THE THIRD PART: 24 CRUCIAL LINES IN THE BIBLE
Truth
Message One—The Divine Truth and the Divine Reality
Scripture Reading: John 1:14; 8:32; 14:6, 16-17; 15:26; 16:13-15; 1 John 5:6, 20
I. The divine truth, the divine reality, is the Triune God and His word—1 John 5:6: (2011 ITERO-F, msg. 3)
A. Reality is the element of God realized by us in the Son—John 1:14. (2011 ITERO-F, msg. 3)
B. The divine reality is God, who is light and love, incarnated to be the reality of the divine things—1 John 1:5; 4:8; John 1:1, 14. (2011 ITERO-F, msg. 3)
C. The divine reality is Christ, who is God incarnated and in whom all the fullness of the Godhead dwells bodily, as the reality of God and man, the types, figures, and shadows in the Old Testament, and all the divine and spiritual things—Col. 2:9, 16-17; John 1:18, 51; 11:25; 14:6: (2011 ITERO-F, msg. 3)
1. Because Christ the Son is the embodiment of God, He is the reality of what God is—Col. 2:9. (2011 ITERO-F, msg. 3)
2. The truth is the reality of the divine things, and this reality is Christ Himself—John 8:32. (2011 ITERO-F, msg. 3)
3. The reality of the divine things came through Christ and becomes the realization of God to us—14:6. (2011 ITERO-F, msg. 3)
D. The divine reality is the Spirit, who is Christ transfigured, as the reality of Christ and of the divine revelation; hence, the Spirit is the reality—1 Cor. 15:45b; 2 Cor. 3:17; John 14:16-17; 15:26; 16:13-15; 1 John 5:6. (2011 ITERO-F, msg. 3)
E. The divine reality is the Word of God as the divine revelation, which not only reveals but also conveys the reality of God and Christ and of all the divine and spiritual things; hence, the Word of God also is reality—John 17:17. (2011 ITERO-F, msg. 3)
F. God, Christ, and the Spirit—the Divine Trinity—are essentially one; hence, these three, being the basic elements of the substance of the divine reality, are actually one reality—1:1, 14; 14:6; 1 John 5:6: 1 John 5:6: (2011 ITERO-F, msg. 3)
1. This one divine reality is the substance of the Word of God as the divine revelation. (2011 ITERO-F, msg. 3)
2. The divine reality thus becomes the revealed divine reality in the divine Word and makes the divine Word the reality—John 17:17. (2011 ITERO-F, msg. 3)
3. The divine Word conveys this one divine reality as the contents of the faith, and the contents of the faith are the substance of the gospel revealed in the entire New Testament as its reality, which is the divine reality of the Divine Trinity—Eph. 1:13; Col. 1:5. (2011 ITERO-F, msg. 3)
G. The divine reality is versus the lie, the vanity of the old creation, and the idolatrous substitutes of the true God—John 8:44; Eccl. 1:2; 1 John 5:20-21: (2011 ITERO-F, msg. 3)
1. The devil’s nature is a lie and brings in death and darkness—John 8:44. (2011 ITERO-F, msg. 3)
2. No matter how good, excellent, marvelous, and wonderful a thing may be, as long as it is of the old creation, it is part of the vanity of vanities under the sun—Eccl. 1:2-3; 2 Cor. 5:17. (2011 ITERO-F, msg. 3)
3. Anything that replaces, or is a substitute for, the divine reality is an idol, and we should garrison ourselves against it—1 John 5:20-21. (2011 ITERO-F, msg. 3)
II. We may know the divine truth, the divine reality, by being in the true One—v. 20: (2011 ITERO-F, msg. 3)
A. The Lord Jesus, the Son of God, has come and has given us an understanding that we might know the genuine and real God—John 1:14, 18; 1 John 5:20: (2011 ITERO-F, msg. 3)
1. This understanding is the faculty of our mind enlightened and empowered by the Spirit of reality to apprehend the divine reality in our regenerated spirit—Eph. 4:23; John 16:12-15. (2011 ITERO-F, msg. 3)
2. Know in 1 John 5:20 is the ability of the divine life to know the true God in our regenerated spirit through our renewed mind, enlightened by the Spirit of reality—John 17:3; Eph. 1:17. (2011 ITERO-F, msg. 3)
3. Because as believers we have been born of the divine life, we are able to know the true God and the things of God—John 1:12-13; 3:6, 15; 17:3. (2011 ITERO-F, msg. 3)
B. First John 5:20 twice speaks of Him who is true, the true One, the True: (2011 ITERO-F, msg. 3)
1. The term the true One refers to God becoming subjective to us, to the God who is objective becoming the true One in our life and experience. (2011 ITERO-F, msg. 3)
2. This verse indicates that the divine reality, which is God Himself, has become our reality in our experience; the God who was once objective to us has become our subjective reality—v. 6. (2011 ITERO-F, msg. 3)
C. To be in the true One is to be in His Son Jesus Christ—v. 20. (2011 ITERO-F, msg. 3)
D. The word this in verse 20 refers to the God who has come through incarnation and has given us an understanding to know Him as the genuine God and to be one with Him organically in His Son Jesus Christ. (2011 ITERO-F, msg. 3)
E. By being in the True, we know the divine reality intrinsically and experientially—v. 20; John 17:3. (2011 ITERO-F, msg. 3)