Message Three

The Triune God and the Divine Trinity

Scripture Reading: Rev. 1:4-5; 22:17a; 4:5; 5:6

1. The Triune God mainly refers to God Himself, the divine Person; the Divine Trinity mainly refers to God’s being triune, which is the primary attribute of the Godhead—Matt. 28:19; Rev. 1:4-5.
2. The Trinity in Revelation is the economical Trinity—1:4-5:
   1. The essential Trinity refers to the essence of the Triune God for His existence; the economical Trinity refers to God’s plan for His move—Matt. 28:19; Rev. 1:4-5:
      1. In the essential Trinity the Father, the Son, and the Spirit coexist and coinhere at the same time and in the same way with no succession.
      2. In the economical Trinity the Father, the Son, and the Spirit work in three successive steps, or stages, in the process of God’s economy:
         1. The Father planned, the Son accomplished, and the Spirit applies what the Son accomplished according to the Father’s plan—Eph. 1:4-5, 7, 13.
         2. While the divine economy is being carried out, the eternal coexistence and coinherence of the three in the Godhead remain intact and are not jeopardized.
   2. The Trinity in Matthew 28:19 is the Trinity of God’s existence—the essential Trinity—but the Trinity in Revelation 1:4-5 is the Trinity in God’s economy—the economical Trinity:
      1. In Revelation we see the administration, the government, the activity, the move, the act, and the work of the Trinity—4:5; 5:6.
      2. In God’s essence the Trinity is simply the Father, the Son, and the Spirit, but in God’s economy the Trinity is complicated:
         1. The Father is the One “who is and who was and who is coming”—1:4b.
         2. The Spirit is “the seven Spirits who are before His throne”—v. 4c.
         3. The Son is “Jesus Christ, the faithful Witness, the Firstborn of the dead, and the Ruler of the kings of the earth”—v. 5a.
3. The Triune God in Revelation is the processed and consummated Triune God—22:17a; 3:22; 14:13:
   1. The God in Genesis 1 is the unprocessed God, but the God in Revelation is the processed and consummated Triune God:
      1. Processed refers to the crucial steps through which the Triune God has passed in the divine economy, and consummated indicates that the process has been completed.
      2. Before His incarnation God was unprocessed, having the divine nature but not the human nature, but through incarnation, human living, crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension, the Triune God was processed and consummated.
      3. In Revelation the Triune God is the processed and consummated Triune God with divinity, humanity, human living, the all-inclusive death, the powerful resurrection, and the transcendent ascension—1:4-5.
   2. The processed and consummated Triune God is the Spirit—Rev. 22:17a; John 7:39:
      1. The Spirit is the totality, the aggregate, of all the elements of the titles of the Spirit of God—Luke 1:35; Matt. 3:16; 10:20; Luke 4:18; Gal. 4:6; Acts 16:7; Rom. 8:9; Phil. 1:19.
      2. As the consummation of the processed and consummated Triune God, the Spirit is the blessing of God’s New Testament economy— Gal. 3:14.
4. The Triune God in Revelation is the sevenfold intensified Spirit—3:1; 4:5; 5:6:
   1. Because of the degradation of the church, the Spirit has been intensified sevenfold to become the sevenfold intensified Spirit—1:4.
   2. The sevenfold intensified Spirit intensifies all the elements of the Spirit—3:1.
   3. The sevenfold intensified Spirit is for God’s move to carry out His administration—4:5; 5:6.
5. The Triune God in Revelation is the building and builded God—21:18-19a, 21a:
   1. The Bible consummates in the New Jerusalem, which is the very God who was in the beginning—Gen. 1:1; Rev. 21:2, 10:
      1. The unique God is eventually enlarged and expanded into a city for His eternal expression—Gen. 1:1; Rev. 21:2.
      2. In His economy God has become the New Jerusalem—21:10.
      3. The New Jerusalem is the Triune God wrought into His redeemed—21:18-19a, 21.
   2. The God who has become the New Jerusalem is the building and builded God—2 Sam. 7:12-14a; Matt. 16:18; Eph. 3:17:
      1. The processed and consummated Triune God as the source, the element, and the essence is building the church by building Himself into our being—Eph. 3:17.
      2. God is fulfilling His desire to build Himself in Christ into our being and to build us into His being; eventually, the outcome of this building will be the New Jerusalem—Rev. 21:2, 10.
6. In the book of Revelation, we have the consummate revelation of the Divine Trinity for the divine dispensing—2 Cor. 13:14; Rev. 22:1-2; 7:17a; 21:6b; John 4:14b:
   1. The divine dispensing is God’s imparting of Himself into His chosen and redeemed people as their life, their life supply, and their everything— 2 Cor. 13:14.
   2. In the divine dispensing, the Father is the fountain, the Son is the spring, and the Spirit is the flow—Jer. 2:13; John 4:10, 14; 7:37-39; Rev. 22:1; 7:17a; 21:6b:
      1. As the origin the Father is the fountain of living waters—Jer. 2:13.
      2. As the embodiment and expression of the Father, the Son is the spring, the emergence of the fountain—John 4:14.
      3. As the transmission the Spirit is the river— Rev. 22:1.
      4. This is the Divine Trinity in the divine dispensing—God the Father as the source, God the Son as the course, and God the Spirit as the flow.