The first two verses of the Gospel of John mention God, but they do not mention the Father, the Son, and the Spirit in clear words. Then in the following chapters the mystery of the Father is gradually disclosed. The Father is really a mystery! Why is God called the Father? Whose Father is He? If you say that He is the Father of the Son, this brings in a deeper mystery. In chapters fourteen, fifteen, and sixteen, the Father is mentioned again and again. The Son is also mentioned (14:13), and the Son said that He would pray to the Father, asking the Father to give them another Comforter, the Spirit of reality. So the Father, the Son, and the Spirit all are mysterious.
The Lord talked to His disciples in John 14:16-20, indicating that the Comforter who would come was just Himself in another form. In verse 17 the Lord said that the Spirit of reality abides with them and shall be in them. Then in verse 18 He said, “I will not leave you orphans; I am coming to you.” This indicates that when the Comforter comes, it is the coming of the Son. In verse 17 He said that the Spirit of reality shall be in them, and in verse 20 He said, “In that day you shall know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you.” According to these verses, it would seem that there are two in us, the Spirit of reality and the Lord Jesus Himself. But according to our experience there are not two, but one.
John 14:17 tells us that the Spirit is in us. Verse 20 tells us that Christ the Son is in us, and verse 23 tells us that both the Son and the Father will come to us and make an abode with us. Ephesians 4:6 says there is “one God and Father of all, Who is over all and through all and in all.” So the Spirit is in us, the Son is in us, and the Father also is in us. Then how many are in us, three or one? The wisest way to answer is that the Triune God is in us. Triune simply means three-one. Of course, in our human mathematics we do not have such a number. We have three, and we have one, but we don’t have three-one. But in the divine mathematics there is such a number. We don’t have three in us; we have three-one in us.
This same principle can be found in the book of Revelation. There the Spirit of God who, no doubt, is the one unique Spirit of God, is called the seven Spirits (Rev. 1:4; 3:1). Is God’s Spirit one or seven? You have to answer that God’s Spirit is seven-one. Of course, we do not understand such divine mathematics. If we understood, we would be God. Our God is three-one, and His Spirit is seven-one.
The very God upon whom the entire universe is focused is not a single God; He is triune. Both the Old and New Testaments use plural pronouns in referring to the Triune God. In Genesis 1:26 God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness.” Here the plural pronouns, us and our, are used. Then in John 14:23 the Lord Jesus said, “We will come to him and make an abode with him.” Who are the We? The Father and the Son. So our God is triune. The entire universe is focused on God, and He is triune: God the Father, God the Son, and God the Spirit.
Some Christian teachers, in their teaching concerning the Trinity, separate the Father from the Son, and they separate both the Father and the Son from the Spirit. In their teaching they say that the Father, the Son, and the Spirit are three persons, not only distinct but also separate. Many Christians realize the Trinity in this way: the Father is sitting on the throne in heaven, and the Son is sitting on the Father’s right hand. So both the Father and the Son are in heaven, and the Spirit has come down to the earth. This means in their concept one-third of the Godhead is on the earth, and two-thirds of the Godhead are in heaven. I am afraid that you also may still have this kind of concept. This wrong teaching is a leavened truth. The Father, the Son, and the Spirit—the Triune God—is a truth in the Bible, but it has been leavened. Leaven is added to wheat flour to make the bread soft and edible. In like manner, leaven has been added to the truth in the Bible to make it easier to understand and to take. Don’t hold the concept that the Trinity of the Godhead could be divided into three separate persons. This is leaven. Although God is triune, He is one. The Father is not separate from the Son, nor from the Spirit. The Spirit is not separate from the Son, nor from the Father. The Three have never been separated. The Three coexist and coinhere all the time. When One is here, all Three are here. When One is in heaven, all are in heaven. The Three are always one. There is no separation. This is a mystery as revealed in the Scriptures for dispensing the Triune God into us.
Suppose the Bible only revealed God as the unique God, God the Creator, not the Triune God. If there were no Father and no Son and no Spirit, how could God dispense Himself into us? For God to dispense Himself into us is not a small thing, nor is it so simple. We are fallen, and we have the problems of sin, the world, and Satan. How could these things be taken away? There is the need of someone to condemn sin, to judge the world, and to cast out Satan. In the divine dispensing this someone is the Son. The Son was sent by the Father to condemn sin, to judge the world, and to cast out Satan through His death on the cross. In order to die on the cross, He needed to put on humanity. How could God without blood and flesh be crucified on the cross to shed blood for the forgiveness of sins? It would be impossible. So the Son had to put on blood and flesh so that He could go to the cross and die in a physical way (Heb. 2:14). He put on humanity so that He could shed human blood to wash away our sins. He judged the world and He cast out Satan (John 12:31).
Furthermore, if God were only God, how could He enter into us? In order to enter into us, God must be the life-giving Spirit. The Spirit is the holy breath for us to take in (John 20:22).
These illustrations may help you to realize that the matter of the Triune God is not merely for teaching, but is for dispensing. Doctrinally we may not fully understand the Triune God, but in experience we can testify that the Father, the Son, and the Spirit are in us. This is for experience on our side, and this is for dispensing on His side.