In serving the Lord we need to have a proper humanity by being found in Christ; the standard of our humanity should not merely be morality and ethics but Christ Himself, the God-man, who lived a life of the highest standard of morality and ethics by expressing God’s attributes through His aromatic human virtues.
The humanity that we as serving ones should have shouldn’t be something that we are developing and improving to be “better people” and to be “nicer” and “gentler” to others for the sake of God; our humanity in serving God should be the divine attributes saturating and filling our human virtues to be expressed through us.
The highest morality is one in which divinity is added to our humanity. As human beings we are created in God’s image just as a glove is made in the image of a hand; in the same way as the glove has no meaning and content unless a hand fills us, our virtues are empty unless the divine attributes of God fill them to be expressed through them.
In serving God we need to pay attention not only to exercising our spirit, contacting the Lord, and taking Him as our source, but also to our humanity, our outward expression.
We are not those who live in a deliberate way, controlling ourselves and not speaking until we really think about it, neither should we be perfectionists or moralists; what we need to do is to allow God to saturate our human virtues and cooperate with Him so that He may be expressed through us in our humanity.
As those who serve the Lord we must have extraordinary love, boundless forbearance, unparalleled faithfulness, absolute humility, utmost purity, supreme holiness and righteousness, and brightness and uprightness.
In ourselves we have a fallen and faulty humanity, but in the divine life in our spirit are all the wonderful divine attributes which can be expressed through our human virtues. In our daily living, whether at home, at work, with other people, or in the church life, most of the problems are because of our humanity – our bad, imperfect, fallen humanity.
Oh, may the Lord shine on us that we may realize how much we need a proper humanity in serving the Lord and in living the Christian life, and may we cooperate with Him for such a humanity to be lived out in us!
Christ should be our Humanity, and we need to be Found in Christ in our Daily Living
As Christians and as those who serve the Lord in our spirit, we need to have Christ as our humanity. Our humanity is not something that we “develop”; yes, it is true that God made us with human virtues, but these virtues are fallen and empty, and we need to have Christ fill our virtues to be lived out through us.
The only Person that has the real humanity in this universe is Christ Himself. From the day we were saved, we were transferred from Adam into Christ; now Christ is growing in us (Matt. 13) and we are in Christ Jesus (1 Cor. 1:30).
It is a spiritual fact that we are in Christ Jesus; however, in our daily living we need to attain to a condition in which we are found in Christ (Phil. 3:9) so that we may magnify Christ in our body as always, whether through life or through death (Phil. 1:20).
Our union with the Lord is a fact, but we need to daily be found in Christ – not found in a religion, in ourselves, or in the world, but in Christ; when people see us, they need to find us in Christ, discover us in Christ, and witness that we live out Christ. This refers to our humanity; we are daily in a process of being transformed from being merely IN Christ to being FOUND in Christ (2 Cor. 12:2; Phil. 3:9).
The Christian humanity doesn’t refer to our natural virtues, neither does it refer to our “improving” or “developing” our human virtues; rather, Christian humanity is the Christ who lives in us and out of us.
We need to be found in Christ, and Christ should be magnified in our body (Phil. 1:19-21; 2 Cor. 12:2). Our humanity is just Christ being lived out in us. Living Christ is NOT being angelic but being human yet expressing Christ and exhibiting Him.
When people see us they shouldn’t see an “angelic” or “spiritual” person but someone who is human, yet in this humanity there’s something mysterious, something divine, something of Christ.
If we do not seek to be found in Christ by cooperating with the Lord to be transformed by Him daily, our humanity may become a problem to the people we work with, in our marriage life, and in the church life.
We shouldn’t be merely regulated by the government, the law, or the policeman, and neither should we merely live under the rule of our conscience; we should simply love God, live a life by being rooted in Him, and be willing to live in Christ and be found by others in Christ so that what we live out may be Christ.
May we be those like the Apostle Paul who, no matter where they are and what they do, Christ is magnified in their body; whether we are in poverty, riches, suffering, enjoyment, peace, danger, and even death, may we magnify Christ – may Christ be our humanity!
Lord Jesus, we take You as our humanity and we want to be found in You, not having our own righteousness but the righteousness that is of God through faith. We want to cooperate with You to be transformed day by day from merely being in Christ to being found in Christ. Lord, we are willing that You would live in us and be expressed in us. May others find us not in ourselves, in religion, or in the flesh but in Christ. Oh, to be found in Christ as one who expresses Christ and magnifies Him!
Being Empowered by Christ to Manifest Christ and have the Proper Humanity
In Phil. 4:8 Paul lists six virtues for us to pursue and seek: what things are true, dignified, righteous, pure, lovely, and well spoken of; such virtues are hard to achieve from man’s point of view, but we can have all these virtues in Christ who empowers us (Phil. 4:13).
We need to be ethically true, worthy of reverence, venerable, right before God and man, single in intention, lovable, enduring, well spoken of, and gracious; all these virtues are not OF ourselves nor of our cultivating them but of Christ, the One who lives in us and empowers us.
By ourselves we cannot achieve them, but we can possess them in Christ who empowers us. There’s an energy, a power, a virtue, that causes us to live out the proper humanity.
Having such a high humanity requires our cooperation in our daily living; otherwise, it can be lost. It is possible for Christians to degrade to the point of having a base humanity, not being noble, but even doing evil things to the Lord’s servants (see 2 Tim. 4:14) or loving the present age and forsaking the ministry (like Demas, 2 Tim. 4:10). Oh Lord Jesus!
We need to be willing to remain in Christ and be found in Him, and He will empower us to live out the proper humanity – which is Christ Himself expressed through us in many things that are true, dignified, righteous, pure, lovely, and well spoken of.
First we need to be equipped with such a humanity, and we will be qualified to serve the Lord; then, by standing firm in Christ through grace, we need to maintain this life through holding Christ as our humanity.
In this way we live out godliness and the proper humanity; godliness is God manifested in the flesh, Christ manifested in our bodies and lived out through us (2 Tim. 3:15). When God is manifested in the flesh, the enemy is shamed and people are won for Christ.
This takes “living Christ” to a deeper meaning; sometimes we may think that to live Christ is to be shining, powerful, angelic, or full of the Spirit….but to live Christ often times is in the smallest things such as our gestures, the way we respond to people, the way we look at someone, the way we react at certain situations and things.
It is in our daily human living that Christ is magnified as we allow Him to empower us and live in us. But once we lose the proper humanity, we do not have the position and right to serve the Lord; by the Lord’s grace, we have to maintain this life through holding Christ as the proper humanity. Oh Lord Jesus!
It is possible that our humanity would become bankrupt, like an animal, living in a base way; this should never happen to us, rather, we should be those who hold Christ as the proper humanity, seek to be found in Him, and be empowered by Christ to manifest Him in us in our humanity.
Lord Jesus, in ourselves we don’t have the proper humanity but in You by being empowered by You we can do all things! Amen, Lord, we are willing to remain in You and be found in You so that You may live in us and be expressed through us. Save us from losing the proper humanity and thus be disqualified from serving the Lord. Oh Lord, by Your grace we want to stand firm in Christ, maintaining this life through holding CHrist as the humanity so that Christ may be magnified in us in our daily living!
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, the message by brother Minoru C. for this week, and The Glorious Vision and the Way of the Cross, ch. 4 (by Witness Lee), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Service for the Building up of the Church (2016 Spring ITERO), week 5 / msg. 5, The Humanity of One who Serves the Lord.
- All Bible verses are taken from, Holy Bible Recovery Version.
- Hymns on this topic:
# Christ is a genuine man, / The perfect and finest man, / Obedient, serving, no appearance of evil, / The finest personality, / Divinity expressed through humanity. / Christ is the pattern for our human living. / His perfect life is filling us. / Christ is the pattern for our human living, / The fine and balanced humanity of Jesus! (Song on Christ in His humanity)
# Pursue Him and know Him; be found in Him. / Count all things loss for Him. / Just gain Him, obtain Him; lay hold of Him. / It’s Christ the central vision. (Song on being in Christ)
# Lord, my desire is to be found in You / As lived out righteousness, give me this view. / Lord, clothe and stitch me, with embroidery / Day by day, inwrought Your gold in me. (Song on Cooperating with the Lord)
About aGodMan
Today, we should be those who are willing to remain in Christ and be found in Him. In this way, we can do all things in Him who empowers us (Phil. 4:13). Every one of the six virtues—that which is true, dignified, righteous, pure, lovely, and well spoken of (v. 8)—is hard to achieve from man’s point of view. But we can do all these in Him who empowers us. In this way, we live out godliness and the proper humanity, which is just Christ manifested in our bodies and lived out through us.
First we have to be equipped with such a humanity. Only then are we qualified to serve the Lord. Once we lose this humanity, we do not have the position and the right to serve the Lord. Second, I know that you are still young. I am at least sixty years ahead of you. I am very familiar with this way, but you have a long way yet to go. There are many difficulties along the way. “God hath not promised skies always blue, / Flower-strewn pathways all our lives through” (Hymns, #720). For this reason, by grace you have to stand firm in Christ, maintaining this life through holding Christ as the humanity. (The Glorious Vision and the Way of the Cross, pp. 42, 46-47)