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I. The Son being God
II. The Son being the Father
III. The Son's incarnation being of the Holy Spirit
IV. The Son coming "from-with" the Father
V. The Son being the Spirit
VI. All the fullness of the Godhead dwelling in Him
So far we have seen that God is one. But this God is triune — Father, Son, and Spirit. All Three are God, eternal, coexisting, and coinhering eternally. The Father is God, the Son is God, and the Spirit is God. The Father, Son, and Spirit do not exist at different times as three different modes of one God. They are not three separate Gods, but one Triune God. What a mysterious God! But even though He is mysterious, we can experience and enjoy Him. Hallelujah! In this lesson we shall see something more of this great mystery: the Son is even the Triune God.
John 1:1 says, "The Word was God." John 20:28 says, "Thomas answered and said to Him, My Lord and my God!" Philippians 2:6 says, "Who subsisting in the form of God." All these verses tell us that the Son, Jesus Christ, is God Himself. Some people think that He is merely the Son of God (as though He were not God Himself), but the Bible clearly reveals to us that even though He is the Son of God, He is God Himself. He is not a separate person from God. He is God. He was God in the beginning (eternity past); He was God when He lived as a man two thousand years ago; He is God today and will be God forever.
Another part of this mystery is that the Son is the Father. Let us look at Isaiah 9:6: "Unto us a son is given...and his name shall be called...everlasting Father." The Lord Jesus said in John 14:9-10, "He who has seen Me has seen the Father...I am in the Father, and the Father is in Me." Here again the Bible makes it clear to us that Jesus the Son is also the Father. The Father and the Son are one. The Son is even the Father. We do not know how the Son can also be the Father, but this is what the Bible says — we just believe it.
Matthew 1:18 says, "Mary...was found to be with child of the Holy Spirit." Verse 20 says, "For that which is begotten in her is of the Holy Spirit." Luke 1:35 says, "The Holy Spirit will come upon you...wherefore also the holy thing which is born will be called, Son of God." These verses tell us that the Son is born of the Holy Spirit. His source was the Holy Spirit. The Spirit entered and the Son came out. One may say that the Spirit became the Son at His incarnation. In Jesus' being is the essence of the Triune God.
John 6:46 says, "Not that anyone has seen the Father, except Him Who is from God, He has seen the Father." The word "from" in Greek is "para," which means "by the side of." The sense here is "from-with." The Lord is not only from God, but also with God. While He is from God, He is still with God (John 8:16, 29; 16:27). When you receive the Son, you also receive the Father, because the Father is with Him (1 John 2:23).
Furthermore, the Son is also the Spirit. Some people think that the Son is separate and different from the Spirit. They think that the Spirit "represents" the Son. But according to the Bible, the Son not only was born of the Spirit, lived according to the Spirit, worked and fought by the Spirit (Luke 4:14; Matt. 12:28), but He even became the Spirit Himself through crucifixion and resurrection. First Corinthians 15:45 tells us that "the last Adam became a life-giving Spirit." The "last Adam" here refers to the Son, Jesus, Who died to end the Adamic race. In resurrection He became the life-giving Spirit. Second Corinthians 3:17 says "the Lord is the Spirit." It is exceedingly clear that the Son is not only the Father, but also the Spirit in resurrection.
From all these points we should be very clear that the Son is the entire Triune God. He is not merely the second of the Trinity or only one-third of the Trinity. Neither is He a separate God or someone other than God. The Lord Jesus is the Mighty God, the Eternal Father; He was conceived of the Holy Spirit and He even is the Spirit; and His coming was "from-with" the Father. This is why Colossians 1:19 says, "For in Him all the fullness was pleased to dwell," and 2:9 says, "For in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily." Christ is the embodiment of the Triune God; all the fullness of the Triune God dwells in Christ bodily. He contains all that God is and expresses God in all His riches. What a Person is the Son!
