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Scripture Reading: Col. 2:2, 9; Isa. 9:6; 2 Cor. 3:17; John 1:14; Heb. 2:14; Col. 1:15, 18; Acts 2:36
In the preceding chapters we have already covered four points concerning the Divine Trinity: the revelation in the Bible—the Father, the Son, and the Spirit; theological expressions used through the centuries with regard to the Divine Trinity; four crucial points concerning the Divine Trinity; and the creeds. In this chapter we will see the fifth point concerning the Divine Trinity, that is, the all-inclusiveness of Christ, including eight items in His divinity and ten items in His humanity. I hope that you can spend more time to get into these eighteen points.
Beginning with the second century, there were many disputes among Christians concerning the Divine Trinity and the person of Christ. For this reason a number of councils were convened to settle the controversies, and as a result, the so-called creeds were brought forth. In the previous chapter we covered several of the creeds, which were translated into Chinese through the joint efforts of some Western missionaries and Chinese Christians over fifty years ago. As a whole, the concepts incorporated in most of the creeds, whether in their original texts or in their translations into various languages, may be considered accurate. However, a great heresy concerning Mary being “the Mother of God” was added to the Chalcedonian Confession of Faith.
The Chalcedonian Confession of Faith also says that the Son is “consubstantial” with the Father. The Greek word for consubstantial is homoousios: homo means “same,” “identical,” and ousios means “essence of the substance” or “element.” This means that the Father, the Son, and the Spirit are three persons, but instead of having three similar essences, They have the same one essence. This was a great point of dispute, because at that time there was another group of teachers who believed that the Father, the Son, and the Spirit have three similar elements; this means that although Their elements are similar, the three are three different persons. These teachers inserted the letter i in the middle of the Greek word for consubstantial to make it homoiousios, meaning “similar essences.” They said that since the three of the Godhead have three similar essences, They are three separate existences. This developed into tritheism. Concerning this matter, what is advocated in the Chalcedonian Confession of Faith is in agreement with the Bible, and it is also what we have acknowledged; that is, the Divine Trinity has not merely similar essences but the same one essence. In other words, the essence that is in the first is also in the second and in the third; the three do not just have similar elements; They share the same element.
Therefore, as a whole, the creeds are correct, but the heresy concerning “the Mother of God” is a great deviation. The practice of the Roman Catholic Church is to add a little leaven to the truth so that eventually the whole lump is leavened (cf. Matt. 13:33). If you read their teachings, in the end you will be poisoned.
We have spent much time commenting about these matters to show you that in the entire Christianity today, including both the Catholic Church and the Protestant churches, people trust in the creeds more than the Bible. A brother said that when he was studying in an elementary school founded by the Episcopalian Church in Hong Kong, all the students were required to recite the Apostles’ Creed and the Nicene Creed during the weekly assemblies. He did not understand what was meant by “God of God, Light of Light, very God of very God.” The Chinese translation then was not accurate, but even if it were properly translated, it is still hard to understand what this sentence means. Christianity honors the creeds to such an extent that concerning the persons of the Divine Trinity, instead of saying that this is what the Bible says, they would say that this is what the creeds say. The Catholics even would say that this is what the Catholic Church says. Their so-called church is their pope. The Catholics in the whole world have to speak according to every decree or regulation given by the pope. Thus, although they have the Bible, they put it aside. Hence, they not only have heresies but also have many defects.
I hope that you will earnestly make an effort in the training to learn all these matters. However, we are not ascetics in the Catholic Church. Many monasteries were established after the formation of the Catholic Church to teach people how to learn the truth by self-mortification. I do not want this training to be like a monastery, just teaching you how to suffer and to meditate. Otherwise, without the Triune God wrought into you, even if you have learned all the tasks and can do them well, you will still gain nothing. You must learn to put yourself aside so that you may be filled with the Triune God.
I hope that all of you will know the Triune God and be constituted with and saturated by Him. Thus, when you go to visit people by door-knocking, it will be the Triune God who goes with love, light, life, the Spirit, power, holiness, and righteousness, as well as with the gospel of grace, the gospel of the forgiveness of sins, the gospel of the kingdom, and the all-inclusive gospel. The gospel in the Bible is the processed Triune God. Today when we go forth to preach the gospel and to feed people, we are just like mothers nursing their children, but instead of carrying bottles of milk powder that are not part of us, we bring the milk that is in our intrinsic being. This is my burden. I hope you are clear that I have no intention or interest for you to go and debate with people. Rather, what I am doing here is to give you a disinfecting injection and an inoculation.
Today you young brothers and sisters have risen up to love the Lord, and you have a desire to forsake all things for the Lord’s recovery in the last days and to offer up everything you have. This is why I have to make this matter clear to you. This is the basic problem of Christianity. They are short of a total of eighteen items concerning the divinity and humanity of Christ; these items are not mentioned in their creeds. How can the Triune God be explained clearly by just the few simple words of the creeds? We have published in books the results of our sixty years of studying the Bible and respectfully present them before you. I hope that the believers who have a seeking heart will give an objective and fair judgment by putting aside their past concepts and prejudices; then they will know that we are speaking biblical truths.
Colossians 2:2 says that Christ is the mystery of God. What is a mystery? A mystery is a story that is beyond human comprehension. That Christ is the mystery of God means that Christ is the story, the history, of God. Therefore, Colossians 2:9 says, “In Him [Christ] dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily.” Furthermore, 1:19 says, “In Him all the fullness was pleased to dwell.” All the fullness of the Godhead refers to all that the entire Triune God—the Father, the Son, and the Spirit—is, has, can do, has done, has obtained, has accomplished, and has attained; all this fullness dwells in Christ bodily. Hence, Christ is the embodiment of the Triune God.
Today under the influence of the creeds, the speaking in Christianity concerning the Divine Trinity either leans toward tritheism or is very close to tritheism. There is a brother who worked with Brother Nee and me for over twenty years when we were in mainland China. In 1934 when the publication of The Christian was resumed and I was charged by Brother Nee to bear the editing responsibility, this co-worker also contributed articles to the magazine. However, in 1958 he condemned me, saying that I teach heresy when I say that the Son is called the Father and that the Son is the Spirit. One of our senior co-workers went to have a talk with him, telling him that if this is a heresy, then it did not start with me but with Brother Nee, who had written a hymn with these lines: “Thou, Lord, the Father once wast called, / But now the Holy Spirit art” (Hymns, #490, stanza 5). That brother’s reply was that Brother Nee could also be wrong. I felt then that that brother was not only short in his knowledge of the Bible but also inconsistent in his words and actions.
Then in 1965 while I was living in Los Angeles, this brother arrived at San Francisco, in the Bay Area. A brother who loves the Lord bought him an airplane ticket and sent him to Los Angeles. I went to the airport to meet and receive him to my home. During his visit I asked him how many Gods there are. He clearly and definitely said that there are three Gods. He even went further to argue that in Psalms there are references to “gods” (82:1, 6; 138:1). I said that, by reading the context, we can know that gods in Psalms refers to angels. Therefore, I advised him not to say that there are three Gods, for that would be a great heresy. Please remember, today’s preachers and pastors preach that there is only one true God, who is three yet one; however, in their subconscious understanding there are three Gods. According to their concept, if there were not three Gods, how could it be that the Son was standing in the water at His baptism, the Father was speaking from the heavens, and still another One was in the air? They simply cannot comprehend this in their mind.
In 1935 in Shanghai, we were discussing whether we should receive a certain famous Chinese traveling preacher to the Lord’s table if he were to come in our midst. We had such a discussion because he believed that the Father, the Son, and the Spirit are three separate Gods. This is to show you that we have never been negligent in this matter. The early church fathers studied this matter in depth and with great accuracy. Concerning this matter, the creeds are very careful in their use of expressions. Although they repeatedly refer to the fact that in the Godhead there are the Father, the Son, and the Spirit, they still stress that there is only one God. Nevertheless, most preachers follow the teaching of the Eastern Orthodox Church; their teaching of the Trinity is actually tritheism.
Christ, the Son, is the mystery, the history, of God in totality. The totality of God, including not only His person but also all that pertains to Him (all the fullness of the Godhead), is in Christ. All the fullness of the Godhead refers to all that the entire God—the Father, the Son, and the Spirit—is, has, does, knows, has done, has obtained, has accomplished, and has attained; all this fullness dwells in the Son bodily. Therefore, He is truly the all-inclusive One. It is not too much to say that He is the Father, because the Father is included in Him, and it is not wrong to say that He is the Spirit, because the Spirit is implied in Him. However, we absolutely confess that the Father is the Father, the Son is the Son, and the Spirit is the Spirit and that the three are distinct but not separate. In the previous chapter we pointed out that the Son is the image of the Father (Heb. 1:3; Col. 1:15a; 2 Cor. 4:4) and that the Spirit is the eyes of the Son (Zech. 3:9; 4:10; Rev. 5:6). The image of a person and the person himself are distinct but not separate; the eyes and the face are distinct but not separate. This is the mystery of the Divine Trinity.
Zechariah 3:9 says that upon one stone are seven eyes; then 4:10 says that the seven eyes are the eyes of Jehovah running to and fro on the whole earth. Revelation 5:6 says that the Lamb has seven horns and seven eyes and that the seven eyes are the seven Spirits of God. In Zechariah it is a stone, but in Revelation the stone becomes the Lamb. Furthermore, the seven eyes are the seven Spirits. We must realize that there are no new things in Revelation. Every item that is mentioned in Revelation can be found in the Old Testament. That the seven Spirits are seven eyes is referred to in Zechariah 3 and 4, but the speaking there is not clear and has to be complemented by Revelation. Likewise, the stone in Zechariah becomes the Lamb in Revelation. The stone is for building, whereas the Lamb is for redemption. This means that to accomplish God’s building there must first be redemption. Hence, the stone must be the Lamb. These two are one; they both typify Christ, the Son. For this reason I coined a new expression: Stone-Lamb. The stone and the Lamb are just one because both have seven eyes; furthermore, these seven eyes are the seven Spirits of God. This means that the Spirit is the eyes of both the Son and the Father, who are not two or three but one.
The Son comes in the name of the Father and works also in the name of the Father. In John 5:43 the Lord said, “I have come in the name of My Father.” In 10:25 He said, “The works which I do in My Father’s name, these testify concerning Me.” The rendering in the Mandarin Union Version implies that the Lord comes by being sent. Actually, the Lord comes not only by being sent by the Father. Rather, He comes in the name of the Father; that is, He comes with the Father. Moreover, He is in the Father’s name not only in the three and a half years of His work and ministry for God; but even in the thirty-three and a half years of His human living on earth He is in the Father’s name.
What does it mean that the Son comes in the name of the Father and that the Son works in the name of the Father? Let me use an example. A certain wife has a husband who has an account in the bank. When she goes to the bank to withdraw money, she does it in her husband’s name. Therefore, when giving her the money, the bank teller would call out her husband’s name. This means that she is in her husband’s name; she and her husband are one. This example is not adequate, but there is a similarity in meaning. What the Bible means is that when the Son comes in the name of the Father, that is the Father coming, and when the Son works in the name of the Father, that is the Father working. It is true that He is the Son, but this Son is the image of the Father. Therefore, when people see Him, they see the Father. This is why when Philip said, “Lord, show us the Father,” the Lord Jesus was surprised and said, “Have I been so long a time with you, and you have not known Me, Philip? He who has seen Me has seen the Father; how is it that you say, Show us the Father?” (John 14:8-9). This is truly a mystery.
Isaiah 9:6 says, “A Son is given to us;... / And His name will be called... / Eternal Father.” This verse implicitly tells us that the name of the Son would be called Eternal Father; hence, the Son and the Father are one. Although He is the Son who came in time, He is the Father in eternity.
Colossians 1:15a says, “Who [the Son of God’s love] is the image of the invisible God.” That the Son is the image of God means that the Son is the expression of God’s being in all His attributes and virtues. This is also what John 1:18 says: “No one has ever seen God; the only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him.” When people see the Son, they see the Father; the Son and the Father are one (10:30).
John 14:26 says, “The Comforter, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name.” The Comforter, the Holy Spirit, would be sent by the Father in the Son’s name. First, the Son lives and does the works in the Father’s name; then the Father sends the Holy Spirit in the Son’s name. Here it says that the Father sends the Holy Spirit, but actually it is the Son who sends the Holy Spirit. Because the Father sends the Holy Spirit in the Son’s name, the Father’s sending is the Son’s sending; the Father and the Son are one (10:30). Furthermore, since the Holy Spirit is sent in the Son’s name, the Holy Spirit’s coming is the Son’s coming; the Holy Spirit and the Son are one (2 Cor. 3:17). This is to say that the Father sends the Holy Spirit in the Son’s name and that the Holy Spirit comes also in the Son’s name.
John 15:26 says, “When the Comforter comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of reality, who proceeds from the Father.” John 14:26 says that the Father sends the Holy Spirit in the Son’s name and that the Holy Spirit comes in the Son’s name. Yet in 15:26 it says that the Son sends the Holy Spirit from the Father and that this Spirit proceeds from the Father. This means that the Father is the Son because the Father is in the Son’s name. Not only so, the Greek word for from in 15:26 is para, which means “from with.” This means that the Son sends the Holy Spirit from and with the Father; moreover, the Holy Spirit also comes from and with the Father. Therefore, these two verses show us that the Divine Trinity is actually the One who is three yet one.
The dispute between the Catholic Church and the Eastern Orthodox Church is in these two verses; this is also the reason that the original church was divided into two. The Eastern Orthodox Church believes that the Spirit proceeds only from the Father and that only the Father is the source of the Spirit. The Catholic Church believes that both the Father and the Son are the source and that the Spirit comes from both the Father and the Son as the source. Actually, the Holy Spirit comes from the Father, who is in the name of the Son. Therefore, to come from the Son is to come from the Father, and to come from the Father is to come from the Son. Furthermore, when the Holy Spirit comes from the Father and the Son as the source, He does not leave the source but He comes with the source. When we put these two verses together, we discover that the Holy Spirit is sent by the Father in the Son’s name and that He comes with the Father. The Holy Spirit is also sent by the Son from and with the Father. Therefore, the Holy Spirit comes not only from and with the Father but also through and with the Son. Eventually, who is it that comes? It is the Triune God who comes; that is, the Father, the Son, and the Spirit all come together.
The whole matter lies with the word send. The Father’s sending is the Son’s sending; the Father and the Son are one. When the Holy Spirit is sent, He comes with the Son in the Son’s name, and He comes also from and with the Father. Hence, when the Holy Spirit reaches us, the whole Triune God comes. Concerning the Triune God, sometimes you feel that He nourishes and cherishes you as the Son, and other times you feel that He disciplines and gives grace to you as the Father; but most of the time you sense that He is interceding for you as the Spirit. This is the Triune God—the Father, the Son, and the Spirit—reaching man consummately as the Spirit.
I was with the Brethren when I was young. They taught us that when we pray, we can pray only to the heavenly Father, in the Son’s name, and by the power of the Holy Spirit, without any confusion. However, when I prayed, I often made mistakes and therefore had to confess and repent of my sin. This shows that the teaching concerning the Divine Trinity greatly affects our Christian life. Later, when I studied these two verses, I found out the story about the sending of the Holy Spirit by the Father and the Son. The Father’s sending in the Son’s name is the Son’s sending from the Father. Furthermore, the One who is sent comes from and with the Father, and He comes also with the Son in the Son’s name. Eventually, all three of Them come. Today’s Christian teachers mostly teach tritheism, saying that when the Son comes, He comes alone, leaving the Father in heaven. Most of them have neither the knowledge nor the experience concerning the Spirit. Yet we have seen this matter in the holy Word of God, and we can also experience it subjectively.
In 2 Corinthians 3:17 Paul abruptly says that “the Lord is the Spirit.” Today our critics are most afraid of three Scripture verses: 1 Corinthians 15:45, 2 Corinthians 3:17, and Isaiah 9:6. First Corinthians 15:45 says, “The last Adam became a life-giving Spirit.” Some say that the Spirit in this verse is not the Holy Spirit; instead, they say that this verse speaks of Christ becoming a Spirit. However, the Spirit here is modified by life-giving, indicating that this Spirit is the Holy Spirit, because in the universe there is no other Spirit who gives life besides the Holy Spirit.
Some say that the Lord in 2 Corinthians 3:17 is a general title of God and that it does not denote the Lord Jesus. However, according to the context, the Lord here should refer to Christ the Lord. Verses 14 and 16 of chapter 3 say, “The veil is being done away with in Christ...But whenever their heart turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away.” Verse 17 continues to say, “And the Lord is the Spirit.” Then in 4:5 Paul says, “We do not preach ourselves but Christ Jesus as Lord.” Obviously, Lord here refers to Christ the Lord. Paul says that this Lord is the Spirit.
Furthermore, Isaiah 9:6 says, “A Son is given to us;... / And His name will be called... / Eternal Father.” Some say that the Father here does not refer to the heavenly Father but to a Father of eternity. They say that eternal (an adjective) should be properly rendered “eternity” (a noun), just like saying that George Washington is the father of America and Thomas Edison is the father of electricity. However, the writer wrote this verse in the form of a couplet with child and Mighty God as a pair and with Son and Eternal Father as another pair. The child is the Son, and God is the Father. Since there is only one God, there is surely also only one Father. No one can twist this word and say that the Father here does not refer to the Father in the Godhead but to another Father. Furthermore, we must interpret any verse of the Bible according to the particular book in which the verse is found. In the entire book of Isaiah, Jehovah is referred to twice as our Father (63:16; 64:8), indicating that Eternal Father refers to God, who is our Father. Therefore, we cannot say that He is the eternal Father and not our Father.
The Son as the Spirit is the embodiment of the Triune God. After completing all the processes, such as incarnation, human living, crucifixion, resurrection, ascension, and glorification, He became “the Spirit” (John 7:39; Rom. 8:26-27; Gal. 3:2, 14) as the ultimate manifestation of the Triune God.
The Son is also the One who fills all in all. Ephesians 1:22-23 says, “The church, which is His Body, the fullness of the One who fills all in all.” That the church is the Body, the fullness, of Christ means that through the enjoyment of the riches of Christ the church becomes the fullness of Christ for His expression. This Christ as the infinite God is not limited by anything. He is so great that He fills all in all. All includes being so extensive that it is beyond our imagination. In His divinity, Christ is the unlimited One.
Hebrews 2:14 says, “Since therefore the children have shared in blood and flesh, He also Himself in like manner partook of the same.” John 1:14 says that “the Word became flesh.” First John 4:2 says that “Jesus Christ has come in the flesh.” These three verses tell us clearly that in His humanity Christ became flesh, partaking of blood and flesh. His body of blood and flesh is a real body; it is not merely a phantasm, as taught by the Docetists.
The body of blood and flesh is not a good entity; it is the flesh of sin. However, according to Romans 8:3 the Lord Jesus did not become the flesh of sin itself; rather, He became a man of flesh “in the likeness of the flesh of sin.” This matter is typified by the bronze serpent (Num. 21:9). John 3:14 says, “As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up.” The Lord Jesus was lifted up like the bronze serpent, which had the form, the shape, of the serpent but was without the serpent’s poison, the serpent’s nature. Furthermore, the bronze serpent is joined to Satan, just as the likeness of the flesh of sin is joined to the fallen man. However, the Lord only had the form but not the real substance, the poison. Hence, when He was put to death on the cross, in God’s eyes, Satan was there and a sinner was there. This is what Hebrews 2:14 says: “He...Himself in like manner partook of the same [blood and flesh], that through death He might destroy him who has the might of death, that is, the devil.” This means that, because the devil is in the flesh, when the Lord dealt with the flesh on the cross, He also dealt with and destroyed Satan, who belongs to the flesh. How could the Lord destroy Satan by becoming the flesh? The reason is that the flesh is involved with Satan—Satan is in the flesh of the fallen man and is the poison in the flesh of man.
First Timothy 2:5 says, “There is one God and one Mediator of God and men, the man Christ Jesus.” The Lord Jesus was God from eternity (John 1:1). In time He became a man through incarnation (v. 14). While He was living on earth, He was a man and He was also God (1 Tim. 3:16). After His resurrection He is still a man (Acts 7:56) and also God (John 20:28).
Philippians 2:6-8 says that He, existing in the form of God, emptied Himself, taking the form of a slave, becoming in the likeness of men, and being found in fashion as a man. When the Lord Jesus became a man, He became a bona fide man. He humbled Himself, lowering His status from that of God to that of a man. He had the likeness of a man, the outward appearance of humanity. He was also found in fashion as a man, having the outward guise, the semblance, of humanity. He humbled Himself even to the extent that, instead of being a high-class person, He became a slave to serve people (Mark 10:45). There is only one thing that was in man but not in Him, and that thing is sin. He did not have the poison of sin that is in man; in Him Satan has nothing (John 14:30). Although the creeds mention that the Lord Jesus was incarnated to become a man, even a perfect man, Christianity does not have much appreciation of the Lord Jesus’ taking the form of a slave, becoming in the likeness of men, and being found in fashion as a man. In the Lord’s recovery we should treasure and appreciate this matter.
Christ is all-inclusive; He includes both God and man. Since He includes God, in the Divine Trinity He is not only the Son, but He is also called the Father, and He is also the Spirit. Since He includes man, He became flesh as a man, taking the form of a slave, having the likeness of men, and being found in fashion as a man. Furthermore, He includes all creation and is the Firstborn of all creation. For this reason the inclusiveness of Christ is complete.
Angels are part of the creation; hence, the Lord Jesus also includes the angels. He is the Angel of Jehovah (Exo. 3:2-15; 14:19; 23:20-21; Judg. 13:15-21). In Revelation He is the “another Angel” who takes care of God’s people on earth (7:2-3), adds His fragrance to the prayers of the saints and offers them before God (8:3), treads on the sea and on the land to take possession of the whole earth (10:1-2), and destroys Babylon the Great (18:1-2). The Lord Jesus even includes fallen men because He Himself became flesh. Romans and Galatians reveal clearly that the flesh denotes fallen man (Rom. 3:20; Gal. 2:16). Therefore, He is all-inclusive; He is not only the Creator but also a creature.
Christ includes man. Furthermore, He became a man with flesh, having human blood, flesh, and bones. At His crucifixion, not one of His bones was broken (John 19:33-36). Blood, flesh, and bones evidently belong to a created being; therefore, it is illogical to say that the Lord Jesus is not a creature. Since Christ partook of blood and flesh (Heb. 2:14), having a body with human blood, flesh, and bones, how could He not be a created One? As God, Christ is the Creator; as a man, Christ is a creature. In His divinity He is the Creator; in His humanity, since He became flesh, His flesh was something created. Hence, we must confess that He is the Creator and also a creature. To say that the Lord Jesus is not a creature is equivalent to denying that He has come in the flesh; such denial was a heresy strongly condemned by the apostle John (1 John 4:2-3).
Since Christ is a creature in His humanity, when was He created? Arius asserted that since Christ is a creature, He is not the eternal God, but He was created by God at a certain period in eternity as the first created One. Hence, in this thought there was a time when Christ did not exist. This is a great heresy. Colossians 1:15b says that Christ is “the Firstborn of all creation.” This means that, in God’s eternal plan, in God’s eternal economy, the Triune God agreed that the Son would become a man, would become flesh. From that time on, in the eyes of God, the Son has been a creature. Then, in time, He actually came to be a man.
Some may ask, “It was two thousand years ago that the Lord Jesus became a man in time, and before that time there were already millions and millions of people; how can we say that He is the Firstborn of all creation?” We have already said that God’s calculation is different from man’s calculation. For example, Adam is the first man created by God, so the second man should be Cain. Yet the Bible says that the second man is Christ (1 Cor. 15:47). Furthermore, since the first Adam is the beginning of mankind, all human beings are descendants of Adam, and all of them are “Adams.” Thus, there are Adams being born every day; so the last Adam should have not come yet. However, the Bible says that Christ is not only the second man but also the last Adam (v. 45). This is God’s calculation.
Furthermore, according to history, the Lord Jesus was crucified two thousand years ago. According to Scripture, however, He is the Lamb who was slain from the foundation of the world (Rev. 13:8). Long before Christ was born, He was slain from the foundation of the world; this is God’s estimation. Hence, we cannot consider the all-inclusiveness of Christ according to our view. In Genesis 18, as early as the time of Abraham, Christ appeared to Abraham in the form of a man with a real body, and His feet were washed and He ate the meal that Abraham prepared. According to man’s view, how could Christ appear as a man before His incarnation? In Judges 13, as the Angel of Jehovah, Christ appeared as a man to Manoah and his wife (vv. 10-11). Manoah asked the Angel of Jehovah for His name, and He said, “Why do you ask about My name, since it is wonderful?” (vv. 17-18). His name is wonderful because He is the Angel of Jehovah and He is also Jehovah, yet He appeared as a man. This is truly beyond human understanding. Therefore, instead of trying to comprehend these truths with our minds, we should simply receive them by faith according to God’s revelation.
Colossians 1:18 says that Christ is “the Head of the Body, the church; He is the beginning, the Firstborn from the dead.” This means that Christ is the first in resurrection; as the Head of the Body, He occupies the first place in the church. God has two creations: one is the old creation, which refers to the creation of the universe; the other is the new creation, which refers to the bringing forth of the church (2 Cor. 5:17; Eph. 2:15). Christ is not only the Firstborn of the old creation but also the Firstborn of the new creation.
First Corinthians 15:45 says, “The last Adam became a life-giving Spirit.” The last Adam is Christ. In incarnation He became flesh for redemption (John 1:14, 29); then in resurrection He was transfigured and became a life-giving Spirit for the imparting of life (10:10b). Christ has to be such a Spirit in order that He may impart life to man. In the evening of the day of His resurrection, when He came into the midst of the disciples and breathed into them that they might receive the Holy Spirit (20:19-22), He breathed Himself into them as the life-giving Spirit, thereby imparting Himself into them as their life and everything.
At the beginning of the New Testament the Spirit of God is the Holy Spirit (Matt. 1:18, 20; Luke 1:35). After the resurrection of the Lord, the Spirit of God became “the Spirit” (John 7:39), the life-giving Spirit. This Spirit is also the Spirit of Jesus Christ. Hence, Acts 16:7 mentions “the Spirit of Jesus,” Romans 8:9 mentions “the Spirit of Christ,” and Philippians 1:19 mentions “the Spirit of Jesus Christ.” The Spirit of Jesus is mainly related to the Lord’s humanity and human living; the Spirit of Christ is mainly related to the Lord’s resurrection; the Spirit of Jesus Christ is the Spirit of God compounded with the Lord’s incarnation, human living, crucifixion, and resurrection. This compound Spirit is typified by the holy anointing ointment in Exodus 30:23-25, a compound of olive oil and four kinds of spices. How could the Spirit of God become the Spirit of Jesus, the Spirit of Christ, and the Spirit of Jesus Christ? It was accomplished through His incarnation, human living, death, and resurrection.
Furthermore, the Lord Jesus poured out the Holy Spirit whom He had received from the Father, and He gives the Spirit not by measure. Acts 2:33 says, “Therefore having been exalted to the right hand of God and having received the promise of the Holy Spirit from the Father, He has poured out this which you both see and hear.” The exalted Christ’s receiving of the promise of the Holy Spirit was actually His receiving of the Holy Spirit Himself. Christ was conceived of the Holy Spirit essentially for His existence in humanity (Luke 1:35; Matt. 1:18, 20) and was anointed with the Spirit economically for His ministry among men (3:16; Luke 4:18). After His resurrection and ascension He needed to receive the Spirit economically again that He might pour Himself out upon His Body to carry out His heavenly ministry on earth for the accomplishing of God’s New Testament economy.
John 3:34 says that Christ “gives the Spirit not by measure.” This shows that the Son dispenses the Spirit to the believers without measure. As the Head of the church, Christ not only pours out the Holy Spirit but also dispenses the Spirit to the believers without measure.
The creeds were written in such a simple way that all these crucial points were omitted. I believe that some of those who formulated the creeds saw these points but, since they were not able to explain them thoroughly, they did not dare to speak about them. How do you explain the fact that the Lord is the Spirit? How do you explain the fact that the Son is called the Father? The more you say, the more mistakes you make; therefore, it is better not to say anything. It is probably because of this that they wrote in a very concise way. Consequently, those who later read the creeds suffered a great loss. Our burden is to find out all the crucial points.
Christ was begotten with His humanity in resurrection to be the firstborn Son of God with many brothers. Is not the Lord Jesus the only begotten Son of God? Why then is He also the firstborn Son of God? How can this be? If you ask Christian teachers, you can hardly find one who is able to answer these questions. Most likely they will tell you not to be too particular about this matter and that nevertheless He is the Son of God. I asked my pastor about this when I was young. He said, “Don’t ask anymore; your head is too big. Anyway, it is too hard to explain what is meant by the firstborn Son of God and the only begotten Son of God.”
Actually, the light in the Scriptures concerning this matter is very clear. Quoting from Psalm 2, Acts 13:33 says, “You are My Son; this day have I begotten You.” Begotten here does not refer to the birth of the Lord Jesus in the manger; rather, it refers to His birth when He came out of the tomb, the birth of the man Jesus when He was raised up by God. By death and resurrection the humanity that the man Jesus put on was uplifted into divinity. When His humanity entered divinity, He became the Son of God also in His humanity. This is to be “sonized.” Before His resurrection Christ was the Son of God only in His divinity; in His humanity He was not yet the Son of God but was the Son of Man. However, through His resurrection His humanity was brought into divinity; thus, He was begotten to be the Son of God in His humanity. Therefore, after His resurrection His being the Son of God was a different situation. In His divinity He was the only begotten Son of God from eternity past (John 1:18; 3:16), but in His humanity He became the firstborn Son of God through resurrection (Rom. 8:29; Heb. 1:6).
As the Son of God in His divinity, He is uniquely one; but after He was begotten as the Son of God in resurrection with His humanity, He is not uniquely one. In His resurrection He regenerated all His believers (1 Pet. 1:3) as His many brothers and as the many sons of God. Therefore, Romans 8:29 says that the Lord Jesus is the Firstborn among many brothers. John 20:17 tells us that in the morning of His resurrection the Lord said to Mary, “Go to My brothers and say to them, I ascend to My Father and your Father, and My God and your God.” Prior to that morning, He did not have brothers, but now His brothers were born with Him at the same time. Then, Hebrews 2:11-12 tells us that after His resurrection the Lord came into the midst of the disciples and declared the Father’s name to His brothers. At this time His brothers had become the church, in the midst of which He came to praise the Father’s name.
In His humanity Christ was made both Lord and Christ in ascension. Acts 2:36 says that after His resurrection and ascension Christ was made both Lord and Christ. As God, the Lord was the Lord all the time (Luke 1:43; John 11:21; 20:28). But as man, He was made the Lord in His ascension after He brought His humanity into divinity in His resurrection. As God’s sent and anointed One, He was Christ from the time that He was born (Matt. 1:16; Luke 2:11; Matt. 16:16). But as such a One, He was also officially made the very Christ of God in His ascension.
As God, Christ was the Lord from eternity. Then by incarnation He became Jesus, a Nazarene. This man was neither the Lord nor the Son of God in His humanity. But when He entered into resurrection, this man became the Son of God, and in His ascension this man was made the Lord. Before His resurrection, in His divinity He was the Lord from eternity. But after His ascension, He was made the Lord in His humanity. Thus, He is the Lord both in His divinity and in His humanity. Therefore, today there is a man in heaven who is the Lord of all. In the same principle, He was also made Christ. He was made Lord, the Lord of all (Acts 10:36), to possess all; He was also made Christ, God’s Anointed (Heb. 1:9), to carry out God’s commission.
Hebrews 1:2 says that God has appointed the Son to be the Heir of all things. We know that, at the beginning of Hebrews 1, verses 2 and 3 unfold to us both the person and work of the Son. In His person He is the effulgence of God’s glory and the impress of God’s substance. In His work He created the universe and upholds and bears all things; He also made purification of our sins and accomplished redemption. Now He is sitting down on the right hand of God until His enemies become a footstool for His feet.
In the past He was the Creator of all things (vv. 2, 10; John 1:3; Col. 1:16; 1 Cor. 8:6); in the present He is the Upholder of all things and the One who bears all things (Heb. 1:3); in the future He will be the Heir who inherits all things. All things belong to Him, are for Him, and will be inherited by Him. Therefore, Romans 11:36 says, “Out from Him and through Him and to Him are all things.”
We must very clearly see the divinity and humanity of Christ to be able to understand the mystery of the Divine Trinity. In conclusion, God is three, having three persons—the Father, the Son, and the Spirit—yet He is surely one, being the one God. When we receive any one of the three, we receive all of Them. When we have the Son, we also have the Father and the Spirit; when we have the Spirit, we also have the Father and the Son. Therefore, when the Spirit comes, the consummation of the Father, the Son, and the Spirit comes; the all-inclusive Spirit comes. As such a Spirit, Christ fills all and includes all. And as the Spirit, Christ comes into us to be our enjoyment.
Here I would like to refer to two hymns. The first one is Hymns, #113, a hymn on praising the Lord as our Redeemer. The climax of this hymn is in stanza 5:
Another hymn is Hymns, #132, which is also on praising the Lord for His humanity. This hymn is full of life, full of the Spirit, and full of experience. Stanza 1 says,
Then stanzas 4 through 6 deal with life, the Spirit, and experience:
The hymn reaches its climax in stanza 7:
Nearly none of the eighteen points that we have mentioned above were written as a hymn. There are over ten thousand hymns in Christianity, but they do not cover these points. Instead, most of them are concerning God’s compassion, God’s holiness, God’s righteousness, God’s power, and even superficial items such as miracles and wonders. Yes, the creeds mention Christ’s being born as a man to save sinners. If we carefully study the New Testament, we will see that Christ became flesh not only to save sinners but, even more, to carry out God’s eternal economy, which is to work God into men that they may become children of God to be the Body of Christ for the expression of the Triune God in eternity. This is the highest goal of God’s becoming flesh.
Most of the matters preached in Christianity today are very shallow. We do not deny that the things preached are right, that Christ became flesh to die and shed His blood to save sinners; this, however, is not the ultimate purpose. The ultimate goal of God’s becoming flesh is to dispense Himself into man that man may be one with Him in life and nature and be joined and mingled with Him as one to be His corporate expression. This is our commission today in the Lord’s recovery. Therefore, when we lead you to go out to knock on doors, we do not preach the low gospel but preach the meaning of human life instead. The meaning of human life is that man needs to have God within him. This includes God’s becoming flesh and passing through death and resurrection before He can come into man. Of course, because man is sinful, He had to make redemption for man; this is right. But redemption is not the goal; it is the procedure for reaching the goal, and the goal is that God wants to enter into man to dispense Himself as man’s life and nature that man may be joined to Him to be a part of His organism for His corporate expression. This is what we must see and practice.
This is the gospel. I hope that this is what you preach when you go out to preach the gospel. Do not think that people cannot understand; they surely can understand. I often say that actually it is not that people cannot understand, but rather it is that you yourself do not understand and therefore you do not know how to preach, and you cannot preach. I hope that you will all rise up to speak the high gospel, preach the great word, and announce the eternal mystery. You need to preach this as the gospel.
Furthermore, I also hope that the young people will rise up and learn to write hymns with all the above crucial items. For many years I have been wanting to re-compile our hymnal, because some of the hymns are truly not suitable and we do not sing them anymore. The melody and poetry of Hymns, #113 are very good, but most of the content is too low; therefore, we rarely sing it. I hope that this kind of hymn would be eliminated and replaced by hymns of higher quality. In the compilation of the hymnal, my understanding is that Brother Nee’s selection was based on three points: first, general Christian hymns on the knowledge of God; second, hymns by the inner-life people on the experience of the cross and the growth in life; and third, hymns by the Brethren with words of praise. In 1960 I felt that there was a great lack in our hymnal concerning the Spirit and the riches in life as well as concerning Christ and the church. Therefore, I wrote over eighty hymns within two months, most of which are on the Spirit, life, Christ, and the church. Then when I was compiling the English hymnal twenty-five years ago in America, I added nearly two hundred more hymns in these categories. Due to lack of time, however, I did not include the crucial items mentioned above. I hope that the young people will gradually rise up and make an effort to learn how to write hymns and to compile a new hymnal.
I am very happy that in the last ten years, and in particular the last five years, wherever I went to attend the Lord’s table meeting, I observed that the brothers and sisters’ understanding has been uplifted. Most of the hymns they sang are concerning God’s dispensing Himself into us, Christ as our life, and the church as His expression. Fifty years ago our favorite hymn was, “How pleasant is the sound of praise! / It well becomes the saints of God; / Should we refuse our songs to raise, / The stones might tell our shame abroad” (Hymns, #113). But now we do not select it any longer, because its content is low. If I were to show you the hymns that I wrote sixty years ago, you would all feel that they are shallow. However, with my growth in life and my increase in the knowledge of the spiritual truths, hymns that are crystals came out. Poems and songs are the crystallization of our learning and our knowledge of God. I hope that you will learn more and be more equipped, especially concerning the eighteen points covered in this chapter. Then gradually you will be able to write some hymns of high quality. This is a need in the Lord’s recovery.
