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Scripture Reading: John 1:29; 3:14, 16; 4:34; 5:24, 30, 36-38, 43; 6:46; 7:29; 8:29; 13:20; 14:10-11, 23-24; 16:15a, 27b, 32; 17:8; Rom. 8:3; Col. 2:9; 1 John 3:24; 4:9-10, 13
The Gospel of John is a divine writing, and because it is divine, it is mysterious. When we read the Gospel of John, it is easy to pick up many shallow things, things on the surface, but it is not easy to get into the depths to reach the divine reality. There is no religion revealed in this book. Rather, religion is condemned. Nor is there any natural thought or even ethics. What then is revealed in this book? It is hard to say, because the things revealed are altogether of the Triune God Himself. No other book in the Bible reveals the Triune God — the Father, the Son, and the Spirit — so clearly and so much in detail as the Gospel of John.
In 1:1 God is revealed: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” After chapter 1 this Gospel begins to reveal God the Father. No other book in the Bible uses this term, the Father, so many times as the Gospel of John. First, it reveals the Father, and then it reveals the Son. The Son comes after the Father. Following this, it reveals the Spirit. In chapter 14 the Father is revealed in the Son, and the Son is revealed as one with the Father (vv. 9-10). After this, another Comforter is revealed as the Spirit of reality (vv. 16-17).
At the end of the Gospel of John, there is the holy pneuma. After resurrection and in resurrection the Son of God, who went through death and entered into resurrection, came back to His disciples as the pneuma, as the Spirit. He breathed into His disciples and charged them to receive Him as the pneuma, the Spirit (20:22). It is no wonder that some of the great teachers who were studying the person of Christ picked up a term the pneumatic Christ to refer to the very Christ who has become the holy pneuma.
So this Gospel presents to us a clear picture of the Triune God — God the Father, God the Son, and God the Spirit. Eventually, the holy pneuma, the Holy Spirit, reaches us not objectively but subjectively by entering into our very being. He enters into us as the Spirit. After He entered into the disciples in John 20, He never left them. This is why there is no official ascension of Christ in the Gospel of John. Both Mark and Luke record the visible ascension of Christ (Mark 16:19; Luke 24:51). In both of these Gospels the disciples saw Christ ascending to the heavens. That was His visible and official ascension. But the Gospel of John does not record such an ascension. Where did the resurrected Christ go? He went into the disciples. Even now He is still in His believers.
This Gospel also does not have a conclusion. There is no ending, because the resurrected Christ still lives on this earth in His believers. Today the Gospel of John has many more chapters in it, and the chapters are still going on. This is because the wonderful One who is God and the Father and the Son and the Spirit, and who is now the pneumatic Christ, lives within us. His living from the day of resurrection has never stopped. It is still going on today; He is with us and even within us.
This is too divine! And because it is too divine, it is also too mysterious! Although His living within us is divine and mysterious, it is a reality. The word reality is a translation of the Greek word aletheia. It has been translated by most versions of the Bible into “truth.” Actually, in John it should not be rendered “truth,” because the word truth is ambiguous. It may mean reality, or it may mean a fact, or it may mean true doctrine. But in the Gospel of John it surely does not mean true doctrine. John 1:17 says, “The law was given through Moses; grace and reality came through Jesus Christ.” If the word truth simply refers to true doctrine, then the verse would say that the law was given through Moses; grace and true doctrine came through Jesus Christ. This rendering, of course, does not give the proper meaning. In the Gospel of John this word means “reality.”
We were made as vessels to contain God (Rom. 9:21, 23). If we do not have the Triune God as our content, we are just an empty container, an empty shell. Without God, even the entire universe, including the heavens and the earth, becomes an empty, universal shell. Without God, nothing is real; everything is vanity. It is no wonder that the wise King Solomon said that under the sun there is nothing but vanity (Eccl. 1:14). The reality, the real content, and the real meaning of the entire universe is God. God is also the real content and the real meaning of our being. If we do not have God within us as our content, we do not have the reality. According to the Bible, God is reality, the Son of God is reality, the Spirit of God is reality, the word of God is reality, the entire Bible in its content is reality, and even our belief that we hold is reality.
Now I would like to call your full attention to this word dispensing. This is not a new word in the dictionary, but it may be a new word to Christian ears. Before you came to the recovery, you probably never heard a message using this word dispensing concerning the Divine Trinity. But you probably heard another word, dispensation, which is very similar to dispensing. What is the difference between dispensing and dispensation? First, the word dispensation is the noun form of the verb dispense. The first connotation of the word dispensation is that it equals dispensing. But in theology the word dispensation has not been used in this meaning. Second, dispensation means God’s way of dealing with people. Third, dispensation denotes a kind of plan or arrangement. In this connotation dispensation becomes an equivalent to the Greek word oikonomia, which is anglicized into the English word economy. This refers to God’s plan, arrangement, household administration, and household management. The first part of the word, oikos, means “house” or “household.” The last part of the word, nomia, means “a law to regulate the house.” So it means “the household administration, the household management.” This is an administration, an arrangement, a plan, to work out a certain project. This is the right meaning of the word dispensation used in theological teachings. It is used to denote the different ways by which God deals with mankind.
We may consider that from Genesis 1 to Revelation 22 there are seven ways for God to deal with human beings. The first dispensation is that of innocence, from the creation of man until the fall of man. The second is that of conscience, from the fall of man until the time in Genesis 9. The third is the dispensation of human government, which was instituted at Noah’s time. The fourth is the dispensation of promise, which was from the time of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob until the law. Following this is the dispensation of the law, which was from Moses until Christ. After this comes the dispensation of grace, which is during the church age. Eventually, there is the dispensation of the kingdom, the thousand years of the millennium. These are the seven ways, or the seven aspects, of God’s dealing with man. This is the meaning of the word dispensation.
We do not use the word dispensation, because it may be misunderstood. We use the word dispensing. Dispensing means “to distribute.” God dispenses Himself to us just as we may dispense food to our guests. Many readers of the Bible have realized that in the Gospel of John the Father is revealed, the Son is revealed, and the Spirit is revealed. But not many have realized that in the Gospel of John the Triune God — the Father, the Son, and the Spirit — is revealed for the dispensing of Himself into us first as life, then as the life supply, and then as everything. I did not realize this matter of God dispensing Himself into us until about twenty years ago. From that time onward I have used this word dispense very much. God dispenses Himself into His children. This is not too hard to understand.
Chapter 1 of John 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 not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God” (vv. 12-13). These children of God were begotten of God. When a child is begotten of a father, what does it indicate? It indicates that the father has dispensed his life into the child. At the very beginning there was only one man, Adam, yet today there are millions of human beings on the earth. Through all the generations Adam’s life has been dispensed into his descendants. This is a proper understanding of the word dispensing.
In this chapter we will cover the dispensing of the Father, and in the following chapters we will cover the dispensing of the Son, the dispensing of the Spirit, and the consummation of the divine dispensing. I would beg you to dive into all the verses in the Scripture Reading. Apparently, some of the verses are small verses. For example, John 7:29 says, “I know Him, because I am from Him, and He sent Me.” Apparently, this verse is not as big as John 3:16, which says that God so loved the world. But actually, this kind of expression — I am from Him, and He sent Me — is too great! Just consider, who is the “I” in this verse? This is Christ, but who is Christ? By going back to chapter 1 of this Gospel, we can find out that Christ is God.
Consider also where Christ came from. He said that He was from the Father (6:46) and that the Father sent Him (5:36). Not many Christians are clear that Christ, the Son of God, came from the Father. According to people’s natural mentality, Christ came from heaven. Have you ever thought that Christ came from the Father? His source was the Father.
The Father is the very source, the Initiator, because the Son came forth from Him (7:29; 16:27b). In John 16:27 the Lord Jesus said, “You have loved Me and have believed that I came forth from God.” It does not only say, “I came from Him,” but “I came forth from Him.” The Son came out of a source, and that source was the Father. So the Father is the source, and He is the Initiator. He is even the initiation, the origination. The entire universe was initiated in this initiation, who is a divine person.
This source, this Initiator, sent the Son (5:24, 30, 36-38; 13:20; 14:24). There are two Greek words used for the English word sent, one of which means “to be sent with a special commission.” This indicates that the source, the Father, sent the Son as an envoy with a special commission. The Son was sent by the Father with a particular commission to do three main categories of things.
First, the Father sent the Son to take away sin, to condemn sin. In order to do this, according to 2 Corinthians 5:21, the Son, who knew no sin, even became sin. Actually, He became only the likeness of the flesh of sin. He did not have the sinful nature. This is clearly illustrated by the bronze serpent in John 3:14. The bronze serpent bore the form and appearance and likeness of a real serpent, but it did not have the poisonous nature of the serpent.
Romans 8:3 says that the law was impossible in that it was weak through the flesh, so God sent His Son in the likeness of the flesh of sin. This is just like the bronze serpent being in the likeness of a poisonous serpent. The Son was sent in the likeness of the flesh of sin to condemn sin. Sin has been condemned. Sin is something that is in the universe among the human race, but it has been condemned. The divine government has condemned sin. You do not need to be bothered by sin. When the law became a failure, God sent His Son in the likeness of the flesh of sin to condemn sin. This is the meaning of John 1:29: “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” Sin in this verse is in the singular number, and the world here means mankind. The Son of God was sent by the Father to accomplish such a commission, that is, to solve the problem of sin, to take away sin, to condemn sin through His death on the cross.
Not only do we have sin in our nature, but we also have a lot of sins in our conduct. So God sent His Son to be a propitiation for our sins (1 John 4:10). He has condemned sin in our nature; He has become the propitiation to deal with all our sins, offenses, and trespasses. Every sin, every offense, and every trespass makes a problem between us and God. So between us and God there is a lot of turmoil. But the dear Son of God died on the cross for our sins and became the propitiation to calm down every turmoil. To propitiate simply means to make peace. We have a problem with God, and we have no way to make peace, but the Son of God became the propitiation to appease God and calm every turmoil between us and God. So He has condemned sin and calmed down the turmoil caused by our sins. Now we have peace with God.
The Son of God was also sent by the Father to impart life into us (v. 9). In his one Gospel, John uses three illustrations concerning the death of Christ: the Lamb of God (1:29), the bronze serpent (3:14), and a grain of wheat (12:24). The Lamb of God and the bronze serpent are for dealing with sin and our sinful nature, but the grain of wheat is for life imparting. A grain of wheat dies in order to produce many grains. It dies to impart its life into many grains. The Son has been sent by the Father with such a threefold commission: to take away our sin, to propitiate for our sins, and then to impart the divine life into all His believers in order that they may be born of God.
The Father sent the Son, and He came with the Son (17:8 and footnote 2, Recovery Version). We do not have the ability to explain this. As a rule, when I send you, and you go for me, I stay home. But when the Father sent the Son, it was not like this. When He sent the Son, He came with the Son. The Greek preposition para means not only “from” but “from with.” In his note on John 6:46, J. N. Darby says that para means “from with.” This indicates that when the Son came, He came with the Father. The Father sent the Son, and He came with the Son. In John 16:32 the Lord said, “Behold, an hour is coming, and has come, that you will be scattered each to his own place and will leave Me alone; yet I am not alone, because the Father is with Me.” Here the Lord told us clearly that He was not alone, but the Father who sent Him was with Him. The Lord had previously spoken the same kind of word in 8:29: “He who sent Me is with Me; He has not left Me alone, for I always do the things that are pleasing to Him.”
The Father not only came with the Son, but after the Son came to live and work on the earth, the Father lived with Him and worked with Him. When He lived, the Father lived. When He worked, the Father worked. The Gospel of John tells us clearly that while the Son spoke, the Father worked (14:10-11).
Before the Lord Jesus went to the cross to die, He spoke to His disciples in this way: “All that the Father has is Mine; for this reason I have said that He receives of Mine and will declare it to you” (16:15). This verse indicates that whatever the Father has is the Son’s. The Son did not come in His own name; He came in the Father’s name (5:43). The Son did not seek His own will but sought the Father’s will (v. 30). He did not speak His own word; He spoke the Father’s word (14:24), and He did the Father’s work (4:34), not His own work. Who is He? He is the Son with the Father. The Father was with the Son, and the Father gave everything to the Son. Thus, the Father was embodied in the Son (Col. 2:9).
After the Father gave all that He had to the Son and was thus embodied in the Son, He gave the Son to us (John 3:16). We have been given not only the Son but the Son with the Father. The Father is with the Son, and the Father has given Himself to the Son. So when the Father gives the Son to us, we have both.
The consummation of the dispensing of the Father is that the Father abides in us with the Son by the Spirit (14:23; 1 John 3:24; 4:13). The Father can never abide in us just by Himself. He abides in us with the Son and by the Spirit. When one comes, we have all three. This is the Father in the Son by the Spirit. We all need a vision to see this. God’s economy is to reveal Himself as the Father with the Son by the Spirit as a living person. This divine person has become a gift to us. This divine gift can never be exhausted. He is in us; He is abiding in us; He is dwelling in us to be our life, our life supply, and our everything.
We do not need any religious teaching. Life does not need any teaching. There is no need to educate a peach tree so that it will not bring forth bananas. As the peach tree grows, it will bring forth peaches, not bananas. The Gospel of John does not teach us how to behave ourselves. In this Gospel we are charged first to believe in Him and then to love Him. The Lord Jesus said, “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word, and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make an abode with him” (14:23). This is to dwell in us to be our life.
Regardless of how many Life-study messages you have studied and how many conferences you have attended, I am afraid that, unconsciously, you have a natural religious thought still remaining in you. You still want to improve yourself, to do better, to adjust yourself, to correct yourself. This is the leaven that you inherited from your background. My burden is to unload you from all this leaven. May the Lord enlighten your inner man that you may see. He does not want to correct you. He wants to regenerate you. He wants to transform you. He wants to live in you as your life, as your life supply, and as your everything.
First, the Father comes with the Son, and then He abides in us with the Son by the Spirit. When He abides in us, the Triune God — the Father, the Son, and the Spirit — abides in us to be our life, our life supply, and our everything. We do not need to adjust ourselves. We do not need to improve ourselves. We need the Father abiding in us with the Son by the Spirit. Hallelujah! We have the Father, and we have the Son and the Spirit. We have the Triune God abiding in us. May we all see such a vision. This is the Father’s dispensing.
All the points covered in this chapter — the source, the sending, the coming with the Son, the living and working in the Son, the giving of all that the Father has to the Son, the giving of the Son to us, and the dwelling in us with the Son by the Spirit — are for the dispensing of the Father Himself into our being. Hallelujah! We have such a dispensing within us. The Father abides in us with the Son by the Spirit.
