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I. The Divine Trinity — the Father, the Son, and the Spirit:
А. The Father expressed in the Son — the Son being the embodiment of the Father — John 14:8-11.
John 14:8-11
Philip said to Him, Lord, show us the Father and it is sufficient for us. (9) Jesus said to him, 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? (10) Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in Me? The words that I say to you I do not speak from Myself, but the Father who abides in Me does His works. (11) Believe Me that I am in the Father and the Father is in Me; but if not, believe because of the works themselves.
B. The Son realized as the Spirit — the Spirit being the reality of the Son — John 14:16-20.
John 14:16-20
And I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Comforter, that He may be with you forever, (17) even the Spirit of reality, whom the world cannot receive, because it does not behold Him or know Him; but you know Him, because He abides with you and shall be in you. (18) I will not leave you as orphans; I am coming to you. (19) Yet a little while and the world beholds Me no longer, but you behold Me; because I live, you also shall live. (20) In that day you will know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you.
II. The accomplishment of the divine dispensing of the Divine Trinity:
А. The Triune God becoming flesh, dispensing Himself as grace and reality to man — John 1:1, 14, 16.
John 1:1
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
John 1:14
And the Word became flesh and tabernacled among us...full of grace and reality.
John 1:16
For of His fullness we have all received, and grace upon grace.
B. The Triune God dispensing the Son as eternal life to His believers — John 3:16.
John 3:16
For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that everyone who believes into Him would not perish, but would have eternal life.
C. The Son dying to release the divine life and to dispense it to all the members of His Body — John 12:24.
John 12:24
Truly, truly, I say to you, Unless the grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it abides alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.
D. The Son resurrecting to be transfigured as the Spirit to be the ultimate consummation of the Triune God, that the Triune God may be dispensed into the believers — John 20:8-9, 19, 22.
John 20:8-9
At that time therefore the other disciple also, who came first to the tomb, entered, and he saw and believed; (9) for as yet they did not understand the Scripture, that He had to rise from the dead.
John 20:19
When therefore it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and while the doors were shut where the disciples were for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood in the midst and said to them, Peace be to you.
John 20:22
And when He had said this, He breathed into them and said to them, Receive the Holy Spirit.
E. The Son being above all, inheriting all, being sent from God to speak God’s word, and dispensing the Spirit without measure — John 3:31-36.
John 3:31-36
He who comes from above is above all; he who is from the earth is of the earth and speaks out of the earth. He who comes from heaven is above all. (32) What He has seen and heard, of this He testifies, and no one receives His testimony. (33) He who receives His testimony has sealed that God is true. (34) For He whom God has sent speaks the words of God, for He gives the Spirit not by measure. (35) The Father loves the Son and has given all into His hand. (36) He who believes into the Son has eternal life; but he who disobeys the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides upon him.
Thank the Lord that we can have this conference. In this conference the Lord has given me a burden to consider with you the divine dispensing of the Divine Trinity and its result. First, we will consider the accomplishment of the divine dispensing of the Divine Trinity.
The divine dispensing of the Divine Trinity is a great matter. It is something that God has planned, purposed, and arranged. In eternity past God had a divine economy. Based on this economy He had a move to accomplish His divine dispensing. The first thing that God accomplished was the creation of all things. In His creation there are the heavens, the earth, and the myriads of created things. But among all these things man is the center. In Genesis 1 we see that God spent only a few days to create all things. After all things were ready, on the last day He created man. When man came out of God’s creating hands, he had no lack. He had everything he needed for his eating, dwelling, working, and living. At that time God did not reveal to any of His creatures, not even to the angels, the purpose of His creating all things, including the heavens, the earth, and man. This mystery of the creation was hidden in Himself.
After God created all the other things, He created man. He created man with a distinctive feature: man was created in His own image. In other words, He created man according to what He is. God’s image, that is, what He is, is that which is in God, which is love, light, holiness, and righteousness. He is love, He is light, He is holiness, and He is righteousness. God created man according to this love, light, holiness, and righteousness. For this reason there are these four virtues within man. Although we have become fallen because of our ancestor Adam and have been damaged and have become corrupted, within every one of us there is still love and light. We still prefer holiness to being common, and we all want to be righteous and do not want to make mistakes or to wrong others. The reason for this is that we are all created in the image of God. Man is like God.
Moreover, God created man according to His outward likeness. Although, on the one hand, the Bible says that God is invisible, yet, on the other hand, God created man in His image and according to His likeness. Hence, man is the most comely object among all of God’s creatures. I believe that every one of us appreciates himself when he looks in the mirror. The more we look at ourselves, the more we like ourselves because we are made according to God. Genesis 1 says that God created all things according to their kind. Man was created according to God. Hence, man is of God’s kind. We are of God’s kind because we are created according to God. This is like your picture being made according to you. Although it does not have your life and nature, it is truly your portrait. Of course, it is equally right to say that this picture is not you, because you have a life, a nature, and thoughts; you can breathe and speak, whereas the picture cannot do any of these things. From this we can see the relationship between God and us. God is the source of man, and man is the expression of God.
In eternity past God had an eternal plan, which is to work Himself into a group of chosen people. For this reason He created man, not only in His image but with a spirit so that man can receive Him and express Him. The man that God created has a spirit, a soul, and a body. We need not probe into the spirit and the soul. The outward body alone is wonderful enough to confound the mind of the best doctors. In addition to this body, there is also the soul with its thoughts, loves, and concepts. How wonderful it is! Only after we have understood the Bible a little will we understand ourselves, for it is the Bible that has unveiled to us God’s revelation. It tells us that God created man in His image with the purpose that He would enter into the created man. Since we are created according to Him, it becomes comfortable and good for Him to enter into us. If we live in a rented house, we will not feel entirely comfortable while living in it, because the house was not built according to our intention. My house in Anaheim was built for me by the brothers. I am not a civil engineer, nor do I know anything about architecture. But I did know how the house was to be built. I drew up a plan according to my own intention. After the brothers finished building it, I moved in and indeed felt comfortable in it. This is because it was built according to my intention and my plan. The same is true with God. He had a desire that one day He would move in and dwell in the man He created.
However, the man whom God created fell. But God would not give up. He came personally to accomplish redemption and to fulfill His purpose. We who are created by God are God’s vessels, and we are made to contain God. If there are still friends among us tonight who have not believed in the Lord, I would tell you respectfully that belief in God is the greatest truth. Because we are vessels created by God, we will feel empty if we do not have God within. Whenever God comes in, we feel that we are on solid ground. Everyone among us, whether old or young, can testify of this. Before we believed in the Lord, we were empty within. There was no content, and our feet were not on solid ground. One day we heard the gospel and called on the name of the Lord Jesus. He entered into us to be our life, and He has become our content.
God’s goal is not merely to have many individual believers. He wants to have a corporate man, the church, as His counterpart, His Body, for His corporate expression. This is God’s eternal economy, His plan, His purpose, and His arrangement. It is also the desire of God’s heart. This matter is clearly revealed in the Bible.
After I was saved, I began to love the Bible very much. This book has been in my hands for sixty-five years. I read it nearly every day. The way it is written is very wonderful. Concerning any subject, the way it is revealed to us is a little here and a little there. In the past when I read it, I was like a child playing with a jigsaw puzzle. I have been playing with this puzzle for many years. Now the Bible has become a clear picture within me. It shows that in eternity past God had a desire, which is to gain a group of people to be the same as He is so that He can enter into them to be their life, their nature, and everything to them. In the end He is not only joined to these people but is mingled with them as one. These people become His believers, and He gathers them together in His life in various localities to be the churches in those places. These churches constitute the Body of Christ, which is His corporate expression. We are now in such a process.
My burden in this conference is to fellowship with you concerning the divine dispensing of the Divine Trinity. God is one, yet He has a distinction of three. The purpose of the Divine Trinity is to work Himself into His created man. Because He wants to enter into us, He has to be triune. He must be the Father, the Son, and the Spirit, at the same time being one entity.
In the Bible, the book that speaks most thoroughly and clearly concerning God being triune is the Gospel of John.
Forty or more years ago, when I first went to Taiwan, a friend of mine once sent me a big watermelon. When my children saw it, they were very happy. They asked what should be done to it. I took the melon to the kitchen, cut it into pieces, and pressed it into juice. Then I gave the drink to the children. In the end the melon became part of the children’s constitution. Hence, in order that the whole melon could enter into the children through their little mouths, it had to pass through this process.
In the same way, our God is triune for the purpose of working Himself into us. He is the Father, the whole “melon.” He is also the Son, being “cut into pieces.” He is also the Spirit, being “pressed into juice.” In order for a big melon to enter into man, it must pass through all these processes. These steps are the stages of the dispensing. Not only does the melon need to be dispensed, but it must also be digested and assimilated into the constitution of man. In the same way, the Triune God — the Father, the Son, and the Spirit — has been processed to become the life-giving Spirit so that we can drink Him and so that He can become our element. This is the divine dispensing of the Divine Trinity.
The Gospel of John speaks of the truth concerning the Triune God in a most profound way. First, it shows that the Father is expressed in the Son. In other words, the Son is the embodiment of the Father. In John 14 one of the Lord’s disciples, Philip, said to the Lord, “Lord, show us the Father and it is sufficient for us.” Jesus said to him, “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...The words that I say to you I do not speak from Myself, but the Father who abides in Me does His works. Believe Me that I am in the Father and the Father is in Me” (vv. 8-11). Hence, the Son is the embodiment of the Father, and He expressed the Father among the disciples. The Son came in the name of the Father and worked in the name of the Father (5:43; 10:25). This means that He and the Father are one (v. 30). He lives because of the Father (6:57), and the Father works in Him.
Following this, the Lord said again in John 14:16-20, “I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Comforter, that He may be with you forever, even the Spirit of reality...He abides with you and shall be in you. I will not leave you as orphans; I am coming to you...Because I live, you also shall live. In that day you will know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you.” This shows that the Son is the embodiment and the expression of the Father and that the Spirit is the reality and the realization of the Son. The Father in the Son is expressed among the believers, and the Son becoming the Spirit is realized in the believers. Hence, the Father is in the Son, and the Son becomes the Spirit. The Triune God has dispensed Himself into us to become our portion so that we can enjoy Him as our everything in the Divine Trinity.
Before the Triune God became flesh, the divine dispensing was not yet realized. It was not until four thousand years after creation that Christ was born to be a man. This was the first step of God’s dispensing into man. John 1 shows us that the Word who was God from the beginning became flesh and came among men, full of grace and reality (vv. 1, 14). For the Word to become flesh was for the Triune God to become a man of flesh. In this way God entered into the sinful man and was joined as one with the sinful man. But He had only the form of the sinful man; He did not have the sin of the sinful man. This can be seen from the type of the bronze serpent lifted up by Moses in the wilderness (3:14). In this way He became a sinless God-man. This God-man is the complete God and a perfect man, having both divinity and humanity. He is the One prophesied in Isaiah 9:6: “A child is born to us, / A Son is given to us; /...And His name will be called... / Mighty God, / Eternal Father.” He is the child, yet He is God. He is the Son, yet He is also the Father. He is the mysterious God-man.
Moreover, all those who believe in Him have also become God-men. John 1:12-13 says, “As many as received Him, to them He gave the authority to become children of God, to those who believe into His name, who were begotten...of God.” Those who were begotten of man are men. Hence, those who were begotten of God are gods. But this does not mean that we who are begotten of God share in His Godhead. We do not have God’s person, and we cannot be worshipped as God. However, as far as our life goes, we are the same as God is. God has regenerated us and has given His life to us. This is like being begotten of our father; we share the same life as our father. He is a man. As those begotten of him, we are also men. However, we do not have the position of the father. From this point of view, we are the same as the God who has regenerated us, and He and we are both God-men.
When the Triune God became flesh, He dispensed Himself to men as grace and reality. This grace is God enjoyed by man, and this reality is God gained by man. In John 4 the Lord Jesus went purposely to Sychar in Samaria and sat by the well of Jacob, waiting for a Samaritan woman to come to draw water. The Lord Jesus told her, “If you knew the gift of God and who it is who says to you, Give Me a drink, you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water.” Then He said, “Whoever drinks of the water that I will give him shall by no means thirst forever” (vv. 10, 14). The Lord Jesus freely gave the living water to man. There is no price to be paid and no labor required. This is grace. Furthermore, this living water can give man the satisfaction of life and can quench man’s deepest thirst. This is reality. This living water is the Triune God — the Father, the Son, and the Spirit — with the Father expressed in the Son, and the Son realized as the Spirit, being dispensed into man. In John 7 the Lord Jesus also said, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink. He who believes into Me...out of his innermost being shall flow rivers of living water.” The Lord Jesus said this concerning the Spirit, whom those who believed into Him were about to receive (vv. 37-39). The Spirit is the consummation of the Triune God. He is the living water, given to us freely. This is grace. When we receive Him, our thirst is satisfied, and we are no longer empty. This is reality.
In John 9 we see a man born blind. The Lord Jesus as the light of the world came to him, spat on the ground, made clay of the spittle, anointed his eyes with the clay, and ordered him to wash in the pool of Siloam. When he washed, he came away seeing (vv. 1-7). He did not pay any price, yet he was healed freely. This is God’s grace. The Lord Jesus as the light of the world had caused him to see and to be no longer blind. This is reality.
The Son as God’s grace and reality is dispensed into all those who believe in Him. In other words, as the eternal life, God’s only begotten Son is dispensed to us (3:16).
John 12:24 shows that the Lord Jesus as the divine grain of wheat — containing the divine life and glory — released the divine life through the breaking of the shell of His body in death to produce many grains to be formed into one loaf, which is the church, the Body of Christ, to be His increase, for the expression of His glory. This is the divine dispensing.
When the Lord entered into resurrection, He became the life-giving Spirit. The Word who was there in the beginning was the Triune God Himself. He became flesh, passed through human living, crucifixion, and resurrection, and ultimately, in resurrection became the Spirit, who is the ultimate consummation of the Triune God.
On the night of resurrection the Lord came into the midst of the disciples and breathed into them, saying, “Receive the Holy Spirit” (20:22). The Holy Spirit here is actually the resurrected Christ Himself, because the Spirit is simply His breath. The Word who was there in the beginning eventually became the breath, who is the Triune God Himself. The Father is the source, the Son is the flow, and the Spirit is the realization. The Triune God is realized as the life-giving Spirit. This is like the big watermelon becoming the melon juice that has become easy for man to receive. Hence, 1 Corinthians 12:13 says, “We were...all given to drink one Spirit.” By this the Triune God Himself is dispensed into us to be our life and everything to us. This is the accomplishment of the divine dispensing of the Divine Trinity.
John 3 reveals to us that this Son, who became flesh, died, and resurrected to become the Spirit, is above all, inheriting all, and is sent from God to speak God’s word. In the Old Testament time God spoke through the prophets. But in the New Testament He speaks to us in the Son (Heb. 1:1-2a). The Son is simply God Himself. He is the expressed God. While He was on earth, whatever He spoke, whether it was teaching, preaching of the gospel, or discourses, and whether it was spoken on the mountain, on the seashore, or in the houses, it was all the Father’s words.
According to the principle of the Bible, the word of God is simply God Himself. To hear God’s word is to hear God. To receive God’s word is to receive God. Moreover, the word and the Spirit cannot be separated from each other. The word is the Spirit (John 6:63). While the Lord Jesus was on earth, not only did He speak for God, but He also came to dispense the Spirit (3:34). The Spirit is the ultimate consummation of the Triune God. Through this dispensing, which is without measure, the processed Triune God is injected into us to become our all.
The Spirit is not merely the Spirit of God before the Lord’s incarnation. He is the Spirit of God after the Lord’s resurrection. As such, He is the mingling of the Holy Spirit, bearing the divine nature, with the Lord’s incarnation (His humanity), human living, crucifixion, and resurrection. This is typified by the holy ointment that was produced by olive oil mingled with four spices, as described in Exodus 30:23-25. In this compound Spirit there is divinity, humanity, the effectiveness of Christ’s death, and the fragrance of His resurrection. This Spirit is God; He is the Father and the Son, Jesus Christ. When we call on the name of the Lord, He enters into us, and He is joined to us and mingled with us, dispensing Himself together with all His riches into us, to be our life and life supply.
Today to be a genuine Christian who loves the Lord, we do not need to pursue other things. We only need to grow and to advance day by day in this mingling of God with man. By this we will grow with the growth of God (Col. 2:19).
