What an amazing fact that today we can experience Christ as the wheat – the Christ who is willing to be limited, to die, and be buried!
Today we can experience Christ as the reality of good land, a land of wheat and barley; the wheat typifies the incarnated, crucified, and buried Christ – we can experience the limited Christ, the incarnated Christ, in our limiting and pressing situations, and He can cause us to be satisfied in such situations. Amen!
This week we come to the topic of, A Land of Wheat and Barley, especially the matter of experiencing Christ as the reality of the land of wheat and barley.
In Deut. 8 Moses said that Jehovah brings His people to a good land, a land of water, of brooks and springs and of fountains flowing forth in valleys and in mountains.
This is a land of wheat and barley and vines and fig trees and pomegranates, a land of olive trees with oil and of honey.
In this land, the Lord’s people will eat bread without scarcity, and they will not lack anything in it/ Hallelujah!
In this land the stones are iron and from the mountains, people can mine copper. What a land!
How can we apply this land to our experience, and how can we understand the spiritual application of this wonderful land to our Christian living?
Thank the Lord for the opening up of His word through the ministry of the age for us to see that the good land with all its characteristics and features is an all-inclusive type of Christ, a complete type of the all-inclusive Christ to be our everything.
We may understand this and we may agree with this, and to some extent we may enjoy and experience this, but we need to advance in our experience and enjoyment of the all-inclusive Christ as the good land.
To this day, not many Bible expositors have properly explained, expounded, and applied the type of the good land so that the believers in Christ may enter into its spiritual significance.
The main reason is that, even up to this moment, the evil forces in the heavenlies are veiling the all-inclusive Christ from God’s people.
Throughout the years, the Lord Jesus has been available to us to enjoy and experience as the all-inclusive good land, but the enemy is actively working to veil the believers in Christ from seeing the all-inclusive Christ.
But to praise the Lord, we today can return to God’s word, return to the proper interpretation of God’s word, and go on enjoying the Lord and experiencing Him as the all-inclusive good land in our daily living. May this be our experience today.
May we ask the Lord to bring us on with Him in our experience of Christ so that we may advance in our Christian life and take the good land step by step.
May we exercise our spirit daily to partake of the riches of Christ and may we experience Christ as the reality of the many items in the good land, as unveiled in God’s word.
The Wheat Signifies the Incarnated Christ, the Limited Christ, the Crucified and Buried Christ
The wheat in Deut. 8:8 typifies the incarnated, crucified, and buried Christ; the Lord Jesus spoke of Himself as the grain of wheat in John 12:24.
He said that, unless He as the grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, He abides alone, but if He dies, He will bear much fruit.
The good land is a land of wheat – the first thing mentioned regarding the good land is that it is a land of what.
How wise is our God! He didn’t say that it is a land of vines or of barley first, but of wheat.
Wheat signifies the incarnated, crucified and buried Christ.
The wheat represents Christ incarnated.
Christ is God incarnated; in Christ, God was incarnated to be limited, constricted, constrained, and even made subject to death and burial.
The wheat typifies the Christ who was incarnated, the Christ who died, and the Christ who was buried.
In His full ministry in the stage of His incarnation, Christ brought the infinite God into the finite man (John 1:1, 14).
As the infinite God, Christ could do anything He wanted, and everything and everyone was under Him.
But this infinite God chose to be finite, to be humbled, and to be limited. He chose to become a man and be limited in a little man, Jesus, a little carpenter from Nazareth.
He became a man like you and me. We cannot imagine the magnitude of the limitation Christ took upon Himself.
We think we’re limited today – just imagine how limited God was to become a finite human being in flesh and blood.
As a finite man, Christ in the flesh was limited in time and space (7:6, 10).
Those around Him could go here and there, do this and that, but the Lord Jesus was limited not only in time and space but even more, by the will of the Father.
The Father’s will limited Him.
In eternity, God existed without beginning or end and without any limitation.
But when He became man, He was limited in time and space.
He was limited by the Father’s timing, the Father’s word, and the Father’s work.
He did not do things from Himself nor did He speak His own words; He spoke what He heard from the Father, did the work of the Father, and went places where the Father wanted Him to go and when the Father wanted Him to go.
The Lord is the infinite, eternal, unlimited God, but He lived here on earth as a man, being limited in the matter of time. Wow!
God exists in eternity and there is no time element with God, but He stepped out of eternity and into time.
He chose to be limited. He chose to be humbled.
He chose limitation. He lived as a man, a relatively unknown and unpopular man limited in time for thirty-three and a half years.
Although the Lord is the almighty God, as a man under persecution, he was limited in relation to His activity.
When others persecuted Him, He could have asked for many legions of angels to protect Him, but He chose to be limited and go through suffering.
He went up to Jerusalem to submit Himself to the testing of His persecutors; He was not free.
As a finite man, Christ in the flesh was limited in knowledge (Matt. 24:36; Luke 2:40, 52; cf. John 7:15; Mark 6:1-3).
We would think that Jesus was born with the knowledge of all that God has, but He still had to learn things as a child – He was limited in knowledge.
![But concerning that day and hour, no one knows, not even the angels of the heavens nor the Son, but the Father only. Matt. 24:36 And the little child grew and became strong, being filled with wisdom, and the grace of God was upon Him...And Jesus advanced in wisdom and stature and in the grace [manifested in Him] before God and men. Luke 2:40, 52](https://i0.wp.com/www.agodman.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/But-concerning-that-day-and-hour-no-one-knows-not-even-the-angels-of-the-heavens-nor-the-Son-but-the-Father-only-683x1024.webp?resize=400%2C600&ssl=1 "But concerning that day and hour, no one knows, not even the angels of the heavens nor the Son, but the Father only. Matt. 24:36 And the little child grew and became strong, being filled with wisdom, and the grace of God was upon Him...And Jesus advanced in wisdom and stature and in the grace [manifested in Him] before God and men. Luke 2:40, 52")
He grew in time, he was filled with wisdom, and He advanced in wisdom.
He learned many things. He even learned obedience through the things He suffered.
As a finite man, Christ in the flesh had a natural, human life and a dependent existence (John 10:11, 15, 17; 6:57a; Matt. 14:19).
He used to be independent and free, but He became dependent on God in time.
He knew He would lay down His life at the right time for His sheep, for all of us.
This whole time as a man, Christ knew the Father and the Father knew Him.
In everything, this man was entirely looking to the Father for everything, for every word and action; He was fully dependent on God for everything.
We can experience Him as such a One. He lives in us. His life is for us.
We can turn to Him and partake of what He is, even experience what He is and what He has passed through.
He needed God in everything, and He depended on God.
He was limited, but He was satisfied with God. Hallelujah for such a One, who today lives in us.
Lord Jesus, we want to enjoy and experience You as the reality of the good land, the land of wheat. Thank You for coming to be incarnated, limited, and constricted. Thank You for choosing to be finite and limited in time and space. We want to experience You as such a One. Thank You, Lord, You now live in us. You can live the same kind of life in us today. You are the eternal, infinite, unlimited God, but You chose to live on earth as a man, being limited in the matter of time. You subjected Yourself to God, You were dependent on God, and You were limited in relation to Your activity. Oh Lord, we worship You and we love You! Thank You for being willing to be limited and constricted. Thank You for setting up a pattern of living the Christian life. We want to live the same way that You lived by turning to You and enjoying You in our spirit. Hallelujah, the incarnated, crucified, and buried Christ lives in us to live the same kind of life in us today!
Experience Christ as the Wheat – the Limited Christ who is Satisfied and Willing to Die and be Buried
If we read the Gospels we are amazed at the wonderful living of Jesus Christ, the first God-man. He was God who became man, and He was willing to be limited and constricted.
This One now lives in us. In His sovereignty, God many times puts us in situations that are limiting and constricting.
In the midst of the limiting and pressing situations, we need to contact the Lord and experience Christ as the wheat.
When we contact the Lord in the limiting and pressing situations, we experience Him as a grain of wheat.
He was limited to the point of death and burial, and He lives in us to live the same kind of life.
The life of the little carpenter, the One who was incarnated and limited, can now be lived in us.
We all have our situations, our environment, and our particular limitations and restrictions.
Sometimes we want to get out of our situations and remove all these limitations and restrictions.
We may look at others and they seem to be so happy, having no limitations or restrictions, and we may want to be like them.
But in the midst of the restricting and limiting situations we can contact the Lord and live Him as the limited Christ, the crucified Christ, even the buried Christ; in this way, we experience Christ as the wheat.
We may be married to a particular person who may be quite limiting and restricting to us, or there may be a family member who is quite limiting to us.
This is the Lord’s arrangement, and we don’t have to change it.
In the midst of the limitations and persecutions, we need to contact the Lord.
There’s no need to fight back and demand our rights.
There’s no need to try to change the situation and ask God to change that person or end the limitation.
We can simply contact the Lord in the midst of the limiting situation and enjoy Him as the reality of the grain of wheat.
When we desperately contact the Lord in the midst of constricting situations, he will show us how much He was limited as a carpenter on the earth.
He was so limited and restricted, and He learned by the things which He suffered.
When we see Him as such a One, when we realize that He was limited and restricted to the uttermost, we will be comforted and encouraged, for we realize that He is in us. His life is in us.
The life that is OK with being limited is in us. He is not only willing to be limited: He is satisfied with God and in God in the midst of the limitations and restrictions.
When we realize this, we will not ask the Lord to change anything: we will simply praise Him and be satisfied with Him.
If we keep contacting the Lord in the midst of the limiting and constricting situations, when things are not fair and we’re not being properly treated by others or by the environment, we will not only be satisfied with the Lord and in the Lord but even more, we will be willing to be put to death and buried.
We will not fight for our rights. We will not begrudgingly seek to make it to the next day.
We will be content to be where we are, for the Lord’s sake, and we will be willing to die and be buried so that the Lord’s life may be manifested in us and through us.
May we experience Christ as the wheat today. May He become so real, so dear, and so sweet to us as we contact Him in the midst of the limiting and restricting situations.
He is our life. He lives in us. He makes us willing to be limited, willing to die, be buried, and be nothing.
He was such a One, and He is such a One in us.
He wants to live such a life in us today, the life of the grain of wheat.
May we not fight back or resist the limitation and restriction but rather, turn to the Lord and contact Him in the midst of all these restrictions and limitations.
Lord Jesus, we want to enjoy and experience Christ as the wheat in our daily experience. Oh Lord, You are the infinite God, but You became a finite man, and there’s power in You to suffer any kind of limitation. We come to You, dear Lord, with all our limitations and limiting situations. Save us from trying to change those around us or to better our situation and remove our limitations. We just want to contact You. Show us who You are. Grant us a revelation of the limited Christ, the Christ who is willing to be limited in incarnation, human living, death, and burial. Amen, Lord, live in us such a life today. Be expressed through us. You can make us satisfied with our situation. We praise You, Lord, for Your life is in us! We are satisfied with our present situation, and we dare not ask You to change anything! We just praise You! You make us willing to be limited, even to die and be buried, to be nothing, for Your sake. Praise You, Lord Jesus!
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Inspiration for this article/sharing comes from the Word of God, the enjoyment in the ministry, a sharing by brother Minoru Chen in the message for this week, and portions from, Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1961-1962, vol. 4, “The All-inclusive Christ,” ch. 5, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Laboring on the All-inclusive Christ Typified by the Good land for the Building up of the Church as the Body of Christ, for the Reality and the Manifestation of the Kingdom, and for the Bride to make Herself Ready for the Lord’s Coming (2023 Winter Training), week 3, entitled, A Land of Wheat and Barley.
- Hymns on this topic:
– Grain of wheat, so small and lowly, / Without death abides alone; / Life divine enclosed within it, / Into death it must be sown. / Life releasing, Christ increasing, / Many grains to birth to bring, / Many grains to birth to bring! (Hymns #1089 stanza 3)
– Jesus is now the land of wheat— / Incarnate, crucified. / But resurrection life is He / By barley signified. / He is a land of figs and vines— / Blood of the grape, the cheering wine. / With such supplies He satisfies— / Christ our land! (Hymns #1164 stanza 2)
– Like the grain of wheat that’s buried / In the earth to be increased, / God’s own life the death must suffer, / Thus in man to be released. / Oh, the Lord of all be praised; / God released in man is raised! / Hallelujah, Hallelujah, / Hallelujah, Amen! (Hymns #1088 stanza 4)
About aGodMan
Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1961-1962, vol. 4, “The All-inclusive Christ,” pp. 232-233
Today we can experience Christ as the wheat; the good land is a land of wheat and barley, and Christ is the reality of the wheat.
The wheat signifies the limited Christ, the incarnated, crucified, and buried Christ.
The Lord is sovereign to place us in limiting and constricting situations, and it is here that we can contact the Lord and experience Him as the reality of the wheat.
When we contact the Lord in our limitations and constrictions, we are satisfied with Him, and we are willing to die and be buried.
We should enjoy Christ as the wheat that was willing to be limited, to die, to be buried, willing to be nothing.
Just like Jesus when He was on Earth, we must accept the limitations of the flesh, of time & space, and even of our family & work situations.
Today, Christ is willing to be limited in us.
We should thank the Lord for all our cages.
All our limited environments produce in us the incarnated & resurrected Jesus.
How great and wise is our God.
To experience Christ as the land of wheat we need to see Him as God-incarnated who was limited in time and space as a little carpenter, to become a grain of wheat which died and was buried.
When we contact such a crucified and buried one, who is in our spirit, whenever we are in a limiting environment, we will experience Him as the real land of wheat, to die and be buried in such an environment, to be nothing.
We will then, praise and thank Him for His sovereignty.
Praise the Lord! 😃🙋🏽🙌
Amen, dear brother!
The unlimited God became a finite man, being restricted and suppressed.
As we experience Him, the more we grow and know the Lord.
Amen, Lord!
May we learn to depend on You by contacting You within us in our limiting and restricting circumstances and be content with them!
We want to remain in the mold of Your death to experience the power of Your resurrection in our low conditions.
May we know You as the Wheat in our experiences, as the incarnated, crucified, and buried Christ! May we die to live!
The Most High God from the very beginning, put man in front of the Tree of Life which is Himself.
He is the source of life, the divine life and He wants us to eat of this tree- but not of the tree of right and wrong, and of good and evil which represents us.
Sometimes we are right and sometimes we are wrong and also good and sometimes evil.
https://www.hymnal.net/en/hymn/h/501
Wow, Christ’s humanity through His incarnation became a shell that concealed His divinity and His glory, the Lord’s death released Him from His human shell in order to release His divine life!!
In His limitation, Christ was dependent on the Father and lived because of the Father.
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I just marvel brother how the Lord – unlimited, infinite, eternal became finite, limited, constricted in time, activity, knowledge, possessing natural human life and a dependent existence, made it through. His humanity became a shell, a cage to limit and constrain Him.
Then He had to go through human experiences including sufferings.
Then He had to die the death of the cross and be buried.
All these, He was willing and obedient. No bitterness, no murmuring, no complaints.
A Land of Wheat and Barley (Week 3, Day 1)
“The Wheat in Deuteronomy 8:8a Typifies the Incarnated, Crucified, and Buried Christ” (Part 1) – In His Full Ministry, in the Stage of His Incarnation, Christ Brought the Infinite God into the Finite Man
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In Philippians 3:10, Paul speaks about knowing Christ and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death. To know Christ is not a simple matter. Not only must you know them, but also you must know them thoroughly and be able to speak them to others. To know Christ is not to know Him in a common way but to know Him in a particular way.
We also need to experience and enjoy Christ (to gain Christ—Phil. 3:8), especially, in His full ministry in His three divine and mystical stages. First, we need to know Christ; second, we need to experience and enjoy Christ, that is, to gain Christ, in His full ministry. First, we have the knowledge, and then we have the experience and enjoyment. To experience and enjoy Christ is to gain Christ.
The full ministry of Christ is in three divine and mystical stages:
1.) Stage of Incarnation,
2.) Stage of Inclusion, and
3.) Stage of Intensification.
The first stage, the stage of His incarnation, began with His human birth and ended with His death, including the entire course of His human life. Hence, His human birth, His passing through human living, and His death formed the stage of His incarnation.
In His full ministry in the first stage, the stage of His incarnation, Christ brought the infinite God into the finite man. Some may think that God’s coming to man was a simple matter. We need to realize that the Lord is the eternal, infinite, unlimited God, Who dwells in the highest heaven. But His coming to be a man to live on earth, which is below the heavens, through incarnation was for Him to give up His position in the third heaven, and be limited in time, space, knowledge, and actions on the physical earth.
The unlimited, boundless God who transcends time and space became a man limited in time and space, restricted in all respects. When He was in Judea, He could not be in Galilee, and when He was in Galilee, He could not be in Jerusalem. When He wanted to meet with the other disciples in other place, He had to leave His disciples who were with Him at certain time. And it took Him much time to travel from one place to another. He was truly restricted by time and space for thirty-three and a half years. This was not a short period of time. Hence, His becoming flesh to be a man was a great matter.
As a finite man, He lived not by His life but by the life of God. He spoke not His words but the words of God, He worked not His work but the work of the Father, and He sought not His glory but the glory of the Father (John 8:28; 12:49; 14:10; 8:54). Matthew 24:36 says, “But concerning that day and hour (of the Lord’s second coming), no one knows, not even the angels of the heavens nor the Son, but the Father only.” The Lord admitted that His knowledge concerning His second coming was also limited because was under the restriction of being a finite man.
The Lord Jesus was the Grain of wheat that fell on the ground and died (John 12:24). His coming to the earth (on the ground) was not for Him to live a comfortable life, but a restrictive life, a life, even leading to His death (John 10:11, 15, 17; 6:57a). He did not come to the earth to live independently by His natural life, but dependently upon God, Who brought Him to the cross to die on behalf of all sinners.
His becoming flesh to be a man on the eath was a great matter. Neither was it a small thing for Him to live on earth for such a long time. While He was on earth, the earth was in confusion. There was almost nothing that could afford Him joy. Even His closest disciple denied Him when He was about to go to the cross. He bore all this.
It was not a simple thing for Him to bear this for thirty-three and a half years. Then He went through a process to go to the cross. He passed through man’s arrest, interrogations, and examinations. He was condemned unrighteously and unfairly by blind religion in conjunction with dark politics.
He bore His own cross for part of the way from the city of Jerusalem to Golgotha and was crucified there. He remained on the cross for six hours, accomplishing the work of the cross, and entered into the grave and descended into Hades. After three days He came out of Hades and the grave and was resurrected. In His resurrection He remained on earth for forty more days before ascending to the heavens. The incarnated Christ was willing to undergo all these in order for Him to accomplish redemption for us.