LIFE-STUDY OF JOHN

MESSAGE THIRTY-ONE

THE DISPENSING OF THE TRIUNE GOD
FOR THE PRODUCING
OF HIS ABODE

(3)

In the first six verses of John 14 the Lord revealed that He was going in death and coming back in resurrection in order to bring the disciples into the Father, that He will be the way and the Father the destination, and that where He is the disciples also will be. In the following fourteen verses the Lord goes further to reveal the details regarding how He can get into the disciples and bring them to the Father.

II. THE TRIUNE GOD DISPENSING HIMSELF
INTO THE BELIEVERS

John 14 unveils the Triune God for the dispensing of Himself into the believers. He is one God, the only 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 know only 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.

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