Jn14-21

THE TRIUNE GOD DISPENSING HIMSELF INTO THE BELIEVERS

John 14 unveils the Triune God for the dispensing of Himself into the believers. He is the only one God, yet He is three--the Father, the Son, and the Spirit. The Son is the embodiment and expression of the Father (vv. 7-14), and the Spirit is the reality and realization of the Son (vv. 16-20). In the Son the Father is expressed and seen, and as the Spirit the Son is revealed and realized. The Father in the Son is expressed among the believers, and the Son as the Spirit is realized in the believers. God the Father is hidden, God the Son is manifested among man, and God the Spirit, entering into man to be his life, his life supply, and his everything, is realized within man. The Father in the Son and the Son as the Spirit are man's portion that man may enjoy God.

A. The Father Embodied in the Son Seen Among the Believers

1. The Son Being the Embodiment and Expression of the Father

When the Lord said that He was the way and that He was going to bring the believers into the Father, Philip said to Him, "Lord, show us the Father and it suffices us"(v. 8). The Lord replied, "Am I so long a time with you, and you have not known Me, Philip? He who has seen Me has seen the Father. How is it that you say, Show us the Father? Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father is in Me?" (vv. 9-10). The Lord seemed to be saying, "I have been with you for three and a half years and all this time you have been seeing Me, and still you have not known the Father? Don't you know that if you see Me, you see the Father, that if you know Me, you know the Father? I am in the Father and the Father is in Me." Even up until this very moment, the Lord's word here remains a mystery. What does it mean? On the one hand, it means that the Father and the Son are just one and, on the other hand, that They are still two. If you were to ask me how this could be, I would say, "I don't know. I only know that on the one hand the Father and the Son are one, that if you see the one then you see the other because the two are one. The Father is in the Son. If you see the Son, then surely you see the Father. But, on the other hand, they are still two." This is the mystery of the Triune God.

Here I must issue a warning: never consider that the Father and the Son are two separate gods. That is heresy. We do not have three gods. We have one unique Triune God--the Father, the Son, and the Spirit. At this point I am even careful not to use the word person. Although sometimes, for our speaking and understanding, we use the word person, we should not press this term too far into tritheism. We cannot explain the Triune God adequately, but it is a fact that God is triune. If you have seen the Son, you have seen the Father because the Father is embodied in the Son to be seen among the believers. The Son is the embodiment and the expression of the Father.

2. The Son Being in the Father and the Father Being in the Son

The Son is in the Father and the Father is in the Son (vv. 10-11). What a mystery this is! The Lord says that the Son is in the Father and that the Father is in the Son! Since the Father is in the Son, when the Son speaks, the Father, who abides in the Son, does His work. The Father does His work in the Son's speaking because They are in one another.

3. The Son and the Father Being One

In 10:30 the Lord tells us clearly that He and the Father are one. Again I say, we cannot explain this matter adequately because it is very difficult for our limited mentality to understand how They two could be one. In our limited understanding, the Son is the Son, the Father is the Father, and the two are distinctly separate one from the other. But the Lord tells us clearly that the Son and the Father are one. Here I strongly say that the Lord never says that He and the Father are two. We have to take the mystery of the Trinity according to the Lord's definite and clear word, not according to our suppositions.

4. The Son Even Being Called the Father

Isaiah 9:6 reveals that the Son is even called the Father. This verse says, "Unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given...and his name shall be called...The Mighty God, The Everlasting Father." A Son is given, yet His name is called the everlasting Father, just as a child is born, yet He is called the Mighty God. Is He the Son or the Father? We must say that He is both, just as He is both the child and the Mighty God. How can the Son be the Father? I do not know. I only know that the Bible tells me so. Praise the Lord that the Bible tells us that the Son is called the Father, just as the Bible tells us that the child is called the Mighty God. Therefore, according to the clear word of the Bible, the Son is the Father. None of us should be a Philip. But at that time even Philip was made clear.

5. The Son Being Able to Be Among the Believers, But Unable to Be in Them

When the Son was there with the disciples to express the Father, He was only able to be among them, but He was unable to be in them. Since He is the embodiment of the Father in the flesh, He is among the disciples to express the Father and to be seen by them. But while He was in the flesh He had no way to enter into the disciples. So there is the need of the following section of this chapter, verses 16 through 20.

B. The Son Realized as the Spirit Abiding in the Believers

We have seen that the Father is embodied and expressed in the Son among the disciples. Now we must see that the Son is realized as the Spirit entering into and abiding in the believers. Notice that we do not say in the Spirit but as the Spirit. In order to abide in us the Lord had to be transfigured, transformed, from the flesh into the Spirit. He came in the flesh to be among us, but He had to be transfigured into the Spirit before He could come into us. After coming in the flesh to be among us, His next aim was to be in us. How was the Lord transfigured? He was transfigured from the flesh into the Spirit by His death and resurrection. His going was not His leaving; it was another step of His coming. He was coming in another form, in the form of the Spirit. The first step of His coming was in the flesh; the second step of His coming was as the Spirit. This chapter has the Lord's going and it also has His coming. His going was by death and resurrection, and His coming was as "another Comforter." The other Comforter is His other form, His other figure. By His coming as the Spirit, He enters into us and makes us to live just as He does. The life He lives is the resurrection life. After His resurrection, He comes to enter into us as the Spirit. So He lives and we live by Him also. He lives by the resurrection life, and we live by Him, sharing Him as the resurrection life.

1. Another Comforter

In verse 16 the Lord said, "I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Comforter, that He may be with you forever." Firstly, the Spirit is "another Comforter." The Greek word for Comforter, paracletos, anglicized paraclete, means one alongside who takes care of our case, our affairs, and all of our needs. Comforter in Greek is the same word as Advocate in 1 John 2:1. Today we have the Lord Jesus both in the heavens as well as the Spirit within us as our Paraclete taking care of our case. The Holy Spirit, the reality of Jesus and the realization of the Lord, is such a One that is alongside of us, ministering to us and taking care of all of our needs.

2. The Spirit of Reality

This Spirit, this Comforter, is the Spirit of reality (v.17). Why is He the Spirit of reality? Because whatever the Father in the Son is and whatever the Son is, is realized in the Spirit. The Spirit is the realization of what God the Father and God the Son are. God the Father is light and God the Son is life. The reality of this life and light is just the Spirit. If you do not have the Spirit, you cannot have the light of God the Father. If you do not have the Spirit, you cannot have God the Son as your life. The reality of all the divine attributes of both God the Father and God the Son is the Spirit.

3. The Spirit of the Glorified Jesus

The Spirit of reality is the Spirit referred to in 7:39 as the Spirit of the glorified Jesus. At that time, this Spirit was "not yet" because Jesus had not yet been crucified and resurrected. Even while the Lord was speaking here in this chapter, this Spirit was still "not yet." It was not until the Lord passed through death and was glorified in resurrection that this Spirit was brought to the disciples.

4. The Spirit of Life as the Breath

The Spirit promised here and referred to in 7:39 is "the Spirit of life" (Rom. 8:2) as the breath. This promise of the Lord was fulfilled on the day of the Lord's resurrection when the Spirit was breathed into the disciples by the Lord as the breath of life (20:22). This Spirit of life as the breath is the Spirit of the glorified Jesus.

5. The Spirit of Jesus Christ, the Spirit of Christ

This Spirit of life as the Spirit of the glorified Jesus is the Spirit of Jesus Christ and the Spirit of Christ (Phil. 1:19; Rom. 8:9). After the resurrection of Christ, the Spirit of God became the Spirit of the incarnated, crucified, and resurrected Christ. The Spirit of God is now the Spirit of Jesus Christ and the Spirit of Christ. The Spirit of Jesus Christ implies Jesus in His suffering and Christ in His resurrection, whereas the Spirit of Christ only emphasizes Christ in His resurrection. The Spirit of God had only divinity, but now the Spirit of Jesus Christ has both divinity and humanity as well as crucifixion and resurrection. All of these elements are included in the Spirit of Jesus Christ. He is the all-inclusive Spirit with the bountiful supply to meet our every need.

6. The Last Adam Being Made the Life-giving Spirit

In this section, 14:16-20, the Lord firstly refers to the Spirit of reality as "He" in verse 17. Immediately after this, He refers to Himself in verse 18. The very "He" who is the Spirit of reality in verse 17 becomes the very "I" who is the Lord Himself in verse 18. This means that after His resurrection the Lord became the Spirit of reality. First Corinthians 15:45 confirms this. In dealing with the matter of resurrection it says, "The last Adam became a life-giving Spirit." The Comforter, the Spirit of reality, the Spirit of life as the breath, the Spirit of Jesus Christ, and the life-giving Spirit all refer to the same Spirit. Today, the Spirit of God is the Comforter, the Comforter is the Spirit of reality, the Spirit of reality is the Spirit of life as the breath, the Spirit of life as the breath is the Spirit of Jesus Christ, and the Spirit of Jesus Christ is the life- giving Spirit.

7. The Lord Being the Spirit

Eventually, the Lord is the Spirit (2 Cor. 3:17). Today, some Christians accuse us of being heretical because we believe and teach that the Lord Jesus is the Spirit. But this is not our concept; it is a clear revelation in the clear word of 2 Corinthians 3:17. Our accusers only take care of their traditional concept of the Trinity, but they neglect and even would not care for the clear word in 2 Corinthians 3:17, which says, "And the Lord is the Spirit." By the mercy and the grace of the Lord, we do not care for any traditional concepts but only for the pure word of the Bible. We believe and say strongly that according to the Bible the Lord Jesus today is the Spirit.

All excerpts are taken from the Book: “Life-Study of John” by Witness Lee

Life-Study of John

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