Before the Triune God became flesh, the divine dispensing was not yet realized. It was not until four thousand years after creation that Christ was born to be a man. This was the first step of God’s dispensing into man. John 1 shows us that the Word who was God from the beginning became flesh and came among men, full of grace and reality (John 1:1, 14). For the Word to become flesh was for the Triune God to become a man of flesh. In this way, God entered into the sinful man and was joined as one with the sinful man. But He had only the form of the sinful man; He did not have the sin of the sinful man. This can be seen from the type of the brass serpent lifted up by Moses in the wilderness (John 3:14). In this way, He became a sinless God-man. This God-man is the complete God and a perfect man, having both divinity and humanity. He is the One prophesied in Isaiah 9:6, “For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given...and his name shall be called...the mighty God, the everlasting Father.” He is the child, yet He is God. He is the Son, yet He is also the Father. He is the mysterious God-man.
Moreover, all those who believe in Him have also become God-men. John 1:12-13 says, “But as many as received Him, to them He gave authority to become children of God, to those who believe in His name: who were born...of God.” Those who were born of man are men. Hence, those who were born of God are gods. But this does not mean that we who are born of God share in His Godhead. We do not have God’s person, and we cannot be worshiped as God. However, as far as our life goes, we are the same as God is. God has regenerated us and has given His life to us. This is like being begotten of our father; we share the same life as our father. He is a man. As those begotten of him, we are also men. However, we do not have the position of the father. From this point of view, we are the same as the God who has regenerated us, and He and we are both God-men.
When the Triune God became flesh, He dispensed Himself to men as grace and reality. This grace is God enjoyed by man, and this reality is God gained by man. In John 4, the Lord Jesus went purposely to Secure in Samaria and sat by the well of Jacob, waiting for a Samaritan woman to come to draw water. The Lord Jesus told her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that says to you, Give Me a drink, you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water.” Then He said, “But whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him shall by no means thirst forever” (vv. 10, 14). The Lord Jesus freely gave the living water to man. There is no price to be paid and no labor required. This is grace. Furthermore, this living water can give man the satisfaction of life and can quench man’s deepest thirst. This is reality. This living water is the Triune God, the Father, the Son, and the Spirit, with the Father expressed in the Son, and the Son realized as the Spirit, being dispensed into man. In John 7 the Lord Jesus also said, “If anyone thirst, let him come to Me and drink. He who believes in Me...out of his innermost being shall flow rivers of living water.” The Lord Jesus said this concerning the Spirit, whom those who believed in Him were about to receive (John 7:37-39). The Spirit is the consummation of the Triune God. He is the living water, given to us freely. This is grace. When we receive Him, our thirst is satisfied, and we are no longer empty. This is reality.
In John 9 we see a man born blind. The Lord Jesus as the light of the world came to him, spat on the ground, made clay of the spittle, anointed his eyes with the clay, and ordered him to wash in the pool of Psyllium. When he washed, he came back seeing (John 9:1-7). He did not pay any price, yet he was healed freely. This is God’s grace. The Lord Jesus as the light of the world had caused him to see and to be no longer blind. This is reality.
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