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Scripture Reading: Eph. 3:14-19; 4:4-6; 5:19-20; 6:10-11, 17; 1 John 4:2; 1 Pet. 4:14; 2 Cor. 13:14; Jude 20-21; 2 Thes. 2:13-14; Rev. 1:4-5; 22:1-2
In this chapter we want to continue our fellowship concerning portions in the New Testament revealing the Divine Trinity in the divine move and in our experience. Most of these portions are very deep. In Ephesians 3 Paul speaks of the breadth, length, height, and depth of Christ (v. 18). Our fellowship here concerning the Divine Trinity is in the direction of His depth.
Ephesians 3:14-19 reveals the apostle praying to the Father; the Father strengthening the believers through the Spirit; Christ making His home in the believers’ hearts; and the believers being rooted and grounded in love, apprehending the dimensions of Christ, and knowing the knowledge-surpassing love of Christ to be filled unto all the fullness of [the Triune] God. In Ephesians 1 Paul prayed that God would give us a spirit of wisdom and revelation that we might know Him and His economy (v. 17). Paul prayed that we would have the ability, the power, to see the spiritual revelation. In chapter 1 his prayer is for our seeing the vision, but in chapter 3 his prayer is for our experience of the depths of Christ.
First, Paul prayed to the Father as the source. Then the Father strengthens the believers through the Spirit as the means, the channel. Then Christ moves and works to make His home in the believers’ hearts. Eventually, the issue of the moving of the Father and the Spirit and the issue of the Son making His home in our hearts is the fullness of the Triune God. The Father is the source, the Spirit is the means, the Son is the object, and the fullness of the Triune God is the issue.
The source is the Father, the means is the Spirit, and the aim, the goal, is the Son because the Son is the center. Whatever the Triune God does is for the Son as the center, out of the Father as the source, and through the Spirit as the means. Paul prayed to the Father as the source, asking the Father to strengthen the believers through the channel of the Spirit that a goal might be reached. The goal was that Christ would make His home in the hearts of the believers.
Paul prayed to the Father, “of whom every family in the heavens and on earth is named” (3:15). The Father is the source, not only of us, the regenerated believers, the household of the faith (Gal. 6:10), but also of the God-created mankind (Luke 3:38), of the God-created Israel (Isa. 63:16; 64:8), and of the God-created angels (Job 1:6). In the heavens there is the angelic family. On the earth there is the family of mankind, the family of Israel, and the family of the faith. The Father is the source of these four families. To the family of the faith, the Father is not only the source as the creating One but also the source as the begetting One. The other three families have only the created life of God as their source, but we, as the family of the faith, have the divine life with the divine nature of God Himself. We have the Father’s life with the Father’s nature because the Triune God has entered into us. The apostle prayed that the Triune God’s entering into us would be deeper; he prayed that the indwelling Christ might make His home, become fully settled, in our hearts. The thought of the apostle’s prayer here is very deep.
Christ’s making His home in the believers’ hearts was initiated not by the Triune God but actually by the apostle Paul. The Triune God may be likened to a big machine, of which Paul was the operator. His prayer “turned the wheel.” We have to learn one lesson, that is, that there is a high principle in the entire universe. This principle is that God wants to do something, but He will only be the “machine,” and He needs someone to be the operator. Today I hope that the church would be the operator. Whatever the apostle Paul did was done in a representing way. He was a representative of the entire Body of Christ. Now the operator of the universal “machine,” the Triune God, is the church, the Body of Christ. But just because the church operates does not mean that the church in itself carries out. The church operates, but the “machine,” the Triune God, carries out.
The Father, the Son, and the Spirit are the three “parts” of this universal “machine,” and the Body is the operator. The Father is the source, the Spirit is the means, and the Son is the aim, the goal. According to Ephesians 3, the operator asks the “machine” to strengthen the operator through a channel. The Spirit as the channel does the work within us to strengthen every part of our being into the inner man so that the goal, the aim, the Son, might make His home within all the parts of our heart.
The picture presented in Ephesians 3:14-19 again shows the very beautiful, fine, and deep coordination of the Triune God. The Father answers the operator’s prayer. Then the Father works, not by Himself but by the third One, the Spirit, as the channel. Neither the Father nor the Spirit do something for Themselves. Both the source and the channel do something for the goal, the aim, the Son. Furthermore, the Son’s making His home in all His believers’ hearts is not for Himself. Each of the three does not act for Himself. Eventually, whatever They do is absolutely for the very fullness of the Triune God. This is a beautiful picture of the Divine Trinity in His deeper work within us. He works in a very complete and deep way to make His home in our hearts. Our hearts are composed of the mind, the emotion, and the will, plus the conscience of our spirit. Christ is making His home in these four parts by the preparation made through the channel, the Spirit, as an answer to the apostle’s prayer made to the source, the Father. Eventually, the Son becomes settled in each part of our heart.
Whenever a person moves into a new house, it takes him a while to become settled in that house. His getting settled is his making his home in the house. This is what Paul means by Christ making His home in our hearts. Christ wants to become settled in every part of our heart. Paul realized that the believers in Ephesus had Christ in them but that they did not have Christ making His home, getting Himself settled, in every part of their heart. This is why Paul prayed such a prayer. Our emotion, mind, will, and conscience must be touched by Christ and gained by Christ. The indwelling, occupying Christ needs to take over our emotion, our mind, our will, and our conscience until He gets Himself fully settled in all the inner rooms of our inner being. This is carried out in a coordinated way by the Divine Trinity. The three coordinate together in a beautiful way so that Christ, the embodiment of the Triune God, can become fully settled in our inner being.
While Christ is making His home in our hearts, we are rooted for growth and grounded for building. Christ making His home in our hearts is a matter in faith, not a matter of sensation. We must believe that today Christ as the very embodiment of the Triune God is settling Himself in our inner being. While He is doing this, we are rooted for growth and grounded for building in love.
Then we can apprehend with all the saints the dimensions of Christ — the breadth and the length and the height and the depth. In our experience of Christ, we first experience the breadth of what He is and then the length. This is horizontal. When we advance in Christ, we experience the height and depth of His riches. This is vertical. These are the dimensions of a cube. Our experience of Christ must be so rich, strong, perfect, and complete like a cube.
Then we will know the knowledge-surpassing love of Christ, issuing in the fullness of the Triune God. The fullness is the expression. If a cup is filled up with water until it is overflowing with water, the overflow of the water is an expression. That overflow is the fullness, and the fullness is the very expression of what is contained within the cup. When we experience Christ in such a deep way, this will issue in the fullness of the Triune God. This fullness is the church, the Body of Christ, as the very expression of the Triune God.
Ephesians 4:4 reveals that there is one Spirit for one Body with one hope. Without Paul’s prayer in Ephesians 3, there would be no way for the believers to be one Body. Because the believers’ inward parts have been taken over, occupied, by the settling Christ, the Spirit can be the very essence of the Body. The church as the Body of Christ has the Spirit as its essence with a hope. The hope is that the entire Body of Christ will be fully transfigured. Today much of our being still remains in the old creation, but we have a hope that one day the Lord will transfigure even our physical body into His likeness. Today the Spirit is the Body’s essence. The Spirit as the essence of the Body needs to saturate our entire being until we are transfigured. We have a hope for this transfiguration.
Ephesians 4:5 speaks of one Lord [the Son] with one faith and one baptism. Faith united us to Christ in the organic union, and baptism cut us off, separated us, from the world. In other words, faith joins and baptism cuts. Now we are of the Lord because we have faith and baptism.
Verse 6 says that there is one God and Father of all — over all, through all, and in all. We need to be those who are enjoying the Father as the source of the Trinity. This One is in three directions. He is over all, through all, and in all. This means that the Father is triune. Actually, the Father is over all, the Son is through all, and the Spirit is in all. This shows that the Triune God is embodied in the Father who is also over all, through all, and in all.
Ephesians 5:19 and 20 also show the Divine Trinity in the divine move and in our experience. First, there is speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs [songs of the Spirit] in verse 19. The word spiritual shows that all the songs are spiritual poems of the Spirit. This means that the Spirit is the very essence of our psalms, hymns, and songs. The worldly poetry is of another kind of essence. When we sing our psalms, our hymns, and our songs, we have the deep feeling that we are touching another essence, and this essence is the very Spirit of God.
Verse 19b says that we should be singing and psalming with our heart to the Lord [the Son]. Our psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs are of the Spirit, but we sing them to the Lord, the Son. Then we need to be those giving thanks at all times for all things in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to our God and Father (v. 20). We sing with the essence of the Spirit to the Son. Then we give thanks to the Father. All three of the Godhead are covered in Ephesians 5:19-20.
When we speak the psalms, the hymns, and the songs, we are speaking something of the essence of the Spirit. Then we render our singing, our psalming, to the Son, and we thank our Father in the name of the Son with the essence of the Spirit. This is our enjoyment of the Divine Trinity. However, very few Christians realize that whenever we sing or speak a hymn, we are enjoying the three of the Divine Trinity. We enjoy the essence of the Spirit, we enjoy the Lord as our goal, and we enjoy the Father as our object. We thank the Father and we sing songs to the Son with something of the essence of the Spirit. This is the way in which we enjoy the Triune God.
All six chapters of the book of Ephesians are constructed with the Triune God. In Ephesians 6 the Divine Trinity is moving for the defeating of His enemy, for dealing with His opponent. For the Triune God to defeat His enemy, we need to be empowered in the Lord [the Son] and in the might of His strength (v. 10). Then we need to put on the whole armor of God [the Father] so that we may be able to stand against the stratagems of the devil (v. 11). Finally, verse 17 says that we need to receive the sword of the Spirit, which [the Spirit] is the word of God [the Father]. Through the Divine Trinity we receive the power and strength, we have the armor, and we also have the sword. If we did not have the power or the strength, we could not fight. For this we need to trust in the Son. We also need a covering to protect us. This is the armor, and the armor is of the Father. Then we need an offensive weapon against the enemy. This is the Spirit as the sword. The Son is the power and the strength for our fighting, the Father’s armor is our covering, and the Spirit’s sword is our offensive power. This shows that even in the spiritual warfare, we need the Divine Trinity.
In 1 John 4:2 we can again see the coordination of the Divine Trinity. This verse shows us the Spirit of God [the Triune God including the Father], confessing Jesus Christ [the Son], being out of God [the Triune God]. The Spirit is not independent. He is of Someone, of God the Father. Furthermore, He does something, not for Himself but for the Son. He confesses Jesus Christ, the Son. Again we see the three working together for one goal — to exalt the Son as the very embodiment of the Triune God.
First Peter 4:14 says, “If you are reproached in the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the Spirit of glory and of God rests upon you.’’ When we are reproached in the name of Christ [the Son], we are blessed. We are blessed because the Spirit of glory and of God [God the Father] rests upon us. Even in the persecution of the believers the three of the Divine Trinity are fully involved. They are wrapped up with the persecuted believers. When the believers of the Son are reproached, the Triune God is enjoying His rest by staying with them in their persecution. The Spirit of glory and of God the Father is resting upon the believers. Resting in this verse is a kind of staying, abiding, comforting, sustaining, covering, and protecting. While the Spirit of glory is staying with us, the suffering ones, He becomes our sustaining power, our protection, our covering, and our victory, yet with Him it is a resting. This explains the real situation of Christian persecution. When we are being persecuted, our Triune God is covering us, protecting us, sustaining us, and comforting us. He is resting upon us.
Second Corinthians 13:14 speaks of the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ [the Son] and the love of God [the Father] and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit being with us all. The love of God is the source, since God is the origin; the grace of the Lord is the course of the love of God, since the Lord is the expression of God; and the fellowship of the Spirit is the impartation of the grace of the Lord with the love of God, since the Spirit is the transmission of the Lord with God, for our experience and enjoyment of the Triune God — the Father, the Son, and the Spirit.
Jude 20 and 21 may be considered as a “sister’’ portion to 2 Corinthians 13:14. These verses say that we believers should be those praying in the Holy Spirit, keeping ourselves in the love of God [God the Father], and awaiting the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ [the Son] unto eternal life [the life of the Triune God]. Praying in the Holy Spirit equals the fellowship of the Spirit in 2 Corinthians 13:14; keeping ourselves in the love of God is parallel with the love of God in that verse; and the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ goes with the grace of Christ. Mercy and grace go together, but mercy goes farther and deeper to reach what grace cannot reach. God’s mercy reaches farther than His grace. Mercy is for persons who are in a miserable and pitiful situation and condition. When the prodigal son came to his father in Luke 15, he was altogether in a miserable and pitiful condition. Whatever the father did for this pitiful, prodigal son was a mercy to him. Mercy is mentioned instead of grace in Jude 20 and 21 due to the church’s degradation and apostasy. In the degraded situation of the churches God’s mercy is needed. When the churches are in degradation, what they need is the Lord’s far-reaching mercy.
We are awaiting the mercy of our Lord. The word awaiting implies trusting. While we await and look for the mercy of our Lord, we are also trusting in His mercy. We need to await the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life. The enjoyment and inheritance of eternal life, the life of God, is the goal of our spiritual seeking. In these verses the three of the Trinity are involved in the believers’ daily Christian life. The entire blessed Trinity is employed and enjoyed by the believers in their praying in the Holy Spirit, keeping themselves in the love of God the Father, and awaiting the mercy of our Lord, the Son, unto eternal life.
Second Thessalonians 2:13 and 14 say, “We ought to thank God always concerning you, brothers beloved of the Lord, because God chose you from the beginning unto salvation in sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth, to which also He called you through our gospel unto the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.’’ God [God the Father] chose us from the beginning. This refers to eternity past. His salvation is in sanctification of the Spirit.
Sanctification in verse 13 is all-inclusive. It covers all three stages of sanctification. The first stage of sanctification is for our repentance and is mentioned in 1 Peter 1:2. First, we were foreknown by God the Father for His choosing. Then according to what God chose, the Holy Spirit came to us to separate us, to sanctify us from the world, from sin, and from all the sinners unto God. Through that kind of sanctifying, we repented and returned to God. This is the first stage of sanctification for our repentance.
The second stage of sanctification is for our justification. In the second stage the sanctification that we receive in God’s full salvation is both positional and dispositional. Positional sanctification is mentioned in Hebrews 13:12, which says that Jesus sanctified us through His own blood. Positional sanctification is obtained by us through Christ’s redeeming blood shed on the cross. Once we are bought back by the Lord’s blood, we are separated from the world, receiving a sanctified position and being made holy unto Him. Furthermore, when we were saved and justified, we entered into an organic union with the Lord, partook of His divine life and nature, and were sanctified dispositionally (1 Cor. 6:11).
The third stage of sanctification for our transformation is mainly a dispositional sanctification. This is the very sanctification stressed in Romans 6:19 and 22. This sanctification takes place in our disposition, changing our very nature. This is for our transformation and also includes our conformation and glorification. Glorification is actually the last step, the ultimate step, of the Holy Spirit’s sanctification. In this all-inclusive sanctification God’s complete salvation is carried out.
Salvation in sanctification of the Spirit is the procedure, and the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Son, is the goal. God’s choosing and the Holy Spirit’s sanctification, which carries out God’s salvation, will have a result. This result will be the obtaining of the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ. This is our glorification. Again we see the three of the Divine Trinity involved with us from eternity past to eternity future. God’s choosing was in eternity past, and God’s glorification for us will be for eternity future. His all-inclusive salvation is from eternity to eternity.
Revelation 1:4 and 5 say, “Grace to you and peace from Him [the Triune God including the Father] who is and who was and who is coming, and from the seven Spirits who are before His throne, and from Jesus Christ [the Son], the faithful Witness, the Firstborn of the dead, and the Ruler of the kings of the earth.’’ The Father is the One who is and who was and who is coming. He was in the past, He is in the present, and He is coming in the future. The seven Spirits who are before God’s throne are the operating Spirit of God, God the Spirit. In person the Spirit is one, but in function He is seven. Some people have a three-way lamp, but the Spirit is a “seven-way lamp.’’ God made His Spirit sevenfold intensified. The sevenfold intensified Spirit of God is needed for God’s move and work on the earth.
Jesus Christ, as the faithful Witness, the Firstborn of the dead, and the Ruler of the kings of the earth, is God the Son. His being the faithful Witness refers to His earthly life of thirty-three and a half years. He was the Witness, the testimony, the expression, of God. His being the Firstborn of the dead refers to His resurrection. First, He lived on this earth as the faithful Witness. Then He resurrected from the dead to become the Firstborn of the dead for the church, the new creation. Today He is the Ruler of the kings of the earth in His ascension. He is ruling over the earth. He was living on this earth as the faithful Witness, then He rose up from the dead as the Firstborn of the dead, and now He is ruling over the earth, the entire world, as the Ruler of the kings of the earth. Thus, Revelation 1:4 and 5 show us that the Father is the One who is and who was and who is coming; the Spirit is the One who is intensified sevenfold; and the Son is the faithful Witness, the Firstborn of the dead, and the Ruler of the kings of the earth. From such a Triune God, grace and peace are imparted to the churches.
In Revelation 22:1 and 2 there is a river of water of life [the Spirit] proceeding out of the throne of God [the Triune God including the Father] and of the Lamb [the Son], and on the two sides of the river there is the tree of life [Christ the Son]. This is the wonderful picture presented at the end of the Bible. God’s throne is the center of the holy city. Out of the throne proceeds a river of water of life, and along the two sides of this river grows the tree of life. The one tree of life growing on the two sides of the river signifies that the tree of life is a vine spreading and proceeding along the flow of the water of life for God’s people to receive and enjoy. This is a marvelous sign in the book of Revelation, which is a book of signs.
The throne of God is the very center of the divine administration in the entire universe. Out of the throne proceeds the flow of the Spirit, the river of water of life. This is why the Spirit is referred to as the Spirit of life in Romans 8:2. The Spirit of life is the river of water of life. In this water of life Christ grows as the very life supply. Thus, we see God the Father as the source in His administration, God the Spirit in His flow as the water of life, and God the Son growing in the water of life as the tree of life to supply the entire city. The water saturates, and the tree supplies so that the entire city will live forever to express the Divine Trinity.
