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Scripture Reading: John 1:1, 14, 16-17; Matt. 28:19; John 14:8-11, 16-20; 7:37-39; 6:63; 20:22; 1 John 4:13; 2:27; Rev. 2:1, 7; 22:17, 21; Eph. 4:6; 2 Cor. 13:14; John 15:5; Eph. 3:17; Rom. 8:11, 16; 1 Cor. 15:45b; 2 Cor. 3:17; Heb. 10:29; Zech. 12:10; Rom. 8:4b-6; Rev. 22:1
I. The grace in God’s economy in the believers’ experience being the processed Triune God:
А. God, who was in the beginning, becoming flesh in time as grace for man to receive, possess, and enjoy — John 1:1, 14, 16-17:
1. The incarnated God being triune — the Father, the Son, and the Spirit — Matt. 28:19:
а. The Father as the source being embodied and expressed in the Son — John 14:8-11.
b. The Son being realized as the Spirit and abiding in the believers — vv. 16-20.
c. The Spirit being in the believers as their life and life supply — the living water of life, the bread of life, and the breath of life — and becoming the divine grace enjoyed by them — 7:37-39; 6:63; 20:22.
d. The indwelling Spirit, the processed Triune God, abiding in the believers as the anointing and becoming their enjoyment in life — 1 John 4:13; 2:27.
e. The anointing Spirit, the pneumatic Christ, the Spirit who speaks to the churches, eventually becoming the counterpart of the church, the bride — Rev. 2:1, 7; 22:17.
2. Such a processed and consummated Triune God being the grace enjoyed by all the believers in God’s New Testament economy, even for eternity — v. 21.
B. With the love, the grace, and the fellowship of the Divine Trinity as factors:
1. With the love of God the Father, who is over all and through all and in all, as the source — Eph. 4:6; 2 Cor. 13:14b.
2. With the grace of God the Son, who abides in the believers and makes His home in their hearts, as the element — John 15:5; Eph. 3:17; 2 Cor. 13:14a.
3. With the fellowship of God the Spirit, who dwells in the believers and is mingled with their spirit as one spirit, as the distribution — Rom. 8:11, 16; 2 Cor. 13:14b.
II. The New Testament believers’ living under the grace in God’s economy being a total living of experiencing the processed Triune God as grace:
А. The processed Triune God, consummated as the all-inclusive, life-giving, compound, and indwelling Spirit, becoming the Spirit of grace — 1 Cor. 15:45b; 2 Cor. 3:17; Rev. 22:17a; Heb. 10:29:
1. In the New Testament age the Spirit of grace dispensing the Triune God into the believers as grace.
2. At the end of the New Testament age the Spirit of grace causing the whole house of Israel to repent and receive the Triune God as grace — Zech. 12:10.
B. The compound, life-giving Spirit and the believers’ regenerated spirit becoming one mingled spirit — Rom. 8:4b-6.
C. The believers’ living and work by the Spirit, essentially and economically, being their experience and enjoyment of the pneumatic Christ, the embodiment of the Triune God, as grace — John 1:14, 16; Rev. 22:21.
In this chapter we come to the most crucial point, which is the grace in God’s economy in the believers’ experience. The everyday experience of the believers must be grace. If it is not grace, it is not the believers’ experience; if it is not grace, it is not the Christian living. The Christian living must be the living of grace, the experience of grace. In the preceding chapter we saw that grace is God’s embodiment — Christ. Hence, the grace experienced by the believers is Christ, the embodiment of God.
The grace in God’s economy in the believers’ experience is the processed Triune God. Without being processed, the Triune God could not become grace. God is one, yet He is three — the Father, the Son, and the Spirit. The Son is the embodiment and expression of the Father, and the Spirit is the reality and realization of the Son. In the Son the Father is expressed and seen, and as the Spirit the Son is revealed and realized. This Triune God dispenses Himself into us to be our portion as grace to us that we may enjoy Him as our everything in His Divine Trinity.
God, who was in the beginning, became flesh in time as grace for man to receive, possess, and enjoy (John 1:1, 14, 16-17). The first step, which is also the greatest step, of the process that the Triune God passed through was incarnation. God, who was in the beginning, became flesh in time; that was His tabernacling among men. His coming among men in this way was full of grace, and of His fullness we have all received. He came that we might receive grace, even grace upon grace. When He came, grace also came. The law was given to us, but grace came through Jesus Christ. The law could not come by itself; hence, it was given to us, but grace came with Jesus. Actually, grace is Jesus. When Jesus came, grace came. This is the Triune God with His divinity mingled into humanity becoming a God-man. Such a One is grace for us to receive, enjoy, and experience as our supply. This is the real salvation of the Lord.
It is amazing that one day the eternal God, the Creator of all things, was conceived in the womb of the virgin Mary. Not only so, but He stayed in the virgin’s womb for nine months. The eternal God, the infinite God, the Creator of all things, entered into the womb of a little virgin and stayed there for nine months. In His creation God ordained that there be nine months for a human pregnancy. God did not violate this principle. At the fullness of nine months He came out of the mother’s womb and became a child.
The incarnated God is triune — the Father, the Son, and the Spirit (Matt. 28:19). The Father as the source is embodied and expressed in the Son (John 14:8-11). God the Father is hidden, and God the Son is manifested among men. The little child lying in the manger was the eternal God, the infinite Lord, and the Lord who created the heavens, the earth, and all things. The incarnated God has been united and mingled with man. He is both the complete God and the perfect man. He is a God-man. He remained in humanity and was mingled with humanity. This God-man passed through thirty-three and a half years of human living. In the first thirty years He lived in a poor carpenter’s home and learned from Joseph to be a carpenter. He tasted and passed through all the hardships and pains of human life. Do not forget that this One who was a carpenter is the Creator of all things mingled with humanity as a small man.
At the fullness of thirty years He began to minister. He came out of Nazareth of Galilee, a despised place. He had no attracting form nor majesty that people would desire Him, but His words were with power, and His doings were with great might. He caused the blind to see, the lame to walk, the deaf to hear, the dumb to speak, and the dead to be raised. The words that He spoke had never been spoken by anyone else. He said, “I am the way and the reality and the life” (v. 6). He also said, “I have come that they may have life and may have it abundantly” (10:10b). These words are easy to understand, yet they are very profound. Neither Confucius nor Socrates spoke these words; they could not think of such words. The words of the so-called philosophers cannot be compared to the words of the Lord Jesus.
The Lord Jesus did many things and spoke many words on earth. Eventually, He was betrayed, arrested, and crucified on the cross. He was crucified from 9:00 A.M. until 3:00 P.M., suffering on the cross for six hours. During the first three hours He was persecuted by men for doing God’s will; in the last three hours He was judged by God to accomplish our redemption. During this time God counted Him as our Substitute, who took the place of sinners, bearing our sins and being made sin for us. Hence, God forsook Christ on the cross. About 3:00 P.M. Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?” (Matt. 27:46). When He yielded up His spirit, the veil of the temple was split in two from top to bottom, the earth was shaken, and the rocks were split. Moreover, the tombs were opened, and many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised. They came out of the tombs after Jesus’ resurrection and appeared to many. All these phenomena prove that His death was not an ordinary death. He died and was buried; on the third day He resurrected from the dead. On the day after the Sabbath, which was the first day of the week, while it was still dark, some sisters went to Jesus’ tomb and were weeping there. Jesus appeared to them in resurrection, telling them, “Go to My brothers and say to them, I ascend to My Father and your Father, and My God and your God” (John 20:17). In the evening of that day He again appeared to the disciples and breathed into them, saying, “Receive the Holy Spirit” (v. 22).
In His resurrection He did a great thing — He was transfigured to become the Spirit. In His incarnation He as God was transformed to become a man. In His resurrection He as God in the flesh was transformed again to become the life-giving Spirit. The Father as the source is embodied and expressed in the Son; the Son is realized as the Spirit and abides in the believers (14:16-20). Now He is qualified to be our grace. Such a transformed One is grace. In the Bible the Lord Jesus is likened to a cake. A cake does not come about in a simple way. First, a grain of wheat falls into the ground, sprouts, and produces many grains after much suffering. Then the grains are ground and sifted into flour, which is mixed with water to form a cake. Finally, the cake has to be baked over the fire, and then it becomes ready to eat. This signifies that the Triune God has been processed into a “cake.” This “cake” is grace. Today in His resurrection and in His ascension He transfuses Himself into us as a cake for our enjoyment. This is the process that the Triune God passed through in order to enter into man.
The Spirit is in the believers as their life and life supply — first, to be the living water of life for them to drink (7:37-39); second, to be the bread of life for them to eat (6:63); and third, to be the breath of life for them to breathe in (20:22). The Spirit also becomes the divine grace enjoyed by them. We experience Him as the living water, the bread of life, and the breath of life. The basic necessities for human existence are these three things — eating, drinking, and breathing. As far as our spiritual life is concerned, we need the living water of life, the bread of life, and the breath of life as our supply. By eating, drinking, and breathing we live and grow. Christ as the life-giving Spirit is God’s transfiguration to be grace to us. This Spirit in us imparts the Triune God into us as grace, that is, as our living water, bread of life, and breath of life, to supply us that we may live and grow.
The indwelling Spirit, the processed Triune God, abides in the believers as the anointing and becomes their enjoyment in life (1 John 4:13; 2:27). The Spirit, whom God has given to dwell in us, is the witness in our spirit, witnessing that we dwell in God and God in us. The indwelling Spirit is the element and sphere of God’s indwelling that we may experience and enjoy His abiding in us. The Spirit, who dwells in our spirit, is also the basic element of the divine anointing to be our enjoyment in life.
The anointing Spirit, the pneumatic Christ, the Spirit who speaks to the churches, eventually becomes the counterpart of the church, the bride (Rev. 2:1, 7; 22:17). We are His counterpart, and He also becomes our counterpart. The two become one couple with the same life, the same nature, and the same operation. Thus, we become His increase. John 3 says that those whom He has regenerated are His increase. His increase becomes His bride; His bride is His counterpart, a part of Him, as His Body; the Body is the temple of God; and the temple of God is the house of God. In chapter 2 of John His increase is the temple of God. Then in chapter 14 it is the house of God. The temple, the house, is the tree in chapter 15 that is full of branches as its increase. This is the Gospel of John. There is neither the thought of doing good or evil nor the concept of being right or wrong. There is only the organism as the product of the union and mingling of the Triune God with man. This is the issue of grace in us.
Such a processed and consummated Triune God is the grace enjoyed by all the believers in God’s New Testament economy, even for eternity (Rev. 22:21). In the Gospel of John there is neither right and wrong nor good and evil. In the garden of Eden, before man had eaten of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, man had no concept of good and evil. Man had only one concept — to receive God. The man created by God had God’s inward image and outward likeness. In creating man, God gave man a thought, that is, to have God. God is man’s unique concept. It is not a matter of doing good or doing evil but a matter of having God or not having God. However, Satan came in and tempted man to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, which is anything other than the tree of life. As soon as man ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, the concept of good and evil entered into him. From that time to this day, fallen human beings, including Christians and even those who are in the Lord’s recovery, are often concerned about good or evil and right or wrong. We like to ask, “Is it right? Is it right for the elders to do this? Is it right for the deacons to do that?” Whether it is right or wrong, it does not matter; it is just a “photo.” The Pentateuch is full of what is right, what is wrong, what is good, and what is evil, but the Gospel of John is not. The Gospel of John tells us that the Word, who was in the beginning, became flesh in time that divinity and humanity may be united and mingled together into a God-man. This God-man does not care about right or wrong or about good or evil. All He cares about is that you receive the grace that He brought. Today it is not enough to say, as the inner-life people do, that what God wants is neither good nor evil but Christ. This kind of speaking is very good, but it does not touch the main point. Actually, God does not want you to live; He wants you to take Him as life and live by Him.
In Galatians 2:20 Paul says, “I am crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live in faith, the faith of the Son of God.” This means that now I live, but it is not I living alone, not I living by myself; it is Christ and I living in union. I now live, but it is no longer I, yet I still live; and the life which I now live is the life I live in union with Christ. Concerning this matter, even the inner-life people do not have a clear vision. It is not that we do not move; we still move, and therefore, we can live Christ and magnify Christ. If we are no more, how can we magnify Christ? It is not that we are no more; we still live. However, we do not take the initiative; we take Him as our initiative. It is in this way that we live Christ and magnify Christ.
The Christian life is Christ living and I also living, yet it is not I bringing Him along to live with me but His bringing me along to live with Him. I am living along with Him, taking Him as my life and person. Dear brothers and sisters, if you take Him as your life and person, that is, He lives and you live along with Him, can you still lose your temper? Will you still try to do good? Will you still try to love others? All these concepts will vanish. You will have only one concept — He moves, and you move along with Him; He is your life and your person; you take Him as your life and your person; He is your inward life and your outward living. There is no concept of whether or not to honor your parents, nor any concept of whether or not to steal. You are altogether in another world. This is a world in which the Triune God is your life and your person, a world in which you live by Him — He is taking the lead and you are going along — and a world in which He lives and you live with Him, not living by yourself. I hope that we all can see this. If the older ones, the younger ones, the elders, the deacons, and the co-workers in the church all can see this, there will be no more arguments.
The arguments in the church all come from being right or wrong, from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. We can find out concerning what is right and what is wrong in the Pentateuch but not in the Gospel of John; all that the Gospel of John has is life. Christ is my life and my person — He lives and I also live; He moves and I also move; it is not I but He who takes the initiative. I am His counterpart; I am a part of His Body. What is right or what is not right is not the concern of the Body of Christ.
The grace in God’s economy in the believers’ experience is the processed Triune God with the love, the grace, and the fellowship of the Divine Trinity as factors (2 Cor. 13:14).
In the love, the grace, and the fellowship of the Divine Trinity, the love of God the Father, who is over all and through all and in all, is the source (Eph. 4:6; 2 Cor. 13:14b). We say that the Triune God is mingled with us, but some do not receive this word. On the contrary, they say that God can be united with us but not mingled with us. I would ask, then, why it says here that God the Father is over us, through us, and in us? Is this merely a union? This is not merely a union; it is mingling.
In the love, the grace, and the fellowship of the Divine Trinity, the grace of God the Son, who abides in the believers and makes His home in their hearts, is the element (John 15:5; Eph. 3:17; 2 Cor. 13:14a). The love of the Father is the source, whereas the grace of the Son is the element.
In the love, the grace, and the fellowship of the Divine Trinity, the fellowship of God the Spirit, who dwells in the believers and is mingled with their spirit as one spirit, is the distribution (Rom. 8:11, 16; 2 Cor. 13:14b). The Father is the source, the Son is the element, and the Spirit distributes the Triune God into us that we may take Him as our life and our person to live out His image and express Him.
The New Testament believers’ living under the grace in God’s economy is a total living of experiencing the processed Triune God as grace. It is not a matter of what to do; that is not a total living. A total living means that my entire living is a living of the Triune God processed to be grace in me. It is not a matter of whether or not to judge others; that is not a total living but a fragmented living. A total living means that twenty-four hours a day, whether I am awake or asleep, I take the Triune God as my life and my person. I follow His move; I move with Him. Two spirits become one spirit, two lives live together, and two natures are mingled together. This is the total living of experiencing the Triune God as grace. A total living is not the living concerning right and wrong, good and evil, or anything else, but the living of a living person. The living of this living person is the mingled living of the processed Triune God with the tripartite transformed man. Thus, God becomes our grace, and we live in this grace. This is the grace referred to in the New Testament. Our experience of the grace in God’s economy is the mutual living of the processed Triune God and us joined together, taking Him as our life and person. He initiates, and we follow; He and we move together to live out a certain condition, which is called an organism, to express God Himself. Here, there is no concept of right and wrong or good and evil. The law is a photo of God for the old covenant, whereas grace is God Himself. We do not care for the photo; we care for the living person.
The processed Triune God, who has been consummated as the all-inclusive, life-giving, compound, and indwelling Spirit, becomes the Spirit of grace (1 Cor. 15:45b; 2 Cor. 3:17; Rev. 22:17a; Heb. 10:29).
In the New Testament age the Spirit of grace dispenses the Triune God into the believers as grace. Since the Spirit of grace dispenses the Triune God into us to be our grace, our Christian life is essentially a life of having God as our grace.
At the end of the New Testament age, the Spirit of grace will cause the whole house of Israel to repent and receive the Triune God as grace. Zechariah 12:10 says that God will pour out the Spirit of grace upon the remnant of Israel that the whole house of Israel may repent and be saved.
The compound, life-giving Spirit and the believers’ regenerated spirit become one mingled spirit (Rom. 8:4b-6), not only united but also mingled.
Both essentially and economically, that is, both in their living and in their moving, the believers’ living and work by the Spirit is the experience and enjoyment of the pneumatic Christ, the embodiment of the Triune God, as grace (John 1:14, 16; Rev. 22:21).
The Triune God passed through a process from His being merely God without humanity to His entering into humanity and being mingled with humanity as one. Then He passed through human living and an all-inclusive death and entered into the all-producing resurrection, producing the firstborn Son of God, the many sons of God, and the life-giving Spirit. This One who was in resurrection also entered into ascension and became the all-inclusive life-giving Spirit, who is typified by the holy anointing oil in Exodus 30:22-25. The holy anointing oil is the fragrant olive oil compounded with four kinds of spices. It is not merely oil but an ointment with various elements. This is a type of the compound Spirit, in whom are the Father and the Son with His all-inclusive death, His human living, His resurrection, and His ascension. Now the compound Spirit is moving within us daily as the anointing that we may enjoy the processed Triune God as grace. This is the life that we Christians should have today.
