I. BEING THE CONSUMMATION
OF THE PROCESSED TRIUNE GOD
First we need to see the Spirit as the consummation of the Triune God. This Spirit is the ultimate consummation of the processed Triune God. This term consummation implies a process. If there is no process, there will not be a consummation. Since there is a consummation, there must be a process. Some have said, "God is eternally perfect. He does not need to pass through any process." This saying is very shallow. The Bible shows us that the first process that God went through was His incarnation to be a man. He is the eternal God, yet He passed through a process to become flesh to be a man. Then this great God in human flesh lived on the earth for thirty-three and a half years. His incarnation was a process; His human living also was a process. Eventually, His dying on the cross was another process. Then His entering into resurrection was yet another process. After that, His ascension was another process. He has passed through at least the five processes of incarnation, human living, death, resurrection, and ascension. Having passed through these five processes, He is now different; He has had a consummation.
Here we must see that the consummation of the Triune God is a Spirit. This Spirit is the Spirit of God revealed in the Bible; He is also the Holy Spirit commonly spoken of among Christians. However, the Spirit of God and the Holy Spirit are not simple in the revelation of the Bible. In this chapter we will see that this Spirit has at least eighteen statuses. The Bible opens by saying, "In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth" (Gen. 1:1). Our God began in this way. After passing through the sixty-six books, at the end of Revelation the Bible speaks of the New Jerusalem in the new heaven and new earth. Hence, the sixty-six books of the Bible show us that this self-existing and ever-existing God, after passing through various processes, obtains a consummation. This consummation is the Spirit.
Originally, God was simply God; but after passing through the processes, God has been consummated to become a God-man. He no longer possesses only divinity without any other elements. This consummated God-man possesses not only divinity but also humanity. Moreover, He possesses the elements of incarnation, human living, death, resurrection, and ascension. In resurrection, this consummated God-man was consummated to become the life-giving Spirit. Hence, the life-giving Spirit has become the aggregate of the processed Triune God with the elements of the man whom He became and the experiences of human living, crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension.
This Spirit as the aggregate of God is joined to the regenerated spirit of the believers (that is, the spirit of the believers as the totality of the Body of Christ) to be one Body, first as the Body of Christ and ultimately consummating in the New Jerusalem. The aggregate of this God and the totality of the believers become a couple in eternity to be God’s increase and expression for eternity.
The coming New Jerusalem is a constitution of the processed Triune God and the redeemed, regenerated, transformed, and glorified believers. Its expression, for the most part, is the wall of the New Jerusalem, built with jasper (Rev. 21:18-19a). In the book of Revelation jasper signifies the appearance of God (4:3). Hence, the jasper wall signifies the corporate expression of God. Jasper is produced by the transforming work of the Spirit, who is joined to the believers as the totality of the Body of Christ. Thus, this great entity as the increase and corporate expression of God in eternity is the all-inclusive Spirit as the aggregate of the Triune God and the totality of the believers.
(The Issue of the Union of the Consummated Spirit of the Triune God and the Regenerated Spirit of the Believers, Chapter 1, by Witness Lee)
