In John 1:1 we see God and in John 1:14 the Word who is God became flesh. The Son in His humanity is the flesh. In John 1:17 we see that grace came through Jesus Christ. Grace is the enjoyment of the gift. The giver was God, the gift was the Son, and the enjoyment is the grace. John 1:1, 14, and 17 unveil the divine Trinity. The Father is the giver, the Son is the gift and the Spirit is the gift applied and enjoyed—the grace (Acts 2:38; 10:45; Heb. 10:29). John 3:16 tells us that God gave His Son. This shows us God is the giver and the Son is the gift. John 3:34 also tells us that the Son, who is the gift, gives the Spirit without measure. The giver gives the gift, and the gift gives the Spirit. This is the enjoyment. Also, in John 15:26 the Lord tells us that He will send the Comforter “from with” (lit.) the Father. The Son sends the Spirit as the Comforter from with the Father, and the Comforter proceeds from with the Father to us. In this verse we see that the Father is the source as the giver and the Son as the gift is the second giver. The Comforter, the Spirit, is the One who is our enjoyment, and this enjoyment is grace.
First Corinthians 1:2 refers to “all those who call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ in every place, theirs and ours.” This simply means that this very Christ is yours and mine. This is wonderful! If you bought a house, you would like to tell your friends that it is yours. Perhaps you would feel glorious that such a big house is actually yours. Have you ever realized, however, that in the universe you have One that is yours? We need to call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ who is yours and who is mine. A little baby only cares for his mother. Babies do not care for mansions, cars, diamonds, or gold. As long as a baby has his mother, everything is all right with him. It does not even matter that much to the baby where he is just as long as his mother is there with him. As Christians we need to be like the little babes who only care for Christ.
We all need to say happily, triumphantly, and rejoicingly— “Jesus is mine!” We all know the familiar hymn that says, “Blessed assurance, Jesus is mine; Oh, what a foretaste of glory divine!” The chorus of this hymn says, “This is my story, this is my song, Praising my Savior all the day long” (Hymns, #308). We are not praising the Lord all the day long for a good house, for an expensive car, or for a heavenly mansion with golden streets and pearly gates. We are praising the Lord all the day long for the fact that Jesus is ours. We are those who call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ in every place, who is both theirs and ours. To fully understand 1 Corinthians 1:2, you need John 1:1, 14, and 17, John 3:16 and 34, and John 15:26. Also, 1 Corinthians 1:9 tells us that we have been called into the fellowship of His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. The Greek word for fellowship means joint participation, common participation. God has called us into the participation in His Son. We could even say that God has called us into the enjoyment of His Son.
In 1 Corinthians 15:45 we see that “the last Adam became a life-giving Spirit.” John 1:14 tells us who the last Adam is. The Word which was God became flesh, and this flesh is the last Adam. The last Adam is the last Man in the flesh. This One who was the last Adam in the flesh became the enjoyment because He became a life-giving Spirit. This Spirit is not the giver but the gift enjoyed—the enjoyment. God is the giver, the Son is the gift, and the Spirit is the enjoyment.
The basic problem among many of today’s Christians is that they only have the giver and the gift. They do not experience the Spirit as their enjoyment. We Christians may come together to worship God and to praise the Lord without the Spirit. If this is the case, we worship in deadness and we pray, not in life but in death. As Christians we believe in Jesus Christ and we worship God, but we must ask ourselves whether or not we have tasted the Triune God. For example, cheesecake is wonderful but have you eaten it? Have you tasted it and has it become your enjoyment? If you have never eaten it, you have the cheesecake in vain. All of us must see that we must come to the Spirit. The Son of God is not a separate Person from the Spirit; rather, the Spirit is the transfiguration of the Son. The Son is the embodiment of the Triune God and the Spirit is the consummation of the Triune God. This means that the Triune God has been consummated in this Spirit for our enjoyment.
When we call on the name of the Lord Jesus we do not get the Son nor the Father directly. When we call on the name of the Lord we get the Spirit. We all can testify that whenever we call “O Lord Jesus!”, we get the Spirit. Whether we repent or we praise the principle is the same. We may say, “O Lord Jesus, I repent from my sins,” or “Lord Jesus, I praise You.” The point is that whenever we call on Him we get the Spirit, and the Spirit is the Person of the Lord Jesus. If I call out a certain person’s name, that person will come to me if he is real. When we call on the Lord Jesus, the Spirit comes because the Spirit is the Person of Jesus. Even in 1 Corinthians we can see that God gave us Christ as our portion, and we have been called by God into the enjoyment of this Person. The very enjoyment of this Person is the Spirit. This Person was the last Adam and this last Adam eventually became the life-giving Spirit.
Oranges cannot be swallowed whole by a person. The orange must first be sliced and then the slices are placed into the mouth. When the mouth chews the slices they become orange juice to get into the person who is eating them. God may be considered as a big orange and Christ may be considered as the orange slices. The juice is the Spirit. The orange juice is the extract of the orange, and the extract of the orange is the “spirit” of the orange. In like manner, the Spirit of God is the extract of God. When we have the Father, it is like having a big orange. When we believe in the Son, this is like having many orange slices which are still outside of us. When we receive these slices into us as juice, we get the enjoyment. This is the experience of the Spirit which all of us must have. The all-inclusive Christ as the portion of the saints (Col. 1:12) becomes our enjoyment as the Spirit.
We have already seen that in the book of Hebrews God speaks in the Son and eventually, the actual speaker in the book of Hebrews is the Spirit. Furthermore, there is another verse in Hebrews which is more excellent and wonderful than John 3:16 according to our experience—this verse is Hebrews 6:4. John 3:16 tells us that God loved us and gave us His only begotten Son that we may have eternal life. This is wonderful, but Hebrews 6:4 tells us that we have become partakers of the Holy Spirit. This verse does not tell us we are partakers of material blessings, such as good homes, high degrees, or high positions. We, the believers, are the partakers of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit is the totality, the sum total, the aggregate, the consummation, of the Triune God. We all need to see that we have become partakers of the Holy Spirit, who is the totality of the Triune God!
Hebrews 10:29 warns us not to insult the Spirit of grace. Ephesians 4:30 tells us not to grieve the Holy Spirit of God, which means to make Him unhappy by disobeying Him. However, to insult, despise, put aside, ignore, or neglect the Spirit is more serious. None of us should do this. We all need to experience the Spirit as the totality of the Triune God for our enjoyment.
In 1 Corinthians we saw that Christ is ours and that we have been called into the participation in this portion, who as the last Adam became the life-giving Spirit. The conclusion to Paul’s second Epistle to the Corinthians says, “The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all” (13:14). Love, grace, and fellowship are altogether wrapped up with the divine Trinity. Love is the very source, the very substance or essence of grace. This is just like cheese being the essence of cheesecake. Love is the essence of the grace of Christ, and the fellowship of the Spirit is the enjoyment. The love is the essence of the grace, the grace becomes our enjoyment, and this enjoyment is the fellowship. Love is with the Father as the source, grace is with the Son as the course, and enjoyment is with the Spirit as the very consummation.
Finally, Philemon 25 says, “The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit.” This verse does not say that the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ is with our strong mind, our strong will, or our fluctuating emotions. The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ is with our spirit. This verse proves that the grace of the Lord must be the Spirit because it is with our spirit. God is Spirit and those who worship Him must worship in spirit (John 4:24). Only our spirit can participate in the Spirit. For example, I am not able to enjoy cheesecake by looking or even by smelling. Neither can I enjoy cheesecake by doing scientific research to find out the vitamins, the ingredients, and the elements for the cheesecake. The only way to enjoy the cheesecake is to use my mouth to eat it. In like manner, we need to use our spirit to enjoy the consummation of the Triune God. The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit. God is the giver, the Son is the gift, and the Spirit is the enjoyment in our spirit.
James 4:5 says that “the Spirit who dwells in us longs to envy.” James mentions God’s indwelling Spirit negatively concerning the abolishing of the friendship of the world. This indwelling Spirit always envies when He sees us loving something other than God. When you love the world or any material thing other than God, the indwelling Spirit envies. He longs to see you loving God absolutely just like a husband. When a husband sees his wife loving someone else other than him, this husband longs to envy. God as the indwelling Spirit is our Husband and He longs to envy when He sees that we love something, someone, or some matter other than Him. This requires us to deal with whatever we love other than God. The word “dwells” in James 4:5 can also be translated “makes His home.” The indwelling Spirit makes His home in us that He may occupy our entire being (cf. Eph. 3:17) for God, causing us to be wholly for our Husband.