Morning Nourishment - Christ as the Center of the Processed Triune God
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Day 1
Verses: Matt. 28:19 Go therefore and disciple all the nations, baptizing them into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Gal. 3:27 For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. This charge [in Matthew 28:19] was given by the Lord Jesus after He had entered into resurrection, which was the consummation of the process of the Triune God. . The Triune God has passed through a process that began with incarnation, included human living and crucifixion, and consummated with resurrection. In resurrection Christ, the embodiment of the Triune God, became the life-giving Spirit. Now this Spirit is the consummation of the Triune God for the believers to be baptized into the Divine Trinity. The clearest revelation of the Divine Trinity is in Matthew 28:19. On the one hand, this verse speaks of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit; on the other hand, in this verse there is only one name, the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. This is the completion of the process of the Triune God, a process that ends in resurrection. After the completion of this process, the resurrected Christ came to the disciples and charged them to go forth with His authority to disciple the nations and baptize them into the name, the person, of the Triune God that they may have an organic union with the Divine Trinity and be brought into the enjoyment of the Trinity for the church life. (The Conclusion of the New Testament, p. 1031)
Baptism has two aspects: the visible aspect by water and the invisible aspect by the Holy Spirit (Acts 2:38, 41; 10:44-48). The visible aspect is the expression, the testimony, of the invisible aspect, whereas the invisible aspect is the reality of the visible aspect. Without the invisible aspect by the Spirit, the visible aspect by water is vain; and without the visible aspect by water, the invisible aspect by the Spirit is abstract and impractical. Both are needed. The word into in Matthew 28:19 indicates union…To baptize the believers into the name of the Triune God is to bring them into a spiritual and mystical union with Him.
According to Matthew 28:19, there is one name for the Trinity. The name is the sum total of the Divine Being, equivalent to His person. To baptize a believer into the name of the Trinity is to immerse him into all that the Triune God is. To be baptized into the person of the Triune God is to be baptized in the all-inclusive, consummated Spirit who is the ultimate consummation of the processed Triune God.
This is to be baptized into the riches of the Father, into the riches of the Son, and into the riches of the Spirit…Therefore, whatever the Father has, whatever the Son has, and whatever the Spirit receives become ours. In Matthew 28:19 to be baptized is to be baptized into the Triune God. But in Acts to be baptized is to be baptized into the Lord Jesus (8:16; 19:5). This indicates clearly that the Lord Jesus is the embodiment of the Triune God, the aggregate of the Father, the Son, and the Spirit.
Furthermore, in the Epistles Paul says that to be baptized is to be baptized in the Spirit (1 Cor. 12:13). Therefore, the New Testament reveals that we are baptized into the Triune God, into the Lord Jesus, and in the Spirit. This indicates that the Lord Jesus is the totality of the Triune God and that the Spirit is the realization of the Lord Jesus. We have been baptized in the Spirit, and this is to be baptized into the Lord Jesus, which is to be baptized into the Father, the Son, and the Spirit— the Triune God. As a result, we are one with the Triune God, and whatever He is and has is ours in the organic union with Him. This enjoyment of the Divine Trinity through the Spirit as the consummation of the Triune God is for the church life. (The Conclusion of the New Testament, pp. 1031-1032)
Further Reading: The Conclusion of the New Testament, msgs. 96, 125
Day 2
Verses: 2 Cor. 13:14 The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all. 1 Cor. 12:13 …In one Spirit we were all baptized into one Body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free, and were all given to drink one Spirit. The Triune God—the Father, the Son, and the Spirit—is a mystery, in fact, a mystery of mysteries!…Many things relating to the matter of life are not within the comprehension of men; men can only have a general idea of them. For instance, though we have life in our physical body, no one can explain it thoroughly, for life is a mystery. Furthermore, there is a spirit within us—this is even more of a mystery. What is the life of man, and what is the spirit of man? No one can give a full explanation. We are not able to comprehend such a comparatively small mystery as man, to say nothing of the Triune God—the Father, the Son, and the Spirit. (CWWL, 1970, vol. 3, “Concerning the Triune God—the Father, the Son, and the Spirit,” p. 287)
The Scriptures in many instances and in many ways tell us that God is uniquely one…: First Corinthians 8:4: “There is no God but one.” Isaiah 45:5: “I am Jehovah and there is no one else; / Besides Me there is no God” [see also vv. 6, 21-22; 46:9; 44:6, 8]. In these passages God repeatedly said, “There is no God besides Me.” He did not say, “There is no God besides Us,” but, “There is no God besides Me.” Me is singular, indicating only one. These repeated declarations of God strongly prove that God is uniquely one…We must stand absolutely on the scriptural revelation and believe that God is one.
In Isaiah 6:8 God said, “Whom shall I send? Who will go for Us?” God spoke of Himself on the one hand as “I” and on the other hand as “Us.” This proves that “I” is “Us” and “Us” is “I”; “I” and “Us” are identical. Then is God singular or plural? If you say that He is plural, He says “I.” If you say that He is singular, He says “Us.” This is rather mysterious and difficult to understand, so we just take the scriptural revelation as it is. Furthermore, in Genesis 1:26; 3:22; and 11:7, God also spoke of Himself as “Us.”
The unique God, in His divine words, has many times spoken of Himself as “Us.” This is really a mystery difficult to comprehend, but we must believe that this is due to the matter of the three persons of the Godhead—the Father, the Son, and the Spirit. The Lord said in Matthew 28:19, “Baptizing them into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” Here the Lord spoke clearly of the three persons—the Father, the Son, and the Spirit. But when He spoke here of the name of the Father, the Son, and the Spirit, the name is in the singular number in the original text.
This means that though the Father, the Son, and the Spirit are three, yet the name is one. It is really mysterious—one name for three persons. This, of course, is what is meant by the expression three-in-one, or triune. We may ask, Is this name Father, or Son, or Holy Spirit? It is difficult to answer. All we can say is that the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. This name includes the three—the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit—and tells us that God is three-in-one.
Although God is only one, yet there is the matter of the three persons—the Father, the Son, and the Spirit. In John 14:23 the Lord said, “If anyone loves Me…My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make an abode with him.” Also, in 17:11 He said, “Holy Father…that they may be one even as We are.” In both of these places the Lord spoke of Himself and the Father as “We.” This must also be due to the matter of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. (CWWL, 1970, vol. 3, “Concerning the Triune God—the Father, the Son, and the Spirit,” pp. 288-290)
Further Reading: CWWL, 1970, vol. 3, “Concerning the Triune God—the Father, the Son, and the Spirit”
Day 3
Verses: John 7:39 But this He said concerning the Spirit, whom those who believed into Him were about to receive; for the Spirit was not yet, because Jesus had not yet been glorified. Rom. 8:9 …You are not in the flesh, but in the spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. Yet if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not of Him. The process of the Triune God is clearly revealed in the New Testament, but this matter has been missed by most Christians. Although such words as process and Trinity cannot be found in the Bible, the facts that these words describe are definitely revealed in the Bible. Theophilus of Antioch (A.D. 115-188), one of the early church fathers, was the first to use the word Trinity in his writings. The word triune also began to be used at about the same time. In Matthew 28:19 the Lord Jesus charged the disciples to baptize the nations “into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” In this verse name is singular in number, yet the one name refers to three persons. This shows that there is one name for the Divine Trinity. (CWWL, 1990, vol. 1, “The Triune God to Be Life to the Tripartite Man,” pp. 265-266)
The Father, the Son, and the Spirit are not three separate persons or three Gods; they are one God, one reality, one person. Hence, the Father, the Son, and the Spirit are denoted by one name. The name denotes the person, and the person is the reality of the name. The name of the Divine Trinity is the sum total of the Divine Being, equivalent to His person.
God is triune; that is, He is three-one…He is one God, with the Father, the Son, and the Spirit as His reality, His person…Father, Son, and Spirit are not three different names; they are the unique name of the Divine Trinity…Many of the divine titles in the Bible, such as God the Father, the Lord Jesus, and the Lord Spirit (2 Cor. 3:18), are compound titles. The compound name in Matthew 28:19 is composed of three parts— Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The Triune God took several crucial steps in being processed to be the life- giving Spirit.
First, He was incarnated. As God, He entered into the womb of a human virgin and stayed within that womb for nine months. In this way He took on humanity as His shelter, His dwelling place. His incarnation surely was a process.
Second, He lived and walked on the earth, passing through the long “tunnel” of human living for thirty-three and a half years. This also was a process.
Third, He entered into death and passed through death, which included the grave and Hades. Fourth, after three days, He walked out of death and Hades and entered into resurrection. His death and resurrection also were a process. After the Lord’s resurrection He stayed with the disciples for forty days (Acts 1:3), during which time He made His presence both visible and invisible to them. Then He led them to Jerusalem and ascended to the third heaven from the Mount of Olives (vv. 12,9). Through His ascension the Lord Jesus completed His process…All three—the Father, the Son, and the Spirit—were fully consummated in the Lord’s ascension.
The word consummation indicates that a work or a process has been completed, or finished…Before His incarnation God was “raw,” having the divine nature but not the human nature. Through incarnation, human living, crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension, God was processed and consummated. Now, He is no longer the “raw” God; He is the consummated and completed Triune God with divinity, humanity, human living, the all- inclusive death, the powerful resurrection, and the transcendent ascension. All of these are elements, or ingredients, in the processed and consummated Triune God. (CWWL, 1990, vol. 1, “The Triune God to Be Life to the Tripartite Man,” pp. 266-267)
Further Reading: CWWL, 1987, vol. 3, “The Scriptural Way to Meet and to Serve for the Building Up of the Body of Christ,” ch. 12
Day 4
Verses: John 7:39 But this He said concerning the Spirit, whom those who believed into Him were about to receive; for the Spirit was not yet, because Jesus had not yet been glorified. Rev. 1:4 …Grace to you and peace from Him who is and who was and who is coming, and from the seven Spirits who are before His throne. In Exodus 30 an ointment was prepared, and this ointment was called a compound ointment because it was made from oil compounded with four different spices (vv. 22-25). This compound ointment is a type of the compound Spirit, who is the Triune God compounded with humanity, the all-inclusive death of Christ, the all-powerful resurrection of Christ, and the transcending ascension of Christ. This compound Spirit is the consummated Triune God. (CWWL, 1990, vol. 1, “The Triune God to Be Life to the Tripartite Man,” p. 269)
Ultimately, the Spirit of God is the Spirit. The Spirit is the totality, the aggregate, of all the elements of the titles of the Spirit of God. Hence, the Spirit is the all-inclusive Spirit. This Spirit is the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of God, the Spirit of the Father, the Spirit of the Lord, the Spirit of the Son of God, the Spirit of Jesus, the Spirit of Christ, the Spirit of Jesus Christ, the Lord Spirit, the Spirit of the living God, the life-giving Spirit, the Spirit of life, the Spirit of grace, the Spirit of reality, the Comforter, the Spirit of power, the Spirit of glory and that of God, the eternal Spirit, and the seven Spirits. John 7:39 speaks of the Spirit, telling us that before the Lord Jesus was crucified and resurrected, the Spirit was not yet.
The Spirit of God was there from the beginning (Gen. 1:1-2), but the Spirit as the all-inclusive Spirit of Jesus Christ was “not yet” at the time of John 7:39, because the Lord Jesus had not yet been glorified. After His resurrection, that is, after He had been glorified, the Spirit of God became the Spirit of the incarnated, crucified, and resurrected Jesus Christ. Even though, before Christ’s death and resurrection, the Spirit of God was the Spirit of Jehovah and the Holy Spirit, the Spirit was not yet… Eventually and ultimately the Spirit of God is the Spirit.
With regard to the preaching of the gospel beforehand to Abraham, Galatians 3:14 says, “In order that the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles in Jesus Christ, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.” God, in preaching the gospel to Abraham, promised him the Spirit. Once again in Galatians 3:14 we do not have the Spirit of God, the Spirit of the Lord, or the Holy Spirit. In this verse we have the Spirit because the Spirit was the unique blessing of the New Testament economy promised by God to Abraham. The Spirit is the Triune God after He has passed through the process of incarnation, human living, crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension. Having passed through this process, the Triune God is now this consummate Spirit as the blessing of the New Testament.
In the book of Revelation only two titles of the Spirit are used: the seven Spirits and the Spirit. In 1:4; 3:1; 4:5; and 5:6 we have the seven Spirits. In chapters 2 and 3 the title the Spirit is used again and again. It is also found in Revelation 14:13 and, for the last time, in Revelation 22:17,…[which] reveals that the Spirit as the totality of the processed Triune God has become one with the church, who is now fully matured to be the bride. We may give a full definition of the Spirit. The Spirit is the processed, compound, all-inclusive, life-giving, indwelling, sevenfold intensified, consummated Spirit as the ultimate consummation of the processed Triune God to be the eternal portion of His chosen, redeemed, regenerated, sanctified, transformed, and glorified tripartite people as their life, life supply, and everything. (The Conclusion of the New Testament, pp. 868-870)
Further Reading: The Conclusion of the New Testament, msg. 80
Day 5
Verses: Rev. 21:10 And he carried me away in spirit onto a great and high mountain and showed me the holy city, Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God. Matt. 16:18 …I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it. Eph. 3:17 That Christ may make His home in your hearts through faith… The New Jerusalem is a composition of divinity and humanity blended and mingled together as one entity. All the components have the same life, nature, and constitution and thus are a corporate person. This is a matter of God becoming man and man becoming God in life and in nature but not in the Godhead. These two, God and man, man and God, are built up together by being blended and mingled together. This is the completion, the consummation, of God’s building. We all need to see this vision. (Life-study of 1 & 2 Samuel, 2nd ed., p. 201)
The vision of God’s building will affect our work today. If we see God’s building, we will not try to help others to be more humble or gentle…I would ask you to consider the case of Job, a person who had the highest attainment in building up himself in integrity, uprightness, and perfection. Eventually, God stripped Job of all his attainments in order to show him that his only need was God Himself. David, a man according to God’s heart, had a great failure. This indicates that…one may be according to God’s heart but still be empty, not having God wrought into his heart.
In 2 Samuel 7 God seemed to be saying, “David, you are a man according to My heart, but you need Me to be wrought into your heart. You need Me to be built into your being to make you Me in life and in nature… You must be able to say, ‘To me, to live is God.’” If David had been such a person, he would not have fallen. The fall of David illustrates the fact that even if we are a person according to God, if we do not have God wrought into us, we are no better than others…
If we realize that God desires to work Himself into His chosen people and if we realize that this is what we all need, then the goal of our work will be to minister Christ to others so that the Triune God may build Himself into their being. Yes, we need to save sinners and to feed the saints and perfect them. The crucial matter, however, is that we minister God to others. The God whom we minister is not just the building God—He is also the builded God. If we fail to minister God in this way, our work will be wood, grass, and stubble (1 Cor. 3:12).
If we are sincere and genuine, we will humble ourselves and confess that not very much of the Triune God has been wrought into the ones we have brought to God…We need to practice one thing—to minister the processed Triune God into others so that He may build Himself into their inner man. In every aspect of our work—preaching the gospel, feeding the believers, perfecting the saints—the intrinsic element must be that we minister the building and builded God to others. I would urge you to pray that the Lord would teach you to work in this way. The processed Triune God is embodied in Christ and realized as the consummated Spirit.
This is the God whom we worship, preach, and minister to others. Today He is building Himself into His redeemed people in order to produce a house with Himself as the element and also with something from their redeemed and uplifted humanity. This house is the church, the Body of Christ. This house is the enlargement, the expansion, of Christ, the embodiment of the Triune God realized as the Spirit. As we carry out the God-ordained way in the four steps of begetting, nourishing, perfecting, and building, our work must be based upon the processed Triune God, who is building Himself into His chosen people. (Life-study of 1 & 2 Samuel, 2nd ed., pp. 202-203)
Further Reading: Life-study of 1 & 2 Samuel, msg. 30; CWWL, 1979, vol. 2, “The Genuine Ground of Oneness,” ch. 6
Day 6
Verses: Rev. 22:17 And the Spirit and the bride say, Come! And let him who hears say, Come! And let him who is thirsty come; let him who wills take the water of life freely. 7:17 For the Lamb who is in the midst of the throne will shepherd them and guide them to springs of waters of life… Revelation 22:17a…reveals that the Spirit as the totality of the processed Triune God has become one with the believers, who are now fully matured to be the bride. . Hence, the Spirit is the ultimate expression of the processed Triune God, and the bride is the ultimate expression of the transformed tripartite man. By the time of Revelation 22:17, the processed Triune God—the Spirit—and the transformed tripartite man—the bride—will be one and speak as one. The consummation of the divine dispensing of the processed Triune God will be a universal marriage (19:7-9; 21:2,9). The Spirit as the consummation of the processed Triune God dispensed into His redeemed people will be the Bridegroom, and God’s redeemed people as the consummation of the redeemed, regenerated, and transformed humanity will be the bride. In Revelation 22:17 the Spirit and the bride together as a couple say, “Come.”…This is the consummation of what John the Baptist told his disciples in John 3:29: “He who has the bride is the bridegroom.” The end of the New Testament eventually reveals to us that the One who has the bride is the Spirit. (The Conclusion of the New Testament, pp. 1939-1940)
The Spirit…becomes one with the bride, the aggregate of all the regenerated and transformed tripartite men. This means that the Triune God, after being consummated as the Spirit, will “marry” the believers as the bride.
In Revelation 22:17 there are two consummations. First, the Triune God has gone through a process—through incarnation, human living, crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension—to become the Spirit, the totality, the consummation, of the Triune God to be the Bridegroom. Second, the believers also have gone through a process—redemption, regeneration, and transformation— to become the consummation of God’s chosen, redeemed, regenerated, and transformed people to be the bride…Therefore, the processed tripartite man will match the processed Triune God forever for His full expression and satisfaction. This couple is the ultimate consummation of the divine romance revealed in the Bible.
According to the entire Bible, there is a divine romance between God the Creator, the Redeemer, who is the male, and His redeemed people, who are the female…When the Lord Jesus came, John the Baptist told his disciples that Christ was the Bridegroom coming to take the bride, which is the church (John 3:29). In Ephesians 5 Paul tells us that the church is typified by the wife and Christ by the husband…Paul also tells us that he has betrothed us as a virgin to one Husband who is Christ (2 Cor. 11:2)…This wife is the aggregate of all the overcoming saints from Abel until the Lord comes back. Finally, the New Jerusalem will be the consummation of God’s counterpart, the aggregate of all His redeemed and perfected people.
The Bible begins with the marriage of Adam and Eve in Genesis and ends with the marriage of the Spirit and God’s redeemed people in Revelation. This final marriage is the marriage of the processed, consummated, and dispensed Triune God as the Husband with His regenerated and transformed people as the bride. For eternity this universal couple will be the full manifestation of the Triune God expressed in all His glory…At the conclusion of the Bible is the Spirit, the consummation of the processed Triune God, with the bride as the aggregate and consummation of the redeemed, regenerated, transformed, and glorified tripartite man. Here is an eternal, universal couple expressing the Triune God for eternity. (The Conclusion of the New Testament, pp. 1941-1942)
Further Reading: The Conclusion of the New Testament, msg. 179