In His Human Living Christ Did the Work of Declaring God and Expressing Him

When He was on the earth, the Lord Jesus declared God in His human living. His work was to declare God, express God, and explain God to man.

No one has ever seen God except the only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father – and He has declared the Father to us (John 1:18). The main work that Christ did on earth was not anything outward – it was to express God and declare God to people.

When people looked at the Lord Jesus, they saw a man, but they saw God expressed and declared in this Man. The Lord’s work in His human living was to express the Father.

The Lord didn’t express Himself and He didn’t speak His own words; the Father was expressed through Him in His human living (John 14:9; 7:17-18; 17:4a).

In everything He was and He did, the Lord cared for the Father, the things of the Father, and the interest of God.

Lord, cause us to see the real work that Christ did in His human living. Save us from any concepts and opinions, and unveil us to realize Christ’s work of expressing and declaring God! Make us those who focus more on expressing and declaring God in our living rather than focus on an outward work!

The Lord Jesus Carried Out the Work of Declaring God

If we still think that in His human living the Lord Jesus’ main work was the miracles, the teachings, and the great things He did, we need to come to the Lord to remove any religious and natural veil from our eyes.

The Lord Jesus simply declared God in His human living, and this was His work! If we look in John 1:1-18, we see that Christ declared God by the Word (John 1:1, 14), by life (v. 4), light (vv. 4-5), grace (vv. 14, 16, 17), and reality (vv. 14, 17).

The Word is God expressed, life is God imparted, light is God shining, grace is God enjoyed, and reality is God realized. Christ is the Word of God, He is life, light, grace, and reality, and as such, He declared God.

The hidden and invisible God became declared, manifested, and expressed as Christ lived on the earth.

Today as we receive the Word of God, grow in the divine life, allow the light of life to shine on us and within us, enjoy God as grace and apprehend Him as reality, the more we know God and have Him declared to us!

Our Work is Living a Life that Declares God

When the Lord Jesus lived in His family, among the people of Israel, and everywhere He was, he simply declared God to His mother, brothers, sisters, disciples, and everyone around Him.

They couldn’t quite figure Him out: there was something special about the Lord Jesus, there was something excellent and extraordinary with Him, something that is higher than just the expression of a good humanity.

Just as Christ declared God in His human living and this was His work for the Father, so we who aspire to serve the Lord need to begin NOT with trying to do a great work for Him but by living a life that declares God.

Our living is our work, and our work is the issue of our living. We shouldn’t focus on trying to do something great outwardly for the Lord; we need to start by living a life that declares God – the others will see something excellent, something divine.

Our work for the Lord is not occasional, it should not be deliberate and for a short period of time, and it should not be a performance.

We need to enjoy the Lord, eat His humanity by pray-reading the Word of God, and simply live Christ so that we may be found in fashion as a man, yet we live out God and declare God.

Christ’s Work was to Express the Father

People may see the outward works that the Lord Jesus did, and the more philosophical ones may be inclined to appreciate His great teachings.

But time and time again the Lord Jesus let us know what He really did and spoke and performed on earth – He just expressed the Father (John 14:9).

Firstly, the Lord Jesus came as the Son in the Father’s name (John 5:43), He worked in the Father’s name (10:25), He did the Father’s will (6:38), He spoke the Father’s word (3:34a; 14:24; 7:16-17; 12:47-50), and He sought not His glory but the Father’s glory (7:19).

In other words, the Lord Jesus did nothing apart from the Father: He was sent by the Father, lived by the Father, worked for the Father, expressed the Father, spoke the Father, and glorified the Father.

He had no work, will, work, word, glory, or ambition for Himself – He was fully one with the Father (10:30) to express the Father.

This was the Lord’s work in His human living: He expressed the Father, cared for the things of the Father (Luke 2:43-49), and He loved God’s interests on earth.

Our Work is to Express Christ

Outward work for God without a living that expresses Christ means nothing. We need to see that nothing we can do outwardly for God can replace our living to express Christ; rather, we need to work for God by living Christ and expressing Christ.

How do we live? Do we have a way of living with certain characteristics when we are at home, and yet we behave differently when we are at school or at work?

The Lord Jesus as our pattern lived a life in oneness with God the Father, being dependent on the Father for everything.

We also live, but not us – Christ lives in us; and the life we live in the flesh, we live in the organic union with God (Gal. 2:20).

Whether the work is fruitful or fruitless, we depend on the Lord, we love Him, we live Him, we express Him, and we are satisfied with just expressing Christ.

As we converse with the Lord, consult Him in all things, talk to Him, fellowship with Him about big or small things, He will work Himself into us and He will reconstitute us with His thoughts, His emotions, His feelings, and His will.

Our God-created humanity will be uplifted, resurrected, saved, and even deified.

We continually deny ourselves, turn to our spirit to live by another life, and our redeemed and saved humanity is being eventually deified that we may look like Christ and even be Christ!

Lord, we love You. We depend on You. We turn to You. Keep us turning to You and conversing with You about everything. Lord, we really can’t do anything and we don’t want to do anything without You. Work Yourself into us. Live in us. Work in us. Do all things in us. Save us from our self-likeness. Save us from living independent from You. Lord, we need You. We love You. We open to You. Live in us and be expressed in us.

References and Further Reading

• Sharing inspired from brother Andrew Yu’s sharing in this message and portions in, The Conclusion of the New Testament (msg. 64), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, The Unique Work in the Lord’s Recovery, week 2 (entitled, The Pattern of the Lord Jesus—the Work of Christ in His Human Living and Earthly Ministry).
• Hymns on this topic:
  # In spirit while gazing on Thee, / As a glass reflecting Thy glory, / Like to Thyself transformed I’ll be, / That Thou might be expressed thru me.
  # As we trust in the Lord helplessly, / Depend on Him as our love and strength, / And listen to His speaking, / Our hope is to be raptured / Through the redemption of our body.
  # And now I’m walking by the Spirit / Step by step, day by day, / O Lord, I love You. / You’re the precious One to me. / As I do this and that / Lord, remind me where You’re at; / You’re in my spirit, / Dispensing grace to me.
• Pictures credit: with thanks to, Gal 2:20, and, Christ lives in me.