7. In Psalm 110:1 David says, "The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit thou at my right hand, until I make thine enemies thy footstool" (KJV). The Lord here, of course, is God, and the One whom David calls "my Lord" is the Lord Jesus, as He Himself indicated in Matthew 22:42-45. So Psalm 110 speaks of God and the Lord Jesus. God speaks of Himself here as "my," and of the Lord Jesus as "thou." The Lord Jesus is God, but here it says that God speaks to Him, and that between God and Him there is the difference of "my" and "thou." He and God are one, yet They are two. This must also be something of the three persons of the Godhead.

8. The Old Testament even reveals the three names—Father, Son, and Spirit. Second Samuel 7:14 speaks of the Father and the Son. Isaiah 9:6 speaks of the Son and the Father. Psalm 2:7 speaks of the Son. Ezekiel 36:27; 37:14; 39:29; Joel 2:28-29; etc., speak of the Spirit. According to the above passages we also see that: (1) the Father is the source, because the Son proceeds out of the Father; (2) the Son is the manifestation, because the Son is given unto us and comes to us; and (3) the Spirit is the One who enters into us, because the Spirit is put into us for us to possess and enjoy. This exactly corresponds with the points revealed subsequently in the New Testament.

Even so, what is revealed in the Old Testament concerning the Trinity—the Father, Son, and Spirit—is still not sufficiently clear for our understanding. It is not until we come to the end of the first book of the New Testament, the Gospel of Matthew, that the Lord speaks clearly of the Father, Son, and Spirit, and speaks of the three together, using the singular "name" for them. Why was this disclosure not made until this time? Because it was at this time, after the Lord's death and resurrection, that the Son had accomplished all the Father had planned and the Holy Spirit was about to come to apply all the Son had accomplished upon man. Then it was possible to baptize people into the name of the Father, Son, and Spirit, that is, to baptize them into the Triune God. This God is the God who plans, the God who accomplishes, and the God who applies; He is the God who is three-in-one and one-in-three—the Father, the Son, and the Spirit.

Andrew Murray, in The Spirit of Christ, chapter twenty, confirms and strengthens what we have said here. He says, "In the Father we have the unseen God, the Author of all. In the Son God revealed, made manifest, and brought nigh; He is the Form of God. In the Spirit of God we have the Indwelling God: the Power of God dwelling in human body and working in it what the Father and the Son have for us....what the Father has purposed, and the Son has procured, can be appropriated and take effect in the members of Christ who are still here in the flesh, only through the continual intervention and active operation of the Holy Spirit."*

In eternity without a beginning God the Father has planned according to His desire; in time God the Son accomplishes it. He first accomplished creation. After creation, when man fell, He became a man to redeem fallen men. On the negative side, He died to redeem men; on the positive side, He rose from the dead and released the life to produce many sons for God the Father, thus accomplishing the plan of God the Father. After His death and resurrection He became the life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45, Recovery Version) and as such comes into our spirit, bringing the Triune God wholly into us, not only to unite with us, but to mingle with us as one. It is at this point that this God is so mysterious, so complete and full. Today, when we preach the gospel, we are telling people that man needs such a God; man needs Him as his Savior, life, and all. When men believe, we baptize them into this Triune God. So there is the matter of the Father, Son, and Spirit.