The Lord Jesus set up a model for our God-man living – He was crucified to live so that God might be expressed through humanity; today we are His continuation, and we should live the same kind of life that Jesus lived.
If we read the Gospels we can clearly see a pattern, an example, which Christ set forth; He didn’t come merely to die for us and redeem us, bringing us back to God from sin.
Christ came to do the will of God the Father; when He spoke, He spoke what He heard from the Father when He worked, He worked the same work that the Father did, and He did not do His own will but the Father’s will, seeking not His glory but the glory of the One who sent Him.
Even more, in His daily living on earth, the Lord Jesus did not live by His perfect human life but constantly denied Himself, living a crucified life, and He expressed the divine attributes through His human virtues.
When we look at the human living of this One we can see that He didn’t just love or had compassion on others; His love and compassion were the expression of the divine attributes of love and compassion through His human virtues.
There was something aromatic, divinely-human and humanly-divine, about Him; others were drawn to Him not only because of what He spoke but even more, because of what He was and what He lived.
He took much time, again and again, to go and pray alone to the Father, and He treasured the Father’s will and glory more than man’s appreciation.
On one hand, He lived as a perfect man who expressed the bountiful God in His rich attributes through His aromatic human virtues.
On the other hand, He was the Slave-Savior, the One who came not to be served but to serve; He denied Himself, did the work of God, served man, ministered God to man, and even laid down His own life for man.
In story after story and case after case, the Lord Jesus lived a life full of grace and reality; His human living is the only real human living and the only human living that is approved and appreciated by the Father.
Because He lived such a life, constantly depending on the Father and seeking the Father’s will, He was qualified to be our Savior and Redeemer.
Even more, such a One went through death to terminate everything negative and also to redeem us, and He came out in resurrection to become a life-giving Spirit.
Now as the life-giving Spirit He comes into all those who believe into Him, and He wants to live the same kind of life in them.
The living of the new man should be exactly the same as the living of Jesus, for Jesus lives again in His many believers as they live Christ.
We are His continuation, His duplication, and His reproduction, and we should live the same kind of life as Jesus lived.
In ourselves, we can’t do this and we should not even try to do this by our own efforts; we should simply deny ourselves and learn to live by Him, living out His life through the bountiful supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ.
As His Continuation and Expansion, we should Live the same kind of Life that Jesus Lived
If we say that we abide in the Lord – which we do, whenever we turn to our spirit and live in the spirit – we need to also walk even as He walked (1 John 2:6).
The Lord Jesus today cannot be seen visibly among us on earth, but He has been increased, expanded, reproduced, and continued through His many believers; now the many believers in Christ should live the same kind that Jesus lived.
The Lord’s God-man living set up a model for our God-man living; He set up a pattern, a mold, an example, and we need to follow in His footsteps and imitate Him by living the same kind of life that He lived.
What kind of life did the Lord Jesus live? He lived a life of being crucified to live so that God may be expressed in humanity.
As Paul said in Gal. 2:20, we have been crucified with Christ and it should be no longer us who live but Christ who lives in us; and the life we now live in the flesh, we live in faith, the faith of the Son of God who loved us and gave Himself up for us.
Christ died daily to live; we need to daily die to ourselves to live to Christ. We are a copy of Christ today, and we should live the same kind of life that Jesus lived.
The life of the one new man is the same kind of life that Jesus lived; our living should not be according to our culture, ethics, morality, tradition, or tradition but according to Christ, the mold into whom we have been put, and this we do by the divine life in us.
For us to live the same kind of life that Jesus lived, we need to deny ourselves, be conformed to Christ’s death, and magnify Him by the bountiful supply of His Spirit (Matt. 16:24; Phil. 3:10; 1:19-21a).
When unbelievers deny themselves, there’s nothing left; when we as believers deny the self, Christ can live in us the same kind of life that He lived when on the earth.
We must reject self-cultivation and condemn the building up of the natural man; our imitating Christ is not by cultivating the self or building up our old man, neither is it the perfecting of our natural virtues to make them more Christ-like.
Rather, we need to realize that the Christian virtues are related essentially to the divine life, to the divine nature, and to God Himself (Gal. 5:22-23).
The human virtues which we need to have and express in our human living are not the product of our self-improvement or self-cultivation; they are the issue of our living by another life, the divine life, and according to another nature, the divine nature.
Love, joy, peace, long-suffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, and all the Christian virtues are not something that we see in Jesus or in other believers and then try to copy; such an effort is a guaranteed failure.
Even if we are successful in trying to copy these virtues for a short period of time, this still is not the living of the one new man, for it is self-motivated, being an expression of the self.
Many times those who seem to be successful in expressing some of the Christian virtues because of their self-cultivation are judgemental of others who don’t come up to the standard. Oh, Lord!
It is absolutely necessary that we die to ourselves, deny ourselves, and allow the life of the Lord Jesus as our pattern to be reproduced within us in our daily living.
We have been put into Christ, the mold, and now we are being conformed to His image; we are conformed to the death of Christ by the power of His resurrection (Phil. 3:10), and the bountiful supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ strengthens us within to live the life of a God-man, that is, live the same kind of life that Jesus lived when He was on earth.
Hallelujah, we are the expansion and increase of Christ as the first God-man, and we should and can live the same kind of life that Jesus lived! Thank You, Lord Jesus, for setting up a model for our God-man living. You were daily crucified to live so that God may be expressed in humanity, and Your human virtues were the expression of the divine attributes. Amen, Lord, we reject any self-cultivation; we condemn the building up of the natural man. We put ourselves aside; we reject and deny the self, and we choose to live by the divine life in our spirit. Amen, Lord, live in us today. May our Christian virtues be the expression of the divine life within us by which we live, and may the divine nature be manifested through us! Amen, Lord, grant us that we live the same kind of life that Jesus lived to be His continuation and reproduction on earth as the one new man!
We open to the Lord, Enjoy Him Prayerfully in the Word, Let Him Saturate us, and Spontaneously Live Him
How can we live Christ? How can we live the same kind of life that Jesus lived when on the earth? It is not by self-improvement or self-cultivation.
Rather, we need to open our entire being to the Lord and receive – in a spirit and atmosphere of prayer – His charge that we be full of compassion even as our Father is full of compassion (Luke 6:36).
As we contact the Lord as the compassionate One every morning (Lam. 3:22-23; Rom. 9:15 and footnote 2; Exo. 34:6; Psa. 103:8; Luke 1:78-79; 10:25-37; Rom. 12:1) and enjoy Him prayerfully in His word, He saturates us and infuses us with Himself, and we spontaneously live not our old manner of life but we live Christ.
We need to come back to the Lord all the time, every morning, touching Him as the compassionate One.
We can be full of compassion only when we are touching the Lord as the compassionate One and when we experience Him as such a One.
Only by enjoying and experiencing the compassionate God can we be compassionate toward others.
God does not expect us to do things apart from Him as the source; He wants us to come to Him, enjoy Him, allow Him to saturate and fill us, and live one with Him.
It is the Lord’s lovingkindness that we are not consumed; His compassions are new every morning, and He is waiting for us to come to Him daily, even every moment, to contact Him and enjoy Him, so that He may flow through us.
He deals with us in tenderness and sweetness; we can come with joy in His presence, and He will saturate and supply our soul with all His precious essence.
Praise the Lord, when we come to Him daily, when we bathe in His countenance and enjoy Him in His word, His divine element is being added to our being, our old element is being discharged, and there’s an organic change taking place inwardly – we are being reconstituted with God, He becomes our source, and our living becomes His living!
The way for us to live the same kind of life that Jesus lived is for us to contact the Lord, spend time with Him, be saturated with Him, and be supplied in our soul with His precious essence.
As we spend time with the Lord in calmness and quietness, enjoying Him and allowing Him to work Himself into us, we will simply tell Him, Lord, may it be done to me according to Your word.
We shouldn’t take the things in the Bible and try our best to do them, trying to live according to some standard that we think we should live up to, or imitate the Lord in some way.
Rather, as Mary did in Luke 1, we should realize that no word of the Lord is impossible for Him to do it, and we should simply agree with the Lord’s word and let Him do it in us. If we have such an attitude of opening to Him and being in prayer, He will be able to do it in us.
If we come to the Lord to fellowship with Him, bathe in His countenance, and are saturated with His beauty, we will radiate His excellence.
May we take time to behold Him, be in Him, bathe in His sweet countenance, and fellowship with Him to just enjoy Him and be infused with Him.
Our time with Him should be just a “quick shower” but “bathe in His countenance”.
If we experience fellowshipping with the Lord in a deeper and sweeter way in the morning, if He as the rising sun will visit us from on high, He will guide our feet all the day in the way of peace.
Lord, we open our entire being to You to prayerfully receive Your charge to be full of compassion even as our Father is also full of compassion. We want to experience You as the God of all compassions, the One whose compassions are new every morning! We contact You as the compassionate One every morning. We stay with joy in Your presence. We bathe in Your countenance. Saturate and supply our soul with Your precious essence. Amen, Lord, infuse us with Yourself and saturate us with Yourself. We want to live the same kind of life that Jesus lived by being infused with Jesus, filled with Jesus, and saturated with Jesus. Amen, Lord Jesus, live in us today!
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 Mark, pp. 475-476, 559-560 (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:
– In tenderness He deals with me, / While I stay with joy in His presence; / And He saturates and supplies my soul / With all His precious essence. (Hymns #554)
– Pray to fellowship with Jesus, / Bathing in His countenance; / Saturated with His beauty, / Radiate His excellence. (Hymns #784)
– He died for me that I might live; / I live for Him who died, / My life, my love to Him I give— / Jesus, the Crucified. / O Jesus, my Lord and Savior, / Help me to fully follow Thee / In life and death and loving service, / As Thou hast lived and died for me. (Hymns #362)
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