Over fifty years ago, Brother Watchman Nee often told us that the Lord Jesus was the Son, but in eternity past He was the Father, and after resurrection He was the Spirit. Hymns, #490 was written by him. Verse 5 says:
Thou, Lord, the Father once wast called,
But now the Holy Spirit art;
The Spirit is Thine other form,
Thyself to dwell within our heart.
The above verse is written from the economical point of view. A form is a mode. If you do not know that in God’s divine economy there is the essential Trinity and there is the economical Trinity, and if you do not know the difference and the distinction between them, you will think that Brother Nee was teaching the heresy of modalism. Essentially speaking, the Triune God is one. But economically speaking, there is the distinction of three. I will not say that there are three modes, for I do not want to be mistaken for a modalist. This is why I use the expression, “distinction of three.” In the Lord Jesus’ conception, birth, human living, death on the cross, and resurrection, the Triune God was in Him passing through all these processes together with Him. The Father was in Him; the Son was in Him; and the Spirit was in Him. The whole Triune God was in Him. Essentially speaking, the Father and the Spirit never departed from Him. But in the aspect of God’s economy, after the Lord Jesus’ baptism, the Holy Spirit was upon Him as His power for three and a half years. Then at the time when He was put on the cross, God forsook Him. This is not according to His essence but is according to His economy. Over twenty years ago, I wrote a book in English entitled The Economy of God. In this book there is a passage that reads, “Thus, the three persons of the Trinity become the three successive steps in the process of God’s economy” (p. 10). Here I said “three successive steps in the process of God’s economy.” In the book The God-Men, my opposers changed the word “economy” to “existence,” making it read that there are three successive steps in God’s existence. This is far off from what I wrote. What I said was that the Triune God has three successive steps in His economy. But the opposers changed my words to read that the Triune God has three successive steps in His existence. This is a great misrepresentation! In God’s existence there are not three successive steps because the Father, the Son, and the Spirit are coexistent from eternity. There are three, yet They are one God. This is the essential Trinity. But in God’s economy, the Triune God has three successive steps. First, the Father planned. Next, the Son came to accomplish what the Father has planned. Last, the Spirit executes what the Father has planned and what the Son has accomplished. This is the economical Trinity. The Triune God, the Father, the Son, and the Spirit, have a distinction in Their existence and economy. Anyone who fails to realize this distinction will drift into heresy. I hope that you can clearly understand this difference so that you will not be deceived by the seemingly right but actually wrong teachings.
We now come to the Christ in the Acts. Item number one of the outline says that this pneumatic Christ who is in resurrection breathed Himself as breath into the believers. After this He was with them for forty days in a physical form. At times He appeared and at times He disappeared, training them to be accustomed to His invisible presence. When the Lord was with the disciples for three and a half years, His presence was visible. Although the disciples treasured this very much, there was no way for the Lord Jesus to get into them. The Lord Jesus needed to pass through death and resurrection to become the Spirit so He could enter into them. This is why in John 14:20 the Lord says, “In that day you shall know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you.” In His flesh, the Lord Jesus could only be among the disciples, being with them physically; He could not be in them to be with them invisibly. But after His death and resurrection, He became the Spirit and, as breath, He could be breathed into them to be with them eternally. By John 20:22, after He breathed Himself as breath into the disciples, He was in them, and He was with them in an invisible way. But the disciples were neither appreciative nor were they accustomed to this. For this reason, the Lord Jesus stayed with them for forty days to train them to get used to this invisible presence.
The Lord Jesus was visibly present among the disciples for three and a half years. One day He suddenly disappeared. Then, on the evening of resurrection, He appeared again. The disciples were able once more to see Him and to talk with Him. But then, all of a sudden, the Lord hid Himself from them again. Eventually, they felt that they were bored and were not accomplishing anything by staying there. Peter said, “I am going fishing.” They said, “We also are coming with you.” And they all went fishing. The strange thing was that the Lord Jesus had chased away all the fish. That night they caught nothing. At daybreak the Lord suddenly appeared on the shore and asked them, “Do you have anything to eat?” They answered feebly, “No.” Then the Lord told them to spread the net on the right side of the boat. They did, and the net was filled. They woke up to realize that it was the Lord Jesus. When they got onto the shore, they saw a fire of coals there with fish and bread. The Lord called them to come and dine, and He gave them bread and fish. After they ate, the Lord talked with them. But then, in an instant, the Lord Jesus disappeared again. Nobody knew where He went. All these instances were the Lord Jesus’ training of His disciples to be accustomed to His invisible presence.
This is not all. Acts 1 says that after His resurrection the Lord appeared to His disciples for forty days, speaking to them concerning the kingdom of God. Formerly all the disciples had a wrong understanding concerning the kingdom. They thought that the kingdom was just a matter of rule and kingship. Hence, when they were together, they asked the Lord if it was the time for Him to restore the kingdom to Israel. During that time the Lord told them that whether this was the time or not was not a question to be answered by Him, for such a matter belongs to the Father’s economy. The kingdom that He talked about was not the kingdom according to their concept. What He meant was that the life of God would increase in them until it became a sphere, the reality and sphere of the living of the divine life, which is the church. Romans 14:17 says that the kingdom of God, which today is the church, is not eating and drinking but is righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit. Only this is the kingdom of God. They should wait to be baptized by the Holy Spirit, and then they would receive power from above and would be His witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even unto the uttermost parts of the earth. This is not a matter of essence, but a matter of economy.
Item number two of the outline says that after charging the disciples to wait for the Spirit promised by the Father to fall on them so that they could be His witnesses unto the uttermost parts of the earth, the Lord Jesus visibly departed from them according to God’s economy and was taken up into heaven. After He was with them for forty days, at times appearing and at times disappearing to train them to be accustomed to His invisible presence, and after He taught them to understand the kingdom of God, He left them and ascended officially and formally to heaven before their eyes. Had not the Lord Jesus breathed Himself into them? Why then did He physically leave them again to be taken up into heaven? We must realize that the ascension here is economical rather than essential.