As the one new man, we need to have a living that is exactly the same as the living of Jesus; we need to live a corporate God-man life, a life of expressing the attributes of God in the human virtues, a life of depending on God.
For this, we need to be renewed in the spirit of our mind. In ourselves and by ourselves, even with all our desire to fulfil God’s purpose and obey the word of God, we cannot express God or fulfil His plan.
As believers in Christ, our living today should be the same as the living of Jesus; however, such a living is not by our efforts and striving but by the life of the One who lives in us. Christ lives in us.
He is in our spirit, and in spirit, we are joined to Him as one spirit (1 Cor. 6:17).
We need to learn to live in and according to our mingled spirit.
We need to allow the mingled spirit to spread into our mind to renew our mind. On one hand, we have the divine life of God in our spirit which constantly seeks to spread into our inner being and live in us.
On the other hand, we have the holy word of God outside of us, and as we pray and read the word of God, we enjoy Him, we partake of His nature, and we are sanctified.
The more we pray, read, and fellowship in the word of God, having a heart turned to the Lord and a spirit exercised to receive the Lord, we are inwardly supplied and filled with the life of God, and the Lord can do in us what we can’t do in ourselves: He can live in us to express God through us.
And this living is spontaneous and effortless.
Such a living, the living of Jesus in us by our denying ourselves and taking Christ as our life and person, is the living of the new man.
Such a living is a living that corresponds to the reality in Jesus, for it is a living according to the spirit of our mind.
The more we exercise our spirit, set our mind on our spirit, and allow the Lord to spread into our mind, even asking Him to do this, the more our spirit becomes the prominent part of our being, and in our daily living, we will no longer live in our old manner of life but live Christ.
Praise the Lord, we are daily learning Christ as the reality is in Jesus, for God put us here, in Christ!
We are daily learning Christ as the mold into whom we were placed. We learn Christ as the reality is in Jesus as we live according to the spirit of our mind.
The spontaneous and effortless living of the new man is that we are kind to one another, we are tenderhearted, we forgive one another and forget others’ offenses, and our speaking does not tear down but rather it builds up.
The new man living is a forgiving living, a tenderhearted living, a living that is compassionate and kind to others; such a living is spontaneous as we allow Christ to live in us by our living according to the spirit of our mind.
Christ’s Human Living was Man Living God to Express God’s Attributes in the Human Virtues
When we read the Gospels we see a wonderful and sweet pattern, the Lord Jesus, who was not only God but also man; His human living was man living God to express the attributes of God in the human virtues.
Christ as a man had human virtues, but He didn’t live by His perfect human virtues but rather, He lived by the divine life, the life of God the Father so that the divine life would be expressed and manifested through Him.
The human virtues of Christ were filled, mingled, and saturated with the divine attributes; what others saw in Him was not just love but the divine love expressed through the human virtue of love, and the divine compassion expressed through the human virtue of compassion.
In Luke 1:26-35, we see how the angel came to Mary to talk about the conception of Jesus; He was to be called the Son of God, for He was both God and man, having the divine life and the divine nature. This is our Man-Savior Jesus Christ.
In Luke 7:11-17, there’s the story of the woman in Nain who lost her only son; she was a widow, so she was grieving very much.
When the Lord saw her, He was moved with compassion for her and said to her, Do not weep; He came near to the bier, touched it, and resurrected the dead young man and gave him to his mother.
We shouldn’t be distracted by the miracle He performed but rather, enjoy and partake of the pattern that He set before us.
He saw the need, and no one asked Him to do anything; rather, He was moved with compassion, and He was not too busy with His ministry to notice this one in distress. What a compassionate Savior we have!
May we all have the sensitivity and compassion to reach out to the ones who are so consumed with their situation that they don’t even ask for help; they are so distraught that they don’t even know how to ask for help.
The Lord in us as the pattern can move in us to reach out to someone; we simply need to learn Christ as the reality is in Jesus.
In Luke 10:25-37, we see the story of the “good Samaritan”; again, he is compassionate.
The Lord is the compassionate One who sees the one persecuted, beaten, and put down, and even without us asking for help, He comes in, pours oil and wine, and takes care of us until we’re fully restored.
As we enjoy the Lord’s compassion and loving care for us, we can also show compassion to others; only the recipients of the Lord’s compassion can have compassion toward others, for the Lord as the pattern lives in them to show others compassion.
In Luke 19:1-10 the Lord had compassion on Zaccheus who was despised by others for being a tax collector; though others criticized Him for going to lodge with this sinful man, the Lord was full of compassion, and salvation flowed from Him to this one.
What a mold we have been put in – this Christ whose human living was man living God to express the attributes of God in the human virtues!
He didn’t just live by His perfect humanity – rather, He denied Himself and allowed the divine attributes to fill His human virtues, be mingled with them, and saturate them for the expression of God in man!
When Christ was on earth, even though He was a man, He lived God (John 6:57; 5:19, 30; 6:38; 8:28; 7:16-17).
Again and again, He testified that He did not do His own will but the will of the Father and He lived because of the Father.
The Lord Jesus did not speak His own words but what He heard from the Father, that is what He spoke. He didn’t do His own work but did the work of the Father, and He sought not His own glory but the glory of Him who sent Him.
The Lord Jesus lived God and expressed God in everything; whatever He did was God’s doing from within Him and through Him (John 14:10).
Such a One now lives in us, eager to live the same kind of life in us today; when we allow Him to live in us, when we turn to Him, are filled with Him, and let Him live in us, we will also express the divine attributes through our human virtues, and our living will be the living of the one new man.
Lord Jesus, we love You and we appreciate You in Your human living. What a pattern You are to us! Thank You for coming to live a perfect human life and express the attributes of God in the human virtues. Thank You for having compassion on us, coming to us in the low estate where we were, and ministering to us in love and care until we are fully restored. Amen, Lord, we want to learn Christ as the reality is in Jesus. Live in us today, dear Lord, the same kind of life that You lived while on the earth. May our human virtues be filled, mingled, and saturated with the divine attributes, and may we live the life of the new man by Christ living in us and being expressed through us!
The Living of the New Man is the Same as the Living of Jesus, the Life of a God-man
Praise the Lord, we as believers in Christ are members of the church as the one new man, and Christ lives in us! Our living as the one new man should be exactly the same as the living of Jesus; this can take place by our enjoying the bountiful supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ (Phil. 1:19-21).
For the one new man as the corporate God-man, we all need to live the life of a God-man (Phil. 3:10; Eph. 4:20-21; cf. 1 John 4:17 and footnote 5 in the RcV Bible).
The Spirit is now a bountiful supply for us to enjoy, partake of, and experience, so that Christ may be magnified through us.
The bountiful supply of the Spirit includes the reality that is in Jesus; it includes everything of the Lord’s humanity, His human living, His death, His resurrection, His victory, and His overcoming.
Paul experienced the bountiful supply of the Spirit in a Roman prison; even there he could live Christ and have the living of the one new man.
As we enjoy the Lord’s pattern, His human living as presented in the Gospels, we imitate Him by being conformed to Him; we have been put in Him as the mold, and we can live the same kind of life as He did.
The living of the new man is the same as the living of Jesus; such a living is by the bountiful supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ.
May we come to the Word of God with a prayerful attitude so that we may know Christ more, be impressed with His pattern, and be infused with Him and His human living!
Christ lived a life of realizing God, expressing God, and living because of God; then, He went through the process of death and resurrection, and He became a life-giving Spirit who comes to impart His bountiful supply to us so that we may live the same kind of life today.
We should long to experience Christ to such a point that we give grace by our words, we are compassionate and tenderhearted, and we are kind to one another for the building up of the church.
Even as the Lord is, so also are we in this world (1 John 4:17); Christ who lived in this world a life of God as love is now our life that we may live the same life of love in this world and be the same as He is. Amen!
We are like a glove, having the image and likeness of God, and Christ is like the hand in the glove, expressing Himself through us for the manifestation and glory of God.
Even as He lived a life on earth that was absolutely according to and for God’s New Testament economy, so we can live in this world for the glory of God.
The Gospel of Mark, in particular, shows us the Lord’s living as the Slave-Savior; His deeds rather than His speaking are highlighted in this gospel.
What a life He lived – He served God and man, He came not to be served but to serve, and He expressed God in His human virtues.
This is the mold into whom we have been put; this is the life that is in us.
He took time to pray to the Father, even rising up early to spend much time with the Father, and when others found Him and told Him that people want to see Him, He did not linger in the success of His work but was directed by the will of the Father in what He did.
Such a One lives in us so that our living as the new man would be the same as the living of Jesus, that is, the living of a God-man.
In our daily living, we need to learn Christ as the reality is in Jesus, and we need to live the same kind of life that Jesus lived. We may even tell Him in our time with Him,
Lord Jesus, may our living today be exactly the same as the living of Jesus for the corporate expression of God in man. Thank You for coming into us to be our life and person, and thank You for putting us into Yourself as the mold, the pattern, so that we may live the same kind of life that You lived. Amen, Lord, we want to learn Christ as the reality is in Jesus, allowing You to live in us. Even as You are, so are we in this world; the same kind of life that You lived, even the same kind of living we want to have today. Amen, Lord, we open to You, we take You as our pattern, and we want to be conformed to the image so that we may live the life of a God-man and have the living of Jesus in our daily living for the one new man!
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Sources of inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, the message by Ricky Acosta for this week, and portions from, Life-study of Luke, msg. 61 (by Witness Lee), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, The All-Inclusive, Extensive Christ Replacing Culture for the One New Man (2020 Thanksgiving Conference), week 5, Living the Life of the One New Man instead of Our Culture by Learning Christ as the Reality Is in Jesus.
- Hymns on this topic:
– “Consider Him,” let Christ thy pattern be, / And know that He hath apprehended thee / To share His very life, His pow’r divine, / And in the likeness of thy Lord to shine. (Hymns #656)
– 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!)
– As Spirit of the life divine, / Thru us abundant fruit He bears; / Expressing God-like attributes, / To others Christ in life He shares. / The Spirit ever giving life / Transforms me thus with life divine; / Renewing all my inward parts, / In life He makes Christ’s image mine. (Hymns #244)
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