According to the divine revelation, the Divine Trinity has a source, a course, and a flow. The Bible says that God is the living water (John 4:10, 14). With this water there is a source, a course, and a flow. The Father is the source, the Son is the course, and the Spirit is the flow. Matthew 28:19 says that we are to baptize people into the one name of three persons-the Father, the Son, and the Spirit. There is one name for the Trinity. Second Corinthians 13:14 speaks of the love of God, the grace of Christ, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit. In this verse we see three persons-God, Christ, and the Holy Spirit. We also see three matters-love, grace, and fellowship. The love of God is the source; the grace out of the love of God is the course; and the fellowship of the Spirit is the flow.
The Spirit is the Triune God’s flow. In other words, the Spirit is the Triune God flowing. The Spirit as the flowing of the Triune God may be likened to the current of electricity, the flowing of electricity. The electricity itself and its flow are not two separate matters. They are just one thing. Electricity has a flow, and that is called the current. The Triune God has a flow, and that is called the Spirit.
The Spirit is not only the flow of the Triune God but also the reaching of the Triune God. The current of electricity is the reaching of electricity. Electricity reaches a house from the power plant by its current. The flowing is a kind of reaching, and the reaching is a kind of “entering into.” The Spirit is the reaching of the Triune God, and this reaching enters into us. The Spirit is the Triune God entering into us as the Spirit of life (Rom. 8:2).
The Spirit is the reality (1 John 5:6b). God is very abstract but very real. It is hard to say whether electricity is abstract or solid. To say that our God is abstract may be partially right, but our God is also very real. The reality is the Spirit. The Spirit is the reality of God, the reality of Christ (John 14:16-20; 1 Cor. 15:45b; 2 Cor. 3:18), the reality of the word of God (John 17:17), and the reality of the resurrection of Christ.
In His economy, God passed through different stages. God was in eternity past. When He was in eternity past, He was merely and solely divine; He did not possess humanity. But one day about four thousand years after He created man, He became a man. He partook of man’s nature, man’s blood and flesh (Heb. 2:14). This is another stage of God. He became Emmanuel (Matt. 1:23). He became a God-man.
Our God, the God of the Christians, is very different from the God of the Jews. Because of the Jews’ unbelief in Jesus, their God is merely in divinity, not in humanity. The Jews do not believe that Jesus today is their Jehovah in the Old Testament. Jehovah in the Old Testament was only God, but Jesus today is God plus man. This man Jesus, the last Adam, became a life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45b). In the New Testament, there are two great “becames.” First, God became a man, the Word became flesh (John 1:14). Second, this God-man became a life-giving Spirit. These are the different stages of God.
In eternity past the Spirit of God was merely the Spirit of divinity. But God became a man, and this God-man became the life-giving Spirit. Now the Spirit of God is also the Spirit of the man Jesus. Acts 16:7 speaks of “the Spirit of Jesus.” The Spirit of Jesus is the Spirit of God with the humanity of Jesus. The Spirit of Christ is mentioned in Romans 8:9 and the Spirit of Jesus Christ in Philippians 1:19. The Spirit of Christ and the Spirit of Jesus Christ are the one Spirit, who includes both divinity and humanity.
In John 7 the Lord Jesus said that the Spirit would be the flow out of the innermost being of a believer (v. 38). Verse 39 says that this Spirit was not yet because Jesus was not yet glorified. At that time Jesus was not yet glorified in His resurrection. He had not yet become the life-giving Spirit in His resurrection. This life-giving Spirit, whom Jesus became, is the Spirit of God in another stage.
In one stage in eternity past, He was only the Spirit of divinity, without humanity. But after Jesus’ resurrection, the Spirit is now the Spirit of Jesus Christ. Jesus became the life-giving Spirit in resurrection, so the Spirit has become the Spirit of Jesus Christ with humanity in resurrection. Today the Spirit that is within us is not only the Holy Spirit and the Spirit of God but also the Spirit of Jesus Christ. He is divine, and He is also human. He is not only human in incarnation but also human in resurrection. Today He is such a Spirit.
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