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In this message we shall consider further aspects of Christ in the Godhead.
In the Godhead Christ is the Word. “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God” (John 1:1). The Word is the definition, explanation, and expression of God; hence, the Word is God defined, explained, and expressed.
God is mysterious. He needs the Word to express Him. Christ, as the Word, defines, explains, and expresses Him. Therefore, Christ, as the Word, is the definition, explanation, and expression of God. This Word is actually God Himself, not God hidden, concealed, and mysterious, but God defined, explained, and expressed.
The Word is eternal; that is, the Word is self-existing, without beginning. This is contrary to the heretical teaching that says the Word, the Logos, was created by God. According to the revelation in John’s Gospel, the Word was not created. John 1:1 says that the Word was in the beginning. This reveals that the Word is eternal. This eternal Word is a living person, Christ, the Son of the living God (Rev. 19:13). Such a Word signifies the mysterious and invisible God defined and expressed.
This Word as the definition of the Triune God is for God’s speaking. The fact that this Word is the entire God means that it is for the speaking of the Triune God. This Word became incarnate as a man, and that man was God’s speaking. This means that the Man Jesus Christ was God’s Word, God’s speaking. He spoke God not only with clear words but also with what He was and what He did. He is altogether the Word of God and the speaking of God. Sometimes He spoke with words, and at other times He spoke with actions. All that He was and all that He did spoke God.
John 1:14 says not only that the Word became flesh, but also that the Word tabernacled among us. The story recorded in the four Gospels is a story of God incarnate tabernacling among us. The Word became flesh and tabernacled among us in order to declare God, express God, explain God, and define God in many practical ways. The incarnate Word is the speaking, the expression, and the definition of God. As the Word, Christ is the defined God, the explained, expressed, and revealed God, the God made known to human beings.
Christ is the expression of the Father. As the Son He is the issue, the coming out, of God, and He is also the expression of the Father. Because the Son expressed the Father, the Son is the expression of the Father.
Christ’s being the Word is mainly to express God the Father by declaring, defining, and revealing Him (John 1:18). The more the Son speaks, the more God the Father is expressed.
In the Old Testament God spoke in the prophets, in men moved by His Spirit (Heb. 1:1; 2 Pet. 1:21). In the New Testament He speaks in the Son, who is God Himself expressed (Heb. 1:2-3). God the Father is hidden; God the Son is expressed. No one has ever seen God, but the Son as the Word of God, as the speaking of God, has declared and expressed Him. Whereas God spoke through the prophets in the Old Testament, He did not have Himself expressed. But in the New Testament God speaks in the Son, who expresses Him. Formerly God spoke through the prophets indirectly, but now He speaks directly in the Son, that is, in the One who is the expression of the Father.
John 1:18 says, “No one has ever seen God; the only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him.” Here we see that the One who expresses the Father is the only begotten Son of God, who was in the bosom of the Father from eternity past and who is still in the bosom of the Father after incarnation. The only begotten Son was, is, and always will be in the bosom of the Father. The words of John 1:18 are simple, but the meaning is profound. The dear, only begotten of the Father is continually in the bosom of the Father to declare the Father. This is the way He declares the Father and brings us into the enjoyment of the Father.
God is expressed in Christ, and with Christ we have grace and reality (John 1:14, 16). When we come to Christ, we enjoy grace and participate in reality. According to John 1:18, as the only begotten Son of God, Christ is in the bosom of God the Father. Thus, when we enjoy Christ in an intimate way, this enjoyment of Him will bring us to the Father. In other words, this enjoyment of Christ brings us into the bosom of the Father.
Christ is the expression of God in the same way that grace is the expression of love and reality is the expression of light. When we enjoy Christ as grace and reality, this enjoyment brings us into the bosom of the Father where we enjoy God as love and light. Love is the hidden source of grace, and light is the hidden source of reality. When grace brings us into love, we reach the source out from which grace flows. When we trace grace back to its source, grace becomes love. Likewise, light is the source out from which reality flows. When we trace reality back to its source, we arrive at light.
The Father’s only begotten Son expresses Him by the Word, life, light, grace, and reality. The Word is God expressed, life is God imparted, light is God’s shining, grace is God enjoyed, and reality is God realized. God is fully declared in the Son through these five things. The essence of them all is God Himself. Although no one has ever seen God, the Son of God declares Him, expresses Him, in the way of being the Word, life, light, grace, and reality. The more we receive the Word and have life, light, grace, and reality, the more God will be declared to us. To declare God means to express Him. Christ has expressed God by being incarnated as the Word with life, light, grace, and reality.
In the Godhead the Father is the source, and the Son is His expression. As the expression of the Father, the Son is the Accomplisher. The Father is the Initiator, the Originator, the Planner, and the Designer, and the Son carries out what the Father has initiated, originated, planned, and designed. Hence, the Son, the expression of the Father, is the Accomplisher.
According to the Gospel of John, Christ the Son came in the Father’s name (5:43), worked in the Father’s name (10:25), did the Father’s will (6:38), spoke the Father’s word (3:34a; 14:24; 7:16-17; 12:47-50), and sought the Father’s glory (7:18). As such a One, Christ also expressed the Father (John 14:7-9). He did not express Himself; He expressed only the Father. He was the Son, yet He expressed the Father.
Because the Son expresses not Himself but the Father, the Son’s expression is the Father’s expression. Therefore, when we see the Son, we see the Father. This is proved by the exchange between the Lord Jesus and Philip in John 14. In verse 7 the Lord Jesus pointed out to the disciples that if they had known Him, they would have known His Father also. Then He said, “Henceforth you know Him and have seen Him.” However, Philip replied, “Lord, show us the Father and it suffices us” (v. 8). To this the Lord Jesus answered, “He who has seen Me has seen the Father. How is it that you say, Show us the Father?” (v. 9). In the Son the Father is expressed and seen, for the Son is the expression of the Father. If we have seen the Son, we have seen the Father because the Father is embodied in the Son to be expressed through Him.
In John 10:30 the Lord Jesus says, “I and the Father are one.” The Son is one with the Father. Because the Son and the Father are one, when we see the Son, we see the Father.
We cannot explain adequately how the Son and the Father are one. According to the natural understanding, the Son is the Son, the Father is the Father, and the two are distinctly separate one from the other. Although the Son and the Father are distinct, they cannot be separated. According to the Lord’s clear word in John 10:30, He and the Father are one. Because the Son and the Father are one, the Son is even called the Father. According to Isaiah 9:6, the Son given to us is called the eternal Father. A Son is given, yet His name is called the eternal Father.
A number of verses in the New Testament indicate that the Son and the Father are one. John 17:22 says, “And the glory which You have given Me I have given to them, that they may be one, even as We are one.” In 1 John 2:25 the singular pronoun “He” is used to refer to both the Son and the Father: “And this is the promise which He promised us, the eternal life.” In this verse “He” refers to the Son and the Father spoken of in the preceding verse. This indicates that the Son and the Father are one. We see the same principle in 1 John 2:28: “And now, little children, abide in Him, that if He is manifested, we may have boldness and not be put to shame from Him at His coming.” In this verse the pronoun “He” refers definitely to Christ the Son, who is coming. This, along with the preceding clause, “abide in Him,” which is a repetition of the clause in 1 John 2:27 involving the Trinity, indicates that the Son is the embodiment of the Triune God, inseparable from the Father or the Spirit. In 1 John 2:29 the personal pronoun “He” denotes the Triune God: “If you have known that He is righteous, you know also that everyone who practices righteousness has been begotten of Him.” “He” denotes the Triune God, the Father, the Son, and the Spirit, all-inclusively, because this pronoun refers to “He” and “Him” in the preceding verse, which denotes the coming Son, and it also denotes “Him” in this verse, referring to the Father who has begotten us. This indicates strongly that the Son and the Father are one.
Although the Son and the Father are one, we should not say that there is no distinction between the Father and the Son. There is a distinction between the Father and the Son, but there is no separation. When the Father is present, the Son is present also. Likewise where the Son is, there the Father is also. The Father and the Son cannot be separated. For this reason 1 John 2:23 says, “Everyone who denies the Son does not have the Father either; he who confesses the Son has the Father also.” Since the Son and the Father are one, to deny the Son is to be without the Father, and to confess the Son is to have the Father. Whoever denies the Son has neither the Son nor the Father. But whoever confesses the Son has both the Son and the Father. Both the negative side and the positive side of this verse indicate that the Son and the Father are inseparable.
The New Testament does not separate the Father and the Son. Especially in the Gospel of John we see that the Son is always one with the Father. The Son came in the name of the Father (John 5:43). He always did the Father’s work and will, spoke the Father’s word, sought the Father’s glory, and expressed the Father. The Son was one with the Father and could not be separated from the Father. Neither could the Father be separated from the Son.
In studying the deep truths concerning the Trinity we may use three particular words: the verb “coinhere,” the noun “coinherence,” and the adjective “coinherent.” The Son not only coexists with the Father but also coinheres with the Father. What is the difference between coexisting and coinhering? To coexist is to exist together at the same time. To coinhere is to exist in one another, to dwell in one another. To say that the Father and the Son coexist means that they exist together. But to say that the Father and the Son coinhere means that they dwell in one another.
We have a word concerning this coinherence in John 14:10a: “Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father is in Me?” Here we have the mutual indwelling of the Father and the Son. In John 14:11 the Lord goes on to say, “Believe Me that I am in the Father and the Father in Me.” The Lord says that the Son is in the Father and the Father is in the Son. What a mystery this is! Because the Father is in the Son, when the Son speaks, the Father, who abides in the Son, does His work. The Father does His work in the Son’s speaking because they are in one another.
The New Testament says not only that the Son and the Father are with each other, but also reveals that the Son and the Father coinhere. For the Son to be coinherent with the Father means that the Son is in the Father and the Father is in the Son. John 17:21 is another verse that reveals this coinherence: “That they all may be one; even as You, Father, are in Me and I in You, that they also may be in Us.” The Son and the Father coexist in the way of coinherence. This means that while they coexist the Father exists in the Son and the Son exists in the Father.
It is easy to see the matter of coexistence, but it is much more difficult to realize the matter of coinherence. The coexistence of the Son and the Father means that they exist together. The coinherence of the Son and the Father means that the Son is in the Father and that the Father is in the Son. Because of this coinherence of the Father and the Son, we may say that the Father and the Son are two-one.
Some teachers of the Bible say that when the Son came to the earth, the Father was in the heavens. As their scriptural ground for teaching this, they refer to the Father’s speaking from the heavens at the time of Christ’s baptism (Matt. 3:16-17). This incident portrays the economical aspect of the Trinity. Economically speaking, the Son was on earth, and the Father was in the heavens. But in John 14 we have the essential aspect of the relationship between the Father and the Son. Essentially speaking, when the Son was on earth, the Father was in Him, and He was in the Father. Here we use the word “essential” to refer to Christ’s existence in His substance and the word “economical” to refer to Christ’s work in God’s economy. With respect to Christ’s work, the Father was in the heavens and the Son was on earth. But essentially, that is, according to Christ’s existence in His substance, the Son was always in the Father and the Father in the Son. This is a matter of coinherence. The Son was not only one with the Father but was coinherent with the Father.
The Gospel of John reveals that Christ the Son both coexists and coinheres with the Father. John 1:1 says that in eternity past the Son and the Father coexisted, because the Word was with God (John 1:1-2). When the Son came, He said that He was not alone, because the Father was with Him (John 8:16-29; 16:32). Hence, while He was on earth, He and the Father were existing together. Furthermore, as we have seen, the Son and the Father were coinhering, for the Son was in the Father, and the Father was in the Son.
Some have mistakenly thought that the Son and the Father are separate and that the Son merely represents the Father. But the Lord Jesus said, “He who has seen Me has seen the Father” (John 14:9). This is not a matter of representation but a matter of embodiment. The Father is embodied in the Son (Col. 2:9). When we see the Son, we see the Father, because the Son is the embodiment of the Father. The Son as the embodiment of the Father cannot be separated from the Father. He and the Father are one in the way of coinherence.
The Son’s coinhering with the Father is not for doctrine. Rather, this coinherence is for our experience of God’s dispensing. Christ the Son coexists and coinheres with the Father so that He with the Father may be dispensed into our being.
To the Son as the expression of the Father has been delivered all that the Father has. Therefore, the Son has all that the Father has. In Matthew 11:27a the Lord Jesus says, “All was delivered to Me by My Father.” Here the word “all” refers to the remnant whom the Father has given the Son (John 3:27; 6:37, 44, 65; 18:9).
In John 16:15a the Lord says, “All that the Father has is Mine.” This indicates that the Father has given all that He has to the Son. Thus, the Father is embodied in the Son (Col. 2:9). The Father has given all that He has and is to the Son. The Father’s being and doing are altogether in the Son. Hence, the Son becomes the Father’s embodiment.
We need to be impressed with the fact that according to John 16:15 whatever the Father has is the Son’s. The Son did not come in His own name; He came in the Father’s name (John 5:43). The Son did not seek His own will but the Father’s will (John 5:30). The Son did not speak His own word; He spoke the Father’s word (John 14:24). The Son did not do His own work but the Father’s work (John 4:34). Who, then, is this One? He is the Son with the Father. The Father was with the Son and gave everything to Him. Therefore, the Son is the expression of the Father.
In the Godhead Christ is the One whom no one knows except the Father. In some aspects or in certain senses we may know Him. But in other aspects and senses we are not able to know Him. He is known only by the Father.
In Matthew 11:27b the Lord Jesus says, “No one knows the Son except the Father.” The Greek word translated “knows” here means full knowledge, not mere objective acquaintance. Concerning the Son, only the Father has such knowledge. Therefore, to know the Son requires the Father’s revelation (Matt. 16:17).
First John 1:1 says, “That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we beheld, and our hands handled concerning the Word of life.” In the Godhead Christ is the Word of life. This is the Word mentioned in John 1:1-4 and 14, who was with God and was God in eternity before creation, who became flesh in time, and in whom is life.
This Word conveys the eternal life and is the divine person of Christ as an account, a definition, and an expression of all that God is. In Him is life, and He is life (John 1:4; 11:25; 14:6). The phrase “the Word of life” in Greek indicates that the Word is life. In His person Christ is the divine life, the eternal life, which we can touch.
If we could ask the Apostle John about the Word in 1 John 1:1, he would probably refer us to his Gospel. John 1:1 and 4 say that in the beginning was the Word, that the Word was with God and was God, that in this Word was life, and that the life was the light of men. Furthermore, according to John 1:14, the Word became flesh and tabernacled among us, full of grace and truth and having the glory as of an only begotten from a father. In all these verses we have a definition of the Word. The Word is the very God. In this Word is life, and the life is the light we need. Then this wonderful One, God the Word, became flesh. This means that He became a man. As a man, He tabernacled among us. Actually, He was the tabernacle. Furthermore, this tabernacle becomes a mutual abode, in which both God and we may abide. Here in the tabernacle we enjoy grace, we receive the reality, and we see the glory. This is the Word of life spoken of in 1 John 1:1.
We have pointed out that the expression “the Word of life” actually indicates that the Word is life. This Word, who is the eternal life, became a man as a mutual dwelling place of God and us. In this dwelling place we enjoy Him as grace, we see Him as our reality, and we behold His glory. This glory, which is the glory of God, has become the glory of God’s only begotten Son. Again I say, this Word is life, and this life is the expression of God. This means that the Word of life is God’s expression.
