In this message we shall continue to see how the believers, in the initial stage of God’s full salvation, are joined to the processed Triune God.
We have seen that, as believers, we have been joined to God the Father as the source of the divine Trinity and to God the Son, Christ, as the embodiment of the processed Triune God. Now we need to see that we have also been joined to God the Spirit as the consummation of the processed Triune God. This is indicated by Matthew 28:19b, which says that the believers are baptized into the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit here is the consummation of the processed Triune God, and we have been joined to Him. Giving a fuller definition of the Spirit, we may say that the Spirit is the processed, compound, all-inclusive, life-giving, indwelling, sevenfold intensified, consummated Spirit as the ultimate consummation of the processed Triune God. We have been joined to such a Spirit.
The believers are joined to God the Spirit by receiving Him in them essentially. To receive the Spirit essentially is to receive Him into our being as our spiritual and divine essence. When we received the Spirit in this way, the Spirit came into us to be our spiritual life and being.
In Galatians 3:2 Paul speaks of the believers’ receiving the Spirit essentially: “This only I wish to learn from you, Did you receive the Spirit by the works of law or by the hearing of faith?” This verse indicates that we have received the Spirit by the hearing of faith. Through hearing the gospel we believed in the crucified Christ, but we received the Spirit. The One who was crucified was Christ, but the One who enters into the believers is the Spirit. This is the all-inclusive life-giving Spirit. The believers received such a divine Spirit by the hearing of faith, not by works of law. The Spirit enters into the believers and lives in them through their faith in the crucified and resurrected Christ.
The Spirit we have received essentially is the processed Triune God. However, some may object to this statement and claim that the Spirit in Galatians 3:2 refers only to the Holy Spirit, the third of the Godhead, not to the Triune God. But according to the New Testament, especially Paul’s Epistles, the Spirit we have received is the processed Triune God. Although God is eternal and unchanging, He has nevertheless passed through the processes of incarnation, human living, crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension. Thus, the Spirit we have received is the very Triune God who has been processed for us. When we received this Spirit, we received the Triune God—the Father, the Son, and the Spirit. The Father is embodied in the Son, and the Son is realized as the Spirit. Therefore, to receive the Spirit is to receive the Triune God.
Essentially, the believers have received the Spirit as the Spirit of reality. In John 14:16 and 17 the Lord Jesus says, “I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Comforter, that He may be with you forever; even the Spirit of reality, whom the world cannot receive, because it does not behold Him or know Him; but you know Him, because He abides with you and shall be in you.” The very “He” who is the Spirit of reality in verse 17 becomes the very “I” who is the Lord Himself in verse 18. This indicates that after His resurrection the Lord became the Spirit of reality, as confirmed by 1 Corinthians 15:45b. The Spirit of reality is the reality of the divine Trinity. This means that the Father, the Son, and even the Spirit are realized in the Spirit of reality. Therefore, the whole Triune God, the complete Trinity, is realized in the Spirit of reality. Apart from the Spirit of reality, in our experience we cannot have the divine Trinity or any of the divine attributes. The reality of the Triune God and His attributes is the Spirit of reality.
As the Spirit of reality, the Spirit is the reality of God, of the Son, and of every divine thing. He is also the reality of eternal life. Because the Spirit is the Spirit of reality, He is God, the Son, and eternal life. Because the Spirit is the reality of God, the Son, eternal life, and every divine matter, He is called the Spirit of reality.