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Scripture Reading: John 1:1, 14; 3:16; 12:24; 20:8-9, 19, 22; 15:1, 4-5, 8, 16a; 3:3-6; 4:10, 14; 7:37-39; 6:48, 57b-58a, 63; 21:15; 10:16; 3:29-30
We know that the Gospel of John is a book in the Bible that specifically speaks of God as our life. There are mainly four kinds of life. The first is the plant life, such as the flowering plants, the shrubs, and the trees. The second is the animal life. It is higher than the plant life and includes such things as the insects, the livestock, the beasts, the fish, and the birds. God created all these according to their kind. The third kind is the human life. It is higher than the animal life. According to the revelation of the Bible, man is not of the same kind as the other creatures; he was created in the image and likeness of God. Hence, as far as his life is concerned, man is of God’s kind.
Genesis 1 speaks of God’s creation. God created all kinds of living creatures. The lowest form is the plant life; next is the animal life. Then comes the human life. This is a high form of life, yet it is not the highest. God spent six days to create. After all the other things were created, He created man, and then He entered into rest. Hence, God worked, and man enjoyed His rest. In chapter 2, we see another kind of life, which is the life of the tree of life. This is the uncreated life of God. It is a superior life and the highest kind of life. Although human life is not the highest, it resembles God’s life, and it is according to God’s kind.
The Gospel of John is a book specifically on life. But it is not on the plant life or the animal life. Neither is it on the human life. Rather, it is on God coming to be man’s life. God has given us His life. When we receive Him, He enters into us and becomes our life. To us, this is the gospel and salvation. Based on this, we can say that our former concept of the preaching of the gospel was not entirely correct. We thought that to preach the gospel was to speak of the washing away of sins, redemption, justification, and reconciliation. When a person became clear and understood these matters, he needed to pray, and then he was saved. But after this there was still the need of a pre-baptism oral examination. If this person passed the examination, he could be baptized, and only then could he be considered to have completed the process. Today we are much clearer concerning the truth. We realize that the way we took was wrong. As a result, we have changed.
Consider the Samaritan woman in John 4. We see that the Lord did not speak to her about the washing away of sin, redemption, or justification. He did not speak of crucifixion or resurrection. The Lord only told her that He was able to give to her the living water. The woman believed, and she recognized the Lord as the coming Messiah. She left her waterpot and went into the city, testifying to all the people. This proves that she had believed and had received. Although her knowledge of salvation was limited, she was genuinely saved. We can consider another example—that of Zaccheus’s salvation. He was a chief tax collector, and he had often taken from others by false accusation. One day the Lord came expressly to Jericho to seek after him. He told him, “Today I must stay in your house.” Zaccheus gladly received Jesus. The Lord said, “Today salvation has come to this house” (Luke 19:1-10). Hence, a man is not saved through the understanding of some doctrines. Rather, man obtains God’s salvation through receiving the Lord Jesus.
My subject in this chapter is the divine dispensing and the union and mingling of the Triune God with the believers. The divine dispensing refers to God’s distribution of Himself into all the believers as their life. How can this be done? This is a mystery. I cannot describe it, but I know definitely that the complete God is in me. He is also in you. The same God is at the same time in all of us. Moreover, with this divine dispensing, there is the union and mingling of the Triune God with the believers. Union is outward, whereas mingling is inward. When we put on our clothing, we have a union with it. When we eat our food, we are mingled with it. We the believers have, on the one hand, put on Christ (Gal. 3:27) as our righteous garment for our covering. This is our union with Him through believing and baptism into Him. On the other hand, He is our living water for us to drink of Him. He is also our spiritual food for us to eat Him. When we eat and drink of Him, He enters into us and is mingled with us to become our constitution and our element. Every time we break the bread, there are two symbols on the table. One is the bread as a symbol of the Lord’s body, and the other is the cup as a symbol of the Lord’s blood. For us to eat, drink, and receive Him is our true remembrance of Him.
Hence, the divine dispensing is simply God working Himself into all of us to be joined to us and mingled with us. The whole book of John shows us this matter clearly. God has not separated Himself from His life. Rather, He has dispensed Himself as life, righteousness, sanctification, redemption (1 Cor. 1:30), and everything to us. Whether or not we understand this matter, as long as we receive God into us, we have everything. Hence, it is not a matter of understanding but a matter of receiving. If there are gospel friends here, all you need to do is to open up yourself, call on the Lord Jesus, and receive Him. Whether or not you understand redemption or justification is secondary. As long as you receive Him, you will gradually understand everything. Eat Him first, then talk about everything else later. This can be compared to the food that we eat every day. We do not understand all the nutrition contained in it. But when we eat all the different foods, we receive all the nutrition.
The Gospel of John states explicitly that “in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God” (1:1). This Word is none other than God Himself. He is the explanation, the expression, and the manifestation of the mysterious God. One day, this God who is the Word became flesh (v. 14a). He entered into a virgin’s womb and was conceived there. After being there for nine months according to God’s law in creation, He was born as a complete man. He is the One referred to in Isaiah 9:6: “A child is born to us, / A Son is given to us; / ...And His name will be called / ...Mighty God, / Eternal Father.” This child who was born is the mighty God. He is the Son, and He is also the eternal Father. Outwardly speaking, He is a man, but inside He is God. For this reason man calls His name Emmanuel, which means “God with us” (Matt. 1:23). He is God, and He is man. He is a wonderful God-man.
When this eternal God became a man through becoming flesh, He was full of grace and reality (John 1:14). This grace is the gift that God gave to us, which we are not worthy to receive. But it is not a matter of some outward things, which are at most material blessings. Rather, it is God Himself as our enjoyment. And the reality is simply God Himself gained by us. When God is enjoyed by us, it is grace, and when God is gained by us, it is reality. This God who is full of grace and reality is not only enjoyed by us but is also gained by us. Without Him there is no gain. Take Him away, and there is vanity. Hence, God desires to dispense Himself to us to be our grace and reality. This grace and reality is the very divine fullness of the Triune God spoken of in John 1:16, of which we have received, grace upon grace.
John 3:16 says, “God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that everyone who believes into Him would not perish, but would have eternal life.” This eternal life is nothing other than God’s beloved Son. When we believe into Him, God dispenses this Son into us so that we receive Him as eternal life.
For the accomplishment of the divine dispensing of the Divine Trinity, the Son went through a further step of crucifixion on the cross. He voluntarily offered Himself to accomplish an all-inclusive death, not only to deal with sin, the old man, Satan, the world, the old creation, and all the negative things but also to release the divine life, as the one grain of wheat falling into the ground, and to dispense it into all the members of His Body (12:24).
Three days after the Son died, He resurrected. In His resurrection He was transfigured to become the life-giving Spirit. The same evening, Jesus came into the midst of the disciples and appeared to them. He greeted them and breathed into them. In this way, they received the Holy Spirit (20:8-9, 19, 22). This Spirit is the ultimate consummation of the Triune God attained through incarnation, crucifixion, and resurrection, by which the Triune God is dispensed into the believers.
The Triune God passed through all the processes to become ultimately the life-giving Spirit to be dispensed into all the believers. Through this, the dispensing Triune God is organically joined to all the believers. This union is like the union between the branches of a vine with the vine tree (15:5a). The branches of a vine and the vine tree share the same life and have the same living. The two abide mutually in one another as the result of the life union (v. 4).
The divine dispensing of the Divine Trinity results in not only an organic union but an organic mingling. When we believe into Christ and are regenerated, we receive God’s Spirit of life as the pneumatic Christ in our spirit. Thus, the Triune God is organically mingled with the regenerated believers (3:3-6). By this, the divine attributes of the Triune God—God’s love, Christ’s grace, and the Spirit’s fellowship—are with us (2 Cor. 13:14). Love is the source, grace is the expression, and fellowship is the reaching to us. God’s love is simply God Himself as the source of the grace of the Lord. The fellowship of the Spirit is simply the Spirit Himself as the transmission of the grace of the Lord with the love of God dispensed into us for our participation and enjoyment. These are not three separate things but three aspects of one thing. This is God in His trinity dispensing Himself into the believers.
Now God has accomplished this divine dispensing. What glad tidings! All things are ready. We can now come to the feast (Luke 14:17) to breathe God in and to eat and drink of God, that is, to breathe in the pneumatic Christ as air, that Christ may be mingled with us for our existence (John 20:22), to drink of the pneumatic Christ as the living water, that Christ may be mingled organically with us in our living (4:10, 14; 7:37-38), and to eat of Christ as our spiritual food in the living word, that Christ may be mingled organically with us in life element (6:48, 57b-58a). Hence, whatever we breathe, drink, and eat becomes ours. Not only is it joined to us, but it is mingled with us. In this way all that God is and has becomes ours. We have God’s life and nature. We also have justification, sanctification, and redemption, together with all the human virtues, such as patience, humility, and obedience.
As long as we continually breathe Him in and eat and drink of Him day by day, we will spontaneously grow in the bountiful supply of Christ as the true vine, and we will be bountifully supplied organically in the matter of fruit-bearing (15:1, 4-5).
When we enjoy and apply the divine dispensing of the Divine Trinity and are joined outwardly and mingled inwardly with Christ, the following results will be produced: (1) out of us will flow rivers of living water (7:37-39); (2) we will bear fruits of life (15:1, 4-5); (3) we will be able to feed the lambs in the flock (21:15; 10:16); (4) we will become the bride of Christ, His counterpart, which is the Body of Christ as His ultimate increase (3:6b, 29-30); and (5) we will become the organism of the processed Triune God, which, as the universal vine tree in John 15 (vv. 1, 5, 8), becomes the concrete, corporate, and great manifestation of the Triune God.
