According to the four Gospels, the Son came with the Father and by the Spirit. It is important for us to see this. We should give up the thought that when the Son came to earth, He left the Father in the heavens. No, the Son came with the Father, and He came by the Spirit. Actually, in Jesus Christ, the Son, we have the embodiment of the Triune God. The Son came with the Father and by the Spirit to be the embodiment of the Triune God in the Man Jesus Christ.
Jesus Christ, the One who is the embodiment of the Triune God, is God’s tabernacle and God’s temple. John 1:1 and 14 say that the Word, who was God, became flesh and tabernacled among us. The word “tabernacled” in John 1:14 indicates that when He was in the flesh, Christ was the tabernacle of God. In Him God tabernacled among men. Then in chapter two of the Gospel of John we see that the Lord was the temple of God, the dwelling place of God (vv. 19, 21). As the embodiment of the Triune God, Jesus Christ was God’s dwelling place in order to express God among men.
As the One who was the embodiment of the Triune God as God’s tabernacle and God’s temple, the Lord Jesus lived the life of God. He lived a life on the highest plane, a life much higher than ethics or morality. The life He lived was actually God Himself. Furthermore, He lived such a life in order that this life might develop into the kingdom of God.
According to the revelation in the four Gospels, the issue of the living of this wonderful One is the kingdom of God. Because the kingdom of God is the development of the life of God, the Lord Jesus preached not only the gospel of God but also the gospel of the kingdom of God (Mark 1:14; Luke 4:43; 8:1).
I hope that we all shall be able to comprehend this brief outline of the four Gospels. In the Gospels we see that the Son came with the Father and by the Spirit to be the embodiment of the Triune God in Jesus Christ. This One, the embodiment of the Triune God, is God’s tabernacle and God’s temple as His dwelling place. This One lived a life of God, a life that developed into the kingdom of God.
As indicated by the chart, the second section of the New Testament includes the twenty-two books from Acts through Jude. These books are also the revelation of a Person. Here we have the Spirit as the Son with the Father to be the consummation of the Triune God in the church.
In this section we do not see the Spirit alone; we see the Spirit as the Son. In 1 Corinthians 15:45 Paul says that the last Adam, Jesus Christ, became a life-giving Spirit. Here Paul says not only that Christ became the Spirit, but that He became a life-giving Spirit. This modifier indicates that the Spirit is the One who gives life. There is only one Spirit who gives life, and this is the divine Spirit. We should never think that in addition to the Holy Spirit there is another Spirit who gives life. No, the life-giving Spirit in 1 Corinthians 15:45 is the divine Spirit who gives life. Through resurrection Christ became the life-giving Spirit.
In 2 Corinthians 3:17 Paul says clearly, “The Lord is the Spirit.” As we have pointed out, the Lord here is Christ the Lord. Therefore, this verse clearly tells us that Christ is the Spirit. Concerning this, the note in the Ryrie Study Bible says that here we have “a strong statement that Christ and the Holy Spirit are one in essence.” In the second section of the New Testament, therefore, we have the Spirit as the Son.
When the Spirit came, He came as the Son with the Father. The Father is always with the Son. In John 14:23 the Lord Jesus said that if we love Him, the Father will love us and both the Father and the Son will come to us and make an abode with us. This proves that the Father comes with the Son. Since the Spirit comes as the Son, the Father is also present.