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Scripture Reading: John 1:1, 14; 7:29; 6:46; 17:8; Matt. 1:18, 20; 1 Tim. 3:16; Col. 2:9; John 16:15a; 1:14a; 2:21; 14:10a, 11a; 17:21; 10:30; 17:22; 8:29; 16:32; 6:57a, 5:17, 19; 10:25; 5:30; 6:38; 14:24; 7:16-17; 12:49-50; 7:18; 14:7-9; Matt. 3:16-17; Luke 4:18a; Matt. 4:1; 12:28
The first crucial item of God’s New Testament economy is the incarnation of the Word. Strictly speaking, the incarnation is the incarnation of the Word. John 1:14 says that the Word became flesh. It does not say that Christ became flesh or that God became flesh. The Bible tells us that the Word, who was God (John 1:1), became flesh. The Word is God’s definition, and since it is God’s definition, it is God’s embodiment. God is abstract and invisible since God is Spirit (4:24). Our thought is abstract and invisible, but when we put our thought into words, these words become the definition of our thought, the very embodiment of our thought. The word is the definition, the expression, and the embodiment of our thought. If I spoke to you for one hour, you would know what my thought is because my thought is embodied in my word.
The Word, as God’s definition, God’s expression, and God’s embodiment, became flesh. The Word, which was God’s definition and God’s embodiment, needed to be embodied further in a person, and this person was God the Son. When the Word became flesh, the very embodiment of God became a person by the name of Jesus Christ. This person is the embodiment of the Word, which Word was the embodiment of God. In this way we may say that God has been embodied twice. God was embodied in the Word before His incarnation (1:1), and the Word was embodied in a living person, who was the man Jesus Christ (Col. 2:9).
When the Word became flesh, He was sent by God and with God (John 7:29). When the sent One came, He came with the sending One. When the Son came by becoming a man, He came with the Father. According to John 6:46 and 17:8, the Son came from God the Father. The Greek preposition translated “from” is para, which means “by the side of.” Therefore, the sense here in the Greek is “from with.” Darby has a note in his New Translation on John 6:46 which also indicates that the sense in the Greek is “from with.” The Son came not only from the Father but also with the Father. While He is from the Father, He is still with the Father (8:16, 29; 16:32). In John 8:29 the Lord said, “He who sent Me is with Me,” which indicates that the Father sent the Son “from with” Him. When the Son came, He did not leave the Father in the heavens on the throne. This is why the Bible tells us that “everyone who denies the Son does not have the Father either; he who confesses the Son has the Father also” (1 John 2:23).
Even in our experience today, when we call “Lord Jesus,” we have the deep sensation that the Father is right in us (Eph. 4:6). As a young believer, I was taught to address my prayer to the heavenly Father and that sometimes I might address my prayer to the Lord. I was also told never to address my prayer to the Spirit. I could only pray to the Father and sometimes to the Lord through the means, the instrument, of the Spirit. Based on this teaching, whenever I knelt down to pray, I had to think about whom I was going to address my prayer to. When we initially received the Lord Jesus, though, we had the sensation that He was near to us (Phil. 4:5; James 4:8). We spontaneously addressed Him in our prayer in an intimate way. We may have said, “Lord Jesus, I love You. You are so dear, precious, sweet, and real to me. Thank You, Lord Jesus, that You died for me. Hallelujah! I love You, Lord Jesus.” It was not until we received some “theological help” that we began to address the “Father on the throne” in heaven. However, when we pray in a spontaneous and intimate way to our dear Lord Jesus, we have a deep sensation that the Father is in us. We pray to the Lord Jesus, yet we have the sensation that the Father is here.
Our concept has been that when the Son came to the earth, He left the Father sitting on the throne. We all must see that when the Father sent the Son, He sent the Son with Himself. The Son indwells us (2 Cor. 13:5), and the Father does also (Eph. 4:6). The Lord Jesus told Philip in John 14:9, “He who has seen Me has seen the Father.” While the Lord Jesus was speaking to Philip, He furthermore declared that the Father was in Him and that He was in the Father (v. 10). This shows that when we have the Son, we have the Father also. Even the Son is the Father (Isa. 9:6).
We must also realize that while the Father is with the Son and in the Son, He is also on the throne. The two are distinct yet not separate. This is a divine mystery that we cannot fathom. On the one hand, the three in the Godhead coexist, and on the other hand, They coinhere. They mutually indwell each other and interpenetrate one another. Electricity provides us with a good example of such a mystery. The electricity that we enjoy in our room is the same electricity in the power plant. It is simultaneously at the power plant and also in our room. In like manner, God the Father was within Jesus on the earth, and at the same time He was on the throne. We should not be bothered by this. We need to realize that with the infinite God there is no element of time or space. Because He is the eternal God, He is above time and space and not limited by them.
Luke 1:35 and Matthew 1:18 and 20 also show that the Son came by the Spirit. He was conceived of the Holy Spirit. This Spirit was the very Spirit of God the Father, the very essence of God the Father. When the Spirit entered into the womb of Mary, that was the essence of God the Father entering into the virgin. This was a divine conception accomplished in a human virgin’s womb. The divine essence was mingled with the human essence to produce a child born as a God-man. This shows how the Son came with the Father’s essence and by the Spirit.
When I was younger, I could not understand why the Lord needed to do things by the Spirit since He was almighty. The Lord Jesus told the Pharisees that He cast out demons by the Spirit of God (Matt. 12:28). When the Son came, He came with the Father. When He worked, He worked by the Spirit. The Triune God is a mystery. It is a mystery that the Son of God is almighty, yet He still needed to do things by the Spirit. In the four Gospels we do not see the Son alone, but we see the Son with the Father by the Spirit.
The Trinity was mingled with the human nature. This One conceived in the womb of Mary was the complete God and the perfect man. The Son came with the Father by the Spirit to be mingled with humanity, thus becoming a God-man. This is God manifested in the flesh (1 Tim. 3:16). This is the incarnation of the Word, and this is our Savior, Jesus Christ, who is the Triune God mingled with man. In Him we see the Father, the Son, and the Spirit, and in Him we see a perfect man. He is the very God-man, the embodiment of the Triune God in the man Jesus Christ.
The Word’s incarnation was the Triune God’s incarnation — the Son of God with the Father by the Spirit became flesh. This was God the Triune becoming a man; therefore, this man is the very embodiment of the Triune God in Jesus Christ as God’s dwelling place, the tabernacle and the temple, living the life of God to develop into the kingdom of God. This was the initiation of God’s New Testament economy. Initiation not only conveys the thought of beginning; it also conveys the thought of beginning by creation. It denotes something new that has never before existed. The Triune God’s incarnation created a new thing, and this new thing created by the Triune God’s incarnation was an initiation. A new realm, a new sphere, with a new embodiment came into existence. In this new realm, or new sphere, God became one with man. There had never been such a thing. This was something absolutely new. God’s incarnation brought in a new creation. Eventually, this new creation will consummate in the New Jerusalem, the center of the new heaven and new earth (Rev. 21:1-2).
This person is universal, excellent, marvelous, wonderful, and unique. Before the incarnation there was not such a person. In the age to come, this person will be developed, enlarged, and increased to the uttermost. That will be the New Jerusalem as the center of the new universe, the new heaven and the new earth. That will be the ultimate consummation of the development of such a wonderful, excellent person.
The entire New Testament is an unveiling of such a unique person who is the embodiment of the Triune God in a man. This man is Jesus Christ. In this perfect man, Jesus Christ, is the Father, the Son, the Spirit — the complete God. This perfect man is the container, the holder, of the Triune God. He is the embodiment of the Son with the Father by the Spirit.
Some teachers of the Bible told people that in the Old Testament is God the Father, in the Gospels is God the Son, and in the rest of the Bible is God the Spirit. I received this teaching sixty years ago, but after my personal study of the Bible, I discovered that the Father, the Son, and the Spirit were all in the Old Testament. Isaiah 9:6 refers to the eternal Father. Genesis 1:2 tells us that the Spirit of God brooded upon the surface of the waters. Also, in Genesis 18 the Lord Jesus came as a real man to Abraham, and Abraham prepared water for Him to wash His feet and fed Him. Before the incarnation God had already appeared to Abraham as a man. This man’s name in Genesis 18 was Jehovah (v. 1). The Lord Jesus walked with Abraham as a friend in Genesis 18. This is why James tells us that Abraham was the friend of God (2:23). This again shows the mystery of the Divine Trinity. The Old Testament, the Gospels, Acts through Jude, and Revelation reveal to us the same wonderful Triune God-man.
Many of us Christians believe in Christ, yet we do not know Him in His person. His person is so excellent, so wonderful, and so marvelous. He is the embodiment of the Triune God who mingled Himself with humanity to be born a God-man, in whom we see the Father, the Son, and the Spirit — the complete God and a perfect man for the purpose of dispensing the Triune God into us. We must learn to know this person, to describe this wonderful person, and to present this excellent person to others.
The first item of God’s New Testament economy is the Word’s incarnation. The second item in God’s New Testament economy is the Son’s living on this earth, which is the continuation of the Word’s incarnation. In the New Testament the first thing seen is the Word, who was God, becoming flesh. This is the Triune God embodied in a man. Now this man continues to live on the earth. He was the embodiment of the Triune God living the life of God. His living is marvelous and needs thousands of words to describe.
God created different lives in His creation. God’s creation began from the lowest life, which is the vegetable life. Flowers, trees, and vegetables are living things, but their life is the lowest. Their life does not have any personality. They do not have any feeling, any thought, or any love or hatred. Then God created the animal life, which is higher than the vegetable life. Dogs can like you or dislike you, and sometimes they get mad and bark at you, but this is still not the highest life. The third level of life created by God is on a higher plane. This is the human life. Without the vegetable life, the animal life, and the human life, the earth would be desolate. This earth is quite pleasant and interesting due to these three lives. The highest life in this universe, however, is the life of the tree of life. In Genesis 1 are the vegetables, the animals, and the man created by God. After the creation of man, God brought this man to the tree of life, showing that there is still a life that is higher than the human life (2:8-9). This life is the divine life.
In the New Testament a marvelous thing happened — the mingling of the divine life with the human life! When we say that the very embodiment of the Triune God lives the life of the Triune God, we mean that this is a living of a combined life, a living of a mingled life. It is a life both human and divine. The human life is wonderful, and the divine life is marvelous, but now these two lives are married. The divine life is the husband, and the human life is the wife — a wonderful couple! This is the mingling of the divine life with the human life. Jesus Christ is the embodiment of such a mingling, and He lived a life, a particular life, an extraordinary life, a life that was a mingling of the divine life with the human life. In this life, in this living of such a life, we can see all the divine attributes and all the human virtues. This was the life lived by this embodiment of the Triune God in the man Jesus. Such a living will develop into the kingdom of God. The kingdom of God is just the living of the divine life mingled with the human life. Today the kingdom of God should be the church life — the development of that wonderful living of two mingled lives.
We who are regenerated, who love the Lord, who seek after the Lord, and who are under God’s transformation must ask ourselves what kind of life we live. We should not merely live a human, ethical life. We must live a combined life — a life that is a combination of the divine life with the human life. Such a life is the church life. Jesus Christ, as the very embodiment of the Triune God, lived such a life. His living sets up a model of the church life, and this life is one that lives God in humanity. The church life should be exactly the same as His living. He was Jesus the man, yet He lived the Triune God. He was a Nazarene, yet He lived the divine life. When He was twelve, He went to Jerusalem, and He behaved, acted, and lived in a way that showed the divine life in a young human being. He was a Galilean human being, but the divine life was lived out of Him. Luke 2 shows a young, human boy only twelve years old living a life on the highest plane. In that young life we can see the human virtues and the divine attributes. This is the model of the church life. When that young boy lived, the Son, the Father, and the Spirit all lived there with Him. Apart from the Bible there is no human record of such a life. Such a life is the result of the divine dispensing. The incarnation of the Word was a dispensing that dispensed the Son with the Father by the Spirit into humanity. Then out of this incarnation the life of the Triune God was lived out in a young human being. The four Gospels first show the incarnation of the Word and then present the Son’s living, which was a combination of the divine life with the human life.
The Son’s living on the earth was as the embodiment of the Triune God. Colossians 2:9 refers to “the fullness of the Godhead.” It does not speak of the riches of the Godhead but of the fullness of the Godhead. The difference between the riches and the fullness can be illustrated by a cup of water. A cup that contains water has the riches of water. It may have the riches of water, but these riches cannot be seen until the water fills the cup to overflowing. Now the riches have become the fullness, which is the expression of the riches. Colossians 2:9 says that the fullness of the Godhead dwells in Him bodily. This means that the riches of the Godhead are fully expressed in Him. When this man Jesus lived on the earth, He lived in a way that all the ones around Him saw the fullness of the Godhead. The Godhead in its fullness just flowed out of Him. The fullness of the Godhead not only dwelt in Him but flowed out of Him. When He lived in that carpenter’s home in Nazareth, He was the embodiment of the fullness of the Godhead. He was the very embodiment of the Godhead in its fullness, possessing all that the Father had. In John 16:15 He told us that all that God the Father had was His. He inherited all that God the Father had because He lived as the embodiment of the Father, the Son, and the Spirit. Even when He was twelve years old, He lived in a way that everyone saw the fullness of the Godhead flowing out of Him. That was not merely His work or His ministry but His living. He lived out the fullness of the Godhead; therefore, He could say, “He who has seen Me has seen the Father” (14:9).
The Son lived as the tabernacle of God, as the temple of God (1:14a; 2:21). He was God’s dwelling place. Every Christian’s life must be like this. When we live, we must live as God’s dwelling. We must live in a way that people can see God dwelling in our living. Our daily life should be God’s tabernacle. When we work at school or in the office, people should be able to see God in our daily life.
The Son was also coinhering with the Father. Coinhering simply means “indwelling one another.” The Father dwells in the Son, and the Son dwells in the Father (14:10a, 11a; 17:21). When the Son was living on this earth, His living was a mutual abiding. He was abiding in the Father, and the Father was abiding in Him.
The Son was one with the Father (10:30; 17:22). The Son, when He was living on this earth, lived a life that showed people that He and the Father were one. We all must live a life that shows people that we and Christ are one. We must be one with Jesus.
In the Son’s living, He had the Father with Him, so He told us He was never alone (8:29; 16:32). He had the Father with Him all the time. We also should live a life in which the Lord is with us all the time.
The Son lived because of the Father (6:57). He did not live His own life but the Father’s life. We also can live a life that is not ourselves but Christ. We should live a life that is not us but Christ. Paul says, “I am crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me” (Gal. 2:20). We all can live because of Christ (John 6:57b). The Lord Jesus was the Son living the Father; now we should live Christ (Phil. 1:21a).
The Son was also anointed by the Father with the Spirit (Matt. 3:16-17; Luke 4:18a). Whatever the Son does, He does it with the Father by the Spirit. When the Father anointed the Son, the Father did not go back to the heavens. The Father remained with the Son all the time, and He anointed the Son with the Spirit. Then one day the Son said that the Spirit of the Lord was upon Him and that He was anointed to announce the gospel (v. 18a). He announced the gospel with the Father and by the Spirit.
We must see a vision concerning the Triune God embodied in man, a man who lived the life of the Triune God. The incarnation was the dispensing of the Triune God into humanity, and the Son’s living was the result of such a dispensing. The man Jesus was a model confirming to us that the dispensing of the Triune God into humanity works! In human history there was at least one person who was the result of God’s dispensing and who lived a life of the divine nature mingled with the life of the human nature.
When I was younger, I wondered why our God needed to become a man to live on this earth for thirty-three and a half years. For thirty years He lived in a carpenter’s home. Seemingly He did not do anything; He just lived there. To me there was no need of that. We need a Savior and a Redeemer, but why did our Lord need to live on this earth for thirty years, seemingly doing nothing? Even the Lord Jesus’ work for three and a half years did not involve much; He traveled mainly in Palestine, a narrow strip of land about three hundred miles from north to south and about one hundred miles from east to west. Eventually, He only gathered one hundred twenty (Acts 1:15). Among these one hundred twenty there was not one with a doctor’s degree. Most were unlearned, some were fishermen, and then there were a group of women, one of whom had been possessed by seven demons. Seemingly, Jesus did not do much in the way of work. Actually, He did something quite significant. He lived a life that is a model, a pattern, of the Christian life and the church life. This shows that God does not treasure what we do that much. God treasures His dispensing and how much of the divine dispensing has been imparted into our being. Jesus was altogether the aggregate of the divine dispensing, the embodiment of the divine dispensing. He lived a life as a man saturated with the Triune God. His living was the expression of the divine dispensing. He lived in Nazareth for thirty years doing no work, because His burden and His intention were not to work but to live a life that was the result of the divine dispensing. In every page of the four Gospels we can see a picture of the divine dispensing lived out by this man Jesus.
Most young boys do not like to work with their father, because he may restrict them with rebukings. But Jesus never did any work without the Father. He always worked with the Father (John 14:10b; 5:17, 19). To work with the Father requires an absolute denial of the self. Christ denied Himself to work with the Father. In today’s church life we always need to work with the Father.
The Son worked in the name of the Father (10:25). To work in the name of the Father means that it is not I who work, but I work as the Father. When this man lived on this earth, He was the Son with the Father by the Spirit, living to set up a pattern so that man can live a life mingled with the Triune God. At least one man among mankind succeeded in living such a life. Thousands of men possessing the divine life should follow this man to live a life that is the result of the divine dispensing.
The Son put His will aside and took the Father’s will, so He did the Father’s will (5:30; 6:38). In John 6:38 the Lord said, “I have come down from heaven not to do My own will but the will of Him who sent Me.”
The Son never spoke His own word. Whatever the Son spoke was the Father’s speaking (14:24; 7:16-17; 12:49-50).
With Christ there was no ground for the self. He did not seek His own glory but the Father’s (7:18).
Finally, the Son expressed the Father (14:7-9). No wonder He said, “He who has seen Me has seen the Father” (v. 9). He was one with the Father. He had no work, no will, no word, no glory, and no ambition for Himself. He only expressed the Father. The Triune God was expressed in this man. This was the result of the divine dispensing in the first man of the new creation. This was the first man in human history who was the result of the divine dispensing. This result will develop and this dispensing will go on in thousands of God’s chosen people. All of them will live a life that is the result of the divine dispensing. This was the Son’s living on earth.
