Basic Word The Dispensing Function of The Triune God

THE DISPENSING FUNCTION OF THE TRIUNE GOD

Scripture Reading: Rom. 8:9-11, 14, 16; Eph. 3:14, 16-17a, 19b; 4:6; John 15:1, 5, 26; 14:10, 17-20, 23; Heb. 8:10-11; 1 John 2:27

Now that we have seen something concerning the sense of life, we need to go on to see the dispensing function of the Triune God.

Once in 1933 or 1934, Brother Watchman Nee spoke with me concerning the basic truths. At that time I did not see the Divine Trinity in His dispensing of Himself into our being. In my talk with Brother Nee, a number of times I did not refer to the Lord Jesus or Christ. I mostly used the title God. Brother Watchman Nee frankly told me that to merely use the title God is something according to the Old Testament. The orthodox Jews use the title God, but they do not refer to the Lord Jesus or to Christ in their worship.

At another time Brother Nee pointed out to me that the Catholic Church is a mixture of the New Testament with the Old Testament. What they practice in the Catholic Church in their services, their masses, is mostly according to the Old Testament forms, ordinances, and rituals. The priests in the Catholic Church burn incense and wear the priestly robes according to the practice of the Old Testament, yet they presume that they are practicing a New Testament service. Catholicism has this mixture also in their teaching. They do not discern the New Testament teaching from the Old Testament. The teaching of the Seventh-day Adventists is similar in the sense that their teaching is nearly altogether according to the Old Testament.

We need to be fully transferred out of all mixture into the pure New Testament revelation of the divine dispensing of the Divine Trinity. Romans 8:9-11 unveils the dispensing of the Triune God absolutely according to God’s New Testament economy. These verses refer to the Spirit of God, the Spirit of Christ, and Christ Himself. This indicates that Christ is the Spirit of Christ and that the Spirit of Christ is the Spirit of God. Verse 10 says that Christ is in us, and verse 9 says that the Spirit dwells in us. The Greek word for dwells here means “to make home,” or “reside.”

God can dwell in us only through His Trinity. Without being the Triune God—the Father, the Son, and the Spirit—God cannot dwell in us. Eventually, the New Testament strongly tells us that it is the Spirit who dwells in us, who inhabits us. The sense of life actually is the issue of the dispensing function of the Triune God. Because the Triune God is dispensing Himself into our being, we have the sense of life within us.

Very few Bible readers have seen the dispensing function of the Triune God in Romans 8:9-11. Verse 9 says, “You are not in the flesh,  but in the spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you.” In verses 7 and 8 God is mentioned, but in verse 9 we see that it is the Spirit of God who dwells in us. Verse 9 continues, “Yet if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not of Him.” The Spirit of Christ is interchangeably used with the Spirit of God. Thus, the Spirit of God is the Spirit of Christ. Verse 10 continues, “If Christ is in you, though the body is dead because of sin, the spirit is life because of righteousness.” This shows that the Spirit of Christ is just Christ Himself. Verse 11 says, “If the Spirit of the One who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who indwells you.” The Spirit of the resurrecting One, the One who raised Jesus from the dead, dwells in us. This is the Divine Trinity not only functioning but also dispensing.

Romans 8:10 says that our spirit is life; verse 6 says that our mind can be life; verse 11 goes on to say that this very life can be dispensed into our mortal body. This is the Triune God dispensing Himself as life into our whole being—the spirit, the mind, and the body. He gives life to our mortal body through His Spirit who indwells us. The entire Divine Trinity—the Father, the Son, and the Spirit—functions together to dispense Himself as life into our being. This is the dispensing function of the Triune God to dispense Himself as life into His believers.

In these verses we can see the Triune God dispensing Himself into the tripartite man. First, He dispenses Himself into our spirit and then from our spirit into our mind. If we set our mind upon the spirit, the life in the spirit will get into our mind. To set the mind on the spirit is life. Eventually, even the Spirit of Christ, the Spirit of God, God Himself, dwells in us to spread His life, to give His life, to our mortal body. This dispensing function issues in the sense of life.

In Ephesians 3:14-17 we can also see the dispensing function of the Divine Trinity. In these verses Paul says, “I bow my knees unto the Father...that He would grant you...to be strengthened with power through His Spirit into the inner man, that Christ may make His home in your hearts.” Here the apostle Paul prays to the Father, the saints are strengthened into the inner man through the Spirit, and Christ makes His home in their hearts. The Father receives and answers the prayer, the Spirit strengthens, and then Christ makes His home in our hearts. The Triune God functions for the purpose of dispensing Himself into our being. When Christ makes His home in our hearts, our whole being will be taken over, possessed, occupied, and filled up with the Triune God.

Another portion concerning the dispensing function of the Triune God is in John 15. In verse 1 the Lord said, “I am the true vine, and My Father is the husbandman.” The husbandman is the source, and the vine is the organism and the embodiment of what the source is, what the source has, and what the source does. In other words, whatever the Father is, has, and does is altogether embodied in this universal organism, the vine. The source is the Father, and the organism is the Son.

Both the source and the organism are made real by the Spirit of reality. In verse 26 of the same chapter the Lord said, “When the Comforter comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of reality, who proceeds from the Father, He will testify concerning Me.” For the Spirit to testify concerning the Son means that He makes the Son real to us. The Father is embodied in the Son, and the Son is made real to us by the Spirit.

John 15, Romans 8, and Ephesians 3 are crucial portions of the Word concerning the dispensing function of the Triune God. The seed of this truth is in John 15, and the harvest of this truth is in Romans 8 and Ephesians 3. These portions not only give us the revelation of the Triune God but also show us how the Divine Trinity functions in a corporate way to dispense Himself into our being. This is not for doctrine but for our experience. All of us must see the dispensing function of the Triune God.

In the first section of John 14 the Lord unveiled to His disciples that He and the Father are one (vv. 9-11). He is in the Father, and the Father is in Him. His speaking was the Father’s working. Then He went on to unveil that He and the Spirit are also one. This is from verse 16 through verse 20. So in John 14 you have these two main points: first, the Father is embodied in the Son, and second, the Son is realized as the Spirit.

John 14:23 says, “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word, and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make an abode with him.” This is also the dispensing function of the Triune God. In John 14 there is the abode, and in chapter 15 there is the abiding. All these portions of the Word give us a clear picture that in the spiritual world there is the dispensing function of the Triune God into us, the tripartite men.

We also have to read Hebrews 8:10-11. Here it says that in the new covenant God has imparted His laws into our mind and inscribed them on our hearts. Therefore, we do not need anyone to teach us outwardly, because inwardly we have the subjective knowledge of God. We all can know God. The Greek word for know here is oida, which refers to the subjective knowledge of God. The dispensing function of the Triune God issues in the sense of life through the law of life. First John 2:27 goes on to speak of the anointing. The law of life and the anointing both issue in the sense of life and are both a part of the dispensing function of the Triune God.