by Ron Kangas

I n the writings of the apostle John, there are two crucial

verses on knowing God. “This is eternal life, that they
may know You, the only true God, and Him whom You
divine reality by experiencing, enjoying, possessing, and
being constituted with this reality. As this process takes
place, the divine reality—God Himself, who was once
have sent, Jesus Christ” (John 17:3). Here knowing the merely objective to us—becomes a subjective reality in
true God and the Son of God sent by Him is intrinsical- our experience. Furthermore, John points out that “we are
ly related to eternal life—the divine life, the uncreated, in Him who is true, in His Son Jesus Christ.” To be in the
indestructible life of God. To know God, the divine true One is to be in His Son Jesus Christ, for only by being
Being, we must have the divine life, for this life has the in the Son can we be in the Father as the only true God.
special function of knowing God and Christ. We receive This indicates that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is the
and possess the divine life by means of the divine birth true God and that the true One and Jesus Christ are one
(1:12-13; 3:3, 5; 1 John 2:29; 3:9; 4:7; 5:1, 4, 18) through in the way of coinherence (John 10:38; 14:10-11). Thus,
which those who believe into the Son of God (John 3:15) to be in the Son is to be in the true One. John goes on to
become children of God with the life and nature of God. conclude, “This is the true God and eternal life.” The
Only by the divine life obtained through regeneration as word this refers to the God who has come through incar-
the divine birth can we know God. nation and has given us the ability to know Him as the true
One, the genuine God, and to be one with Him in His Son
Then in 1 John 5:20 the apostle John utters these tremen- Jesus Christ. This genuine and real God is eternal life to
dous words: “We know that the Son of God has come and us so that we may partake of Him as everything to our
has given us an understanding that we might know Him regenerated being, such as the bread of life and the water
who is true; and we are in Him who is true, in His Son of life (6:48; 7:37-38; Rev. 22:1, 17). Yet we must go on
Jesus Christ. This is the true God and eternal life.” Here to see something even more marvelous: This in 1 John
we see that the Son of God has come and has given us an 5:20 refers to the true God and Jesus Christ in whom we
understanding, which is the faculty of our mind enlight- are (John 14:20). This includes the fact that we are in this
ened by the Spirit of reality to know the divine reality in One, the true One, and it implies that, in a practical sense
our regenerated spirit (Eph. 4:23; John 16:12-15). With according to spiritual experience, eternal life is the true
such an understanding, such a faculty, we can know the God in whom we are experientially. Therefore, the true
true One, the genuine and real God. Know in this verse, as God and eternal life include our being in the true One and
in John 17:3 and knowledge in Ephesians 1:17, is the abil- in His Son Jesus Christ. Now in our experience as believ-
ity of the divine life to know the true God in our regen- ers, the true One becomes the true God, and Jesus Christ
erated spirit through our renewed mind, enlightened by becomes eternal life. By the function of eternal life, which
the Spirit of reality through the inner anointing (1 John is in the Son and which the Son Himself is (1 John 5:11-
2:20, 27). Although it might be objectionable to those 12; John 11:25; 14:6), we can know the true God accord-
who emphasize the objective, doctrinal knowledge about ing to His revelation of His being and nature and accord-
God (as opposed to the experiential knowing of God in ing to the apostles’ testimony of His operation in His
Hebrews 8:11), in 1 John 5:20 Him who is true—or the economy.
true One (literally, the true)—refers to God becoming sub-
jective to us, to the self-existing and ever-existing God
becoming the true One in our spiritual life and experience
as children of God begotten of Him. This true One is the
T his article, a sketch of certain truths, mainly from the
Gospel of John, concerning the economy of God—the
Triune God in His operation to carry out His eternal pur-
divine reality, and to know the true One is to know the pose according to the desire of His heart—is written from

Volume XIII
No. 1
April 2008 3

the divine perspective unveiled in John 17:3 and 1 John remarks, “It is precisely this concept of no-origin which
5:20, that is, the perspective of the eternal life possessed distinguishes That-which-is-God from whatever is not
by us through our believing into Christ and the divine real- God” (31). Quoting the words of God to Moses in Exodus
ity experienced and enjoyed by us through our being in 3:14, Tozer goes on to say, “Everything God is, everything
Christ. From this perspective we will consider God in that is God, is set forth in that unqualified declaration of
Himself, His essence; God in His process, His economy; independent being” (35). The technical theological term
God in His dispensing, His life-imparting; God in His for God’s independent being is aseity, from Latin aseite,
union with the believers; and God in His corporate meaning “of oneself.” “Used of God, it denotes that He
expression. exists in and of Himself, independent of anything else. He
is self-existent” (Geisler 58).
God in Himself—His Essence

In Himself, that is, in His essence, God is uniquely one,

self-existing, ever-existing, immutable, triune, and charac-
T he self-existing God is, of necessity, ever-existing,
immortal, eternal. It is impossible for Him not to exist
or to cease from being. First Timothy 6:16 declares that
terized by life, light, love, righteousness, and holiness. The God “alone has immortality”; He is deathless, absolutely
fact that God is uniquely one and that He alone is God is free from death. God alone possesses immortality in
the clear and definite revelation of the Scriptures. As we Himself, for immortality is an essential element of His
have pointed out, the Lord Jesus speaks of Him as “the being. According to Paul, God’s eternal power and divine
only true God,” indicating that the Father is the true God characteristics “have been clearly seen since the creation
and that any so-called gods are false. “There is no God but of the world, being perceived by the things made” (Rom.
one” (1 Cor. 8:4), for to the believers “there is one God, 1:20). Because God is ever-existing, eternal, and outside
of time, the concept and lim-
itations of time do not apply
The God who is uniquely one, to Him. “Time marks the
beginning of created exis-
self-existing, ever-existing, and tence, and because God never
immutable is essentially triune; began to exist it can have no
application to Him….God
He is three-one. From eternity dwells in eternity but time
to eternity the unique God, dwells in God” (Tozer 45).
He is “the high and exalted
the Triune God, is the Father, One, / Who inhabits eterni-
the Son, and the Spirit. ty” (Isa. 57:15).

Intrinsically related to God

the Father, out from whom are all things” (v. 6). Thus, God as the ever-existing one is God’s immutability. The word
is one (Rom. 3:30; Gal. 3:20). Regarding this, the Old mutable means “liable or subject to change or alteration;
Testament is equally emphatic. “You alone are God” (Psa. capable of change or given to changing constantly.” In
86:10). “I am Jehovah and there is no one else; / Besides contrast, immutable means “not capable or susceptible of
Me there is no God” (Isa. 45:5; see vv. 6, 21, 22). “I am the change, unchanging, invariable, unalterable.” To testify
First and I am the Last, / And apart from Me there is no that the true God is immutable is to assert that He is not
God” (44:6). “Is there a God besides Me? / Or is there any subject to change, that in Himself He is unchanging,
other Rock? I do not know of any” (v. 8). “Remember… / invariable (James 1:17; Heb. 6:17).
That I am God and there is no one else; / I am God and
there is no one like Me” (46:9). This truth regarding the God is immutable in His essence, attributes, promises,
uniqueness of God must always be our point of departure and purpose. God’s immutable essence is unalterable; it
in our journey toward knowing Him who is true. remains eternally the same. The God who revealed
Himself as I Am later speaks of Himself as the One who

T he true God is self-existing. As the self-existing One,

God is I Am. “God said to Moses, I AM WHO I AM.
And He said, Thus you shall say to the children of Israel,
is, who was, and who is coming (Rev. 1:4). God is
unchanging also in His attributes. He is perfect and
immutable in His life, light, love, holiness, righteousness,
I AM has sent me to you” (Exo. 3:14). “The divine title I glory, wisdom, knowledge, power, grace, compassion,
AM denotes that God is the One who is self-existing and mercy, and all other attributes. “The attributes of God can
ever-existing and who depends on nothing apart from no more change than Deity can cease to be” (Pink 37).
Himself ” (Recovery Version, Exo. 3:14, note 1). “‘God Furthermore, because God is immutable in His promises,
has no origin,’” Tozer quotes Novatian as saying, and then He is not capricious; in Him is no fickleness, inconstancy,

4 Affirmation & Critique

or arbitrariness. With Him is no variation or shadow cast three modes, three temporary and successive manifesta-
by turning (James 1:17). From the foregoing it follows tions, of the one God, who is not regarded as essentially
that God is immutable in His purpose. “The counsel of triune. This also is heresy. The revealed, biblical truth,
Jehovah stands forever; / The intentions of His heart stand being twofold according to the principle of the twofold-
from generation to generation” (Psa. 33:11). Concerning ness of divine truth, embraces both the oneness and the
this, God Himself makes a declaration through the threeness of the Triune God: God is uniquely one, yet He
prophet Isaiah: “Jehovah of hosts has sworn, saying, / is three-one—the Father, the Son, and the Spirit.
Surely just as I have conceived it, so has it happened; /
And just as I have purposed it. so shall this stand” (14:24).
Elsewhere in Isaiah the Lord says, T his exceedingly brief sketch of crucial points of the
truth concerning God in Himself, in His essence, is
foundational for everything that will be presented regard-
I am God and there is no other, / I am God, and there is ing God in His process, dispensing, union, and expression.
no one like Me, / Who declares the end from the begin- When I turn to God in His economy and His dispensing
ning / And things which have not been done from ancient according to His administration, I do so with the firm con-
times, / Saying, My counsel will stand, / And all My viction that the truth concerning God in Himself will not
desire I will accomplish. (46:9-10) be jeopardized or compromised in any way.

The eternal purpose which God made in Christ will be At this juncture, it is necessary to point out the difference
fulfilled (Eph. 3:11). between the essential Trinity and the economical Trinity.
The essential Trinity is a matter of the essence of the Tri-

T he God who is uniquely one, self-existing, ever-exist-

ing, and immutable is essentially triune; He is three-
one—three yet one, one yet three. From eternity to eter-
une God for His eternal existence; the economical Trinity
is a matter of God’s arrangement for His operation in His
move to accomplish His eternal purpose. An excellent
nity the unique God, the Triune God, is the Father, the presentation of this distinction is offered by Witness Lee:
Son, and the Spirit. The Father is God (1 Pet. 1:2; Eph.
1:17), the Son is God (Heb. 1:8; John 1:1; Rom. 9:5), and The essential Trinity refers to the essence of the Triune
the Spirit is God (Acts 5:3-4). The Father is eternal (Isa. God for His existence. In His essence, God is one, the
9:6), the Son is eternal (Heb. 1:12; 7:3), and the Spirit is one unique God (Isa. 45:18b; 1 Cor. 8:6a). In the essen-
eternal (9:14). All three co-exist; they exist simultaneous- tial Trinity, the Father, the Son, and the Spirit coexist and
ly and immutably. Among the Father, the Son, and the coinhere at the same time and in the same way with no
Spirit in the eternal Godhead, there is distinction but no succession. There is no first, second, or third.
separation. The Father is distinct from the Son, the Son is
distinct from the Spirit, and the Spirit is distinct from the Essentially, God is one, but economically He is three—
Son and the Father. However, they are not separate, and the Father, the Son, and the Spirit (Matt. 28:19; 2 Cor.
cannot be separate, because they coinhere, dwelling in one 13:14). In God’s plan, God’s administrative arrangement,
another mutually: God’s economy, the Father takes the first step, the Son
takes the second step, and the Spirit takes the third step.
The relationship among the Father, the Son, and the The Father purposed (Eph. 1:4-6), the Son accomplished
Spirit is not only that They simultaneously coexist but (vv. 7-12), and the Spirit applies what the Son accom-
also that They mutually indwell one another. The Father plished according to the Father’s purpose (vv. 13-14).
exists in the Son and the Spirit; the Son exists in the This is a successive procedure or a succession in God’s
Father and the Spirit; and the Spirit exists in the Father economy to carry out His eternal purpose. Whereas the
and the Son. This mutual indwelling among the three of essential Trinity refers to the essence of the Triune God
the Godhead is called coinherence…We cannot say that for His existence, the economical Trinity refers to His
They are separate, because They coinhere, that is, They plan for His move. There is the need of the existence of
live within one another. In Their coexistence the three of the Divine Trinity, and there is also the need of the plan
the Godhead are distinct, but Their coinherence makes of the Divine Trinity.
them one. They coexist in Their coinherence, so They are
distinct but not separate. (Lee, Crucial 9-10) The Father accomplished the first step of His plan, His
economy, by working to choose and predestinate us, but
This is neither tritheism nor modalism. Tritheism, an He did this in Christ the Son (Eph. 1:4-5) and with the
error on the side of the threeness of the Triune God, is Spirit. After this plan was made, the Son came to accom-
the bizarre notion that the three persons in the Godhead plish this plan, but He did this with the Father (John 8:29;
are three separate Gods. This is heresy. Modalism, an error 16:32) and by the Spirit (Luke 1:35; Matt. 1:18, 20;
on the side of the oneness of the Triune God, is the strange 12:28). Now that the Son has accomplished all that the
concept that the Father, the Son, and the Spirit are merely Father has planned, the Spirit comes in the third step to

Volume XIII
No. 1
April 2008 5

 apply all that He accomplished, but He does this as the God is infinite, and man is finite, yet in Christ the two
Son and with the Father (John 14:26; 15:26; 1 Cor. became one. As the infinite God and a finite man, Christ
15:45b; 2 Cor. 3:17). In this way, while the divine econo- is wonderful, mystical, and mysterious. In the words of a
my of the Divine Trinity is being carried out, the divine popular hymn, the great Creator became our Savior, with
existence of the Divine Trinity, His eternal coexistence flesh and blood as His substance, and now we know that
and coinherence, remains intact and is not jeopardized. He is the great I Am.
(Crucial 9-10)
Human Living
God in His Process—His Economy
This wonderful One, the God-man, the infinite God and
In order for God to carry out His economical plan, it was a finite man, lived a human life on earth. It was an
necessary for Him to become what we may, with precision, unprecedented life, for it was God living in a human being
call the processed God—the Triune God who has passed and a human being living God, expressing the divine
through the processes of incarnation, human living, cruci- attributes in His human virtues.
fixion, and resurrection to become the Spirit of reality, the
holy breath (John 14:16-17; 20:22) able to indwell the
believers. These processes are focused on the two “becom-
ings” of Christ: the Word becoming flesh (1:14) and Christ,
C oncerning this God-man living, the testimony of the
Gospel of John is truly remarkable in its details. To
His bewildered disciples He said, “My food is to do the will
the last Adam in the flesh, becoming the life-giving Spirit of Him who sent Me and to finish His work” (4:34). His
(1 Cor. 15:45). To know God as the processed God is to working was the Father’s working: “My Father is working
know the economy of God, the Triune God in His operation. until now, and I also am working” (5:17). To the religionists
who were shocked at this
word, the Lord Jesus went on
In order to carry out His to say, “The Son can do noth-
ing from Himself except what
economical plan, God became He sees the Father doing, for
the processed God, passing through whatever that One does,
these things the Son also does
the processes of incarnation, in like manner” (v. 19). As the
human living, crucifixion, and Son of God in the flesh stand-
ing in the position of a sent
resurrection to become the Spirit one, He did nothing from
of reality to indwell the believers. Himself and sought not His
own will but the will of the
Father. “I can do nothing from
Incarnation Myself; as I hear, I judge, and My judgment is just, because
I do not seek My own will but the will of Him who sent
In His incarnation Christ, the Son of God, brought the Me” (v. 30). The fact of the Son’s doing the will of the
infinite God into the finite man and thus became, in His Father is reiterated in 6:38: “I have come down from heav-
unique divine-human person, both the infinite God and a en not to do My own will but the will of Him who sent
finite man. As the infinite God, Christ is self-existing and Me.” The living Father had sent Him, and He lived
ever-existing—the great I Am (John 8:24, 28, 58; 18:6). “because of the Father” (v. 57), living a life of complete
As the infinite God, Christ is eternal and immortal (Micah dependence as He set aside His natural human life and lived
5:2; 1 Tim. 6:16), He is immutable and unchangeable the Father’s life in His humanity. The Lord Jesus did not
(Heb. 1:8-12; 6:17), He is omnipresent and omnipotent, speak from Himself or seek His own glory (7:17-18). With
He is unlimited in His attributes, and He is the effulgence all candor He declared, “My teaching is not Mine, but His
of God’s glory (1:3). As a finite man Christ in the flesh who sent Me” (v. 16). He was a man who spoke the truth
was limited in space and time (John 7:6). As a finite man, which He heard from God (8:40), speaking the things
Christ in the flesh was neither omnipresent nor omnipo- which He had seen with His Father (v. 38). In 8:50 He
tent, He was limited in knowledge (Matt. 24:36; Luke said, “I do not seek My own glory.” In His ministry He did
2:40, 52), He had a natural human life (John 10:11, 15, the works which the Father had given Him to finish (5:36),
17), He lived a dependent existence (Matt. 14:19; John and He did these works in the Father’s name, because He
6:57), and He did not manifest the glory of His divinity had come in the name, the person, of the Father. He did
but concealed it within the shell of His humanity (12:23- nothing from Himself, and He did not speak from Himself.
24). If we see this, we will realize that Christ in His “I have not spoken from Myself; but the Father who sent
incarnation was both the infinite God and a finite man. Me, He Himself has given Me commandment, what to say

6 Affirmation & Critique

and what to speak…The things therefore that I speak, even the Lord Jesus applied that type to Himself, indicating
as the Father has said to Me, so I speak” (12:49-50). This that when He was in the flesh, He was in “the likeness of
speaking, working Father was in the Son, and the Son was the flesh of sin” (Rom. 8:3), which likeness is equal to the
in Him. “Believe Me,” He told Philip, “that I am in the form of the bronze serpent. The bronze serpent had the
Father and the Father is in Me” (14:11). If we are form of the serpent but was without the serpent’s poison.
impressed with this utterance, we will attend to what the Christ was made in “the likeness of the flesh of sin,” but
Lord said in 10:38: “Believe the works so that you may He did not participate in any way in the sin of the flesh
come to know and continue to know that the Father is in (2 Cor. 5:21; Heb. 4:15). When He was lifted up in the
Me and I am in the Father.” The Lord Jesus came in the flesh on the cross, by His death Satan, the old serpent,
name of the Father, sought the glory of the Father, did the was dealt with (12:31-33; Heb. 2:14). This means that
will of the Father, spoke the word of the Father, complet- the serpentine nature within fallen man has been dealt
ed the works of the Father, and lived because of the Father with. (Recovery Version, John 3:14, note 1)
by always denying Himself so that, as a God-man in His
human living, He could abide in the Father and enjoy the All genuine believers know that Christ, the Lamb of God,
Father’s abiding in Him. Therefore, He, and He alone, died for their sins, and some realize that Christ died also
could declare, “He who has seen Me has seen the Father” to deal with Satan and the satanic, serpentine nature
(14:9). Thus, according to the prophecy in Isaiah 9:6, His within fallen humanity. However, not many have a prop-
name was called “Eternal Father.” To see Jesus, the Son of er appreciation of the life-releasing aspect of Christ’s
God in incarnation, was to see the Father! death spoken of in John 12:24: “Unless the grain of wheat
falls into the ground and dies, it abides alone; but if it
Crucifixion dies, it bears much fruit.” Through incarnation, the divine
life, the uncreated eternal life, came into and was con-
According to the record in the Gospel of John, the Lord fined by the shell of Jesus’ humanity. The only way that
Jesus died as the Lamb of God (1:29), as the fulfillment of this life could be released from within the Lord’s human
the type of the bronze serpent (3:14), and as the grain of shell and imparted to God’s chosen and redeemed people
wheat that fell into the ground and died for the release of was through the non-redemptive, life-releasing aspect of
the divine life and the producing of many grains (12:24). Christ’s death. In the words of John 10, this required that
the Lord Jesus lay down His human life, His soul-life, so
“Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the that His sheep could have the divine life. In 10:10 the
world!” (1:29). As the redeeming Lamb of God, the Lord Lord said, “I have come that they may have life [Gk. zoe]
Jesus was the fulfillment of all the offerings described in and may have it abundantly.” In the following verse He
Leviticus: the sin offering, the trespass offering, the burnt went on to say, “I am the good Shepherd; the good
offering, the meal offering, the peace offering, the wave Shepherd lays down His life [Gk. psuche] for the sheep.”
offering, the heave offering, and the drink offering. He In verses 15 and 17 the Lord continued to speak about
was, therefore, the totality of all these offerings, and as laying down His soul-life, His human life, so that we, the
such, He died to take away the totality of sin. believers, could have the divine life that was concealed
and confined within Him. The Lord’s laying down of His
human life in John 10 was His dying as a grain of wheat
B ecause God had sent His Son “in the likeness of the
flesh of sin and concerning sin” (Rom. 8:3), Christ, in
His vicarious death on our behalf, could be the fulfillment
in John 12. He fell into the ground and died in His human
life in order to release, and in resurrection to impart, His
of the type of the bronze serpent. The Lord spoke of this divine life. On the basis of His dying as the Lamb of God
to Nicodemus in John 3:14: “As Moses lifted up the ser- and the fulfillment of the type of the bronze serpent, the
pent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted Lord could die also as a grain of wheat.
up.” God so loved the world that He gave His only begot-
ten Son to be the reality of the sin offering in order to
judge and destroy the devil and to deliver His chosen peo- T he redemptive and life-releasing aspects of Christ’s
death are signified by the blood and the water in John
19:34: “One of the soldiers pierced His side with a spear,
ple from their serpentine nature and to dispense eternal
life into them for the kingdom of God and the bride of and immediately there came out blood and water.”
Christ. The following note is enlightening: Although the blood and water were actual physical sub-
stances, in the Gospel of John, a book of signs, they
In Gen. 3 Satan, the serpent, injected his nature into function as signs. The blood is a sign of the Lord’s
man’s flesh. When the children of Israel sinned against redemptive death, which dealt with our sins and made it
God, they were bitten by serpents (Num. 21:4-9). God possible for God righteously to forgive and justify us in
told Moses to lift up a bronze serpent on their behalf for His grace. The water is a sign of the Lord’s life-releasing
God’s judgment, that by looking upon that bronze ser- death. On the negative side, the death of Christ took
pent all might live. That was a type. Here, in this verse, away our sins; on the positive side, the death of Christ

Volume XIII
No. 1
April 2008 7

released the divine life so that it could be dispensed into Gospel of Christ as the God-Savior is also the Gospel of
us by Christ in resurrection as the life-giving Spirit. The eternal life. This life, the divine life, may be considered
negative aspect—the redemptive aspect—was not an end the first and basic attribute of God (Eph. 4:18; John
in itself but was for the positive aspect—the life-releasing 5:26). According to the divine and eternal nature of the
aspect—for the fulfillment of God’s purpose. life of God, God’s life is the life (1 John 5:11-12), the
unique life; hence, only the life of God can be counted as
First John 1:7 unveils the significance of the Lord’s life (John 1:4; 10:10; 11:25; 14:6), “that which is really
redeeming blood, assuring us that the blood of Jesus, life” (1 Tim. 6:19). This life is both the content of God
God’s Son, cleanses us from every sin. This cleansing and the flowing out of God (Rev. 22:1), and God’s desire
blood is, according to Paul’s word in Acts 20:28, God’s is to be the fountain of life to us for our satisfaction and
blood, “His own blood” with which God obtained the delight (Jer. 2:13; Psa. 36:9). It is only by the life of God
church. Through incarnation our God, the Creator, the that the eternal purpose of God can be fulfilled.
eternal One, became mingled with man, a God-man who Therefore, it was indeed a great matter for the Lord Jesus
had human blood to shed for redemption and who was to die as a grain of wheat to release the divine life. Now
able to die for us. When the God-man died on the cross, the life that is in Him (1 John 5:11-12), the life which He
He died not only as man but also as God, and thus the Himself is (John 11:25; Col. 3:4), is now the eternal life
blood that redeemed us is the blood of Jesus, the Son of in all those who believe into Him as the Son of God.
God. As a man, the Lord shed human blood to redeem
us. Because He is the Son of God, even God Himself, Resurrection
with His blood there is the element of divinity, and this
divine element ensures the eternal efficacy of His Christ’s resurrection involved His person and work in
relation to God’s economy.
The basic truth concerning
The objective truth of the Christ’s person in resurrec-
tion is that in, by, and through
resurrection of Christ is that the resurrection He became the
risen Lord Jesus has a body of firstfruits of resurrection
(1 Cor. 15:20, 23), the First-
flesh and bones; the subjective born from the dead (Col.
reality of the resurrection of Christ 1:18), the Son of God desig-
nated in power (Rom. 1:3-4),
is that the resurrected Christ the firstborn Son of God (Acts
is the Spirit who gives life. 13:33; Rom. 8:29; Heb. 2:10-
12), a resurrected man with
a spiritual body of flesh and
redeeming blood. As a man, the Lord Jesus had genuine bones (John 20:19; Luke 24:36-43; 1 Cor. 15:44; Phil.
human blood, and as God, He has the element that gives 3:21), the life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45; John 14:16-20;
His blood eternal efficacy. The name Jesus denotes the 20:22), the Lord Spirit (2 Cor. 3:17), and the Christ in the
Lord’s humanity, which was needed for the shedding of believers (Rom. 8:10; Col. 1:27; 2 Cor. 13:5). The basic
the redeeming blood; the title His Son denotes the Lord’s truth concerning Christ’s work in resurrection includes:
divinity, which is needed for the eternal efficacy of His rising from the dead to be the firstfruits of resurrection
redeeming blood. Thus, the blood of Jesus shed on the offered to God for His satisfaction (John 20:17; 1 Cor.
cross is eternal blood, and for this reason the redemption 15:20, 23; Lev. 23:10-11); causing His believers to be
accomplished by the God-man is eternal (Heb. 9:12). regenerated by God (1 Pet. 1:3); rising on the first day of
the week to germinate the new creation (John 20:1; 2 Cor.

W ith the shedding of the redemptive and eternally

efficacious blood of the God-man as the basis, the
divine life, the eternal, uncreated, indestructible life of
5:17); producing many grains for His multiplication and
glorification (John 12:23-24; 13:31-32; 17:1, 5); bringing
forth the corporate child, the corporate new man consist-
God, was released from within the shell of the Lord’s ing of Himself as the firstborn Son and His brothers as
humanity. This is a matter of indescribable importance. God’s many sons (16:19-22; Rom. 8:29); rebuilding God’s
As indicated by the tree of life in Genesis, God’s original temple, making it a corporate, spiritual temple (John
intention according to His economy was that His people 2:19-22); becoming the life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45);
would eat of the tree of life, which signifies God in Christ breathing Himself as the Holy Spirit into the disciples
as our life and life supply (2:9, 16; Rev. 2:7; 22:14). The (John 20:22; 14:16-17, 26; 15:26; 16:7-8, 13); staying
symbolism of the tree of life in Genesis has its explana- with the disciples and teaching them the things concern-
tion and fulfillment in the Gospel of John, which as the ing the kingdom of God (Acts 1:3); and preparing and

8 Affirmation & Critique

charging the disciples to preach the gospel and disciple the Another great truth regarding the resurrection of Christ,
nations for His propagation that the church may be pro- unveiled particularly in the Gospel of John, is that
duced (Mark 16:15-16; Matt. 28:18-20). For the purpose Christ’s resurrection was His glorification. In a very real
of this sketch of the Triune God in the operation of His sense, with respect to Christ, resurrection is synonymous
economy, we will concentrate on certain aspects of the with glorification, and there is a line of thought in John
person and work of Christ in His resurrection. concerning this. In 12:23 the Lord Jesus said, “The hour
has come for the Son of Man to be glorified,” and then
We begin with the fact that Christ was resurrected bodi- He went on to speak of a grain of wheat falling into the
ly, with a spiritual body of flesh and bones. Anything else ground and dying in order to bear much fruit (v. 24).
one might say concerning the Lord’s resurrection must
begin here, because if Christ has not been raised, our Christ had the glory with God (17:5). His incarnation
proclamation is in vain, our faith is in vain, and we are still caused His divine glory to be concealed in His flesh.
in our sins (1 Cor. 15:14, 17). As the apostles bore testi- Through His death and resurrection His glory was
mony throughout the book of Acts, and as Paul uncom- released, producing many grains, which become His
promisingly asserted, “Christ was raised from the dead increase as the expression of His glory. (Recovery Version,
through the glory of the Father” (Rom. 6:4). And He was v. 24, note 2)
raised with a body! Manifesting Himself to His disciples
after His resurrection, He said to them, “See My hands In 13:31 and 32 the Lord again spoke of His being glori-
and My feet, that it is I Myself. Touch Me and see, for a fied. “Now has the Son of Man been glorified, and God
spirit does not have flesh and bones as you behold Me has been glorified in Him. If God is glorified in Him, God
having” (Luke 24:39). In John 20:20, after He said, will also glorify Him in Himself, and He will glorify Him
“Peace be to you” (v. 19), “He showed them His hands immediately.” Shortly before He died, He prayed for His
and His side” (v. 20). To Thomas, who had refused to glorification, saying, “Father, the hour has come; glorify
believe without seeing in the Lord’s hands the mark of Your Son that the Son may glorify You…Now, glorify Me
the nails, putting his finger into the mark of the nails, and along with Yourself, Father, with the glory which I had
putting his hand into His side, the risen Lord Jesus said, with You before the world was” (17:1, 5). First the Lord
“Bring your finger here and see My hands, and bring your predicted His glorification, and then He prayed for it.
hand and put it into My side” (vv. 26-27). This we
believe. He was about to pass through death so that the conceal-
ing shell of His humanity might be broken and His divine

I n keeping with the principle of the twofoldness of the

divine truth in the Word of God, we believe also that
in and through resurrection Christ has become the pneu-
element, His divine life, might be released. Also, He
would resurrect that He might uplift His humanity into
the divine element and that His divine element might be
matic Christ, the life-giving Spirit, ready and able to enter expressed, with the result that His entire being, His
into us, live in us, and make His home in us. On the one divinity and His humanity, would be glorified. (Recovery
hand, the resurrected Christ has a glorified body of flesh Version, v. 1, note 1)
and bones, and with such a body He has ascended to the
throne of God and will return. On the other hand, the
resurrected Christ is now the Spirit of reality, another
Comforter, living in those who have received Him by
A ccording to the book of Acts, which has the resur-
rected Christ as its focus, “the God of Abraham and
Isaac and Jacob, the God of our fathers, has glorified His
believing into Him (4:16-17). It is a fact in the New Servant Jesus…the Author of life…whom God has raised
Testament revelation that the resurrected Christ dwells from the dead” (3:13, 15). For God to glorify Jesus was
in us (Rom. 8:10; 2 Cor. 13:5; Col. 1:27), and it is also a to raise Him from the dead. The Lord referred to this in
fact that the resurrected Christ has a body of flesh and Luke 24:26 when He asked, “Was it not necessary for the
bones. How can He be with our spirit and make His Christ to suffer these things and to enter into His glory?”
home in our heart (2 Tim. 4:22; Eph. 3:17)? Christ can Since the Lord had been glorified through resurrection,
be one spirit with us (1 Cor. 6:17), He can live in us (Gal. the disciples were released from the limitation imposed
2:20), and He can make His home in us (Eph. 3:17) on them by the Lord immediately after His transfigura-
because He is now the pneumatic Christ, the Lord Spirit tion: “Tell the vision to no one until the Son of Man is
(2 Cor. 3:18), the life-giving Spirit. The objective truth of raised from the dead” (Matt. 17:9, cf. v. 2). Now they
the resurrection of Christ is that the risen Lord Jesus has could tell the vision of the Son of Man, who was transfig-
a body of flesh and bones; the subjective reality of the ured on the mountain and glorified in resurrection.
resurrection of Christ is that the resurrected Christ is the
Spirit who gives life. The Gospel of John reveals both the The Gospel of John reveals that the glorification of Christ
fact and the reality, and we must believe and receive both through His resurrection had a marvelous issue: The Spirit
without bias or preference. of God became the Spirit. Although in His essence, His

Volume XIII
No. 1
April 2008 9

eternal Godhead, the Triune God is immutable, when humanity which He had perfected and sanctified for
Christ was glorified by the Father through death and res- Himself…When poured out at Pentecost, He came as the
urrection, the Spirit of God economically became the Spirit of the glorified Jesus, the Spirit of the Incarnate,
Spirit. This is the significance of John 7:39: “This He said crucified, and exalted Christ, the bearer and communica-
concerning the Spirit, whom those who believed into Him tor to us, not of the life of God as such, but of that life as
were about to receive; for the Spirit was not yet, because it had been interwoven into human nature in the person
Jesus had not yet been glorified.” The Spirit of God is the of Christ Jesus…And of this Spirit, as He dwelt in Jesus
eternal Spirit and thus has always been in existence, but in the flesh, and can dwell in us in the flesh too, it is dis-
the Spirit as the Spirit of Christ (Rom. 8:9) and the Spirit tinctly and literally true; the Holy Spirit was not yet. The
of Jesus Christ (Phil. 1:19) was “not yet,” because the Spirit of the glorified Jesus, the Son of man become the
Lord Jesus had “not yet been glorified” in and through His Son of God—He could not be until Jesus was glorified…
resurrection. The words not yet imply a process in time
with a consequent fulfillment. At present, a certain thing From His nature, as it was glorified in the resurrection
or matter is “not yet,” but in the future this thing or mat- and ascension, His Spirit came forth as the Spirit of His
ter will be. John 7:39 speaks of two “not yets.” The Spirit human life, glorified into the union with the Divine, to
was not yet, and Jesus was not yet glorified. The first not make us partakers of all that He had personally wrought
yet, which concerns the Spirit, is dependent on the second out and acquired, of Himself and His glorified life…And
not yet, which concerns Jesus being glorified. The revela- in virtue of His having perfected in Himself a new holy
tion here is that, in the processes of God’s economy, the human nature on our behalf, He could now communicate
Spirit who was “not yet” would have being after the glori- what previously had no existence—a life at once human
fication of the Son of Man. The Lord Jesus was glorified and Divine. (37-39)

Since God, in His economy, A t this point it would be

profitable, and perhaps
necessary, to restate the two-
has become the Spirit, He can fold nature of the truth
now fulfill His desire to dispense regarding God in His God-
head and God in His econo-
Himself in His Divine Trinity into my, that is, the truth of the
His chosen and redeemed people immutability of God and the
process of God, both of which
in order to be one with them and we must believe. God’s immut-
to be expressed through them. ability is related to His being
in His essence, and God’s
process is related to His
when He was resurrected, and through this glorification becoming in His economy. In particular, God’s process is
the Spirit of God became the Spirit of the incarnated, related to the two becomings of Christ: His becoming
crucified, and resurrected Jesus Christ (Phil. 1:19). This flesh through incarnation (John 1:14) and His becoming the
means that after the Lord Jesus was glorified in resurrection, life-giving Spirit (the Spirit) through resurrection (7:39;
the Spirit of God became the Spirit (Gal. 3:2, 5, 14; Rev. 14:16-17; 1 Cor. 15:45). These two becomings, as stages of
22:17)—the all-inclusive life-giving Spirit of the incarnat- God’s process in Christ, are an economical, not essential,
ed, crucified, and resurrected Christ. Andrew Murray matter; they are changes that involve God’s economy, not
understood this: God’s essence.

The Holy Spirit was not yet; because Jesus was not yet Change with God can only be economical; it can never be
glorified…The expression, if accepted as it stands, may essential. Essentially, our God cannot change. From eter-
guide us into the true understanding of the real signifi- nity to eternity He remains the same in His essence. But
cance of the Spirit’s not coming until Jesus was in His economy the Triune God has changed in the sense
glorified.… of being processed. (Lee, Conclusion 914)

We know how the Son, who had from eternity been with God in His Dispensing—His Imparting
the Father, entered upon a new stage of existence when
He became flesh. When He returned to Heaven, He was Since God, in His economy, has become the Spirit, He can
still the same only-begotten Son of God, and yet not alto- now fulfill His desire to dispense Himself in His Divine
gether the same. For He was now also, as Son of Man, the Trinity into His chosen and redeemed people in order to
first-begotten from the dead, clothed with that glorified be one with them and to be expressed through them. The

10 Affirmation & Critique

Triune God carries out His economy by the divine dis- of heaven (vv. 32, 50). As such bread, Christ wants us to
pensing. The economy of God is the plan and arrangement eat Him. “This is the bread which comes down out of heav-
according to God’s desire and purpose; the dispensing of en, that anyone may eat of it and not die. I am the living
God is the imparting of His processed being into the bread which came down out of heaven; if anyone eats of
believers according to His plan and arrangement. As indi- this bread, he shall live forever” (vv. 50-51). Because of our
cated by the flow of thought from 1:14 to 20:22, the need of redemption, the bread which the Lord gives is His
Gospel of John is a book concerning the divine dispensing. flesh, given for the life of the world (v. 51). In response to
The incarnation, the crucifixion, and the resurrection of the contentions of the religionists, the Lord continued,
Christ are all for God’s dispensing experienced by spiritu-
al breathing, drinking, and eating. Truly, truly, I say to you, Unless you eat the flesh of the
Son of Man and drink His blood, you do not have life
The Spirit—the Spirit of the glorified Jesus—was within yourselves. He who eats My flesh and drinks My
breathed as the holy breath into the disciples by Christ the blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up in the last
Son in resurrection. “He breathed into them and said to day. For My flesh is true food, and My blood is true drink.
them, Receive the Holy Spirit” (20:22). The Gospel of He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me
John reveals that Christ became flesh to be the Lamb of and I in him. As the living Father has sent Me and I live
God, that in resurrection He became the life-giving Spirit because of the Father, so he who eats Me, he also shall
as the holy breath, and that in His resurrection He live because of me (vv. 53-57)
breathed Himself as the Spirit into the disciples. The Holy
Spirit in 20:22 is actually the resurrected Christ Himself, Christ is the true food, and as we eat Him, He as the
because the Spirit is His breath. The Spirit, therefore, is Spirit (v. 63) dispenses Himself into us.
the breath of the Son. The Christ who breathed Himself
into the disciples is the life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45). It
is as the Spirit that He was breathed into His disciples,
and it is as the Spirit that He can live in us and abide in us
G od’s economy is that we eat Christ and be constitut-
ed with Him in order to express Him and represent
Him (Gen. 1:26). To eat is to contact something that is
and that we can live by Him and abide in Him (John objective to us and to receive it into us, with the result
14:19-20; 15:4-5). By breathing the Spirit into the disci- that it becomes our constituent. As we eat our food, we
ples the Lord imparted, dispensed, Himself into them as take it into us that it may be assimilated organically into
their life and everything to be their regenerated being. our body. The principle is the same with eating Jesus. To
Now we, as His believers, have the resurrected, pneumat- eat the Lord Jesus is to receive Him into us that He may
ic Christ as the holy breath for our spiritual breathing, and be digested and assimilated by the regenerated new man
we can breathe in the Lord simply by calling on His name. in the way of life. Eventually, the Christ whom we have
eaten, digested, and assimilated will be constituted into

W e can also come to Him and drink of Him as the liv-

ing water, responding to His invitation: “If anyone
thirsts, let him come to Me and drink. He who believes
and actually become us. Since we are what we eat, if we
eat Christ we will become Christ, the corporate Christ,
for His expression (1 Cor. 12:12). If we see this, we will
into Me, as the Scripture said, out of his innermost being have the blessed realization that, as presented in the
shall flow rivers of living water” (7:37-38). The water that Gospel of John, God’s economy is a matter of Christ com-
He gives us becomes in us a fountain of water springing up ing into us to be digested and assimilated by us and
into eternal life (4:14). In this divine dispensing the Father constituted into us. For this, we need to take Him by eat-
is the fountain, the Son is the spring, and the Spirit is the ing and thereby live by the divine dispensing.
flow. As the source, the origin, the Father is the fountain
of living waters (Jer. 2:13). As the embodiment and God in His Union with the Believers
expression of the Father, the Son is the fountain of water
that springs up in the believers into eternal life. As the Throughout the Bible there is a particular divine
flow, the Spirit is the river of water of life (John 7:37-39; thought—God desires to make Himself one with His cho-
Rev. 22:1). This is the Triune God in His dispensing—God sen people and to make them one with Himself so that
the Father as the source, God the Son as the course, and they have one life, one living, and one expression. For this
God the Spirit as the flow dispensing Himself into us. purpose God created humankind in His image and accord-
ing to His likeness (Gen. 1:26). Through incarnation God
Perhaps the most striking aspect of the divine dispensing of made Himself one with man in Christ Jesus as the incep-
the Divine Trinity revealed in the Gospel of John is the tion of a process that, in its consummation, will bring
matter of eating the Lord, emphasized in chapter 6, where Himself into untold millions of His chosen, redeemed,
we see that Jesus is edible. He is the bread of life (vv. 35, and regenerated people. By the all-inclusive death of
48), the living bread (v. 51), the true bread (v. 32), the Christ on the cross, all barriers separating man from God
bread of God (v. 33), and the bread which came down out were removed, and in His resurrection Christ brought

Volume XIII
No. 1
April 2008 11

man into God. Now God and man are one in Christ organ- God and the regenerated believers, the persons, indwell
ically in spirit (1 Cor. 6:17). It is the love in God that gives one another. This is an incorporation. In this universal,
Him the longing to be one with us, and it is God as love in divine-human incorporation, persons indwell one another,
us that gives us the yearning to become one with Him. that is, they coinhere. (Lee, Issue 41)

The oneness that God desires involves union, mingling, The coinherence that makes possible the universal divine-
and coinherence. The oneness of union is the organic union human incorporation is revealed in John 14:20 and 17. If
in the divine life brought about by our being grafted into we see this crucial matter of coinherence, we will realize
Christ; the oneness of mingling is a matter of two why we must avoid the word corporation, which cannot
natures—divinity and humanity—being mingled together convey the thought of coinherence but only of combina-
without the producing of a third nature; and the oneness of tion or association, and must instead use the word
coinherence involves persons indwelling one another. We incorporation, which implies an intimate union and which,
read of coinherence in John 14:20 and 15:4. “In that day in our usage, can convey the idea of coinherence and the
you will know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and incorporation produced by it.
I in you” (14:20). “Abide in Me and I in you” (15:4). As we
will now see, this is a union in the divine-human incorpo- The three of the Divine Trinity not only coexist but coin-
ration—an incorporation in which we, the believers, enjoy a here (vv. 10-11) and act together as one; thus, the Father,
mutual indwelling between us and Christ similar to that the Son, and the Spirit are a divine incorporation. To ful-
which the Son enjoys with the Father. We are in Christ, and fill His desire to make Himself one with us and us one
Christ is in us; Christ is in the Father, and we are in the with Him, God, through the incarnation, death, and res-
Father in virtue of being in Christ, who dwells in the Father. urrection of Christ, has brought us into Himself. Now we
abide in Him, and He abides
in us. “Whoever confesses that
The true vine as the organism of Jesus is the Son of God, God
abides in him and he in God”
the Triune God is the Triune God (1 John 4:15). The divine incor-
united, mingled, and incorporated poration has thus been
enlarged in God’s economy to
with His chosen, redeemed, and become the universal divine-
regenerated people. The Father, human incorporation.
the Son, and the Spirit coinhere
with the believers mutually. A picture of this divine-
human incorporation is
the true vine in John 15. The
true vine with its branches—
Christ the Son with the believers in the Son—is the
R egarding the oneness of coinherence, we make partic-
ular use of the term incorporation. The words
corporation and incorporation are closely related, but there
organism of the Triune God in the divine economy to grow
with His riches and express His life. The function of this
is nonetheless a significant difference between them. A vine is for the Triune God to have an organism in the Son
corporation is a group of people combined or associated for His multiplication, spreading, and glorification in the
into one body, usually for the purposes of business or gov- divine life. The Father as the husbandman is the source
ernment. An incorporation is a matter of union and and the founder; God the Son is the center, the embodi-
intimate mingling. To incorporate is to unite intimately, to ment, and the manifestation; God the Spirit is the reality
blend, combine, or mingle thoroughly into a whole. and realization; and the branches are the Body, the corpo-
Incorporation denotes both an act of incorporating and the rate expression (vv. 1, 4-5, 26). All that the Father is and
state of being incorporated. In speaking of the oneness of has is embodied in Christ the Son and then realized in the
coinherence, incorporation is a much better term than cor- Spirit as the reality (16:13-15). All that the Spirit has is
poration. Whereas union concerns our oneness in life with wrought into us, the branches, to be expressed and testi-
the Lord and mingling is related to the divine and human fied through us. In this way, the processed and
natures, incorporation is a matter of persons in a relation- consummated Triune God is expressed, manifested, and
ship of coinherence. glorified in the church (Eph. 3:16-21).

Union and mingling refer to our relationship with the The true vine as the organism of the Triune God is the
Lord in our life and nature but not in our person. Triune God united, mingled, and incorporated with His
Humanly speaking, no person can be in another person. chosen, redeemed, and regenerated people (John 14:20).
But in the divine and mystical realm, the consummated The Father, the Son, and the Spirit coinhere with the

12 Affirmation & Critique

believers mutually, for the Triune God and the believers in another in the life of Christ and in the love of Christ. This
Christ are united, mingled, and incorporated into one is to live not in the psychological sensation of love; rather,
(15:4-5). Here we see the goal of God’s economy—to it is to live in the spirit. We can have the church life por-
have this enlarged, universal divine-human incorporation trayed in John 15 only by living in the mingled spirit, in
of the processed and consummated Triune God with the Christ as the life-giving Spirit mingled with our regenerat-
redeemed, regenerated believers. ed spirit. As we live here, we live together in the Triune
God, and we know God in His incorporation, in His union

A s the branches of this vine, the believers are the mul-

tiplication of Christ, the duplication of Christ, the
spreading of Christ, and the enlargement of Christ in the
with His redeemed, regenerated people.

God in His Corporate Expression

divine economy. Christ, the infinite God incarnated as a
man, is the vine, and we are His branches, organically one By living in the oneness of the universal divine-human
with Him (1 Cor. 6:17). Because we are branches of the incorporation, in which we know the Triune God in His
true vine, parts of the organism of the Triune God, we are union with the believers in Christ, we eventually come to
the same as God in life and nature but not in the Godhead know God in His glorious corporate expression. Actually,
(1 John 5:11-12). When we believed into the Lord Jesus it is for the glorification of the Father in the Son with the
and were joined to Him, He branched Himself into us, many sons that we aspire to live in the oneness of the
and we became branches in Him (John 3:15). Now Christ divine-human incorporation.
is our life (11:25; 14:6; Col. 3:4); in fact, Christ, the vine,
is everything to us, the branches. From Him as the vine we
receive everything that we need to live a life of coinher-
ence with Him. He does everything through the branches;
J ohn 17 shows us that oneness and glory are intrinsically
related. The prayer of Christ recorded in this chapter
was a prayer first for glorification and then a prayer for
without us He does nothing, and without Him we can do oneness. The Lord began His prayer by saying, “Father, the
nothing. hour has come; glorify Your Son that the Son may glorify
You” (v. 1). This was actually a prayer for the corporate
As branches of the vine, we need to abide in the vine by glorification, manifestation, and expression of the Triune
living in the mingled spirit—the regenerated human spirit God. As we have noted, Christ was the unique grain of
indwelt by and mingled with the life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. wheat containing the divine life with the element of the
6:17; 15:45; Rom. 8:4, 16). Whereas to be in Christ is a divine glory. When the shell of His humanity was broken
matter of union, to abide in Christ is a matter of fellow- through His death on the cross, the divine life and the
ship. If we would enjoy this fellowship by abiding in divine glory were released (12:24). In 17:1 Christ prayed
Christ, we need to see a clear vision of the fact that we are that the Father would glorify Him, and the Father
already branches in Him as the vine, for of God we are in answered His prayer by resurrecting Him, for Christ’s res-
Christ Jesus (1 Cor. 1:30). Once we see that we are urrection was His glorification (Luke 24:26). The issue of
already in Christ, we need to maintain the fellowship Christ’s being glorified with the divine glory by the Father
between us and the Lord by abiding in Him. This is the in resurrection was the producing of the universal divine-
Christian life—a life of abiding in the Lord (1 John 2:24, human incorporation, in which we and the Triune God live
27-28; 4:13) by exercising to be one spirit with Him in the oneness of coinherence (John 14:10-11, 20; 17:21).
(1 Cor. 6:17). Experientially, our abiding in Christ is the In this marvelous incorporation the Triune God is
condition of His abiding in us (John 15:5). expressed, glorified, in a corporate way through the
unique Son of God and the many sons of God, all of
When we abide in Christ, enjoying a life of fellowship with whom have a share in the glory of God.
Him in spirit, we have the church life (1 Cor. 1:2, 9, 30;
6:17; 12:27). As the branches abide in the vine, they real- Because the corporate expression of the Triune God is
ize that they are one not only with the vine but also with maintained in the oneness of the believers with the Triune
one another, and they delight in this blessed oneness (Psa. God and with one another in the Triune God, the Lord
133). The more we abide in Christ, the more we partici- Jesus prayed for oneness in three levels. The first level of
pate in the wonderful fellowship among the co-branches. oneness is the oneness in the Father’s name and by the
We gradually discover that the inner life of all the branch- Father’s eternal, divine life (vv. 6-13). The person of the
es is one and that this life is continually circulating through Father, denoted by the name Father, is the Father Himself
all the branches (John 15:4-5; 1 John 1:7). In the divine as the source of life. The Father’s life with His nature is the
life we experience and enjoy the divine love as a fruit of element of our oneness. The second level of oneness is the
the Spirit (Gal. 5:22). The church life, the corporate life oneness in the reality of the sanctifying word (vv. 14-21).
in the vine, the Body life, is a life of loving one another Since the word is the truth, and the truth is the Triune God
(John 13:34; 15:12, 17). The Body life is a life of love and (v. 17; 14:6), to be sanctified by the reality of the word is
in love (Eph. 4:16; 5:2); in the Body life we love one to be sanctified—separated unto God and saturated with

Volume XIII
No. 1
April 2008 13

God—by the Triune God Himself. The third, and highest, into us as our life, our life supply, and our everything. In
level of oneness is the oneness in the divine glory for the the glorified Christ the processed and consummated
corporate expression of the processed and consummated Triune God has made Himself one with us and increasing-
Triune God (17:22-24), who, in Christ and according to ly is making us one with Him, living with us a blessed life
His economy and by His dispensing, is united, mingled, of the oneness of union, mingling, and incorporation. In
and incorporated with His redeemed, regenerated believ- Christ the Triune God—immutable in His Godhead and
ers. In this stage of oneness, we all are delivered from the processed in His economy—is manifested in His glorious,
self and the expression of the self and are one in the glori- corporate expression. Like the apostle John, the apostle
ous, corporate expression of the Triune God. The ultimate Paul lived in this reality, and with him (Eph. 3:21) we say,
consummation of this stage of oneness will be the New “To Him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus unto
Jerusalem in eternity. The apostle who recorded the Lord’s all the generations forever and ever. Amen.” Œ
prayer for glorification and oneness is the one who saw the
fulfillment of this prayer: “He carried me away in spirit Works Cited
onto a great a high mountain and showed me the holy city,
Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, having Geisler, Norman. God, Creation. Minneapolis: Bethany House,
the glory of God” (Rev. 21:10-11). 2003. Vol. 2 of Systematic Theology. 2 vols. 2002-2003.

Lee, Witness. The Conclusion of the New Testament. Anaheim:

O ur God, the only true God—the self-existing, ever-

existing, co-existing, coinhering Triune God—is
immutable in His eternal Godhead, and for this we render
Living Stream Ministry, 1986.

———. The Crucial Points of the Major Items of the Lord’s

to Him our praise, worship, and adoration. This very God, Recovery Today. Anaheim: Living Stream Ministry, 1993.

———. Footnotes. The Recovery

Version of the Bible. Anaheim:
In the glorified Christ Living Stream Ministry, 2003.
the processed Triune God has ———. The Issue of Christ Being
made Himself one with us and Glorified by the Father with the
Divine Glory. Anaheim: Living
increasingly is making us one Stream Ministry, 1996.
with Him, living with us a blessed
Murray, Andrew. The Spirit of
life of the oneness of union, Christ. Fort Washington:
Christian Literature Crusade,
mingling, and incorporation.
1963.

Pink, Arthur W. The Attributes of

essentially triune, has a tremendous operation in His econ- God. Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1975.
omy. In Christ He has been processed through
incarnation, human living, crucifixion, and resurrection to Tozer, A. W. The Knowledge of the Holy: The Attributes of God:
become the Spirit. In the resurrected, pneumatic Christ Their Meaning in the Christian Life. Lincoln: Back to the
the Triune God is dispensing Himself in His Divine Trinity Bible Broadcast, 1961.

Footnote from the Recovery Version of the Bible

“Unto the economy of the fullness of the times, to head up all things in Christ, the things in the heavens and
the things on the earth, in Him” (Eph. 1:10).
economy: Or, plan. The Greek word, oikonomia, means house law, household management or administra-
tion, and derivatively, administrative dispensation, plan, economy. The economy that God, according to
His desire, planned and purposed in Himself is to head up all things in Christ at the fullness of the times.
This is accomplished through the dispensing of the abundant life supply of the Triune God as the life fac-
tor into all the members of the church that they may rise up from the death situation and be attached to
the Body.

14 Affirmation & Critique