Scripture Reading: 1 John 4:1-6
Our burden in the Lord’s recovery is to minister the Triune God as life and everything to us so that we may enjoy all that He is. Concerning this, we stand on the shoulders of the great teachers of the Bible who have gone before us. We have learned much from the experiences of others. We have studied church history, biographies, and the most important writings of the great teachers from the early centuries until the present. All this has been very helpful to us. Of course, we have also studied the Bible for ourselves. Therefore, we surely know where we are, and we have the assurance regarding the accuracy of whatever the Lord has led us to say in the ministry.
As the result of many years’ experience and study, we have come to see that, according to the entire revelation in the Bible, God’s intention is to work Himself into us so that He may be our life and that we may live by Him to be His expression. This is God’s intention. In order for God to accomplish this intention, it is necessary for Him to be triune. Apart from being triune, that is, without being the Father, the Son, and the Spirit, God would not have a way to work Himself into us. In order to work Himself into us, God must first impart Himself to us, dispense Himself into us. If He could not do this, He could not work Himself into us to be our life. It would be impossible for the Triune God to be our life if He remained merely as the One outside of us in whom we believe, whom we worship, and for whom we work. In order for God to be our life, He must dispense Himself into us, and in order for this dispensing to be carried out, God must be the Father, the Son, and the Spirit.
God created man in His own image for the purpose of dispensing Himself into man so that man may become His expression. God’s purpose in creating man was that man would be His container enjoying Him as life in order to express Him. Man, however, became fallen. After man fell, God Himself became a man. It was God the Son, not God the Father or God the Spirit, who became a man. Nevertheless, the Son came in the name of the Father and with the Father. Many Christians emphasize only that the Son came and neglect the fact that the Son came in the name of the Father and with the Father. Some theologians have even said that when the Son of God came, the Father was left in the heavens. In contrast to this natural, human concept, the New Testament reveals that when the Son came, He never left the Father. The Lord Jesus said clearly that He was not alone, for the Father was with Him. In John 8:29 He said, “He who sent Me is with Me; He has not left Me alone.” In John 16:32 the Lord said, “Behold, an hour is coming and has come, when you shall be scattered each to his own, and shall leave Me alone; and I am not alone, because the Father is with Me.” During His life on earth, the Father was with Him. Hence, when the Son came to be a man, He lived as a man in the name of the Father and with the Father.
The Lord Jesus even said that, while He was on earth as a man, He was in the Father and the Father was in Him. In John 10:38 He said, “Though you do not believe Me, believe the works, that you may know and believe that the Father is in Me and I in the Father.” Then in John 14:10 and 11 He said, in response to Philip’s request that He show them the Father, “Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father is in Me? The words which I speak to you, I do not speak from Myself; but the Father who abides in Me, He does His works. Believe Me that I am in the Father and the Father in Me.” This is a matter not only of the coexistence of the Father and the Son, but also of the coinherence of the Father and the Son. This means that the Father and the Son exist in each other. Therefore, the Father and the Son coexist in the way of coinherence. Because the Son came with the Father and in the name of the Father and because He coexists in the way of co-inherence with the Father, He is called the eternal Father (Isa. 9:6). We cannot analyze this or systematize it. Instead of trying to analyze or systematize the Triune God, we should simply accept the facts as revealed in the Bible.
Have you ever heard that when the Son came, He came in the name of the Father and with the Father? As we have said already, some Christians have the impression that when the Son of God came, He came by Himself, leaving the Father on the throne. These Christians have not been taught according to the Scriptures that when the Son of God came as a man, He came with the Father. The Father was in Him, and He was in the Father. This was the reason He could say that He was never alone, for the Father was with Him, even at the time of His persecution. As we have pointed out from the Gospel of John, the Father was with the Son in the way of coinherence.
Those under the influence of traditional theology may still think that when the Son of God came, He left the Father on the throne. According to this concept, while the Son was living in Nazareth and while He was carrying out His ministry, the Father was on the throne in the heavens watching Him. What is revealed concerning the Father and the Son in the Gospel of John is very different. John 1:1 says, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” By this we see not only that Christ, the Word, was with God, but that He is God. According to John 1:14, the Word became flesh; that is, Christ became a man, God incarnate. In His teaching and preaching the Lord affirmed that He came in the name of the Father and with the Father. He also told both the Jewish religionists and His disciples that He was not alone, for the Father was always with Him. Furthermore, He revealed to His disciples that He is in the Father and the Father is in Him. Therefore, it is altogether inaccurate to say that when the Son came, He left the Father on the throne.
When the Son was on earth, He lived in the Father, and the Father lived in Him. The Son never spoke His own word; He spoke the Father’s word. The Son never did His own work; He did the Father’s work. The Son never sought His own glory; He sought the Father’s glory. What we have in the Gospel of John, therefore, is a revelation of the Son with the Father. Hence, Isaiah 9:6 says that the Son given to us is called the eternal Father. John 3:16 says that God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son. Yes, God gave His Son to us; yet the name of His Son is called the eternal Father! Some have tried to explain Isaiah 9:6 by saying that the Son is only called the Father but actually is not the Father. How ridiculous! The Son came with the Father and in the name of the Father; He also lived in the Father, and the Father lived in Him. Here we have both the Son and the Father, for we have the Son with the Father. Of course, there is still a distinction between the Son and the Father. But although there is a distinction between the Son and the Father, the Gospel of John clearly reveals that the Son is in the Father and that the Father is in the Son. This is the reason the Son could say, “I and the Father are one” (John 10:30).
After the Son died on the cross and was buried, in resurrection He became the life-giving Spirit. This means that the Father is in the Son and that the Son became the life-giving Spirit. This is the Spirit spoken of in John 7:39 “But this He said concerning the Spirit, whom those who believed in Him were about to receive; for the Spirit was not yet, because Jesus was not yet glorified.” Now when we preach the gospel concerning Christ the Son and people believe in Him and call on His name, they receive not only the Son, but also the Father and the Spirit, for all three are one. The Son came with the Father, and the Spirit comes not only with the Son but as the reality of the Son with the Father. We need to be clear that the Son came with the Father and the Spirit came not only with the Son but as the reality of the Son. Furthermore, all three — the Father, the Son, and the Spirit — coinhere. This is the Triune God — the Father, the Son, and the Spirit as the one God — as revealed in the Bible.
When the Triune God reaches us today, He comes as the Spirit. The moving of this Spirit is the anointing within (1 John 2:27). The Triune God dwells in us as the all-inclusive, compound, life-giving Spirit, and this Spirit is the ointment moving within. We do not have merely one third of the Triune God; that is, we do not have the Holy Spirit apart from the Son and the Father. We should not have the concept that one third of the Triune God is in us and that the other two thirds are in the heavens. The entire Triune God — the Spirit as the reality of the Son with the Father — dwells in us as the anointing oil. Furthermore, He is not dormant within us; rather, He is living, moving, acting. This is the anointing, which is the Triune God as the all-inclusive Spirit moving in us to saturate us with God’s essence. First this Spirit is life to us, and then He becomes everything to us, including our nature, constituent, virtues, attributes, power, wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, redemption, kindness, humility.
What we have been speaking in this message is the central view of the entire divine revelation according to the sixty-six books of the Bible. Concerning this matter, the first Epistle of John is the continuation of the Gospel of John. The Gospel of John reveals that Christ has come to accomplish everything for God’s economy, and now He is ready for us to receive Him by believing in Him. After we receive Him, we should love Him, and through His love we should love the brothers. The first Epistle of John tells us how to enjoy the Triune God, who is the divine life to us. We enjoy Him by remaining, abiding, dwelling, in the divine fellowship. As long as we stay in this fellowship, we shall enjoy the Triune God as love and light. The Triune God is within us for our enjoyment.
When John wrote his first Epistle, there were certain heretical teachings regarding the Person of Christ. One of these heresies claimed that Jesus was not Christ. This heresy denied the deity of Jesus. Such a heretical teaching nullifies the enjoyment of the Triune God.
Another heresy concerning Christ’s Person claimed that Christ was God, but denied that He became flesh. According to this heresy, Christ was God, but He was not a man. Due to the influence of Gnosticism, those who taught this heresy said that matter is inherently evil. Then these heretics went on to say that Christ as the holy God could not possibly have become flesh. Therefore, they claimed that Christ’s physical body was merely a phantasm. This means that they did not believe that He had an actual material body. This heresy also eliminates the enjoyment of the all-inclusive Christ.
In the second section of this Epistle (2:12-27), John tells the “little children” (2:12) that they have an anointing from the Holy One (2:20) and that this anointing teaches them concerning all things (2:27). John seems to be saying, “The anointing is the moving and saturating of the Triune God within you. This inner anointing teaches you all things concerning the Triune God. Do not listen to Cerinthus and his followers or to the Docetists. They are false prophets.” Moreover, these false prophets were antichrists (2:18, 22; 4:3), for they were anti some aspect of Christ. They have a spirit which does not have its source in God, which is not out of God: “And every spirit which does not confess Jesus, is not out of God; and this is the spirit of the antichrist, of which you have heard that it is coming, and now is already in the world” (4:3).
As we pointed out in foregoing messages, there is more than one antichrist. Antichrist is anyone who is anti something of Christ. To be an antichrist is to be against Christ and to replace Christ with something else.
In the first century Satan in his subtlety used the Cerinthians and the Docetists to frustrate Christians from the enjoyment of the Triune God and even to cut them off from this enjoyment. By the time of the Council of Nicea (A.D. 325) doctrine that seemed to be orthodox concerning the Triune God had been established. The Nicene Creed is commonly considered a statement of orthodox doctrine. However, this creed actually is not complete concerning the Person of Christ. This creed does not indicate clearly that the Son came in the name of the Father and with the Father and even is called the eternal Father. Neither does this creed make it clear that the Son in His resurrection became the life-giving Spirit. Moreover, this creed does not say that the Spirit of God eventually consummates in the seven Spirits. In addition, the Nicene Creed does not have a clear statement concerning Christ as the Firstborn of God’s creation. By this we can see that only the Bible is complete. No creed is complete.
In his subtlety Satan, the enemy, tries to cut off certain basic items of what Christ is in His Person. Hence, those who follow the creeds and traditional teaching may emphasize only that Jesus Christ is the Son of God incarnate. They may not see that Christ is also the Father, the Spirit, and the Firstborn of God’s creation. The effect of this subtlety is to present a Christ who is not all-inclusive. But the Christ revealed in the Bible is all-inclusive. He is God, and He is man. He is the Son, the Father, and the Spirit. He is also the Creator and the Firstborn of the creatures. According to the Bible, Christ is still a man, and He has a spiritual body that can be touched (John 20:27). Today the Christ who is on the throne in the heavens still has a human nature (Matt. 26:64; Acts 7:56).
Christ is the first in God’s old creation and also the first in resurrection, that is, in God’s new creation (Col. 1:15, 18). This all-inclusive One is our power, wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, redemption, life, life supply, and all our human virtues, including kindness, humility, patience, and meekness. This wonderful One is our enjoyment, our feast, our new moon, our Sabbath, our food, our drink, and our clothing. Truly, the Christ revealed in the Bible is all-inclusive.
Because we minister the all-inclusiveness of Christ as revealed in the Bible, some falsely accuse us of teaching pantheism. They claim that we teach that everything is God. This accusation is utterly false, and we repudiate it. However, we are not fighting for doctrine but for the enjoyment of the all-inclusive Christ.
We have seen that one subtlety of the enemy is to deny certain aspects of Christ and thereby restrict Him and make Him no longer all-inclusive. Another subtlety is to deny that the Triune God is subjective to us for experience and enjoyment and to present the Divine Trinity merely as an objective doctrine for religion. The religion of many Christians is based on the creeds. In certain denominations the Apostles’ Creed is recited in their services every week. Many of those who recite the creed have no experience of the Triune God. To them, the Divine Trinity is merely a belief in doctrine. But the Bible reveals that the Triune God is not merely the object of our faith; He is subjective to us, dwelling in us to be our life and life supply. Daily, even hourly, we need to experience Him and enjoy Him in this way. This is confirmed by the word concerning the enjoyment of the Triune God in 2 Corinthians 13:14.
The Bible reveals clearly that the Triune God, after passing through the process of incarnation, human living, crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension, has consummated in the all-inclusive Spirit, who has come to dwell in our spirit. Hallelujah for the wonderful all-inclusive Spirit dwelling in our human spirit! Our spirit may be a small organ, but this Spirit nonetheless dwells in it.
A human being can be compared to a transistor radio. Such a radio has a receiving apparatus that enables it to receive radio waves. When the radio is tuned properly, it will play music. We may say that we human beings are like transistor radios, and that the receiving apparatus is our human spirit. When our receiver is properly tuned, we enjoy heavenly music. This is an illustration of the enjoyment of the Triune God, who is now the life-giving Spirit dwelling in our regenerated human spirit. This is the reason we stress the importance of the human spirit. It is by our spirit that we touch, enjoy, and experience the all-inclusive Spirit.
According to the Scriptures, we testify strongly that our Lord today is not merely a part of the Triune God — He is the embodiment of the entire Triune God, the Son with the Father and as the Spirit. In our experience today, He is the Spirit as the reality of the Son with the Father to be our life for our enjoyment. Realizing that He is such a wonderful One, we do not care for dead doctrines, vain religion, or meaningless rituals. Our concern is to have the daily experience and enjoyment of the Triune God.
