THE DIVINE DISPENSING OF THE DIVINE TRINITY FOR THE DIVINE ECONOMY
Message Five
The Divine Dispensing of the Divine Trinity Revealed in the Book of Ephesians
Scripture Reading: Eph. 1:3-14; 2:18; 3:16-19; 4:4-6; 5:19-20; 6:10-11, 17
I. The revelation concerning the Triune God in the holy Word is not for doctrinal understanding but for the dispensing of God in His Divine Trinity into His chosen and redeemed people for their experience and enjoyment—2 Cor. 13:14:
A. The Bible reveals that the Triune God is not merely the object of our faith; He is subjective to us, dwelling in us and dispensing Himself into us to be our life and life supply—Rom. 8:2, 6, 10-11.
B. The Bible was written according to the governing principle of the Triune God working Himself into His chosen and redeemed people as their life and life supply—Psa. 36:8-9.
II. The Divine Trinity is the framework of the entire Bible; the whole Bible, especially the book of Ephesians, is constructed with the Divine Trinity:
A. Ephesians is the only book in the Bible in which every chapter is structured with the Divine Trinity as its basic element.
B. If we do not know the Triune God, we cannot comprehend the profoundness of Ephesians, because every chapter of this book has the Divine Trinity as its framework—1:3-14; 2:18; 3:16-17a; 4:4-6; 5:19-20; 6:10-11, 17.
III. The entire 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 and the divine dispensing of the Divine Trinity 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:
A. Chapter 1 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—vv. 3-14, 18-23:
1. Chapter 1 of Ephesians reveals the issue of the dispensing of the processed Trinity and the transmitting of the transcending Christ.
2. The issue of God the Father's dispensing speaks forth God's eternal purpose (vv. 3-6), the issue of God the Son's dispensing speaks forth the accomplishment of God's eternal purpose (vv. 7-12), and the issue of God the Spirit's dispensing speaks forth the application of God's accomplished purpose (vv. 13-14).
3. Since the transcending Christ is the embodiment of the Triune God, His transcending transmission includes all the rich dispensing of the Triune God; the Triune God's threefold dispensing is included in the transmission of the transcending Christ and is completed and consummated in the all-inclusive transmission of the transcending Christ—vv. 15-23.
B. Chapter 2 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. This indicates that the three coexist and coinhere simultaneously, even after all the processes of incarnation, human living, crucifixion, and resurrection.
2. 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.
3. 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.
4. 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, 15-16, 21-22.
C. In chapter 3 the apostle prays that God the Father will grant the believers to be strengthened with power through God the Spirit into their inner man so that Christ, God the Son, may make His home in their hearts, that is, occupy their entire being, that they might be filled unto all the fullness of the Triune God; this is the climax of the believers' experience and participation in God in His Divine Trinity—vv. 16-19:
1. The Father is the source, the Spirit is the means, the Son is the object, and the fullness of the Triune God is the issue.
2. Each of the three does not act for Himself but for the fullness of the Triune God; this is a beautiful picture of the Divine Trinity—cf. Matt. 12:28.
D. Ephesians 4 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.
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 5 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.
F. Chapter 6 instructs us to fight the spiritual warfare by being empowered in the Lord, God the Son, putting on the whole armor of God the Father, and wielding the sword of the Spirit—vv. 10-11, 17:
1. God the Son is the power within us, God the Father realized in the Son is the armor upon us, and God the Spirit is the sword, who is the word of God.
2. This is the believers' experience and enjoyment of the Triune God even in the spiritual warfare.
IV. According to the entire revelation of the sixty-six books of the Bible, the Divine Trinity—the Father, the Son, and the Spirit—is for God's dispensing, that is, for the distribution of God into His chosen people; God is triune so that He can dispense Himself into us, work Himself into us, for us to enjoy so that we can be built up to be the Body of Christ and prepared to be the bride of Christ for His second coming when the kingdom of the world becomes the kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ for Him to reign forever and ever—Rev. 11:15.