The Three Coexisting and Coinhering 
at the Same Time from Eternity to Eternity

The three of the Godhead coexist and coinhere at the same time from eternity to eternity (John 1:1-2; 14:10-11; 8:29; 15:26; Rev. 1:4-5a). The Father, the Son, and the Spirit coexist. They are distinct. They also coinhere. To coinhere is to live within one another. While the three of the Godhead are coexisting, They are also mutually indwelling one another. In Their coexistence, the three of the Godhead are distinct, but Their coinherence makes Them one.

We believers and the Triune God also coinhere. Christ is in us, we are in Him, the Father is in Him, He is in the Father, and He with the Father and the Spirit is in us (John 14:10a, 17, 20). Thus, we are one with the Triune God. In John 15 the Lord Jesus said, “Abide in Me and I in you” (v. 4a). Christ and we become a mutual abiding place. We abide in Him, and He abides in us.

In eternity past, in the present, and in eternity future, the three of the Godhead are coexisting and coinhering. John 1:1 says, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” This verse says that the Word was with God and that the Word was God. The Word and God coexist, but the Word also is God. Thus, the Word and God are “two-one.”

Verse 2 says, “He was in the beginning with God.” This confirms that He was with God not only in time but also in the beginning. In the beginning, that is, from eternity past, the Word was with God. Christ’s deity is eternal and absolute. From eternity past to eternity future He is with God and He is God.

John 14:10-11 says, “Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in Me? The words that I say to you I do not speak from Myself, but the Father who abides in Me does His works. Believe Me that I am in the Father and the Father is in Me.” This shows that the Son is in the Father and that the Father is in the Son. When the Son speaks, the Father works. The Son’s speaking is the speaking of the Father because They are coinhering. The Son and the Father are not separate. They are two, yet They are also one. In existence They are two, but They are coinhering, so They are one. The first is in the second, and the second is in the first, so when the second One speaks, the first One does the work.

In John 8:29 the Lord Jesus said, “He who sent Me is with Me; He has not left Me alone.” God the Father sent Christ, but the Lord said that He who sent Him was with Him. When the Son came, the Father came with Him. When the Lord Jesus was traveling on the earth, He was traveling with the Father. He said that the Father had not left Him alone. Thus, when He was praying in Gethsemane, the Father was there. When He was dying on the cross, He was dying there with the Father. Jesus the man was dying on the cross with God. Charles Wesley wrote a hymn with a line that says, “Amazing love! how can it be / That Thou, my God, shouldst die for me?” (Hymns, #296). This means that our God died for us. When Christ died on the cross, that was God dying for us. Christ died with God because God never left Him alone. Even in His crucifixion, God was with Him.

John 15:26 says, “When the Comforter comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of reality, who proceeds from the Father, He will testify concerning Me.” The Greek word for from, used twice in this verse, is literally “from with.” The Spirit of reality, who is sent by the Son from the Father, comes not only from the Father but also with the Father. John 8:29 shows that the Father was with the Son. Then John 15:26 shows that the Father was with the Spirit. Thus, the three are one. When the Son came, He came with the Father. When the Spirit comes, He comes with the Father. Thus, the Father was and still is with the Son and with the Spirit.