The third portion from the Word is John 16:13-15. These three verses reveal to us the transmission of the Divine Trinity. All that the Father has is in the Son, all that the Son has is given to the Spirit, and all that the Spirit has is realized in us. In these verses the Lord said, “When He, the Spirit of reality, comes, He will guide you into all the reality; for He will not speak from Himself, but what He hears He will speak; and He will declare to you the things that are coming. He will glorify Me, for He will receive of Mine and will declare it to you. All that the Father has is Mine; for this reason I have said that He receives of Mine and will declare it to you.” The work of the Holy Spirit is, first, to convict the world; second, as the Spirit of reality, it is to guide the believers into all the reality, to make all that the Son is and has real to the believers. All that the Father is and has is embodied in the Son (Col. 2:9), and all that the Son is and has is declared as reality to the believers through the Spirit (John 16:13-15). This declaring is the glorifying of the Son with the Father. Hence, it is a matter of the Triune God being wrought into and mingled with the believers.
The fourth portion is Matthew 28:19: “Baptizing them into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” This also implies the Divine Trinity. In this verse the Father, the Son, and the Spirit are three, yet the “name” is singular in number. This shows us that we have all been baptized into the unique name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. The name is the sum total of the Divine Being, equivalent to His person. To baptize someone into the name of the Triune God is to immerse him into all that the Triune God is.
The fifth portion is Ephesians 2:18: “Through Him we both have access in one Spirit unto the Father.” Both the Jewish and the Gentile believers have access to the Father through Christ, who abolished [361] the law of the commandments in ordinances, broke down the middle wall of partition, slew the enmity to reconcile the Gentiles to the Jews, and shed His blood to redeem the Jews and the Gentiles to God. Here the trinity of the Godhead is implied. Through God the Son, who is the Accomplisher, the means, and in God the Spirit, who is the Executor, the application, we have access unto the Father, who is the Originator, the source of our enjoyment.
The sixth portion is Ephesians 3:14-19, which says that the Father will grant us to be strengthened with power through His Spirit into the inner man, that Christ, the Son, may make His home in our hearts through faith, with the result that we will be filled with the Triune God unto all the fullness of God.
The seventh portion is 2 Corinthians 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.” The grace of the Lord is the Lord Himself as life to us for our enjoyment, the love of God is God Himself as the source of the grace of the Lord, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit is the Holy Spirit Himself as the transmission of the grace of the Lord with the love of God for our participation. These are not three separate matters but three aspects of one thing, just as the Lord, God, and the Holy Spirit are not three separate Gods but three “hypostases…of the one same undivided and indivisible” God (Philip Schaff). The Father, the Son, and the Spirit are the hypostases, the supporting substances, which constitute this one God.
The eighth portion is Revelation 1:4-6: “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, and from Jesus Christ, the faithful Witness, the Firstborn of the dead, and the Ruler of the kings of the earth. To Him who loves us and has released us from our sins by His blood and made us a kingdom, priests to His God and Father.” He who is and who was and who is coming is God the eternal Father. The seven Spirits who are before God’s throne are the operating Spirit of God, God the Spirit. Jesus Christ—“the faithful Witness” to God, “the Firstborn of the dead” to the church, and “the Ruler of the kings of the earth” to the world—is God the Son. This is the Triune God. From such a Triune God, grace and peace are imparted to the churches. At the opening of the other Epistles, only the Father and the Son are mentioned, and from Them grace and peace are given to the receivers. Here, however, the Spirit is included, and [362] from Him grace and peace are imparted to the churches. Through the work of the Divine Trinity, we are made not only a kingdom to God but also priests to God (1 Pet. 2:5). The kingdom is for God’s dominion, whereas priests are for the expression of God’s image. This is the kingly, royal priesthood (v. 9), which is for the fulfillment of God’s original purpose in creating man (Gen. 1:26-28).
These are the four great matters in the Bible: the economy of God, the dispensing of God, the union of God with us, and God’s corporate expression in us.