Section 13
the flesh no longer (2 Cor. 5:16). Now they know Christ as the Spirit (2 Cor. 3:17). Before His death and resurrection, the Lord was incarnated in the flesh; after His death and resurrection, He was transfigured from the flesh into the Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45). Therefore, the Christ we now receive is not the Christ in the flesh, but the Christ who is the Spirit. In John 20 on the evening of His res urrection, He came to His disciples and breathed on them saying, "Receive the Holy Spirit" (20:22). That was Himself after His resurrection, for after His resurrection He was transfigured into the Spirit. He was no longer in the flesh as He was before His crucifixion. Now He is the Spirit; therefore, they had to receive the Spirit. Before His death, when He was in the flesh, all He could do was be with and among His disciples, but He could not be in them. Now, as the Spirit, it is easy for Him to be within us.
Today, we do not need to contact the Lord physically. Since He is the Spirit, we can contact Him as the Spirit within us. He is the life-giving Spirit. Since He is the Spirit, we can take Him and feed upon Him as our food.
When we receive the Lord Jesus, we get the Spirit who gives life. We can prove this by the