“the spirit of Christ which was in them …” (1 Pet. 1:11, MSTC)
Anything that is placed in the position of Christ, carries the spirit of the antichrist. Anything that is beautiful and good and religious, that displaces the life of that which the spirit of Christ brings, is the spirit of the antichrist (1 John 4:3).
But first we need to ponder the immense implications of this. The term “the spirit of Christ” only occurs twice in Scripture. One would assume that the spirit of Christ is perhaps the Holy Spirit, but this is not the case. Rom. 8:8-9 makes it clear: “So then, those who are in the flesh cannot please God. But you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you.” However, the use of the word but here makes a pertinent distinction between “the Spirit of God” and “the spirit of Christ”. The sentence reads: “But you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you.” [The capital letters in the NKJV are not found in the original language.] The KJV states: ”he is none of his”. Therefore it can be understood that only the Bride, the believers of the third dimension, are part of Him, as they “know” Him, as it was also said to the virgins with the lamp oil (= anointing of the Christ, Matt. 25:12).
The other Scripture where the phrase “the spirit of Christ” is found, provides quite a bit of information. 1 Pet 1:10-11 reads as follows: “Of this salvation the prophets have inquired and searched carefully, who prophesied of the grace that would come to you, searching what, or what manner of time, the Spirit of Christ who was in them was indicating when He testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ and the glories that would follow”. [Again: the “Spirit” here cannot be in capital letters, as it is not the Holy Spirit.]
Long before Jesus was born, and long before the concept of the corporate Christ became a reality, there were prophets who, BASED ON THE SPIRIT OF CHRIST (or in terms of their specific contexts: the spirit of the Messiah) IN THEM prophesied about the physical manifestation thereof with us, the New Testament believers, who would become part of the Bride! Please selah!
Remember – these prophets of the Old Testament did not have the Holy Spirit WITHIN them, perhaps only on them, as they could not yet be born again (John 3:3). [Another clear proof why “the spirit of God” or “the Holy Spirit” cannot be equated with “the spirit of Christ”.] This is the reason why Jesus said the following about us as new covenant believers: “Among the sons of women there has not been a greater than John the Baptist: but he who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he.” (Mat. 11:11. BBE) – John the Baptist did not have the Holy Spirit.
In short – there are old testament believers who did not have the spirit of God, but yet they had the spirit of Christ! This is why they could be part of the cloud of witnesses (Heb. 12:1).
- Selah: Explain this very important revelation to someone so that they clearly understand the
distinction.
- Read: 35-36
- Memorise: 35:33
