We have seen God’s purpose and what is dispensed by God; now we must realize how God is dispensed through His economy. In other words, Spirit is what God dispenses into man, but now we need to see the means by which He does this. God dispenses Himself into man by means of the Trinity. The Triune God—the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit—is the very economy of the Godhead. Christianity during the past centuries has had many teachings concerning the Trinity, but the Trinity can never be adequately understood unless He is related to the divine economy. Why are all three persons of the Godhead required for the development of God’s economy? We know that the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are not three different Gods but one God, who is expressed in three persons. Yet what is the purpose of there being three persons in the Godhead? Why are there God the Father, God the Son, and also God the Holy Spirit? It is because only through the Trinity can the essential means be provided whereby His Spirit is dispensed into us.
Second Corinthians 13:14 shows the steps of God’s economy carried out by the Trinity: “The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.” Here we have the grace of the Son, the love of the Father, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit. What are these? Are the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit three different Gods? Are love, grace, and fellowship three different items? No. Love, grace, and fellowship are one element in three stages: love is the source, grace is the expression of love, and fellowship is the transmission of love in grace. Likewise, God, Christ, and the Holy Spirit are one God expressed in three persons: God is the source, Christ is the expression of God, and the Holy Spirit is the transmission bringing God in Christ into man. Thus, the three persons of the Trinity become the three successive steps in the process of God’s economy. Without these three steps God’s essence could never be dispensed into man. The economy of God is developed from the Father, in the Son, and through the Spirit.
God the Father is the universal source of all things. He is invisible and unapproachable. How can God the Father, who dwells in unapproachable light (1 Tim. 6:16), be within us? How can we see the invisible Father? If God were only the Father, He would be inaccessible and could not be dispensed into man. But through the divine arrangement of His economy, He put Himself into His Son, the second person of the Trinity, in order to make Himself available to man. All the fullness of the Father dwells in the Son (Col. 1:19; 2:9) and is expressed through the Son (John 1:18). The Father, as the inexhaustible source of everything, is embodied in the Son (14:10). The incomprehensible God is now expressed in Christ, who is the Word of God (1:1); the invisible God is revealed in Christ, who is the image of God (Col. 1:15). Hence, the Son and the Father are one (John 10:30), and the Son is even called the Father (Isa. 9:6).
Formerly, it was impossible for man to contact the Father. He was exclusively God, and His nature was exclusively divine. There was nothing in the Father to bridge the gap between God and man. But now He has not only embodied Himself in the Son; He has also become incarnate in human nature. The Father was pleased to combine His own divinity with humanity in the Son. Through the incarnation of the Son, the unapproachable Father is now approachable to man. By this, man can see the Father, touch the Father, and fellowship with the Father through the Son.
We can demonstrate this relationship by dipping a white handkerchief into blue dye. The Father’s divinity can be likened to the white handkerchief. This handkerchief, dipped into blue dye, represents the Father in the Son becoming incarnate in humanity. The white article has now become blue. Just as blue was added to the handkerchief, so the human nature was added to the divine nature, and the once-separated natures have become one. The first step of God’s dispensing Himself into man, therefore, is through the embodiment and incarnation of Himself in the Son as a man. By taking such a step, God reproduced Himself in man.
The second step of bringing God into man is through the second person of the Trinity, the Son of God. In order to understand the second stage of the economy of God, we need to know what Christ is. What are the elements that make up Christ? What are the ingredients combined together that constitute Christ?
There are seven basic elements that make up this wonderful person, six of which were added through His history. First, Christ is the divine embodiment of God. The first element in Christ is God’s divine essence and nature.
The second element, the human nature, was added through His incarnation. Christ’s incarnation was the mingling of His divine nature with the human nature. Through His incarnation Christ brought God into man and mingled the divine essence of God with humanity. In Christ there is not only God but also man.
The third element, which was added to His divine nature and His human nature, was His human living. This glorious God-man lived on earth for thirty-three and a half years and experienced all the common and ordinary things that make up the daily human life. The Gospel of John, which emphasizes that He is the Son of God, also tells us that He was tired, hungry, and thirsty and that He wept (4:6-8, 31; 11:35). His human sufferings also were part of His daily life, which included many earthly troubles, problems, trials, and persecutions.
His experience of death is the fourth element. He went down into death. But He not only stepped into death; He also passed through death. This produced a very effective death. The death of Adam is terrible and chaotic, but the death of Christ is wonderful and effective. The death of Adam enslaved us to death, whereas the death of Christ released us from death. Although the fall of Adam brought many evil elements into us, the effective death of Christ is the killing power within us to slay all the elements of Adam’s nature.
Therefore, in Christ there is the divine nature, the human nature, the daily human life with its sufferings, and also the effectiveness of His death. But there are three additional elements in Christ. The fifth element is His resurrection. After His resurrection Christ did not put off His manhood to become solely God again. Christ is still a man (1 Tim. 2:5). Furthermore, as man He has the additional element of resurrection life mingled with His humanity.
The sixth element in Christ is His ascension. By His ascension to the heavens He transcended all enemies, principalities, powers, dominions, and authorities. All are under His feet (Eph. 1:20-22a). Therefore, the transcendent power of His ascension is mingled with Him.
Finally, the seventh element in Christ is His enthronement. Christ, the man with the divine nature, is enthroned in the third heaven as the exalted Head of the whole universe (v. 22b). He is in the heavenlies as the Lord of lords and the King of kings (Rev. 17:14; 19:16).
We need to remember the seven wonderful elements that are in Christ: the divine nature, the human nature, the daily human life with its earthly sufferings, the effectiveness of His death, the resurrection power, the transcendent power of His ascension, and His enthronement. All these elements are mingled in this one marvelous Christ.