Christ Constantly Denied Himself: He Lived the Father and Worked with the Father

In His human living, the Lord Jesus expressed the Father, declared the Father, and lived the Father. God the Father sent Christ the Son, and the Son lived because of the Father (John 6:57).

This is very mysterious and yet very wonderful – Christ as the first God-man lived a life not in or by Himself but because of the Father, taking the Father as the source and supply. He didn’t care for His own interest, He didn’t seek His own glory, and He didn’t do anything from Himself.

The Father who sent the Son came with the Son and lived in the Son to be expressed in the Son, and when people saw Jesus, they saw God (see John 14:7-14).

The Lord Jesus lived from the manger to the cross a life under the shadow of the cross, always denying Himself and conversing with the Father, living the Father, speaking the Father’s words, and doing the Father’s will.

He worked with the Father to accomplish redemption and the building of God’s house, and He did nothing from Himself.

As such a One Christ lives in us to live the same kind of life in each of His believers today, so that God may have a corporate God-man living Christ and expressing God on the earth.

Lord, live in us today! We want to eat You and take You in as our life and life supply that we may live because of You! Gain the corporate living and working of the many God-men in this age!

The Lord Jesus Lived the Father

The Lord Jesus did not just live by the Father (as if the Father was supporting Him in His living) or through the Father (as if the Father is something else apart from Christ), but He lived because of the Father, taking the Father’s life and His being as His life and His being.

The Son didn’t live by the Father as if the Father is an instrument to help the Son in His living. Rather, the Lord Jesus lived the Father, and the Father was the cause of the Son’s living on earth.

This should be the same with us – the Lord Jesus is not someone who can help us to live a better life or to be a better person; He’s not an instrument or something that helps our living. We need to live not only by the Lord or through the Lord but also because of the Lord.

Christ is the cause, the source, the life, and the life-supply for our daily living. Without Christ, our life is meaningless. When we live because of Christ, when we have Him wrought into us and lived out of us, we are full of meaning and we work together with God for the accomplishment of His purpose.

Just as the Lord Jesus on earth sought not His interest or will but the Father’s interest, so we who eat Christ and live because of Him seek not our own will, comfort, ease, interest, or goal, but God’s will, God’s satisfaction, God’s interest, and God’s goal!

O Lord, You are the source of our life! We want to forsake any other things and return to You as our life and our life supply. Keep us eating You that we may live because of You. Work Yourself into us, dear Lord, as our life and our everything.

Christ Worked with the Father

The Lord Jesus was one who lived what He preached. He spoke of those who want to follow Him, that they need to deny themselves, take up their cross, and follow Him (John 5:19, Matt 16:24), and this is what He lived out.

In His earthly ministry, the Lord Jesus worked with the Father as one (John 5:17), and He didn’t do anything without the Father (Matt. 16:24). This requires the absolute denial of the self.

For a perfect and sinless man to deny himself and live by another life is not that easy – but Christ did this. Christ lived a life of denying Himself and taking God the Father as His life, His source, and His everything.

Since the Father works from eternity all the way through time and unto eternity, the Son also works one with the Father, be it Sabbath or any other day of the week (see John 5).

While the religious Jews were resting in keeping the Sabbath, the Father and the Son were working so that sinners might receive life, have rest, and be brought back to God.

The works which the Lord Jesus did on the earth, He did by the Spirit and with the Father. He never did anything of Himself, of His own initiative, or of His own will.

The Lord Jesus never remained or lingered in the success of something He did; rather, even when He was acclaimed and warmly welcomed into the city of Jerusalem (Matt. 21:12-13), He went straight to the Father’s house – the temple – to cleanse it. What a pattern! What a God-man!

Living a Life of Denying the Self

Christ lived a life of denying the self, taking up the cross, and doing the Father’s will in everything. He left us a model that we may follow in His footsteps.

We need to deny our self, not have any intention of doing anything from ourselves or for ourselves but have the intention of doing everything from Him. This should be our daily practice: denying the self by doing things of the Lord and with the Lord.

What we want is that Christ would be expressed in us and magnified in us. The people around us don’t believe there’s a God, but as we live because of Christ we magnify Him and they can see Christ!

Also, when we work, we don’t initiate, we’re not quick to give our opinion, but we again eat Christ to live and work because of Him!

We daily live to die so that we may die to live – we die to our self and we live to God, and we live Christ so that our self may be put to death.

Lord, keep us practicing this in our daily life. We want to practice denying the self so that Christ may live and work in us. Lord, may we see Your pattern and may we follow in Your footsteps. We want to be one with You in everything we do. Be the source of our life and work. Lord, live in us. Lord, work in us. We want to work with You by being one with You and allowing You to work in and through us.

References and Further Reading

• Sharing inspired from, The Conclusion of the New Testament (pages 741-743), and, The God-Man Living (chs. 8-9), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, The Unique Work in the Lord’s Recovery, week 2 (entitled, The Pattern of the Lord Jesus—the Work of Christ in His Human Living and Earthly Ministry).
• Hymns on this topic:
  # My soul, be silent, wait upon the Lord! / Till God may freely, fully flow thru thee, / Till all thy words and actions hour by hour / Are the fulfillment of God’s will thru thee.
  # By the cross discern the spirit, / Put the soul to death alway; / Bear the cross, deny the self-life, / Walk in spirit day by day.
  # 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.