In John 16:7-11 the Lord Jesus told the disciples, “But I tell you the truth, it is expedient for you that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Comforter will not come to you; but if I go, I will send Him to you. And having come, He will convict the world concerning sin, and concerning righteousness, and concerning judgment; concerning sin, because they do not believe in Me; and concerning righteousness, because I go to the Father and you no longer behold Me; and concerning judgment, because the ruler of this world has been judged.” These verses tell us that when the Comforter, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will convict the fallen sinners of three things: of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment. These three things are related to three persons: sin is related to Adam, righteousness is related to Christ, and judgment is related to Satan. We fallen human beings were all born of sin in Adam. In Adam we were sinful, but, praise the Lord, we can be in Christ. To be freed from sin, the only way is to believe in Christ, the Son of God (John 16:9). In Adam we inherit sin, but in Christ we inherit righteousness. If we believe in the resurrected Christ, He is righteousness to us, and we are justified in Him (Rom. 3:24; 4:25). If we do not repent of the sin in Adam and believe in the resurrected Christ, the Son of God, we will remain in sin and share the judgment of Satan for eternity (Matt. 25:41). When the Spirit comes, He convicts the unbelievers with these three things. The sinners who are born in Adam must believe in the resurrected Christ so that they may have Him as their righteousness. If they do not believe, they will be judged by God as Satan is. When the gospel is preached in a proper way those who hear would have the desire not to remain in Adam, but to be transferred into Christ. These people will be regenerated and saved. To them, the convicting Spirit will become the regenerating Spirit (John 3:6), the Spirit of life (Rom. 8:2), the Spirit of reality, dwelling within them (John 14:17).
In John 16:13-15 the Lord says, “But when He, the Spirit of reality, comes, He will guide you into all the reality; for He will not speak from Himself, but whatever He hears He will speak; and He will disclose to you what is to come. He shall glorify Me, for He shall receive of Mine and shall disclose it to you. All that the Father has is Mine; therefore I said that He receives of Mine and shall disclose it to you.” By reading the context of these verses we can see that “the reality” refers to what the Father has, what the Son has, and what the Spirit receives of the Son and of what the Father has. What the Father has is a reality, what the Son has is a reality, and what the Spirit receives is also reality.
These verses show us that what the Father has becomes the Son’s, what the Son has is received by the Spirit, and what the Spirit receives is disclosed to us. The Father, the Son, the Spirit, and we, the believers, are all involved in this process. The Father has many riches. He is the source, the origin. All that the Father has becomes the Son’s. The Son has the unsearchable riches (Eph. 3:8). Whatever the Father has is His, and what the Son has is all received by the Spirit. Since what the Spirit receives is disclosed or transmitted into us, we become the very destination. The Father is embodied in the Son, the Son is transfigured to be the Spirit, and the Spirit is the reaching of the divine Trinity to us. All the riches of the Triune God reach us in the Spirit. So we are the destination of the Triune God. All that the Triune God is and has been disclosed, conveyed, transmitted into us. Because we are organically united to the Spirit, that is, organically united to the processed Triune God, whatever He is and has now is our portion as our inheritance.
We must apply these verses to our experience. Do we have all that the Father has, all that the Son has, and all that the Spirit has received? Has the Spirit disclosed all that the Father has and all that the Son has to us in our experience? Actually, we have received everything that the Triune God is and has, but we have been too veiled to see and experience what we have received. Not only do we not know this fact in our experience, but also we do not know it in the Word. For years I never realized that all that the Father has is the Son’s, that all the Son has was received by the Spirit, and that the Spirit discloses to us what He receives.
These verses unveil to us the transmission of the divine Trinity, the Father, the Son, and the Spirit into the believers. In these verses the Lord says, “All that the Father has is mine.” The Father as the source, as the origin, has a lot of riches. All that the Father has becomes the Son’s. The Son not only has what the Father has, but also He has all the riches in His incarnation, human living, crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension. All that He has is in addition to what the Father has. All these riches contained in the Son are received by the Spirit and the Spirit discloses them to us. This disclosing is a transmission of all the riches of what the processed Triune God is and has into our being. This means that whatever the processed Triune God is and has is to be our element, our essence, our being, making the processed Triune God the very essence of our being. Thus, we all become God-men.