Christian Life is not a Performance but the Living of a God-man Life as God’s Species

The goal of our Christian practice should be to live the life of a God-man, the duplication and continuation of the life the Lord Jesus lived while on the earth. Our practice shouldn’t merely be something that is “according to the Bible” but practice living the life of a God-man, that is, living a life by the divine life in our spirit and not by our natural human life.

As believers in Christ we are God-men, those who are regenerated by God and transformed by Him to be one with Him, taking God as our life, person, and everything; as such ones, we are eventually becoming God in life and nature but not in the Godhead.

We need to practice living the life of a God-man, which is a life in crucifixion and by the Lord’s resurrection, a life in which we have been crucified with Christ and it is no longer us who live but Christ who lives in us, and the life which we now live in the flesh we live in faith (Gal. 2:20) – He lives in us and we live with Him, we two have the same living of God mingled with man.

The highest form of the family life, church life, social life, and marriage life comes out of the living the life of a God-man. The reality of the Body of Christ is the living of a God-man life. Living such a life saves us from all kinds of problems in our marriage life, church life, and family life.

If we live the life of a God-man, the Lord will obtain a model of a group of men living the life of a God-man, a model of what His church should be. If we live such a life, we will spontaneously go out to visit people and bring God to them, and we will be built with others to be a vital group.

Living the God-man life will help others be saved, edified, and built up in the local churches for the Body of Christ. If we all live the life of a God-man, this will bring in a new revival, the final and ultimate revival which we believe will bring the Lord back and will end this age.

May we all enter into the practice of living the life of a God-man by first realizing we are God-men belonging to the species of God so that the Lord would gain a group of people for whom He will return soon!

The Christian Life is not a Performance but the Living of a God-man Life

The Christian life is not a performance or an acting out of what the Bible says in front of people. A Christian shouldn’t be merely one who “declares he’s a Christian” but one who lives the God-man life.

A Christian should not be one who lives the Christian life as a profession; there should not be such a thing as a “professional Christian”. A professional singer performs on stage to please the crowds, but off the stage he can be a completely different person. A professional person knows how to live and act by the rules when in the spotlight, but when by himself he is someone else.

A Christian is not an actor, one who acts out something when he’s in church or with other believers a few times a week, but when at home or by himself he does something completely different. If we live the Christian life as a profession, we can at one point retire from it, and we will live two kinds of lives – one by ourselves and another one with the saints.

Even more, the Christian life is not a life of improving ourselves; as believers in Christ our focus shouldn’t be how to have a better marriage life, how to be better parents, how to manage our finances with the Lord, how to take care of our emotions, etc. The Christian life is not about living an ethical life or an improved life but living a life in the realm of the divine species, a life of a God-man.

What God wants is a group of people who live by the divine life and not by their human life so that they may live out a God-man life by the living Christ within them.

As believers in Christ we need to enter into a new revival, which is something completely different from what we have heard in Christianity. As an illustration, many times a revival as seen in Christianity is like someone taking steroids and thus becoming big and ready to do great works; what God wants is more like a fitness program where you blend the healthy eating and lifestyle with the proper exercise to get a revived being, a healthy and well-built man.

We need to let the Lord expose and remove the old-Christianity-concepts regarding what a revival is and allow the law of revival to operate in us and revive us every day! In his book, The Law of Revival, brother Lee pointed out five contrasts of what a revival is (and what is not):

1. Revival is not a miracle but a law in the spiritual realm. Just as humanly we apply the law of eating healthy, exercising daily, and having a balanced lifestyle to obtain a healthy and proper life – rather than taking steroids so that we would “pump ourselves up”, so spiritually we need to not seek a big miracle but a daily living of the life of a God-man in order to be revived. We don’t experience revival as a miracle but as an organic law, which is the innate law of the divine life within us.
2. Revival is not accidental but metabolic. Accidental revival can be likened to taking steroids (which puffs you up for a bit but then it all goes back to normal), and metabolic can be like a fitness program you enrol in. When we take care of the law of the divine life within us, we will have a metabolic change. There’s an ability and function in the divine life within us to grow and develop, and when we cooperate with the divine life within every day, we are experiencing revival daily.
3. Revival is not restorative but constitutive. We need to be revived not merely in the sense of being restored from sinning or failing but we need to be constituted with the divine element day by day. It is not just to take care of a problem when it arises but to be healthy and have a normal growth of the spiritual life within us.
4. Revival is not terminal but cyclical. We should seek to have a revival again and again, cycle after cycle. The more the new element replaces the old, the more we are revived, and the more our old elements are swallowed up by life.
5. Revival is not on and off but continuous. Revival shouldn’t be something happening from time to time, unpredictable, but something going on continually. Revival is not a once-for-all experience; the more we’re revived, the more we know Christ!

Lord Jesus, save us from living our Christian life as a performance or as a profession. Lord, bring us fully into the realm of the divine species so that we may live the Christian life by living the life of a God-man, the continuation and repetition of the life You lived on earth. Oh Lord, revive us day by day. May we know the law of revival and seek to be metabolically changed instead of seeking a miracle. Lord Jesus, we want to know You, experience You, and enjoy You all the time so that we may live one spirit with You!

Realizing that we are God-men Born of God and Belonging to the Divine Species to Live the God-man Life

The first thing we need to see for us to live the life of a God-man is that we as believers in Christ are God-men born of God and belonging to God’s species (1 John 3:1; 2:6). How can we live a God-man life without having the divine life? It is impossible! Living the God-man life, which is the normal Christian life, is living in the kingdom of God.

The Lord Jesus clearly told us that unless we are born anew, that is, born of water and of the Spirit, we cannot see or enter into the kingdom of God (John 3:3, 5-6). How shall we live as Christians? We should live in the kingdom of God by realizing that we are God’s species, the men who were regenerated by God with God’s gene to live out God’s life.

We are not here trying to live according to morality or ethics, and we shouldn’t try to live out in and by ourselves what the Bible sets out as rules. If we don’t have God’s life, we can’t enter into His kingdom and we can’t live the life pleasing to Him. But if we are regenerated and have God’s life, then the divine life in us can meet all the requirements of God’s kingdom and can live out the God-man life in us.

The kingdom of God is a realm – a realm not only of the divine dominion but also a realm of the divine species in which are all the divine things (see John 3:3, 6; 18:36). Man was created in God’s image and according to His likeness (Gen. 1:6), that is, man was created according to God’s kind.

Through regeneration we become the God-man kind and enter into the realm of the divine species. The only way we can live the God-man life is by living by the divine life in our spirit. God became man to enter into the human species, and man becomes God in life and nature but not in the Godhead through regeneration, transformation, and glorification to enter into the divine species (John 1:1, 12-14; 2 Pet. 1:4).

Just as a human being enters into the world through birth out of his human parents, so we enter into the kingdom of God as the realm of the divine species by being born of God to have the divine life and the divine nature (John 1:12-13; 3:3, 5-6, 15; 2 Pet. 1:4).

We must not forget that we are God-men belonging to God’s species. As God-men born of God and belonging to God’s species, we cannot speak to our spouse in a loose way. A husband must be a God-man, living as a God-man. To be merely a good man is far away from God’s good pleasure. We need to see that we are God-men, born of God and belonging to God’s species. This is the beginning of the God-man living.
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. In my early days as a believer, I saw many books on how to live the Christian life, but these books did not really reveal the way. 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)

Hallelujah! In God’s mercy we are born in this age and we are reborn by receiving God’s life in us, and we are even more than what Adam was – we not only have God’s image and likeness outwardly but we also have His divine life and nature inwardly, and are thus God-men in the kingdom of God!

We, the believers in Christ and the children of God, have the reality of the divine life, and we are being transformed and conformed to the Lord’s image in our entire being (2 Cor. 3:18; Rom. 12:2; 8:29).

What God desires is not merely good men or moral men; being a good man is far away from God’s good pleasure! We need to realize that, as believers in Christ, we are God-men belonging to the divine species – we are children of God possessing the divine life and nature of God!

To realize that we are God-men, born of God and belonging to God’s species, is the beginning of the God-man living!

Lord Jesus, cause us to realize that we are God-men, born of God and belonging to God’s species so that we may life the life of a God-man! Thank You for entering into the human species by incarnation and causing us to enter into the divine species through regeneration, transformation, and glorification. Lord, we don’t merely want to be good men pleasing to You: we want to be God-men living a God-man life by denying our self and living by the divine life in our spirit!

References and Hymns on this Topic

• Inspiration: the Word of God, my Christian experience, brother Andrew Yu’s sharing in the message for this week (most of the points above are inspired from his opening of the word), and portions from, Crystallization-study of the Gospel of John, msg. 12 (by Witness Lee), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, The Need for a New Revival, week 4 / msg 4, Living the Life of a God-man (2) Living in the Kingdom of God as the Realm of the Divine Species.
• All Bible verses are taken from, Holy Bible Recovery Version.
• Hymns on this topic to strengthen this burden:
  # God came as Spirit into man’s spirit, / Regenerating him; / In spirit man can enjoy God’s riches, / Fellowshipping with Him. / With God the Spirit I’m joined and mingled, / Transformed to like Him be; / His element’s added more and more / Till His expression is seen. (Song on being regenerated by God)
  # Oh, what a life! Oh, what a peace! / The Christ who’s all within me lives. / With Him I have been crucified; / This glorious fact to me He gives. / Now it’s no longer I that live, / But Christ the Lord within me lives. (Hymns #499)
  # The Christian life is a life, / A life of living Christ / For the constitution and building up / Of the Body of Christ; / The Christian life is a life of living Christ. (Song on the Christian life)