The Triune God Went Through a Process Economically and Became “the Spirit” (John 7:39)

John 7:39 But this He said concerning the Spirit, whom those who believed into Him were about to receive; for the Spirit was not yet, because Jesus had not yet been glorified. 1 Cor. 15:45b, The last Adam became a life-giving Spirit

Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever (Heb. 13:8), and with Him there is no change (Mal. 3:6; Num. 23:19).

However, in the Gospel of John 1:14, we see that the Word – who was with God and who was God – became flesh. In His essence, God cannot change and will not change – He is perfect, complete, and without any need to change.

Economically though, when it comes to His economy and the accomplishment of His plan, God became a man through incarnation (John 1:14) and then He as the last Adam became a life-giving Spirit, the Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45b; John 7:39).

The Triune God passed through a process to become the consummated Spirit, which the Apostle John calls, “the Spirit” (John 7:38-39) who was not yet before the Lord’s resurrection. The Spirit is the crystallization of the Triune God, the consummation of all that God has passed through in Jesus Christ.

The Spirit is not merely the third of the Divine Trinity – the Spirit is the entire Triune God who passed through the process of incarnation, human living, crucifixion, and resurrection to become the Spirit!

The fact that God went through a process economically doesn’t mean that God somehow is incomplete or imperfect. God is eternally complete and perfect in His essence. But the Bible shows us clearly that, economically speaking, our God took some steps and passed through a long process when He became a man, and the consummation of this process is that He became the Spirit.

If we want to be true to the divine revelation in the Bible we have to admit that, reverently speaking, God passed through the process of incarnation, human living, crucifixion, and resurrection, and He became flesh (John 1:14) and then He became a life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45).

The Triune God Passed Through a Process to Become “the Spirit”

John 4:24, God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truthfulness.

God dwells in unapproachable light (1 Tim. 6:16) and no man has ever seen God (John 1:18). But His desire is to enter into man to be man’s life and everything, so that man would be His corporate expression? How can He do this?

First of all, God became a man through incarnation – the Word became flesh and tabernacled among us, full of grace and reality (John 1:14). The word “became” means that before incarnation, God was in a certain state, and after He was incarnated, He entered into another state.

You could even say that, in a sense, before His incarnation, the Triune God was “raw”, unprocessed, and as such He could not enter into man. But through incarnation God became a man – He was “processed” by putting on the human nature.

He then lived 33.5 years on the earth, learning to be a carpenter like Joseph (the husband of His mother Mary), being obedient to His parents in everything, and living a perfect human life in Nazareth with all its joys and sorrows.

God Himself was conceived in the womb of a virgin, and the mighty God was born as a man and placed in a manger in Bethlehem (Isa. 9:6; Luke 2:12). He lived on earth for 33.5 years, working with His own hands, and He didn’t display the majesty of His divinity or the power of His Godhead – He lived a perfect yet normal human life on earth.

Then this God-man was crucified, died, went to Hades, even to the lowest part of the earth (Eph. 4:9), and then He entered into resurrection. In His resurrection Christ as the last Adam became a life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45), which was “the Spirit” of which the Lord spoke that His believers would receive after His glorification – see John 7:38-39.

Now as the Spirit – as the consummation of the process the Triune God passed through – God can be received by man and He can enter into man to be his enjoyment. In a reverent way we can say that, according to what the Bible reveals, God has been processed and consummated to become “the Spirit” to enter into man and accomplish His economy.

Now the Lord is the Spirit (1 Cor. 3:17), and we can worship Him by drinking of Him so that there will be rivers of water of life flowing out of our innermost being (John 7:39), and we can worship God in spirit and truthfulness (John 4:24).

The Process God Passed Through is an Economical and Not an Essential Matter

When we speak of the process God went through we need to be very careful. In His essence and being, God cannot change and will not change – He is perfect, complete, and wonderful in every way.

But economically, when it comes to the accomplishment of His economy, God has changed in the sense of being processed. Although God changed in His economy, He has not changed in His essence. With God change can be only economical and not essential.

Also, although God has changed in His economy to become the Spirit, He will no longer change economically – He has reached the highest consummation, “the Spirit”. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today, yes, even forever (Heb. 13:8) – before “yesterday” the Lord changed economically, but today and forever, He will remain the same.

Although we may not fully understand this with our limited human mind, we can exercise our spirit and pray-read verses like John 7:39 (the Spirit was not yet!), 1 Cor. 15:45 (the last Adam became a life-giving Spirit), 1 Cor. 3:17 (now the Lord is the Spirit), and Heb. 13:8 (Jesus Christ is the same forever). As we pray over God’s word, the reality of all He has accomplished in the processes He went through will be infused into us.

God is one essentially (one in His essence) and He is three economically (the Father, the Son, and the Spirit) – they coexist and coinhere, being three-yet-one, the Triune God. In His economy, for the accomplishment of His plan, the Triune God became the Spirit so that He may enter into us and be enjoyed by us.

We need to be balanced by the Word of God when it comes to the Triune God and the process He passed through. Modalists say that “God was manifested in stages”, first it was the Father (and no Son or Spirit), then the Son (and no Father or Spirit), and now it is the Spirit (with no Father or Son). This is a heresy! Tritheists, on the other hand, believe in three Gods – God the Father, God the Son, and God the Spirit. This is also a heresy.

Essentially, God is One; economically, He is three, and the three exist at the same time and even live in one another, being fully one. This is why the Lord said in Matt. 28:19, Go therefore and disciple all the nations, baptizing them into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.

There is one name – yet three persons. The reality of the name is the Spirit as the consummation of the process God went through, and the believers are baptized into one Spirit (1 Cor. 12:13). How mysterious, yet how glorious and wonderful!

Lord Jesus, thank You for passing through the process of incarnation, human living, crucifixion, and resurrection to become the life-giving Spirit! Now the Triune God is the Spirit, and we can enjoy Him in our spirit! Thank You for becoming a man and putting on human nature. We praise You for Your human living, setting up the pattern of how a God-man should live. Lord, praise You for Your crucifixion, death, and resurrection. Now You are in us as the Spirit, imparting God’s life to us and accomplishing God’s economy in and with us! Praise You!

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, The Conclusion of the New Testament (msgs. 74, 80), 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.
• Hymns on this topic:
  # God has called us for His purpose, / His economy so glorious, / For which He was fully processed; / Consummated now is He! / As the Spirit, He indwells us; / As our God allotted portion, / Working out His full salvation, / Making us the same as He is.
  # Incarnation, Human living, Crucifixion, Resurrection, Became Spirit, And ascended man! / God became a man / According to God’s plan / To dispense Himself as life to us. / He was processed thus: / Oh, how marvelous!
  # Christ has come to be life, the processed divine Trinity. / God the Father’s the source, a fountain emerging to be. / God the Son as a gushing up spring, / And the Spirit’s a river for life imparting / Oh how can this miracle be? The Triune God flowing in me! / Oh, I’ve got rivers of life flowing out of my innermost being!