THE DIVINE TRINITY IN THE CREATION

Before the creation of man, the Triune God, whom we also call the Divine Trinity, held a council of the Divine Trinity. We may say that there was a conversation within the Godhead before God created man. God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to [357] Our likeness.” To whom was He speaking when He said, “Let Us”? Could it be that He was speaking to the heavens and the earth, since Adam was not yet created at that time? By studying the context and pondering over the situation at that time, we can readily discover that it was God speaking to Himself and fellowshipping with Himself. Thus, based upon this, some Bible readers concluded that there was a council of the Godhead. For this reason we must realize that in preparation for the creation of man, God first held a council of the Godhead within Himself, in which the three—the Father, the Son, and the Spirit—of the Divine Trinity were all present.

CREATING MAN IN HIS IMAGE

The council of the Divine Trinity was concerned directly with the four great matters in the Bible: the economy of God, the dispensing of God, the mingling of God with the believers, and the corporate expression of God. According to Genesis 1:26-27, God “mobilized” His Trinity for the creation of man. The Bible does not say that while the Father was creating, the Son was standing and watching, and the Spirit was not doing anything. It was not so. Even before the creation of man, the three of the Divine Trinity were all present, and the Triune God said to Himself, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness.” This is very meaningful.

We should not take things for granted when reading the Bible. When we come to Genesis 1:27, we should question and try to find out what image means. The truth of the Bible is rich and many-sided, so it is not easy to answer this question clearly. In brief, God’s image refers to what God is inwardly. What man is, is mostly in his mind, emotion, and will. These three parts are all inward. God created us according to what He is intrinsically.

God Creating Man according to His Attributes— 
Love, Light, Holiness, and Righteousness

The image of God includes not only His being but also His attributes, the characteristics of His nature. According to the entire Bible, the attributes of God include love, light, holiness, and righteousness. The characteristics of a lawmaker are revealed through the laws he makes. In other words, the kind of laws a person makes expresses the kind of person he is. If you ask a bank robber to make laws, he will surely legalize bank robbery because he considers it [358] something that deserves sympathy and compassion. Likewise, the Ten Commandments were enacted by God according to His own attributes. According to our study of the Ten Commandments, we can summarize them in four words: love, light, holiness, and righteousness. These four items are God’s attributes.

According to His attributes of love, light, holiness, and righteousness, God created man with a conscience of morality and a concept of morality. Man is not a beast, for within man there is patience, brightness, holiness, and righteousness. This is why the Chinese have the saying: “Justice is inherent in man’s heart.” This indicates that righteousness and justice are not acquired by learning; rather, they are inherent in man. For example, when you buy something and the cashier gives you back too much change, you may be very happy, but even without being told, you know that this is not right. This is the inherent sense of righteousness. There is not such a sense in cats, dogs, and monkeys. They steal food without knowing that it is improper. However, if you steal food, even if it is your favorite food, you know within that it is not right to steal. What is this? This is the function of the conscience, which was created for us by God according to His attributes.

The faculties of our mind, emotion, and will, which constitute what we are, were created according to God’s intrinsic being. Moreover, human beings delight in love, light, holiness, and righteousness because we were created in this way according to God’s attributes. When God’s attributes are expressed through us, they become our human virtues. Therefore, when the Chinese sages discussed the conscience, eventually they spoke about the “bright virtue,” indicating that within man there is something bright and good. This is the conscience. Hence, we can say that God created man according to His love, light, holiness, and righteousness.

The Image of God Being His Beloved Son—Christ

Let us now consider several verses from the New Testament. Second Corinthians 4:4 says, “Christ, who is the image of God.” Philippians 2:6 says, “[Christ], existing in the form of God.” Colossians 1:15 says that Christ, the Son of God’s love, “is the image of the invisible God.” And Hebrews 1:3 tells us that Christ is “the impress of His [God’s] substance.” All these verses clearly show us that Christ is the image of God. Therefore, for man to be created in the image of God means [359] that man was created according to Christ. In other words, what the created man is inwardly is altogether created according to Christ. The principle for the proper exposition of the Bible is to interpret the Bible both according to biblical facts and according to the biblical text itself. According to the fact, God created man in His image; that is, He created man according to His mind, emotion, and will and also according to love, light, holiness, and righteousness. According to the biblical text, the New Testament says that Christ, God’s beloved Son, is the image of God. Hence, God also created man according to Christ. God created us in this way, expecting that one day we would receive and contain Christ.

Man Being Created 
according to the Image of Christ 
for the Purpose of Containing Christ

The way that man would be created was determined through the council of the Divine Trinity—the Father, the Son, and the Spirit. God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness.” The image here is neither the Father nor the Spirit but the Son. God created man in the image of the Son. In this respect, we are containers of Christ; we were created to contain Christ. If Christ is “square” and we are “round,” we will never be able to contain Him. Thus, God had to make us “square” just like Christ. Before we were saved, and even at birth, we were already created in the image of Christ to be exactly the same as Christ so that we would be fit to receive Him. For this reason, once we received Christ and were saved, we felt so comfortable and at ease within. Let me use an illustration. When you purchase something, the salesperson often puts it in a box. The box that the salesperson uses is just right, being neither too large nor too small. This is not a coincidence, because the box was made precisely according to the shape of that particular item. Everyone who has received Christ has experienced this indescribable sense of comfort, because we were created in His image, and we were created for Him.

How then does Christ come into us? According to the New Testament revelation, the Son comes into us as the Spirit (John 14:17; 1 Cor. 6:17; 15:45; 2 Cor. 3:17; 2 Tim. 4:22). Without being the Spirit, the Son could not come into us. These truths are implied in Genesis 1:26-27. [360]

SPENDING TIME TO STUDY THE TRUTH

Now we come to the second portion of the Word that we will discuss—John 14:16-20. These five crucial verses clearly unveil the Divine Trinity—the Father, the Son, and the Spirit. In verses 16 through 17 the Lord said, “I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Comforter,…the Spirit of reality.” These two verses show us the Divine Trinity—the Father, the Son, and the Spirit. The Lord said that the Spirit would come and enter into us.