Scripture Reading: Gal. 2:20; 1 Cor. 15:10; Rev. 22:17
In this message I would like to give a further word concerning the processed and consummated Triune God as the all-inclusive, life-giving Spirit.
Our God today is no longer the "raw" God but the processed God. After God created man, He continued to be the "raw" God, the unprocessed God, observing, testing, and proving humanity but not yet moving or taking any action. Then one day He began to go through a process. Each step of this process has become an ingredient of the Spirit as the consummation of the processed and consummated Triune God.
These ingredients include incarnation, human living, crucifixion, resurrection, ascension, and descension. In eternity God had the ingredient of divinity but not the ingredients of humanity and human living. Through incarnation the ingredient of humanity was added to Him. This was followed by Christ's human living and the crucial ingredient of His all-inclusive death on the cross. Next came the ingredient of resurrection, which is a matter of passing through death without being held by death. Through resurrection Christ was begotten to be the firstborn Son of God (Rom. 8:29), and through resurrection He also became the life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45b). Furthermore, in the resurrection of Christ all God's chosen ones were regenerated to be the sons of God (1 Pet. 1:3). In His ascension, another ingredient, Christ is transcendent. He is the One who is above all, and everything is now under His feet (Eph. 1:19-23). Finally, we have the ingredient of Christ's descension as the all-inclusive Spirit to produce the church, His Body.
As we consider all these ingredients, we can see that the processed and consummated Triune God is much richer than the "raw" God. Of course, the unprocessed God had the divine attributes, which may be regarded as ingredients, but now He also has the ingredients of incarnation, human living, the all-inclusive death, the life-imparting and life-producing resurrection, ascension, and descension, which issue in the Body. How rich our God is today! He is abundantly rich, aboundingly rich. He is everything to us as the Spirit, who is the consummation of the Triune God.
I have sometimes been asked why we pray to the Father or to the Lord Jesus but not to the Spirit. Actually, when we pray to the Father, we pray to the Spirit. When we pray to the Son, we pray also to the Spirit. Who is God? God is the Spirit. Who is the Father? The Father is the Spirit. Who is Christ? Christ is the Spirit. The totality, the aggregate, the consummation, of the Triune God with all His ingredients is the Spirit. Therefore, in the Spirit we have the three of the Triune God — the Father, the Son, and the Spirit — with all the steps of God's process as the ingredients.
The Triune God is now being wrought into us, not in His "raw" state but in His consummated state. God could not be wrought into Job in this way because at Job's time God was still "raw." He had not yet been processed and consummated through incarnation, human living, crucifixion, resurrection, ascension, and descension. Apart from Christ's all-inclusive death, how could we be terminated? How could we be redeemed? Apart from Christ's resurrection, how could we be germinated? We need to see that we are living at a great time — the time after the Triune God has been processed and consummated.
Our unique need as Christians is the processed and consummated Triune God as the all-inclusive, life-giving Spirit. The Spirit is all that we need. Mainly we do not need righteousness or justification, nor do we need holiness or sanctification — our central need is the consummated Triune God as the Spirit with His rich supply. This Spirit is now in us and is one with us in life, in nature, and in essence, and we are one with Him. We all need to have a clear vision concerning this.
I can testify that, although I am very busy day by day, I am not the one working; rather, Christ, who lives in me, is the One working. Sixty-five years ago I did many things, but by the Lord's mercy I have been learning of Paul to coordinate with the One living in me. In Galatians 2:20 Paul said, "I am crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me." In 1 Corinthians 15:10 he said, "By the grace of God I am what I am; and His grace unto me did not turn out to be in vain, but, on the contrary, I labored more abundantly than all of them, yet not I but the grace of God which is with me." Humanly speaking, I cannot carry out the Lord's work today or bear the burden of the churches around the globe. However, the work is easy to do and the burden is easy to bear when it is the processed and consummated One living in me who does the work and bears the burden. I praise Him that I simply enjoy His living and His working and rejoice in Him.
To be a Christian is not merely difficult — it is impossible. Only the processed and consummated Triune God living in us as the all-inclusive Spirit can be a Christian. What the New Testament requires of us is too high. The kind of holiness required, for example, is something that we cannot produce. We praise the Lord that it is not we who need to fulfill the New Testament requirements but the Spirit in us who fulfills them. Instead of doing things in ourselves, we should simply enjoy His living and His working. Only the Spirit can be a Christian, and only the Spirit can be an overcomer. Remember, the Spirit is our God, our Father, our Lord, our Redeemer, our Savior, our Shepherd, and our life and life supply.
The Spirit is everything to us to live the Christian life. The Christian life is altogether the processed and consummated Triune God as the all-inclusive Spirit. In this Spirit we have the Father, the Son, and the Spirit. In this Spirit we are in the Father, the Son, and the Spirit (Matt. 28:19). What kind of God do we have today? Our God is the processed and consummated Triune God, who is the consummated, all-inclusive Spirit as everything for our Christian life. When we have a need or a disability, we can remind Him of it. When we are facing a difficult situation, we can talk to Him about it. Then He, the One who lives in us, will come in to face the situation and to do whatever is needed.
In Acts 2 we see the pouring out of the consummated Triune God as the all-inclusive Spirit upon God's chosen people. At the end of the Bible we have the expression "the Spirit and the bride" (Rev. 22:17). Who are these two? The Spirit is the consummated Triune God, and the bride is the regenerated, sanctified, transformed, and glorified tripartite man. Eventually, the consummated Triune God and the glorified tripartite man will be married and become one in life, in nature, in element, and in essence. This will be a corporate entity — the New Jerusalem as the aggregate of the mingling of divinity and humanity to express the Triune God for eternity. Today's church life should be a miniature of the marvelous New Jerusalem.
