LESSON SIX – THE TRIUNE GOD AS LIFE TO SATURATE THE TRIPARTITE MAN

1 Thes. 5:23 — The God of peace Himself sanctify you wholly, and may your spirit and soul and body be preserved complete, without blame, at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Col. 1:13 — Who delivered us out of the authority of darkness and transferred us into the kingdom of the Son of His love.

THE TRIUNE GOD AS THE UNCREATED, ETERNAL LIFE

The first figure, Figure 1,…signifies the eternal life.…The divine life is the Triune God, and this life is the self-existing, eternal, uncreated, and unlimited life, without beginning and without end.

MAN AS THE CREATED VESSEL FOR GOD

Figure 2 signifies that the Triune God created a man. God created man because God desires to express Himself through man.…This man is the first Adam (1 Cor.15:45a), who is the created, limited life with a beginning and an end. This life, as it was created, was good, pure, and sinless.

Figure 2 shows that the man created by God as a vessel to contain God has three parts—a spirit, a soul, and a body (1 Thes. 5:23). The spirit is the inner content to contain and contact God, who is Spirit, and the body is the outward appearance to contact the physical world. Between the inward spirit and the outward body is the soul as a medium, which is the personality of man. With this tripartite man there was no sin.

Figure 3 requires little explanation… Every part has become dark; this is the fallen Adam. Man was made as a vessel to contain God, but before God came into him, something else came in. That was Satan, the enemy of God, personified sin.

THE INCARNATED, CRUCIFIED, AND RESURRECTED GOD-MAN BECOMING OUR LIFE

The first Adam was the first man, who became corrupted by the fall. The second man is the last Adam, who is Christ (1 Cor. 15:45b). What kind of man is Christ? Christ is a God-man, a real man, yet the incarnation of God.

This God-man, at the time that He was crucified on the cross, became the Sinbearer.…After Christ’s crucifixion He was resurrected, and in resurrection He is living forever.…In His resurrection He was transfigured in His entire being with the divine nature.

In this incarnated, crucified, and resurrected One, there is life,…and this life is none other than Christ Himself (Col. 3:4). First John 5:11 says, “God gave to us eternal life and this life is in His Son.” This Son is the incarnated, crucified, and resurrected God-man, who is life to us.

A TRANSFER THROUGH THE CROSS

Figure 4 is not simple. Here are two spheres, the sphere of Adam on the one hand, and the sphere of Christ on the other hand. In the sphere of Adam there is nothing but sin and death, and in the sphere of Christ there is the eternal life. Between these two spheres is the cross. If one is on the left side of the cross, he is in the sphere of sin and death; if one has passed through the cross, he is in the sphere of life.

BEING REGENERATED IN OUR HUMAN SPIRIT

We have now been regenerated in our human spirit (Figure 5). At the very time we received the Lord Jesus as our Savior, He came into our spirit as the Spirit and gives life to us. First John 5:12 says, “He who has the Son has the life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have the life.” Praise the Lord, if we have the Son,

we have the life, because the Son is life! However, at the time of regeneration we received life only to a small degree. We received the divine life in only a limited part of our being.

BEING TRANSFORMED FROM DARKNESS INTO GLORY

After we are regenerated, we need to be transformed from darkness into glory (Figure 6). For this, we need to give a free way for the divine life to spread throughout our entire being. The more the divine life spreads, the more we are transformed from glory to glory (2 Cor. 3:18).

Sometimes we overcome our physical weaknesses by realizing the divine life in our body, as mentioned in Romans 8:11. Then when the Lord comes back, our whole body will be transfigured, transformed from the old creation into the new creation to be a body of glory. At that time we will be like Him (Figure 7). We will be exactly the same as the incarnated, crucified, and resurrected Christ (1 John 3:1-2). Every part of our being—spirit, soul, and body—will be filled, saturated, permeated, and mingled with the divine life. This will be the manifestation, the revelation, of the sons of God (Rom. 8:19). We will be wholly, absolutely like the Lord Christ in spirit, soul, and body. This is wonderful!

May the Spirit impress us so that we may know where we are, what we are, and what we need. (CWWL, 1963, vol. 3, “Basic Principles of the Experience of Life,” pp. 151, 154-159)

References: CWWL, 1963, vol. 3, “Basic Principles of the Experience of Life,” ch. 17; CWWL, 1994-1997, vol. 1, “The High Peak of the Vision and the Reality of the Body of Christ,” msgs. 1, 2

WHAT MIRACLE! WHAT MYSTERY!

Ultimate Manifestation— God’s Eternal Purpose

• What miracle! What mystery!
  That God and man should blended be!
  God became man to make man God,
  Untraceable economy!
  From His good pleasure, heart’s desire,
  His highest goal attained will be.
  From His good pleasure, heart’s desire,
  His highest goal attained will be.
• Flesh He became, the first God-man,
  His pleasure that I God may be:
  In life and nature I’m God’s kind,
  Though Godhead’s His exclusively.
  His attributes my virtues are;
  His glorious image shines through me.
  His attributes my virtues are;
  His glorious image shines through me.

• No longer I alone that live,
  But God together lives with me.
  Built with the saints in the Triune God,
  His universal house we’ll be,
  And His organic Body we
  For His expression corp’rately.
  And His organic Body we
  For His expression corp’rately.

• Jerusalem, the ultimate,
  Of visions the totality;
  The Triune God, tripartite man—
  A loving pair eternally—
  As man yet God they coinhere,
  A mutual dwelling place to be;
  God’s glory in humanity
  Shines forth in splendor radiantly!