Scripture Reading: Job 42:5; John 7:39; Rom. 8:2, 9, 11, 14; Gal. 3:14; 6:18; Eph. 1:13-14; Phil. 1:19; Gal. 5:25; 4, Rom. 8:16
We have seen that the divine revelation in the New Testament is the answer to the sufferings of Job and to the great question concerning God's intention in His creation of man and in His dealing with His chosen people. In this message I would like to give a further word regarding this answer, focusing on the matter of the all-inclusive Spirit as the consummation of the processed and consummated Triune God.
The Old Testament time was a time not of God's move but of preparation for God's move. The incarnation was the beginning of God's move, which is for God to come out of eternity into time to enter with His divinity into humanity. Then God moved through human living and through His wonderful, all-inclusive death into resurrection. In resurrection Christ was begotten to be God's firstborn Son. Through resurrection He also became the life-giving Spirit, and He regenerated all God's chosen people to be God's many sons as His many members to constitute the church as His Body, as the new man, and as the organism of the processed and consummated Triune God.
Today the Triune God is the Spirit — the consummated, all-inclusive, compound Spirit. The title "the Spirit" is used in a particular way in John 7. While the Lord Jesus was still on earth, He said that His believers would be full of the Spirit (vv. 38-39a). At that time "the Spirit was not yet, because Jesus had not yet been glorified" (v. 39b). This indicates clearly that when the Lord Jesus was glorified, the Spirit was there. This Spirit is the processed and consummated Triune God.
Some teachers of the Bible claim that the Bible may be divided into three sections — the Old Testament, the four Gospels, and the books from Acts through Revelation — and that these sections correspond respectively to three ages — the age of the Father, the age of the Son, and the age of the Spirit. According to this view, the work of the Father in the Old Testament was replaced by the work of the Son in the Gospels, and then the work of the Son was replaced by the work of the Spirit in Acts through Revelation. Some who hold this view regard the three of the Divine Trinity — the Father, the Son, and the Spirit — as three separate persons. However, after many years of study and experience, we can say that this understanding of the Triune God is not accurate.
The three of the Divine Trinity are different, or distinct, but they are not separate. If the Son were not different from the Father, the Son could not pray to the Father, as He did in John 17. Nevertheless, the Father and the Son are inseparable, for the Father and the Son coinhere, that is, the Son exists in the Father and the Father exists in the Son. For this reason, the Lord Jesus could say to Philip, who had asked Him to show them the Father, "He who has seen Me has seen the Father; how is it that you say, Show us the Father? 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" (John 14:9b-10). Here we see that the Father and the Son, although distinct, coinhere and thus cannot be separated. Furthermore, the Father and the Son are in the Spirit, and the Spirit is in the Father and the Son. If we see this, we will realize that the God who was incarnated and moved on earth was the Triune God.
The New Testament unveils to us that Christ the Son is the embodiment of the Triune God and that the Spirit is the realization of the Son and the reality of Christ. Because the Spirit is the reality of Christ, we cannot have Christ apart from the Spirit, who is the consummation of the processed and consummated Triune God.
Before incarnation, the first step of His process, the Triune God had divinity but not humanity. He was only divine but not human; He was only God but not man. But one day the Triune God entered into the womb of a human virgin and after nine months was born out of that womb to be the God-man, a divine-human person, a person with both the divine nature and the human nature.
This God-man lived on earth for thirty-three and a half years. Although He did not accomplish anything great in a material sense, He did something marvelous — He expressed God, He manifested God, in full, in His human living.
The next step of the process of the Triune God was the all-inclusive death of Christ. Through His death Christ redeemed God's chosen people, terminated the old creation, and released the divine life from within the "shell" of His humanity.
After dying an all-inclusive death, Christ entered into resurrection. Once again I would emphasize the fact that in resurrection Christ was begotten to be the firstborn Son of God (Acts 13:33; Rom. 1:3-4; 8:29) and became the life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45b) to regenerate God's chosen people (1 Pet. 1:3). Early in the morning on the day of His resurrection, He went to heaven to the Father secretly (John 20:17). On the evening of the same day, He came to the disciples and breathed Himself into them as breath, saying, "Receive the Holy Spirit" (v. 22). This is the essential Spirit.
After forty days Christ ascended openly and officially. In His ascension He was made the Lord of all and the Christ of God (Acts 2:36). Ten days later, on the day of Pentecost, He descended to pour out Himself as the economical Spirit on the disciples (vv. 1-4, 17, 33). In His descension three thousand were regenerated, issuing in the church. Today He is the One who is ascending and descending continually (John 3:13). He is in the heavens, and He is also on earth. As a result of all the steps of this process, God is no longer the "raw God," God before His process, but the "cooked God," God after His process.
Our God has been processed and consummated. The consummation of the processed and consummated Triune God is the all-inclusive, compound, life-giving, and indwelling Spirit. As such a One, He is everything to us. Today He is the reality of the Father, He is the reality of the Son, and He is the Spirit, not before the incarnation but after the descension.
The book of Romans, after speaking of justification and of our being crucified and raised with Christ, unveils this Spirit as the Spirit of life (8:2), the Spirit of God (v. 9), the indwelling Spirit (v. 11), and the leading Spirit (v. 14). This one Spirit is our God, our Father, our Lord, our Master, our Redeemer, our Savior, our Shepherd, and our big Brother. Galatians 5:16 charges us to walk, to do everything, according to this Spirit, who is in our spirit (Rom. 8:16).
In Galatians this Spirit is the Spirit of blessing, the all-embracing and all-inclusive blessing of the gospel (3:14). He is also the One in whom we have our life and by whom we can live (5:25). Hence, we must live by Him, walk by Him, and sow unto Him (6:8) in everything in our human life. According to 6:18, this Spirit is in our spirit as the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ for our enjoyment.
In Ephesians this Spirit is a seal and also a pledge to us (1:13-14). This One who is the Spirit as the person and whose name is Jesus Christ is making His home in our hearts (3:17).
Philippians refers to the bountiful supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ (1:19), by which we can live Christ, magnify Christ, pursue Christ, and gain Christ (1:20-21; 3:8-14). By this bountiful supply we can count everything as loss and as refuse.
Because Job did not have this Spirit, he was overly sensitive toward God and toward his friends. He had no joy, and he never rejoiced. But Paul, having this Spirit, rejoiced even in prison (Acts 16:25). Instead of being sensitive, he exulted. In 2 Timothy 4:6-8 Paul said that he had fought the good fight, had finished the course, and had kept the faith and that the crown of righteousness was ready for him. Although he was being poured out as a drink offering, he was not complaining but was triumphantly rejoicing.
Job 42:5 tells us that eventually Job saw God. However, the God whom Job saw was not the processed God but the "raw God," the God who had not yet passed through the steps of His process — incarnation, human living, crucifixion, resurrection, ascension, and descension. In contrast to Job, we have the "cooked God," the God who has been processed so that we may eat Him, drink Him, and breathe Him. Today our God is the all-inclusive Spirit as the consummation of the processed and consummated Triune God.
