THE FATHER SENDING THE SPIRIT IN THE NAME OF THE SON, AND THE SPIRIT COMING WITH THE FATHER AND THE SON
In John 14:26, a verse which is even harder to understand than the previous verses we have covered, the Lord said, “But the Comforter, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things.” This verse tells us that the Father sends the Spirit in the Son’s name; thus, the Spirit is also in the Son’s name. Moreover, when the Father sends in the Son’s name, is it the Father who sends or the Son who sends? Suppose you go to the bank to withdraw money in Brother Chang’s name. When the teller calls Brother Chang’s name, you answer and go forward. At this moment the teller does not care whether you are Brother Lin or Brother Wang but only cares for that “name”—Brother Chang. So you just need to give Brother Chang’s seal and passbook to the teller, then you can withdraw money in Brother Chang’s name. In this respect, at this time you and Brother Chang are one. Similarly, the Father’s sending the Spirit in the Son’s name means that the Father and the Son are one; the two are inseparable.
Furthermore, when the Spirit comes, He comes with the Father (cf. 15:26, note 1). In other words, the Spirit comes with the One who sends Him. The One who sends the Spirit is the Father, and the Father is in the Son. Hence, when the Spirit, who is sent, comes with the Father, the Father, being in the Son, comes with the Son. As a result, when the Spirit comes, He comes with the Father and the Son. All three—the Father, the Son, and the Spirit—come.
In order to help us understand this verse, we need to read 14:26 and 15:26 again. In 15:26 the Lord said, “But when the Comforter comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of reality.” John 14:26 clearly says that the Father will send the Spirit, yet 15:26 says that the Son will send the Comforter from the Father. This means that both the Son and the Father are the Senders, and the sent One is the Spirit, who is from the Father. Here the word from has the sense of “from with” in Greek (see 1:14, note 5). The Spirit of reality, who is sent by the Son from the Father, comes not only from the Father but also with the Father. The Father is the source. When this Spirit comes from the source, He does not leave the source but comes with the source. This Spirit, sent by the Son and coming with the Father, testifies concerning the Son. Therefore, His testimony concerning the Son is a matter of the Triune God. Thus, when the Spirit comes, He comes with the Father and also with the Son; therefore, the One who comes is the Triune God.
GOD BEING THE FATHER, THE SON, AND THE SPIRIT FOR THE PURPOSE OF ENTERING INTO HIS CHOSEN PEOPLE
The Gospel of John is a book that we love very much, yet it is also a very mysterious book. in particular, the portion in John 14 concerning the truth of the mystery of the Divine Trinity is not easy to explain.
What is the purpose for God to be triune—the Father, the Son, and the Spirit? It is so that He can enter into us as the Spirit. If God were one and did not have the aspect of being three—the Father, the Son, and the Spirit—He would have no way to reach us and dispense Himself into us. The story of the Trinity, God being triune, is altogether for God to enter into us, His chosen people.
Many Christians have not seen the truth of the Divine Trinity in the Bible. Why does God have to be triune? God does not have to be triune to be worshipped by us. The reason He is triune is that He may work Himself into us. For example, if some wheat wants to enter into us, it must first pass through a process. Of course, we can be like the Lord’s disciples and eat raw ears of wheat from the grainfields (Matt. 12:1), but that is not the proper way of eating. It is not proper to eat the ears of wheat because they have not been processed. Instead, we should eat the wheat that has been processed. What is the process that the wheat has to go through? First, a grain of wheat has to be sown into the soil so that ears of wheat can be produced. Then the wheat has to be ground into flour and made into bread or noodles for us to receive. Originally it was wheat, but in order to become our food, it has to be ground into flour and then made into bread or noodles. Hence, both the bread and the noodles are made with flour, and the flour comes from the wheat. This does not mean that once you have the bread, the flour is gone, or that once you have the flour, the wheat is gone. What has happened is that after being processed, the wheat has become flour and has been made into noodles for the purpose of getting into us.
(The Economy of God and the Mystery of the Transmission of the Divine Trinity, Chapter 5, by Witness Lee)
