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In Volumes Three and Four of Level One of Truth Lessons we saw the initial stage of God's full salvation, the stage of regeneration. This stage begins with God's calling. Then it goes on through the Spirit's sanctification and man's repentance, believing, baptism, union with the processed Triune God, being redeemed, being made a new creation, and being saved. Eventually, it concludes with the clearance of the past. Beginning with this lesson we will go on to see the progressing stage of God's full salvation, the stage of transformation. This stage is composed of freedom from sin, sanctification (mainly dispositional—Rom. 6:19, 22), growth in life, transformation, building up, and maturing.
In this stage God is freeing us from the dominion of indwelling sin—the law of sin and of death—by the law of the Spirit of life, through the subjective working of the effectiveness of the death of Christ in us (Rom. 6:6-7; 7:16-20; 8:2). God is also sanctifying us by His Holy Spirit (Rom. 15:16) with His holy nature, through His discipline (Heb. 12:10) and His judgment in His own house (1 Pet. 4:17). Moreover, God is causing us to grow in His life (1 Cor. 3:6-7) and is transforming us by renewing the inward parts of our soul by the life-giving Spirit (2 Cor. 3:6, 17-18; Rom. 12:2; Eph. 4:23) through the working together of all things (Rom. 8:28). Furthermore, God is building us together into a spiritual house for His dwelling (1 Pet. 2:5; Eph. 2:22), and He is also maturing us in His life (Rev. 14:15) for the completion of His full salvation. In this way we are being delivered from the power of sin, the world, the flesh, the self, the soul (the natural life), and individualism, into maturity in the divine life for the fulfillment of God's eternal purpose.
In the initial stage of God's salvation we receive the Triune God—the Father, the Son, and the Spirit—and are joined to Him as one. In the progressing stage we need to further experience and enjoy the processed Triune God in the dispensing of the Divine Trinity. From the time we are saved, the Triune God continuously dispenses all that He is with all His divine elements into us for our experience and enjoyment. Second Corinthians 13:14 says, "The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all." This verse clearly refers to the experience and enjoyment of the Triune God, indicating that we are enjoying God the Father in the love of the Father, that we are enjoying Christ the Son in the grace of the Son, and that we are enjoying the Spirit in the fellowship of the Spirit. The grace of the Lord is the Lord Himself as life to us for our enjoyment (John 1:17; 1 Cor. 15:10), the love of God is God Himself (1 John 4:8, 16) as the source of the grace of the Lord, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit is the Spirit Himself as the transmission of the grace of the Lord with the love of God for our experience and enjoyment. The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit are not three separate matters, but three aspects of one thing, just as the Lord, God, and the Holy Spirit are not three separate Gods, but three hypostases of the one undivided and indivisible God. The love of God, that is, the love of the Father, is the source; the grace of Christ, that is, the grace of the Son, is the course of the love of God; and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit is the impartation of the grace of the Son with the love of God. As a result, we experience and enjoy the processed Triune God in the dispensing of the Divine Trinity.
In the divine dispensing we simultaneously experience and enjoy grace, love, and fellowship. While we are enjoying the fellowship of the Spirit, we also have the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God. The more we live in the fellowship of the Spirit, the more we receive the grace of Christ; the more we receive the grace of Christ, the more we enjoy the love of God. The fellowship of the Holy Spirit issues in the grace of Christ, and in the grace of Christ we receive the love of God. Hence, the love of the Father, the grace of the Son, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit are simultaneously experienced and enjoyed by the believers in the divine dispensing.
First, we want to see the experience and enjoyment of God as the Father in the love of God. What the Father does in His dispensing and in His operating in us is in love and based on love. Love is the source of the Father's dispensing. Hence, when we experience and enjoy the Triune God, we experience and enjoy Him as the Father in the love of God.
The New Testament clearly tells us that "God is love" (1 John 4:8, 16). Such an expression and similar expressions such as "God is light" (1 John 1:5) and "God is Spirit" (John 4:24) are used not in a metaphoric sense but in a predicative sense. They denote and describe the nature of God. Spirit denotes the nature of God's person; love, the nature of God's essence; and light, the nature of God's expression. Both love and light are related to God as life, which is of the Spirit (Rom. 8:2). God, the Spirit, and life are actually one. God is Spirit and the Spirit is life. Within this life are love and light. When the divine love appears to us, it becomes grace, and when the divine light shines on us, it becomes truth.
In the enjoyment of the Father we enjoy Him mainly in love, which is the nature of His essence. This love has been poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us (Rom. 5:5). The love of God is God Himself (1 John 4:8, 16). God has poured out this love in our hearts with the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us. This means that deep in our hearts we have the divine essence, that is, God the Father, who is love. Hence, the pouring out of God's love in our hearts is a matter of God's essence. Because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts, we have love as the essence of God in us, and it is in this love that we experience and enjoy God as the Father.
God regenerated us through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead (1 Pet. 1:3). This means that God has enlivened us with His life, bringing us into a relationship of life, an organic union, with Him. Hence, in the resurrection of the Lord we have the Father's life and God's nature, just as He has. His Father becomes our Father, and His God becomes our God (John 20:17). Thus we are brought into His position—the position of the Son—before God the Father.
Galatians 4:6 says, "And because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, Abba, Father!" God's Son is the embodiment of the divine life (1 John 5:12). Hence, the Spirit of God's Son is the Spirit of life (Rom. 8:2). God gives us His Spirit of life because we are His sons. We have the position with the full right to participate in the Spirit of God, who has the bountiful supply of life. Such a Spirit, the Spirit of the Son of God, is the focus of the blessing of God's promise to Abraham (Gal. 3:14).
Romans 8:15 says that we who have received a spirit of sonship cry in this spirit, "Abba, Father!" whereas Galatians 4:6 says that the Spirit of God's Son is crying in our hearts, "Abba, Father!" This indicates that our regenerated spirit and the Spirit of God are mingled as one, and that the sonship of God is realized by us through our subjective experience in the depth of our being. Abba is an Aramaic word, and Father is the translation of the Greek word Pater. The putting together of these two terms, Abba and Father, gives a deep, sweet, and very intimate sense. Such a term was first used by the Lord Jesus in Gethsemane while He was praying to the Father (Mark 14:36). The combining of the Aramaic title with the Greek title expresses a strong affection in crying to the Father. Such an affectionate cry implies an intimate relationship in life between a genuine son and a begetting father.
The sense we have when we call "Abba, Father" is sweet and intimate. Such a calling involves our emotion as well as our spirit. The Spirit of sonship in our spirit cries "Abba, Father" from our heart. This proves that we have a genuine, bona fide relationship in life with our loving Father. He is our Father and we are His real sons.
Ephesians 4:6 says, "One God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all." All refers to all believers. The Divine Trinity is implied here. Over all refers mainly to the Father, through all to the Son, and in all to the Spirit. God the Father can be in three positions—over all, through all, and in all—because God is triune and even God the Father also is triune. Hence, God the Father has all the positions of the Father, the Son, and the Spirit. As the Father, He is over all; in the Son He is through all; and as the Spirit, He is in all. This shows us that God the Father is involved with the believers in a triune way. The way He is with us is triune.
Whenever the Father reaches us, He does not reach us alone, but He comes with the Son. Furthermore, when the Son comes with the Father, the Son is the Spirit. The Father comes in the Son, and the Son as the Spirit comes with the Father. Hence, when the Father comes, the Son and the Spirit also come. When God the Father comes to us, He always comes to us in the Son, who comes to us as the Spirit. The Triune God—the Father, the Son, and the Spirit—comes to us in a threefold, triune way for the divine dispensing.
When we fellowship with God the Father, we can sense that He is over us, overshadowing us; at the same time, we sense that this loving One is also going through us; and as we continue to fellowship with Him, we sense, even the more, that He dwells in us. His overshadowing us, His going through us, and His dwelling in us are all for the divine dispensing. Therefore, through His overshadowing us, going through us, and indwelling us, God dispenses Himself into us in a triune way. When we experience and enjoy this dispensing, we sense God the Father in three aspects—He is over us, through us, and in us.
The One who is over us, through us, and in us can be seen by us. In Matthew 5:8 the Lord says, "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God." Seeing God is a reward to the pure in heart. This blessing is both for today and for the coming age. To be pure in heart is to be single in purpose, to have the single goal of accomplishing God's will for God's glory (1 Cor. 10:31). If we are pure in heart in seeking God, we will see God.
Of course, this does not mean that we can see God with our physical eyes. Rather, we see Him with our spirit in a pure and single heart. If we have an open spirit and a pure heart, we will see God. Seeing God is an experience and enjoyment of the Father. When we see Him, He will reveal Himself in us, dispense Himself into us, and infuse Himself into our entire being.
God the Father not only is seen by the pure in heart but also draws near to those who draw near to Him. James 4:8 says, "Draw near to God, and He will draw near to you." God can be seen, but we need to be pure in heart. Likewise, God desires to draw near to us, but we need to draw near to Him. If we do not draw near to Him, He will not draw near to us in our experience. His drawing near to us hinges on our taking the initiative first to draw near to Him.
Whenever we draw near to God under the redeeming blood of Christ, we sense that God is near to us. He draws near to us that we may experience and enjoy Him. God shows His love and sympathy toward us by drawing near to us. When He draws near to us, He also comforts us, encourages us, and strengthens us. God the Father is near to those who draw near to Him that He may give them His love, sympathize with them, and comfort, encourage, and strengthen them. Thus, the believers experience and enjoy God as the Father in the love of God.
God the Father receives the worship which the believers render by His Spirit (Phil. 3:3—here the word serve means "serve in worship"). If we worship God the Father by rituals in a religious way, we will not be able to touch Him. However, whenever we worship Him by the Spirit, we are able to touch Him and are brought out of ourselves into the realm of the heavens. When we worship God the Father by the Spirit of God, He is wrought into our whole being that we may experience and enjoy God the Father, whom we worship by the Spirit of God.
The progressing stage of God's full salvation is composed of freedom from sin, sanctification, growth in life, transformation, building up, and maturing. In the initial stage we receive the Triune God—the Father, the Son, and the Spirit— and are joined to Him as one. In the progressing stage we need to further experience and enjoy the processed Triune God in the dispensing of the Divine Trinity, that is, to enjoy God the Father in the love of the Father, Christ the Son in the grace of the Son, and the Spirit in the fellowship of the Spirit. When we experience and enjoy God the Father in the love of God, we first experience and enjoy God as our Father. God regenerated us through the resurrection of Christ and brought us into a relationship of life with Him. Thus, we have both the Father's life and nature, just as Christ has, and become God's children. Whenever we fellowship with the Father, we can sense that He is over us, overshadowing us; that He is through us, going through us; and that He is dwelling in us. Moreover, God the Father can be seen by us. If we are pure in heart in seeking God, we will see Him, and He will reveal Himself in us, dispense Himself into us, and infuse Himself into our entire being. Furthermore, when we draw near to Him, He will draw near to us in order that He may give us His love, sympathize with us, and comfort, encourage, and strengthen us. At the same time, He also receives the worship which we render by His Spirit that He may be wrought into our whole being for us to experience and enjoy Him.
