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Scripture Reading: Gen. 1:1, 26; 2:4; Exo. 3:14-15; Gen. 15:2, 8; Matt. 1:1, 16, 18, 20-23; Acts 2:36; 10:36; John 7:38-39; Rev. 22:17; Matt. 28:19; Rev. 1:4, 8; 11:15; 20:6
In this chapter we come to the hardest point in the Bible — the person of God. In a sense, it is not very difficult to know the names of God, the titles of God. These titles are not only revealed but also printed in the Bible. But many Christians are ignorant concerning God’s person. In the previous chapter we pointed out that the entire Scripture is the revelation of God as the unique Deity, mainly in His divine titles and His divine person. By God’s titles and His person we know that He is unique.
The first time the Bible mentions God is in Genesis 1:1, which says, “In the beginning God created.” The word for God here in Hebrew is Elohim. Elohim is a compound word, and it is a uni-plural noun. In Genesis 1:26 God spoke of Himself in the plural by saying, “Let Us make man in Our image.” God said, “Let Us,” not “Let Me.” Us and Our are plural. God is one and also plural.
The plurality of the word Elohim implies the Divine Trinity. Genesis 1:26a; 3:22a; and 11:7a all mention God, using the plural pronouns Us and Our. In Isaiah 6:8 God said, “Whom shall I send? Who will go for Us?” I is singular, but Us is plural, showing that God is uni-plural. In John 17 the Lord Jesus prayed to the Father, “That they may be one, even as We are one” (vv. 22b, 11b). He also prayed, “That they also may be in Us” (v. 21). God the Father and God the Son are “Us”; They are plural, yet They are one.
In the past we wrote some helpful small booklets on the Divine Trinity, which I would suggest for your reading: The Revelation of the Triune God according to the Pure Word of the Bible; What a Heresy: Two Divine Fathers, Two Life-giving Spirits, and Three Gods!; and The Biblical Trinity. The truth in these booklets can be a great help to us in seeing the scriptural revelation of the Triune God. Now we want to see something concerning the person of God.
God (Gen. 1:1; 1 Tim. 2:5) is a living person who is divine from eternity to eternity (Psa. 90:2b). Thus, He is the eternal God (Rom. 16:26). God is uniquely one from eternity past to eternity future. This means that God is eternal and eternally unique. He is eternally one.
Now we want to see the divine persons of the Divine Trinity. Matthew 28:19 says that we need to baptize the nations into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Here there is one name for the three of the Godhead. A person may have a first name, a middle name, and a last name, but these are all actually one name for one person. The Father, the Son, and the Spirit are not three names but the name of the unique Triune God. Matthew speaks of a wonderful person with a compound name — Father, Son, and Spirit.
The Father is the source of the Trinity (John 8:18; 16:27-28).
The Son is the course of the Trinity, the embodiment of the Father for His expression (14:9-11; Col. 1:19; 2:9). This is particularly revealed in John 14. John 14 may be considered as the greatest chapter in the Bible. In this chapter Philip said, “Lord, show us the Father and it is sufficient for us” (v. 8). This indicates that probably before that time the disciples spoke to one another about the Father since the Lord Jesus had often mentioned the Father. Now in John 14 Philip took the opportunity to ask the Lord to show them the Father. The Lord Jesus said to Philip, “Have I been so long a time with you, and you have not known Me, Philip? He who has seen Me has seen the Father; how is it that you say, Show us the Father?” (v. 9). When the Lord spoke this to Philip near the end of His earthly ministry, He had been with the disciples for a long time, close to three and a half years. The Lord went on to tell Philip that He was in the Father and the Father was in Him. He said, “The words that I say to you I do not speak from Myself, but the Father who abides in Me does His works” (v. 10). When the Lord spoke, the Father worked, because He and the Father are one.
If we had been there, we might have said, “Lord Jesus, You and the Father are one, but You and the Father are still two. There is a distinction.” The Lord also told the disciples that He would pray to the Father. If He and the Father were one, how could He pray to Himself? He said, “I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Comforter” (v. 16). The Comforter who was given to the disciples is the Spirit of reality (v. 17). This indicates that besides the Son and the Father there would be a third One, the Spirit.
In John 14 the Lord indicated that God is three yet one. He told us that He and the Father are one. Then He went on to say that the Spirit of reality “abides with you and shall be in you” (v. 17). Then He said, “I will not leave you as orphans; I am coming to you...In that day you will know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you” (vv. 18, 20). Eventually, this portion of the Word shows that when the Spirit is in us, that is the Son in us. When the Son was among the disciples, that was the Father. Then when the Spirit came and entered into the disciples, that was the Son.
This does not mean that the Father existed first, then the Son followed to exist, and then the Spirit followed as the third One to exist. The heresy of modalism says that the three of the Godhead are not eternally coexistent. We need to be clear that the three of the Divine Trinity all exist together at the same time from eternity to eternity. Furthermore, the three not only coexist but also coinhere. To coinhere is to exist in one another. The Father, the Son, and the Spirit all exist in one another. They mutually indwell one another. The three of the Divine Trinity exist together, and They also coinhere with one another from eternity to eternity.
The Spirit is the flow of the Trinity, the realization of the Son for His reaching and entering into His believers (7:38-39; Rev. 22:1; John 14:16-20). The Father is the source, the Son is the course, and the Spirit is the flow. The source, the course, and the flow are according to the notion of our Triune God as the living water, which eventually becomes a river. At the end of the Bible, in the very last chapter, our Triune God is shown as a flowing river, the river of water of life (Rev. 22:1). Such a flowing river has a source, a course, and a flow. The source, the course, and the flow are three aspects of the one river.
In 1977 I visited Israel with a group of brothers. One day we went to the source of the Jordan River at the foot of Mount Hermon. There is a spring there with a fountain as the source. The spring has a flow, and the flow is a stream, a river. Such a river is a picture of our Triune God with the Father as the source, the Son as the course, and the Spirit as the flow. This is the biblical illustration in Revelation 22.
In Revelation 22:1 the Son is the Lamb, indicating that the Son is the Redeemer. The river of water of life proceeds out of the throne of God and of the Lamb. There is one throne for both God and the Lamb, signifying that God and the Lamb are one — the Lamb-God, the redeeming God, God the Redeemer. Revelation says that the Lamb is the lamp (21:23), and God is within Him as the light (22:5). Thus, God is in the Lamb on the throne, and out of His throne flows the river of water of life, the Spirit. When the Spirit flows, it carries the Lamb. Then in the flow of the river, the Lamb becomes the tree of life (v. 2). The tree of life growing on the two sides of the river signifies that the tree of life is a vine, spreading and proceeding along the flow of the water of life for God’s people to receive and enjoy. The tree of life symbolizes the Triune God to be our life supply. The Triune God is the water of life for us to drink and the tree of life for us to eat.
At this point I want us to realize that we should not study the person of God in an objective, theological way. We should not study the Divine Trinity as a mere doctrine. The Bible shows us that the Divine Trinity is for our enjoyment. Second Corinthians 13:14 says, “The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.” This verse mentions three things: grace, love, and fellowship. Actually, however, this is one thing in three aspects. The source is the divine love, the course is the divine grace, and the flow is the divine fellowship. Out of God the Father flows the grace through Christ. Then this grace flows in the fellowship of the Spirit. Second Corinthians 13:14 shows us three persons in three aspects: God the Father, Christ, and the Spirit; and love, grace, and fellowship. God the Father as love is the source, Christ as grace is the course, and the Spirit as fellowship is the flow. At the end of the Bible we see our Triune God flowing forever. His flowing is for the purpose of supplying His redeemed with Himself as drink and food so that we may enjoy Him as the bountiful supply. In the beginning of my Christian life I did not realize this. But today I fully realize that we need to experience, enjoy, and express the Triune God — the Father, the Son, and the Spirit.
The Son is the embodiment of the Father for the Father’s expression. Then the Spirit is the realization of the Son for the Son to reach us and enter into us. The Father is embodied in the Son, and the Son is realized as the Spirit. Now the Spirit reaches us and enters into us. When the Spirit enters into us, the Son is here and the Father is here. All three are here within us. The Spirit is within us as the realization of the Son, who is the embodiment of the Father.
As such a Spirit, He was not there before Christ’s resurrection. In John 7:38-39 the Lord said, “He who believes into Me, as the Scripture said, out of his innermost being shall flow rivers of living water. But this He said concerning the Spirit, whom those who believed into Him were about to receive; for the Spirit was not yet, because Jesus had not yet been glorified.” At that time the Spirit was not 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 this word, because He was not yet glorified. Jesus was glorified when He was resurrected (Luke 24:26). The Spirit of God was there in creation, but before Christ’s resurrection the Spirit was not there yet, because Christ was not glorified in His resurrection. This indicates that after Christ’s resurrection the Spirit is here.
God the Spirit in eternity past was merely divine. In eternity past He did not have humanity within Him. He was only God but not yet man. When He created the earth and man, He was merely God. Within Him there was no humanity. At the time of the incarnation, God entered into humanity and mingled Himself with humanity. He remained in a virgin’s womb for nine months and was born as Jesus, a God-man. That little infant lying in the manger (2:12) was God and man. He was not only divine but also human.
When He became thirty years old, He came out to minister. He was a wonderful person who astounded those around Him. They wondered how He could have such wisdom and perform such works of power. They asked, “Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary, and brother of James and Joses and Judas and Simon? And are not His sisters here with us? And they were stumbled because of Him” (Mark 6:3). He was wonderful in His dual life and nature. He had both the divine life and the human life. He had both the divine nature and the human nature. He was divinely human and humanly divine. He lived as a God-man. He wept, and He was hungry and thirsty. He felt what we as men feel, but He also was divine. Christ was a wonderful person on this earth, but He is not merely historical. He is living in us today as the One who is divinely human.
The biography of Christ actually starts from eternity past where He was merely divine. He, as the unique God, created billions of items with man as the center of His creation. He created man in His own image with the intention that someday He would come into this man to be man’s content and man’s life. But after the creation of man He waited for about four thousand years to become a man.
About two thousand years after God’s creation of man, He gave Abraham a promise, telling Abraham that his seed would be a blessing to all the earth (Gen. 12:3; 17:7-8, 19). This promise to Abraham was fulfilled in Himself, the real seed of Abraham (Gal. 3:16). He was telling Abraham that one day He would come as Abraham’s seed. He would come to be born of Abraham’s descendant to be a man. Thus, in incarnation He entered into man and put humanity on as a garment. From that day He has been wearing humanity and will wear humanity for eternity. Divinity wears humanity.
He lived on earth in this humanity for thirty years, and He worked and ministered for another three and a half years. Who was He? Most of the Jews never knew. The Jews always considered Him merely as a Nazarene. They did not know that He was the very God, the Creator, Jehovah, Elohim, whom they worshipped. But they worshipped a divine God, without humanity. Today we Christians worship God as the One who is both divine and human. Jesus is the One who is the complete God and the perfect man. Our God is different from the Jewish God. The Jewish God is just Elohim, not Jesus Christ. But our God is Jesus Christ, who is the very Elohim and the very Jehovah, with both divinity and humanity.
This wonderful One passed through human living and went to the cross. By His death He terminated the old creation. After three days He walked out of death and out of Hades to enter into resurrection. By entering into resurrection He brought the terminated humanity into divinity. His incarnation and resurrection were a two-way traffic, coming and going, He came with divinity in incarnation to bring divinity into humanity. Then He went back with humanity in resurrection to bring humanity into divinity. He blended the divine with the human and the human with the divine. This blending is also a mingling.
In eternity past God had neither entered into humanity nor experienced death. But after picking up humanity and living in humanity for thirty-three and a half years, He walked into death. We should not think that He was put to death by man’s decision. If He had not been willing to go into death, no one could have put Him to death. When the soldiers from the chief priests and Pharisees came to arrest Him at Gethsemane, He said, “Do you think that I cannot beseech My Father, and He will provide Me at once with more than twelve legions of angels? How then shall the Scriptures be fulfilled which say that it must happen this way?” (Matt. 26:53-54). He walked into death and entered into death voluntarily.
After three days He walked out of death into resurrection. By entering into resurrection He brought humanity into divinity. The Bible tells us that resurrection was a birth to Him (Acts 13:33). In divinity He was God’s only begotten Son (John 3:16), but in resurrection He brought His humanity into divinity to be born as the firstborn Son among many sons, many brothers (Rom. 8:29).
In resurrection as the last Adam, Jesus became a life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45b). As God, He became a man in incarnation (John 1:14). As such a One, He also became the life-giving Spirit. This life-giving Spirit is the totality of the Triune God, the consummation of the Triune God. As the life-giving Spirit, He is the Son, and embodied in the Son is the Father. Thus, the Father and the Son are here with this life-giving Spirit, who is the consummation of the Triune God and the totality of the Triune God.
We may say that the life-giving Spirit is the consummated God, the compound Spirit. The Spirit of God was compounded with man, with Christ’s death, and with Christ’s resurrection. In eternity past God was merely in divinity. He had not entered into humanity, and there was no all-inclusive death or powerful resurrection in Him. But after going through incarnation, crucifixion, and resurrection, the merely divine One was compounded with humanity, with the all-inclusive death, and with the powerful resurrection. Now today our God is a God-man with the element of the all-inclusive death and with the element of the powerful resurrection. He is the life-giving Spirit. He is the Spirit today. This is why I call our God today the processed God, the consummated God. He is the consummated One as the life-giving Spirit to be the totality of the Triune God, the consummation of the Triune God. When I have Him, I have the Trinity — the Father, the Son, and the Spirit. When I have Him, I have everything. I not only have the divine and human Triune God but also the wonderful death of Christ and the powerful resurrection of Christ.
In Exodus 30 the compound ointment is a wonderful type of the compound Spirit. Oil is a single element, but an ointment is a compounded entity. The compound ointment had the olive oil as a base, and this olive oil was compounded with four kinds of spices: myrrh, cinnamon, calamus, and cassia. This compounding produced an ointment. The priests and the tabernacle with everything related to it were anointed with this ointment. In the New Testament, 1 John 2 speaks of the divine anointing (vv. 20, 27), and this divine anointing is the anointing Spirit, the compound Spirit.
After Christ’s resurrection the Spirit of God was consummated in His process. Today the Spirit indwelling us is the processed Spirit who can give life. Without being processed, without being consummated, He could never give life. Before the resurrection of Christ He was not called the life-giving Spirit. But now after the resurrection He has become the life-giving Spirit, and the life-giving Spirit is a compound Spirit.
The Bible calls Him the Spirit. In the last chapter of the Bible, Revelation 22, verse 17 refers to the Spirit and the bride. The Spirit is the processed Triune God, and the bride is the transformed tripartite man. The processed Triune God and the transformed tripartite man are married to be one universal couple — the Spirit and the bride. Man and God, God and man, are fully blended, mingled. Through His terminating death and in His germinating resurrection, we are the new creation, which is a blending of humanity with divinity and a mingling of divinity with humanity. His death terminated the old creation and germinated, through His resurrection, the new creation. As the new creation, we have become one with the Spirit (1 Cor. 6:17).
Through the process of Christ’s death and resurrection, the Holy Spirit of God has become the processed Spirit as the consummation of the Triune God (Matt. 28:19) to be the life-giving and indwelling Spirit (2 Cor. 3:6b; Rom. 8:11). We need to realize that we have the Spirit indwelling us, and the indwelling Spirit is the consummated Triune God. He is the life-giving and indwelling Spirit to seal the believers of the Son (Eph. 1:13), that is, to impart and dispense the riches of God’s being as the unsearchable riches of Christ into the believers as the members of Christ for the constituting and building up of the organic Body of Christ (3:8, 10; 4:16). The indwelling, life-giving Spirit is the sealing Spirit. The sealing ink of a seal saturates the sealed material. We are the sealed material, and we have the Spirit as the sealing ink saturating us. This saturating, this sealing, mingles us with God.
This sealing is a kind of transfusing and saturating, which is what we call the dispensing. God today, who is the life-giving Spirit indwelling us, is always sealing, saturating, transfusing, and dispensing Christ’s unsearchable riches into our being to make our being blended, mingled, with the processed God. This sealing is going on to transfuse and saturate us with the processed Triune God and to impart His unsearchable riches into our being. This is the divine dispensing for the building up of the organic Body of Christ.
We are being sealed with the compound Spirit, who is God the Spirit, as the basic element, compounded with Christ’s humanity, with His death and its effectiveness, and with His resurrection and its power, as typified by the compound ointment in Exodus 30:23-25. Such a Spirit is both essential in us for life and economical upon us for work (Acts 2:4; 4:31). The life-giving Spirit today is the divine essence dispensed into our being to be our very life element within us. The Spirit is also the Spirit of power upon us for us to carry out the work to accomplish God’s economy.
As we have seen, the Spirit (John 7:39; Rev. 22:17) is the consummation of the Triune God for the mingling of the processed Triune God with the transformed tripartite man.
The divine revelation in the Scriptures concerning the unique and triune God is progressive, beginning from God in Genesis (1:1) and culminating in the all-inclusive Christ in Revelation (1:1; 11:15; 20:6). The progressive, divine revelation begins from God and goes higher and higher to reach Christ in Revelation as the culmination, the highest point. The sixty-six books of the Bible reveal that the highest point of the divine revelation of the person of God is Christ. This Christ today is the life-giving and indwelling Spirit, and this Spirit is the consummated Triune God. When we have this Spirit, we have the three of the Triune God. We have everything related to the processed Triune God: His all-inclusive death, His powerful resurrection, and the unsearchable riches of His being. All these are here to be our portion. Day by day this life-giving, indwelling Spirit is dispensing Himself into our being to constitute us and build us up as the organic Body of Christ.
