JESUS CHRIST: GOD-MAN - Vital Christianity

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While these words seem to identify the risen Lord and the Holy Spirit, at the same time,
Paul distinguishes between them. The point is that there is no difference between being in Christ
and being in the Spirit. To be "in the Spirit" means to be indwelt by the new life that is in Christ
(Ro 8:9). The same is true of being "in Christ" (2 Co 5:17). Such verses do not mean that
Christ and the Spirit are actually identical since Paul clearly differentiates between them by
speaking of "the Spirit of the Lord." However, since Christ entered the realm of the Spirit at His
resurrection, functionally and dynamically the Lord and the Spirit are one. The exalted Lord
works in the world and within His people through the Spirit.
Paul speaks of the two families in Adam and in Christ. By contrasting the first man
(Adam) who came from the earth with the second man (Christ) who comes from heaven (1 Co
15:47), Paul must be referring to the Parousia (Second Coming) of Christ since Christ in His
incarnation was also a son of Adam in that He had a "natural" mortal body.
The Bible assumes the existence of two worlds: the visible, natural, historical world of
people, and an invisible, "spiritual" world of God. Greek thought often taught that man's true
home was not the earth but the invisible, spiritual world which could be apprehended only by
disciplined minds. The good life, therefore, meant strict control of the bodily passions and the
careful cultivation of the mind. "Salvation" would be achieved by the "good man" when, at
death, he strips off the "burdensome body" and his soul is freed to find its way to the world of
ultimate reality.
This is not biblical theology. The entire Bible assumes that the created world, including
man in his bodily existence, is the creation of God and is therefore good. The evil in the world is
not intrinsic to its being creation. Rather creation along with man has suffered the penalty of
man's sin and lies under a curse. Salvation means the visitation of God from the invisible world
into the visible world of men.
God has abandoned neither man nor creation to their fallenness. God visited Abraham in
Haran to call him out to be the father of God's people. He visited Moses in the desert to make
him the deliverer of his people in Egypt. He visited Israel in her bondage to lead her to the
Promised Land and make her a nation. He visited Israel and Judah in judgment when both
nations became sinful and hopelessly apostate. He visited mankind in the incarnation, when "the
Word became flesh and dwelt among us" both to reveal Himself and to rescue fallen man. And
He will visit mankind again at His Second Coming to finish His work of redemption for the
whole world of creation.
Because creation is good, it must be redeemed from the curse of corruption. Because man
is God's creation—the apex of His creative power—redemption must mean the resurrection and
transformation of his very body. As long as sin, evil, corruption, decay, violence, and death
remain in the world, God's redemptive work remains ever incomplete.