Hymn: 609

Scripture Reading:

Matt. 28:19 Go therefore and disciple all the nations, baptizing them into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,

2Cor. 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.

2Pet. 1:4 Through which He has granted to us precious and exceedingly great promises that through these you might become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption which is in the world by lust.

 

I. The person of the Triune God:

A. Elohim, God in plural, the Faithful Mighty One—Gen. 1:1.

B. The Triune God—the Father, the Son, and the Spirit—Gen. 1:26-27; Matt. 28:19:

1. Baptized into the Triune God—Matt. 28:19:

a. This verse has one name for the divine trinity (here the name is singular)—the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

b. To baptize a person into the name of the Trinity is to immerse that person into all that the Triune God is.

2. The grace of Christ, the love of God, the fellowship of the Holy Spirit—2 Cor. 13:14:

a. 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 grace of the Lord, and the fellowship of the Spirit is the Spirit Himself as the transmission of the Lord with the love of God for our participation.

b. The Lord, God, and the Holy Spirit are not three separate Gods but three hypostases of the one same undivided and indivisible God.

3. The Triune God in us—Eph. 4:6, Col. 1:27; John 14:17.

II. The nature of the Triune God:

A. The nature of God’s person: Spirit—John 4:24a.

B. The nature of God’s essence: love, the source of the grace—1 John 4:8b.

C. The nature of God’s expression: light, the source of the truth—1 John 1:5a.

III. Partaking of God’s nature—2 Pet. 1:4:

A. Enjoy what God is—2 Cor. 12:9.

B. Constituted of God’s nature—John 1:12-13.

IV. God’s heart—love—Eph. 2:4.

V. God’s works—righteousness—Rev. 15:3.

VI. God’s word—faithfulness—Psa. 89:33-34.

VII. God’s nature—holiness—1 Pet. 1:16.

VIII. God Himself—glory—Acts 7:2.

 

References: The Practice of the Church Life According to the God-ordained Way, message 6; The Conclusion of the New Testament vol. 1, messages 3, 7; Fundamental Truths in the Scriptures (in Chinese), vol. 4, message 34.

 

Excerpts from the Ministry:

THE PERSON OF THE TRIUNE GOD

The first item we all must learn is the truth concerning the person of God. This is the most puzzling truth in the Bible.

Elohim, God in Plural, the Faithful Mighty One

God’s name in Hebrew is Elohim (Gen. 1:1). This word is a noun which is plural in number. The meaning of this divine title is that God is the faithful, mighty One. God is mighty and faithful. Hence, He is altogether trustworthy. Because He is mighty, He can do everything for us. Because He is faithful, He will do everything for us according to His word, according to His promise, and according to His covenant.

The Triune God—the Father, the Son, and the Spirit

God is unique. He is uniquely one, and yet He is also three. He is the Triune God—the Father, the Son, and the Spirit (Gen. 1:26-27; Matt. 28:19). The word triune comes from Latin. Tri is three and une is one. Thus, triune is three-one. God is the three-one God. In mathematics, there is no such number as three-one. Nevertheless, our God is three-one. He is one yet three, and He is three yet one. (The Practice of the Church Life According to the God-ordained Way, pp. 72-73)

Baptized into the Triune God

After Christ, as the last Adam, had passed through the process of crucifixion, entered into the realm of resurrection, and become the life-giving Spirit, He came back to His disciples, in the atmosphere and reality of His resurrection, to charge them to make the heathen the kingdom people by baptizing them into the name, the person, the reality, of the Trinity. …To be baptized into the name of the Father, Son, and the Spirit is to be baptized into the name of Christ (Acts 8:16; 19:5); to be baptized into the name of Christ is to be baptized into the person of Christ (Gal. 3:27; Rom. 6:3); Because Christ is the embodiment of the Triune God and has become the life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45), He is available and people can be baptized into Him at any time and in any place.

According to Matthew, such a baptism into the reality of the Father, Son, and Spirit is for the constitution of the kingdom of the heavens. The heavenly kingdom cannot be organized with human beings of flesh and blood (1 Cor. 15:50) as an earthly society; it can be constituted only of people who are immersed into union with the Triune God and who are established and, built up with the Triune God who is wrought into them. (The Conclusion of the New Testament, pp. 22-23)

The Grace of Christ, the Love of God, the Fellowship of the Holy Spirit

Another verse that reveals the Triune God 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 (John 1:17; 1 Cor. 15:10), the love of God is God Himself (1 John 4:8, 16) as the source of the grace of the Lord, and the fellowship of the Spirit is the 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 Greek word for hypostasis (used in Heb. 11:1—see note 2 there), the singular form of hypostases, refers to a support under, a support beneath, i.e., something underneath that supports, a supporting substance. The Father, the Son, and the Spirit are the hypostases, the supporting substances, that compose the one Godhead. (The New Testament Recovery Version, 2 Cor. 13:14, note 1, p. 809)

The love of God is the source, since God is the origin. The grace of the Lord is the course of the love of God, since the Lord is the expression of God/ the fellowship of the Spirit is the impartation of the grace of the Lord with the love of God, since the Spirit is the transmission of the Lord with God for our experience and enjoyment of the Triune God with all His attributes. Here the grace of the Lord is mentioned first because 2 Corinthians is a book on the grace of Christ (1:12; 4:15; 6:1; 8:1, 9; 9:8, 14; 12:9). Second Corinthians 13:14 is strong proof that the Trinity of the Godhead is not for the doctrinal understanding of systematic theology, but for the dispensing of God Himself in His Trinity into His chosen and redeemed people. (The Conclusion of the New Testament, pp. 23-24)

The Triune God in us

We need to see that the God who is dispensing Himself into us is triune. Do you realize that the Triune God is in you? According to the New Testament, the Father, the Son, and the Spirit are all in us (Eph. 4:6; Col. 1:27; john 14:17). Although the Father, the Son, and the Spirit are all in us, in our experience we sense that there is just One in us. This One who dwells in us is the Triune God. (p. 32)

THE NATURE OF THE TRIUNE GOD

What is God’s nature? According to the New Testament God is Spirit (John 4:24), love (1 John 4:8, 16), and light (1 John 1:5). The expressions, “God is Spirit”, “God is love” and “God is light”, are not used in a metaphoric sense, but in a predicative sense. These expressions denote and describe the nature of God.

In His nature God is Spirit, love, and light. Spirit denotes the nature of God’s person; love, the nature of God’s essence; and light, the nature of God’s expression. Both love and light are related to God as life, which life is of the Spirit (Rom. 8:2). God, Spirit, and life are actually one. God is Spirit, and Spirit is life. Within such a life are love and light. When this divine love appears to us, it becomes grace, and when this divine light shines upon us, it becomes truth.

The Gospel of John reveals that the Lord Jesus has brought grace and truth to us (John 1:14, 17) so that we may have the divine life (John 3:14-16). Whereas the Epistle of 1 John unveils that the fellowship of the divine life brings us to the very sources of grace and truth, which are the divine love and the divine light. First John is the continuation of the Gospel of John. In the Gospel it was God in the Son coming to us as grace and truth so that we may become His children. In the Epistle of 1 John it is we, the children, in the fellowship of the Father’s life, coming to the Father in order to participate in His love and light. The former was God coming out to the outer court to meet our need at the altar with His grace and truth (Lev. 4:28-31); the latter is we entering into the Holy of Holies to contact Him at the ark in the divine love and light (Exo. 25:22). This is further and deeper in the experience of the divine life.

God is Spirit. This refers to His person. God is also love and light. Love refers to His essence, and light, to His expression. Both God’s love and light are related to His life. This life is actually God Himself. Life is also the Spirit.

When this life was manifested, it came with grace and truth. When we received the Lord Jesus, we received life, and now we enjoy grace and truth. This life brings us back to God to enjoy His love and light. First, God came to us so that we may receive grace and truth. Now we go back to the Father and contact Him as the source of grace and truth, and this source is love and light. Therefore, in the fellowship of the divine life we are being brought back to God to enjoy His love as the source of grace and His light as the source of truth. (pp. 67-68)

PARTAKING GOD’S NATURE

Enjoying What God Is

We need to pay close attention to the matter of being partakers of the divine nature. 2 Peter 1:4 says, “Through which He has granted to us precious and exceedingly great promises, that through these you might become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption which is in the world by lust”. Through the precious and exceedingly great promises given by God, we, the believers in Christ, who is our God and Savior, have become partakers of His divine nature in an organic union with Him. We have entered into this union through faith and baptism (John 3:15; Gal. 3:27; Matt. 28:19). The virtue of this divine nature carries us into God’s glory, into the full expression of the Triune God.

Through the “precious and exceedingly great promises” we may become partakers of the divine nature. We receive the divine life simply by believing, and the divine nature is the substance of the divine life. Although we received the divine life at the time we believed, the divine nature must be continually enjoyed by us. This enjoyment requires to grace of God. The more we enjoy the divine nature, the more we have His virtue, and the more we are brought into His glory.

To Partaking of the divine nature is to enjoy what God is. In order that we may enjoy all that He is, God will do many things for us according to His precious and exceedingly great promises. This will enable us to enjoy His nature, what He is. One of His precious and exceedingly great promises is that His grace is sufficient for us (2 Cor. 12:9). God’s sufficient grace will work within us day by day so that we may enjoy His nature. Whatever God is, is in His nature. Therefore, when we partake of the divine nature, we partake of the divine riches. Having received the divine life at the time of our regeneration, we must go on to enjoy what God is in His nature.

This enjoyment is both for the present and for eternity. For eternity we shall continue to partake of the divine nature. This is illustrated by the tree of life and the river water of life in Revelation 22:1 and 2. out from the throne of God and the Lamb the river of life flows. This signifies God flowing out to be the enjoyment of His redeemed. That flowing river will saturate the entire city of New Jerusalem, and the tree of life that grows in and along the river will supply the redeemed with God as their life supply. This is a picture of what it means to partake of the divine nature. (The Conclusion of the New Testament, p. 64)

Constituted of God’s Nature

Just as we are constituted physically of the food we eat, so we, believers in Christ, should be constituted of the God of which we partake. This should be our experience day by day. If we enjoy God and partake of Him, we shall be constituted of Him. We shall be thoroughly constituted of God’s nature.

We all are constituted physically of the food we eat. For example, someone may eat so much fish and be constituted of fish to such an extent that he even smells of fish. In like manner, we may become so constituted of God that we express God in all that we are and do. We may even give off a divine “fragrance.” If we partake of God day by day, eventually we shall partake of Him unconsciously. When others contact us, they will see in us the expression of the Triune God. All the saints need to be constituted with the nature of God. The more we are constituted with God, the more we shall express Him.

To be a partaker of the divine nature is to be a partaker of the elements, the ingredients, of God’s being. When we partake of God, the aspects of what God is become our enjoyment. This is to enjoy the constituents of the divine nature. (pp. 63-65)

GOD’S HEART—LOVE

“God so loved the world” (John 3:16). God’s heart is just love, so He loved the world: “Who desires all men to be saved” (1 Tim. 2:4; also Matt. 23:37; 8:3; cf. Ezek. 18:23; 33:11; Isa. 49:15; Jer. 3:1). God desires all men to be saved because He loves man. Because His heart is love, He “desires” to save men, He “is willing” to save men and does not want men to perish. His love is greater than a mother’s love for her children and a husband’s love for his wife.

GOD’S WORK—RIGHTEOUSNESS

The reason God justifies us who are of the faith of Jesus is because He is righteous, and also to demonstrate His righteousness, that He might be shown righteous. Originally, we were sinful and unrighteous. We could not be justified by God. But God caused Jesus, the Righteous One, to receive the righteous punishment for us, the unrighteous ones (1 Pet. 3:18). For our sake, He judged the Lord Jesus according to righteousness in order to satisfy His righteous requirements. Now when we believe in and receive the Lord Jesus and are joined to the Lord Jesus, He must justify us according to His righteousness. He cannot condemn us any longer. He already punished us in the Lord Jesus. The Lord Jesus already shed His blood for our sins according to God’s righteousness. Now when we believe in the Lord Jesus, God must forgive our sins. Because God is righteous, He cannot be unrighteous, He cannot fail to forgive us.

GOD’S WORD—FAITHFULNESS

God’s actions are righteous; His word is faithful. According to God’s salvation toward us, God’s word is one step further than His actions. Although God’s actions accomplished salvation for us, if He does not use His word to tell us, it would appear that it could still change. But since He has spoken to us with His words, there is no possibility of it being changed. Because He is faithful, He cannot annul the words that have gone forth from His lips. Not to mention God’s word, even the words spoken by a faithful person cannot be annulled once they have left his mouth.

God cannot lie, so the word He speaks to us is completely faithful and reliable. It cannot be changed or annulled. His word is established in the heavens. The grass withers and the flowers fades, but the word of God will stand forever. Even when the heavens and earth pass away, His word cannot pass away.

Furthermore, the words which God speaks to us in the Bible are not merely ordinary words or promises, but a covenant which He has established with us. The Bible is a book of testament, so it is called the New and Old Testaments. The word of the Bible is the covenant which God has established with us according to His faithfulness. We only need to grasp these words of His, and He has no way to change. He must keep His covenant. He must be bound by His covenant and by His word.

GOD’S NATURE—HOLINESS

God’s nature is not only holy; it is holiness….To be holy is to be separated from everything. To say that God’s nature is holy is to say that God’s nature—that is, God’s essence—is distinct from everything else. Because God’s nature, His essence, is holy and is distinct from everything else, He wants us who belong to Him to be holy, to be distinct from everything that is outside of Him. If we are not like this, we will not be able to see Him, nor will we be able to draw near to Him.

GOD HIMSELF—GLORY

God Himself is glory. Every time God manifests Himself for man to see, there is the appearance of glory. Wherever the glory of God is, God Himself is also there. In ancient times, Moses and the children of Israel saw the glory of God resting on Mount Sinai. Later, Ezekiel all saw the glory of God several times. When they saw the glory of God, they saw God Himself. When they were before the glory of God, they were before God Himself.

Jeremiah 2 also says that the God of Israel is “their glory”. Originally, man replaced God with idols. But Psalm 106:20…and Romans 1:23 both say that man replaced God’s glory with idols. Therefore, these few passages show us that the glory of God is God Himself.

The glory of God is God Himself especially when He appears to man (cf. John 12:41; Acts 7:55). The Lord Jesus is the expression of God; hence, He is the effulgence of God’s glory (Heb. 1:3). It does not matter what person, event, or matter expresses God, it always expresses God’s glory. To glorify God means to express God. (The Fundamental Truths in the Scriptures, vol. 4, pp. 802-807, in Chinese)

 

Questions:

1. According to the Bible, briefly describe the Person of the Triune God.

2. According to the Bible, briefly describe the nature of the Triune God.

3. According to the Bible, briefly describe how a believer may partake of God’s nature?

4. According to the Bible, briefly describe God’s heart, God’s work, God’s word, and God Himself?