According to the entire revelation of the sixty-six books of the Bible, the Trinity of the Godhead is for God’s dispensing. God’s desire with His strong intention is to dispense Himself into His chosen people as their life, as their life supply, and as their everything. To do this or to carry out this dispensing He needs to be triune. Without His Trinity, He has no way to carry out His divine dispensing. Therefore, His Trinity is absolutely for the divine dispensing. The first verse which clearly bears the denotation of the divine Trinity is Genesis 1:26. When God was going to create man, there should have been a council in the Godhead (as the one revealed in Acts 2:23—see note 1 there). In that conference They conversed in this way: “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness.” This sounds very much like a talk in a council. In the creation of the heavens and the earth there was not such a council, such a talk, which refers to “us.” The “us” is the divine Trinity—the Father, the Son, and the Spirit. The first mentioning of the divine Trinity refers to the divine dispensing. God made man in His own image and after His own likeness for the coming work of dispensing Himself into man.
When the work in the first and the second steps of His economy was accomplished, He came back to His disciples and charged them to go and disciple the nations, baptizing them into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit (Matt. 28:19). This was absolutely for dispensing because by this time the very divine Trinity had been fully completed. In John 7:39 the last item of the divine Trinity was not yet, not complete. After the Lord’s death and resurrection, however, the divine Trinity was fully complete and ready for God’s chosen people to be baptized into for the divine dispensing. Vincent’s word study tells us that the baptism referred to in Matthew 28:19 brings people into a spiritual and mystical union with the Triune God. Later I referred to this as an organic union. Baptism brings people into the Triune God, into a spiritual union with the Triune God as indicated by the word “into.” This is an organic union for the divine dispensing.
Whenever we come to any verses or any expressions concerning the divine Trinity we have to be impressed with the dispensing of the divine Trinity. Ephesians 2:18 says, “For through Him we both have access in one Spirit unto the Father.” The divine Trinity is mentioned in this verse for the divine dispensing. Also, in Ephesians 3:14-17 Paul tells us that he bowed his knees unto the Father that we would be strengthened with power through His Spirit into our inner man, that Christ may make His home in our hearts. This again refers to the divine Trinity for the divine dispensing. Second Corinthians 13:14 says, “The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.” Again in this verse we see the divine Trinity for the divine dispensing.
As we have seen, the divine Trinity is the top divine attribute of our God. In the theological study of the past concerning God’s person, the word triune was invented. Triune is an adjective just as holy is an adjective. The Triune God bears an attribute which is trinity. Just as holy produces holiness so triune produces trinity. Holiness is an attribute of God and trinity is also an attribute of God. In 2 Corinthians 13:14 grace, love, and fellowship are attributes of the Triune God, but the top attribute of our God is the Trinity. To say that He is dispensing Himself into us is a general speaking. Specifically speaking, we must realize that He is dispensing His Trinity because His Trinity is the top and all-inclusive attribute including His love, His grace, His fellowship, His holiness, and His everything.
If God were not triune, the Father, the Son, and the Spirit, He could not have a way to dispense Himself into us. Many works have been accomplished in God’s economy, which consists of three steps, and this economy is the economy of the very one God who is essentially one. He performed many works. The Father exercised His foreknowledge. He chose us and predestinated us in the Son and with the Spirit. As the Son, the Triune God did many works in creation, incarnation, human living, crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension. Now He is doing a finer work as the Spirit in regeneration, sanctification, transformation, conformation, and glorification. He is also living in us and guiding us in many, many things as the Spirit.
It is always safe to use the general term of God. God chose us, God predestinated us, God created us, God became flesh, God accomplished redemption and redeemed us, God regenerated us, God sanctified us, and God is doing everything in us, through us, and for us. God is the all-inclusive divine title. To use this all-inclusive, divine title is always right. To use the subsidiary divine titles such as the Father, the Son, and the Spirit, we must be careful.
There is nothing wrong with saying that God exercised His foreknowledge, chose us, predestinated us, and created the world. God also became flesh and accomplished redemption. He regenerated us and He is sanctifying us and guiding us. We cannot say, however, that the Son selected us and that the Spirit predestinated us. Neither can we say that the Father became flesh, died on the cross for our sins, resurrected, and ascended. Acts 20:28 tells us that God purchased the church with His own blood. We can say in a general way that God purchased or redeemed the church. We cannot say, however, that the Father purchased us. In the Bible we cannot see the church of the Father or the church of the Spirit, but the church of Christ and the church of God. The Father, however, has regenerated us because His function as a Father is begetting. We may say that the Son regenerates us as the Spirit, but we cannot say that the Spirit redeems us. We also cannot say that the Spirit created the world. Neither can we say that the Spirit selected us. Now we must ask who redeems our body? Philippians 3:21 indicates that the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son, will transfigure us.
This fellowship may help you to realize how to use, understand, and apply many verses in the Bible, especially in the New Testament, concerning the divine Trinity because as a whole the Bible is constructed with the divine Trinity. This is a great subject. I believe that if we are faithful to Him in the coming years, more light will come concerning this matter. I expect that our fellowship in this chapter will help us to understand and experience the divine Trinity more easily.
We have only touched a small amount of the truth in the Bible. To some extent we have wasted people’s time and held them back because we did not know the truth adequately. Year after year we nearly presented the same thing to people. We must realize that the basic problem is the problem of not having the adequate knowledge of the basic truth. Because we are short of the adequate knowledge of the truth, we are influenced by “good things.” An adequate knowledge of the truth can preserve us. Throughout church history, Christendom has picked up many things which are not in accordance with the truth of the divine revelation. Once the adequate knowledge of the truth came in, many of these things were dropped and “mopped away.” Up until Luther’s time, the Catholic Church had picked up much “dirt” of pagan practices and unscriptural doctrines. Then Luther stood up to put out one basic truth—justification by faith. This truth swept away a lot of dirt. The Catholic Church became “dirty” because of the lack of knowledge of the truth. If I discover any dirt, it is my responsibility to sweep it away with the truth. Many of us have an inadequate knowledge of the Lord’s recovery. This means you are short of protection and you miss the safeguard. We must clean up the dirt, not by human doing, but by presenting the truth. Once the saints see the truth, they know where they are, and they know what the Lord’s recovery is.