In the initial stage of God’s full salvation, after we have believed and been baptized, we are joined to the processed Triune God. We have believed into the Triune God and have been baptized into the Triune God; therefore, we have advanced one complete step in God’s salvation. Through this one complete step, faith and baptism, we are brought into the Triune God. Based on Matthew 28:19, we who have believed and have been baptized can boldly testify that we have been joined to the processed Triune God.
God the Father is the source of the divine Trinity. John 13:3 clearly reveals that the Son, Christ, came from the Father. Therefore, God the Father is His source. Furthermore, 1 Corinthians 6:19 reveals that the Holy Spirit also came from God, indicating that God the Father is also His source. God the Father, therefore, is the source of the divine Trinity. When the believers are joined to God the Father, they are joined to the source of the divine Trinity.
To be joined to God the Father man must first turn to Him through repentance (Acts 2:38; 26:18). To repent is to have a change of mind. Originally man’s mind was turned toward all the things other than God and was opposed to God. To be joined to God, man must first turn to Him from persons, affairs, and things other than God as well as from the authority of Satan. Unless man first turns to God, man has no way to be joined to God.
To be joined to God the Father man must not only turn to Him through repentance but also be put into Him through baptism (Matt. 28:19b). Man can only be joined to God the Father by being baptized into Him. “Baptized into” indicates union. When we are baptized, we are baptized into God the Father. To baptize people into God the Father is to bring people into a spiritual, mysterious, and organic union with Him. We, therefore, who have turned to Him through repentance and have been baptized into Him have been joined to God the Father.
When we, the believers, repented and believed, we were born of God the Father to become the children of God (John 1:12-13; James 1:18; 1 John 3:1). Because we have been born of God the Father, we have the divine life and nature (John 3:15; 2 Pet. 1:4) and have been united with God the Father in life and nature. This is to be joined to God the Father. Hence, when we turn to Him through repentance, are baptized into Him, and are born of Him, we are joined to God the Father.
The believers are joined not only to God the Father as the source of the divine Trinity but also to God the Son (Matt. 28:19b) as the embodiment of the processed Triune God. Colossians 2:9 says, “For in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily.” Here the Godhead refers to the Triune God— the Father, Son, and Spirit. All the fullness of the Triune God dwells in Christ as One who has a human body. Before His incarnation, the fullness of the Godhead dwelt in Him as the eternal Word, but not bodily. Since He became incarnate, clothed with a human body, the fullness of the Godhead began to dwell in a bodily way. After His death and resurrection, all the fullness of the Godhead dwells even the more in His glorified body (Phil. 3:21) unto eternity. Hence, Christ is the embodiment of the processed Triune God; all that the divine Trinity is, has, and has accomplished dwells in this all-inclusive Christ. When the believers are joined to God the Son, Christ, they are joined to the embodiment of the processed Triune God.