In this lesson we shall continue to see the joining of the believers to the processed Triune God.
God the Father is the source of the divine Trinity, God the Son is the embodiment of the processed Triune God, and God the Spirit is the ultimate consummation of the processed Triune God. The Spirit, in whom the complete divine Trinity is consummated, is the processed, compound, all-inclusive, life-giving, indwelling, sevenfold intensified, consummated Spirit. Having received Him essentially and having been baptized into Him economically, the believers are organically joined to God the Spirit.
To receive God the Spirit essentially is to receive Him for our existence, being, life, and living. On the night of His resurrection the Lord Jesus came back to His disciples and breathed into them that they might receive the Holy Spirit essentially (John 20:22) as the Spirit of life (Rom. 8:2), the life-giving Spirit whom He had become in resurrection, to be their life and the essence of the new creation (1 John 5:12; 2 Cor. 5:17). Having heard the gospel and having believed in the crucified Christ, the believers have received this all-inclusive, life-giving Spirit. This Spirit enters into them and lives in them to be the essence of their divine life, nature, and being.
John 14:16-17 says, “And I [the Son] will ask the Father, and He will give you another Comforter, that He may be with you forever; even the Spirit of reality...He abides with you and shall be in you.” It is pointed out here that the Spirit will come to indwell the believers, be joined to them, and be with them forever. The Spirit in the believers is the Spirit of reality who causes the reality of the divine Trinity and of all the divine things to be realized in them.
All that the Father is and has is the Son’s (John 16:15; Col. 2:9), and all that the Son is and has is received by the Spirit (John 16:14). Hence, the entire Triune God—the Father, Son, and Spirit—is realized in this Spirit. When this Spirit enters into the believers, the Triune God is realized in them and mingled with them to become their life and their essence. This Spirit of reality is the reality of all the divine things, such as life, light, love, grace, and power. It is through Him that these divine things may be realized in the believers to be their experience and enjoyment. Hence, John 16:13 says, “But when He, the Spirit of reality, comes, He will guide you into all the reality.” When the Spirit of reality enters into the believers to be joined to them, He will guide them into the reality of the divine Trinity and of the divine things.
The Spirit is also the Spirit of life (Rom. 8:2). Life is the intrinsic essence of the divine Trinity. When the Spirit enters into the believers, He imparts the eternal life of God into them to be their life. The word life is used four times in Romans 8:1-11. Verse 2 mentions the Spirit of life; verse 6 says that the mind set on the spirit is life; verse 10 says that our spirit is life because of righteousness; and verse 11 says that the indwelling Spirit will give life to our mortal bodies. This unveils a fourfold life. First, life is the Spirit. Then the Spirit comes into the believers’ spirit to make their spirit life. Furthermore, the Spirit spreads from their spirit into their mind to make their mind life. Finally, the Spirit imparts this life even into their mortal bodies to make the body of sin a body of life. The focus of this fourfold life is the indwelling of the Spirit of life in the believers’ spirit. This Spirit of life will spread from their spirit into their mind and throughout their whole soul, even reaching their body. Eventually, their whole being will be filled with the Spirit of life, that is, filled with the Triune God.