In the Triune God, the Spirit is the Realization of the Father with the Son (part 3)

As the Apostle John writes his Gospel to mend the church and the holes in the Christian fabric, he speaks in a mysterious way concerning the Lord Jesus Christ, who is the Son of God sent by God to do the work of God. In the Gospel of John we see that the Father is the source, the Son is the expression, and the Spirit is the realization.

The Lord Jesus has come in the name of the His Father (John 5:43) who has sent Him (John 6:57) – the Father is the source. The only begotten Son of God has declared the Father who has never been seen by anyone (John 1:18), and he who has seen the Son has seen the Father (John 14:9) – the Son is the expression. Later, in John 14-17, the Lord Jesus speaks of the Spirit whom the Father will send in the Son’s name to make all things of Christ real to His believers by being in them (John 14:16-17) – the Spirit is the realization.

How wonderful and yet how mysterious! We cannot presume to understand all the aspects of the Triune God, but we can surely declare what we see and realize, and we can enjoy Him! God the Father is the source; God the Son is the expression; God the Spirit is the realization, making God the Father and God the Son real to His believers through His indwelling.

On our side, as soon as we touch the Spirit, we don’t touch “a third of the Triune God” – we touch the entire Triune God! When we call on the Lord’s name and touch the Spirit, we receive the entire Triune God into us.

The Father is in the Son; the Son is in the Father; the Spirit is the realization of the Son and brings the Father and the Son to us. When we open to the Lord and receive Him, what we receive is the Spirit as the reality of the Father with the Son.

The Spirit is the Realization of the Father with the Son

In John 14-17 the Lord Jesus speaks in a mysterious way concerning “the Spirit of reality”, which the world doesn’t know and cannot know but we, the believers in Christ, know and receive because He is in us. The Spirit of reality of which the Lord spoke is the reality of all that the Son has, is, and has done.

Without the Spirit, in spite of all that Christ the Son has accomplished, everything would be mysterious to us. Christ can come to dwell in the believers only as the Spirit. It is in the Spirit and by the Spirit that all the things of God are made real to us.

In the Old Testament we see the Spirit of God, the Spirit of Jehovah, the Spirit of holiness, etc but here in John we see the Spirit of reality, who is the consummation of all that the Father has and is, and of all that the Son has, is, and has accomplished.

In the Gospel of John we see at least eight main aspects of the Spirit as the realization of the Son with the Father.

1. The Spirit is the reality of the Son (John 14:16-20; 15:26). Without the Spirit, even though the Father is so rich and the Son has fully expressed the Father, nothing of this can be made real to us. We see types, figures, and facts, but these are not subjective to us. Without the Spirit we know Christ only shallowly. But when we have the Spirit, even though He cannot be seen or touched physically, the Spirit makes Christ real to us.
2. The Spirit receives all that the Son is and has obtained and discloses it to us (John 16:13-15). All that the Father has is in the Son, and all that the Son has is realized as the Spirit for our experience and enjoyment. Just as the Son has received everything from the Father and expressed Him on earth, so the Spirit receives everything from the Son and declares it all to us, transmitting all that Christ is into our being.
3. The Father is in the Son, and the Son became the Spirit for us to drink so that He may become the living water flowing out of us (John 7:37-39; 4:10, 14). From the Lord’s pierced side blood and water flowed out for our redemption and regeneration, and now the Son has flowed out in the Spirit for us to drink. When we open and drink the Spirit, from our innermost being will flow rivers of living water. God the Father flowed in God the Son, God the Son flowed out as God the Spirit, and when we drink the Spirit, the Triune God flows out of us as rivers of living water.
4. The Spirit enters into us to be with us so that we may experience and enjoy the Son (John 14:17-18). Right now, every regenerated believer has the Spirit mingled with his spirit, and the Spirit brings him into the experience and enjoyment of the Son. How wonderful, we have a living Person in us, the Spirit with our spirit, and we can exercise our spirit to enjoy and experience all that Christ is and has accomplished!
5. The Spirit being in us is the Son being in us (John 14:17, 20; 17:23, 26). The Spirit of reality is not “a third of the Triune God” – the Spirit is the Son who is the Father. The Spirit’s being in us is the Son’s being in us, and the Son’s being in us is the Father’s being in us. When we receive the Spirit we receive the entire Triune God. This is wonderful yet mysterious: we have the entire Triune God in us as the Spirit with our spirit.
6. In the Spirit we are joined to the Triune God as one (John 17:21-23). In John 17 the Son prayed for the disciples to be also brought into the “coinhering oneness” of the Father being in the Son and the Son being in the Father. The oneness we are being brought in by the Spirit is the oneness in which we are in God and God is in us, and we know that Christ is in the Father, the Father is in Christ, and Christ is in us. In the Spirit we are one both with the Triune God (vertically) and with one another (horizontally). The many believers in Christ can be one in the one Spirit who joins them to one another and to the Triune God.
7. We worship God, who is Spirit, by this Spirit and with reality, that is, with the Christ whom we have experienced (John 4:23-24). The Father is seeking worshippers, those who worship Him in Spirit (since He Himself is Spirit) and in reality (Christ is the reality). The Triune God as the Spirit has come into us and we can worship Him in our spirit and with Christ as the reality.
8. We are regenerated by the Spirit in our spirit, and we worship the Spirit in our spirit (John 3:6; 4:24). We were created with a human spirit, and God Himself is Spirit – when He regenerates us, He does so with His Spirit in our spirit. Now we worship God the Spirit in Spirit and by Spirit. This is what the Bible says. It is mysterious. It is wonderful. It is so amazing! All believers in Christ have a human spirit regenerated by the divine Spirit, and we all can worship the Father in spirit!

Lord Jesus, thank You for sending the Spirit of reality to guide us in all the reality of what God is. Lord, You didn’t leave us orphans: You came back to us to be with us and even in us as the Spirit. We treasure Your indwelling. We open to Your guiding today – show us who the Son and the Father are. Spirit, bring us into a further realization, enjoyment, and experience of the Father with the Son. We want to exercise our spirit to enjoy the Spirit as the realization of the Father in the Son!

References and Hymns on this Topic

• Inspiration: the Word of God, my Christian experience, bro. James Lee’s speaking in the message for this week, and portions from, Taking Christ as Our Person for the Church Life (ch. 5), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, The Mending Ministry of John, week 2 / msg 2, The Revelation of the Triune God and of the Consummated Spirit.
• Further reading: recommending msg. 4 in, Crystallization-Study of the Gospel of John (by Witness Lee).
• Hymns on this topic:
  # Lord, Thou didst know when in the flesh, / As such I’d know Thee shallowly; / Then as the Spirit Thou didst come / Within my spirit, known to be. / In flesh Redeemer mine Thou art; / As Spirit now my Comforter. / The outward touch has passed away / For inward union worthier. [by Watchman Nee]
  # Since Thou art with the Spirit one / His coming means that Thou hast come, / And His indwelling is Thine own, / Since Thou the Spirit hast become. / He executes within my heart / All Thy desires and Thy demands, / As for the Father here on earth / Thou hast performed all His commands.  [by Watchman Nee]
  # Thou, Lord, the Father once wast called, / But now the Holy Spirit art; / The Spirit is Thine other form, / Thyself to dwell within our heart. / By knowing Thee as Spirit, Lord, / We realize Thy life’s outflow, / Thy glory and Thy character, / And all Thy being’s wonders know. [by Watchman Nee]
  # Now the Triune God has come to dwell within / As the wonderful Spirit in us. / We are mingled with the Lord, we’re one with Him / As the life-giving Spirit in us.