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3 (Three)

Symbolic treatment of this number in the corpus

Warnock (TVA), Noordzij (BW + WB), Nee-Lee (KOL + GC)

The number three serves in the corpus as an organizing principle for theological truth. Warnock structures three Pauline epistles around Hab. 2:4 as a triple dimension of faith: justification, life, and perseverance. Noordzij divides the Lord’s Supper into three dimensions of Christ’s gift (Bread and Wine) and divides baptism into three phases of transformation toward sonship (What is Baptism?). Nee-Lee, by contrast, introduces three as an anthropological-soteriological framework: the three lives that dwell in every redeemed person — God’s life, human life, and Satan’s life — each with its own specific principle and destiny (The Knowledge of Life), and gives that framework eschatological depth in The Glorious Church through the four women.

Biblical References

ReferenceContext
Hab. 2:4”The just shall live by faith” — foundation of Pauline soteriology
Rom. 1:17”The just”: justification from faith
Gal. 3:11”Shall live”: the quality of life that faith produces (sanctification)
Heb. 10:38”By faith”: perseverance amid suffering and delay
John 3:36”He that believeth on the Son hath eternal life” — God’s life
Rom. 7:18-25Three laws: law of God, law of sin, law of mind — three principles in humanity
1Cor. 13:13Three abiding: faith, hope, and love
Matt. 3:11John’s announcement of water baptism and baptism in Holy Spirit and fire
Rom. 6:3-5Baptism into Christ’s death — mortification and resurrection to new life
Titus 1:4Trinitarian blessing: God the Father, Jesus Christ, Holy Spirit

Symbolism in the Corpus

George H. Warnock (TVA)

Warnock presents three as the number of theological fullness and spiritual maturity. The key passage is Hab. 2:4 — “The just shall live by faith” — which Paul cites in three concurrent epistles:

  1. Rom. 1:17 — “The just”: the basis of justification. How are we justified before God? By faith alone. This is the foundation upon which everything rests.

  2. Gal. 3:11 — “Shall live”: the active life that flows from righteousness. We are not only justified, but we also live — a full, vital, holy existence produced by the working of faith in the heart.

  3. Heb. 10:38 — “By faith”: the perseverance of faith amid opposition, delay, and affliction. Faith without perseverance is incomplete; perseverance without faith is mere works.

Warnock writes:

The just shall live by faith — this is a principle that carries all God’s appointments with His people. Whether it be Abraham, Moses, or the New Testament believer — the path to fulfillment always passes through the appointed season of waiting.

This trilogy is not arbitrary. It reflects the three ecclesiological pillars that Warnock champions: a prolegomena in which we learn to listen to God’s voice (not pose our own questions); a bibliography in which we learn to write according to God’s dictation; and an ecclesiology in which we learn to form God’s people according to a prophetic pattern. All three are sustained by the same truth: righteousness comes only by faith, living it is sustained only by faith, and perseverance in it is accomplished only by faith.

Cees and Anneke Noordzij (BW) — Bread and Wine

In Bread and Wine, Noordzij structures the Lord’s Supper around three divine operative dimensions that the number three expresses: “This is my body, my flesh” — the gift of Christ’s bodily life, the true bread from above that sustains us and raises us “from the death-realm of the flesh”; “This is my blood” — the poured-out soul-life with God’s longings, through which we surrender our own soul-desires and “drink in the new blood of Jesus”; and “Do this in remembrance of me” — the continual actualization of this reality so that the first Christians could live in transition, but ultimately “the reality is Christ” (Col. 2:16). The three words of the Lord’s Supper are not three separate actions, but three aspects of one reality: the transformation of the old ritual Passover into the new, spiritual eating of the Lamb himself.1

Cees and Anneke Noordzij (WB) — What is Baptism?

In What is Baptism?, Noordzij develops the number three as the structure of baptism itself. Baptizo — defined by James W. Dale as “thoroughly influence and transform” — manifests in three distinct yet inseparably linked baptisms that together express biblical completeness:

  1. Water baptism — confession of repentance (Matt. 3:11). Symbolic act, performed by a human officiant, representing learning to “think differently” (Col. 3:2). Water baptism begins the process as an external sign.

  2. Spirit-baptism — transformation by Spirit and fire (Acts 1:8; 2 Cor. 3:18). Divine operation and purification, performed by the exalted Lord, who grants His power for ongoing transformation from “old” to “new.” Spirit-baptism confirms the process as inward power.

  3. Baptism in Christ — completed spiritual maturity (Rom. 6:3-5). Transformative process by the Holy Spirit toward sonship, in which mortification of the “old self” and resurrection to “new life” are central. Baptism in Christ completes the process as its final destination.

Noordzij emphasizes that this threefold schema echoes the Trinity (Father-Son-Spirit) and the trichotomy of humanity (spirit-soul-body) — the number three as archetype of both divine and human complete transformation:

TriadComponentParallel Manifestation
Father-Son-SpiritThree persons of GodheadBaptism by water / Spirit / Christ
Spirit-Soul-BodyThree parts of humanityThink differently / Transformation / Sonship

The threefold baptism aims at God’s sonship (Heb. 6:1-2; Eph. 4:15). The emphasis is not on the outward rite of water baptism, but on the inward transformation through the working of the Holy Spirit that forms believers into the image of Christ.2

Watchman Nee & Witness Lee (KOL) — The Knowledge of Life

Nee and Lee define in The Knowledge of Life the number three as the count of lives present in every redeemed person:

  1. God’s Life — the eternal life received through faith in Christ (John 3:36: “He that believeth on the Son hath eternal life”). This life is divine, unchanging, and full of life itself.

  2. Human Life — the created, natural life derived from parents. This is the foundation of our humanity, our natural capacities, and our soul-faculties (spirit, soul, body).

  3. Satan’s Life — the corrupted, sinful power that entered humanity through the fall. Paul writes in Rom. 7:18,20 that sin dwells in our flesh; Nee identifies this sin as Satan’s life, the demonic principle that opposes God’s life.

These three lives do not exist in isolation. Nee explains: “The three lives spoken of here are the three lives that are within every saved one — man’s life, Satan’s life, and God’s life.” In other words, the redeemed soul is a battleground upon which three entirely different principles operate. This is not numerology in Bullinger’s sense (numbers as symbols of theological truth) but an anthropological analysis: the number three describes the tripartite reality of the conscious soul.3

Watchman Nee & Witness Lee (GC) — The Glorious Church

Nee-Lee’s three-lives framework from The Knowledge of Life receives in The Glorious Church eschatological depth. Each stage of the four women reveals a different accent of these three lives:

  • Eve: God’s life in potential; Satan’s life not yet enclosed
  • Church (present): God’s life at work; Satan’s life still operative in the flesh; struggle of three
  • Woman of Revelation 12: God’s life triumphant; Satan’s life still active but defeated
  • Bride (eternity): God’s life complete; Satan’s no longer operative; two become one

The number three thus marks not merely a theological category, but the continuing reality of three competing life-powers that come to expression in every stage of God’s woman.4

Footnotes

  1. Cees & Anneke Noordzij, Bread and Wine (Verborgen Manna). ↩

  2. Cees & Anneke Noordzij, What is Baptism? (Verborgen Manna, https://verborgenmanna.nl/pages-1/baptizo.html). ↩

  3. Nee-Lee, The Knowledge of Life, Chapter 9: “Three Lives and Four Laws”, §A. The Definition of the Three Lives. ↩

  4. Watchman Nee & Witness Lee, The Glorious Church (b10). ↩

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