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Scripture Reading: 1 Thes. 1:1; 2 Thes. 1:1; Matt. 28:19; Acts 19:5; Rom. 6:3; Gal. 3:27; Rev. 1:11-12
Both 1 Thessalonians 1:1 and 2 Thessalonians 1:1 tell us that the church is in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. I would ask you to carefully consider the expression “the church in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.” Suppose Paul had written in a brief way and had simply said “the church in God and Christ.” It may seem to us that it is adequate to speak of the church in God and Christ instead of the church in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. The longer description of the church contains three names not found in the shorter: the Father, the Lord, and Jesus.
By reading the New Testament we realize that the first basic matter concerning the divine titles is the revelation of the name of the Father. When the Lord Jesus came and lived on earth in the flesh, what He mainly did was reveal the name of the Father to His disciples. For example, in His prayer to the Father recorded in John 17, the Lord Jesus said, “I have manifested Your name to the men whom You gave Me out of the world” (v. 6). The Lord also said to the Father, “And I have made Your name known to them, and will make it known” (John 17:26). It is a matter of great significance to know the Father. It is a great thing to know God, but it is an even greater thing to know the Father.
It is also important that we pay adequate attention to the title Lord. In the Old Testament this was used as a divine title. It was not a simple matter for the man Jesus to become the Lord. According to Acts 2, after His resurrection and ascension, Christ was made Lord of all. This means that a man, even a Nazarene, has become Lord of all. As applied to the Lord Jesus, the title Lord implies incarnation, human living, crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension. It was through such a process that the man Jesus was made Lord of all.
Before the incarnation, Christ as God was already the Lord. However, He was the Lord, the Creator. But today, after a process going from incarnation to ascension, the man Jesus has been made Lord. As applied to Christ in the New Testament, this title is rich in meaning. Christ is not only the Creator, but the One who was incarnate, who lived on earth for thirty-three and a half years, who was crucified, who was resurrected, and who has ascended to the heavens. By His crucifixion Christ accomplished redemption, terminated the old creation, destroyed Satan and death, and abolished every separation between God and man and also all the separations between men. Hallelujah for what the crucifixion of Christ has accomplished! Like the crucifixion, Christ’s resurrection is profound. In the words of the song entitled, “God Is Processed,” crucifixion terminates, and resurrection germinates. After His crucifixion terminated the old creation, Christ’s resurrection germinated the new creation. Now, as the incarnated, crucified, resurrected, and ascended One, Jesus Christ has been made the Lord of all. All this process and everything related to it is implied in the title Lord.
The name Jesus also is significant and meaningful. Jesus means Jehovah the Savior, or Jehovah our salvation. In order for Jehovah to become our Savior and our salvation, it was necessary for Him to pass through a long process.
Christ means the anointed One. As the Christ, the anointed One, the Lord Jesus is the One appointed by God to accomplish His eternal purpose. Christ has been anointed, commissioned, and appointed to fulfill God’s purpose. Through the steps of His process, He, as the Christ, has fulfilled this commission and has accomplished God’s purpose. Now in resurrection and ascension He is our Lord Jesus Christ.
God is not only our Creator; He is also our Father. For God to be our Father involves much more than His merely being our Creator. How was it possible for God the Creator to become our Father? In other words, how could we, creatures of God, become children of God the Father? God has no intention to become our Father by adoption, our stepfather, or our father-in-law. On the contrary, He is our Father-in-life. This means that we have received God’s life. This took place when we were born of God.
It should be more than mere doctrine for us to declare that we have been born of God. Hallelujah, we are sons of God in life! Having been born of God, we are now God’s sons in life, and He is truly our Father. What a great matter this is!
We need to be very careful in reading the Bible. If we read carefully, we shall realize that 1 Thessalonians 1:1 and 2 Thessalonians 1:1 are very similar, but are not exactly the same. First Thessalonians 1:1 says, “Paul and Silvanus and Timothy to the church of the Thessalonians in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ: Grace to you and peace.” Second Thessalonians 1:1 says, “Paul and Silvanus and Timothy to the church of the Thessalonians in God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.” The former speaks of “the Father”; the latter, of “our Father.” Furthermore, in 2 Thessalonians the blessing, “Grace to you and peace,” is found in verse 2 instead of verse 1. This indicates that Paul’s opening word in 2 Thessalonians is a little stronger than the one in 1 Thessalonians. Certainly Paul was not careless in writing his Epistles. Everything he wrote was with a definite purpose.
Both Epistles tell us that the church is composed of human beings, in this case, of Thessalonians. Thessalonica was an evil city, and for the most part those in that city were immoral people. Nevertheless, some who were once immoral were saved and regenerated and composed the church in their locality in the Triune God. For this reason, Paul speaks of the church of the Thessalonians in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. By this expression Paul denotes the Triune God.
When some read concerning the church of the Thessalonians in the Triune God, they may say, “You claim that 1:1 indicates that the church is in the Triune God. Yes, this verse mentions the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son, but nothing is said concerning the Spirit. If this verse speaks of the Triune God, where is the Spirit?” Here we have one of the many instances where what the Bible does not say is just as important as what it does say, if not more so. Often in our contact with the saints, we may refrain from saying something to them. This may be more important than what we do say to them. Why did Paul not say “the church of the Thessalonians in God the Father, the Lord Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit”? Eventually we shall see that there is a good reason for Paul to mention the Father and Christ the Son, but not the Spirit.
Be assured that the very God spoken of in 1:1 is the Triune God. We know this by the fact that Paul first mentions the Father, the first of the Trinity. Whenever we have the first, we also have the second, the Son, and also the third, the Spirit. The very fact that Paul speaks of the Father is a strong indication that he is thinking of the Triune God. Moreover, the expression “the Lord Jesus Christ” implies the Spirit. The expressions “God the Father” and “the Lord Jesus Christ” both imply the Spirit. Therefore, in 1:1 the Spirit is implied and understood.
We must believe that the God referred to in 1:1 is the Triune God. To be in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ implies that we are also in the Spirit. Hence, in 1:1 we have the Triune God implied. This verse indicates that the church is in the Triune God.
It is a rather simple matter to say that the church is of God or of Christ. But it is deeper and more profound to declare that the church is in God the Father and in the Lord Jesus Christ. For example, it is one thing to say that we are of a particular person. However, it is altogether another matter to claim to be in that person. Humanly speaking, it is possible to be of someone, but it is not possible to be literally in that one. Only in a way that is organic and of life can the church be in the Triune God. We do not adequately understand the way of life, but God does understand it in full. Furthermore, only God can do something in the way of life. In a way that is organic and of life, God has made it possible for the church to be in the Triune God.
For the church to be merely of God, it is sufficient that God be merely our Creator. But for the church to be in God, God must become our Father, and we need to have a life relationship with Him. Likewise, for the church to be in the Lord Jesus Christ, Christ must be the Lord and Jesus to us.
Perhaps you have read 1:1 many times without realizing that the church is in the Triune God. Nevertheless, this fact is revealed in the Bible. Why is it, then, that not many Christians have seen it? The reason they do not see that the church is in the Triune God is that they are veiled by traditional concepts concerning the church. Believers may be familiar with expressions such as the church of God, the church of Christ, and the assembly of God, especially in the way they are employed today as denominational titles. But not many have realized that the church is in the Triune God.
It is important to realize that the New Testament does not say that the church is in God. First Thessalonians 1:1 tells us that the church is in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. This is different from speaking of the church as merely in God, for it reveals that the church is in the Triune God. According to the Bible, there is no such thing as the church merely in God, but there is the church in the Triune God.
Now we need to consider carefully the difference between God and the Triune God. To speak only of God is to regard Him as if He had not been processed. However, the Triune God denotes God in His process. Genesis 1:1 says, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth” (lit.). In this verse we cannot see the processed God; that is, we cannot see the Father, the Son, and the Spirit. But in the New Testament we have a full revelation of the Triune God.
In the New Testament the first main step regarding the revelation of the Triune God is the revelation of the name of the Father. In the four Gospels we have the revelation not mainly of God, but mainly of God the Father. The Lord Jesus spent much time with the disciples to reveal to them the name of the Father.
In the New Testament, of course, we also have the revelation that Jesus is the Son of God. One day, according to Matthew 16, the Lord Jesus led His disciples away from Jerusalem, with its religious atmosphere, to Caesarea Philippi, close to the northern border of the Holy Land, at the foot of Mount Hermon, on which He was soon to be transfigured (Matt. 17:1-2). Caesarea Philippi was far from the holy city with the holy temple, where the atmosphere of the old Jewish religion filled everyone’s thought. The Lord purposely brought His disciples to a place with a clear atmosphere so that their thought could be released from the effects of the religious surroundings in the holy city and holy temple, and that He might reveal to them something new concerning Himself. It was there that the vision concerning Him as the Christ, the Son of the living God, was given to Peter.
Matthew 16:13 says, “Now when Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi, He asked His disciples, saying, Who do men say that the Son of Man is?” Because the disciples were not clear, they began to answer in a nonsensical way. According to verse 14, they said, “Some, John the Baptist; and others, Elijah; and still others, Jeremiah, or one of the prophets.” Then the Lord Jesus said to them, “But you, who do you say that I am?” (v. 15). As we know, Peter, receiving the revelation from the Father, answered and said to the Lord Jesus, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God” (v. 16). Thus, in the New Testament we first have the revelation of the name of the Father and then the revelation of the Son of God. The first title revealed in the New Testament, therefore, is the Father; the second is that of the Son.
Going on from Matthew 16 to John 14, we have the revelation of the Spirit. When Philip said to the Lord Jesus, “Lord, show us the Father and it suffices us” (John 14:8), the Lord replied, “Am I so long a time with you, and you have not known Me, Philip? He who has seen Me has seen the Father.…Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father is in Me?” (vv. 9-10). Here the Lord Jesus indicates that He is in the Father and that the Father is in Him. This means that He cannot be separated from the Father nor the Father from Him. After speaking in this way concerning Himself and the Father, the Lord went on to speak of the Spirit of reality, another Comforter, “And I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Comforter, that He may be with you forever; even the Spirit of reality” (vv. 16-17). Thus, the Spirit, another Comforter, is the third divine title revealed in the New Testament. Therefore, we have the revelation of the Father, the Son, and the Spirit. This is the Triune God.
The revelation of the Triune God requires the incarnation of Christ, the Lord’s human living, and His crucifixion and resurrection. After the resurrection of Christ, we have the coming of the Spirit. Now we know that the Triune God is the Father, the Son, and the Spirit.
This Triune God is the processed God. He has passed through the process of incarnation, human living, crucifixion, and resurrection. In crucifixion, He accomplished redemption, the termination of the old creation, and the destruction of Satan and death. In resurrection, He germinated the new creation. Now He is the life-giving Spirit as the ultimate consummation of the Triune God. The church is in such a Triune God. The church is in the processed Triune God, the One who has become the life-giving Spirit with the Father and the Son.
