THE THIRD PART: 24 CRUCIAL LINES IN THE BIBLE

The Divine Trinity
Message Five—The Triune God as Our Constitution,
Existence, Enjoyment, Living, and Expression

Scripture Reading: Rev. 21:11, 18-21, 23-25; 22:1-2, 5, 14, 19

I. The three kinds of precious materials for the building of the holy city signify that the Triune God is the triune constitution of the New Jerusalem— Rev. 21:18-21:

A. Gold signifies God the Father in His holy nature as the base of God’s organic building—vv. 18, 21:

1. We need to partake of and be constituted with the holy and divine nature of God, the divine element of the New Jerusalem—Eph. 1:4; 2 Pet. 1:4.

2. We need to do everything according to the divine nature of God, taking the divine nature as our pathway, to be under the ruling of God’s golden administration—Rev. 21:21; 22:1; cf. 1 Kings 10:18:

a. The divine life flowing in the divine nature is the unique way for our daily life and for our move in the Lord’s move—cf. Eph. 4:29; Rev. 22:1.

b. We need to practice the divine fellowship based upon the golden nature within us—1 John 1:3.

B. Pearls signify the issue of Christ’s secretion in two aspects—His redeeming and life-releasing death and His life-dispensing resurrection—Rev. 21:21:

1. We need to preach regeneration through the death-overcoming and life-secreting Christ as the entrance into the holy city—1 Pet. 1:3, 23.

2. We need to remain under the killing of the Lord’s death so that His resurrection life may be imparted through us into others—Col. 1:24; 2 Cor. 4:10-12.

C. Precious stones signify the Spirit’s work to transform the redeemed and regenerated saints for the building of God’s eternal habitation that they may express God corporately in His all-permeating glory—Rev. 21:18-20:

1. Transformation is not an outward change or correction but a spiritual metabolism; it is the metabolic function of the life of God in the believers— Rom. 12:2; 2 Cor. 3:18, 16.

2. For the church life there is the need of the transformed human virtues, which have been strengthened and enriched by the divine attributes—Rom. 12:2-3; Eph. 4:1-3.

3. We must learn to minister the Triune God to others for their transformation by perfecting them with the attributes of the Triune God—1 Cor. 3:10, 12; S. S. 1:10-11.

II. The river of water of life proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb signifies that the Triune God is the triune existence of the New Jerusalem—Rev. 22:1:

A. The application of the New Jerusalem in its triune existence is described in Ephesians 4:4-6—one Body, one Spirit, one Lord, and one God and Father.

B. These verses show us how the Body of Christ exists with the Father, the Lord, and the Spirit as a foretaste of the existence of the New Jerusalem in eternity:

1. We are existing with God the Father as the source of the Body, allowing Him to be over us, through us, and in us—v. 6; Luke 8:15; Rom. 8:11.

2. We are existing with the Lord Christ as the element of the Body, living Him, existing by Him, through the bountiful supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ for His magnification in our existence—Eph. 4:5; Phil. 1:19-21a.

3. We are existing with the Spirit as the essence of the Body (Eph. 4:4)—walking by the Spirit (Gal. 5:25), serving by the Spirit (Phil. 3:3), drinking the Spirit (1 Cor. 12:13), being transformed by the Spirit (2 Cor. 3:18), and being strengthened and enriched by the sevenfold intensified Spirit (Rev. 4:5; 5:6) for the Body life, which will consummate in the New Jerusalem.

III. The Triune God—the Father as the light of life, the Son as the tree of life, and the Spirit as the river of life—is the triune enjoyment of the New Jerusalem—cf. Psa. 36:8-9:

A. God as the light shines from within the Lamb as the lamp through the New Jerusalem as the diffuser—Rev. 21:23-25, 11; 22:5:

1. We need to keep our heart pure and single for God so that our whole inner being will be illuminated, full of light without any dark part—Matt. 5:8; 6:22-23; Luke 11:34-36.

2. For the building up of the Body of Christ, we need to walk and live under the divine, redeeming, shining light through the word of God—Isa. 50:10-11; 1 John 1:5-7; Psa. 119:105, 130; Rom. 13:11-14.

3. We need to shine as luminaries in the world, letting our light shine before men in all goodness, righteousness, and truth for His glory—Phil. 2:15; Matt. 5:14-16; Eph. 5:8-9, 14; Isa. 58:7-8; 60:1-5.

4. We need to be one with Christ as the light of the Gentiles so that His salvation may reach to the end of the earth for Him to come again as the Desire of all the nations—Acts 13:46-47; Eph. 3:9; Hag. 2:7; Matt. 24:14.

B. The enjoyment of Christ as the tree of life will be the eternal portion of all God’s redeemed—Rev. 22:14, cf. v. 19:

1. The tree of life signifies God as life to man and declares that God offers Himself to man in an edible form—Gen. 2:9; John 6:35, 57; Rev. 2:7.

2. We are not only the eaters of this tree, enjoying the continually fresh fruit, but also the branches of this tree, abiding in Him to enjoy the life-juice— 22:2; John 15:5.

C. The river of water of life is the f lowing out of the Triune God—the Spirit as the ultimate consummation of the processed Triune God reaching His redeemed people for their enjoyment—Rev. 22:1:

1. To contact God the Spirit with our spirit is to drink of the living water, which is to render real worship to God—John 4:10, 14, 24; Isa. 12:2-6.

2. By drinking the living water, we become the New Jerusalem, the totality of the eternal life, the destination of the flowing Triune God—John 4:14b.

IV. The Triune God—the Father as the source of life, the Son as the tree of life, and the Spirit as the flow of life—is the triune living of the New Jerusalem—Rev. 22:1-2:

A. We need to live out the Father as the source of life on the throne—John 5:26:

1. We need to take God the Father as our source with His redeeming element and with the element of His divine authority so that we may enjoy the f low of life for our organic salvation—Rev. 22:1; Rom. 5:10.

2. We need to live out the Father as love and as light by keeping ourselves in the fellowship of the divine life, the inner f low of the divine life—1 John 4:8, 16; 1:5, 2-3.

B. We need to live out the Son as the life and life supply, the tree of life—Rev. 22:2; 2:7; John 14:6:

1. We need to learn to take Christ as everything for His magnification—Phil. 1:19-21a; 2:5; 3:8-9, 13-14, 20-21; 4:8, 11-13.

2. We need to call upon His name to enjoy His riches as our supply—Rom. 10:12; Phil. 1:19; S. S. 1:3.

C. We need to live out the Spirit as the bountiful supply of the processed and con-summated Triune God, the f low of life—Rev. 22:1; Phil. 1:19:

1. The flow of the river of water of life in the New Jerusalem illustrates the fellowship of life, which is the flow of the eternal life within the believers— 1 John 1:2-4; 1 Cor. 1:9; 12:24; Rev. 22:1.

2. The flow of the river of water of life is the one stream of the Lord’s work for His one move through His one ministry to produce and build up His one Body for His one testimony—v. 1; cf. 1 Cor. 16:10; 4:17; Acts 2:42.

V. The Triune God—the Father as the source of the divine riches, the Son as the embodiment of the divine riches, and the Spirit as the realization of the divine riches—is the triune expression of the New Jerusalem—Rev. 21:18-21; 22:1-2:

A. The expression of God the Father as the source of the divine riches is His communicable glory in His rich life—21:11, 21:

1. The first layer of the wall’s foundation and the entire wall are built of jasper, signifying that the whole city bears the appearance of God for God’s glory, His corporate expression—vv. 18, 11; 4:3a.

2. The work of the apostles, who are signified by the twelve foundations, is “layer upon layer” and leads to the unique appearance of jasper, the appearance of God in Christ—21:14, 19-20.

B. The expression of God the Son as the embodiment of the divine riches is in His person and with His work:

1. The Lamb as the redeeming One is the lamp for the expression of God as the light through the city as the light-bearer to express Him as the glory— 22:5; 21:23, 11.

2. The work of Christ’s death and resurrection, signified by the pearls (v. 21), is a “double cure” that saves us from the guilt of sin through His blood and from the power of sin in His life—John 19:34; Hymns, #1058, stanza 1.

C. The expression of God the Spirit as the realization of the divine riches is in His all-inclusiveness as the consummation of the processed Triune God:

1. The all-inclusive Spirit as the river of water of life f lows with God, with the Lamb, with the throne, with the divine nature as the divine way, and with all the unsearchable riches of Christ to saturate our entire being—Rev. 22:1-2.

2. The Christian life must be a life in the Spirit, by the Spirit, and with the Spirit, issuing in the fruit of the Spirit, with all the divine attributes ex-pressed in human virtues—Gal. 5:16, 22-23, 25.

 

Ministry Excerpts:

THE TRIUNE GOD AS OUR INTRINSIC ELEMENTS

The triune constitution is with the Triune God wrought into the believers as their intrinsic elements. Intrinsic means something that is inward and hidden. Even our physical body receives some nourishing element into it every day, which eventually becomes our body’s intrinsic element. For example, every morning I eat a big breakfast and this breakfast becomes my intrinsic element. As this food is assimilated within me, it supports, sustains, and strengthens me to live. My strength comes from this intrinsic element. The food is taken into my being and becomes the intrinsic element in my physical body.

The allegory of the New Jerusalem is quite marvelous because it shows us what we could not see outwardly— the intrinsic elements. The city is not organized but constituted with gold, pearls, and precious stones. The city is not only constituted with these three elements, but also its constitution becomes a building. The constitution is the building up. Also, we need to remember that this city is a composition of God blended with all His redeemed people. This composition is arrived at by constitution. When we receive the Triune God into us, the Father is given to us as the gold, the Son is secreting over us to produce the pearls, and the Spirit is transforming us to make us precious stones. These three elements are in our being working in us, and they are the very intrinsic elements which constitute our spiritual being. In a corporate sense, our spiritual being is the church today and the New Jerusalem in the coming ages.

GOLD—GIVEN BY THE FATHER AS THE BASIC ELEMENT

The first intrinsic element of the triune constitution is gold, given by the Father as the basic element (Rev. 21:18b). We have seen that gold in typology always refers to God’s divine nature, and Peter told us that we are partakers of the divine nature (2 Pet. 1:4). When we were born physically, we all inherited our father’s nature by being born of him. We all have been given our human nature by our begetting father. In like manner, when we were born of God, as the begetting Father He imparted His own nature into our being, which is the gold of the “golden mountain,” the New Jerusalem. The city proper is like a mountain with the height of twelve thousand stadia, and Revelation 21:18 tells us that the city was pure gold. Also, Revelation 21:21 tells us that the street of the city was pure gold. All of this denotes that the divine nature is the basic element of our spiritual constitution, just like our human nature is the basic element of our human being. (God’s New Testament Economy, ch. 40)

Now let us consider the application of this fellowship. In applying this I would like to ask, “Before you were saved, who was your ruler? What was your administration?” You yourself tried to be your own ruler and you were a mess. Actually, you had no ruler or administration. One day you heard the gospel, which said, “Repent, for the kingdom of the heavens has drawn near” (Matt. 3:2). You needed to repent to come under the ruling of God’s kingdom. Before that time you were a person with no ruler and no administration. But you repented to the divine Ruler and came under His administration. Through the gospel God came to be your kingdom. He is the King on the throne. Connected to His throne is a street on which you should walk, and that street is His administration. From the day you repented, you have felt that there is a throne and a golden street, a golden administration, within you. Then you began to do things according to the gold, according to the nature of God. This is because both the throne and the street are built on the gold as the nature of God.

As we enter into the experience and application of the divine nature of God, we make ourselves genuine parts of the New Jerusalem. Eventually, we become golden in everything. Every department store is a place of temptation where we can depart from the golden nature to buy things. Even in the church life, we can make natural friendships with certain saints, but that is not the genuine fellowship. Fellowship should be based upon the golden nature within us. If we practice this fellowship, we are living as a part of the New Jerusalem. We become the constituents of the New Jerusalem. This is not according to our outward doing but according to our inward being. The inward being of our Christian life must be God’s golden nature. We should live, walk, and do everything based upon the golden nature within us. (The Application of the Interpretation of the New Jerusalem to the Seeking Believers, msg. 1)

PEARLS THROUGH THE SECRETION
OF CHRIST’S RESURRECTION LIFE

The second aspect of the triune constitution is the pearls which are produced through the secretion of Christ’s resurrection life (Rev. 21:21a). The divine nature was given to us by God, but pearls are produced through the secretion of Christ’s resurrection life from the time that we entered into Christ. When we stay in the death of Christ, Christ’s resurrection life secretes itself over us, making all of us pearls. In Galatians 2:20 Paul says, “I have been crucified with Christ.” When we say this, we stay in the death of Christ. When you say that you have been crucified with Christ, this means that you admit that you have been crucified on the cross. When you recognize this divine fact, you stay in His death. When you declare, “I have been crucified with Christ,” this means that you are staying in His death, that you would not go away from His death, and that His death is your dwelling place. When you stay, remain, and abide in Christ’s death, then it is no longer you that live but Christ that lives in you. His living and moving in you is the secretion of His resurrection life over you to make you a pearl. This secreting is a constituting. When you get up in the morning, you should stay in the death of Christ for ten or fifteen minutes; while you are staying in His death, the Lord is moving in you. This moving is His secreting of His resurrection life around you. After fifteen minutes of abiding in His death in morning watch, you will look like a pearl to your spouse. If you do not have a morning watch to stay in the death of Christ, Christ has no chance to secrete His life over you, and your appearance may be “ugly” instead of “pearly.”

PRECIOUS STONES
THROUGH THE TRANSFORMATION OF THE SPIRIT

The third item of the triune constitution is the precious stones through the transformation of the Spirit (Rev. 21:18a, 19-20), from the time that we began to look to the Lord. In the New Jerusalem we firstly see the base, the golden mountain, then there are the pearly gates, and finally, there is the building, mainly with jasper and other precious stones. The gold is given, the pearl is produced by Christ’s resurrection life through His death, and the precious stones are produced by the transforming work of the Spirit.

In order to see the transforming work of the Spirit to make us precious stones we need to look at our experience. I have been practicing to remain in the death of Christ for approximately fifty years, and I am still practicing this every day. If I do not practice this, I lose the ground for Christ to secrete His resurrection life over me. When I remain in His death, spontaneously I look unto Him with an unveiled face. If you are not remaining in His death, even if you would look unto Him, your face would be fully veiled. The more you stay in His death, however, the more the veils are taken away. Then you see Him with an unveiled face. When we stay in the death of Christ, not only does Christ secrete His resurrection life around us, but also we behold Him, we look at His face, we appreciate Him, and we love Him. This affords the Spirit within us a great opportunity to move and to bring in more riches of the divine Trinity into our being to transform us (2 Cor. 3:18). Transformation is a metabolic work. The divine element is added to us and this element replaces our old nature metabolically. (God’s New Testament Economy, ch. 40)

EXISTING WITH GOD THE FATHER

Firstly, in the triune existence we are existing with God the Father, who is over all, through all, and in all. You may think that it is easy to understand that God is over you and in you, but can you explain what it means for God to be through you? We Christians have a bad habit of taking things in the Bible for granted. Many of us have probably read Ephesians many times, but did we ever check what it means for God the Father to be over all, through all, and in all? How is this verse applied to our experience? Do we experience God being over us, through us, and in us? (God’s New Testament Economy, ch. 41)

LIVING WITH THE FATHER

We should be those living with the Father as the source of life (John 1:13; Eph. 4:18; John 5:26) on the throne. The first striking point of the New Jerusalem is that God is sitting on the throne. This God is the Lamb-God, the redeeming God, God the Redeemer. Genesis 1:1 does not tell us that in the beginning God and the Lamb created the heavens and the earth. The first verse of the book of Genesis tells us that God only created. In Revelation 22:1, however, we see God and the Lamb which signifies that God is now the redeeming God, no longer merely the creating God. In Genesis 1:1 He was the creating God, but in Revelation 22:1 we see the redeeming God. (God’s New Testament Economy, ch. 42)

By the Lord’s mercy, I can testify that I worked with Brother Nee for many years, but I do not bear an appearance different from his. I have the assurance and the boldness to say that my ministry is the same in appearance as Brother Nee’s ministry. No matter how much the enemy uses the opposers to attempt to separate me from him, I am now standing upon his shoulders. For this reason, in our ministries there was no division or differing opinion. But this does not mean that my ministry is exactly the same as Brother Nee’s ministry. If the Lord delays His coming back, I hope that some of the young brothers among us will be the continuation of the Lord’s recovery. However, we must realize that it is absolutely wrong to have another, side-by-side work. Your work must be a layer laid upon the present layer, and it must produce the same appearance.

Sooner or later, many of the Lord’s seekers who have been in His work for years, including some who are quite popular, will turn to the way of the Lord’s recovery. But we do not believe that the Lord will raise up any side-by-side work. Although there will be different ministries, they will be layer upon layer, and they will lead to the one appearance of God in Christ. No matter how many ministries we may have in the recovery, we shall have the same mind, the same concept, and the same opinion, and we shall all speak the same thing. However, this does not mean that all the ministries must be the same. We need different ministries, yet they must be layer upon layer. All the ministries must lead to one appearance—the appearance of today’s church and of the coming New Jerusalem. (Life-study of Revelation, msg. 62)