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I. The Triune God
А. Revealed in Romans eight
B. Three-one
II. The tripartite man
А. Body and soul and spirit
B. The spirit making man unique
C. Regenerated with the divine seed
III. The imparting of life to every part of our being
А. Our spirit being life
B. Our soul becoming life
C. Life imparted to our mortal bodies
D. Our whole being saturated with God
IV. The need to see the vision
[The Spirit that we are referring to is the Spirit; that is, it is the Triune God who has been processed and has become the life-giving Spirit. This Triune God, as our title says, saturates the tripartite man. Look at Romans 8:9, and you will see the reference to the Triune God. "But you are not in the flesh, but in the spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. But if any one has not the Spirit of Christ, he is not of Him." Notice that God, Christ, and the Spirit are all mentioned here. Yet this verse is not making a doctrinal statement; it is dealing with our experience. Contrary to the way Christianity presents it, the Trinity is not a doctrine for us to subscribe to. We need God to be triune in order that we may experience Him. God, Christ, and the Spirit are all in our experience.]
[John 14 clearly says that the Son is in the Father and the Father in the Son (vv. 10-11). To see the Son is to see the Father. When the Son speaks, it is the Father who is working. The Two are inseparable. The Bible goes on to say that the Son, after death and resurrection, became the Spirit (1 Corinthians 15:45b). The Son, in whom is the Father, has become the Spirit. Thus, the Triune God can come into the sinner. With the Spirit comes the Son; when the Son comes, the Father comes as well.
The term triune means three in one. From one side there are three; but from the other side they are one, because they cannot be separated.
Notice the three terms Paul uses in Romans 8:9 and 10. He says the Spirit of God dwells in you; that without the Spirit of Christ you are not of Him; that Christ is in you. Why does Paul use three terms to refer to the same One? It is because this One has three aspects: the aspects of the Father, of the Son, and of the Spirit.]
[Not only is God triune; man is tripartite. We human beings are spirit, soul, and body. We were created in this way, so that we could be organically grafted to God, and so that the two spirits, His and ours, could be joined together.]
[Man, as we have often pointed out, can be represented by three concentric circles. The outer ring corresponds to our physical body, the part of us that has substance and can be seen and touched. Besides this part, we have a soul, represented by the middle ring. This is the psychological part of us, enabling us to think, to love or hate, and to make decisions. The soul, then, consists of the mind, the emotion, and the will. The innermost ring, the deepest part of man, is the spirit. You may not be clear about the human spirit, but one part of it, the conscience, you are familiar with. The conscience is deeper than the mind, emotion, and will.]
[Such is the way man is made. Animals may have a part that corresponds to the soul, but they lack this inner part, man's worshipping organ. There has never been a case in the whole history where a donkey, or a monkey, or a goat built a little sanctuary and set up an image to worship! The record of mankind, in contrast, is replete with religions, idols, temples, and forms of worship. Cultured or barbarian, ancient or modern — all peoples have a desire to worship a higher Being. What accounts for this difference between man and the animals? What constrains man to worship? It is because man was made by God with a spirit.]
[What is the distinction between an unregenerated human being and a believer? Both have these three parts of body, soul, and spirit. The believer, however, has a divine seed in his spirit. The seed of God abides in him!]
[This seed of the divine life and nature needs to grow. As it grows, it develops and spreads from the spirit into the soul, especially into the mind, the leading part of the soul. If we allow this seed to grow without hindrance, it will spread even to our mortal body.]
[In 8:1-11 we see that, after having passed through the various processes, the Triune God became a life-giving Spirit, the Spirit who gives life. In verse 11 Paul clearly says that the One who raised Christ from among the dead gives life to our mortal bodies "through His Spirit Who indwells you." This Spirit now dwells in our spirit.]
[As the life-giving Spirit, the processed Triune God dwells in us to give us life in a threefold way. The first aspect of this giving of life is found in verse 10: "And if Christ is in you, though the body is dead because of sin, yet the spirit is life because of righteousness." This verse says that if Christ is in us, our spirit is life. Christ here is the very Triune God who has become the indwelling Spirit. Because this Christ is in us, our spirit is life, for as the life-giving Spirit, Christ dwells in our spirit, and His indwelling makes our spirit life. This is the first aspect of the giving of life revealed in Romans 8.]
[The second aspect is found in verse 6: "For the mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the spirit is life and peace." The mind is the leading part of our soul. As such, it represents our soul. This means that when the mind becomes life, our soul becomes life. First our spirit is life, and then our soul also becomes life.]
[In whatever we do and say, we must be sure that our mind is on our spirit. When our mind is off our spirit, we are like an electrical appliance which has been disconnected. If we sense that our mind is not on our spirit, we should stop and call on the name of the Lord Jesus. Many of us can testify that after simply calling on the name of the Lord Jesus, we had the sense deep within that, once again, our mind was on our spirit. Although this is simple matter, it is very serious.]
[Finally, life is imparted to our mortal bodies. According to verse 11, He who raised Christ Jesus from among the dead gives life to our mortal bodies through the indwelling Spirit.]
[If we allow the indwelling Spirit to make His home in our being, this indwelling Spirit will saturate our dying, mortal body with resurrection life. Our mortal body will be enlivened, quickened, and healed with the divine life.]
[Therefore, life is imparted to us in a threefold way: Our spirit becomes life, our mind becomes life, and life is imparted to our mortal bodies. For this reason we can say that, according to Romans 8, the Triune God is dispensed into the tripartite man and gives life to man's spirit, soul, and body.]
Thy Spirit will me saturate,
Every part will God permeate....
Hymns, #501
[Our relationship with God should reach to this extent. Our whole being must be saturated with Him. We should not be content with outwardly worshipping Him, loving Him, fearing Him, and doing things to please Him. This mysterious God has passed through a process: creation, incarnation, human living, death, resurrection, and ascension. Now He has returned as the Spirit to enter all who believe in Him. Such is our God and our Savior.
He does not want us to worship Him from afar. He does not want us to stand in awe of Him. Nor does He want us to perform certain duties to please Him. What He wants is that we open the deepest part of our being to Him and call on His name. Then His Spirit comes into us, making our deadened spirit life. From there He spreads out. As we set our mind on the spirit, the soul too is saturated with Him. It also becomes life. From the soul, life spreads also to our mortal body. The resurrection life saturates it. When every part of us is saturated with this all-inclusive life-giving Spirit, we are in the union that God wants.]
[We all need to see the vision of the dispensing of the life of the Triune God into the three parts of our being. If we see this divine vision, our natural concept of ethics and morality will be shattered. We need to say to the Lord, "Lord, I thank You. Since You came into me, my spirit has become life. Now if I set my mind on my spirit, my mind also will be life. O Lord, how I praise You! Through Your indwelling Spirit, Your zoe (Greek, God's divine life) life can be dispensed even into my mortal body. Lord, I worship You for this, I enjoy this, and I am one with You in this dispensation." This is the dispensation of the life of the Triune God into the tripartite man. Through such a dispensing the Triune God becomes one with the tripartite man, and the tripartite man becomes one with the Triune God. It is through this dispensation of the divine life that we become sons of God. Furthermore, it is by this dispensation that we are transformed and conformed to the image of Christ. This is the Christian life and the church life.]
Romans eight reveals the Triune God dispensing Himself into the tripartite man. The Triune God as the Spirit enters into man's spirit making it life. As the mind is set on the spirit, the mind becomes life and eventually life is given even to our mortal bodies. Thus, the Triune God as the Spirit fully saturates the tripartite man, making God and man fully one.
