In the essential Trinity, the Three are all there without anything that we might call a succession or a progression. The Father, the Son, and the Spirit were all there at the same time in eternity, and They are here; They continue to exist simultaneously for eternity. This is in the essential Trinity, the Divine Trinity according to His essence.
However, in the economical Trinity, initially, the Father planned, He made His choice, His selection, and He predestinated. Following this planning of the Father, the Son came to accomplish what the Father had planned. Then, after the Son’s accomplishment, the Spirit came to apply what the Son had accomplished according to what the Father had planned. Here in this economy there is a succession, and there is a progression. Therefore, according to the essence of the Trinity, the Three are equal, and there is no succession or progression. Nevertheless, in the economy of God, there is what we might call a succession, a progression. There are the three steps.
We need to realize that Christ’s redemption involves both God’s essence and God’s economy. For the Redeemer to be qualified He needs two essences—the essence of man and the essence of God. However, when He accomplished redemption, economically speaking, there were some matters regarding the functioning Spirit. While the Redeemer was standing there after His baptism, the Holy Spirit came down upon Him economically. That descending of the Spirit was the functioning Spirit, the Spirit in function, or the Spirit in God’s economy. However, when He was conceived and born of the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit there was the Holy Spirit in essence. These distinctions are important for our understanding, but they may not be easy for us to grasp.
When the Redeemer was crucified on the cross, God left Him, not essentially, but economically. God was essentially in the man Jesus from His conception, through His birth, through His human living, through His death, through His resurrection, and through eternity. However, after He was baptized to begin to minister, God came down upon Him to anoint Him economically. This economical Spirit was with Him all the time for three and a half years. Then, according to Hebrews 9:14, He offered Himself to God through the eternal Spirit. At the last period of time on the cross, when He became sin in the eyes of God, this Spirit left Him economically, not essentially. This means that God left Him economically, not essentially. It is by this way, essentially and economically, that He was qualified to redeem man and all creatures and also entitled to have the eternal efficacy for His redemption. Therefore, He is qualified to accomplish our redemption, and the eternal and everlasting effectiveness of His redemption is insured. This is our vision concerning Christ’s redemption.
At this point, may I say a brief word concerning the reason we have no trust in the traditional teachings. We have a vision with much deeper truth. Because the Lord has shown us something in a much deeper way, we simply cannot follow the teachings that are superficial.
It is not easy to speak concerning our vision of redemption, nor is it easy to speak concerning the vision of God’s salvation. However, once you are enlightened to see this vision, you would be beside yourself. Compared to the full salvation revealed in the Word of God, our speaking may be somewhat like the speaking of an uneducated person about a highly technical subject if we are short of enlightenment and short of vision in this matter.
In the first stage of our vision concerning God’s full salvation, we were enlightened to see the assurance of salvation. We were beside ourselves. Wherever we went, we would ask people, “Have you been saved? Do you know that you have been saved?” We especially liked to ask the pastors, elders, preachers, deacons, or deaconesses these questions. At that time I was somewhat like a young tiger, afraid of nothing and not knowing much. We offended many people. I was a young man, about twenty-five years old, and I was questioning a pastor about sixty-five years old, “Do you know you have been saved?” No doubt he was offended and wondered how such a young person dared to ask him such a question. Actually, he did not know that he was saved. We met a number of cases like this.
On one occasion in 1933, I was invited to preach to the students at a Presbyterian Hospital nursing school with nearly one hundred students and nurses. The pastor, the only older one present, sat at the back of the chapel behind all the students, while I was standing in the front preaching the assurance of salvation. He was offended quite a few times while I was speaking and shook his head in disagreement. The students, however, were happy to hear what I had to say, and they nodded their heads in agreement. As I said, at that time I was young and very bold, but I did not know much. Today, if I were preaching the assurance of salvation, I would not ask people, “Have you been saved?” In fact, if you were to ask me whether I have been saved, today I would ask you what you mean, because I have come to realize that God’s salvation is not a simple matter.