The Mending Ministry of John, Message 2

My Great Delight in God's Word

The Mending Ministry of John, Message 2

The Revelation of the Triune God and of the Consummated Spirit

The Revelation of the Triune God

Trinity is perhaps one of the most mysterious topics in the bible. One can write a big text book just to find that he does not understand it at all. It is not surprising, as it is impossible for us to fully comprehend our incomprehensible God using our limited brain. The only valid resource we have for the knowledge of God is the Holy Bible, which contains more than enough information about God in order for us to know Him and experience Him.
Even though this mysterious word does not appear in the Scripture at all, this concept is clearly evident in so many passages in the bible. There are 3 distinct Persons in the Godhead - the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Yet all the three Persons are one God.

To you it was shown, that you might know that the LORD Himself is God; there is none other besides Him. (Deuteronomy 4:35 NKJV)
The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all. Amen. (2 Corinthians 13:14 NKJV)
For there are three that bear witness in heaven: the Father, the Word, and the Holy Spirit; and these three are one. (1 John 5:7 NKJV)

We need to be careful of the 2 extreme beliefs that are obviously non-biblical. One claims that only God the Father is God, while the Son and the Spirit are not. The other says that there are 3 gods. Our God is not like what they think. He is the 3-in-1 God.
We may only partly understand this. And what we understand may be totally useless unless we know how to apply our understanding to our spiritual walk.
I really appreciate how brother Witness Lee summarises, in regard to the Gospel of John. In this wonderful Gospel, we can clearly see "the Father as the source, the Son as the expression, and the Spirit as the realisation." This is very clear and applicable to our life. We need to acknowledge God the Father as the source of everything and every blessing in our life. We can never know God, unless we know the Son, as Christ is the embodiment and perfect expression of God the Father. The stories of Jesus may be enough for us to know Him intellectually, but we can never know Him experientially unless we have the Spirit in our life, as the Spirit is the reality of the Son. Hallelujah! We have the entire Triune God within our life. We can now therefore have Him as our Source of every blessing, see Him clearly through the life of the Son, and experience Him daily in our walk in the Spirit.

The Consummated Spirit

The Holy Spirit not only appears in the New Testament (NT), but He is also mentioned so many times in the Old Testament (OT), from the very beginning of the bible (Genesis 1:2). He has always been with the Father and the Son since the beginning even before the creation.
However, there are some difference between the Spirit in the OT and the NT. In the OT, He was the Spirit of God with purely divine nature. In the NT, the Triune God has been processed through incarnation, human living, crucifixion and resurrection. Later on, the processed Triune God as the Spirit was referred to as "the Spirit of Christ" (Romans 8:9) or "the Spirit of Jesus Christ" (Philippians 1:9). This Spirit is the consummated Spirit, having the components of all the 3 Persons of the Triune God. The Spirit of Christ therefore has both divine element, with all power to help us, and human element, with all capability to understand us.
The processing of the Triune God to become the consummated Spirit is indicated in the Gospel of John.

But this He spoke concerning the Spirit, whom those believing in Him would receive; for the Holy Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified. (John 7:39 NKJV)

In the original language, the word "given" was not there, thus appearing in italic in most bible translations. It was added to help us understand this passage. Therefore the apostle John actually wrote, the Holy Spirit was not yet.
Why did he write that the Holy Spirit was not yet, while the Spirit had previously been with some chosen people in the OT? Why did Jesus need to be glorified before the Spirit could be given to the believers? Because the Spirit that God would like to give to His children was not only the Spirit of God, as appeared in the OT. He wanted to infuse all of Himself as the consummated Spirit compound of the Triune God into the life of all the believers according to His economy. In order to accomplish that, He had go through the processes of incarnation, human living, crucifixion and resurrection first. Then He could give Himself as the Spirit of Christ to us. Therefore not until His resurrection did Jesus tell the disciples to receive the Holy Spirit, i.e. to receive all of Himself as their life and their everything.

And when He had said this, He breathed on them, and said to them, "Receive the Holy Spirit." (John 20:22 NKJV)

Further reading

• The Holy Word for Morning Revival: The Mending Ministry of John, week 2.

Thirayost Nimmanon (Tony)