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Scripture Reading: John 1:3; Heb. 1:2; Luke 2:11; 1, John 1:14; Rom. 8:3; 1 Tim. 3:16; Rom. 3:25; Heb. 9:4-5; 2 Cor. 5:21; 1 Pet. 2:24; 3:18; Luke 1:35; John 6:57
Before we cover the subject matter of this chapter, I would like to add a word of burden. In the Lord’s recovery, particularly at the present time, all the elders, co-workers, full-timers, and serving ones must see the vision concerning the Triune God. Otherwise, the foundation of your service will be neither adequate nor firm. Sooner or later you will realize that your knowledge is just like a house built upon an insecure foundation, with one stone missing here and a cornerstone missing there. This kind of foundation will have problems sooner or later. In today’s Christianity very few who serve the Lord have the vision of the Triune God as their foundation. They are afraid to talk about this matter and are also unwilling to spend time to study it. However, we must be clear that the entire Bible with sixty-six books is constructed with the Trinity.
I would like to use the building of a meeting hall as an illustration. Thirty-seven years ago I took the lead in Shanghai to build the first big meeting hall in the Lord’s recovery. That meeting hall, which was located on Nanyang Road, could seat a total of five thousand. The two ends of the hall were quite far from one another. Back then, most architects did not approve of constructing a building with two ends over one hundred feet apart. This was because they felt that such a building would not be safe, since it was not possible to have beams of that length. Therefore, the design at that time was to have two supporting pillars in the middle and another two on each side. Thus, the meeting hall was divided into four sections; each section could seat one thousand two hundred fifty people, and the total seating capacity was five thousand people. If pillars were erected only on the two sides and not in the middle of the hall, the beams would not be secure.
However, when we built the meeting hall in Anaheim, the situation was altogether different. That hall is quite large—about two hundred and twenty feet long and one hundred and ten feet wide. In appearance, it is wood on top and stone at the bottom. In reality, the frame of that large meeting hall is neither wood nor stone but altogether steel. The two huge pillars at each end of the hall are steel. The beams are steel, and each beam is about one hundred and ten feet long. There are no other supporting pillars in the hall besides those on the two sides. The steel beams were made in Iowa under the supervision of the brothers, transported to Anaheim under their escort, and set up in the building also under their oversight. Furthermore, the steel beams were covered first with a layer of cement and then with a layer of stones. Therefore, when you go to the meeting hall in Anaheim, you cannot see any steel; you can only see the stones, which are for beauty, for adornment. Of course, we cannot say that the stones have no supporting strength at all; but the main strength for holding up the building lies with the steel pillars and steel beams.
By this illustration we can see clearly that the sixty-six books of the Bible are altogether built upon the Divine Trinity as their support and framework, and all the other parts are just accessories. Regretfully, Bible readers today are just like those who look at the appearance of the Anaheim meeting hall, paying attention only to whether the stones are beautiful and whether the wood is perfect. Actually, whether it is beautiful or not and whether it is perfect or not does not have any harmful effect; at least it does not endanger your life. Because the Anaheim meeting hall is supported by steel pillars, whether it seats three thousand or four thousand people, it stands there securely like a fortress or a small mountain. It cannot be affected by anything except perhaps a very great earthquake. In the same principle, the Trinity is the framework of the entire Bible, and this is especially true with the book of Ephesians in the New Testament. If you do not know the Triune God, you cannot comprehend the profoundness of Ephesians, because every chapter of this book has the Divine Trinity as its framework.
The central message of the Gospel of John is found in chapters 14 through 16 and in the concluding prayer in chapter 17. What these four chapters speak about is the Divine Trinity, and their framework is the Divine Trinity. In my youth, when I attended the Sunday worship in Christianity, I heard some of the people speak about John 14. Mostly they told us that the Lord Jesus said, “I am the way and the reality and the life” (v. 6). They also said that the Lord Jesus was going away, but because He was very concerned for us, He asked the Father to give us another Comforter that He might be with us forever (v. 16), and now the Comforter has come and is taking care of us. Then others said that in chapter 15 the Lord Jesus described the intimate relationship between Him and us by likening it to the relationship between the vine and the branches (v. 5); therefore, we should have such an intimate relationship with Him. Although they saw these things, what they saw was superficial; they did not see the Triune God as the framework.
We need to see that from the very beginning of chapter 14 the Triune God is pointed out. The Lord said that He was going to the Father and that where He was going, the disciples knew the way. But the disciples said that they did not know the way and therefore asked Him to tell them what the way was (vv. 1-5). Then the Lord said, “I am the way and the reality and the life; no one comes to the Father except through Me” (v. 6). To be “through” the Lord means to pass through the Lord. For the sake of readability, the Chinese Bible translators rendered to the Father as “to where the Father is,” which is not what the Greek text says. As a result, Bible readers pay attention to where, thinking that it denotes a place, and neglect the Father Himself. This is a great deviation.
Then the Lord continued His speaking, and Philip came in to interrupt Him (vv. 7-8). Philip said to Him, “Lord, show us the Father and it is sufficient for us.” This means that Philip thought that he and the other disciples had been with the Lord three and a half years, yet every day they saw Him only as a Nazarene; even though the Lord had been telling them about the Father, He had never shown them the Father. Therefore, Philip asked the Lord to show them the Father, and it would be sufficient for them. Then, greatly surprised, the Lord Jesus 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? Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in Me?” (vv. 9-10). Here, the Lord presented the Son with the Father. In the Lord’s speaking, the Father and the Son are inseparable because They are in each other mutually.
Then in verses 16 and 17 the Lord went on to say, “I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Comforter, that He may be with you forever, even the Spirit of reality.” The Son asked the Father to send the Spirit, and when the Spirit comes, He is not only the Comforter but also the Spirit of reality. Comforter is a term that is not easy to understand; few can render an accurate translation. When the British scholars were translating the Bible, they found some words that are not translatable, so they simply turned the Greek words directly into English, using them as English words. For example, baptize is the anglicized form of the Greek word baptizo. Likewise, paraclete is the anglicized form of the Greek word paracletos. This word has a variety of meanings, such as a “nurse,” a “counsel,” a “physician,” a “nursing mother,” and an “attendant.” Darby said that this word has the same sense as that of the Roman “patron.” A patron is one who is always beside us to meet our needs, take care of our case, and plead our cause. When the Spirit comes, He comes as such a One.
Furthermore, He is also the Spirit of reality. The Greek word for reality is aletheia, a word that is also very difficult to explain. It denotes something that is genuine, real, substantial, concrete. This means that although the Lord spoke so much about the Father, and although He Himself had been with the disciples for such a long time, they still could not touch Him. They had to wait until the Spirit would come to make the Father and the Son a reality in them. Therefore, the Spirit is the Spirit of reality. When the Spirit enters into the believers, the Triune God is realized in them and mingled with them to become their life and essence. This is the Triune God unveiled to us from the very beginning of John 14.
John 15 and 16 also speak about the Triune God. Both chapters 14 and 15 have a verse 26 that refers to the Triune God. John 14:26 says, “The Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My [the Son’s] name”; 15:26 says, “When the Comforter comes, whom I [the Son] will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of reality, who proceeds from the Father.” Chapter 14 says that the Father would send the Spirit in the Son’s name; then chapter 15 says that the Son would send the Spirit from the Father. The sense in Greek for the word from in 15:26 is “from with.” This means that the Father sends the Spirit in the Son, and the Son sends the Spirit from the Father and also with the Father. Furthermore, when the Spirit comes, He comes from the Father; that is, He comes from the Father and also with the Father. And since the Father is in the Son, the Son also comes. Hence, when the Spirit comes, the Triune God comes.
These things simply cannot be described by human language; they are hard to translate and even harder to explain. Therefore, most Christians dare not touch or speak these things, because they are really too difficult. What does it mean that the Father sends the Spirit in the Son? Since the Father has sent the Spirit, how is it that later the Son also sends the Spirit from the Father? Who then sends the Spirit? Is it the Father or the Son? The more we explain, the more puzzling it is. Although this truth is hard to comprehend, it becomes clear in our experience and realization.
Even when the Lord Jesus was preaching the truth on the earth, it was hard for people to understand. In John 6 the Lord’s word was so difficult to understand that many of the disciples said, “This word is hard; who can hear it?” And they went back to what they had left behind and no longer walked with Him (vv. 60, 66). Then the Lord said to the twelve, of whom Peter was the leading one, “Do you also want to go away?” Peter answered Him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have words of eternal life” (vv. 67-68). We see that at that time the confused Peter was the clearest among all the others. At the end of chapter 6 he was very clear and not mixed up at all. How do we know? In this chapter the Lord Jesus did not use the phrase words of eternal life; He only said that “the words which I have spoken...are life” (v. 63). Yet Peter understood and coined the phrase words of eternal life. This proves that Peter was truly clear. Today some say that when we read the Bible, we should not change its words. But that day in his answer, Peter “changed” the Lord’s words. When Peter heard the Lord’s speaking, he realized that since the Lord’s words were spirit and life, they had to be words of eternal life. Therefore, although many of the disciples did not understand what the Lord was saying, at least there was one, Peter, who understood.
Hence, I hope that, first of all, you will have a basic knowledge concerning the Divine Trinity. Then whether in the study of the Bible, in the spiritual service, or in the growth in life, you will have a foundation. Next, you must also see that our God, the Triune God in the universe, has a purpose, a plan, an intention, and a work. Since He is not a confused or mixed-up God, He certainly has an economy; this is another great matter that we must see.
In this chapter and the following chapter I feel burdened to speak to you concerning another basic truth—the accomplishments of Christ. On man’s side, mankind has close to six thousand years of history. On God’s side, God has been existing since eternity past. What are the things accomplished by Christ in time? This is a matter that we must see.
According to the records of the Old and New Testaments, God made a plan and established His economy in eternity past, but then He did not do anything. It was decided that all the things that God wanted to do in His economy would be carried out by the Son. The Son came as Christ to receive the commission. The Greek word for Christ is Christos, which is the Greek translation of the Hebrew word Messiah. Christ was God’s Messiah, God’s Anointed, the One appointed by God to carry out God’s commission. The Lord Jesus was not appointed after He was born as a man; rather, He had already been appointed in eternity past. In eternity past the Triune God decided that the Lord Jesus would come to accomplish everything. He was the One who would fulfill the mission of God’s economy.
We must see that in the universe there are “eternity” and “time.” Eternity is without beginning and without ending, whereas time has a beginning and an ending. When did time begin? It began from God’s creation. When Christ created the universe and when the created things began their existence, that was the beginning of time. John 1:3 says, “All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him not one thing came into being which has come into being.” Came into being means “came into existence.” Actually, the Lord Jesus did not create from things already existing; rather, He commanded something into being out of nothing, calling the things not being as being. When He spoke, “Let there be,” then all things came into being, came into existence, at once. Originally, the heavens were not there, but He said, “Let there be the heavens!” and the heavens came into existence out of nothing. In the same way the earth also came into being. All things were brought forth in this way out of nothing. Once the heavens and the earth came into existence, time began.
As God’s appointed One, Christ bore the responsibility of carrying out God’s commission. The first thing He accomplished was the creation of all things. Then, after the beginning of time, He went on to have many more great accomplishments. All of us who serve the Lord must see this. The purpose of His creation of all things was to bring in the universe and to form the universe. In Chinese, universe implies time plus space. The Hebrew expression for universe refers to the totality of all the ages in succession. Hebrews 1:2b says, “Through whom also He made the universe.” Bible readers often come across expressions that are not so easy to understand. I believe that very few Bible readers understand the meaning of universe; therefore, I added a footnote to this verse. The definition given in this footnote is based upon Vincent’s definition. After studying this word for a long time, I considered his definition as the best, so I excerpted it into a footnote in the Recovery Version. The footnote says, “Lit., ages. The ages is a Jewish expression that means the universe. Ages here does not refer to the matter of time but to creation (the universe) unfolded in time through successive ages.” Hence, we see that the universe is composed of ages, that is, the successive ages in time.
Most Christians know that Christ created the heavens, the earth, and all things. But very few know that after His creation He is still continually forming the ages, age after age. Hence, the universe refers not only to the heavens and the earth but also to all the ages in the heavens and the earth. For example, after the creation of the heavens and the earth, Adam was created; thus, there was the age of Adam with all its stories. When the age of Adam was over, the age of Noah with its stories began. After the age of Noah, the age of Abraham with its stories occurred. When the age of Abraham was over, the age of Moses came, at which time the law was decreed. When the age of Moses was over, the age of David came. Then after all the ages of the Old Testament, there was the age of Jesus Christ, the age of the New Testament. These ages did not take place by development or evolution; rather, they were founded, instituted, by the Lord Jesus.
The Lord Jesus not only created the heavens, the earth, and all things. After creating the heavens and the earth, He instituted the ages, age after age. If there were only the heavens, the earth, and all things, without the succession of ages, then none of the stories could have happened, and there would be no universe. Hence, the universe includes not only time and space but also all the stories that happened in time and space. This is just like the scenes in a movie. In every scene the characters do not just stand still; rather, they are acting out the story according to the script. Every scene is an age. The Lord Jesus not only created the roles for us but also established the content of each scene; thus the universe came into existence. This is the entire history of the human race.
The universe is a play with many scenes, and the Lord Jesus is not only the Director but also the Producer. The purpose of His forming the universe is to afford God the opportunity to obtain what He wants. People do not understand why a big war is going on today or why a small battle will transpire tomorrow. Many things have happened age after age, but people in the world do not understand the mysteries hidden in all these occurrences. Yet these things that have happened successively have given God the opportunity to gain us one by one. If it were not for the changing scenes in the world, none of us would be a Christian today. Among the saints who are sitting here, some are from other countries and some have a different color of skin. Yet we can use either Chinese or English both in singing or in praying, without much need for translation. Who can gather and blend us together in this way? Only the Lord can.
The Lord in His sovereignty raised up the environment for us to be saved. Some of you might not be saved if you had not been born in Taiwan; others might not be saved if they had not gone to America. I met some Chinese students in America who said that when they were in Taiwan, they were not interested in the gospel, and they disliked hearing about Jesus. Yet when they went to America, they just wanted Jesus. The Lord was not able to capture them in Taiwan, but He captured them in America. All these things happened in the universe. The universe creates the opportunity for God to gain what He wants.
I very much appreciate the training here in Taiwan, in which the East and the West are blended and have become one family. In China forty years ago, to travel from my hometown, Chefoo, to Shanghai, one could take only the boat, and it would take forty-eight hours. Today it takes only twelve hours to fly from Anaheim in the United States to Taiwan. Eighteen hours ago I made a telephone call from Taiwan to Anaheim and told the saints who were coming to Taiwan the things that I needed; now they have brought these things to me. It is really convenient. This morning the ministry station announced that while I am releasing a message here, thirty-six places in the United States would be able to listen in English, and twenty-six places would be able to listen in Chinese simultaneously. I hope that one day we will be able to transmit by man-made satellites. Then the messages that are released here can be simultaneously heard in Japan, Indonesia, and other places. This is the way we will take so that the messages that are being released in one place can be heard at the same time throughout the whole earth. All these things belong to the realm of the “universe” accomplished by Christ.
God created the heavens and the earth, and then He created Adam. Then four thousand years later, God became flesh. Today most Christians rarely hear the truth concerning God’s incarnation. Mostly they just sing some Christmas carols or announce the good news on Christmas Eve. Although they have a very good hymn (Hymns, #84) written by Charles Wesley concerning the birth of Christ, there is not one place in that hymn that definitely and solemnly tells people that, through His birth, the Lord Jesus brought God into man that God and man may be joined as one. It mainly tells us that an angel announced the good news, saying, “Today a Savior has been born to you in David’s city, who is Christ the Lord” (Luke 2:11).
The angel’s announcement of the good news is recorded in the Gospel of Luke, telling us that the Lord Jesus was born to be a Savior. But the Gospel of John does not announce the glad tidings of the Savior’s birth; rather, it says, “The Word became flesh” (1:14). This is the good news in the Gospel of John. The Word became flesh, and this Word was God (v. 1), not just a partial God but the entire God, including the Father, the Son, and the Spirit. The Word was God, and this God became flesh. This is the amazing good news. This good news is not just that the Savior, Christ, was born to us, but it is that God became flesh. If this word were not in the Bible and if it were merely my own speaking, I am afraid that none of you would believe it.
The Word became flesh is not a sweet expression. According to the fact, it is sweet, but according to the word flesh, it is not sweet. Yet, who was Christ? Christ was God becoming flesh. Who was the One who was born? The One who was born was God who entered into man so that divinity and humanity might be united, and not only united but mingled together to become one entity, one person. He is a person, yet within this person are two natures, not only joined but mingled together.
Today in Christianity there is still a great heresy that opposes the truth concerning mingling. I pointed out in the book Concerning the Person of Christ that in the first few centuries a heretical group advocated that when divinity and humanity were mingled, the two natures merged into one and became a third nature. This has stirred up those who oppose the truth concerning mingling, even to the present time. I also referred to the type of mingling in the Old Testament, that is, oil being mingled with fine flour to make the unleavened cakes to be offered to God (Lev. 2). Bible readers know that oil denotes the divine nature, and fine flour denotes the human nature. When oil and fine flour are mingled, each still retains its own characteristics, yet they are mingled to become one entity, the unleavened cake. Hence, the unleavened cake is one entity with two natures; both natures still exist, yet they are mingled together, without a third nature being produced. This marvelous thing typifies the mingling of divinity with humanity. We must see that after we are saved, God has come into us not only to be joined but also to be mingled with us.
Perhaps some will say that the Bible tells us that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners (1 Tim. 1:15) and that God sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins (Rom. 3:25; 1 John 2:2; 4:10). The Bible indeed says these things, but Christ’s becoming the propitiation to save sinners is a procedure to reach the goal, which is for God to enter into man. In order to enter into man, God must remove the obstacles between Him and man. The first obstacle is sin; therefore, sin must be removed. Otherwise, God cannot enter into man. Hence, God became flesh, and with the flesh and in the flesh He became the offerings (cf. Heb. 10:5-10), such as the sin offering (2 Cor. 5:21; Rom. 8:3) and the trespass offering (1 Pet. 2:24; 3:18) as sacrifices of propitiation to completely remove the most serious obstacle between God and man. Thus, God can enter into man to be joined and even mingled with man. This is His greatest accomplishment through incarnation.
The Lord Jesus did not go to die on the cross with His flesh immediately after His incarnation. Instead, He lived the human life for thirty-three and a half years on the earth. The four Gospels show us that the Lord lived out God in His humanity when He was in the process of experiencing the human life. While He was living out God, He did not make it known, saying, “Behold, here comes God! When I come, God comes.” Rather, He lived out God in His living so that people might see God. The main thing He did in His thirty-three and a half years of living on the earth was to live out God. He did not bring God out for people to see. Instead, He simply lived out God in His humanity. What He lived out always had the element of humanity, yet that humanity was full of divinity. He lived out human virtues, yet every virtue incorporated a divine attribute. The divine attributes were lived out in His human virtues. When He loved people, you may say that was man’s love, or you may say that was God’s love shown in man’s love. In any case, that was God’s love and that was God expressed in Jesus’ humanity. He lived such a life of the mingling of God with man for thirty-three and a half years.
Today most Bible readers see only the miracles in the Gospels, such as the blind receiving sight, the lame walking, the lepers being cleansed, the deaf hearing, and the dead being raised (Luke 7:22). They have not seen that these four biographies are a portrayal of a man who passed through human life to live out another life. The Lord Himself clearly said, “As the living Father has sent Me and I live because of the Father” (John 6:57a). This means that although the Lord was a man, He lived out God’s life and not His own life. As a result, God and He, He and God, had one life and one living; They both lived by the same life and lived out the same living. This is such a marvelous thing that it cannot be expressed even by the relationship between husband and wife. We must have a clear realization concerning this matter. We need to know that after we have been saved, we should be such persons living such a life. After saying that He lived because of the Father, the Lord went on to say, “So he who eats Me, he also shall live because of Me” (v. 57b). Just as He lived out God’s life, so we should likewise live out His life. Just as He had one life and one living with God, so we also should have one life and one living with Him. This is the truth in the Bible.
The truth in the Bible is not meant to improve you. It is meant only to work the Triune God into you to be your life and living. The thirty-three and a half years of human living of the Lord Jesus on earth are a pattern and a model. According to our experience, after being saved we often feel that the life we live is indescribable because it is a living of God mingled with man in which God and man have one life and one living. We should live this kind of life every day. It seems that the New Testament contains some words for improvement, words that teach us to reform ourselves and to do good. However, if we study the context carefully, we will see that those are the fruits of our having the same life and the same living with Christ our Lord. We all must see this.
In His experience of the human life the Lord Jesus lived out God among men so that God might be expressed in humanity. I hope that you all can see and be controlled by this vision. Thus, you will know the meaning and the goal of your pursuit for the growth in life and your endeavor in the spiritual service. The goal of our pursuing is to allow God to be lived out through us so that we and He may have one life and one living and also to allow Him to express His divine attributes through our human virtues. These are the words in the Bible with the most intrinsic life element. I hope that you can see this clearly. Furthermore, I hope that you will look up the relevant Scripture verses, studying and digesting them carefully, and then apply, pursue, and learn them practically in your living.
