Day: January 15, 2023

BEING A CORPORATE EXPRESSION

Once the Father, the Son, and the Spirit are dispensed into us, They are mingled with us and become one with us. For example, there are twenty to thirty fluorescent lamps in the meeting hall. Once the electricity is transmitted, all the lamps light up. Outwardly, there are twenty to thirty lamps, but inwardly there is only one flow of electricity. The lamps are many, but the electricity is one. Moreover, there is only one shining and one light. Therefore, the twenty to thirty lamps have only one flow of electricity and give out only one light. This is a corporate expression.

If there is only one lamp in the room, although it may shine, the shining is not corporate but individual. There is only one lamp, one flow of electricity within, and one shining without. The electricity in the lamp, the lamp itself, and the illumination of the lamp are all one. This is an individual expression. This was the situation when the Lord Jesus was on the earth. He was an individual “lamp,” and His shining on people and His expression of God were both individual. However, today, as His multiplication, we are thousands and millions of “Jesuses,” thousands and millions of “lamps.” Yet the [394] “electricity” within is still one, and the “shining” without is also one. This is a corporate expression.

Stanza 3 of Hymns, #501 says, “All things of the Father are Thine; / All Thou art in Spirit is mine; / The Spirit makes Thee real to me, / That Thou experienced might be.” This stanza, which is written exactly according to John 16:15, says that all that the Father has is given to and received by the Son; all that the Son has received and all that He has is in the Spirit; the Spirit makes the Son real to us by entering into us; and as a result, this reality may become our experience. This means that if we listen to many messages concerning Christ, the Son, but do not have the Spirit of reality coming into us, none of the messages will be reality. When the Spirit comes into our spirit, this is the coming of the reality of the Son, and the result is that this reality becomes our experience. This may be considered the best explanation of John 16:15.

The Father Giving All to the Son

In the Gospel of John, the word all is used several times. In theology, there are four terms: all men, all matters, all things, and all. All comprises all matters and all things, and all things includes all men. Take Acts 10:34-36 as an example. In the house of Cornelius, Peter said that Jesus Christ is the Lord of “all.” Although the Mandarin Union Version also translates this word as “all,” here all refers to all men (cf. 1 Tim. 2:4). Peter thought that the Lord was just the Lord of the Jews but not of the Gentiles; however, when he came to the house of a Gentile, he clearly saw that the Lord was the Lord of all men. Thus, we can see that in Acts 10:36 all refers to men.

In the Gospel of John, the first time the word all is mentioned is in 1:3. There the Greek word for all things is actually the word for all, which includes all men. The second time is in 3:31, which says, “He who comes from above is above all.” Verse 35 continues, “The Father loves the Son and has given all into His hand.” John 3:35 is a very precious verse. It says that the Father loves the Son and has given all into His hand. Here all equals all that the Father has in 16:15. Thus, these two verses are joined together. John 3:35 says, “The Father loves the Son and has given all into His hand,” and in 16:15 the Lord said, “All that the Father has is Mine.” All that the Father has is the Son’s because the Father loves the Son and has given [391] all to Him. Moreover, 13:3 says, “Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all into His hands.” This verse has the same meaning as 3:35, saying that the Father has given all to the Son. Thus, in 16:15 the Son could say, “All that the Father has is Mine.” He said this word based on 3:35 and 13:3, which say that the Father has given all to Him.

The word given in 3:35 and 13:3 actually means “transmitted,” indicating that the Father’s riches have all been transmitted to the Son. All the riches of the Father have been given, transmitted, by the Father to the Son. Moreover, we must see that when the Father transmits all to the Son, the Father also comes with what He transmits. The Father is always in the transmission. This is the first step of the transmission.

All the Fullness of the Godhead 
Dwelling in Christ Bodily

Paul tells us in his Epistles that Christ the Son is the One in whom all the fullness of the Godhead dwells bodily (Col. 2:9). Fullness here is the expression of riches. The full expression of all the riches of the Godhead dwells in Christ bodily. Before His incarnation Christ as the Word of God did not have a physical body. In His incarnation He became a man with a human body. As a man, Christ’s physical body is His very person, and in Him all the fullness of the Godhead is hidden. This is because the Godhead includes the Father, and since the Father has given all to the Son, the Son is the treasury of all the riches of the Father. Moreover, now that the Son has become flesh, all the riches of the Father spontaneously dwell in the Son bodily. This “dwelling” is the second step of the transmission.

All That the Son Has Being in the Spirit

The third step is that all that the Son has and all that He has obtained have all been transmitted to the Spirit. John 16:15 says, “He receives of Mine.” The Spirit has received everything from the Son; all that the Father has was transmitted to the Son, and now all that the Son has, has been transmitted to and received by the Spirit. This is the third step of the transmission.

ALL THAT THE FATHER, THE SON, AND THE SPIRIT HAVE 
BEING TRANSMITTED TO US BY THE SPIRIT

After receiving all that the Son has, the Spirit comes to “declare” [392] it to us. This means that He comes to transmit it to us. What does the Spirit do when He comes? He transmits to us all that He has received from the Son. This means that all that the Father, the Son, and the Spirit have is conveyed and transmitted into us by the Spirit.

Our Christian living is often like a car that does not start. This is because we have not received enough transmission of the Spirit. Our “battery” is frequently in a low condition, so our engine does not start. Often when we want to pray, we lack the energy because we do not have the Spirit as the motivating power in us. At such a time we need the transmission of the Spirit; we need the Spirit to be transmitted into our spirit and to fill us.

In John 16:15 we have Father, I, He, and you. “Father” is the Father, “I” refers to the Son, “He” refers to the Spirit, and “you” refers to us. Therefore, in this verse four persons are mentioned: the Father, the Son, the Spirit, and us. The riches in the Father are transmitted into the Son; then all that is in the Son is transmitted into the Spirit of reality; finally, when the Spirit of reality comes, He transmits into us all that He has obtained and all that He possesses.

The Father, the Son, and the Spirit are mysterious yet very simple. In contrast, human beings are very complicated. The Lord Jesus was God, yet He became a man—a complicated man. Do not think that we are simple. In fact, it seems that the more spiritual we are, the more complicated we become. If you love the world and commit sin, this is very simple, because there is nothing but darkness in you, and you are totally in darkness and are earthly. But once you believe in the Lord Jesus, it seems that you become quite “unclear.” You do not know whether you are in heaven, on the earth, or in the air. Even you yourself cannot clearly describe your situation. Sometimes you feel that you are full of the Holy Spirit and full of life, and other times you feel that you are heavenly and uplifted. Most of the time, however, you feel that you are so muddled and entirely earthly. The reason we are so complicated is that we are earthly people by nature, but we also have the Spirit within us. Once the Spirit comes into us, He brings the heavens to us; the Spirit and the heavens are very close. However, if there is not enough transmission of the Spirit within us, then we are far away from the heavens and close to the earth.

Thus, you see that there is a wonderful transmitting, a wonderful conveying, in this universe. You may say that it is the transmitting of the Spirit, the transmitting of the Lord, the transmitting of God, [393] or the transmitting of the heavens. In short, it is simply the transmitting of the Triune God into us. Consequently, we become people who are of the Spirit, who are of the Lord, who are of God, and who are of the heavens. This is the spiritual significance of the transmission.

THE DIVINE DISPENSING OF THE DIVINE TRINITY

In order to receive the divine transmission, every morning we must spend time to contact the Lord. As a result, we will have the motivating power for the whole day. For example, if you want to take a trip by car, especially a long trip, the safest thing to do is to go to the gas station first to have the car filled up with gasoline and to make sure your battery is fully charged with electricity. In like manner, every day we need to be “filled up with gas” and “charged with electricity.” What is the “gas” with which we are filled? And what is the “electricity” with which we are charged? John 16:15 shows us that we need to have the Triune God added to us and transmitted into us. This transmission is the divine dispensing of the Divine Trinity.