Message Twelve

The Divine Trinity and the Divine Dispensing

Scripture Reading: Eph. 1:3-14; 2:18; 3:16-19;
4:4-6; 5:19-20; 6:10-11, 17

1. The revelation concerning the Triune God in the holy Word is not for doctrinal understanding but for the dispensing of God in His Divine Trinity into His chosen and redeemed people for their experience and enjoyment—2 Cor. 13:14:
   1. It is impossible for us to know the Triune God merely by doctrine; however, we can know Him by experiencing and enjoying Him—1 Pet. 1:2; Rev. 1:4-5.
   2. The Bible reveals that the Triune God is not merely the object of our faith; He is subjective to us, dwelling in us to be our life and life supply—Rom. 8:11.
   3. If we would understand the Divine Trinity, we must be in the process of the growth in life, in the line of life pursuing the growth in life—1 John 2:12-14.
   4. The Bible was written according to the governing principle of the Triune God working Himself into His chosen and redeemed people as their life and life supply—Psa. 36:8-9.
2. The Trinity is the framework of the entire Bible; the whole Bible, especially the book of Ephesians, is constructed with the Trinity:
   1. Ephesians is the only book in the Bible in which every chapter is structured with the Divine Trinity as its basic element.
   2. If we do not know the Triune God, we cannot comprehend the profoundness of Ephesians, because every chapter of this book has the Divine Trinity as its framework—1:3-14; 2:18; 3:16-17a; 4:4-6; 5:19-20; 6:10-11, 17.
3. The revelation in Ephesians concerning the producing, existing, growing, building up, and fighting of the church as the Body of Christ is composed of the divine economy, the dispensing of the Triune God into the members of the Body of Christ; thus, the crucial focus of Ephesians is the divine dispensing of the Divine Trinity into the believers:
   1. Chapter one unveils how God the Father chose and predestinated the members in eternity, God the Son redeemed them, and God the Spirit sealed them as a pledge, thus imparting Himself into His believers for the formation of the church, which is the Body of Christ, the fullness of the One who fills all in all— vv. 3-14, 18-23:
      1. A fundamental truth in the Lord’s recovery is that the Triune God—the Father, the Son, and the Spirit—has wrought Himself into us through the Father’s predestination, the Son’s redemption, and the Spirit’s sealing and pledging.
      2. The Body of Christ comes into being by the dispensing of the Triune God as the life and life supply into the believers.
      3. The threefold mentioning of the praise of God’s glory signifies the threefold dispensing of the Triune God—vv. 6, 12, 14.
   2. Chapter two shows us that in the Divine Trinity all the believers, both Jewish and Gentile, have access unto God the Father through God the Son, in God the Spirit—v. 18:
      1. Through God the Son, who is the Accomplisher, the means, and in God the Spirit, who is the Executor, the application, we have access unto God the Father, who is the Originator, the source of our enjoyment.
      2. We are a poem written by the dispensing of the Father as the source, the Son as the course, and the Spirit as the flow—v. 10.
      3. The Father’s dispensing to produce the masterpiece, the Son’s dispensing to produce the new man, and the Spirit’s bringing us to the Father in one Body result in the building up of the church and the fulfillment of God’s eternal economy—vv. 10, 15-16, 21-22.
   3. In chapter three the apostle prays that God the Father will grant the believers to be strengthened through God the Spirit into their inner man so that Christ, God the Son, may make His home in their hearts, that they might be filled unto all the fullness of God—vv. 16-19:
      1. The Father is the source, the Spirit is the means, the Son is the object, and the fullness of the Triune God is the issue.
      2. Each of the three does not act for Himself but for the fullness of the Triune God; this is a beautiful picture of the Divine Trinity.
   4. Chapter four portrays how the processed God as the Spirit, the Lord, and the Father is mingled with the Body of Christ so that all the members of the Body may experience the Divine Trinity—vv. 4-6:
      1. The Body of Christ is the sphere for the development of the Triune God.
      2. The divine dispensing of God the Father in His being over all, of the Son in His being through all, and of the Spirit in His being in all enables all the members of the Body of Christ to experience and enjoy the Triune God.
      3. These verses reveal four persons—the one Body, one Spirit, one Lord, and one God the Father— mingled together as one entity to be the organic Body of Christ; thus, the Triune God and the Body are four-in-one.
   5. Chapter five exhorts the believers to praise the Lord, God the Son, with the songs of God the Spirit, and give thanks in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, God the Son, to God the Father—vv. 19-20:
      1. This is to praise and thank the processed God in His Divine Trinity for our enjoyment of Him as the Triune God.
      2. Through the divine dispensing of the Divine Trinity, we are constituted as children of God, walking in God as love and light—vv. 2, 8.
   6. Chapter six instructs us to fight the spiritual warfare by being empowered in the Lord, God the Son, putting on the whole armor of God the Father, and wielding the sword of the Spirit—vv. 10-11, 17:
      1. God the Son is the power within us, God realized in the Son is the armor upon us, and God the Spirit is the sword, who is the word of God.
      2. This is the believers’ experience and enjoyment of the Triune God even in the spiritual warfare.