The grace of Christ the Son is in the fellowship of God the Spirit to be transmitted to the believers. It is through the fellowship of the Holy Spirit that this grace is able to reach us. The fellowship of the Holy Spirit is the transmission of the Holy Spirit. The grace of Christ comes out of the love of God, but this grace comes into us, is conveyed to us, and is transmitted into us through the fellowship of the Holy Spirit. Therefore, in order to enjoy the grace of the Lord we must be in the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, and as we are enjoying the grace of the Lord, we taste the love of God. The Holy Spirit, the Lord Jesus, and God are not three separate Gods. In the same manner, these three—love, grace, and fellowship—are one. Today if we desire to enjoy the grace of Christ, we must be in the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, and as we are enjoying the grace of Christ, we will spontaneously taste the love of God.
The fellowship of the Holy Spirit is God Himself flowing into us. When the flow is hidden, it is love. When love flows out, it is grace. When grace flows into us, it is fellowship. This fellowship is by means of the Spirit, and this Spirit is in our spirit. Therefore, we must learn to turn to our spirit. Only when we enter into our spirit can we contact the Spirit of fellowship; only when we are in the Spirit of fellowship can we enjoy the grace of the Lord; and only when we are in the grace of the Lord can we taste the love of God.
In the divine dispensing we simultaneously experience and enjoy grace, love, and fellowship. While we are enjoying the fellowship of the Spirit, we also enjoy the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God. The more we live in the fellowship of the Spirit, the more we receive the grace of Christ; the more we receive the grace of Christ, the more we enjoy the love of God. The fellowship of the Holy Spirit issues in the grace of Christ, and in the grace of Christ we receive the love of God. Hence, the love of the Father, the grace of the Son, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit are simultaneously experienced and enjoyed by the believers in the divine dispensing.
Grace as presented in 2 Corinthians is actually the Triune God embodied in the Son and transmitted into our being through the Spirit for our enjoyment. Hence, grace is the Triune God as our life, life supply, and enjoyment. This grace issues out from the Father’s love and is transmitted into our being by the Spirit. Therefore, we have the grace of Christ, the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit—the full enjoyment of the Triune God.
The grace of the Lord is the Lord Himself as life to us for our enjoyment, the love of God is God Himself as the source of the grace of the Lord, and the fellowship of the Spirit is the Spirit Himself as the transmission of the grace of the Lord with the love of God for our participation. The result of the enjoyment of the grace of the Lord, the love of God, and the fellowship of the Spirit is satisfaction, and the issue of this enjoyment and satisfaction is rest. All Christians should have this enjoyment, satisfaction, and rest.
The grace of the Lord is the Lord Himself as life to us for our enjoyment (John 1:17 and footnote 1; 1 Cor. 15:10 and footnote 1), the love of God is God Himself (1 John 4:8, 16) as the source of the grace of the Lord, and the fellowship of the Spirit is the Spirit Himself as the transmission of the grace of the Lord with the love of God for our participation. These are not three separate matters but three aspects of one thing, just as the Lord, God, and the Holy Spirit are not three separate Gods but three hypostases...of the one same undivided and indivisible” God (Philip Schaff). The Greek word for hypostasis (used in Hebrews 11:1—see footnote 2 there), the singular form of hypostases, refers to a support under, a support beneath, that is, something underneath that supports, a supporting substance. The Father, the Son, and the Spirit are the hypostases, the supporting substances, that compose the one Godhead.
The love of God is the source, since God is the origin; the grace of the Lord is the course of the love of God, since the Lord is the expression of God; and the fellowship of the Spirit is the impartation of the grace of the Lord with the love of God, since the Spirit is the transmission of the Lord with God for our experience and enjoyment of the Triune God—the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, with Their divine virtues. In 2 Corinthians 13:14 the grace of the Lord is mentioned first because this book is on the grace of Christ. Such a divine attribute of three virtues—love, grace, and fellowship—and such a Triune God of the three divine hypostases—the Father, the Son, and the Spirit—were needed by the distracted and confused yet comforted and restored Corinthian believers. Hence, the apostle used all these divine and precious things in one sentence to conclude his lovely and dear Epistle.
Second Corinthians 13:14 is strong proof that the trinity of the Godhead is not for the doctrinal understanding of systematic theology but for the dispensing of God Himself in His trinity into His chosen and redeemed people. In the Bible the Trinity is never revealed merely as a doctrine. It is always revealed or mentioned in regard to the relationship of God with His creatures, especially with man, who was created by Him, and more particularly with His chosen and redeemed people. The first divine title used in the divine revelation, Elohim in Hebrew, a title used in relation to God’s creation, is plural in number (Gen. 1:1), implying that God, as the Creator of the heavens and the earth for man, is triune. Concerning His creation of man in His own image, according to His own likeness, He used the plural pronouns Us and Our, referring to His trinity (1:26) and implying that He would be one with man and express Himself through man in His trinity. Later, in Genesis 3:22 and 11:7 and Isaiah 6:8, He referred to Himself again and again as Us in regard to His relationship with man and with His chosen people.
In order to redeem fallen man that He might again have the position to be one with man, God became incarnated (John 1:1, 14) in the Son and through the Spirit (Luke 1:31-35) to be a man, and lived a human life on the earth, also in the Son (2:49) and by the Spirit (4:1; Matt. 12:28). At the beginning of the Son’s ministry on the earth, the Father anointed the Son with the Spirit (3:16-17; Luke 4:18) in order that He might reach men and bring them back to Him. Just before He was crucified in the flesh and resurrected to become the life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45), He unveiled His mysterious trinity to His disciples in plain words (John 14—17), stating that the Son is in the Father and the Father is in the Son (14:9-11), that the Spirit is the transfiguration of the Son (vv. 16-20), that the three, coexisting and coinhering simultaneously, are abiding with the believers for their enjoyment (v. 23; 17:21-23), and that all that the Father has is the Son’s and all that the Son possesses is received by the Spirit to be declared to the believers (16:13-15). Such a Trinity is altogether related to the dispensing of the processed God into His believers (14:17, 20; 15:4-5) that they may be one in and with the Triune God (17:21-23).
After His resurrection He charged His disciples to disciple the nations, baptizing them into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit (Matt. 28:19); that is, He charged the disciples to bring the believing ones into the Triune God, into an organic union with the processed God, who had passed through incarnation, human living, and crucifixion and had entered into resurrection. Based on such an organic union, the apostle, at the conclusion of this divine Epistle to the Corinthians, blessed them with the blessed Divine Trinity in the participation in the Son’s grace with the Father’s love through the Spirit’s fellowship. In this Divine Trinity, God the Father operates all things in all the members in the church, which is the Body of Christ, through the ministries of the Lord, God the Son, by the gifts of God the Spirit (1 Cor. 12:4-6).
The divine revelation of the trinity of the Godhead in the holy Word is not for theological study but for the apprehending of how God in His mysterious and marvelous trinity dispenses Himself into His chosen people, that we as His chosen and redeemed people may, as indicated in the apostle’s blessing to the Corinthian believers, participate in, experience, enjoy, and possess the processed Triune God now and for eternity.