Section 6
to become the life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45). We must remember these two "becomings"— becoming flesh and becoming the life-giving Spirit. The eternal Word firstly became flesh and then, as the last Adam, He became the life-giving Spirit. The first step was the step of incarnation, and the second step was that of 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 Him self into us as life. Thus, in the evening of the day of His resurrection He came and breathed Himself as the Spirit into the disciples.
This Gospel testifies that the Lord is God (1:1-2; 5:17-18; 10:30-33; 14:9-11; 20:28), the life (1:4; 10:10; 11:25; 14:6), and the resurrection (11:25). Chapters one through seventeen prove that He is God among men. Men are the con trast to Him as God. Chapters eighteen and nine teen prove that He is life in the environment of death. Death, or the environment of death, is the contrast to Him as life. Chapters twenty and twenty-one prove that He is the resurrection in the midst of the old creation, the natural life. The old creation, the natural life, is the contrast to