As the first step of God’s move in man in the New Testament, the Lord Jesus Christ came to be the incarnated God; He passed through incarnation, human living, death, resurrection, and ascension, and then God took another step to come into us, the many believers in Christ, to move further in man.
Many people on earth today believe in God, but what they believe in is a vague God up there who does many great things and who will reward those who do good, while those who don’t do the good will be punished.
But the God of the universe, the One who created all things, sustains all things and does all things, this One has become a man, for His move is not just among men and with men, but in man!
Wow, God became a man; the incarnation of the Lord Jesus Christ was a spectacular, extraordinary event, for the divine essence was mingled with the human essence, and in one man there was both God and man, both divinity and humanity.
Divinity was brought into humanity and God was mingled with man to be one entity. Wow!
Furthermore, the human living of Jesus was amazing and wonderful, excellent and fragrant, for He lived not by His own life but by the divine life, always being one with the Father, and doing all things not in and by Himself but in and by God.
He lived one with God; He expressed God, He manifested God, and He did everything that God wanted Him to do not in a robotic way but in the way of being one with God and doing everything in God and with God.
His incarnation and human living was something that this world has never seen, for here was a man who didn’t live by Himself, didn’t do His own will, didn’t express His own mind, and didn’t seek His own glory; He lived by God, did the will of God, expressed the mind and thought of God, and sought the glory of God.
In Him as an individual man God had a way to move not just among men and with men but in man; God took a big step out of eternity and into time to bring the infinite God into the finite man and live as a man. Wow!
Seeing God’s move in Man with the Death, Resurrection, and Ascension of Christ, and how we as Believers are One with Him!
After having a perfect and excellent human living on earth, Jesus Christ died in His humanity a vicarious and all-inclusive death to terminate all the negative things and to release the divine life from within Him for us (Luke 12:49-51; John 12:24).
Jesus Christ, the incarnated Triune God as the embodiment of the Triune God (Col. 2:9), died in His humanity an all-inclusive death, a death on our behalf, to terminate anything that is negative in the universe, and also to release His divine life from within Him.
He was not just a good man or a religious man, but a man who had God in Him; God was in this man, and when He went to the cross, God was crucified in man there.
Wow, when Christ died on the cross, God was being crucified; He died in His humanity for us a vicarious death, an all-inclusive death.
His death was substitutionary, for He didn’t die for Himself but on behalf of all of us, the whole mankind. In God’s eyes, all mankind has been identified with Christ on the cross; when He died, we all were crucified with Him, and we died in Christ and with Christ on the cross.
At the same time, in His death, He released the divine life, just as a grain of wheat dies in the ground and releases the life-germ contained in it.
What a wonderful death the Lord Jesus experienced and passed through!
He overcame death, entered into the all-producing resurrection, was begotten to be God’s firstborn Son, and became the life-giving Spirit for the producing and constituting of the Body of Christ (see Acts 2:23-24, 32; 13:33; Rom. 1:3-4; 8:28-29; John 20:22; 1 Cor. 15:45; 12:13).
Through His resurrection, He brought humanity into divinity to be begotten as God’s firstborn Son in His humanity, and we as the many believers in Christ were also regenerated to be the many sons of God and the many brothers of Christ.
He is the Firstborn, we are the many sons; He is no longer the only begotten Son but the firstborn Son possessing both divinity and humanity, and along with Him we are the many sons of God.
In His resurrection Christ became a life-giving Spirit; He was transfigured so that He can give life to people.
Through His death on the cross, the shell of His humanity was broken and the divine life was released, and in His resurrection, this divine life was imparted into the many believers in Christ as His reproduction, His multiplication, and His increase.
This wonderful God-man, a man with God in Him, was crucified, and as He was crucified, we were crucified in Him; in His resurrection, we all were raised with Him, and we were brought into the position of beings sons of God. Hallelujah!
Even more, after His resurrection He entered into the all-transcending ascension to the heavens; in His ascension, He was made Lord, Christ, Leader, and Savior (Acts 2:36; 5:31) for His propagation and for the building up of the church as His kingdom (1:8; 26:16-18).
He was transferred to another state: He was inaugurated to the highest office in this universe, and He was made both Lord and Christ!
This One whom men crucified, He was made both Lord and Christ, and He is the Ruler of all! In the heavens now there is not only God but also a man, for the God-man Jesus Christ is there ruling over the universe.
He is a resurrected and ascended man who was made Lord of all; He is the Leader and the Savior for His propagation and the building up of the church as His kingdom. Hallelujah!
And all this happened for us to also participate, for in His death, resurrection, and ascension, He made all His believers one with Him so that His experience would become their history (Rom. 6:5-6; Eph. 2:5-6).
When He was crucified, we were crucified with Him; when He died, we died in and with Him; when He was resurrected, we were raised with Him; when He was ascended, we were ascended and seated with Him in the heavenlies.
His experience becomes our history, for the One who brought God into man also brings us, men, into God, and He includes us in the processes He went through.
Christ didn’t die alone; He didn’t resurrect alone or ascend alone – He died with us, He arose with us, and He ascended with us.
God finally came not only among His people but in man, passing through all the stages, and now there is such a man including all of us!
As we have grown together with Him in the likeness of His death, likewise, we will grow into the likeness of His resurrection, for His experience becomes ours, and His history becomes our history! Hallelujah!
Lord Jesus, we praise You for dying in Your humanity a vicarious and all-inclusive death to terminate all negative things and release the divine life! Hallelujah, Christ died on our behalf and He released the divine life for us! Praise You, Lord, for being resurrected to be begotten the firstborn Son of God, to become the life-giving Spirit, and to regenerate us for the Body of Christ. Hallelujah, we believers in Christ were raised with Christ and were regenerated in His resurrection to be the many brothers of Christ and the many sons of God! Praise You, Lord, for accomplishing the all-transcending ascension to the heavens! You were made Lord, Christ, Leader, and Savior for Your propagation and for the building up of the church as Your kingdom! Hallelujah, we as believers in Christ were made one with Christ in His death, resurrection, and ascension, and Christ’s experience has become our history! Praise the Lord!
God moves in us by Redeeming us, Regenerating us, Renewing us, and Transforming us
God’s move in man began with the Lord Jesus, the first God-man, and it continues with us, the many believers in Christ.
As believers in Christ, we need to grow in the divine life of Christ so that we may be transformed into what Christ is through the life-dispensing Spirit, so that we may be built up with the saints to be the Body of Christ, the organism to express the Triune God in Christ, and to be the new man as God’s new creation! Amen!
The move of God in man began with the first God-man, Jesus Christ; He passed through many steps and processes, and He also included us in every step.
Now we as the many believers in Christ, after receiving Him, we need to grow in life, be transformed through His life-dispensing Spirit, and be built up with other saints to be the Body of Christ, the new man, and the New Jerusalem.
Now today God moves in us – not only in the Lord Jesus but even in us, the children of God and the members of the Body of Christ.
First, God redeemed us in Christ, He forgave our sins, He washed us, He justified us, and He reconciled us to Himself; God put us into Christ and make Him our righteousness, sanctification, and redemption (Eph. 1:7; 1 Cor. 6:11; Rom. 3:22; 5:10; 1 Cor. 1:30). Amen!
Judicially, we experience Christ’s redemption, for we have been redeemed in Christ; we may say that this is objective, but at the same time it is subjective, for we have been put in Christ by God, and Christ was made our righteousness, sanctification, and redemption! Hallelujah!
God has regenerated us through the resurrection of Christ (1 Pet. 1:3), and now He renews us, transforms us, and conforms us to the image of His glory (Titus 3:5; Rom. 12:2; Eph. 4:23; 2 Cor. 4:16; 3:18; Rom. 8:28-30; Phil. 3:21).
We have received the life of God in addition to our human life; through regeneration, we are born of God.
We are not only redeemed sinners by grace but God’s life came into us, and He brought us into the process of God’s organic salvation to renew us, transform us, and conform us to the image of Christ.
Regeneration can be considered the greatest miracle that can happen to a human being, for a base, mean, finite, ordinary human being can be born again with the life of God to become a child of God. Hallelujah!
After being regenerated, we are being renewed and transformed, for God arranges all things to consume us, putting us into His death for our fellowship of His sufferings, which work out for us an eternal weight of glory (2 Cor. 4:16-18, 10; Phil. 3:10, 8; Eph. 3:8).
On one hand, we enjoy the Lord’s renewing and transforming, and on the other hand, simply by being on earth, we undergo a consuming process.
The outer man is being consumed, but the inner man is being renewed day by day.
May we not be like Job, arguing with God and trying to debate with Him and prove to Him that we are right and shouldn’t get such treatment or dealings from Him.
May we be those who not only go through sufferings and the consuming work but are also renewed and transformed!
May we gain an eternal weight of glory and may we experience Christ in His resurrection, gaining Him in His unsearchable riches in our Christian experience day by day!
Today we are in this stage where God is working not only around us but also in us; as we pass through different sufferings, we are being consumed, and there is a renewing going on, so that the element of God would be added to our being and metabolically transform us into the image of Christ, even from glory to glory!
Thank You, God for redeeming us in Christ. Thank You for forgiving our sins, washing us, justifying us, and reconciling us to Yourself. Hallelujah, God put us in Christ and made Him our righteousness, sanctification, and redemption! Praise the Lord, as believers in Christ we have been regenerated through the resurrection of Christ, and now we are being renewed, transformed, and conformed to His image of glory! Amen, Lord, keep us in this process of being renewed and transformed until we are being conformed to the image of Christ, the firstborn Son of God! We want to be those who experience being put into Your death for our fellowship of His sufferings so that these would work out for us an eternal weight of glory! Amen, Lord, may we not only experience the consuming of our outer man but also the renewing of our inner man! We want to be those who experience Christ in His resurrection and gain Him in His unsearchable riches!
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Sources of inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, the message by James Lee for this week, and portions from, Life-Study of Job, msg. 35 (by Witness Lee), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Crystallization-study of Job, Proverbs, and Ecclesiastes (2020 winter training), week 7, The Intrinsic Divine Revelation concerning the Move of God with and among Men in the Old Testament and concerning the Move of God in Man in the New Testament to Accomplish God’s Heart’s Desire and to Meet Man’s Need before God.
- Hymns on this topic:
– How wonderful redemption is, / My gracious Lord, in Thee! / Not seen, nor heard, nor e’er conceived / What Thou hast done for me! / Thou art divine, mysterious, / Beyond my grandest phrase! / Redemption is so marvellous, / Beyond all pow’r to praise! (Hymns #116)
– God hath us regenerated / In our spirit with His life; / But He must transform us further- / In our soul by His own life. / Spreading outward from our spirit / Doth the Lord transform our soul, / By the inward parts renewing, / Till within His full control. (Hymns #750)
– Christ to me is so subjective, / All my being He transforms; / By the mind and will renewing / To His image He conforms. (Hymns #537)
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