Learn Christ as the Reality is in Jesus by Living the Divine Life in our Human Life

As believers in Christ, we are disciples of the Lord Jesus learning the secret, which is to learn Christ as the reality of Jesus by allowing the Spirit of reality to guide us into all the reality of the actual condition of the life of Jesus as recorded in the four Gospels.

We are people, human beings, but we are much more than that; we are disciples of Christ, those who are being discipled by living in the organic union with Christ so that our living would be a continuation of His living on earth.

When Christ resurrected and became the life-giving Spirit, He came to His disciples and breathed into them saying, Receive the Holy Spirit (John 20:22).

Man did not have the Holy Spirit inside him until then; it was only after the Lord’s resurrection that He could dispense Himself as the Spirit into man.

Man was formed from the dust of the ground, and God breathed into him the breath of life (Gen. 2:7); therefore, man became a living soul, a living person.

But it was only after the Lord’s resurrection that God in Christ as the Spirit of life could be imparted into man.

The disciples of the Lord Jesus, who were with Him for three and a half years, were made alive with the divine life by receiving the holy breath.

The Spirit got into them to regenerate them and also to guide them, as the Spirit of reality, into all the reality of what Christ is, has done, is doing, and will do.

Now all the followers of Christ, the genuine believers in Christ, are those who are being discipled by the Lord Jesus in His incarnation, human living, crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension.

We all are learning to open to the Lord as the Spirit of reality in our spirit to guide us into all the reality of what He is to us.

When we allow the Lord to disciple us through His crucifixion, we will annul our human life so that we may live by the divine life (Gal. 2:20).

We are discipled through Christ’s resurrection to know Him as God’s firstborn Son (Rom. 1:4; Acts 13:33; Rom. 8:29); as such a One, He has both the divine and human nature, and He lived by the divine life, denying the human life.

We are discipled by Christ as the life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45) so that we may receive and enjoy Him as the Spirit that gives life.

May we allow the Lord to disciple us day by day as we come to His word and have Him infused into us.

May we be those who live the divine life in the human life, denying the self and the natural man so that we may live by the life of God in our spirit.

May we learn from Christ, who is our example (John 13:15; 1 Pet. 2:21; Matt. 11:29).

He lived not by His own life but by the life of the Father, and He did not express Himself but expressed the Father.

He ministered and lived by another life to express another One.

We have been regenerated with the divine life so that we may live by this life and express God in everything that we do and say; for this, we need to be discipled by the Lord.

As the Lord’s Disciples, we Learn the Secret – we Learn Christ as the Reality is in Jesus

As genuine followers of the Lord Jesus, we believers in Christ are His disciples; we are learners, those who are actively learning the secret to living the Christian life.

As Eph. 4:20-21 says, we need to learn Christ as the reality is in Jesus, and we do this by allowing the Spirit of reality to guide us into all the reality of the actual life of Jesus as recorded in the four Gospels (John 16:13).

In the four Gospels we see that Jesus did everything in God, with God, and for God; God was in His living, and He was fully one with God.

We need to learn Christ, even as we have been taught in Him.

In the life of Jesus, as recorded in the four Gospels, in His living with all that He did and spoke, there was truth; there was the reality of God, for God was in His living.

Because God was with Him and He was living out God, everything in His living had reality.

May we be saved from walking in the vanity of the mind like the people in the world do and may we learn Christ as the reality is in Jesus.

In the life of Jesus, there is reality, for God is shining forth.

In everything He did, in everything He did not do, in all His living, Christ set up a pattern, a model, that we would follow in His steps.

His life and living became a mold into which we are put.

The Lord today wants us to have the same kind of living.

In every true believer, there’s an aspiration that we would live as Jesus did; however, most Christians go about it in the wrong way, in the way of outwardly imitating Him.

But actually, God’s way is to put us into the mold of the life of Christ, the mold of Christ.

This happened at our baptism; we were put into Christ at the time of our baptism, and we were made one with Him in His death and resurrection.

After being raised from the waters of baptism, we need to walk in the newness of life.

This doesn’t mean that we should try our best to act as Jesus did; it is to be in resurrection, one with the Lord, learning Christ as the reality is in Jesus.

The Lord Jesus did not come only to do the work of redemption; He had a living of thirty-three and a half years on earth to set up a pattern, a model, of the God-man life.

And this life and work need to be duplicated in us, for the church is the great mystery of godliness – God manifested in the flesh (1 Tim. 3:15).

The life of Christ is reproduced in us, His many followers, so that we may be the corporate expression of God as we learn Christ as the reality is in Jesus day by day.

It is not by imitation or by trying harder; it is by doing things in and by another person.

Just as the Son can do nothing from Himself but what He sees the Father doing, so we cannot do anything of ourselves except what we see the Lord doing.

The followers of Christ were discipled through Christ’s human living on the earth as the model of a God-man—living God by denying Himself in His humanity (John 5:19, 30), revolutionizing their concept concerning man (Phil. 3:10; 1:21a).

We may still think that we need to deny the bad parts of the self, the evil parts, but we can keep our niceness, politeness, and other things that don’t seem to be so bad.

But looking at the Lord Jesus and His pattern, He denied His perfect human life and chose to live by the life of the Father to express God in all His living.

This is the pattern; this is the mold into which we have been put.

He took the Father as His life and everything, and He lived because of the Father; so we need to eat Christ and live because of Him (John 6:57).

This means that we need to deny ourselves and deny anything that is of the flesh and the natural man, and live by another life, the divine life of Christ in our spirit.

The Lord Jesus was God incarnated to be a man, yet He lived God by denying Himself in His humanity; He “learned obedience from the things which He suffered” (Heb. 5:8), “becoming obedient even unto death, and that the death of a cross” (Phil. 2:8).

He was always obedient to the Father in eternity, but when He became a man, He learned obedience as a man through the things which He suffered.

We are learning from Him, for we are being taught in Him; we need to learn Christ as the reality is in Jesus so that we may have the same God-man living as He did.

Lord Jesus, we want to learn Christ as the reality is in Jesus today. Disciple us, dear Lord, to learn the secret of living Christ by allowing Christ to live in us. We want to allow the Spirit of reality to guide us into all the reality of the actual condition of the life of Jesus as recorded in the four Gospels. May we be those who do everything in God, with God, and for God, having God in our living and being fully one with God. We come to You in Your word, Lord, to see who You are, what You are, and what kind of living You have. We want to remain in the mold of Christ into which we have been placed in our baptism so that we may learn Christ as the reality is in Jesus. Oh Lord, may we live God by denying ourselves in our humanity so that we may live in Christ and by Christ in our daily living. Live in us today, and keep us learning Christ as the reality is in Jesus!

We Learn Christ by Denying Ourselves and Living the Divine Life in our Human Life

The Lord Jesus told us to come to Him and learn from Him (Matt. 11:29), for He is meek and lowly in heart, and we will find rest for our souls.

According to the Lord’s example, we need to live not by our natural life but by the life of Christ in resurrection; this life is a life of obedience.

As disciples of Christ, we need to live the divine life in our human life.

Thank the Lord that today we have the life of obedience of Christ in us.

He is our pattern, and we are in Him.

As we observe Him and learn from Him in the Gospels and throughout the Bible, we are discipled by Him to deny ourselves and live the divine life in our human life.

On one hand, we have the Lord Jesus as our pattern; on the other hand, we have the apostle Paul as a pattern.

Also, we have many other patterns of those who learn Christ as the reality is in Jesus, those who are living the divine life in the human life.

A brother may love the Lord very much and he may even reject a certain promotion at work because he realizes that the new position will negatively affect his church life, particularly his service in the church. This is a pattern of living Christ.

A family may have many children and may discipline them in the Lord, not by reacting to what they have done but by first turning to their spirit and living the divine life in their human life. This is a pattern of living Christ.

As the Lord’s disciples, we are His learners who are continually under His training.

The grace of God, who has also appeared to us as the kindness and the love to man of our Savior God is training us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly and righteously and godly in the present age, awaiting the blessed hope, even the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ (Titus 3:4; 2:11-13).

When we speak of grace, we many times think that it is all about enjoying the Lord, and it is true.

But at the same time, as we come forward to the throne of grace to receive mercy and find grace for timely help (Heb. 2:14), we are supplied and trained by grace to deny ungodliness and live Christ.

As we enjoy the Lord in His word and He becomes our life and everything, we put ourselves aside and live by the Lord’s life in our human life.

Another practical example of this can be seen in Titus 2:3-5.

Here we see that, because the sisters in the church life are the Lord’s disciples, the older sisters should be one with the Lord to train the young sisters to love their husbands, to love their children, to be of a sober mind, workers at home, good, subject to their own husbands, that the word of God would not be blasphemed.

Though this seems to be contrary to the trend in the world today and the mentality that is prevailing in the fallen men today, this is what expresses God in a very normal, human way.

May we all live by another life; whether brothers or sisters, may we all live the divine life in our human life day by day.

As the Lord’s disciples, we need to obey the Lord’s word to go and learn what this means; God desires to show mercy to pitiful sinners, so He wants to show mercy in love to others (Matt. 9:12-13; Micah 6:6-8; Mark 12:33).

This is another example of the living we should have as we learn Christ as the reality is in Jesus; we show mercy in love to others, even as the Lord has shown us mercy.

We don’t do this in ourselves, in our culture, or in our natural kindness; we do this by learning Christ as the reality is in Jesus, by living the divine life in the human life daily.

May we bring these matters to the Lord and be before Him concerning our daily living so that we may learn Christ as the reality is in Jesus for us to live the divine life in the human life to express the Lord in our daily life.

Lord Jesus, we want to learn Christ according to His example so that we may live not by our natural life but by the divine life in the human life day by day. Amen, Lord, we open to You and we want to learn from You; we are Your disciples, and we open to be trained by You. Save us from living in ourselves, for ourselves, and by ourselves. Keep us continually under Your training as the grace of God. Keep us enjoying You as grace flows freely from the throne of grace, and train us to live by grace so that we may live not by our natural life but by the divine life. May we be those who allow the grace to train us so that we may deny ungodliness and worldly lusts and live soberly and righteously and godly in the present age. Amen, Lord, may our living be Your living and may You have a free way to live in us. We put ourselves aside and we choose to live the divine life in our human life to express God in our living today.

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 Ricky Acosta in the message for this week, and portions from, Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1994-1997, vol. 5, “The Vital Groups,” pp. 76-77, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Knowing, Experiencing, and Enjoying Christ as Revealed in Philippians (2023 Memorial Day Weekend Conference), week 2, entitled, Learning the Secret of Doing All Things in Christ as the Empowering One for Us to Live Christ, Magnify Christ, and Gain Christ for His Glory in the Church.
• Similar articles on this topic:
  – How Can Christ’s Crucified Life Become Our Pattern? Read more via, Holding to Truth in Love.
  – Christ as the reality, a portion from, Christ as the Content of the Church and the Church as the Expression of Christ, Chapter 5, by Witness Lee.
  – Exercising Our Spirit to Contact the Reality of the Bible and to Know Christ Practically, via, Living to Him.
  – The living of the divine life through the human life, a portion from, General Sketch of the New Testament in the Light of Christ and the Church, A – Part 1: The Gospels and the Acts, Chapter 1, by Witness Lee.
  – Christ Is the Reality of Every Positive Thing, article at, Bibles for America blog.
  – To live Christ, a portion from, Life-Study of Colossians, Chapter 39.
  – HWMR Week 5—Living the Life of the One New Man instead of Our Culture by Learning Christ as the Reality is in Jesus, newsletter via, Church in Regina.
• Hymns on this topic:
  – My weakened will, Lord, Thou canst renew; / My sinful nature Thou canst subdue; / Fill me just now with power anew; / Power to pray and power to do! / Teach me to pray, Lord, teach me to pray; / Thou art my pattern day unto day; / Thou art my surety, now and for aye; / Teach me to pray, Lord, teach me to pray. (Hymns #766 stanzas 3-4)
  – “Consider Him,” let Christ thy pattern be, / And know that He hath apprehended thee / To share His very life, His pow’r divine, / And in the likeness of thy Lord to shine. (Hymns #656 stanza 1)
  – Exercise the spirit! / Natural sense renounce; / Serve with one another, / Christ the Lord announce. / Exercise the spirit! / Soulish life deny; / Helping one another, / On the Lord rely. (Hymns #866 stanzas 3-4)