In the third section, Revelation, we see the seven Spirits out from the Eternal One, the One who was, who is, and who is coming. The seven Spirits are out from the Eternal One and of the Redeemer (Rev. 1:4-5) to be the intensification of the Triune God in the overcoming church, consummating in the golden lampstands and in the New Jerusalem. This is the finalization in the book of Revelation. The intensification of the Triune God in the overcoming church consummates in the golden lampstands in this age and in the New Jerusalem in the new heaven and new earth in eternity.
The Eternal One, the One who is, who was, and who is to come, is Jehovah in the Old Testament. Jehovah in the Old Testament is revealed in Exodus 3 as the Triune God, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob (vv. 14-15). In Revelation 1:4-5 “Him who is and who was and who is coming” is God the eternal Father. “The seven Spirits” who are before God’s throne are the operating Spirit of God, God the Spirit. “Jesus Christ,” to God “the faithful Witness,” to the church “the Firstborn of the dead,” and to the world “the Ruler of the kings of the earth” (v. 5), is God the Son. This is the Triune God. However, this record of the Trinity is totally different from the record revealed in Matthew 28:19—the Father, the Son, and the Spirit. Only the word Spirit is used in Revelation 1:4-5 and it is used in plural—the seven Spirits. Also, the first of the Trinity is not the Father but the Eternal One, the One who was, who is, and who is coming. Furthermore, the Spirit is not the third of the Trinity but the second of the Trinity. God the Son is revealed as the faithful Witness, the Firstborn of the dead, and the Ruler of the kings of the earth.
The book of Revelation reveals that there is not only one divine Spirit but seven. Both the Catholic and Protestant churches highly regard the Nicene Creed. They often recite this creed in their Sunday service. The Nicene Creed, however, does not include this point of the seven Spirits because when the Nicene Creed was made (A.D. 325) the book of Revelation was not yet formally recognized. (Revelation was formally recognized at the council of Carthage in A.D. 397).
The seven Spirits are unveiled in the book of Revelation as the seven eyes of the Lamb (5:6). The Lamb is our Savior, Christ, and the seven Spirits are the Spirit of God. Thus, the seven Spirits, are the seven eyes of Christ. Can you say that your eyes are one person and that you are another person? This shows that the Spirit cannot be separated from Christ. Revelation reveals to us an observing Christ who has seven eyes watching over all the churches. The seven eyes, the seven Spirits of God, are Christ Himself watching over all the churches on this earth and observing their real situation. For the church to overcome today’s dark age and the decline in today’s Christendom, we need the seven-fold intensified Spirit of God.
The seven Spirits are not only out from the Eternal One, but they also belong to the Redeemer because the seven Spirits come out of the throne of the Eternal One and the seven Spirits are the seven eyes of the Lamb. In Revelation the Trinity is the seven Spirits out from the Eternal One and of the Redeemer. This is the intensification of the Triune God. Now we have three words to describe the Triune God in the New Testament—embodiment, consummation, and intensification. In the four Gospels is the Triune God embodied in Jesus Christ; in Acts through Jude is the Triune God consummated in the church; finally, in Revelation is the Triune God intensified in the overcoming church consummating in the golden lampstands in this age and in the New Jerusalem in eternity. This is the book of Revelation, and this is the finalization of God’s economy.
The New Testament unveils to us how the Triune God became flesh in the Son with the Father by the Spirit to be a Man. As this Man, He lived on this earth for thirty-three and a half years, yet He did not live a human life; He lived in the human life. He lived a divine life, the life of God, in the human life. Then He died on the cross as seven items to terminate all the negative things in the universe and to release all the positive things: as the Lamb of God He died to deal with our sin and sins (John 1:29; 1 Cor. 15:3); as a Man in the flesh (John 1:14), He died in the form of fallen man, in the likeness of the flesh of sin (Rom. 8:3), to deal with the fallen flesh; as a man in the old creation, He died to crucify our old man (Rom. 6:6); He also died as a serpent (John 3:14) to bruise the serpent’s head (Gen. 3:15) and to destroy him (Heb. 2:14) along with his satanic world (John 12:31), that all His believers may have eternal life (John 3:15-16); as the Firstborn of all creation (Col. 1:15) He died on the cross as part of the old creation to terminate the entire old creation; He also died as the peacemaker (Eph. 2:14-15) to abolish all the ordinances and differences in living, customs, and habits between all kinds of people; on the positive side He died as a grain of wheat to release the divine life (John 12:24). He died such an all-inclusive death on the cross, through which He cleared up the entire universe and released the divine life for us to receive. Then He was buried and He was resurrected. He entered into a new realm, a new universe, a new sphere. In this sphere He was no longer in the flesh, but He became pneumatic. He became the life-giving Spirit. At the end of the four Gospels such a One in His resurrection breathed Himself as the pneumatic One into His disciples. Thus, He became the very intrinsic life and essence of His disciples. This is the very depths of what is revealed in the four Gospels.
In Acts through Jude this pneumatic One is always with His church. He is the Spirit, as the Son, with the Father—the very consummation of the Triune God. Before His resurrection, the title “the Father, the Son, and the Spirit” in Matthew 28:19 had never been revealed or used. Such a title indicates that the Triune God has been completed and consummated, and this consummation is the all-inclusive, compound, life-giving, indwelling Spirit. The Spirit, as the Son, with the Father is within us to make the church the Body of Christ as God’s kingdom and the temple of God as the house of God.
Finally, due to the degradation of the church, this Spirit has been intensified sevenfold. Therefore, in Revelation this One becomes the seven Spirits out from the eternal One and of the Redeemer to be the intensification of the Triune God in the overcoming church consummating in the golden lampstands in this age and in the New Jerusalem in the coming eternity for God’s finalization of His economy that He may have a corporate expression for eternity. These are the depths of the revelation of the New Testament. We all should dive into these depths; otherwise, we will remain superficial in our understanding of the central revelation of the New Testament.