The incarnation of Christ and His God-man living fulfilled God’s intention in His creation of man; He came as God mingled with man, a God-man, to live a God-man life by expressing the divine attributes in His human virtues.
And today this One lives in us to be reproduced in His Body; we as believers in Christ are the continuation of Christ, the reproduction of Christ, Jesus living again on earth to be the one new man in God’s plan.
The church is becoming the new man on the earth. The new man is the highest aspect of the church as the Body of Christ. The church is the Body of Christ; this refers to Christ being our life and we being His members.
When we speak of the church – the revelation of the church, our practice of the church – it all depends upon our understanding.
The church is the assembly of the called out ones; this is the initial aspect of the church, the church being “ekklesia”.
The church is composed of the citizens of the kingdom of God, so the church is the kingdom of God; the church is composed of the members of God’s household, so the church is also the household of God, the dwelling place of God.
A higher aspect is the church as the Body of Christ, and even the highest aspect is the church as the one new man; this is the ultimate and uttermost aspect of the church, for in this aspect, the church is the new man fulfilling God’s purpose in creating man.
As far as the accomplishment of God’s eternal intention is concerned, the church must become the new man, and the church is slowly but surely becoming the new man.
This new man is nothing else but Christ enlarged and reproduced; in the new man we see only Christ, for He is in all the members of the new man and He is all the members of the new man.
As we daily appreciate Christ and are infused with Christ, filled with Him, and saturated with Him, we take Him not only as our life but also as our person, and are becoming the new man in reality.
The new man is the reproduction of Christ as the prototype; Christ came to fulfill God’s purpose, and He is now being reproduced in us, the many members of His Body and the components of the one new man.
The first man, Adam, fell, and it seemed that God’s purpose was defeated, but praise the Lord, the second man came to be the real and true first God-man; He set up a pattern of living a God-man life for God to be expressed and represented in humanity.
May we pay attention to this man, cast our eyes on Him, and look away to Him! Where the first man failed, the second man has accomplished God’s will. Where Adam failed, the last Adam has fulfilled.
He fulfilled God’s purpose, and as such a One, He is qualified to be our prototype, our Redeemer and Savior to make us the same as He is!
Christ became the first God-man with Divinity and Humanity to Fulfill God’s Purpose
In His creation of man, God designed man to be the same as He is so that man would be one with God and filled with God’s life, with the issue that man would express God in His image and represent Him with His dominion.
God created man in His own image with the intention that man would become His duplication; He made man according to His inner being and His outward appearance so that man would look like God, walk like God, do things like God, speak like God, and be like God in all respects.
We were created with the capacity to contain God, be filled with God, and express God; we were made in God’s image to be His duplication and after His likeness to be His expression. What a high and great purpose of God we see in His creation of man!
For man to express God and represent Him, however, he had to take in the tree of life, which is a symbol of God as life to come into man for the fulfillment of God’s purpose.
Adam didn’t do this; he failed in God’s purpose and damaged God’s design. Through Adam’s fall sin came into mankind, and mankind became fallen.
But thousands of years later, praise the Lord, Jesus Christ came as the Man-Savior to fulfill God’s purpose in creating man!
God didn’t give up on man; even though man failed God in His purpose and destroyed His design, man didn’t create another man but rather He Himself came to be the second man (1 Cor. 15:47).
The Son of God came to be a man; He was not created but rather, He was conceived of the Holy Spirit and born of a human virgin.
In Luke 1:31-35 we see how the Lord was conceived of the divine essence (the holy thing conceived in Mary was of the Holy Spirit) and the human essence (He was conceived in a human being and was born of a woman).
By birth the Lord Jesus was composed of two essences – the divine essence and the human essence, and He had two natures – the divine nature and the human nature.
Because this wonderful One was a composition of the divine and the human essences, He was the mingling of God and man and became the first God-man.
Through His incarnation Christ brought the infinite God into the finite man (Luke 1:35; John 1:1, 14; Col. 2:9). Christ became the first God-man with divinity and humanity so that He may fulfill God’s purpose.
Christ is both the complete God and the perfect man, possessing the divine nature and the human nature distinctly.
Christ is the God-man, a person who is the mingling of divinity with humanity (Luke 1:35; Phil. 2:5-8).
When we read the Gospels what we see is not just a Man or God but a God-man; in Him we see all the divine attributes and all the human virtues. In story after story and case after case, Christ expressed God in His human virtues.
Because the Lord Jesus was conceived of the Holy Spirit with the divine essence, He possesses the divine nature with the divine attributes (Matt. 1:18, 20). Because He was born of the human virgin with the human essence, Christ possesses the human nature with the human virtues (Luke 1:26-35).
Hallelujah for such a Christ!
Lord, we praise You and we enjoy You as the first God-man, the One who came to be the mingling of God and man. Thank You for coming as God becoming man to bring the infinite God into the finite man and express the bountiful God in His rich attributes through Your aromatic human virtues. Hallelujah, Jesus Christ as the first God-man came to express God in His image and represent Him with His dominion on the earth! Thank You Lord for coming into us to make us God-men, men mingled with God having both the divine nature and the human nature for the fulfillment of God’s eternal purpose!
Christ’s Human Living was of a Man who Lived God to Express the Divine Attributes in the Human Virtues
Some believers and unbelievers alike may wonder, Why did Jesus have to come and be born of a human virgin, live for thirty-three and half years, and then die for our redemption?
Why didn’t He come as a thirty-three and half years old man, and as such a One, He could have accomplished redemption?
This is a natural question, a question that is veiled by our natural concept and understanding.
Christ came as God becoming man, and He didn’t just die for our redemption; much more, His human living was the living of a man who lived God to express the divine attributes in the human virtues (see Luke 7:11-17; 10:25-37; 19:1-10).
When He saw the widow who was burying her only son, He was moved with compassion and raised him up. He is the “good Samaritan” who loves His neighbor and cares for him, caring for his wounds and bringing him to an inn. He visits the tax collectors where they live to be with them, and salvation enters into their house.
In story after story and case after case in the Gospels we see how Christ as the first God-man expressed the bountiful God in His rich attributes through His aromatic human virtues; He lived God and expressed God.
Our daily living today needs to be the living of this Christ; if we don’t live the same as He did, we are not fulfilling God’s purpose yet, and we are not yet the one new man.
Christ expressed in His humanity the bountiful God in His rich attributes through His aromatic human virtues (Luke 7:36-50; Heb. 2:17).
He expressed the divine attributes of love, light, holiness, and righteousness (Eph. 3:19; John 8:12; Acts 3:14a), and His aromatic human virtues include His mercy, compassion, meekness, forbearance, lowliness, obedience, faithfulness, and truthfulness (see Heb. 2:17; Matt. 9:36; 11:29; 2 Cor. 10:1; Phil. 2:8; Rom. 5:19; 2 Cor. 11:10).
Christ didn’t change the course of history and of mankind merely by the redemption He accomplished on the cross; rather, He changed both mankind and our life by expressing the divine attributes in the human virtues to fulfill the purpose of God in creating man.
Christ lived a human life filled with the divine life as its content. The Gospels don’t merely present stories about Jesus; rather, they show a revelation of the God-man who lived a human life filled with the divine as its content.
As the One who lived such a life, Christ as the Man-Savior had the divine nature with the divine attributes, and He expressed these attributes through His human virtues.
When people saw Him, they saw a man, but they also saw something of God being expressed through man; it was difficult for others to say whether He was living on earth or was it God, whether He did things or was it God who did things in and through Him.
When He loved, God loved others through Him, and when He cared for others, God cared for them through Him. In the life of this Man-Savior we see a love that is the love of a God-man, a love which is the human virtue of love filled with the divine attribute of love.
The Lord’s living was a matter of the human virtues which were filled, strengthened, uplifted, and enriched by the divine attributes.
And as such a One He lives in us and wants to be reproduced and duplicated in us to make us the new man that fulfills His purpose! Hallelujah!
Thank You Lord for coming not only to redeem us on the cross but also to live a God-man life, a life that expressed the divine attributes in the human virtues. We love You Lord, for You are such a wonderful One; You lived God to express the bountiful God in His rich attributes through Your aromatic human virtues. You are merciful, compassionate, meek, forbearing, lowly, obedient, faithful, and true. Thank You Lord for coming into us as such a One to live the same kind of life in us for the fulfillment of God’s purpose!
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, the message by bro. Minoru Chen for this week, and portions from, Life-study of Luke, msgs. 56-57 (Witness Lee), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, The One New Man Fulfilling God’s Purpose in Creating Man (2019 fall ITERO), week 2, Christ as the Son of Man, the Second Man, and the Last Adam Fulfilling God’s Intention in Creating Man.
- Hymns on this topic:
– Oh! Christ, expression of God, the Great, / Inexhaustible, rich, and sweet! / God mingled with humanity / Lives in me my all to be. / The fulness of God dwells in Thee; / Thou dost manifest God’s glory; / In flesh Thou hast redemption wrought; / As Spirit, oneness with me sought. (Hymns #501)
– 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. (Song on, What miracle! What mystery!)
– O to be like Thee! full of compassion, / Loving, forgiving, tender and kind, / Helping the helpless, cheering the fainting, / Seeking the wand’ring sinners to find. (Hymns #398)
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