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Scripture Reading: John 4:32, 34; 5:19, 30; 7:18; 15:5; 6:38-57; 14:19-20; 17:21-23
Matthew and John are different in many aspects, but as we have seen in the last chapter, they are also very much alike. One reveals that Jesus is the King, and the other shows us that Jesus is the very God. Both of them, however, tell us that this wonderful person is going to be with us and within us. This is His purpose. Whether He is this kind of person or that kind of person, His purpose is the same—to be with us and within us.
In this chapter we need to see another point that is covered by both of these books. This is the matter of the Triune God. There are sixty-six books in the Bible, but none are so clear on the Triune God as Matthew and John. In the last chapter of Matthew it is revealed that the Triune God is the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit: “Go therefore and disciple all the nations, baptizing them into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit” (28:19).
From the Hebrew text, we see that in Genesis 1:1, the word God as the subject of the sentence is plural in number. “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” But the word created as the predicate of the sentence is singular. This is quite meaningful. The subject is plural, but the predicate is singular. In the first verse of the Bible, the Triune God is revealed in a secret way. It is not so clear unless you know the numbers of the Hebrew language.
Then in Genesis 1:26 God uses the plural pronouns us and our to denote Himself: “God said, Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness.” This really causes a problem. Is God singular or plural? If we say that God is singular, why does He use the plural pronoun for Himself? And if we say that God is plural, it is the greatest heresy. We know that we do not have three gods but only one God. Yet how can we understand these verses? It is very difficult to understand this matter completely. In a sense, the Triune God is one of the greatest mysteries in the universe.
From Genesis 1, we go on to Genesis 3. After the fall of man, God again uses the plural pronoun for Himself. “Jehovah God said, Behold, the man has become like one of Us, knowing good and evil” (v. 22).
In Genesis 11 men had become so rebellious against God that they built the tower of Babel and the city of Babel. Then God said, “Come, let Us go down and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another’s speech” (v. 7). Again we see that God uses the plural pronoun in referring to Himself.
When God uses the plural pronoun for Himself, it is always related to man. When God created man, He used the plural pronoun for Himself. When God took care of fallen man, He used the plural pronoun again. And when God came to deal with rebellious man, He used the plural pronoun. This means that the Triune God is for God’s dealing with man. In Genesis 1, when God was creating all the other things, He never used the plural pronoun for Himself. It seems that to all the other creatures, God was just God Himself. But whenever God is related to man, He is triune.
There is another occasion in the Old Testament when God uses the plural pronoun for Himself, and it is also related to man. It is found in Isaiah 6:8. Isaiah saw God on the throne, and then he heard God ask the question, “Who will go for Us ?”
Hence, we see that whether God created man, took care of fallen man, came to deal with rebellious man, or sent someone to proclaim something to man, He was triune. God’s relationship to man was almost always related to His being triune.
In the New Testament there are two books that reveal that God is triune more clearly. In the first book of the New Testament, Matthew, we see how God became incarnated, born of a virgin, to be a man called Jesus (1:21-23). The very God through the incarnation became a man. Then, after He died and resurrected, He became the Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45). This is why, in the last chapter of Matthew, the Lord told His disciples to go and disciple the nations, baptizing them into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit (28:19).
It is at this point in the Bible that the Triune God is clearly revealed. Now we know that the “Us” in Genesis 1:26 is revealed in Matthew 28:19 as the Father, the Son, and the Spirit. Does this mean that there are three gods? No, there is only one God, because Matthew 28:19 speaks of three persons but only one name. The Lord told them to baptize the nations into the name, not the names. Strictly speaking, the word persons is not adequate to describe the Triune God. If you press the word persons too far, you will have three gods. The Father, Son, and Spirit are one God revealed in the Bible.
Why must God be the Father, the Son, and the Spirit? As we have seen in the Old Testament, it is for God to deal with man. In the New Testament it is further revealed that it is for God to dispense Himself into us. The Triune God is for the dispensing of Himself into man.
We should not think that the Son of God is separate from God Himself. The Son of God is God expressing Himself (John 1:1, 14, 18). The Son of God is the expression of God Himself. And God is the Spirit to reach us and get into us. This is our Triune God. In the Gospel of Matthew, the Trinity is clearly revealed not as a doctrine but as a dispensation. He is the Father, the Son, and the Spirit. Now He charges us to baptize people into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, that is, to baptize them into this Triune God. This is for dispensing Himself into us.
In the Gospel of John it is the same. John does not mention the Father, the Son, and the Spirit all in one sentence as Matthew does. But John does mention the Father, the Son, and the Spirit many times. In this Gospel the Lord Jesus speaks of how He was sent by the Father, and that He can do nothing of Himself: “I can do nothing from Myself...I do not seek My own will but the will of Him who sent Me” (5:30).
The Lord Jesus also mentions in the Gospel of John that when the Son speaks, the Father does the works: “Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in Me? The words that I say to you I do not speak from Myself, but the Father who abides in Me does His works” (14:10). How could one speak and another do the works? But the Lord Jesus said that He speaks and the Father does the works, because He and the Father are one. John 14:10 is a big verse! Here the Lord says that He is in the Father and the Father is in Him. The words that He speaks to us are not of Himself, but the Father who abides in Him does the work. In brief, the Lord was saying that He speaks and the Father does the works, because He and the Father are one.
Then in the same chapter, the Spirit is also mentioned. “I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Comforter, that He may be with you forever, even the Spirit of reality, whom the world cannot receive, because it does not behold Him or know Him; but you know Him, because He abides with you and shall be in you” (vv. 16-17). So we see that John tells us about the Father, the Son, and the Spirit, and yet They are One. The Father is in the Son, and the Son becomes the Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45) in order to be in us forever. This is why the Lord prayed in John 17, “That they all may be one; even as You, Father, are in Me and I in You, that they also may be in Us” (v. 21).
The Triune God is clearly revealed in the Gospels of Matthew and John more than any other books in the Bible. Of course, there are some verses in the Epistles that show us the Trinity. One such verse is Ephesians 2:18: “Through Him we both have access in one Spirit unto the Father.” It is through the Son that we have access in one Spirit unto the Father. This clearly reveals the Triune God. But it is not for doctrine; it is for dispensing God into us. The Trinity is for the application of the rich God to us. Through the Son, in one Spirit, we have access unto the Father.
There is another verse in 2 Corinthians 13:14 that shows us the purpose of the Trinity: “The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.” The grace of Christ is the grace of the Son. The love of God is the love of the Father. And this comes to us through the fellowship of the Holy Spirit. There is the Father with love, the Son with grace, and the Spirit with the fellowship, and this is for us all! It is clear that this is not something of doctrine. This is for application! This is for dispensing! Love is of the Father, grace is of the Son, and fellowship is of the Spirit. Love, grace, and fellowship are three in one. Love is the source, grace is the course, and fellowship is the application.
The Gospel of John really speaks of the Father as the source. The Lord said, “I can do nothing from Myself” (5:30). This is because He is not the source. The Father is the source. The Father sends the Son, and the Son lives by the Father (6:57). Suppose I send a brother over to a certain place. I send him there, but I am here. In no way could he say that he lives by me. In this way the sent one cannot live by the sender, because the two are separate. But it is different with the Son and the Father. The Son is the sent One, and the Father is the Sender. Yet the Sender is always one with the sent One. Hence, the Son can say that the Father sent Him, and He lives by the Father. The Father goes in His sending. He goes in the sent One. The Father is always with the Son (8:29; 16:32).
The Father, Son, and Spirit are for dispensing and application. For dispensing Himself into us, the one God needs to be the Father, the Son, and the Spirit. The two Gospels of Matthew and John are very much alike in the way of the Trinity because both these books tell us that the Triune God is with us and going to be in us. Hence, He must be in three persons in order to come into us and be with us forever.
Most people only believe in the Trinity as a doctrine. But we believe in the Trinity for application and for dispensing. “The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit.” This should not be merely a doctrine or a teaching. The Triune God is for the dispensing.
Now we need to see that the dispensing of the Triune God is so that Christ may be our life supply for the producing of the bride. This is for the building up of the church. Christ is our life, our light, our food supply, our water, our air, our everything! He is everything to us for producing the bride. The church is a collection of believers. But, essentially speaking, the church is not an organization but an organism. A chair is an organization of pieces of wood, but my body is built up together by the organic life. All the members of my body are together not by being organized but by something of life within.
The Body of Christ is not a religious organization but an organism in life, and the only way such an organism can be produced is by Christ being life to us. He is our life, and He is everything to us. This is why He must be our person. We have our own personality, but if we mean business with the Lord for the church life, we must take Him as our person. The most successful marriage is when the wife takes her husband as her person. In all weddings, whether ancient or modern, Eastern or Western, the bride always puts something on her head. This means that to have a successful marriage, the wife must be covered by her husband; she must take her husband as her person.
There are so many divorces today because there are two heads in one marriage life. The man likes to be the head, and the woman likes to be the head upon the head. Eventually, they divorce. All the married sisters must realize that on their wedding day their head was replaced. This is the principle of the Bible. It is not a kind of ordinance or regulation; it is the only way a marriage can stand.
In the church life Christ is our real Husband. Therefore, we must put aside our person and take Him as our person. When He was on the earth, although He had a personality, He never lived by Himself; He always lived by the person of the Father. He said that He spoke nothing of Himself. Whatever He spoke, He spoke by the Father. He was not the source; the Father was His source. He had a person, but He did not live by His person. He lived by another person, the Father. He had a will, but He said that it was not His will but the Father’s will that must be done (Matt. 26:39). His will was always subdued to the Father’s will. He did everything by the will of God.
This must be typified in the marriage life. The wife must not do anything by her own will. She must always act and live by the person of her husband. She must put off her likes and dislikes and take him as her person. Sometimes we try to pray when we already know what the Lord wants. If we take the Lord as our person, we do not need to pray that much. It is possible to pray many prayers yet never take the Lord as our person.
In the Gospel of John we see a man who is the expression of God. Yet this man does not live by Himself but by another person. In the church life, as individuals, we all must put aside our person and take the very Lord within us as our person. If we all do this, we being many are one body. We are one new man with one unique person. This corporate man does not express anything of the different individuals. Everything is of the one person. In this way the church is the expression of Christ, because the whole church takes Him as her person.
There is another portion of John that we must see. “When He, the Spirit of reality, comes, He will guide you into all the reality; for He will not speak from Himself, but what He hears He will speak; and He will declare to you the things that are coming. He will glorify Me, for He will receive of Mine and will declare it to you” (16:13-14). The Lord Jesus said that the Spirit will speak nothing of Himself, just as the Son spoke nothing of Himself. The Spirit will make all that the Son is real to us. All that the Father has is in the Son, and all that the Son is, is realized by the Spirit. So here we see the matter of the Triune God again. The Spirit reveals to us all the matters of life and makes all the things of the Son real to us. This is the application. This is the dispensation of the Triune God into us. The Father is in the Son, and the Son is now the speaking Spirit, reaching us, indwelling us, making everything of the Son so real to us, and applying all that the Son is to us.
The only thing we must now do is to put aside our person, our way of life, and take Him as our person and His will as our will. Then we will live only by Him. The Lord Jesus said, “As the living Father has sent Me and I live because of the Father, so he who eats Me, he also shall live because of Me” (6:57). This is living by Christ, taking Him as our person. If we live this kind of life, we are qualified for the church life. There will be no division, no disputations, and no quarrels among us, because there will only be one person living in the new man and expressing the Triune God. This is the church life.
The Lord Jesus also said, “Because I live, you also shall live. In that day you will know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you” (14:19-20). This is the Triune God living as one within us, and we all are one, living in the Triune God. The church life is the Triune God living in all the believers, and all the believers living by the Triune God. He is within us, and we are within Him. He and we, we and He, are one corporate entity composed of the mingling of divinity and humanity. We are all one in the Triune God, taking Christ as our unique person. This is absolutely different from religion. This is the reality of a living person taken by us in our daily life. It is in this unique person that we are one and have the church life.
In John, the Lord Jesus was revealed as the very Son of God, the very expression of the Father. He did nothing of Himself and spoke nothing of Himself. He denied His person and took the Father as His person. He took the Father’s will as His will. He did not express Himself but the Father. This is the church life—a group of Christians forgetting their own person and taking another one as their person. Thus, the whole church becomes a new man with one person. The new man is the church, and the person of the new man is Christ. We all must put aside our person and take Christ as our person. Then we are one.
Christians today talk much about oneness. But as long as we do not take Christ as our person, there is no real oneness. The real oneness among us is the person of Christ being applied by us all. We must not live, walk, or do things by our own person, but rather take Christ as our person. In this way, simultaneously, we are all taking the same person, and we will be one. There are many beings but only one head. This is the only way to have oneness and unity. It is not a kind of agreement among many individuals. The unity among the church is the one Christ taken by all His members as their one person. They all take Him as their unique person. They are many, yet their person is one. The oneness of this one person is the real unity of the church life.
