the universal increase of the unlimited Christ we need to receive the living word of God so that we may be filled with the immeasurable Spirit and enjoy eternal life! When we do this, we become the bride, the universal increase of the unlimited Christ!
Lord Jesus, thank You for coming as the unlimited Christ to give us the immeasurable Spirit and make us Your universal increase, Your bride! We come to You in Your Word to eat You, digest You, and assimilate You, and we exercise our spirit to receive the Spirit and life in Your word. Amen, Lord, we give ourselves to You to enjoy You in Your word through the exercise of our spirit so that we may become the universal increase of the unlimited Christ! Amen, hallelujah, we are being made part of the bride of Christ, the universal increase of the unlimited Christ!
Enjoying the Immeasurable Spirit and Expressing the Divine Eternal Life
What is the immeasurable Spirit, the Spirit whom the Son gives to us without measure?
In John 3, a very mysterious chapter in the Bible which speaks both of the fact that we are serpentine in nature (vv. 14-15) and that we are becoming the bride of Christ (v. 29) we see that the Father sent the Son and the Son gives the Spirit without measure.
Hallelujah, we as believers in Christ are not only being saved from our serpentine nature through repentance and confession of sins, but we also enjoy the immeasurable Spirit to be made the bride of Christ, the universal increase of the unlimited Christ!
The immeasurable Spirit is nothing else but the all-inclusive compound Spirit typified by the compound ointment in Exo. 30:23-25 and experienced in reality by Paul in Phil. 1:19).
In the Old Testament we see the compound ointment with which all the tabernacle and the utensils used in the tabernacle had to be anointed; this is a type of the all-inclusive compound Spirit, which Christ became through the process of incarnation, human living, crucifixion, and resurrection.
The immeasurable Spirit whom the unlimited Christ gives for the producing of His universal increase, the bride of Christ, is the life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45; 2 Cor. 3:6).
The letter kills, but the Spirit gives life; the ministry of the new covenant inscribes Christ into the hearts of the saints, and as the saints receive the ministry, the Spirit writes Christ into them so that they may express Christ.
The immeasurable Spirit is also the pneumatic Christ; this term “pneumatic” refers to Christ as the Spirit (Rom. 8:9-11). In John 3 this term, “eternal life” is mentioned three times (vv. 15-16, 36).
Eternal life is the divine life, the life of the eternal God; this life is eternal in time, space, essence, function, and power.
Eternal life is the essence of the Triune god becoming the element of the church, the bride, and the bride is the universal increase of Christ for the corporate expression of the Triune God. Amen!
By Christ being lifted up on the cross as the bronze serpent, we as Satan’s increase have become Christ’s increase, His bride; we who were once the increase of Satan have been regenerated to become the increase of Christ! Hallelujah!
As we enjoy and receive of the immeasurable Spirit, we express the divine life to be the bride of Christ, the increase of Christ, part of the universal increase of the unlimited Christ! Amen!
Lord, keep us drinking and receiving the immeasurable Spirit until we are filled in spirit and become part of the universal increase of the unlimited Christ! Amen, Lord, we open to receive life – receive the life-giving Spirit who constantly imparts life to us! Amen, Lord Jesus, flow into us as the Spirit to increase the divine life in us until we spontaneously express You on the earth! May we and may all the saints go on with You and cooperate with You to be transformed and arrive to maturity so that together we may become the mature bridal warrior to bring You back!
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, the message by bro. Ed Marks for this week, and portions from, Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1982, vol. 2, ”The Fulfillment of the Tabernacle and the Offerings in the Writings of John,” chs. 12-13, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Crystallization-Study of Numbers (2), week 6, Christ as Typified by the Bronze Serpent.
- Hymns on this topic:
# E’en as Eve is part of Adam / Taken out of him, / So the Church is Christ’s own increase / With Himself within. (Hymns #819)
# The Spirit of the triune God / Within our spirit now doth rest; / He ever seeks thru us to flow, / That God in Christ may be expressed. (Hymns #749)
# Thy oil anoints me here in every way, / Anointing Thee within unceasingly; / I more decrease, Thou more increase each day, / Thus full expression Thou shalt have through me. (Hymns #764)
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