We may also say that the Father is the Son and that the Son is the Spirit. In Isaiah 9:6 the Son is called the everlasting Father, and 2 Corinthians 3:17 says that the Lord is the Spirit. On the one hand, the Father is in the Son, and the Son is in the Spirit. On the other hand, the Father is the Son, and the Son is the Spirit.
The three of the Godhead are distinct, yet they are one. John 1:1 says that the Word was with God and that the Word was God. On the one hand, the Word and God are distinct, and on the other hand, they are one. Second Corinthians 3:17 says that the Lord is the Spirit, but it also refers to the Spirit of the Lord. On the one hand, the Lord and the Spirit are one, but on the other hand, they are distinct.
Now we have to ask why God needs to be triune. To answer this we need to know the whole Bible in a proper way. God needs to be triune because He desires to work Himself into us, to dispense Himself into us. Dispensation is the noun form of the verb dispense. God’s dispensation is His plan to dispense Himself into us. God’s dispensation, His economy, is to dispense Himself into us, to apply Himself into us.
Let us take electricity as an illustration of God’s dispensing. The current of electricity and electricity itself are not two separate matters. They are one. The current of electricity is the electricity itself in motion. When electricity moves, when it flows, there is the current of electricity. We need the current of electricity for the application of electricity. If we never applied electricity, there would be no need for us to have the current of electricity. But if we are going to dispense electricity into our homes, we need the current of electricity. The current of electricity is for the dispensation, the economy, of electricity.
In the New Testament Jesus told us that He, as the Son, was sent by the Father (John 5:37; 8:18, 29). His being sent by the Father indicates that the Father is the source, out of which the Son flowed to be among mankind. This does not mean that the Son and the Father were two separate divine beings substantially. They are substantially one divine Being. The Father is the source, and the Son is the expression of the Father. But the Son as the expression of the Father could only come to be among mankind; He could not come into man. Thus, we need the Spirit. In John 14 the Lord Jesus indicated that He needed to change form from the flesh into the Spirit. He indicated that He had to pass through death and enter into resurrection so that He could come into us as the Spirit, as the breath (vv. 16-20). After His death and resurrection, He came back as the breath of life. In the evening on the day of resurrection He came to the disciples, breathed into them, and said, “Receive the Holy Breath” (20:22). As the breath, He got into the disciples, so God was dispensed into human beings. Thus, the divine Trinity is for God’s dispensation to dispense God into us.
The Spirit is the final person of God’s dispensation and of God’s visitation. How could God come to us? How could God visit us? He comes to us and visits us as the Spirit. Electricity comes into a room as the current. If there is no current of electricity, the electricity cannot be dispensed into the room and be applied to it. Electricity is applied to us in current. Thus, current is the visitation of electricity. In like manner, the Spirit is the visitation of God, the dispensing of God, the application of God. The third person of the Godhead, who is the Spirit, is the application of God to us. If God is going to be applied to us, He needs to be the Spirit. The essence of God needs the application of God. The essence of a certain medicine needs to be put in the form of a pill so it can be dispensed into a sick patient. The pill is for the application of the medicine. Likewise, the Spirit as the third person of the Godhead is for God’s application of His essence to dispense Himself into us.
Now we want to see the third aspect of the divine Spirit. The first aspect is that God is Spirit in essence, and the second aspect is that God in His Trinity is the Spirit for application. The third aspect of the divine Spirit can be seen in 1 Corinthians 15:45, which tells us that the last Adam, who was Christ in the flesh, became a life-giving Spirit. The Redeemer, the Savior, who passed through incarnation, human living, crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension, became a life-giving Spirit. The third aspect of the divine Spirit is the aspect of life-giving. The essence is for the application, and the application is for life-giving. The Lord wants to apply Himself into us to give us life.
The fourth aspect of the divine Spirit is that the words the Lord speaks to us are spirit (John 6:63). This shows that His spoken words are the embodiment of the life-giving Spirit. God is Spirit, the third person of the Godhead is Spirit, Christ was made a life-giving Spirit, and the divine word is Spirit. This is one Spirit in four aspects. The first aspect is the essence, the second is the application, the third is the life-giving, and the fourth is the word for feeding. John 6 tells us that Christ is the bread of life to feed us (vv. 35, 57). We need the essence and the application for life-giving, and this life-giving mostly depends upon feeding. The Lord feeds us with Himself as the bread of life. The Spirit is living and real but rather abstract, mysterious, intangible, and difficult for people to apprehend. But the words are substantial and concrete. It is the Spirit that gives life, and today the Spirit is embodied in the word. The Spirit today is consolidated into the word, the living word. Words in Greek in John 6:63 is not logos but rhema-the instant, living, present, up-to-date word.
The four aspects of the divine Spirit that we have seen are for one purpose-to dispense God into us as our life and as our life supply. God Himself is Spirit essentially, the last person of the Godhead is the Spirit economically, Christ is the Spirit all-inclusively, and the words that He speaks are the Spirit practically for the one purpose of giving us life and feeding us with God Himself. These four aspects are like four steps that God takes to dispense Himself into us as life. The Spirit of life includes God as Spirit, includes the third person of God’s Trinity, includes the all-inclusive, redeeming Christ with His incarnation, human living, crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension, and includes the living word of God. All that God is to us is the all-inclusive Spirit, which is the Spirit of life. This Spirit gives us life. As a help in realizing the all-inclusiveness of the Spirit of life, I would encourage you to read the booklet entitled The All-Inclusive Spirit of Christ published by Living Stream Ministry.
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