THE CRUCIAL POINTS OF THE MAJOR ITEMS OF THE LORD'S RECOVERY TODAY
Message Two
The Triune God
Scripture Reading: Matt. 28:19; 2 Cor. 13:14; Rev. 1:4-5; Eph. 4:6; Col. 1:27; John 14:20, 17
I. We must be governed by the revelation that God is uniquely one—Psa. 86:10; Isa. 45:5; 1 Cor. 8:4.
II. The unique God is triune, three-one—the Father, the Son, and the Spirit—Matt. 28:19.
III. The Triune God refers mainly to God Himself; the Divine Trinity refers mainly to God's being triune, which is the primary attribute of the Godhead—v. 19; 2 Cor. 13:14; Rev. 1:4-5.
IV. The three of the Divine Trinity are eternally coexistent:
A. The Father, the Son, and the Spirit are all God—1 Pet. 1:2; Eph. 1:17; Heb. 1:8; John 1:1; Rom. 9:5; Acts 5:3-4.
B. The Father, the Son, and the Spirit are all eternal—Isa. 9:6; Heb. 1:12; 7:3; 9:14.
C. The Father, the Son, and the Spirit coexist simultaneously from eternity to eternity—John 14:16-17; Eph. 3:14-17; 2 Cor. 13:14.
V. The three of the Divine Trinity are eternally coinherent:
A. The Father, the Son, and the Spirit mutually indwell one another—John 14:10-11, 26; 15:26.
B. The Father, the Son, and the Spirit coexist in Their coinherence and are thus distinct but not separate—5:19, 43; 8:29; 16:32; Luke 1:35; Matt. 1:18, 20; Luke 4:1, 18a; Matt. 12:28:
1. Among the three of the Divine Trinity, there is distinction but no separation.
2. In their coexistence the three of the Godhead are distinct, but their coinherence makes them one; the Father, the Son, and the Spirit coexist in Their coinherence.
VI. The essential Trinity refers to the essence of the Triune God for His existence—28:19:
A. In His essence God is one, the one unique God—Isa. 45:18; 1 Cor. 8:6.
B. In the essential Trinity the Father, the Son, and the Spirit coexist and coinhere at the same time and in the same way with no succession.
C. The Father, the Son, and the Spirit are essentially one:
1. A Son is given to us, yet His name is called Eternal Father—Isa. 9:6.
2. The Son as the last Adam became the life-giving Spirit—1 Cor. 15:45.
3. The Lord is the Spirit and the Lord Spirit—2 Cor. 3:17-18.
VII. The economical Trinity refers to the plan of the Triune God for His move—Rev. 1:4-5:
A. In the economical Trinity the Father, the Son, and the Spirit work in three successive steps, or stages, in the process of God's economy.
B. The Father planned, the Son accomplished, and the Spirit applies what the Son accomplished according to the Father's plan—Eph. 1:4-5, 7, 13.
C. The Father, the Son, and the Spirit are economically three, yet They are still one in harmony in the economical Trinity—John 10:30; 17:21, 23; Matt. 3:16-17; Eph. 1:4, 6-7, 13.
D. While the divine economy is being carried out by the economical Trinity, the eternal coexistence and coinherence of the three in the Godhead remain intact and are not jeopardized.
VIII. All three of the Divine Trinity dwell in us, the believers in Christ:
A. The Father is in us (4:6), the Son is in us (John 14:20; Col. 1:27; 2 Cor. 13:5), and the Spirit is in us (John 14:17).
B. Although the Father, the Son, and the Spirit are all in us, in our experience we sense that there is just One in us; this One who dwells in us is the Triune God.
IX. According to the divine revelation in the Bible, the Divine Trinity is for God's dispensing, that is, for the distribution of the Triune God into His chosen people—2 Cor. 13:14:
A. The accomplishment of the divine economy is by the dispensing of the Divine Trinity—Eph. 1:3-23; 3:14-21:
1. The divine economy is God's plan and arrangement out of His desire and purpose—1:5, 9-11.
2. The divine dispensing is God's dispensing and distributing according to this plan and arrangement—3:14-17a.
3. Everything that is mentioned in the New Testament concerning God is related to the divine dispensing for the divine economy—Rom. 8:3, 11.
B. God's desire with His strong intention is to dispense Himself into His chosen people as their life, their life supply, and their everything.
C. In the divine dispensing of the Divine Trinity, the Father is the fountain, the Son is the spring, and the Spirit is the flow:
1. A fountain is the origin, the source, of the stream or river; a spring is the emergence, the expression, of the fountain; and the stream or river is the flow.
2. The Father as the origin is the fountain; the Son as the expression is the spring; and the Spirit as the transmission is the flow, the reaching, the application, of the Triune God for the distribution of Himself into His chosen people—Jer. 2:13; John 4:14; 7:37-39; Rev. 22:1:
a. In Jeremiah 2:13 God refers to Himself as the fountain of living waters; in John 4:14 Christ is the spring of water gushing up in the believers into eternal life; and in Revelation 22:1 the Spirit is the flow, the river of water of life.
b. The Father is the fountain, the source, and the Son is the spring as the course to express the source; this course, this spring, issues in a flow, which is the Spirit as the reaching, the application, of the Triune God.
D. Second Corinthians 13:14 is strong proof that the Divine Trinity is not for the doctrinal understanding of systematic theology but for the dispensing, the distributing, of the Triune God into His chosen people.
X. We know the Triune God by experiencing and enjoying Him—1 John 1:5; 2:27; 4:16; 5:11-12:
A. Through God the Son, who is the Accomplisher, the means, and in God the Spirit, who is the Executor, the application, we have access unto God the Father, who is the Originator, the source of our enjoyment—Eph. 2:18:
1. Positionally, we were reconciled to God; experientially, we have access unto the Father.
2. To be reconciled to God is to be saved; to have access unto the Father is to enjoy God, who, as the source of life, has regenerated us to be His sons.
B. The Triune God is not merely the object of our faith; He is dwelling in us as our life and life supply for our experience and enjoyment—1 John 4:13-15.
C. We need to know the Triune God experientially through the inner enjoyment of the subjective God—2:27; 4:4.
D. The experience and enjoyment of the Triune God have a focal point: God becoming man, the God-man, and this God-man accomplishing redemption and in resurrection becoming the life-giving Spirit—vv. 9-10, 13-14; 1 Cor. 15:45b.
E. The anointing is the moving of the Triune God experienced and enjoyed by us; the teaching of the anointing is actually the Triune God teaching us concerning Himself—1 John 2:20, 27.
F. If we would know the Triune God, we must be in the line of life and in the process of the growth in life; the more we grow in life, the more we will be concerned with the Divine Trinity—vv. 13-18.