Never forget: as a believer in Christ, you are a God-man! We always need to remember this and be in the light of this revelation all the time – we are not only men, but we are men with the divine life, God-men, those who have God in them continually mingling Himself with them!
When we see this and the Lord shines on us to realise this, our whole living and experience will change. We will no longer do things as before, we will not relate to others as before, and even our living and speaking will be uplifted.
In order for us as believers in the Lord to arrive together at a full-grown man for the fulfillment of God’s purpose, we all need to realise that we are God-men and we need to live the life of a God-man (see Gal. 2:20; Phil. 1:21).
The Lord Jesus as the first God-man is the prototype, and we as the many believers in Christ regenerated by Him in His resurrection with the divine life are being conformed to His image, so that He might be the Firstborn among many brothers (Rom. 1:3-4; 8:29).
How wonderful that we as human beings are being made God in life and nature but not in the Godhead, and we can live the life of a God-man on earth! We now belong to the divine species, the species of God, and not merely to the human species.
When we see this and have a clear realisation of what we are as Christians, we will aspire to live like Christ, we will cooperate with the Lord much more, and we will let Christ live in us the same kind of life that He lived while on earth – a life pleasing to God, a life for the accomplishment of God’s purpose.
God Became a Man – a God-man – to Make us also God-men
When God created man, He created him in His image and with His likeness – man was not “of the mankind”, but man was “of the God-kind”, since he was made after God-kind.
Due to man’s fall, however, man became “mankind”, the fallen mankind away from God. Man still has God’s image and likeness, but Satan injected himself into man, and man is poisoned, deadened, and will eventually die.
The term, God-man, is not found in the Bible, but the entire Bible reveals that God’s desire is not merely to have many human beings who serve Him or worship Him, but to have many God-men who look like Him and live like Him, being one with Him for the accomplishment of His purpose.
When the Lord Jesus came, God was incarnated – God became a man in the person of Jesus Christ, and this One was the first God-man Luke 1:35; John 1:14; Matt. 1:18, 20-23). Jesus Christ was both God and man – God mingled with man, joined with man, one with man, and even incorporated with man.
The reason God became a man is not merely to redeem man back to Himself or to save man from hell – God became a man so that He would obtain a mass reproduction of Himself, a large group of God-men who have His life and nature and who express Him corporately.
Just as there are new terms like airplane, smartphone, iPhone, google, wi-fi, etc to describe the new developments in the human culture and technology, so we need new terms and expressions to describe matters in our spiritual culture as believers. Since we are born of God with His life and nature, we are “God-men”, men belonging to the “divine species”.
We need to see that we are God-men, and individually each one of us is a God-man, a reproduction of Christ as the first God-man (see Rom. 1:3-4; 8:29). Regardless our nationality, skin color, culture, race, age, gender, height, weight, etc, as long as we believe into the Lord and receive the divine life into us, we are God-men!
This means that we belong to another species – we are God-man kind, belonging to the species of God. The Lord Jesus – the first God-man – is the prototype for the producing of the many God-men (1 Pet. 2:21), and we as the many God-men are Christ’s reproduction, His multiplication.
We Need to See that We are God-men – and When We See This, Our Life will Change!
Don’t look down on yourself, and don’t let your failures disappoint you or discourage you. We need to see that as believers in Christ we are God-men, men born of God having His life and nature in us, men belonging to the divine species of God.
This is not something “in the air”, “a good thought and uplifted concept”, or anything invented by anyone; the Bible tells us in John 1:12-13 that when we believe into the Lord, that is, when we open to Him and receive Him into our heart as Lord as Savior, God gives us the authority to be children of God.
We are born not only of flesh or from the will of man (from our parents), but we are born of God! Before the resurrection of the Lord Jesus this was not possible, but now Christ is the life-giving Spirit, and whenever we call on the name of the Lord, we are saved – we are regenerated with the life of God, and we become God-men (1 Cor. 15:45; Rom. 10:12-13; Acts 2:21; John 3:6).
Christ as the one grain of wheat fell into the ground and died, and in resurrection we were all produced as the many grains of wheat, the same as He is (John 12:24; 1 Pet. 1:3). Now we are Christ’s many brothers, being made the same as He is in every possible way through being conformed to His image (Rom. 8:29).
When we see this, when we realise that we are God-men, we will no longer live the same way as before. When we see that we are God-men, men born of God and belonging to the divine species, we will no longer speak to others in a loose way, go to places where a God-man shouldn’t be, do things a God-man shouldn’t do, and act the way a God-man shouldn’t act.
We are not merely “good men” – we are God-men! It is God’s pleasure to make us the same as He is – He became as we are so that we may be made the same as He is!
“God loves you. God has a good pleasure to make you the same as He is. He is God, so you must be God also. A God-man living is God living. This kind of teaching is much higher than the teaching concerning how to be holy or victorious….How can you be holy? You can be holy by living a God-man life. How can you be victorious? It is only by living a God-man life. Never forget that you are a God-man, born of God and belonging to God’s species.” (Witness Lee, The God-man Living, p. 9)
We shouldn’t strive to “be like God”, trying to remember “what would Jesus do in this situation” – we simply need to be governed by the vision that we are God-men, and we need to live a God-man life. Simply let the Lord live. We no longer live by our natural life but by the divine life!
The realisation that we are God-men and that each one of us is a God-man will uplift our living and will help us turn to the Lord, the living Person inside of us, to let Him spread in us and live in us.
Lord Jesus, thank You for coming to the earth to be the first God-man. Thank You that, in Your grace and mercy, You have reached us and You saved us. We are now children of God, men regenerated with the divine life, members of the species of God by our new birth. We praise You for regenerating us with Your life to make us God-men. Remind us again and again that we are God-men. We are not merely men belonging to man’s species – we are God-men belonging to the species of God. May this realisation govern our daily living!
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, Life-study of 1 and 2 Chronicles (msg. 4), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Entering into the Fourth Stage of the Experience of Life to Arrive at a Full-Grown Man for the Fulfillment of God’s Purpose, week 7 / msg 7, Arriving at a Full-grown Man (1) Taking Christ as Our Person and Living the Life of a God-man.
- Further reading on this topic: recommending the footnotes in the Recovery Version on Rom. 1:3-4 and 8:29, and on John 1:12-13.
- Hymns on this topic:
# God the Creator became a God-man, / His death redeemed us for His glorious plan. / Now in resurrection the Spirit’s released / Producing the church. / This is God’s masterpiece.
# Jesus lived the God-man pattern, / Set the way for us to follow, / He denied His natural man and / Was obedient unto death, / Once He was the only God-man; / Now we are His duplication. / As the many grains we’re blended / As His corporate reproduction.
# Did you know that I’m a God-man? / A three-part man mingled with the Triune God, / And I have a spirit / Where the enemy has no way, no hope, no ground… / I am a God-man!
wow I don’t get amazed like this at all I am a God fearing Scientist I love the Lord Jesus with all my might and soul