THE THIRD PART: 24 CRUCIAL LINES IN THE BIBLE

The Divine Trinity
Message Four—Living a Mingling Life with the Divine Trinity

Scripture Reading: Col. 1:19; Phil. 2:6-8; John 5:19, 30b; 10:25; Heb. 10:7; John 15:26

I. The Son came in the Father’s name, and that the Son did things in the name of the Father; John 14:26 says that the Father sends the Spirit in the Son’s name; then when the Spirit comes, He testifies concerning the Son; this shows the oneness of the wonderful divine Trinity; the three Persons of the Godhead are mingled as one—John 5:43a; 10:25; 15:26.

II. Due to the warfare within us, we must learn to cooperate with the divine Trinity; the divine Trinity is the model of our Christian life—Rom. 7:23-24; 2 Cor. 13:14; Phil. 2:6-8:

A. Unlike the divine Trinity, within the “human trinity” there is always fighting; therefore, we need a Savior—Rom. 7:23-24:

1. The Bible says that the flesh, our body, lusts or fights against our spirit which is mingled with the divine Spirit—Rom. 7:18-21, 23.

2. Our flesh also fights with our mind; whenever our soul desires to do good, the sin in our evil flesh rises up to fight against our soul—Rom. 7:18-21, 23.

3. We also have the Lord Jesus within us, dwelling in our spirit—2 Tim. 4:22.

B. This Savior is the divine Trinity, who has come into our spirit—1 Cor. 13:14.

C. After we are saved, our “human trinity” needs to follow the indwelling divine Trinity—Phil. 2:2; Rom. 8:4, 6:

1. The divine Trinity was added to our tripartite being; instead of exchanging lives with the divine Trinity, we have been and are being mingled together with Him—Rom. 8:9-11.

2. The life of the soul must be denied; the functions of the soul—the mind, the will, and the emotion—must be renewed and uplifted by being subdued to be used by the spirit; our soul should be submissive and obedient to the spirit, even becoming one with the spirit—Matt. 16:24-25, 1 Cor. 10:4-5.

3. Furthermore, when the divine life is imparted into our body, it becomes the temple of the Holy Spirit—1 Cor. 6:19.

D. Eventually, our entire being—spirit, soul, and body—will glorify the divine Trinity; this cooperation with the indwelling Trinity will result in His glorification, His expression, and His manifestation—Rom. 8:3, 28-30; 1 John 3:2.

III. The revelation in Ephesians concerning the producing, existing, growing, building up, and fighting of the church as the Body of Christ is composed of the divine economy, the dispensing of the Triune God into the members of the Body of Christ; thus, the crucial focus of Ephesians is the divine dispensing of the Divine Trinity into the believers—Eph. 1:23; 4:16; 6:10-11:

A. Chapter one unveils how God the Father chose and predestinated the members in eternity, God the Son redeemed them, and God the Spirit sealed them as a pledge, thus imparting Himself into His believers for the formation of the church, which is the Body of Christ, the fullness of the One who fills all in all—Eph. 1:3-14, 18-23:

1. A fundamental truth in the Lord’s recovery is that the Triune God—the Father, the Son, and the Spirit—has wrought Himself into us through the Father’s predestination, the Son’s redemption, and the Spirit’s sealing and pledging—vv. 3-14, 18-23.

2. The Body of Christ comes into being by the dispensing of the Triune God as life and life supply into the believers.

3. The threefold mentioning of the praise of God’s glory signifies the threefold dispensing of the Triune God—vv. 6, 12, 14.

B. Chapter two shows us that in the Divine Trinity all the believers, both Jewish and Gentile, have access unto God the Father through God the Son, in God the Spirit—v. 18:

1. Through God the Son, who is the Accomplisher, the means, and in God the Spirit, who is the Executor, and application, we have access unto God the Father, who is the Originator, the source of our enjoyment.

2. We are a poem written by the dispensing of the Father as the source, the Son as the course, and the Spirit as the flow—v. 10.

3. The Father’s dispensing to produce the masterpiece, the Son’s dispensing to produce the new man, and the Spirit’s bringing us to the Father in one Body result in the building up of the church and the fulfillment of God’s eternal economy—vv. 10, 15, 21-22.

C. In chapter three the apostle prays that God the Father will grant the believers to be strengthened through God the Spirit into their inner man so that Christ, God the Son, may make His home in their hearts, that they might be filled unto all the fullness of God—vv. 16-19.

D. Chapter four portrays how the processed God as the Spirit, the Lord, and the Father is mingled with the Body of Christ so that all the members of the Body may experience the Divine Trinity—vv. 4-6:

1. The Body of Christ is the sphere for the development of the Triune God.

2. The divine dispensing of God the Father in His being over all, of the Son in His being through all, and of the Spirit in His being in all enables all the members of the Body of Christ to experience and enjoy the Triune God. (2001 WT msg. 3).

3. These verses reveal four persons—the one Body, one Spirit, one Lord, and one God the Father—mingled together as one entity to be the organic Body of Christ; thus, the Triune God and the Body are four-in-one.

E. Chapter five exhorts the believers to praise the Lord, God the Son, with the songs of God the Spirit, and give thanks in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, God the Son, to God the Father—vv. 19-20:

1. This is to praise and thank the processed God in His Divine Trinity for our enjoyment of Him as the Triune God.

2. Through the divine dispensing of the Divine Trinity, we are constituted as children of God, walking in God as love and light—vv. 2, 8.

IV. In our Christian life, God uses four instruments to mingle us with the divine Trinity: the divine life, the cross, the Spirit, and the Word—1 John 1:2; Heb. 12:2; Rom. 8:13; 1 John 2:14:

A. We must always have fellowship with the Spirit in the divine life through the cross and through the Word.

B. We must join ourselves to the holy Word every day, accept the dealing of the cross, and be one with the Spirit that we may participate in the divine life.

 

Ministry Excerpts:

THE ONENESS OF THE DIVINE TRINITY

In a previous message, we saw that the Son came in the Father’s name (John 5:43a) and that the Son did things in the name of the Father (John 10:25). John 14:26 says that the Father sends the Spirit in the Son’s name. The First (the Father) sends the Third (the Spirit) in the Second’s (the Son’s) name. The Father does not do things by Himself alone. He does things in the Son’s name.

To do things in the name of another one is not only to be one with another person but also to be that other person. The Father sent the Spirit in the Son’s name. This is like writing a check but signing the name of another person, instead of your own name. Usually, the person who writes the check signs his own name. But if I write a check and sign another brother’s name, it indicates, at least in part, that the other brother wrote the check. The Father “wrote the check” by sending the Spirit, but He “signed” the name of the Son by sending the Spirit in the name of the Son. The Father, as the Son, sent the Spirit.

In John 14:26 the Father sends the Spirit in the name of the Son, but in John 15:26, the Son sends the Spirit from the Father. When these two portions are put together, you can see that when the Father sends the Spirit, He does so with the Son. In the same manner, the Son sends the Spirit with the Father. Neither the Father nor the Son would do anything without the other. When the Father sends the Spirit in the Son’s name, He does it as the Son. When the Son sends the Spirit from the Father, He does it as one with the Father. Then when the Spirit comes, He testifies concerning the Son (15:26). This shows the oneness of the wonderful divine Trinity.

The Son was made the Firstborn of all creation (Col. 1:15) and the Firstborn in resurrection (v. 18). In making the Son the Firstborn of the two creations, the Father gave the preeminence, the first place, to the Son. Colossians 1:19 says, “For in Him all the fullness was pleased to dwell.” The fullness mentioned in this verse is the fullness of the Godhead (2:9). This means that all the fullness of the Godhead was pleased to dwell in Christ, who is God’s embodiment. The Father, Son, and Spirit were pleased to dwell in Christ. As the embodiment of the divine Trinity, the Son did not “regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a slave, becoming in the likeness of men” (Phil. 2:6-7). The Son lowered Himself to be a slave, taking the form of man. He was happy to obey God, even to the point of death—not an ordinary death, but the death of the cross (v. 8). The Son was willing to be lowered and to obey the Father to such an extent. The Father honored the Son, the Son lowered Himself to obey the Father, and the Spirit, being sent by the Father and the Son, came to testify concerning the Son. While He was on earth, the Son did nothing of Himself (John 5:19, 30). Rather, He did everything by the Father according to the Father’s will. The three Persons of the Godhead are mingled as one. The church’s oneness should be a duplication of the divine Trinity’s oneness.

THE DIVINE TRINITY BEING
THE MODEL OF OUR CHRISTIAN LIFE

Because man is a tripartite being—having a body, a soul, and a spirit—he may be considered as a “human trinity.” Unlike the divine Trinity, within the “human trinity” there is always fighting. The Bible says that the flesh, our body, lusts or fights against our spirit which is mingled with the divine Spirit (Gal. 5:17). Our flesh also fights with our mind (Rom. 7:23). The flesh fights against the logical soul which desires to do the right thing. The soul desires to do good, but the flesh does not allow it. Whenever our soul desires to do good, the sin in our evil flesh rises up to fight against our soul (vv. 18-21). We also have the Lord Jesus within us, dwelling in our spirit (2 Tim. 4:22). This causes us further trouble because He says “no” to the flesh, and most of the time He says “no” to the soul.

Due to the warfare within us, we must learn to cooperate with the divine Trinity. The divine Trinity is the model of our Christian life. Among the divine Trinity, there is no warfare. The Father is happy to exalt the Son, the Son is very willing to subject Himself to the Father, and the Spirit is willing to testify concerning the Son. Our “human trinity” is not like this. Therefore, we need a Savior. This Savior is the divine Trinity, who has come into our spirit. After we are saved, our “human trinity” needs to follow the indwelling divine Trinity. In our salvation, we should cooperate with the Savior who is indwelling us. Eventually, our entire being—spirit, soul, and body—will glorify the divine Trinity. This cooperation with the indwelling Trinity will result in His glorification, His expression, and His manifestation.

We mainly do things through our soul. We make choices and decisions by our soul. Yet even though we make choices and decisions with our soul, we still cannot act with our soul alone. When the Son did things, He did not do them according to His own will but according to the Father’s will. In the same way, our soul should do things not according to its own will but according to the spirit’s will. This is our life after we are saved. After we were saved, the divine Trinity was added to our tripartite being. Instead of exchanging lives with the divine Trinity, we have been and are being mingled together with Him.

The Bible reveals that as Christians we have two persons: the outward man and the inward man (2 Cor. 4:16). If we were just one person, there would be no problem or struggle. But since we are now two persons, we have difficulties. The outward man is our body as its organ with our soul as its life and person. The inward man is our regenerated spirit as its life and person with our renewed soul as its organ. Because our soul is fallen, we must deny our soul. The life of the soul must be denied (Matt. 16:24-25). However, the functions of the soul—the mind, the will, and the emotion—must be renewed and uplifted by being subdued to be used by the spirit as the person of the inward man. Our soul should be submissive and obedient to the spirit, even becoming one with the spirit. Furthermore, when the divine life is imparted into our body, it becomes the temple of the Holy Spirit (1 Cor. 6:19). In this way, all three parts of our being cooperate with the indwelling divine Trinity. The Christian life is the “human trinity”—the body, the soul, and the spirit—mingled together with the divine Trinity. These two “trinities” are mingled together as one.

THE DIVINE PROVISIONS FOR THE CHRISTIAN LIFE

The Christian life is a life of our being mingled with the divine Trinity. In our Christian life, God uses four instruments to mingle us with the divine Trinity: the divine life, the cross, the Spirit, and the Word. These are the Lord’s divine provisions. We are mingled with the Lord by His divine life, by His Spirit, by the cross of Christ, and by the Word. Therefore, we must always have fellowship with the Spirit in the divine life through the cross and through the Word. For this reason, we must join ourselves to the holy Word every day, accept the dealing of the cross, and be one with the Spirit that we may participate in the divine life. (Messages to the Trainees in Fall 1990, msg. 6)

THE DIVINE TRINITY FOR THE DIVINE DISPENSING

The divine Trinity is for His divine dispensing. John 1:14 says that the Word who became flesh was full of grace and reality. Verse 16 says, “For of His fullness we all received, and grace upon grace.” The incarnated One was full of grace and reality. Thus, the fullness is the totality of grace and reality. God came through incarnation full of grace and reality for the purpose of dispensing. When we have a love feast in the church, many sisters come full of all different types of food for the purpose of distributing, dispensing, this food for feeding others. Feeding is dispensing.

The incarnation of the Triune God was for dispensing. We know this because John 1:14 says that the Word became flesh, full of grace and reality. His incarnation was for distributing Himself as grace and reality to His chosen people. Incarnation was the first step of God’s dispensing. God came down from the heavens to the earth in a particular way. He entered into the womb of a virgin, being incarnated, for the purpose of dispensing Himself to His chosen people as grace and reality.

THE SUBJECTIVE EXPERIENCE
OF THE DIVINE DISPENSING

What we have fellowshipped so far shows the line of the dispensing from God’s side in the Gospel of John, but there is the subjective experience of the dispensing on our side. God dispenses, and we have to enjoy. Now we need to see the aspect of the dispensing on our side.

First, we were regenerated. Regeneration is the consummated Triune God as the Spirit entering into our spirit. Regeneration is the processed Triune God as the consummated Spirit coming to touch our spirit, to bring the divine life into our spirit to regenerate our spirit. That which is born of the divine Spirit is the human spirit (John 3:6b). Now the very God who was altogether objective to us has become one with us. He is now inside of us, becoming the very intrinsic element of our being.

THE DIVINE MINGLING

We all have to realize that the real Christian life, the real life of the believers in Christ, is not an exchanged life but a mingled life. The divine dispensing of the divine Trinity into our being is a matter of being mingled with Him. Regeneration is the initiation of the divine mingling, the mingling of the divine Spirit with our human spirit (Rom. 8:16; 1 Cor. 6:17). Breathing, drinking, eating, and growing are the continual dispensing of the divine Trinity into us as a continuation of this divine mingling.

THE “ROOT HAIRS” OF OUR CHRISTIAN LIFE

According to my consideration, breathing, drinking, eating, and growing are the “root hairs” of our Christian life to keep us in the continual dispensing. The Triune God has passed through all the process to become the wonderful life-giving Spirit. Now we need to enjoy the continual dispensing of this One into our being. This is why we need the root hairs. A tree grows by its root hairs. Because we have been regenerated, we have the life and nature of the Triune God. But in order to survive and to live, we need to breathe all the time. Every breath is a root hair. We also need to drink and eat the Lord. The breathing, eating, drinking, and growing in the Lord are the root hairs.

We believe in the processed, dispensing Triune God and realize that we have been regenerated, yet we may not breathe, drink, eat, or grow in a regular way. The root hairs of our Christian life should be like the countless root hairs of a tree. All day long, we need to breathe in the Lord. Some saints may not call on the Lord for three days or even a month. As a result, there is no growth in the Lord with them because there are no root hairs. We need to call on the Lord all the time. This is why Paul tells us to pray unceasingly (1 Thes. 5:17). To pray is both to breathe and to drink. M.E. Barber said in a hymn that “to breathe the Name of Jesus is to drink of Life indeed” (Hymns, #73). We have to call, to pray, to breathe, to drink. Then we have to eat the Lord. We also need to abide in the Lord that we may grow. If we take care of these life matters, we will be people who are in the divine dispensing of the divine Trinity to carry out the divine economy for the fulfillment of the divine purpose. (Messages to the Trainees in Fall 1990, msg. 5)

Expressions such as God is light, God is love (4:8, 16), and God is Spirit (John 4:24) are used not in a metaphoric sense but in a predicative sense. They denote and describe the nature of God. In His nature, God is Spirit, love, and light. Spirit denotes the nature of God’s person; love, the nature of God’s essence; and light, the nature of God’s expression. Both love and light are related to God as life, which is of the Spirit (Rom. 8:2). God, Spirit, and life are actually one. God is Spirit and Spirit is life. Within this life are love and light. When the divine love appears to us, it becomes grace, and when the divine light shines on us, it becomes truth. John’s Gospel reveals that the Lord Jesus brought grace and truth to us (John 1:14, 17) that we might have the divine life (John 3:14-16), whereas John’s Epistle unveils that the fellowship of the divine life brings us to the very source of grace and truth, which are the divine love and the divine light. John’s Epistle is the continuation of his Gospel. In John’s Gospel it is God in the Son coming to us as grace and truth that we may become His children (John 1:12-13); in John’s Epistle it is we, the children, in the fellowship of the Father’s life, going to the Father to participate in His love and light (see note 82 in ch. 4). The former was God’s coming out to the outer court to meet our need at the altar (Lev. 4:28-31); the latter is our entering into the Holy of Holies to contact Him at the Ark (Exo. 25:22). This is further and deeper in the experience of the divine life. After receiving the divine life by believing into the Son in John’s Gospel, we should go on to enjoy this life through the fellowship of this life in John’s Epistle. The entire Epistle discloses to us this one thing, that is, the enjoyment of the divine life through our abiding in its fellowship. (Holy Bible Recovery Version, 1 John 1:5, footnote 3)

This Epistle says first that God is light (1:5) and then that God is love. Love, as the nature of God’s essence, is the source of grace, and light, as the nature of God’s expression, is the source of truth. When the divine love appears to us, it becomes grace, and when the divine light shines upon us, it becomes truth (see note 66, final par., in ch. 1). Both of these were manifested in this way in John’s Gospel. We received both grace and truth there through the manifestation of the Son (John 1:14, 16-17). Now in John’s Epistle we come in the Son to the Father and touch the sources of both grace and truth. These sources, love and light, are God the Father Himself for our deeper and finer enjoyment in the fellowship of the divine life with the Father in the Son (1:3-7) through our abiding in Him (2:5, 27-28; 3:6, 24). (Holy Bible Recovery Version, 1 John 4:8, footnote 2)