Quotes by Witness Lee

The Facts and Functions of Resurrection

The Fact of Christ’s Resurrection

The Lord was crucified definitely and physically. With nails in His hands and His feet, He hung on a wooden cross probably for six hours, from nine o’clock in the morning until three o’clock in the afternoon. During the first three hours, man did everything possible to mock Him. Then in the last three hours God came in to judge Him as our substitute. As God was judging Him, Christ shed His blood to redeem us. Out of His side came blood and water: blood for redemption and water for the release of life. Therefore, by His crucifixion, Christ accomplished redemption and released the divine life.

Immediately after He died, Christ was given a proper burial in a tomb belonging to a rich man. Then on the third day He was resurrected. The Bible clearly says that Christ was resurrected. On the other hand, the Bible also says that Christ rose up, that He did not need anyone to resurrect Him. How was it possible for Christ to rise from the dead? It was possible because He Himself is resurrection.

Christ was willing to be buried, to enter into death, the tomb, and Hades. While He was in Hades, He tested death, put death to shame, and conquered and subdued death. He went into the realm of death to tour this region and see what it was able to do. Eventually He discovered that death could do nothing to Him. It did not have the power to hold Him, to retain Him (Acts 2:24). When it was time for Him to rise up, He said farewell to death and walked away. Thus, Christ conquered death, subdued death, and came out of death. This is resurrection.

(Witness Lee, LS of 1 Corinthians, 585-586)

Acts 2:
24 Whom ¹God has raised up, having loosed the pangs of death, since it was not possible for Him to be held by it.

24¹ Here and in v.32·Peter said that God raised up Jesus. In 10:40-41 he said the same thing again but added, He rose from the dead. Regarding the Lord as a man, the New Testament tells us that God raised Him from the dead (Rom. 8:11); considering Him as God, it tells us that He Himself rose from the dead (1·Thes. 4:14). This proves His dual status?#151;human and divine. (Back)

(Witness Lee, Footnotes, 484)

A Proof of Resurrection

In 1936 I was speaking to a group of university students in the old capital of China, Peking. Their university was one of the top universities in China. After I spoke, a young student came to me and told me that the thing that bothered him about the Christian faith was the teaching of resurrection. He could not understand how a man could die and be resurrected. In front of the window where we were standing was a wheat field. Pointing to the wheat field, I told him that it was full of resurrection. Then, I explained to him that when a grain of wheat is sown into the earth it dies. Then after it dies it grows up in resurrection. I told him that we could see resurrection everywhere in nature. I pointed out to him strongly that a grain of wheat dies, but it does not stop at death because through its death it grows; thus, its growth is by its death. Actually a grain of wheat grows by its death. As a result of this fellowship, this young student was caught by the Lord. (Back)

(Witness Lee, NT Economy, 53)

Resurrection as the Vitality of the Gospel

The resurrection of Christ is the vitality of the gospel. There are many philosophies and religions on earth. But none of these philosophies or religions is vital. On the contrary, every one of them is devoid of life….But the Lord’s gospel contains life, even resurrection life.

Resurrection life is a life that has conquered death, a life that entered into death, remained in death for a period of time, and then came out of death. Hence, this life is a death-conquering and death-subduing life. Therefore, it is called resurrection life.

The gospel of Christ not only has life; it also has the life power to subdue death, to conquer death, and to annul death. This life, the life that has subdued, conquered, and nullified death, is resurrection….

According to the Bible, we believe that Christ was crucified, buried, and resurrected. Therefore, our Christ is the Christ of resurrection. Furthermore, He Himself actually is resurrection (John 11:25). He is the life that conquers death and subdues it. Hallelujah, our Christ is a death-conquering life! He is resurrection!

(Witness Lee, LS of 1 Corinthians, 583-584)

In [1 Corinthians] verse 12 Paul refers to the preaching that Christ has been raised from among the dead. This indicates clearly that the apostles preached the resurrection of Christ.

(Witness Lee, LS of 1 Corinthians, 594)

According to the book of Acts, the preaching of the gospel was mainly the preaching of Christ’s resurrection.

(Witness Lee, LS of 1 Corinthians, 594)

1 Corinthians 15:
5 And that He ¹appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve;

5¹ Or, was seen by. The earlier apostles and disciples were eyewitnesses of Christ’s resurrection (Acts 1:22), and their preaching stressed their testimony to this (Acts 2:32; 4:33). They witnessed to the resurrected Christ not only by their teaching but also by their living. They lived with Him by His living in resurrection (John 14:19).

(Witness Lee, Footnotes, 745)

1 Corinthians 15:
12 But if Christ is proclaimed that He has been raised from the dead, how is it that some among you say that there is ¹no resurrection of the dead?

12¹ In this chapter the apostle dealt with the Corinthians’ heretical saying that there is no resurrection of the dead. The Corinthians were like the Sadducees (Matt. 22:23; Acts 23:8). This was the tenth problem among them. It is the most damaging and destructive to God’s New Testament economy, worse than the heresy of Hymenaeus and Philetus concerning resurrection (2·Tim. 2:17-18). Resurrection is the life pulse and lifeline of the divine economy. If there were no resurrection, God would be the God of the dead, not of the living (Matt. 22:32). If there were no resurrection, Christ would not have been raised from the dead. He would be a dead Savior, not a living One who lives forever (Rev. 1:18) and is able to save to the uttermost (Heb. 7:25). If there were no resurrection, there would be no living proof of our being justified by His death (Rom. 4:25 and note), no imparting of life (John 12:24), no regeneration (John 3:5), no renewing (Titus 3:5), no transformation (Rom. 12:2; 2·Cor. 3:18), and no conformity to the image of Christ (Rom. 8:29). If there were no resurrection, there would be no members of Christ (Rom. 12:5), no Body of Christ as His fullness (Eph. 1:20-23), and no church as Christ’s bride (John 3:29), and therefore no new man (Eph. 2:15; 4:24; Col. 3:10-11). If there were no resurrection, God’s New Testament economy would altogether collapse and God’s eternal purpose would be nullified. (Back)

(Witness Lee, Footnotes, 746-747)

Christ Still a Man after His Resurrection

When I was a young Christian, I thought that Jesus was a man on this earth for thirty-three and a half years, but that after His resurrection He was no longer a man. I thought that He put on humanity as a piece of clothing, and that after He died and resurrected, He put off this clothing. Do you have the same thought today? We must realize that He is still a man. After His resurrection, He came to His disciples and showed them His physical body. Of course, this body is one which we cannot fully understand. His resurrected body is spiritual (1 Cor. 15:44); yet it is physical, for He asked the disciples to touch Him. (Back)

(Witness Lee, All-Inclusive Spirit, 10)

Christ Being the Firstfruit of Resurrection

In resurrection Christ is the Firstfruit of resurrection. First Corinthians 15:20 says, “Christ has been raised from among the dead, the firstfruit of those who have fallen asleep.” In verse 23 of the same chapter Paul goes on to say, “Each one in his own order: the firstfruit, Christ; after that those who are Christ’s at His coming.” In these verses Christ is set forth as the Firstfruit of resurrection. Christ was the first one raised from among the dead as the firstfruit of resurrection. This was typified by the firstfruits in Leviticus 23:10 and 11, offered to God on the day after the Sabbath, the day of resurrection (Matt. 28:1). (Back)

(Witness Lee, Conclusion, 324)

Christ Being the Firstborn from among the Dead

As the Firstfruit of resurrection, Christ is the Firstborn from among the dead: “He is the Head of the Body, the church; who is the beginning, Firstborn from among the dead” (Col.1:18). Christ being “the Firstborn from among the dead” is for the new creation in resurrection, which is the church, the Body of Christ. As the first in resurrection Christ is the Head of the Body. He is the One who has the first place, the preeminence, in the church. (Back)

(Witness Lee, Conclusion, 324)

Christ’s Resurrection being a Matter of God’s Righteousness

The resurrection of Christ was a matter of God’s righteousness. Have you ever considered the resurrection of Christ in this light? God was righteous to come in to judge Christ as our substitute on the cross. This judgment of Christ on the cross was just and righteous. By being judged by God, Christ fulfilled all the requirements of God’s righteousness. He bore our sins on the cross to fully meet all the righteous requirements of God. Thus, through Christ’s death on the cross, God’s righteousness has been wholly satisfied. In other words, the righteous God was judicially satisfied with Christ’s death on the cross. Therefore, Christ was buried in a new tomb that belonged to a rich man. This indicates that immediately after Christ’s judicial death and immediately after the satisfaction of God’s righteous requirements, Christ rested as the fulfillment of the prophecy of the Scriptures.

After Christ was buried, God was held responsible in His righteousness to release Christ from among the dead. Not many Christians realize this. Most think that the resurrection of Christ was only a matter of the divine power of God’s life. Few realize that the resurrection of Christ was not only a matter of power, but also a matter of righteousness. If God had not raised Christ up after His death on the cross to satisfy all the requirements of God’s righteousness, God would have not been righteous. It was righteous for God to release Christ from death. According to His righteousness, God had to judge Christ on the cross because Christ was bearing all our unrighteousness. But after God had judged Christ in full, God’s righteousness held Him responsible to release Christ from death and to raise Him up from among the dead.

In the Gospel of John there is the concept that Christ was resurrected by the power of an endless life. But this is not the concept of Christ’s resurrection in the Gospel of Matthew. The concept in Matthew regarding Christ’s resurrection is that it is related to God’s righteousness. John is a book on life, and life is a matter of power. But Matthew is a book on the kingdom, and the kingdom is a matter of righteousness. Therefore, according to Matthew, for Christ to be raised from the dead meant that God released Him according to His righteousness. Thus, Christ was both righteously judged and put to death and righteously raised up from the dead. (Back)

(Witness Lee, LS of Matthew, 821-822)

Christ’s Resurrection Swallowing Up and Overcoming Death

The cloths and the handkerchief were left in the tomb in a very good order [John 20] (v. 7). Who took the linen cloths and the handkerchief from off the Lord Jesus, and who folded the handkerchief and left it in a good order? It was not done by angels but by the Lord Jesus Himself. The proof of this is the resurrection of Lazarus in chapter eleven. After Lazarus had been raised from the dead and had come out of the tomb, he was “bound hands and feet with burial cloths, and his face was bound about with a handkerchief” (11:44). Hence, Jesus said to the people, “Loose him and let him go” (11:44). Lazarus needed help to be released from his burial cloths because he was the resurrected one, not the resurrecting One. But the Lord Jesus was the resurrecting One, not the resurrected one. He rose up by Himself and did not need the help of angels. The angels were merely observers. If the angels had removed the wrappings, it would have meant that the Lord was unable to rise up from the dead Himself.

I believe that at a certain point the Lord might have said to death, “Death, your time is over. Now I shall rise up, walk out of your domain, remove the wrappings from off My body, put everything in a good order, and leave it in the tomb as a testimony that I have raised Myself up from among the dead.” Then the Lord might have said good-bye to death and walked away. In principle, at least, it must have been this way. The Lord was not in a rush. He did not run excitedly away from the tomb like a kidnap victim who hurriedly flees after he has been released. No, the Lord was at peace and very much at ease. He might simply have taken a good look at death, finding that it was powerless to do anything with Him. Although death tried its best to retain Him, this was impossible. Being very much at ease, the Lord removed the wrappings, folded the handkerchief, and put them in a good order. Death watched Him as He easily did this. He was unafraid and nothing threatened Him. He might have said, “Death, I have finished My mission. You can do nothing with Me, and I am not afraid of you. Now is the time for Me to walk out of your domain. I am not in a hurry. I could stay here for another day if I wanted to, but now it’s time to leave.” This was the true situation when the Lord rose from the dead.

(Witness Lee, LS of John, 536-537)

Resurrection is able to conquer every negative thing, including death. Apart from God Himself, the most powerful thing in the universe is death. Whenever death visits anyone, that one cannot resist it; he must yield to its power. Although death is so powerful, resurrection is even more powerful. Death cannot hold resurrection (Acts 2:24). On the contrary, resurrection conquers death and overcomes it.

In 1 Corinthians 15:26 Paul says, “The last enemy that is being abolished is death.” This indicates that death is the strongest enemy. Such a strong enemy can be defeated only by resurrection. Therefore, the first function of resurrection, of the life-power, is that of conquering the negative things, especially death. The more resurrection is placed in a situation of death, the more opportunity it has to function to conquer death.

(Witness Lee, LS of Romans, 567-568)

Resurrection not only conquers death and overcomes it, but it also devours it. In Numbers 14:9 Caleb said that the enemies of the children of Israel would be their food. Death, the last and greatest enemy, is food for resurrection. Sometimes an enemy is conquered, but he is still present. Through the function of the life-power, death is not only conquered, but is swallowed up to the point that it disappears. When the life-power swallows death, death vanishes.

(Witness Lee, LS of Romans, 568)

In [1 Corinthians 15] verse 54 Paul goes on to say, “And when this corruptible shall put on incorruption, and this mortal shall put on immortality, then shall come to pass the word which is written, Death has been swallowed up in victory.” The word “when” refers to the time that our corrupted and mortal body will be resurrected or transfigured from corruption and death into glory and life. Then death will be swallowed up in the victory of resurrection life. This is the consummation of the resurrection we share in God’s economy through redemption and salvation in Christ. This resurrection begins with the making alive of our dead spirit and is completed with the transfiguration of our corruptible body. In between is the process of the metabolic transformation of our fallen soul by the life-giving Spirit (2 Cor. 3:18), who is the reality of resurrection.

Literally, “in victory” is “into victory.” Death means defeat to man. Through Christ’s salvation in the resurrection life, it will be swallowed up into victory to us, the beneficiaries of Christ’s resurrection life. In this verse victory is a synonym of resurrection. Resurrection is the victory of life over death.

In verse 55 Paul asks, “Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?” This is the apostle’s triumphant exclamation concerning the victory of resurrection life over death.

Verse 56 says, “Now the sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law.” Death is of the Devil (Heb. 2:14), and it stings us to death with sin (Rom. 5:12). In God’s redemption, Christ was made sin for us (2 Cor. 5:21) in order to condemn sin through His death (Rom. 8:3), thus abolishing the sting of death. Then, through His resurrection, death is swallowed up by the resurrection life.

(Witness Lee, LS of 1 Corinthians, 621)

Acts 2:
24 Whom God has raised up, having loosed the pangs of death, since it was ²not possible for Him to be held by it.

24² The Lord is both God and resurrection (John 1:1; 11:25), possessing the indestructible life (Heb. 7:16). Since He is such an ever-living One, death is not able to hold Him. He delivered Himself to death, but death had no way to detain Him; rather, death was defeated by Him, and He rose up from it. (Back)

(Witness Lee, Footnotes, 484)

Christ’s Resurrection Vindicating His Great Success

Christ’s resurrection was a strong vindication of His great success in all His achievements (Acts 5:30-31). In history there have been many great men. One of them was Alexander the Great, who lived about three hundred years before Christ. He conquered many countries while he was still under thirty-five years of age. Alexander came from Macedonia, the northern part of Greece. He built up and trained a strong army, and conquered Greece, Persia, and Egypt. But suddenly, at the age of thirty-three, he died. His death was a sign of his failure.

When the Jews put Christ to death, they thought that He was altogether defeated, and that His death was a sign of His failure. But after three days Christ came out of the tomb. So Christ’s resurrection was a strong vindication of His great success. Many men have accomplished great things, but their success ended with their death. But although Jesus was put to death, God raised Him up. This raising up of Christ by God was a vindication of His great success. In human history there has never been another person as successful as Christ. His resurrection carried out His success, and His success is still continuing on the earth today. Confucius died, Mohammed died, and Socrates died. Many great men died and were buried. In human history, there has been only one exception. Only this One came out of the tomb and is still working today. He is moving, He is acting, and He is motivating all His people on the earth. He has obtained a great success, and this success was sealed by His resurrection. (Back)

(Witness Lee, Secret of Experiencing, 43)

Christ’s Entering into Glory through His Resurrection

When the Lord Jesus was on earth, He was God incarnate. He did not come as God expressed; He came as God concealed. God was concealed within the physical body of the Lord Jesus. Inwardly there was God; outwardly there was the flesh. With this flesh there was no glory. According to John 17, when the Lord Jesus was about to die, He prayed, “Father, the hour has come; glorify Your Son that the Son may glorify You” (v. 1). In John 17:5 the Lord went on to say, “And now, glorify Me with Yourself, Father, with the glory which I had with You before the world was.” In His prayer the Lord seemed to be saying, “Father, now is the time for You to glorify Your Son. Father, let Your Son glorify You. The disciples have not yet fully seen what Your Son is and what You are in Me. Father, You are concealed, and I am hidden. For this reason I pray that You will glorify Your Son so that Your Son may glorify You.”

We may use the blossoming of a carnation flower as an illustration of what it means for the Lord Jesus to be glorified. A carnation seed does not have any glory. After a carnation seed is sown into the earth, the seed dies and then it begins to grow up. It sprouts, it grows into a plant, and eventually it blossoms. This blossoming is the glorification of the carnation seed. Because a carnation seed dies when it is sown into the soil, we may say that its blossoming is its resurrection. Glorification, therefore, is equal to resurrection. The sprouting of the carnation seed is the beginning, the initial, stage of resurrection. The further growth of the carnation plant is the continuation of the process of resurrection. But the blossoming of the carnation flower is resurrection in its fullness.

When the Lord Jesus prayed that the Father would glorify Him, He actually prayed that He would enter into glory through death and resurrection. In Luke 24:26 the Lord Jesus asked the two disciples on the way to Emmaus: “Ought not Christ to have suffered these things, and to enter into his glory?” When the Lord Jesus spoke these words, He was already in resurrection. Thus, for Him to enter into His glory was for Him to be in resurrection. This verse reveals clearly that Christ’s glorification was His resurrection. The Lord’s resurrection was His blossoming. Christ’s blossoming, His glorification, refers to His resurrection in its fullness.

(Witness Lee, LS of 2 Corinthians, 194-195)

John 12:
23 And Jesus answered them, saying, The hour has come for the Son of Man to be ¹glorified.

23¹ For Jesus as the Son of Man to be glorified was for Him to be resurrected, that is, to have His divine element, His divine life, released from within the shell of His humanity to produce many believers in resurrection (1·Pet. 1:3), just as a grain of wheat (v. 24) has its life element released when it falls into the ground and grows up out of the ground to bear much fruit, that is, to bring forth many grains.

(Witness Lee, Footnotes, 423)

John 17:
1 These things Jesus spoke, and lifting up His eyes to heaven, He said, Father, the hour has come; ¹glorify Your Son that the Son may glorify You;

1¹ This is the subject of the Lord’s prayer in this chapter. He was God incarnated in the flesh, and His flesh was a tabernacle in which God could dwell on earth (1:14). His divine element was confined in His humanity, just as God’s shekinah glory had been concealed within the tabernacle. Once, on the mountain of transfiguration, His divine element was released from within His flesh and expressed in glory, being seen by the three disciples (Matt. 17:1-4; John 1:14). But then it was concealed again in His flesh. Before this prayer He predicted that He would be glorified and that the Father would be glorified in Him (12:23; 13:31-32). Now He was about to pass through death so that the concealing shell of His humanity might be broken and His divine element, His divine life, might be released. Also, He would resurrect that He might uplift His humanity into the divine element and that His divine element might be expressed, with the result that His entire being, His divinity and His humanity, would be glorified (see note 23¹ in ch.?2).

(Witness Lee, Footnotes, 443-444)

John 7:
39 But this He said concerning the Spirit, whom those who believed into Him were about to receive; for the ¹Spirit was not yet, because Jesus had not yet been glorified.

39¹ The Spirit of God was there from the beginning (Gen. 1:1-2), but at the time the Lord spoke this word, the Spirit as the Spirit of Christ (Rom. 8:9), the Spirit of Jesus Christ (Phil. 1:19), was not yet, because the Lord had not yet been glorified. Jesus was glorified when He was resurrected (Luke 24:26).

(Witness Lee, Footnotes, 402)

In John 7:39, we find a clause that is quite strange: “for the Holy Spirit was not yet given...” The word “given” is in italics, meaning that this word is not in the Greek text. At that time the Spirit of God was already present, but here it says that the Holy Spirit was not yet! Why? The verse continues: “because that Jesus was not yet glorified.” Do we realize the meaning of this verse? First of all, we must see what the glorification of the Lord Jesus is, and when He was glorified.

Many of us think the Lord was glorified when He was taken up into the heavens, but this is not accurate. If we read Luke 24:26, we will see that by the resurrection the Lord was glorified. “Ought not Christ to have suffered these things, and to enter into his glory?” After His resurrection, He met two disciples on the way to Emmaus and told them He had already entered into His glory. This word was spoken before His ascension, but after His resurrection.

What does glorification mean? We know that the Lord, the God of glory, became incarnated one day as a man. The very God of glory came into man and clothed Himself with man. All of His divine glory was concealed within this man. He was an ordinary man, but within Him was the God of glory. However, through His death and resurrection, the glory within Him was released. He was like a grain of wheat, or the seed of a beautiful flower. Within the seed is the glory of the flower, concealed and veiled. But once the seed falls into the earth, dies, and then grows up, the glory of the flower is released. Thus, through the Lord’s death and resurrection, His very glory as God was manifested. (Back)

(Witness Lee, All-Inclusive Spirit, 15-16)

Christ’s Resurrection Manifesting the Father’s Divine Element

How was God the Father glorified? It was by the Son’s being glorified. When the Son’s divine element was released and manifested through His death and resurrection, the Father’s divine life was released and manifested. Thus, the Father was glorified in the Son’s glorification through His death and resurrection. The death and resurrection of the Lord glorified God the Father because His death and resurrection released God’s divine element from within Him. God’s divine element was confined in His flesh, just as the life element of a grain of wheat is confined within its shell. How is the life element of a grain glorified? The grain has to die so that the life element within it can be manifested and glorified. It is the same with God’s divine element.

To glorify the name of the Father was to cause the Father’s divine element to be manifested. The Father’s divine element, which is the eternal life, was in the incarnated Son. The shell of the Son’s incarnation, that is, His flesh, had to be broken through death that the Father’s divine element, the eternal life, might be released and manifested in resurrection, just as the life element of a grain of wheat is released by its shell being broken and manifested by its blossom. This was the glorification of God the Father in the Son’s glorification. (Back)

(Witness Lee, LS of John, 316-317)

The Deeper Meaning and Intrinsic Significance of Christ’s Resurrection

Resurrection being a Person

John 11:25 tells us that Christ Himself is the resurrection. Martha, the sister of the dead Lazarus, complained that the Lord came too late. It seemed to her that resurrection and life were a matter of time. If the Lord had come earlier, she reasoned, her brother would not have died. On the contrary, the Lord told her, in effect, that it was not a matter of time or space, but a matter of Christ. He said, “I AM the resurrection.” Forget about time and space; wherever Christ is and whenever Christ is, there is always resurrection.

(Witness Lee, Economy, 134)

In 6:5 Paul says that we have grown together with Christ in the likeness of His death and that we shall also be in the likeness of His resurrection. This does not refer to a future, objective resurrection, but it refers to our present experience of Christ’s resurrection life. We should not regard the resurrection merely as a future event, as Martha did in John 11. The Lord Jesus told her that He was the resurrection and the life (v. 25). His word indicates that there is no need for us to wait until a future day to have Him as resurrection. Resurrection is not a matter of time or place; it is a matter of Christ. If we have Him, we have resurrection. But if we do not have Him, we do not have resurrection life, neither now nor in the future. Hallelujah, resurrection is Jesus, the Son of God! As long as we have Jesus Christ, we have resurrection, no matter where we may be. (Back)

(Witness Lee, LS of Romans, 566)

Resurrection being a Process

While the Roman soldiers were killing Him, His resurrection was going on. While a grain of wheat is dying under the earth, the life inside is growing. On the one hand, the grain dies outwardly. On the other hand, the inner life of the grain rises inwardly. Two things are going on simultaneously in two directions. Death is taking place in the shell of the grain and life is growing within the shell. At the same time a grain of wheat is dying, resurrection is taking place. First Peter 3:18 is a crucial verse in the New Testament unveiling to us what was happening when Christ was dying on the cross. When He was dying in the flesh on the cross, at the same time He was rising up in His spirit. This rising up was the beginning of His resurrection. His resurrection did not take place suddenly early in the morning on the third day after His death. It began when He was on the cross, when He was under the killing.

When Jesus as the grain of wheat was dying outwardly on the cross, inwardly He was rising up! The killing was carried out by the Roman soldiers, and the rising up was carried out by the Triune God. Two things were going on at the same time. All the people standing by, viewing the crucifixion, saw the soldiers killing Jesus outwardly, but they did not have the inner sight to see that while the Roman soldiers were killing Him outwardly, the Father, the Son, and the Spirit were inwardly making His spirit to rise up. While a team of Roman soldiers was killing Him, another team, a team of the Father, the Son, and the Spirit, was rising up from within Him. This was the beginning of the resurrection.

(Witness Lee, NT Economy, 57-58)

First Peter 3:18 shows us that while Jesus was being killed on the cross, the Triune God as His divine essence was rising up in His spirit. This happened before His body was resurrected. In this way His resurrection was going on until the morning of the third day when His entire body was resurrected (1 Cor. 15:4). By this time the inward moving of His resurrection by the Triune God was manifested. This was His designation in power according to the Spirit of holiness out of the resurrection of the dead (Rom. 1:4). His resurrection began from His spirit and was accomplished in His body. While He was being killed on the cross, His resurrection began in His spirit. His resurrection was a process that lasted for about three days, beginning from the time when He was being killed on the cross and fully accomplished at the time of His body’s resurrection. When His body was resurrected, He was fully designated and manifested to be the Son of God….

When I was young I used to think that when the Lord Jesus was crucified on the cross the Father was sitting in the heavens and the Spirit was standing by waiting for some orders. Then when He was killed He was taken down from the cross and buried. Eventually, He was raised from among the dead on the third day. This concept, however, is not according to the revelation of the Scriptures. While Jesus was being killed on the cross, the Triune God, the Father, the Son, and the Spirit, was making His spirit alive and strengthened. When His body was buried in the earth, His spirit went to proclaim God’s victory over His enemy to the spirits in prison. Eventually this resurrection saturated His body and invaded His body to raise it up. Then His resurrection was completed. By this He was fully designated the Son of God in power according to the divine Spirit out of the resurrection of the dead. Hallelujah! This was the procedure, the process, of the Son’s resurrection in His divinity with His humanity.

(Witness Lee, NT Economy, 60-61)

The Son laid down His life that He might take it again in resurrection (John 10:17-18). He died and rose (1 Thes. 4:14). To Christ, resurrection was something subjective. Christ Himself initiated the resurrection. In John 11:25 He said He was not only the life but also the resurrection. Resurrection is something living and rising up. If resurrection is put down, it rises up. Christ is not only life, but also resurrection. He is living all the time; He is rising up all the time. The New Testament tells us that the Roman soldiers killed Him, but it also tells us that He Himself laid down His life. When the soldiers came to arrest Him, He asked them whom they were seeking. When they said they were seeking Jesus of Nazareth, He answered, I Am, indicating He was Jehovah (John 18:3-6; cf. Exo. 3:13-15). He was Jehovah and if He had not been willing to give Himself to them, who could have arrested Him? If He had not been willing to lay down His life, who could have killed Him? Even the entire Roman army could not have killed Him (cf. Matt. 26:53). Apparently the Roman soldiers killed Him. Actually, He laid down His life which means that He died.

In the three days after His death He was taking His life back again. He had the ability to lay down His life and He also had the ability to take His life back again because He was the resurrection, and resurrection always rises up. When the soldiers were killing Him, the life within Him, the resurrection within Him, was rising up. This rising up of the resurrection made His spirit powerful with His divinity. It empowered His spirit and strengthened His spirit. After His body was buried, His spirit with His divinity went to the abyss to proclaim God’s victory over Satan to the disobedient spirits. After that proclamation, He came to His killed and buried body and His resurrection invaded and raised up His body. This was the process of His resurrection. (Back)

(Witness Lee, NT Economy, 63-64)

Christ Being Designated to be the Firstborn Son of God

As the Son of God, Christ has passed through two births. The first birth took place at His incarnation, and the second, in His resurrection. All Christians realize that Christ was born through incarnation, but not many regard His resurrection also as a birth. Acts 13:33 indicates that Christ was begotten, or born, in resurrection. Through resurrection He was begotten as the Son of God. However, before His incarnation, in eternity, He was already the Son of God. Why then did He need to be born the Son of God in resurrection? Before His incarnation, Christ was not a man. He was simply the infinite, eternal God. But in the fullness of time, Christ was conceived by the Holy Spirit in the womb of Mary, and nine months later He was born in a manger in Bethlehem. According to John 1:14, the Word who is Christ became flesh. This means that He took the step of becoming a man. How marvelous that through incarnation the infinite, eternal God became a man! However, in becoming man, He did not cease to be God.

After living on earth for thirty-three and a half years, Christ was crucified. Then in resurrection He took a second step to be born the second time and become the firstborn Son of God. Before His resurrection, Christ was the only begotten Son of God (John 3:16). But through resurrection the only begotten Son became the firstborn among many brothers (Rom. 8:29). According to Hebrews 2:10, God is leading many sons into glory. These many sons are the many brothers of Christ as the firstborn Son.

Through the two births of Christ, divinity has been brought into humanity, and humanity has been brought into divinity. By the incarnation of Christ God was brought into man. Prior to Christ’s incarnation, God was outside of man. However, through Christ’s incarnation God was brought into humanity. We may say that with the birth of Christ God was born into man. Therefore, by Christ’s first birth in incarnation God was brought into man and became one with man. Then through Christ’s resurrection man was brought into God. When the Lord Jesus was on earth, God was living in a man, for God was in Him. Now, through Christ’s resurrection, man has been brought into God. Hallelujah, as a man Christ is in the heavens! God has been brought into man, and man has been brought into God. What a transaction! What marvelous two-way traffic! In this two-way traffic God came into man through incarnation, and man was brought into God through resurrection.

(Witness Lee, LS of Colossians, 71-73)

Have you ever heard that Christ, the Son of God, has passed through two births? You may have heard that you needed a second birth, the birth in the spirit through the Holy Spirit, but not that Christ was born twice, first in incarnation and then in resurrection. In eternity Christ was God. Through His incarnation He became a man, and through resurrection He became the firstborn Son of God.

(Witness Lee, LS of Colossians, 73)

God’s only begotten Son is eternal (Heb. 1:8, 10-12; 7:3). From eternity He was the only begotten Son of God (John 1:18; 3:16). God never had more than one son. His only begotten Son was unique. In resurrection, however, the only begotten Son of God became the Firstborn. Romans 8:29 tells us that He was the Firstborn among many brothers. We as the many sons of God are the Firstborn’s brothers. How wonderful it is that the Son of God has many brothers. Today He is not merely the only begotten Son of God, but He is also the Firstborn of God, and we are His many brothers.

(Witness Lee, NT Economy, 66)

From eternity Christ was the only begotten Son of God. In incarnation He was born of a human virgin to be the Son of Man (Gal. 4:4). Then in His resurrection, as the Son of Man, He was born of God, that is, divinely sonized to be the Firstborn Son of God among many brothers. Christ was born twice. The first time He was born to be the Son of Man as the Firstborn of all creation (Col. 1:15). The second time He was born to be the Son of God as the Firstborn from among the dead (Col. 1:18).

Since Jesus was already the Son of God, why did He need to be born as the Son of God? To answer this question we must first see the verse which tells us that Jesus Christ was born to be the Son of God. Acts 13:33 says, That God has fully fulfilled this promise to us their children in raising up Jesus, as it is also written in the second psalm, You are My Son; today I have begotten You. Today refers to the day of resurrection. On the day of resurrection God said to Him, You are My Son; today I have begotten You. On the day of resurrection God had begotten Jesus to be His Son. Before this day, Jesus was the Son of God already. However, He still needed to be born in resurrection to be the Son of God.

Jesus was the Son of God in His spirit. According to His divinity He was the Son of God, but according to His humanity He was the Son of Man. A part of Jesus Christ, His flesh, was altogether human. It was not divine, not the Son of God. To make Him the firstborn Son, Jesus’ humanity had to be divinely sonized by God. His humanity was not a part of the Son of God but a part of the Son of Man. This part had to be made divine, to be made the Son of God, by God bringing this part into death and resurrecting it. By such a process, He was divinely sonized by God in His humanity. His human part was divinely sonized by God in His resurrection.

(Witness Lee, NT Economy, 66-67)

In Acts 13:33 we saw that on the day of resurrection God said that He had begotten Jesus as His Son. To beget means to impart life. To say I have begotten you means that I have imparted my life into you. In the human part of Jesus there was no divine life. However, through His death and resurrection the Triune God imparted His divine life into the human part of Jesus. While the resurrection was taking place, the Triune God was making Jesus alive in His spirit (1 Pet. 3:18). The Triune God was energizing Him from within to stir up life to invade the humanity of Jesus. To invade the humanity of Jesus with life means to impart the divine life into His human part. This was to sonize the humanity of Jesus, and this sonizing was the begetting. Through His death and resurrection, Jesus, in His human part, was sonized to be the Son of God. Through such a process He became the firstborn Son of God. As the only begotten Son of God He merely had the divine element, but now as the firstborn Son of God He has both the divine and the human elements.

(Witness Lee, NT Economy, 67)

Firstly, Christ passed through the process of incarnation to become flesh. Then He passed through the process of death and resurrection. By means of the second step of His process He became the Son of God out of resurrection. Christ has been processed in two steps: the first step—incarnation; the second step—death and resurrection. By these two steps Christ became two different things. He became flesh by incarnation and He became the Son of God through death and resurrection. His first step brought God into humanity. His second step brought man into divinity. Before His incarnation, Christ, as a divine Person, already was the Son of God (John 1:18). He was the Son of God before His incarnation, and even Romans 8:3 says, “God sent His Son.” Since Christ already was the Son of God before the incarnation, why did He need to be designated the Son of God out of resurrection? Because by incarnation He had put on an element, the flesh, the human nature, that had nothing to do with divinity. As a divine Person Christ was the Son of God before His incarnation, but that part of Him which was Jesus with the flesh, the human nature, born of Mary, was not the Son of God. That part of Him was human. By His resurrection Christ has sanctified and uplifted that part of His human nature, His humanity, and He was designated out of this resurrection as the Son of God with this human nature. So, in this sense, the Bible says that He was begotten the Son of God in His resurrection (Acts 13:33; Heb. 1:5).

(Witness Lee, LS of Romans, 19)

Let us consider the example of a small carnation seed. When this seed is sown into the earth, it grows and blossoms, a process which we may label its designation. When we behold a little carnation seed before it is sown into the ground, we may be unable to determine what kind of seed it is. However, once it has been sown, has grown, and has blossomed, it is designated. Its blossom is its designation. Therefore, everyone can say, “This is a carnation.” Both the seed and the blossom are the carnation, but the blossom is very different in form from the seed. If the seed should remain as a seed without blossoming, it is difficult for most people to realize that it is a carnation. But after it has grown and blossomed, it is designated as a carnation for all to see.

When Christ was in the flesh during His 33 1/2 years on the earth, He was exactly like the carnation seed. Although the Son of God was in Him, no one could recognize this easily. By being sown into death and growing up in resurrection, He blossomed. By this process He was designated the Son of God, and by this process He uplifted the flesh, the human nature. He did not put off the flesh, He did not put off humanity. He sanctified it, uplifted it and transformed it, and had Himself designated with this transformed humanity the Son of God with the divine power. When He was the Son of God before His incarnation, He had no human nature. After His resurrection He is the Son of God with humanity uplifted, sanctified, and transformed out of resurrection. He is now both of humanity and divinity. He is both the seed of David and the Son of God. He is a wonderful Person!

(Witness Lee, LS of Romans, 19-20)

In His incarnation Christ came as the seed of David according to the flesh (1:3). In the Bible the word “flesh” is not a positive word. Nevertheless, the Gospel of John declares that the Word became flesh (1:14). The gospel of God concerns the Son of God who became flesh, who became the seed of a man according to the flesh. In Romans we see that this flesh has been designated the Son of God!

Through this designation the Christ who was already the Son of God before His incarnation became the Son of God in a new way. Before His incarnation, He was the Son of God only with divinity. But now, through His resurrection, He has been designated the Son of God both with divinity and in humanity. If Christ had never put on human nature, there would have been no need for Him to be designated the Son of God, for in His divinity He was already the Son of God, even from eternity….

Because Christ, the Son of God, had clothed Himself with the flesh, He needed His human nature to be designated the Son of God in power by resurrection. Death in Adam is terrible. The death of Christ, however, is wonderful. This is because His death terminated all the negative things and opened the way for resurrection. Through resurrection Christ was transfigured and designated the Son of God.

(Witness Lee, LS of Romans, 558-559)

Psalm 2:7 says, “Thou art my Son; this day have I begotten thee.” Since Christ was already the Son of God, how could there have been the need for Him to be begotten as the Son of God? Acts 13:33, which quotes from Psalm 2:7, indicates that Christ was begotten as the Son of God on the day of His resurrection. But was He not the Son of God before that day? Certainly He was. Nevertheless, He still needed to be begotten by resurrection because He had put on humanity. As to His divinity, there was no need for Him to be begotten. But as to His humanity, there was the need for this. On the day of His resurrection, Christ’s flesh was uplifted and transfigured into a glorious substance. This is the begetting in power by resurrection. This begetting is also the designation. In this way, Jesus, the Man in the flesh, was begotten and designated the Son of God.

(Witness Lee, LS of Romans, 559)

Now we want to consider the element of Christ’s divinity. Christ as God is divine, but it is difficult to understand the involvement of Christ’s divinity. The divinity of Christ is involved with His being two kinds of Sons of God. First, as the divine One in His divinity, He is the only begotten Son of God from eternity (John 1:18). Second, He is the firstborn Son of God (Rom. 8:29). As the only begotten Son of God, He is merely divine and is self-existing and ever-existing, eternal, without beginning or ending. But His being the firstborn Son of God involves much more because the firstborn Son of God is a composition of His divinity plus His humanity. His divinity is exactly the same as the divinity of the only begotten Son of God, but His humanity was added by His being incarnated. The only begotten Son of God with only divinity put on blood and flesh. This means that when He was incarnated, He put humanity upon His divinity. Then He became a God-man. From His incarnation to His death, He still was the only begotten Son, and this only begotten Son is the divine part of Christ as the God-man.

The cross killed His human part, but His divine part still lived and was very active. This part of divinity is called by Paul in Romans 1:4 the Spirit of holiness. In resurrection the divine part of Christ, as the Spirit of holiness, resurrected the killed human part of Christ by germinating it with the divine power. Thus, the killed humanity of Christ in resurrection was uplifted. This is what Paul means when he says that Jesus Christ as the seed of David was designated the Son of God. This designation was a kind of process.

In these many years, through a deep study of the Bible, the Lord has shown us the crystallization of this word designate. How was the seed of David designated to be the Son of God? This took place first by the seed of David as a man being put on the cross to be killed. Right away this God-man’s divinity as the Spirit of holiness was a kind of power to resurrect His humanity by germinating His killed humanity with the divine element to raise it up, to uplift it. This is designation. In this designation Jesus Christ became the firstborn Son of God.

(Witness Lee, CS of Romans, 29-30)

Then, from that rest He rose up in His resurrection. In His resurrection He was born. All Christians realize that Christ was born once. He was born in Bethlehem, of Mary, to be a man. But the New Testament shows us that the Lord Jesus was born a second time. Incarnation was His first birth, a birth in which He as God became a man. Resurrection also was a birth to Jesus Christ as the last Adam. To this last Adam, this last man, resurrection was another birth. In this birth He was born to be the firstborn Son of God. This is clearly revealed in Acts 13:33, which tells us that Christ was born in His resurrection to be the firstborn Son of God.

(Witness Lee, Issue of the Dispensing, 37)

Before His resurrection Christ was already the only begotten Son of God (John 1:18; 3:16, 18). From eternity to eternity He is God’s Only Begotten. However, in His incarnation He became a man; He put on humanity. As the only begotten Son of God, He was divine, but in His first birth He picked up humanity and put it upon Himself. Thus, from that day forward He was no longer merely God; He was also a man. He was the complete God and the perfect man. He was such a wonderful person. Nevertheless, there was a problem: As a divine person He had a human part that was not divine and that had nothing to do with God’s Son. That human part was the Son of Man, not the Son of God. When He finished His earthly ministry, at the time when He accomplished God’s eternal redemption, He finished His work. Hence, He rested. At the end of His crucifixion He declared from the cross, “It is finished!” (John 19:30) because His earthly ministry, that is, the ministry for the accomplishment of redemption, was finished, consummated, completed. Therefore, He slept and He rested.

However, God’s economy was not yet finished. That was just the first part of God’s economy; it was not the greatest part. The greatest part of God’s economy was yet to come. Therefore, after He rested for three days, He rose up. On the one hand, the New Testament says that God raised Him up; on the other hand, it also says that He Himself rose up (Acts 2:24 and note 241; 10:40-41). Both God and He brought Him out of death, Hades, and the tomb. In 1 Corinthians 15, a chapter that deals particularly with the matter of resurrection, verse 45 says, “The last Adam became a life-giving Spirit.” According to this verse, in His resurrection, as a man, the last man, the concluding man, the last Adam, Christ became a life-giving Spirit. He was also born to be the firstborn Son of God. This means that in His resurrection, Christ “sonized” His humanity. He made His humanity also a part of the Son of God. (Back)

(Witness Lee, Issue of the Dispensing, 38)

Christ Becoming the Life-Giving Spirit

In resurrection Christ also became a life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45). This verse in 1 Corinthians is one of the most neglected verses in the Bible. In resurrection, the subject of 1 Corinthians 15, Christ as the last Adam, through His death and resurrection, became a life-giving Spirit. Many Christians consider Christ as their Redeemer, but very few consider Him as a life-giving Spirit. But our Redeemer is the life-giving Spirit in resurrection. By His death He redeemed us; in His resurrection He imparts Himself into us as life.

After His resurrection and in His resurrection, He became the pneumatic Christ. The pneumatic Christ is identical to the Spirit. This is why 2 Corinthians 3:17 says, “The Lord is the Spirit.” Today in resurrection the very Christ, our Redeemer, is identical to the Spirit who gives life to us.

(Witness Lee, Basic Revelation, 30)

The highest definition of resurrection is that it is the process by which Christ, the last Adam, became a life-giving Spirit.

(Witness Lee, LS of 1 Corinthians, 616)

First Corinthians 15:45b says, “The last Adam became a life-giving Spirit.” Undoubtedly, the last Adam here is Christ in the flesh. This last Adam became the life-giving Spirit through the process of resurrection. First Corinthians 15 deals with resurrection. Because Christ as the last Adam became the life-giving Spirit through resurrection, He is now the life-giving Spirit.

According to 1 Corinthians 15:45, the first man Adam became a living soul, and the last Adam became a life-giving Spirit. Adam became a living soul through creation with a soulish body. Christ became a life-giving Spirit through resurrection with a spiritual body. Adam as a living soul is natural; Christ as a life-giving Spirit is resurrected. First, in incarnation He became flesh for redemption (John 1:14, 29). Then in resurrection He became a life-giving Spirit for imparting life (John 10:10). As the life-giving Spirit in resurrection, He is ready to be received by His believers. When we believe into Him, He enters our spirit, and we are joined to Him as the life-giving Spirit to become one spirit with Him (1 Cor. 6:17). In this way our spirit is made alive and resurrected with Him.

(Witness Lee, Conclusion, 245)

The life-giving Spirit is the life pulse of Christ’s resurrection. If Christ had merely been resurrected with a body and did not become a life-giving Spirit, His resurrection would not mean nearly as much to us. It would simply be an objective fact unrelated to life. It could then be compared to the resurrection of Lazarus. The resurrection of Lazarus was merely an act of resurrection; it did not produce, bring forth, anything related to life. But Christ’s resurrection is absolutely a matter related to life, for in resurrection He became a life-giving Spirit.

(Witness Lee, LS of 1 Corinthians, 614)

John 14:
17 Even the Spirit of reality, whom the world cannot receive, because it does not behold Him or know Him; but you know Him, because ²He abides with you and shall be in you.

17² The very “He” who is the Spirit of reality in this verse becomes the very “I” who is the Lord Himself in v.?8. This means that the Christ who was in the flesh went through death and resurrection to become the life-giving Spirit, the pneumatic Christ. First Corinthians 15:45 confirms this. In dealing with the matter of resurrection, that verse says, “The last Adam [Christ in the flesh] became a life-giving Spirit.”

(Witness Lee, Footnotes, 434)

The consummated Spirit is the transfiguration of Christ in resurrection (1 Cor. 15:45b). Christ is the embodiment of God, and the Spirit is the transfiguration of Christ. In resurrection Christ, the last Adam in the flesh, became the life-giving Spirit. Christ’s resurrection was His transfiguration into the life-giving Spirit. He was the Christ in the flesh, but through resurrection He was transfigured into the Christ who is the life-giving Spirit. (Back)

(Witness Lee, Incarnation, 29)

The Reality of Resurrection

Christ’s divine life includes the element of resurrection. Even before He was resurrected, He could say to Martha, “I am the resurrection and the life” (John 11:25). The reality of Christ’s resurrection life is the Spirit. Resurrection is abstract and mysterious; no one can define it. But we can know the Spirit as the reality of resurrection. The Spirit of Christ is the reality of the resurrection of Christ. Thus, where the Spirit of Christ is, there is resurrection. Because this Spirit is now within us, the power of Christ’s resurrection is within us also.

(Witness Lee, LS of Philippians, 183)

On the day of His resurrection when Christ came to His disciples, He breathed on them and said, “Receive ye the Holy Spirit.” This very Spirit that they received included the principle and realty of His resurrection. Without this Spirit, the disciples could have nothing to do with His resurrection. Christ’s resurrection is in this Spirit. If we have this Spirit, we have the reality of the resurrection.

(Witness Lee, Economy, 134)

Romans 8:11 says, “But if the Spirit of Him Who raised Jesus from among the dead dwells in you, He Who raised Christ Jesus from among the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit Who indwells you. In this verse resurrection is linked to the Spirit. The Spirit is the reality of resurrection. The Spirit of Him who raised up Jesus from among the dead dwells in us as the reality of resurrection. If a person does not have the Holy Spirit, he cannot have resurrection. The resurrection we experience is actually the Holy Spirit Himself. If we had Romans 6 without Romans 8, we would not be able to participate in Christ as resurrection in a practical way. In Romans 8 we have the reality of resurrection; that is, we have the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. We should never separate resurrection from the Spirit.

(Witness Lee, LS of Romans, 570-571)

The Spirit is the reality of the Lord’s resurrection. After the Lord’s resurrection, what is He? He is the Spirit, and as the Spirit He is the resurrection. In 11:25, the Lord clearly said to Martha, “I am the resurrection and the life.” He is not only life—He is also resurrection. (Back)

(Witness Lee, LS of John, 599)

Christ’s Resurrection Compounding the Spirit of God

John 7:39 says, “But this He said concerning the Spirit, Whom those who believed in Him were about to receive; for the Spirit was not yet, because Jesus was not yet glorified. “At the time the Lord Jesus was speaking these words, “the Spirit was not yet”; this means that the Spirit was not there yet because Jesus was not yet glorified. When I was young, I was greatly troubled by this word. I simply could not understand how the Spirit could not have been there when Jesus was speaking. Many years later I read Andrew Murray’s book, The Spirit of Christ. Chapter five of this book is entitled “The Spirit of the Glorified Jesus.” That chapter shocked me. Through that chapter my eyes were opened to see why the Spirit was not yet there when the Lord Jesus was speaking. Before the Lord’s crucifixion and resurrection, the Spirit of God consisted only of divinity. However, after the Lord’s resurrection, many items were compounded into the Spirit of God. Hence, after the resurrection of Christ, the Spirit of God was composed not only of divinity, but of many other crucial items as well. At the time of John chapter seven the Spirit of God was there, possessing merely divinity, but the all-inclusive Spirit, including all the other items, was not there yet.

The Spirit of God was there from the very beginning (Gen. 1:1-2), but the Spirit as the Spirit of Christ (Rom. 8:9), the Spirit of Jesus Christ (Phil. 1:19), was not yet at the time the Lord spoke the word recorded in John 7, because He was not yet glorified. Jesus was glorified when He was resurrected (Luke 24:26). After His resurrection, the Spirit of God became the Spirit of the incarnated, crucified, and resurrected Jesus Christ, who was breathed into the disciples by Christ in the evening of the day He was resurrected (John 20:22). The Spirit is now another Comforter, who is the Spirit of reality promised by Christ before His death (John 14:16-17). When the Spirit was the Spirit of God, He had only the divine element. When He became the Spirit of Jesus Christ through Christ’s incarnation, crucifixion, and resurrection, He had both the divine and human element, with all the essence and reality of the incarnation, crucifixion, and resurrection of Christ. Hence, He is now the all-inclusive Spirit of Jesus Christ as the living water for us to receive (John 7:38-39).

Although I was enlightened through the reading of Andrew Murray’s book, I was not able to give others a thorough definition of the all-inclusive Spirit until Exodus 30 was opened to me. In this chapter we have the matter of the compound ointment (Exo. 30:22-33). In typology we have a type of the Spirit of God in the Old Testament, and this type is the olive oil. If you read the Old Testament carefully, you will see that several times olive oil is used to indicate the Spirit of God (Psa. 45:7; Isa. 61:1). According to Exodus 30, four spices are compounded into a hin of olive oil. Thus, in Exodus 30 we do not see simply the olive oil, but a compound. A hin of olive oil is the basic element of this compound, and four spices are added to it: myrrh, cinnamon, calamus, and cassia. When these spices are added to the oil, the oil becomes an ointment, a compound of five elements, the oil plus the four spices….

Myrrh signifies the sweetness of the death of Christ, and cinnamon signifies the sweetness of the effectiveness of His death. The death of Christ is both sweet and effective. In this compound ointment we have not only divinity and humanity, but also the sweet death of Christ and the effectiveness of the death of Christ. This means that when we get this ointment, within it there is the effectiveness of Christ’s death. Calamus is a type of reed that rises high, even shoots high, into the air out of muddy ground. It surely indicates the power of Christ’s resurrection, for Christ resurrected from the mud of death into the heavenly air. He was the real calamus. Cassia signifies the flavor of the power of the Lord’s resurrection. According to some lexicons, in ancient times cassia was used not only as a spice, but also as a repellent to repel insects and snakes. Satan, the snake, is afraid of the resurrection of Christ.

In this compound ointment we have the Triune God signified by the numbers one and three and humanity signified by the number four. We also have the death of Christ, the effectiveness of Christ’s death, the resurrection of Christ, and the flavor of the power of Christ’s 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 has been compounded with humanity, with the death of Christ, with the resurrection of Christ, with the effectiveness of Christ’s death, and with the effectiveness of His resurrection. This all has been compounded into one ointment which today is the Spirit of Christ. Before Christ’s resurrection, the Spirit of God was in existence, but not the Spirit of Christ. The Spirit of Christ came into existence immediately after the Lord’s resurrection. After Jesus had been crucified and resurrected, the compound Spirit came into being. In other words, on the day of Christ’s resurrection, the Spirit of God became the Spirit of Christ. In the Spirit of Christ there are many items: divinity, humanity, the effectiveness of Christ’s death, and the power of Christ’s resurrection. (Back)

(Witness Lee, Spirit and the Body, 27-28, 30-31)

Regenerating the Believers as the Many Sons of God

First Peter 1:3 tells us that God has regenerated us through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from among the dead. We must realize that when Christ was resurrected we were regenerated. When He was resurrected, we were resurrected in Him also (Eph. 2:5-6). We, as human beings, were all divinely sonized through His resurrection to be many sons of God to participate in His divine sonship. We were regenerated before we were born since His resurrection was our regeneration. Before we came into existence, God the Father had regenerated us already. From God’s point of view we were regenerated about two thousand years ago. According to our physical life we do not have that many years, but according to our spiritual life we were regenerated that many years ago. Every child of God was begotten of God nearly two thousand years ago through the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Before we became part of the old creation, we were already a part of the new creation through Christ’s resurrection, so we are the many brothers of the firstborn Son of God in His resurrection (Rom. 8:29). God is our Father and the Firstborn of God is our Brother. This is marvelous! Christ, the only begotten Son of God, as the unique grain of wheat, fell into the earth to die. Through His life-releasing death, His divine life within Him grew and rose up to produce many grains to be God’s many sons and His many brothers.

(Witness Lee, NT Economy, 68-69)

Through His resurrection, His disciples have been regenerated (1 Pet. 1:3) with the divine life released by His life-imparting death, as indicated in [John] 12:24. All His disciples were regenerated in His resurrection. First Peter 1:3 says that we were regenerated through Christ’s resurrection. It was through His resurrection that the Lord imparted Himself as the Spirit into all His disciples. By receiving His life, they were all reborn, regenerated, and became His brothers. Remember that on the cross the Lord told His mother to take His disciple John as her son, and that He told His disciple to take her as his mother (19:26-27). On the day of His resurrection, the Lord’s word on the cross was fulfilled. At that time, John became a brother to the Lord; hence, the Lord’s mother became his mother.

By the resurrection of Christ, the disciples became the brothers of the Lord because they now had the same life as the Lord. The Lord regenerated them by His resurrection, and thus they were no longer merely disciples and friends but also His brothers. The Lord was the one grain of wheat that fell into the ground and died and grew up in resurrection to bring forth many grains for the producing of the loaf which is His Body (1 Cor. 10:17). Before His death, He was only one, unique grain. But after His resurrection that one, unique grain became the many grains. This is the multiplication of life through the death and resurrection of Christ.

In His resurrection, the Only Begotten Son became “the Firstborn among many brothers” (Rom. 8:29). The “many brothers” are those who have been regenerated through His resurrection with the divine life released by His life-imparting death. Through His resurrection, the divine life of the Father has been imparted into us. Thus, we all have become sons of God. In this way the unique Son of God has become the “Firstborn among many brothers.” Therefore, the Lord did not tell Mary, “Go to My friends”; He said, “Go to My brothers.”

(Witness Lee, LS of John, 546-547)

John 20:
17 Jesus said to her, Do not touch Me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father; but go to My ²brothers and say to them, I ascend to My Father and your Father, and My God and your God.

17² Previously, the most intimate term the Lord had used in reference to His disciples was friends (15:14-15). But after His resurrection He began to call them brothers, for through His resurrection His disciples were regenerated (1·Pet. 1:3) with the divine life, which had been released by His life-imparting death, as indicated in 12:24. He was the one grain of wheat that fell into the ground and died and grew up to bring forth many grains for the producing of the one bread, which is His Body (1·Cor. 10:17). He was the Father’s only Son, the Father’s individual expression. Through His death and resurrection the Father’s only begotten became the Firstborn among many brothers (Rom. 8:29). His many brothers are the many sons of God and are the church (Heb. 2:10-12), a corporate expression of God the Father in the Son. This is God’s ultimate intention. The many brothers are the propagation of the Father’s life and the multiplication of the Son in the divine life. Hence, in the Lord’s resurrection God’s eternal purpose is fulfilled.

(Witness Lee, Footnotes, 459)

Hebrews 2:11-12 indicates that in resurrection Christ has brought forth many brothers. Through His resurrection we were regenerated (1 Pet. 1:3). His death released the divine life from within Him and His resurrection imparted the life of God into us in order that we might become the many sons of God and His many brothers. He was the one grain of wheat falling into the ground, dying, and growing up to bring forth many grains, which are we (John 12:24). He was the one grain and we are now the many grains, His many brothers, brought forth by Him in His resurrection. So immediately after His resurrection He called us His brothers (John 20:17).

(Witness Lee, LS of Hebrews, 94-95)

In [John] 20:17 the Lord Jesus also said to Mary, “I ascend to My Father and your Father, and My God and your God.” Through His life-imparting death and resurrection, the Lord has made His disciples one with Him. Therefore, His Father is also His disciples’ Father, and His God is also their God. Through His resurrection, they have received both the Father’s life and God’s divine nature. By making them His brothers, He has imparted the Father’s life and God’s divine nature into them. By making His Father and His God theirs, He has brought them into His position—the Son’s position—before the Father and God that they might participate in His Father and God in resurrection. Thus, in life and nature inwardly and in position outwardly, His brothers are the same as He is. Inwardly we have the reality, and outwardly we have the position. The Father is not only the Father of the Lord Himself; He is also the Father of the disciples. Henceforth, all the disciples are sons of God. We are the same as the Firstborn, and He is the same as we are. This is the church in His resurrection. Praise Him!

(Witness Lee, LS of John, 548-549)

Ephesians 2:6 says, “And raised us up together and seated us together in the heavenlies in Christ Jesus.” We the believers were raised up together with Christ. When Christ resurrected, we all were raised up. Actually, we were resurrected in Christ before we were born, about two thousand years ago. In God’s eyes we all were fallen in Adam six thousand years ago, and in God’s eyes we all were resurrected in Christ two thousand years ago. This is not according to human mathematics, but this is God’s way of calculation. Because this resurrection is life dispensing, 1 Peter 1:3 tells us that we were regenerated “through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from among the dead.” According to God’s way of calculation, we were regenerated, born again, before we were born. Before we experienced our first birth, we were reborn. This is God’s mathematics. When we were raised up together with Christ, we were regenerated with the divine life. When we were resurrected with Christ, the divine life was dispensed into us, so we were regenerated in Christ’s resurrection. This shows us again that resurrection is life dispensing.

(Witness Lee, Divine Economy, 63)

The humanity of Christ became divine in Christ’s resurrection. Christ’s divinity had the power to uplift His crucified humanity, to resurrect that humanity. When Paul said that Jesus Christ was designated the Son of God, this means that Christ’s resurrection uplifted His humanity and put His divinity into this humanity. So by this resurrection, His humanity was born to be a part of the Son of God. This is why Acts 13:33 tells us that in resurrection, Christ as the Son of Man was born to be the Son of God. As the Son of God with humanity, He is the God-man. This composition of divinity and humanity becomes a God-man, and this God-man is a prototype to produce something.

In His resurrection, all His believers were born, regenerated, with Him as His millions of “twins” to make all these twins the same as He is (1 Pet. 1:3). These many twins are the reproduction of the prototype. The prototype is the firstborn Son of God, and the reproduction is the many sons of God. The Firstborn indicates that more sons are coming. If there were not more sons to follow, He would remain merely the Only Begotten. When Jesus as the Son of Man through death and resurrection was born to be the firstborn Son of God, the millions of God’s chosen people were born in the same birth. (Back)

(Witness Lee, CS of Romans, 30-31)

Christ’s Resurrection Bringing Forth a New Child

In John 16:20-22 the Lord told the disciples that they would be sorrowful, but that their sorrow would be turned into joy because He as the child (v. 21) would be brought forth in His resurrection (Acts 13:33: Heb. 1:5; Rom. 1:4). The Lord’s death and resurrection were the process of delivery. A new child was delivered through His death and resurrection. This was a universal delivery, not of a single child, but of a corporate child, which included the Son of God as the Head and His many brothers as the Body. This was the birth of a new corporate child comprising Christ and us, the believers. Actually, this was the birth of the new man (Eph. 2:15). The old man was created by God in Genesis 1 and 2, but the new man was born through the death and resurrection of Christ referred to in John 16. We were born into the old man, but we were regenerated into the new man.

Remember that before we were born into the old man, we were already regenerated into the new man, since we were regenerated before we were born according to 1 Peter 1:3. This is a divine mystery which our human mentality cannot solve, but the fact is that we were regenerated as the new man before we were born as the old man. We do not need to try, struggle, or endeavor to be a new man. We are already a new man. We were a new man two thousand years ago. All of us should declare, Hallelujah! I am a part of the new man! Do not look at yourself. When you look at yourself, you will be disappointed. When you look at yourself, you will see the old man. We do not need to look at ourselves, but we need to say amen to God’s word. All of us should declare, I am a part of the new man through the wonderful death and resurrection of the Son of God! Through His resurrection, He as the only begotten Son of God became God’s Firstborn, and through His resurrection, His many brothers were brought forth. Also, through His resurrection, a new child was born, and this new child comprises all of us.

(Witness Lee, NT Economy, 69-70)

By His work in His resurrection Christ brought forth the corporate child—the corporate new man—including Himself as God’s firstborn Son and His many brothers as God’s many sons (John 16:19-22; Rom. 8:29). In John 16:20 and 21 the Lord Jesus says, “Truly, truly, I say to you, that you shall weep and lament, but the world shall rejoice; you shall be sorrowful, but your sorrow shall be turned into joy. When a woman gives birth she has sorrow, because her hour has come; but when she brings forth the child, she no longer remembers the affliction because of the joy that a man has been born into the world.” Here the Lord Jesus indicates that the disciples were like a woman travailing in birth, and He was the child to be brought forth in His resurrection (Acts 13:33; Heb. 1:5; Rom. 1:4). Actually the man in John 16:21 includes Christ and all believers. According to Acts 13:33, the Lord Jesus was begotten in resurrection to be the Son of God with respect to His humanity. The Lord’s resurrection, therefore, was a birth. This means that when Christ was resurrected, He was born.

…Hence, Christ’s resurrection was a new birth for Him. He was already the only begotten Son of God before His incarnation. Then through incarnation He was born to be a man. Now in resurrection He was born to be the firstborn Son of God.

Furthermore, Christ’s being the firstborn Son of God implies that He has many brothers and that He is the Firstborn among these brothers (Rom. 8:29). The birth that took place through Christ’s resurrection involved the birth not only of an individual but of a group, a group that includes the firstborn Son of God and the many sons of God. This indicates that through one birth, one delivery, many sons were brought forth. According to God’s view, the divine view, all His chosen people were born together with Christ in His resurrection. This resurrection was the birth of a corporate child. (Back)

(Witness Lee, Conclusion, 792-794)

God’s Satisfaction and Our Justification through Christ’s Resurrection

A Proof that God Accepted Christ’s Redemptive Work

The resurrection of Christ was a great proof that God had accepted His all-inclusive redemptive work (Acts 3:15). After Christ had finished His work on earth, He died on the cross to accomplish God’s redemption. His redemptive work was exceedingly great. However, in the eyes of the Jews, Christ was rejected by God. They would not believe that God was one with Christ, that God would accept what Christ had done. Their thought was that Christ had blasphemed God and was against God (Matt. 26:65). So they rejected Him by crucifying Him and putting Him into a tomb. The Jews thought that to put Christ into the tomb was to do a marvelous work for God. But, to their great surprise, God raised Him up. God did this in order to tell the Jews that He accepted what they rejected. God seemed to be saying, “You Jews should know that although you rejected Christ, put Him to death, and even put Him into a tomb, I, the very God whom you serve, raised this Man out of death.” This is also confirmed by the word in Acts 2:23-24. Such a resurrection was a great and strong proof that God accepted, sealed, and vindicated all that Christ had done. The resurrection of Christ proved that God was very happy with all that Christ had done. (Back)

(Witness Lee, Secret of Experiencing, 42-43)

Presented to the Father for His Satisfaction

In John 20:17 the Lord Jesus said to Mary, “Do not touch Me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father.” In this verse the Lord refers to His ascending to the Father. On the day of His resurrection the Lord Jesus ascended to the Father. This was a secret ascension forty days prior to His public ascension before the eyes of His disciples (Acts 1:9-11). On the day of resurrection, early in the morning, He ascended to satisfy the Father. The freshness of His resurrection was first for the Father’s enjoyment, as the firstfruit of the harvest was, in type, brought first to God.

We see the type in Leviticus 23:10 and 11 and Exodus 23:19a. Leviticus 23:10 and 11 say, “Ye shall bring a sheaf of the firstfruits of your harvest unto the priest: and he shall wave the sheaf before the Lord, to be accepted for you: on the morrow after the Sabbath the priest shall wave it.” This sheaf of the firstfruits is a type of Christ in resurrection (1 Cor. 15:20, 23). Christ resurrected exactly on the day after the Sabbath, that is, on the first day of the week. The Sabbath is the seventh day, and the morrow after the Sabbath is the first day of the week. The firstfruits of the harvest were offered to God on the day after the Sabbath, on the first day of the following week. On the first day of the week Christ, the firstfruit of resurrection, resurrected from the dead to offer Himself to God. This is not only a type but also a prophecy which was fulfilled in John 20.

Exodus 23:19a says, “The first of the firstfruits of thy land thou shalt bring into the house of the Lord thy God.” According to his verse, the first of the firstfruits was to be brought into the house of God. This typifies Christ as the firstfruit of resurrection brought to God’s dwelling place for His satisfaction. Therefore, one aspect of Christ’s work in His resurrection was to rise up to be the firstfruit presented to the Father for His satisfaction. (Back)

(Witness Lee, Conclusion, 785-786)

A Proof that God has Justified Us

Christ’s resurrection was also the evidence that God has justified us (Rom. 4:25). Because He died on the cross for our sins, God has to forgive us. But if Christ had never been raised from the dead, how could we know that God has forgiven us, that He was satisfied by Christ’s death? Christ’s resurrection from the dead was the evidence that God was satisfied by His death. Because God was content with Christ’s death, God released Him from death.

To illustrate this point, let us suppose that a brother owes a certain rich man ten million dollars. The rich man holds a note for that loan which states clearly that the brother owes him ten million dollars. Now, let us suppose that I have the ability to pay his debt, and that I pay ten million dollars to the rich man. However, although he accepts my payment, the rich man will not give me a receipt. Without a receipt as evidence that I have repaid the loan, the brother has no way to prove that the rich man has been satisfied by my payment. But if the rich man gives me a receipt, I now can tell the brother the good news that I have paid his debt. I have the receipt as evidence that the rich man has released him from obligation because he has been satisfied by my payment.

In the same way, we know that God was satisfied by Christ’s payment because God raised Him from the dead. Romans 4:25 says, “Who was delivered because of our offenses, and was raised because of our justification.” The first part of this verse indicates that Christ died on the cross for our sins, and the second part tells us that because God was satisfied with Christ’s death for our sins, He released Christ from death. Christ’s coming out of death was a great proof that God was satisfied with His death for us. This resurrected Christ is the “receipt” of His full payment for our debt, issued by God to us, proving that all our sins have been forgiven and that God has justified us.

(Witness Lee, Secret of Experiencing, 43-44)

The proof of God’s justification is the resurrected Christ (4:22-25). I like the hymn which says,

Father God, Thou hast accepted
Jesus as our Substitute;

Judged the Just One for the unjust,
Couldst Thou change Thy attitude?

As a proof of perfect justice,
At Thine own right hand He sits;

He, as Thy full satisfaction,
Righteously Thy need befits.

Thus, the resurrected Christ who sits at the right hand of God is the evidence that we have been justified. The redeeming death of Christ as the ground for God to justify us has been fully accepted by God, and Christ has been resurrected from the dead as a proof of this. This is the proof of the justification God has given us.

The death of Christ has fully fulfilled and satisfied God’s righteous requirements, so that we are justified by God through His death (3:24). His resurrection is a proof that God is satisfied with His death for us and that we are justified by God because of His death and in Him, the resurrected One, we are accepted before God. Not only so, but, as the resurrected One, He is also in us to live for us a life that can be justified by God and is always acceptable to God. Therefore, Romans 4:25 says that He was raised because of our justification. (Back)

(Witness Lee, LS of Romans, 75)

The Believer’s Experience of Christ’s Resurrection

Enabling Christ to enter into His Believers to be the Indwelling Christ

In His resurrection Christ became the life-giving Spirit that He may enter into His believers (1 Cor. 15:45b; John 20:22). While He was in the flesh, He was only able to be among the believers. He had no way to enter into Peter, John, or any of the other disciples. But in resurrection Christ became the life-giving Spirit, and on the day of resurrection He came back to the disciples and breathed Himself as the Spirit into them. Becoming the life-giving Spirit to enter into the believers was another great work of Christ in resurrection. (Back)

(Witness Lee, Secret of Experiencing, 48-49)

After the Lord came to the disciples in the evening of that resurrection day, there is not a word that He left them again. He came and according to the Gospel of John, He never left them. He had told them, I will not leave you orphans. I will leave you for a little while, but I will come back to you (John 14:18-19). The Lord left them when He died, and He returned after the resurrection. He was gone not more than seventy-two hours.

Before His death the Lord was in a physical body; He could only be among His disciples, never in them. But after the resurrection when the Lord came back to His disciples, He could enter into them. How could that be? While He was in the body, He could not be in them; He would have to be transfigured. Therefore, by death and resurrection He was transfigured from the body into the Spirit. That night when the disciples were gathered together, the doors were closed; yet the Lord came in! And He breathed on them, saying, “Receive ye the Holy Spirit” (John 20:22). Thenceforth, the Lord never left them, for He was in them. First, the Lord was incarnated to be a man, limited by a human body. Then, by His death and resurrection, He was transfigured from the body into the Spirit. First, He was with us, but now He is in us! Now the Lord in the Spirit is always with us, living in us (John 14:16-17; Rom. 8:9-10). He is our resurrection life.

(Witness Lee, Major Steps, 30-31)

John 20 reveals that after His death and in His resurrection Christ came back. He returned in a wonderful way. The disciples were in a house with the doors shut for fear of the Jews (v. 19). Suddenly, Jesus was standing there and saying to them, “Peace be to you.” He did not teach them, and He did not give them a sermon as He did on the mount. He simply breathed into them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit” (v. 22), the Holy Breath, the Holy Pneuma.

Christ appeared without knocking at the door because in resurrection He is the Spirit. He had a resurrected body, which is called a spiritual body (1 Cor. 15:44; John 20:27). We cannot explain this, but it is a fact revealed in the Bible. From the time of His resurrection, Christ never left the believers. Here and there He appeared to them, but He was always with them.

(Witness Lee, Basic Revelation, 30-31)

In John 14:10-11 the Lord revealed that He was one with the Father—the Father was in Him and He was in the Father. When people saw Him, they saw the Father (v. 9). In John 14:16-20 the Lord went on further to reveal that He and the Spirit also are one. After He revealed that He and the Father are one, He told the disciples in verse 16 that He would ask the Father and that the Father would give the disciples another Comforter that He might be with them forever. This Comforter is “the Spirit of reality, whom the world cannot receive, because it does not behold Him or know Him; but you know Him, because He abides with you and shall be in you” (v. 17). We know the Spirit of reality because He abides in us. Day by day He speaks within us, corrects us, and leads us. In verse 18 the Lord goes on to say, “I will not leave you orphans; I am coming to you.” The very “He” who is the Spirit of reality in verse 17 becomes the very “I” who is the Lord Himself in verse 18. This means that after His resurrection the Lord became the Spirit of reality. First Corinthians 15:45b confirms this.

…The Lord’s coming to the disciples was fulfilled on the day of His resurrection in John 20:19-22. After His resurrection, the Lord came back to His disciples to be with them forever, not leaving them orphans.

John 14:19 and 20 say, “Yet a little while and the world beholds Me no longer, but you behold Me; because I live, you shall live also. In that day you shall know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you.” In verse 19 the Lord’s death and resurrection are implied. When He said, “Yet a little while and the world beholds Me no longer,” this implied His death. He died and was buried, so the worldly people could not see Him. When He said, “Because I live, you shall live also,” this implied His resurrection. After His resurrection the Lord lives in His disciples and they live by Him (Gal. 2:20). In the day of resurrection, the disciples would know that the Lord was in His Father, that they were in Him, and that He was in them. (Back)

(Witness Lee, Divine Economy, 74-75)

Christ’s Resurrection for the Imparting of His life into the Believers

The first thing that the Lord Jesus does in resurrection is that He imparts His divine life into the believers (John 12:24; 3:15; 10:10b).

(Witness Lee, Divine Trinity, 55)

Not many see that Christ’s resurrection is a life dispensing. Most Christians only see that the resurrection of Christ is Christ’s victory. Death cannot hold Christ. He overcomes death, the tomb, and Hades. But it is hard to find a hymn that tells us that the resurrection of Christ is life dispensing. The resurrection of a grain of wheat is life dispensing. Life was only in Christ as the one grain, but after dying and resurrecting, His life was dispensed into many grains.

Before the Lord died and resurrected, the divine life was only in Himself. Jesus was the only person who had the divine life. The disciples were around Him, but they did not have the eternal life in them. But Jesus had a way to dispense His divine life into Peter, John, James, Andrew, and all the other disciples. The way was for Him to die and to resurrect. By resurrection the divine life in Jesus is dispensed into all of His disciples. Before the death of Christ, Jesus was the only grain. All the other disciples were not grains. But He wanted all His disciples to become grains. How could this be? It could never be by teaching. John 1:4 tells us that in Jesus was life. Life was in Him because He was God. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was God (John 1:1). In Him was life. Outwardly Jesus and His disciples were the same. But the difference was this: in Jesus was life. In Peter there was no life; in James there was no life; in John there was no life; in Andrew there was no life; and in all the other disciples there was no life. Jesus was the only grain who had the eternal life. As the unique grain of wheat He died and rose up to produce many grains. By His rising up, the life within Him was dispensed into all of the disciples to make each one of them a grain. Now we can see what resurrection is. Resurrection is life dispensing. This is a new term that we should not forget—Christ’s resurrection is life dispensing. This life is the divine life, God’s life.

(Witness Lee, Divine Economy, 60-61)

We need to be impressed with the fact that as the eternal Word Christ took two steps of incarnation and resurrection. The first step was for redemption, and the second step was for life-imparting. After becoming flesh to be the Lamb of God to shed His blood for our redemption, He became in resurrection the life-giving Spirit for the purpose of imparting Himself into us as life….In John 1 the eternal Word became flesh to be the Lamb of God. In John 20 this wonderful One took the step of resurrection to become the life-giving Spirit. Therefore, on the day of His resurrection He came to the disciples and breathed Himself into them as the Spirit.

(Witness Lee, Conclusion, 247-248)

Christ became flesh to accomplish the work of redemption. Redemption requires blood. It is certain that divinity has no blood; only humanity has blood. Nevertheless, redemption demands blood, for without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins (Heb. 9:22). Thus, Christ became flesh for the work of redemption. Redemption, however, is not God’s goal. Redemption opens the way for life to be given. In the Gospel of John, Christ was first introduced as the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world (John 1:29). That was for redemption. Following this, John presents Him with the Dove who gives life (John 1:32-33). Firstly, Christ accomplished redemption for us; then He became our life. Christ became flesh to accomplish the work of redemption for us, and He was designated the Son of God out of resurrection that He may impart Himself to us as our life. The first step of His process was for redemption, and the second step was for imparting life. Now we have the resurrected Christ within us as our life. The resurrected Christ as the Son of God is life to us. Whoever has the Son of God has life (1 John 5:12).

The first section of the book of Romans deals with redemption accomplished by Christ in the flesh. Romans 8:3 says that God sent His Son in the likeness of the flesh of sin and condemned sin in the flesh. The second part of Romans deals with the imparting of life. Romans first reveals Christ as the Redeemer in the flesh and then reveals Him as the life-giving Spirit. In Romans 8:2 we find the term “the Spirit of life.” This is the indwelling Spirit. The indwelling Spirit is the Spirit of Christ, and the Spirit of Christ is actually Christ Himself within us (8:9-10).

(Witness Lee, LS of Romans, 20-21)

Resurrection is a wonderful phenomenon. It is amazing that a seed can be sown into the earth and grow up into a beautiful flower. After resurrection, the Lord Jesus still possessed a body, a spiritual body, yet that spiritual body was still touchable. In the first step of incarnation, He became a man to be our Redeemer, our Savior; then He took the second step, the step of resurrection to become a life-giving Spirit to impart the divine life into you and me. He became a man to die for us, and He became a life-giving Spirit to impart life into us for God’s dispensing. (Back)

(Witness Lee, Divine Economy, 70-71)

Knowing the Power of Christ’s Resurrection

In verse 10 we see that Paul wanted to know the power of Christ’s resurrection. This power is the resurrected Christ living in us. Our Christ today is the resurrected One. As the resurrection, He lives within us. Like a dynamo, the resurrected Christ lives within us as our source of power. When we repudiate our flesh and our natural man, we often have a sense of this power working in us. Christ as the remainder is like a motor empowering us from within. This is the power of His resurrection.

Because we have the power of resurrection, it is easy to die with Christ. The second stanza of a hymn written by A. B. Simpson goes like this:

‘Tis not hard to die with Christ
When His risen life we know;

‘Tis not hard to share His suff’rings
When our hearts with joy o’erflow.

In His resurrection power
He has come to dwell in me,

And my heart is gladly going
All the way to Calvary.

A. B. Simpson certainly knew Christ as resurrection power. He knew that the resurrected Christ lived in him as resurrection power. By this resurrection power, we can overcome all negative things, including Satan himself. The Christian life is a life lived by resurrection power. Experiencing the power of Christ’s resurrection requires that we repudiate the flesh, the self, and the natural man. When we do this, we shall experience the resurrection power within. By this power we experience all the riches of Christ.

(Witness Lee, Experience of Christ, 70-71)

There is a difference between the power of Christ’s resurrection and His power exhibited in creation. Creation testifies that God is powerful: “The invisible things of Him from the creation of the world, being apprehended by the things made, are clearly seen, both His eternal power and divinity” (Rom. 1:20). However, what we need to experience for the Body is not God’s creating power, but the power of Christ’s resurrection. Resurrection power is not an outward physical power; it is an inward, intrinsic power. As such, it is a life power. If we would obtain Christ, we must experience this intrinsic life power. The more we experience the power of Christ’s resurrection, the more we obtain Him. Thus, we obtain Him by experiencing the power of His resurrection.

To exhibit the intrinsic power of His resurrection, Christ first became a man. Then He died and visited Hades, the realm of the dead. Through His resurrection the intrinsic power of life within Him was manifested. Angels cannot experience this power. But we, human beings of blood and flesh, can experience it, if we share in Christ’s sufferings and are conformed to His death.

As the One who has passed through death, never to die again, Christ has manifested in His resurrection the intrinsic power of the divine life. This is the power of His resurrection. By experiencing the power of Christ’s resurrection we obtain Christ in reality.

(Witness Lee, LS of Philippians, 464)

Let me ask you, when you are in your home or at your job, do you act as the resurrected Christ or as the limited Jesus? If you are a follower of Jesus, you have to be limited. When Jesus was on earth, He was always limited, limited by His flesh, limited by His family, limited by His mother in the flesh and even by His brothers in the flesh. He was always limited. He was limited by space and limited by time; He was limited by everything. If we would live out the life of Jesus, we must also be limited. If we follow His steps, we will have no freedom, no liberty. What a blessing that we can be limited for the sake of Jesus!

But what is the energy for us to be limited? The strength enabling us to be limited must indeed be great. It is easy to be angry, but patience requires strength. It is easy to lose our temper, but longsuffering demands the energy of heaven. The power which enables us to be limited is the power of His resurrection. I need the resurrected Christ living in me in order to be strengthened for just a little patience….

Perhaps you will say to me, “Brother, I know I have to be limited all the time. I must be limited by my wife, by my children, by my boss, by the brothers, and especially by a certain brother. I am limited by this, and I am limited by that; all day I am limited. And I expect tomorrow and the next day to be worse. How can I meet the situation? I realize that the resurrected Christ is living in me, but I have so little of Him….It seems that you just have a little, but it does not matter, because He has no limitation. A little is more than adequate to meet the situation. You say you cannot meet the situation. Right! You surely cannot. But there is One who can….A little bit of the resurrected Christ is in you—that is good enough. The resurrected Christ is unlimited. Apply Him to the situation. He can never be exhausted. By the power of the resurrected Christ you can follow the steps of the incarnated Jesus. With the life of the resurrected Christ, you can live out the life of the limited Jesus.

(Witness Lee, All-Inclusive Christ, 51-52)

The Holy Spirit also works the resurrection power within us. Many times when we are in the Spirit we sense something within us so living, so energizing, so strengthening and so empowering. Nothing can suppress it. The more depression, suppression, and even oppression, the more something within us is energizing, living and rising up. This is the resurrection power. We may never have been taught that the resurrection power of Christ is within us, but when we experience the Spirit of Christ, we experience the element of resurrection. (Back)

(Witness Lee, All-Inclusive Spirit, 25)

The Goal of Christ’s Resurrection

Christ’s Resurrection bringing forth the New Creation

We have seen that the book of Colossians reveals that Christ is everything. In the universe there is God the Creator, and there is the creation. According to 1:15, Christ is the image of the invisible God. This means that He is nothing less than God Himself in full expression. Furthermore, Christ is the firstborn of creation, the first among all God’s creatures.

God has accomplished two creations, the old creation and the new creation. The old creation includes heaven, earth, mankind, and millions of different items. The new creation is the church, the Body of Christ. Verses 15 through 17 unveil Christ as the first in the original creation, as the One who has the preeminence among all creatures. Verse 18 shows that Christ is the first in resurrection as the Head of the Body. He is the One who has the first place in the church.

The first creation came into being through the speaking of God. In the words of Romans 4:17, God called the things not being as being. The new creation, on the contrary, came into being through resurrection, through the death and resurrection of the old creation. In this new creation, the church, Christ is the firstborn from among the dead.

(Witness Lee, LS of Colossians, 71)

When the Lord Jesus resurrected, He left the old creation in the tomb (20:1-10). Peter entered into the tomb and “beheld the linen cloths lying there, and the handkerchief which was on His head, not lying with the 536 linen cloths, but folded up in a place apart” (vv. 6-7). Before the body of Jesus was buried, it was bound in linen (19:40). This means that He went into the tomb with something of the old creation, indicating that the old creation was brought into the tomb by His burial. All the things which were cast off from the Lord’s resurrected body and left in His tomb signify the old creation, which He wore into the tomb. He was crucified with the old creation and buried with it. But He resurrected from within it, leaving it in the tomb and becoming the firstfruit of the new creation.

Everything left in the tomb was a testimony to the Lord’s resurrection. If these things had not been left there in a good order, it would have been difficult for Peter and John to believe (v. 8) that the Lord had not been taken away by someone but had resurrected by Himself. These things were offered to the Lord and wrapped about Him by His two disciples, Joseph and Nicodemus (19:38-42). What they wrought on the Lord in their love to Him became very useful in the Lord’s testimony. The Lord resurrected from the dead, leaving all the old creation which He had brought into the tomb as a testimony that He had walked away from death.

In the eyes of God, the entire old creation was buried in that tomb. This is a wonderful fact, whether you believe it or not. The old creation, including your old man and your old self, was buried in the tomb with Jesus and left there. When the all-inclusive Christ went into the tomb, we went there with Him. When He resurrected, He left us there. In this universe there is such a wonderful, all-inclusive tomb where our old man has been buried and still remains. Now our old man is in the tomb, and our resurrected new man is in the church.

(Witness Lee, LS of John, 535-536)

When Christ resurrected to germinate a new creation, He left the old creation, signified by the linen cloths and the handkerchief (John 20:5-7), in the tomb. Before the body of Jesus was buried, it was bound in linen (John 19:40). This indicates that He went into the tomb with something of the old creation, signifying that the old creation was brought into the tomb by His burial. All the things which were cast off from the Lord’s resurrected body and left in his tomb signify the old creation. Christ was crucified with the old creation and buried with it. But He resurrected from within it, leaving it in the tomb and becoming the firstfruit of the new creation in resurrection.

The old creation does not have the divine life and nature. But the new creation, which consists of believers born again of God (John 1:13; 3:15; 2 Pet. 1:4), does have the divine life and nature. Therefore, we are a new creation (2 Cor. 5:17; Gal. 6:15), not according to the old nature of flesh but according to the new nature of the divine life.

When the old creation is germinated with the divine life, it becomes the new creation. We, the believers in Christ, who have been germinated through His resurrection, are now the new creation. The old creation does not have God in it, but the new creation begins by God coming into us in the way of germination. This germination is the impartation of the divine life into the believers. Through this impartation of the divine life we were regenerated. Therefore, germination is the impartation of the divine life into the believers for their regeneration to make them a new creation.

(Witness Lee, Conclusion, 789)

Resurrection was not merely an objective act accomplished by Christ. It is very much related to us subjectively. Through incarnation Christ became a man; He became us. Therefore, incarnation was much more than an objective fact. It was a process that brought God into humanity. The principle is the same with the process of resurrection. Resurrection was not merely an act in itself; it was a process to bring forth the life-giving Spirit. Through the process of resurrection, the Man who ended the old creation became the life-giving Spirit, the germinating element of the new creation.

Very few Christians have seen that Christ in resurrection is a life-giving Spirit. Andrew Murray, however, understood something concerning this. He wrote about it in his masterpiece, The Spirit of Christ, in the chapter entitled, “The Spirit of the Glorified Jesus.” The Spirit of the glorified Jesus is actually the Lord Jesus Himself in resurrection and in glory. When He entered into resurrection, He became the Spirit who gives life. This life-giving Spirit is the essence to germinate a new creation. The germinating element of the new creation is the resurrected Christ as the life-giving Spirit. (Back)

(Witness Lee, LS of 1 Corinthians, 615)

Christ’s Resurrection Producing the Church, His Body

Ephesians 1:19-23 tells us that when Christ was resurrected, the power to raise Him up was surpassingly great. That power surpasses everything. It surpasses the tomb, Hades, and death. Such a surpassing great power uplifted Him to the heavens, subjected everything under His feet, and gave Him to be Head over all things for the purpose of producing the church. Thus, the church is the product of Christ’s surpassing resurrection. When we were regenerated two thousand years ago, the church also was produced. If we were to speak about these things to some, they may feel that we are dreamers. Actually, we are not dreamers, but we are talking about matters in another universe. This universe is not the natural universe, but the universe of resurrection. We do not belong to the universe of nature, but to the universe of resurrection. The church is the product of Christ’s resurrection, the result of the life dispensing. The church is altogether not natural, but purely a matter in resurrection. When we live by our natural life in a natural way, we are no longer the church because the church is absolutely a matter in resurrection.

The church was not created by God but resurrected by God. In Genesis 2 God did not create Eve; He only created Adam. Adam was created, but Eve was resurrected. Adam was created by God, but God did not create a wife for him. God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam (Gen. 2:21). In the Bible sleep signifies death (1 Thes. 4:13; John 11:11-14; 1 Cor. 11:30). Then God opened up Adam’s side and took one of his ribs and builded this rib into a wife for Adam. When Adam awoke, he saw a wife. This wife was not something in creation but in resurrection. Something living came out of Adam and that was Eve. God used Adam’s rib to build a wife. This wife was not created but built in resurrection, and this wife is a figure of the church according to Ephesians 5. The church was not created by God but something resurrected out of Christ.

(Witness Lee, Divine Economy, 63-64)

…In His resurrection Christ imparted the divine life into us and made us the same as He is in life and nature to be His reproduction. He was a grain of wheat falling into the ground to die. When He grew up in resurrection He produced many grains. The many grains are His reproduction, His multiplication, and this reproduction is His propagation. Through His death and resurrection He has been multiplied and propagated. This propagation is for the producing of the church. Through His death and resurrection He has produced the church as His reproduction.

(Witness Lee, Conclusion, 323)

Christ in His resurrection rebuilt God’s temple, making it a corporate one (John 2:19-22; 1 Cor. 3:16-17). In John 2:19 the Lord Jesus said, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” In speaking this word, He was referring to “the temple of His body” (v.21). The physical body of Jesus was destroyed on the cross. When Christ became flesh, He took on a physical body. John 1:14 clearly indicates that the Lord’s physical body was a tabernacle. According to John 2, His physical body was also the temple. When the Lord Jesus was in the flesh, His body was the tabernacle and temple of God. Both the tabernacle and the temple are God’s dwelling place. Realizing that the physical body of Jesus was God’s dwelling place on earth, Satan did his best to destroy this body, and he did destroy it on the cross. In a sense, Satan destroyed Christ’s physical body. In another sense, the Lord Jesus gave up His body to death.

After Satan destroyed Christ’s physical body on the cross, His body was put into a tomb and rested there. When Christ arose, He Himself raised up His dead and buried body. The body of Jesus that was destroyed on the cross was small and weak; the Body of Christ in resurrection is vast and powerful. After the Lord’s resurrection, His Body, that is, the temple, was reared up on a much larger scale. The body the enemy destroyed by crucifixion was merely the body of Jesus. What was raised up by the Lord in resurrection was not only His own body but everyone who is joined to Him by faith (1 Pet. 1:3; Eph. 2:6). (Back)

(Witness Lee, Conclusion, 794-795)

Bibliography

Witness Lee. The All-Inclusive Christ. Anaheim: Living Stream Ministry, 1969.

Witness Lee. The All-Inclusive Spirit of Christ. Anaheim: Living Stream Ministry, 1998.

Witness Lee. The Basic Revelation in the Holy Scriptures. Anaheim: Living Stream Ministry, 1984.

Witness Lee. The Conclusion of the New Testament (Msgs. #021-033). Anaheim: Living Stream Ministry, 1986.

Witness Lee. The Conclusion of the New Testament (Msgs. #063-078). Anaheim: Living Stream Ministry, 1986.

Witness Lee. The Crystallization of the Epistle to the Romans (Msgs. 1-17). Anaheim: Living Stream Ministry, 1994.

Witness Lee. The Divine Dispensing of the Divine Trinity. Anaheim: Living Stream Ministry, 1983.

Witness Lee. The Divine Economy. Anaheim: Living Stream Ministry, 1986.

Witness Lee. The Experience of Christ. Anaheim: Living Stream Ministry, 1978.

Witness Lee. Footnotes. Recovery Version of the New Testament. Revised Edition. Anaheim: Living Stream Ministry, 1991.

Witness Lee. The Four Major Steps of Christ. Anaheim: Living Stream Ministry, 1969.

Witness Lee. God’s New Testament Economy. Anaheim: Living Stream Ministry, 1986.

Witness Lee, Incarnation, Inclusion, and Intensification. Anaheim: Living Stream Ministry, 1996.

Witness Lee. The Issue of the Dispensing of the Processed Trinity and the Transmitting of the Transcending Christ. Anaheim: Living Stream Ministry, 1993.

Witness Lee. Life-Study of Colossians. Anaheim: Living Stream Ministry, 1984.

Witness Lee. Life-Study of First Corinthians. Anaheim: Living Stream Ministry, 1984.

Witness Lee. Life-Study of Hebrews. Anaheim: Living Stream Ministry, 1984.

Witness Lee. Life-Study of Matthew. Anaheim: Living Stream Ministry, 1985.

Witness Lee. Life-Study of John. Anaheim: Living Stream Ministry, 1985.

Witness Lee. Life-Study of Philippians. Anaheim: Living Stream Ministry, 1984.

Witness Lee. Life-Study of Romans. Anaheim: Living Stream Ministry, 1984.

Witness Lee. Life-Study of Second Corinthians. Anaheim: Living Stream Ministry, 1984.

Witness Lee. The Secret of Experiencing Christ. Anaheim: Living Stream Ministry, 1986.

Witness Lee. The Spirit and the Body. Anaheim: Living Stream Ministry, 1976.

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