III. THE PERSON OF GOD
A. God, Denoting That God Is a Living Person
Who Is Divine from Eternity to Eternity,
Thus, the Eternal God
God (Gen. 1:1; 1 Tim. 2:5) is a living person who is divine from eternity to eternity (Psa. 90:2b). Thus, He is the eternal God (Rom. 16:26). God is uniquely one from eternity past to eternity future. This means God is eternal and eternally unique. He is eternally one.
B. The Divine Persons of the Divine Trinity
Now we want to see the divine persons of the Divine Trinity. Matthew 28:19 says that we need to baptize the nations into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Here there is one name for the three of the Godhead. A person may have a first name, a middle name, and a last name, but these are all actually one name for one person. The Father, the Son, and the Spirit are not three names, but the name of the unique Triune God. Matthew speaks of a wonderful person with a compound name—Father, Son, and Spirit.
1. The Father Being the Source of the Trinity
The Father is the source of the Trinity (John 8:18; 16:27-28).
2. The Son Being the Course of the Trinity,
the Embodiment of the Father for His Expression
The Son is the course of the Trinity, the embodiment of the Father for His expression (John 14:9-11; Col. 1:19; 2:9). This is particularly revealed in John 14. John 14 may be considered as the greatest chapter in the Bible. In this chapter Philip said, "Lord, show us the Father and it is sufficient for us" (v. 8). This indicates that probably before that time, the disciples spoke to one another about the Father since the Lord Jesus had often mentioned the Father. Now in John 14 Philip took the chance to ask the Lord to show them the Father. The Lord Jesus said to Philip, "Have I been 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?" (v. 9). When the Lord spoke this to Philip near the end of His earthly ministry, He had been with the disciples for a long time, close to three and a half years. The Lord went on to tell Philip that He was in the Father and the Father was in Him. He said, "The words that I say to you I do not speak from Myself, but the Father who abides in Me does His works" (v. 10). When the Lord spoke, the Father worked, because He and the Father are one.
If we had been there, we might have said, "Lord Jesus, You and the Father are one, but You and the Father are still two. There is a distinction." The Lord also told the disciples that He would pray to the Father. If He and the Father were one, how could He pray to Himself? He said, "I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Comforter" (v. 16). The Comforter which was given to the disciples is the Spirit of reality (v. 17). This indicates that besides the Son and the Father there would be a third One, the Spirit.
In John 14, the Lord indicated that God is three, yet one. He told us that He and the Father are one. Then He went on to say that the Spirit of reality "abides with you and shall be in you" (v. 17). Then He said, "I will not leave you as orphans; I am coming to you....In that day you will know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you" (vv. 18, 20). Eventually, this portion of the Word shows that when the Spirit is in us, that is the Son in us. When the Son was among the disciples, that was the Father. Then when the Spirit came and entered into the disciples, that was the Son.
This does not mean that the Father existed first, then the Son followed to exist, and then the Spirit followed as the third One to exist. The heresy of modalism says that the three of the Godhead are not eternally coexistent. We need to be clear that the three of the Divine Trinity all exist together at the same time from eternity to eternity. Furthermore, the three not only coexist but also coinhere. To coinhere is to exist in one another. The Father, the Son, and the Spirit all exist in one another. They mutually indwell one another. The three of the Divine Trinity exist together, and They also coinhere with one another from eternity to eternity.
(The Central Line of the Divine Revelation, Chapter 2, by Witness Lee)
